Old stuff and weapons

I spent the weekend trying to get the house in order so I wouldn't waste my kid free time on Monday cleaning.  It seems I need that time for running errands, working out, getting a real shower, etc. and Sean never seems impressed when he comes home and the bed isn't even made.  Yep, no kids from 9-230 and still can't get that accomplished.  Anyway, so this week of course Patrick got sick and was home with me on Monday so I didn't run any errands, just stayed in.  I was forced to tackle the long dreaded tasks involving piles of random technology cords, old home movies, and old clothing bins.  Disturbing how many of those items we have, seems like I am always sorting though this stuff, keeps piling up.  I don't even shop that much, I don't know how this happens but I am determined to stop buying the kids clothes unless really necessary.  Uniforms for the Catholic school next year, cannot wait!  That should help a lot.  Megan's grade isn't required to wear uniforms but I've already talked to quite a few moms who are going to follow it.  It turns out we all hate morning clothing battles, so uniforms it is.  They are really cute though, plaid jumpers and skirts.  Megan is protesting but she'll come around.

During what should have been gym time yesterday (okay, I wasn't that sad to skip the gym), I managed to get the tax info together.  Trying not to be bitter about how much the deployment cost us and trying to focus on what should be a less horrifying tax bill.  Should be.  Our taxes are just complicated enough that I can't use regular tax software to get an estimate.  We have so few deductions, unlike those who deduct cat food for "pest control" and Sylvan tuition for their kids who are faux employees of their corporation (that would be employee enrichment of course).  So surely our taxes are easy for the professionals and they will get it done quickly, unless it's bad news, then we can wait a couple months...

This is ranking up there with most boring blog post ever, so I will end with a photo of something Patrick brought into the house the other day.  Anna got mad when she saw it and said, "hey, that's my swinging rock!"  Umm, time to check out the fort they made, I fear for what else they have stored in there.

Oh, I forgot I took a photo of this... yes, our photos.  Finally got the wall complete.  Bigger than I expected over the piano, whoops.

Okay, that is pretty blurry, from the phone camera.  I finally ordered more memory cards for my big camera since I don't have backup for this laptop yet and am hesitant to delete off the camera, so in the meantime I haven't been using the real camera.  I will also feel better once we get our old home movies converted to whatever media is most current.  We have one video tape in with those that has the Bills vs Oilers comeback game on it.... I asked Sean if he wanted to convert that too and he was considering it and didn't appreciate when I asked if the Oilers still existed.  FYI, no, they became the Tennessee Titans.  Well, well, that poses a problem for Sean who claims he wants to move to Nashville for access to pro football.  Would he cheer for the Titans??  Wait until he hears that they have late night cookie delivery there too!