So if your tax e-file is ever rejected due to a wrong birthday on file...

...after almost a month of dealing with this, I can finally tell you how to take care of it!

First, go to your local social security administration, with your birth certificate, and have them correct the date. Be sure to ask them what the incorrect date on file is.

Then come home and e-file your taxes, using the incorrect birth date, because it's going to take several weeks for the system to update, and the only thing they use the birth date for is verification purposes. (This was the advice given to us by the IRS, by the way. And it worked.)

Voila! You're done!

FINALLY got our taxes approved by the IRS this morning. Hopefully the refund will deposit next Friday and they don't change the date on us.

For Jackie

I know it will probably be a few days before you see this, but I just wanted to share the lyrics to this song with you. It always brings me great comfort in times of loss.

The Valley Song ~ Jars of Clay

You have led me to the sadness
I have carried this pain
On a back bruised, nearly broken
I'm crying out to you

I will sing of Your mercy
That leads me through valleys of sorrow
To rivers of joy

When death like a gypsy
Comes to steal what I love
I will still look to the heavens
I will still seek your face
But I fear you aren't listening
Because there are no words
Just the stillness and the hunger
For a faith that assures

I will sing of your mercy
That leads me through valleys of sorrow
To rivers of joy

I will sing of your mercy
That leads me through valleys of sorrow
To rivers of joy

Alleluia, alleluia
Alleluia, alleluia

While we wait for rescue
With our eyes tightly shut
Face to the ground using our hands
To cover the fatal cut
And though the pain is an ocean
Tossing us around, around, around
You have calmed greater waters
Higher mountains have come down

I will sing of your mercy
That leads me through valleys of sorrow
To rivers of joy

Alleluia, alleluia
Alleluia, alleluia

I will sing of your mercy
That leads me through valleys of sorrow
To rivers of joy

Just rambling

I'm bored. Most of the time I like not having TV anymore, sometimes I hate it. Tonight I hate it. I just want to go sit on my bed and watch something fluffy, and we don't have any new movies in from netflix yet and I've watched everything we own at least half a dozen times. Nothing's going on at any of my boards, Will's not home, and I am BORED. I guess I could go find some good X-Files fanfic to read.

I saw the dietician Wednesday. As I suspected, she didn't really have a whole lot of info to share that I didn't already know. She suggested 1600 calories a day for me, but since I make so much of my stuff from scratch it makes it very hard to keep up with exact numbers, so she said I could try to focus on having no more than 45 grams of carbs per meal plus one snack, and 40 grams of fat or less per day. I've been keeping a food journal to see how close I can get to that. So far (two days of journaling) I've not done too well with the fat (though much of the fat in my meals is from EVOO or canola oil, and nuts for the snacks, which is all good for you so I have a hard time making myself cut that out, kwim?) but the calories and carbs have been pretty good. She wants to see me again in two weeks to "see how I'm doing". That last part makes me bristle because I don't like being made to feel that I have to please someone by what I eat, but if nothing else I can take my daily journal with me so she can see just what kinds of things I normally eat. I find that people have a really hard time believing that someone that looks like me actually knows how to make healthy food choices. She already knows that I refuse to use artificial sweeteners or things that are so chemically altered they no longer resemble anything found in nature, so that battle has already been fought. Heh.

Oh but along those lines, I had to stop at Sonic for breakfast yesterday after my appointment. I got a small strawberry/banana smoothie (thinking fresh fruit and nonfat yogurt would be a good choice, right?) along with a junior breakfast burrito and half a kiddie order of tater tots (Jacob was riding back home with me and wanted something too). I got home and looked up Sonic's nutritional info to journal it and about FELL OUT OF MY CHAIR. The smoothie I got - small size! - was almost 500 calories and 113 g of carbs! Just the smoothie! CRIPES. I'll pick up some plain yogurt and fruit at the store tomorrow and make my own blasted smoothies, it'll probably taste better too.

We still haven't been able to file our federal taxes. I called the local SS office today on the off chance that they would let me correct Will's birthday over the phone, no go. Ah well, he'll make it down there some day soon. I hope.

Oh! We did get to go to Date Night after all, the kids were all feeling fine Saturday. Woo! It was fun. The dinner was pretty good (spaghetti and meatballs, salad, garlic bread, cheesecake) and the movie was great! There were several scenes that had everybody in there howling with laughter, and a few scenes that had everyone either cheering or yelling at the screen. Good times. :) Oh and they had guys come out to the car to escort the ladies in, and people at the front door to usher the kids off to their rooms, and a photographer to take your picture (under an arch with flowers and everything, I felt like I was at the prom! LOLOL). They went to a one hour photo shop and had the pictures developed while we were watching the movie so they could be picked up on the way out, I thought that was really nice. The kids got to have pizza and games and a movie. All in all, a very fun evening.

Then the next day we got to go to my sister's wedding shower, that was fun too. Dana and I conspired to snatch a few new towels and the ladies hosting the shower tried to make off with the stand mixer. Heh. I told Will we need to get married again so we can rake in some loot! She got lots of nice stuff. Dana and Nathan wanted to give her something too, so we bought a couple of azalea plants and tagged them from the kids. I thought that was cute. :)

Since we had to head down there right after church, I was wearing my tiechel. Nobody even commented on it, ha. I figured mom at least would ask about it.

On the radio yesterday they were talking about all the security measures taken while returning the KFC hand-written original recipe to the Kentucky museum, it was so funny. A briefcase handcuffed to a guard with the recipe inside and everything. One of the DJ's was saying it reminded her of Plankton on Spongebob and all the lengths they have to go to, to protect the Krabby Patty secret recipe. HEE.

Hey did ya'll know that the earth originally had a 360-day year? (Go re-read the account of the Flood, and pay attention to the dates given.) And that the shift in the center of gravity because of the Flood is most likely the reason that we now have a 365.xxx-day year? And that according to Revelation, the earth will once again be restored to a 360-day year? Like, before the end of the world? That kind of stuff FASCINATES me, ya'll.

Which reminds me - I literally burst out laughing at a guy on Ben Stein's movie 'Expelled' when he said that he can't think of anything more BORING than the human body being the result of Intelligent Design. I can't think of anything LESS boring. What a dweeb.

Ah, Ben Stein. He was lecturing at a university about an hour from here this week. How we would've loved to have gone!!! Alas.

TTFN!

Oh, yippee

Normally Will and I take our taxes to the library to have them filed for free (by retired CPA's) but this year he is having trouble finding the time to go, so I thought I'd bite the bullet and file them through TurboTax. I spent the better part of four hours today wading through molasses and quicksand getting them filled out and e-filed....and a few minutes ago got a rejection email from the IRS. Apparently Will's birthday is on file wrong somewhere and it's tossing it out because of it. UGH UGH UGH. We can still mail them in and be fine, but it'll take up to six weeks to get our refund doing that, versus two weeks by e-file. Sigh.

In other news, I just finished reading Saddam's Secrets by Georges Sada today. WOW. If you still have any doubt that the WMD's ever really existed and the war against Iraq was justified, go find that book at the library (or order it off amazon like I did, it's less than $20) and read it, STAT. I don't know how many times I put that book down and exclaimed "Dear GOD!" I wish I could just go find GWB and give him a big hug and tell him I'm sorry for everything he's had to endure over this.

Will and I get to go to the date night at church tomorrow night...if everybody is well. Nathan stayed home from school today, and Dana doesn't look too perky either. Hopefully everybody will be feeling better by tomorrow afternoon.

WHY WILL MY FOUR YEAR OLD NOT JUST STAY IN THE FLIPPING BED?!?!?!?!?!?!?!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY BETCHIE!!!!!!!

Sending great big HUGS and SMOOCHIES to one of my dearest friends in the world!!!

I am thankful for your friendship, and I hope you have a great day.

Fireproof

Have any of ya'll seen this yet? They're having a Date Night at church next Saturday and will be showing Fireproof after dinner. I hope Will and I get to go. Of course that would mean he would have to not be working that night, but the way things are going right now it wouldn't surprise me any.

Speaking of work, he worked Friday night 7 pm to 7 am, called me around 9:30 am to ask me something about the tires he was buying, and then emailed me from work about 10:15 am. I emailed him back and asked him if he got ANY sleep at all (he had planned to go crash for a few hours before going back to work) and he responded with "Sleep?! Sleep?! I don't need no stinkin' sleep." >:/ At least he made it home ok (around 7 last night).

The church is having a shower for my sister next Sunday. We'll head down that way after church. My brothers and parents and I all went together to get them a stand mixer. She's been wanting one for the Christmas cookies and stuff that she makes each year but couldn't justify the price, so this was a nice reason to get her one. Ha ha, I don't think I remembered to tell ya'll the funny story about the quilt my mom gave her for Christmas. It's one she's had made up for years from a quilt top my grandma had done, she had planned to give it to my sister when she got married but finally gave up this year and gave it to her for Christmas...which was when she announced she's getting married. I got a good laugh out of that.

Nathan was being a pest this morning and sat in Dana's seat on the way to church, so when we got to church she asked him to hand her Bible to her out of the car pocket. He kind of tossed it at her and Jacob yelled at him in horror "NATHAN! That's GOD'S WORD!!!" ROFL. That's my boy.

I had an interesting thought about Biblical prophecy earlier. It fascinates me that so much of what was prophesied about the Messiah was not able to be understood until after the fact - I think there's a reason for that. I think it's because if prophecy was really clear and easy to figure out, it would be too easy to manufacture a false fulfillment of the prophecy.

It also fascinates me that so much of what Jesus himself referred to as fulfillment of prophecy, if you look back at the original text in the OT it almost seems as though he's taking it out of context. A good example is when Jesus is predicting Peter's denial and quotes "I will strike the shepherd and the sheep will be scattered." If you look up the reference (Zecheriah 13) it doesn't seem to have a thing in the world to do with the Messiah or anything surrounding him, but Jesus himself ties the two together. Fascinating...