Taking A Moment

It seems to have been a busy week. I haven't had many moments to sit and unwind or run and unwind for that matter. I've made this week a "no run" week. I've succeeded in not breaking my promise to myself yet. The thing is, with my schedule it may end being a 1.5 week break...I hope not, we'll have to see. Looks like the weather is looking warmer in the next few days andI hope to take advantage of it. I'm taking a break to give my knee/leg a break. I know I want and need to keep going, but if I don't listen to my body now, then my body will just keep fighting and instead of taking 1-2 steps back I'll be taking 20 steps back....not cool. In addition to no running I've also ceased any excess strain on my legs....no pilates, chair sit or stair exercises, leg lifts, etc. Rest, rest, rest. I haven't given up on my crunches though. At least I feel like I've done something....even if it's only 300 crunches at a time. I'll keep you posted on my status.

Although I haven't run my time has been filled with a ton o' other stuff. This included having our taxes prepared. I dread tax preparation. In a nutshell, we've never had the best of luck with it. They were done wrong, had to have them amended, the girl really didn't fix them and just pocketed our cash, we never get money back and always have to pay....the list goes on and on. With the exception of our first year being married we've always ended up paying the IRS. It sucks. My hope is just to break even. Last year we "made" money but ended up paying it right back after having the previous year's taxes rechecked and amended. We're now set up with a good person at H and R Block so we should be on the right path. I wasn't looking forward to my appointment yesterday. After everything I was totally surprised that not only do we not owe this year but we're actually getting money back. Say what? Yep, and a decent amount at that. For obvious reasons we never look to get money back, however I do hope to break even with tax preparation and refunds. But to actually get money?? Yes! The time and effort spent with my office manager (who worked part-time at Block last year and knows all about taxes) last year trying to work numbers to see what I should withold was worth it. Of course my school bills helped a ton and we can't depend on them to help us each year, but I'll take it this year. Thank you, thank you. Then I also was told how much we'll be getting for the whole "get the country out of debt" rebate. And that's a good chunk. I'm not saying I agree with what the government's doing...actually I totally disagree but at the same time they're offering me money. Who wouldn't take it? Once again, something that we won't depend on, but trust us, it will be put to use in more ways than one.

I also set up my 401K today. Gosh, it's got me feeling old. It's something I've been putting off for a couple months. I submitted my information about a month ago and never heard back. Come to find out my fax never went through. Hmmm...anyway, it's set up and we're good to go.

School work has been moving along as usual. This was a big week for exams. I had 3 of them along with my usual weekly quizzes. Last week I slacked a bit...a bit too much. Thinking I was far enough ahead I didn't look at my stuff over the weekend and this Wednesday I found a checklist that I was to have sent in on Monday. Whoops! Either the professor didn't notice or he didn't care because he still gave me all of the points eventhough I sent it on Wednesday. I'm not complaining. I just checked my grades for the class with the video I sent in a week or so ago. It looks like a grade has been posted and it says "0". You bet I've already shot an email to my professor to check on that. I'm hoping it's a typo. If not someone's got some explaining to do.....

I got an email the other day. It looks like one of my pictures from my Chicago trip last year is going to be used on the Chicago Schmap site. It even says "Heidi" under the picture. Ha! Too funny. My opinion is that it's not that great of a picture but it's still cool to have my picture on someone else's site.

I'm unsure what our plans are for the weekend. I have to work tomorrow, David's on call, and it looks like it's going to be raining. I'm sure we'll think of something. David's got something going on tonight so I think I may just snuggle up on the couch with the kids and start into my new book. It's called "Remember Me" by Sophie Kinsella. We shall see how it is.