Sue’s brother Pete sent me a message on LinkedIn when we connected recently, mentioning that he liked the way I straddle the theological and technological worlds, then presented the two terms above to describe me. I like them both, but I’m not sure which I’d pick to describe me. Which would you pick and why?
Category: Personal Life (Page 3 of 11)
For most people, the tax deadline is April 15. If you’re like me, however, you’re well versed in the world of extensions. We haven’t filed our taxes on time in eight or nine years.
I kept telling myself that there were lots of good reasons for it. The bottom line, however, is that we just didn’t stay on top of our finances and consequently weren’t able to get things together in time and get them to the tax person.
As part of the Good Sense course we took, I decided to set myself a personal goal of getting our taxes in on time this year. My new tax people (more on that another day maybe), suggest a March 1 deadline to get them the materials they need to prepare my taxes on time. I am now only one piece of information away from completing the packet, which I expect to get today, then it’s off to the tax people.
I’m hoping for good news on our taxes this year, but fear it won’t be pretty (another long story, related to the first one).
Funny Story About My Taxes: I’m having my previous year’s taxes reviewed as part of switching to this new tax service. I spent about 30 minutes looking for my 2008 tax returns, getting increasingly frustrated with my inability to find every other year since I started filing on my own in 1999. I had everything I’d ever done except the one I needed. It was then that I remembered that “last year” is not 2008 where taxes are concerned. “Last year” is actually 2007, which Jaime had found much earlier in the search. Maybe I’m losing my mind…
It’s almost time to start our Fantasy Idol season again. It seems the process for choosing a Top 12 is different yet again. There seem to be 3 weeks of 12 singers each (the Final 36). Each week, three winners will be chosen. There will then presumably be some method for getting the extra 3 singers back into the mix to round out the top 12.
Our rules will be a little different this time, however. Each player in the pool will be given 6 points to distribute among the finalists as you see fit. For example, you could take 6 different finalists and give each person one point. Or you could pick 3 people and give each 2 points. You get the number of points you’ve assigned to each contestant added to your score each week they survive. For example:
My picks are:
- John Doe: 2 points
- Jane Smith: 3 points
- Jimmy Johnson: 1 point
Now, John makes it 3 weeks, Jimmy 5 and Jane only 1. My point total would now be:
- John Doe: 2 points X 3 weeks = 6
- Jane Smith: 3 points X 1 week = 3
- Jimmy Johnson: 1 point x 5 weeks = 5
- Total Score: 14 points
At the end of the season, the person with the most points wins.
I’ll release the details for how to give me your picks once we get a little farther along, including when the deadline to pick will be.
It feels like we’re finally starting to get the parenting thing down. That could just coincide with Addison starting to get more sleep these days. In the past 3 days, she’s slept for 8, 8 and 6.5 hours at night. It’s a wonderful feeling to wake up and realize she hasn’t been up for so long. She’s been a little more difficult in the evening leading up to the long sleep, but that’s a small price to pay for so much uninterrupted sleep.
I was stressed out the other night while away on my trip to New Orleans for the Gathering planning meeting. Our theme for the Gathering is “We Believe”, and draws on the book of John for it’s primary material. Not knowing what exactly to read, I decided to start at the beginning of John and see what I found. I was struck by John 1:16 in particular:
16 And from his fullness we have all received, grace upon grace.
Not only have we received grace, but grace upon grace. It’s hard enough to understand the concept of grace, but grace upon grace? It’s kind of mind-blowing. As John unfolds, we see so many characters receiving this grace upon grace.
There was the bridegroom at the wedding in Cana in John 2, who’d run out of wine, only to receive grace upon grace in the form of new and better wine.
There was Nicodemus, who didn’t understand how he could be born again in John 3, but received grace upon grace when Jesus talked with him and explained how to be born again.
There was the thirsty woman of Samaria who received living water and the official whose son was healed in John 4. The 38-year invalid in John 5, healed by Jesus. The 5,000 who were fed. Lazarus who died and was raised.
All received grace upon grace. The same grace upon grace that we ourselves receive. Amazing.
Jaime changes most of Addison’s diapers, just by virtue of the fact that she’s home with her more often than I am. So when I’m home, I like to help out with the diapers. I can’t imagine anyone saying it’s fun to change the diaper, but the time with her on the changing table can be fun as she smiles and kicks through the process.
Last night, as we got home from the Superbowl party we were at, it smelled like something was burning in the car. Rather than just assume we had to take it to the shop to check it out, I thought I’d pop the hood and look around. I’m not super handy with fixing cars, so I’m not sure what I expected to find that I could fix, but it’s the manly thing to do so I did it.
What I found got me off the diaper hook. It seems that it was not a belt going bad or the oil being too low. Nope. Instead, it was a medium-sized furry creature with a longish tail. I’m thinking it crawled up in there after Jaime parked the car because it was warm, then fell asleep. Only to be baked next time we took the car out. Nice.
About 20 minutes later, I had gotten it out and into the trash without getting any on me. Go me!
It was good to be back from New Orleans and at church with all my church friends/family. It felt like I was gone for weeks instead of days!
Crazy morning today as I was down 2 small group leaders, but it gave me a chance to sit in on one of the groups which was fun. Picked up a few more sign-ups for the Sawmill Creek trip and had a good number of sales at the Scrip table.
I’m looking forward to relaxing this evening and watching the Superbowl, especially the commercials. I’m curious to see what the tone will be in the current economy as companies spend $5 million on production and airtime while people are losing jobs left and right. I’m especially interested in the 1 second comericial.
As you know, we’ve been working on becoming more disciplined with our money and it’s been a great thing for us. I read an interesting guest post on living with an old car for as long as possible on Get Rich Slowly. The concept was great, but the best part was a video by Dave Ramsey titled Drive Free, Retire Rich. I’m hoping we’ll be able to get to that point someday soon.
Today is the inauguration of Barack Obama. Love him, hate him or don’t care, it’s an historic day for our country. In celebration, I give you, The Grunting One:
Make your own at Obamicon.me.
Special moment yesterday at church. The birth of Addison Naomi was one of the best days of our lives. The Spiritual Rebirth of Addison in Baptism is up there also. In case you missed it, here’s the Baptism:
It was extra special for us because Pastor Chuck and Sue are such good friends, so for them to do what they always do with Baptisms, but doing it to our Addison was just different. Hearing Pastor tell her that she has been marked for all time and eternity as God’s own and Sue giving her the charge to let her light shine before men, that they might see that same Father is almost overwhelming. A wonderful day!