Welcome Home

Matt's brother, Jeremy, returned from a two year mission for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints just 1 week before Christmas. We went to Redlands to hear him speak in church and report on his mission the weekend after Christmas. Jeremy was a wonderful missionary and had a lot of great experiences.

He's in Provo now getting ready for BYU's soccer practice next week. Watch out girls!

Christmas 2007

Christmas Eve in San Francisco

We spent Christmas Eve day in San Francisco with all the Glausers. It was a lot of fun and the weather was beautiful, as usual.

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under construction, again.

Just another little facelift...

And if you don't mind helping me out a bit here, I'd appreciate it. Last time around I had a little trouble finding suitable text colors considering that most computers vary a bit in their color display. Can you see my post text, links, post titles, etc?

'twas the day after Christmas

December 26th numerology:

8 Glausers depart

Dad does 6 loads of laundry

(isn't he wonderful?)

Mom takes a 4 hour nap

2 new toys are broken

1 picture is posted

(it's going to take me a c0uple more days to sort through the remaining 399 of them)

We had a very merry Christmas. Hope you did too!

Christmas Sunday

The one who's willing to pose for a portrait gets the spotlight:

a whole lotta Glausers

The party has begun.

Birthday Reunion

A vanload of Glausers arrived today! It's the first time we've been together for over 2 years.

It was the best birthday present. Happy 29th Birthday, Matt!

(We rescheduled the ski trip, by the way).

Grandma's visit

Life is always better when Grandma comes. Thanks for spending the week with us!

foiled plan

Matt's birthday is Saturday. I was so excited this year to have found the perfect gift for him and something he was sure to love:

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a surprise ski trip to Lake Tahoe.

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He had Tuesday off work and my mom's here this week and planned to stay with the kids. Things were working out perfectly. Perfectly until I checked the weather report on Monday night, that is.

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The forecast showed 100% chance of heavy snow in Tahoe.

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Well, blast. That snow will be great in a couple of days, but I'm not up for driving or skiing through heavy snow. I was so disappointed when I broke the news that he wouldn't be getting a surprise ski trip after all.

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Instead, we visited the nearby Jelly Belly Factory. It wasn't quite the thrill of alpine skiing, but it was fun and we all left with an adequate suger overload.

On the way home, we visited the Oakland LDS Temple to see the beatiful lights and nativity scene. It ended up being a fun day afterall.

. Now, I have just 2 days to come up with an alternate birthday present for my easy going husband who doesn't really need or want anything....

A short intermission

Yes, hi. It's me again. I took a little break there, didn't I? Cut me some slack though, as I have been going slightly out of my mind while planning our move to another hemisphere, preparing for Christmas and hosting our Glauser Family Reunion next week. Blogging's pretty much taking a back seat these days. We'll see how the rest of the month goes.

Christmas Favorites: Children's Books

Our top three:

What are yours?

hark how the bells..

Remember this post?

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Since we couldn't see it in person this year, this video we took last year helped us ring in the Christmas season. It really is one of my

favorite New York moments

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(Have I mentioned we were complete New York wannabees while we lived in Jersey? We were. I love New York City, especially at Christmas. )

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When we first saw this, we were standing in Rockefeller Center gazing up at the gigantic Christmas tree. All of a sudden across 5th Avenue along the side of Saks, this started:

To quote myself from last year,

"It was so loud, so full of energy, and oh so Christmasy!"

you might want to reconsider your stocking holders...

These are the new stocking holders I found. They're cute, aren't they?

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They looked great surrounding our Nativity Scene on the mantle, for about 5 minutes before this happened:

48 hours later, it already looks so much better.

Can I just tell you how terrible I feel for not realizing what a dangerous decoration the blasted stocking holders would be?

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They were quickly returned and replaced with the adhesive hooks we bought to hang our outdoor house lights (which went up successfully on the second attempt, by the way). The hooks work great for the stockings too.

After Thanksgiving Day Drama

Today included:

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~Black Friday shopping at Toys 'R' Us. It was so not worth it.

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~1 missing garbage can. Either it blew away or someone stole it. I guess it's also possible the garbage man accidentally dropped it in the truck with the garbage this morning. It's nowhere to be found. I'm really not looking forward to another experience with waste management.

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~A failed attempt at hanging Christmas lights on the house . The end of the long story is that after about 2 hours we concluded that we will not be hanging Christmas lights, at least on the second story. Matt was stuck on the roof for almost an hour. He nearly broke a few bones trying to get down.

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~1 stocking holder pulled down from the mantle landing Lydia in the Emergency Room . The scary scene could have resulted in something terrible, but ended up up being just a couple of superficial cuts on her eyelid and 2 scratches on her eye. She's on antibiotics, and we'll follow up with the Ophthalmologist on Monday to be sure it's healing. Poor girl. (The stocking holders have been removed.)

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What a day. At least we finished it off with some chocolate fondue!

I'm going to bed with the dishes still in the sink, and the house somewhat of a mess. It'll all still be there tomorrow.

we are thankful for...

Matt: my family

Mary: that we are all healthy

Ethan: family

Uncle Dustin: a lot of good food

Garrett: school

Lydia: binky

Happy Thanksgiving.

the food that binds us

I love the way food brings people together. I don't just love how it brings us together physically to eat the food (although that is always fun). I love how food somehow continues to bind us to people that come and go in our lives or loved ones we cannot always be with.

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For example, as I am planning and preparing my Thanksgiving spread I'll be thinking of:

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Suzy in New Jersey. Suzy is a great cook, excellent seamstress, exemplary mom, and really just a cool person. Suzy's Maple-Glazed Sweet Potatoes are on my Thanksgiving menu.

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Mom in Missouri. Mom is in Missouri this week to spend Thanksgiving with Erin. Mom taught me how to make Apple Pie when I was oh, probably 10 years old. I've had the job of making the apple pie just about every year since. It's my favorite part of Thanksgiving preparation. It's really just not Thanksgiving without homemade apple pie. It's even more fun when I get to make it with Mom.

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Maressa in California. Maressa and I were roommates at BYU 8 years ago. We were bridesmaids at each others weddings. 7 years later, we get to live near each other again. Our boys are friends, and I'm sure Lydia will be great friends with the little girl Maressa's growing right now. Maressa's Creamed Corn has been a Glauser family favorite for years. It's also on the menu.

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Kerri in Arizona. I honestly think of Kerri every time I make gravy. As I'm throwing spices into the gravy, I always hear the phrase, "a little of this, a little of that" in my head. She's said that to me a few times and it just stuck. The gravy always turns out great.

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Jane in Idaho. Jane has got to be one of my favorite people in the world. She deserves a post all of her own. In fact, she got one. Read about Jane here. Jane brought me dinner one night. It was Shepherd's Pie. At the time Jane was preparing for a downsizing move, so she also gave me the beautiful mustard colored serving dish she brought it in. I'm using Jane's dish to serve the rolls. I'm also making Jane's Sweet and Sour Meatballs for Christmas Eve.

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Erin in Missouri. Matt and I spent our second Thanksgiving with my sister's family and she made a really good cranberry dessert. Every year I think about calling and getting the recipe, but after planning the rest of the meal I opt for Ocean Spray's canned cranberry sauce. I don't really like cranberries anyway. Erin also took me on my first Day After Thanksgiving Shopping Marathon that year. It was awesome. It hasn't been nearly as fun going alone in the years since.

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Dori in New Jersey. For my birthday last year, Dori gave me the cutest little bowls in an assortment of colors from Anthropologie . I love them. I think if Dori everytime we use them. I'm still trying to decide what I'm going to use the fall colored ones for on my Thanksgiving table.

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Kathleen in Heaven. Thanksgiving rolls remind me of my mother-in-law. One Thanksgiving earlier in our marriage, I was in charge of making the rolls. I did something wrong and they didn't rise. We baked them anyway thinking they'd rise a little in the oven but they just turned out to be more like wafers than rolls. Kathleen was so sweet and kept saying how good they were. They weren't, but she wanted me to feel appreciated anyway. She was always making us feel good about ourselves.

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Kristin in New Jersey. While I'm planning my Thanksgiving menu, I have to plan my meals for the rest of the week right? Wednesday night we're having Sweet and Sour Haystacks with Kristin's fabulous Sweet and Sour Sauce recipe.

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I can go on and on. I love the fond memories that pop in to my mind when I'm cooking of friends and family around the country that are somehow tied to the food I'm preparing.

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At this time of Thanksgiving, I'm grateful for my family, friends, and all the people who have touched and blessed our lives in one way or another.

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Who does your food remind you of?

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While I'm at it, does anyone have a good pumpkin cookie recipe?

One more thing, and then I'll get over it...

A few weeks ago, Matt brought home a paper from work entitled Fall Activities in the San Francisco Bay Area. It lists 15 fun ideas for cultural/recreational day trips around this time of the year.

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The last idea on the list struck us as particularly applicable to the title of the memo, so I thought I'd share:

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15. Most of our tress stay evergreen but if you want to see spectacular color changes of various trees, go to Vermont or Canada.

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Well that's a great idea!

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Just so happens we've seen those color changes in Vermont. They were spectacular.

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Want to see them? Here you go. There's a few more here too.

Thursday evening

My report following my last post,

here's what we did:

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Great book. Chocolaty cookies. Cozy fire. All snuggled together.

oh what do you do in the summertime?

I was talking to my friend Kristin today, and realized why I'm so anxious for fall to arrive for good. ,

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First of all, I know I sound like a spoiled brat complaining about the 70's and sunshine which seems to prevail in this part of the country. It's wonderful, but it gets a bit monotonous. After experiencing seasons that other parts of the country participate in, I've really come to enjoy the changes that come with each new seasons. ,

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The biggest reason I'm anxious for the season to change is because this little Glauser family is pretty much stuck in a year full of summers. ,

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Really, we are. ,

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We're just getting over summer '07. It's a lot cooler today. Hopefully fall will stay for a few weeks. Then, we'll have a short preview of winter (a California winter, mind you) right before we move to Brazil in January. ,

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Guess what January is in Brazil? ,

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Summer. ,

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We'll enjoy a sunny summer in the southern hemisphere, a rainy fall, and just at the start of winter, we'll move to Texas.... in July. ,

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So, instead of shopping for coats and gloves this winter, we're stocking up on flipflops. ,

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Like I said, it's a lot cooler today and cloudy. We're all so excited about it that we're building another fire in the fireplace. Maybe we'll turn on a Christmas movie, just to get things going.

like a little child...

A couple weeks ago Lydia and I were in Redlands with my mom. Our evening went a little like this:

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6:30- Mom, Lydia and I take a break from packing to sit down at a semi-clean table in the Downtown Redlands Hogi Yogi and enjoy our Chicken Salad Sandwich for dinner.

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7:00- We walk out to the car which is parked right in front of the restaurant. Lydia smiles and waves goodbye to everyone as she walks out with my wallet under her arm.

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7:02- I buckle her in the car seat, at which point she throws a tantrum because Mom's car seat is the old kind with the big thing across the front type of a buckle. I bribe her to sit in it with a little of my chocolate M&M's frozen yogurt.

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7:10- We arrive at home.

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7:35- Lydia's asleep. Mom and I start packing up her bookshelves.

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7:48- I get this call from Matt:

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Matt: "So, you're probably looking for your wallet and cell phone. Walmart has it."

Me: "Huh?"

Matt: "Walmart, just called. They have your cell phone and wallet."

Me: "That's not possible, we didn't go to Walmart. We just got home from dinner, I have it."

Matt: "No, they have it."

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(This goes on for a few minutes. It finally dawns on me that I'm probably wrong and that they must have my phone and wallet because Walmart doesn't likely have our phone number on file.)

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8:00- I arrive at the customer service counter at Walmart. They indeed have my wallet and cell phone. I explain to them that I haven't been there in at least a year, and that I had my wallet in hand a little over an hour prior to that.

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8:04- They call the cashier that brought it to them.

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8:10- The three of us (me and my 2 new customer services representative best friends) solve the mystery of my wallet.

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Here's what we concluded:

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Either I took the wallet from Lydia to put her in the car seat, set it on top of the car and it fell off when I drove away, or she kicked it out of my hands during her tantrum and I didn't notice it falling in the street.

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Some guy picked it up and high-tailed it to Walmart to buy himself a new Ipod~ my treat. When he tried to use my American Express card, the cashier noticed that he didn't match my picture on the back and questioned the impostor. He "went to get the owner of the credit card" and split. They called "home" on my cell phone and told Matt they had my things and he called me.

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8:15 - I call home to tell Matt that I retrieved my wallet, and Garrett answers the phone. We have the following conversation:

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Garrett: "Hi Mom. Did you find your wallet?"

Me: "Yes, tell Dad I have it back and everything's there except my cash."

Garrett: "What happened to your cash?"

Me: "Well, someone made a bad choice to take my wallet and steal my money, but I got my phone and everything else back so it will be fine."

Garrett: "Mom, I have an idea. I'll get my piggy bank and you can have all my money since you lost yours. You don't even have to pay me back."

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What a generous little man! It was a nice little glimpse of the good in our world after a disturbing experience with the not so good in our world.

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What did I learn from this experience?

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1) Never let a 1 1/2 year old be in charge of my wallet (duh)

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2) There are some Wal-mart employees that actually check credit card ID(bless them)

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3) Credit cards with my picture on the back are a good thing

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4) Children are pure and innocent and make this world a little brighter

Halloween Shmalloween

I have to admit that in my adult life I've been a bit of a Halloween party-pooper. I just don't really get into it as much as some people.

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I think the whole idea of trick-or-treating is a little weird. We all go out and buy candy to give away to everyone else's kids, then send our own kids out to beg for candy. Strange idea in general, right?

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I always want to make my kids some really cute costumes but usually lack the time, talent, creativity, or ambition to do so. I usually end up buying them all on Ebay.

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Last year, we didn't even carve our pumpkin, and it's looking like it's not going to happen this year either. My poor kids. If there is a Halloween Scrooge, I'm it.

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Then I see people like my friend, Stephanie, who just LOVES Halloween, and always has so much fun with it and I spend Halloween wishing I would have dressed up or planned a party or something.

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So even though I'm almost too late, I'm going to celebrate Halloween, not just my kids. Here's how:

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1) I dressed up for the first time in years. I'm wearing my cat costume all day.

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2) I invited some friends over for white chicken chili and spiced cider. I just invited them this morning, so we'll see if they can really come or not. We started this traditional pre-trick-or-treating Halloween dinner a few years ago with some friends at BYU. We all moved away, but we reminisce about it every year. We've continued to eat white chili each year, but all by ourselves. Tonight we'll make a party of it.

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3) Earlier this month, we went to the craft store and let the kids help pick out some new decorations and I got material to make Lydia's super easy fairy costume. I had a really fun time making it!

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4) I've been burning Pumpkin Spice scented candles all month. I think I'm finally over the negative association I had with this particular scent. When I was pregnant (and sick) with Garrett, I burned this and a Harvest scented candle from Yankee Candle Company. 6 years later, I can finally burn it without wanting to vomit.

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We'll still keep the trick-or-treating to a minimum, and probably still not carve our pumpkin, but at least I'm improving.

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Now, does anyone have any great last minute costume ideas for Matt?

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Happy Halloween!

And just because I can't get enough of this girl, here's one more:

pink is for girls

I'm the kind of mom that likes to put matching shirts, vests or ties on my boys for church. I'll continue to dress them alike as long as they think it's cool.

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I swear I didn't plan this one though. I got dressed a couple of hours after I dressed Lydia, so I forgot what I put on her until I realized we completely matched. I thought we looked cute enough to get Garrett to take our picture.

Oh, and yes, I cut my hair....short. I'm still getting used to it. What do you think?

Carmel

This one's for Ethan. Every Saturday he asks if we're going to go on a trip. Well yesterday we did. We drove down to Carmel. We rode our bikes along the coast, played in the sand, had dinner and came home. It's a really beautiful place to go biking and was a fun little family day trip.

all snuggled up

I love this picture of my cute boysIt rained all day today, so we built the first fire of the season in our fireplace and snuggled up for books before bed. It's starting to feel like fall!

Geography Quiz

You mean you didn't hit the books (or Google) to look up where we're going? That's okay. .

Rio de Janeiro .

And by the way, the title of the post is our journey begins. Nice that we have a built-in translator in the family. . I'm totally going to try and learn Portuguese though. So are the kids. Garrett was hoping we'd go to Venezuela where they speak Spanish since he learned a little Spanish in Preschool. He's excited to learn Portuguese now too.

nosso viagem comeca

We were already pretty sure about this, but we got our official assignment.

. Come January, I'll be posting from here:

spiritual feasting with a side of drama

My Conference Saturday consisted of 1 hour of General Conference followed by:

(What's General Conference? See * below)

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4 Paramedics

20 little heart monitor sticker things all over my chest

1 CT scan

6 hours in the ER

and finally, a diagnosis of "it seems you just had an unexplained fainting"

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Don't worry, though. I'm fine. Here's what happened:

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I got up during the middle of the first session of conference (which was wonderful, by the way) to get a drink of water. A few minutes after I got into the kitchen, I evidently passed out for no apparent reason. I had labored breathing and was shaking enough that Matt thought I was having a seizure and called 911. I feel fine now, but have instructions to take it easy and not drive until I see the neurologist next week. I'm sure it's just a precaution and nothing to worry about.

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Conference today was wonderful. My testimony of Jesus Christ and his restored gospel is strengthened. I feel spiritually filled and determined to be better- in so many ways. After a bit of a scary episode yesterday, I was so grateful to be at home today together with my family as we listened to the words of the prophet and apostles of God.

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*General Conference is a semi-annual meeting that the worldwide membership of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints participate in and look forward to. The conference is broadcast from Salt Lake City, Utah and is available by television, radio, internet and satellite. There are two sessions on Saturday, two sessions on Sunday and separate meetings for the men and the women. At these meetings we are instructed, educated, and edified by our prophet and our apostles as well as uplifted through beautiful music.

follow up on this week's posts

Ethan loves The Mom Song. The last two days he's asked to listen to it over and over again and will sit at the computer for a solid 30 minutes watching it on repeat. At first I thought he just likes William Tell Overture. After all, he is our music guy.

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But then today on the way to pick up Garrett from school, he started singing, "Stop crying or I'll give you something real to cry about" and "you're grounded until your 36" . My favorite was when he sang the part "don't forget, I love you, (kiss)" , tilting his head to the side on the kiss part. As funny as it was to hear his rendition, it got me a little concerned that he'd sing those lines at preschool or to someone other than myself which might raise some concern about my parenting...

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Also, Garrett took the tomato eating caterpillar to school today to show his teacher. She asked if they could keep it for a science discussion. I was happy to oblige.

The Mom Song

My sister, Kerri, posted this to her blog yesterday.

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It was a hilarious way to start our day, so I thought I'd post it as well for those few of you who aren't an overlap of our readers.

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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RxT5NwQUtVM

the culprit

We finally solved the mystery about our tomatoes. Our lone tomato plant has thrived. There's always at least 20 good green tomatoes growing on it, but for he last couple of months we haven't been able to eat any of them. By the time they ripened, they had huge bites in them.

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Then while practicing for Soccer on Saturday, Matt and the boys discovered the culprit of those bites.

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It's this guy:

It was in the middle of the cement next to the garden. We did a little research. It's a tobacco hornworm. Despite the common name, this hornworm is often found eating, you guessed it, tomato plants. It's approximately the size of my index finger, and it totally grosses me out.

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The boys (meaning Matt too) are keeping it in a jar. Garrett wants to take it to school to show his teacher. I just want to get rid of it!

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The good news is that I just picked a nice big ripe red tomato that doesn't have a single flaw in it.

seven years

2000 2007 .

Happy Anniversary, babe. I love you.

a little of this, a little of that

Matt's out of town this week and I couldn't fall asleep last night. Instead, I stayed up way too late browsing blogs, jumping from one to another.

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I wish I was the guy who invented blogger.

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It's huge. Sometimes I feel closer to my blogging friends that I do my real life friends. It's a crazy, intriguing web of interpersonal relations and connections.

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Blog surfing was a nice sort of detox after watching the Heroes season premiere. That is a dark but terribly addicting, well written show. Premiere week continues tonight with night two of Dancing with the Stars.

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I'm all geared up to do pilates while I watch my shows each night. I've taken a little vacation from my usual exercise routine since school started up. I decided I was getting enough exercise taking kids to and from school. We live so close to both Garrett and Ethan's schools that I can't justify driving. I speed walk with the stroller while Garrett rides his bike or we all bike with the bike trailer.

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Despite the cardio activity, my lingering gut still looks like I could be sporting a start of another pregnancy. Since Lydia's now over 18 months and given my track record, I'd like to avoid those sideways glances of suspicion if I can. It's time to get back into my pilates routine.

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This week seemed like a good time to start. TV is usually a good motivator for me (since I convinced myself that TV is a waste of time if I'm not multitasking), and I always look forward to premiere week. Yesterday was the first official day of fall, and premiere week is really the only thing around here that feels like fall.

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I miss New Jersey in the fall. Are you wearing sweaters there yet? Have you been apple picking? I tried making apple crisp the other day, but it just isn't the same if it's hot and sunny outside. I love California. I grew up in California and the sunshine is fabulous. But now that I've actually experienced seasons, I kind of like them.

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I miss Matt too. I keep thinking about something ~j. once said. She said that when her husband is gone, she misses him. Not his help, but him. I've tried to keep that in mind. It's easy to get wrapped up in the demands of being a mom and it sometimes feels like that role comes first. It shouldn't. I really do miss him. I miss his help too, but I miss him more.

Good Saturday

Rain

outside

Leftover pizza, naps, BYU football, quilting, and family

inside

Soccer

So, what actually qualifies someone to be a "soccer mom" ? Do I need to have a special haircut or special window stickers on my minivan? . .

If it's just having a super excited son play soccer each Saturday and scheduling our day around the blessed event, then I think I'm in.

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Today was Garrett's second soccer game of the season. He loves it, and it's perfect for him. They just practice for 30 minutes before the game each week, don't keep score, and don't have goalies. They just get to play.

It's so funny to watch a bunch of 5 years olds chase a ball around the field.

Ethan goes to preschool

Ethan started preschool this week. He was so anxious to start "his school" that after much deliberation, we decided to sign him up.

He loves it, and is already the teacher's favorite (she told me today, even though she said she's not supposed to have a favorite).

He seems to be doing well. I was the obnoxious mom lurking around the classroom and peeking in the window at various times during the morning on the first day. He looked like he was having fun, didn't have any trouble going to the restroom on his own, and was happy to go back the second day, so I think this will be a good thing!

Do you like his wrinkled shirt? We were almost late...

pros, cons, and the honest truth

When Matt started talking to Chevron a year and a half ago, we knew international assignments would be part of the deal. After a short initial hesitation, we quickly jumped on board with full enthusiasm.

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Since then, the reality of it has been looming somewhere in the future. We've been excited about it, planning for it, but talking about it as if it were still somewhere far off along the distant horizon of our lives. However, our little adventure in South America is rapidly coming upon us. We're leaving the first of January, and I feel the anxiety coming on.

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We just found out that our official assignment won't come until mid-October. The unknown is what's driving me nuts. I'm a planner. I'm an organizer. I want to start making my checklists and arrangements (remember this?). Having to postpone my preparations is going to drive me insane.

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Anxiety #1: I don't even know there to begin to pack. Movers will pack up our things and put them in storage with our furniture, but I have to decide what to take with us and I'm totally perplexed over it. 6 months is too long to pack as if it were a vacation, and it's too short to pack as if we're moving there.

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Anxiety #2: How do I plan for the 15 hour flight? 3 kids; 15 hours of flying. That's with the most direct route. Then add in layovers and time changes, it'll probably feel like we're flying for two days.

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Anxiety #3: I think I might be just a big talker. I'm excited, I'm up for the adventure- but how am I really going to fare all day while Matt's at work and I'm at home with three kids in a foreign country? Seriously, I cried the first month we were in New Jersey (which felt a bit like a foreign country). That was absolutely a kind of preparatory period for me. Maybe I'm tougher now than I think I am. But maybe not enough.

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Anxiety #4: Occasionally this: What are we thinking dragging our kids around the world? I know some of you have that same thought too.

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On the other hand- We know this is the right thing for us. This is the right career for Matt, an incredible experience for our family, and an opportunity to serve.

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My kids will learn things about another culture, about tolerance, and about being grateful for what we have in a way that I could never teach them myself.

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I can't wait to get Garrett out of California public school and into international private school. Kindergarten is probably the easiest grade for a change like this. Garrett has amazed us with his ability to adapt to school, and I'm sure he'll be just fine and quickly make new friends. He'll probably thrive with a little more challenging curriculum.

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We'll go sightseeing on the weekends (or at least every once in a while), learn a new language, and be exposed to a new culture. Our family will have the adventure of our lives.

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(For those of you concerned about our physical welfare, rest assured we'll be fine. Chevron will take care of us. We'll have access to excellent health care and excellent education for the kids. We'll be in safe, modernized area. We'll even have our own driver. Although, if you're that worried about us, you may just have to come and visit to see for yourself.)

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So where does that all leave me? Right where I started, but I know there are those of you out there that have done this before (or are doing it now). I'm listening...

from the Redwood forest...

These are some tall trees!

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Yesterday, we took a short litte drive to nearby Muir Woods National Monument, north of San Francisco. It is the only old-grown coastal Redwood Forest in the Bay area. It was so cool! The tallest tree in the forest is over 252 feet, and some are at least 1000 years old. It was incredible. I can't even imagine the tallest tree in Redwood National Park (a bit further north) which was measured at 379 feet.

a little tax check-up

I'm not an accountant, but I'm a total math nerd and secretly love doing our taxes each year. I'm so much of a nerd that even though I do our taxes using H&R Block Tax Cut, I still do a pencil/paper version on the side to make sure my calculations would have been accurate if I'd done them myself.

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Since we aren't students anymore and have a real job and it seemed we were paying Uncle Sam a load of taxes, I thought I'd check into it and see if Matt's claiming enough withholding on his paychecks.

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I found this great withholding calculator on the IRS website. It takes into consideration your projected income for the year, you current year-to-date tax withholdings, and asks a few other simple tax questions. Then it magically estimates what your 2007 tax return would be and gives you a suggested number of allowances you should be withholding on your paychecks. It took me less than ten minutes to do.

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I laughed right outloud and nearly fell off my chair when I read my results.

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Matt should resubmit his W-4 form and change his claim from 5 alllowances to 39 allowances.

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You're welcome, Uncle Sam, for the heftly, interest-free loan we have given you these last three months. It will end now. And I'll be filing for that tax return on February 1st.

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Maybe I should start using an accountant. Here's the link again, in case you are as clueless as us and want to give your own taxes a little check-up:

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withholding calculator

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why I love fridays

Well, I don't really know how to come off that last post. I received more comments on that one than any other (thank you, by the way) that maybe I should only tell you about my bad days. I will strive to have a better emotional balance in my blog, right after this one.

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I apologize for jumping right back in to the happy, rosy stuff but I really want to tell you about my fabulous Fridays. This is one beautiful aspect of my life I have not yet bragged about. And it is brag worthy.

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Matt gets every other Friday off. The Fridays he works, he's home no later than 4 pm. It's really, really beautiful. His work is a short 5 minute bike ride from our house. Since we're pretty certain we will never has such ideal circumstances, we're living it up while we can.

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Today, we picked Garrett up from Kindergarten and headed into San Francisco for a little picnic in Alamo Square. Garrett summed it up perfectly for us when Matt announced our plans to him,

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"Oh GREAT! We haven't taken a trip in a long time!"

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It's true. Since our trip to Boston in May, we have only gone to Redlands twice, Idaho and Utah. I love it that they're growing accustomed to many family trips!

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Get used to it kids!

Postcard Row in Alamo Square

(Is anyone hearing the "Full House" theme song in their head?)

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We drove through Golden Gate Park and along the coast for a little while. We would have had a beautiful view of the Golden Gate Bridge if it weren't for the thick fog rolling in at an incredible rate. It was really cool to see it come in over the water and cover the city in a matter if minutes. It looked like special effects from a horror movie. I should have taken a picture.

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I did get these at the beach though:

This is going to be a good weekend.