Taxes for 2009

Taxes are not cool and not fun, not even if you're both accountants and CPAs.  In fact, right about now, I'd say they suck.  LOL.  Wow, I feel better after saying that.  Not sure how I'll feel after paying $950 to the feds, $582 to MN and getting back $116 from AZ.  Don't think I'll feel too good about it.  Time to double check the W-4s Travis and I filled out when we moved down here for sure...  And on that happy note, good night :)  LOL.

Memories & Service Project Sunday

I found this picture on our computer back from the first time I went with Travis to his grandparents' lakehouse in Iowa.  We also used it on our save the dates for our wedding.  Crazy - it's almost been 2 years on April 5th!!  I'll never forget getting married literally 2 days after busy season was "officially" over.  I say that b/c busy season wrap up and close for jobs in public accounting usually goes farther than the end of March.  This would be audit, not tax, for those that assume that all public accountants/CPAs do tax work.  We did audit work :)  And it was the first day of nice weather on April 5th, then snow hit when we went on our honeymoon!  Talk about God's favor :)

Anyway, not too much else going on around here.  Travis continues to train like crazy.  I continue to attempt to go to the gym more, lol, I'm getting better, but my school schedule is a little unflexible and sometimes I choose Travis over the gym.  Surprise, surprise.  I am trying to get things straightened out with school, the exam team and the committee I am on this semester.  Luckily, I have a professor that walked me through the entire master's/thesis process, which was extremely helpful, so I am excited to get started on that!

Next Sunday at church is service project Sunday!  We are all meeting at the church and singing and then going out into the community, which is going to be a lot of people.  They're doing it at all 4 services!!  The options are to pack food for Haiti, beautify the parks in Chandler, help out on the church grounds or to pass out flyers for Iglesia Vida, which I kind of wanted to do as well, so we'll see where we end up.  I am so excited to be part of a church that actually gets out and serves others!!

Have a good rest of the week, everyone!!

Weekend recap and life after babies

Yummy!  So we celebrated Valentine's day a few days early by picking up a heart shape pizza, cheesy bread and cookie dough from papa murphy's on Friday night!  As you can see in the corner, our lovely gift is from my mother.  Inside the box is a yummy white and milk chocolate carmel covered apple, a bag of mini carmels and a milk chocolate walnut covered apple (that one is for Travis).  AND, she even sent us some candy coated pretzel rods, that were super rich, but yummy.  We're still working on our treats, because they are very sweet and very rich and we can't eat the whole thing in one sitting.  We went and saw Avatar in 3D on Saturday night, which was such a great movie, we loved it the last time, but the 3D experience was pretty cool too.  Not that much of a difference in my opinion though, but still a great movie.  And for Valentine's day officially we went to the gym and swam outside, lifted and then had takeout from PF Chang's and watched Couples Retreat.  So we actually spent a lot of our entertainment money this past weekend!

 Anyway, Travis and I were talking about how much women really change after they had kids this morning, so I've decided to make a list of things that I think commonly change (for both gals and guys) in a marriage after little ones enter the picture (based on friend experience and our societal culture).  There is no hidden agenda or intent to be controversial, negative, positive or offensive. 

However, I would like to point out that in our marriage class, several studies were done and named that show people are much more selfish in culture now a days, and that is one of the reasons people put off having kids.  Which is an interesting perspective.  When you look at not having kids yet as a matter of being selfish and not ready to give up your own life, it kind of puts a different spin on things - because there will never be "enough" money, "enough" time, etc.  I think having a kid makes you become unselfish because you realize that life is not about you yourself or about you as a couple.  And that's what I think is so exciting about the concept of parenthood, despite all the changes.  It's a big step of commitment, faith and maturity.  But ANYWAY, here are some observations/what culture says "happens" to parents (in not any particular order):

1. Baby comes before spouse = jealousy, insecurity, abandonment, possible fights.

2. One spouse does not help out as much as the other spouse = definite fighting, disappointment, tiredness which probably leads to número tres...
3. Sex life diminishes along with "date" night = frustration, guilt, possible fights, spouses kind of go on auto-pilot.
4. Work/Career becomes debatable for one parent = arguments, fear, financial 'burden', heavy discussions.
5. Gym time (work-out, etc.) goes out the door (or remain non-existent) = weight gain, insecurity, frustration, possible fights.
6. Other friends without kids sort of "disappear," adios to girls’ and guys’ nights = guilt, life changing reality and reconnection/disconnection of relationships.
7. The MIL factor – mother-in-laws may become "crazier" because of their new grand baby = most likely fighting and attempts to keep sane when family members are together. Oh, and lots of tips/suggestions and “remember when” times.
8. Everyone you know offers you parental advice or any kind of advice = learning to smile and say, thank you for your suggestion, I will take it into consideration, but really never thinking about it again, except to maybe tell your spouse what someone said.
9. Pulling snot out of baby's nose with your hand, walking around with drool all over you and being able to be around massive amounts of poo = actually, thinking about this makes me a little queasy, so I'll pass on this one.
10. Having a beautiful, healthy, happy little piece of you and your spouse join your family = lots of smiles and laughs - just one of those amazing priceless moments in life called parenthood.

In summary, this has been a long blog, but it was fun to think of some certain situations or shows and laugh a little to myself (until we have kids and then we won't be laughing about some of these things).  Oh, and in regards to number 5, I definitely want a sweet baby jogger!  And I really do think that you need to make your marriage a priority and sadly, I think that sometimes people forget that they were married first.  No, that does not mean that you neglect a child that needs and depends on you, but I definitely think that both partners in the marriage need to make an effort.  So, maybe in a year or two or so, Travis and I will look back and see how we're doing as parents.

As my favorite mother-in-law would say, life is an adventure.

Debt paydown, exercise and ONE of the NICEST things Travis has ever said to me

Hola a todos - This is our picture from a very lovely dinner at Solymar's and Jason's house.  It was super fun celebrating a U.S./Puerto Rican dinner with friends from ASU.  What's even more fun, is that typically with each of our get togethers, we always end up putting on music and dancing salsa, machata, cumbia, merengue, etc, and I love it!  Trav is starting to love it too, lol, well, that's what I tell myself...

Anyway, we are so close to paying down our car!!  We only have $3,200 left and even on a salary that is about 58% less than what we made last year, we are staying intense and focused on getting rid of that debt.  We had our last Dave Ramsey class, and we are almost done with baby step 2!!  It is so exciting once you have a financial plan and budget - it has definitely eased some stress and tension between Travis and I.  So we recommend it to everyone!  We are even planning on teaching a class in the late summer at our church!!

In other news, Travis is continuing to be very dedicated and getting up in early hours to go biking and swimming and running.  On Tues and Thurs, I have to be at school by 7:30, which is my excuse for those days, but mostly, I consider myself a day person, which means, I like to be up during the day and that's about it.  But I like to do my homework during the night and I don't mind staying up late to do my homework as long as I get to sleep until 8 the next day.  I am looking forward to being able to run again soon and will hopefully be able to start building up mileage.

The other day Travis said ONE of the NICEST things to me (he says TONS of nice things to me, but this was exceptional) and it made me feel so unbelievably beyond good, that I smile when I think of it.  He said, "I have always wanted to live in a warm place my whole life.  Somewhere I could be outdoors and be outside year round.  I never thought I'd ever be able to do it and I never thought we would actually leave Minnesota.  I thought it would be way too hard and way too much work and we'd never get around to putting a plan into action.  And I have you to thank for that.  Thank you so much for moving us down here.  I love it down here."  Wow, I think I smiled the rest of the day after he said that.  Because I have to admit, one of the main reasons, I "pushed" us to move down here is b/c I knew deep down we both wanted to get out of MN for a while.  At least get away from the weather and just have our own little adventure.  Was it hard?  Umm... yeah, getting our house up to code and facing the failure of it not selling - I can't even quantify or qualify those difficulties.  Was it expensive?  UMMM... gulp, yep, definitely lost a lot of income and moving expenses were over $4,000.  But you know what?  Just to know how incredibly happy we both are down here and how much less stressed we are and how much more time we have for LIFE is absolutely 100% PRICELESS.  Cheesy, but oh so true...