First Cut is NOT the deepest

Pumpkin had a little spill over the weekend. With his daddy. It was ugly too. A Daytona-like spill with the requisite rollover and everything. Daddy-o and I rushed Pumpkin inside to clean him up and realized that the injuries weren't nearly as bad as the fall had looked. On a cheerier note, Pumpkin's now reached a new milestone. This is his first time wearing "band-aids."
Fortunately, I happened to have some Cars bandages at the ready, and Pumpkin agreed to let me put them on him if I'd use one too. I got Sally on my thumb, and Pumpkin got Tow Mater and Lightning McQueen, and with that, he was a happy camper again.

Meanwhile, Daddy-o's driving permit has been temporarily suspended. >(

Just call me Cap'n Crunch

We've been scrambling to get our taxes done in time this year (for a change), but we've run into a few difficulties dealing with some business property transactions that took place last year. What a bummer. We use TaxCut so I even tried logging on to H&R Block to ask for "live help" but the dratted thing erased everything I'd input so I just gave up.

Fortunately, a good friend of mine referred me to Kim, the H&R Block consultant, who'd worked on her taxes. Even better, Kim the Tax Lady was able to squeeze me in for an appointment on the same day I called! Kim not only answered all of my questions for free, she even gave me her number in case I encountered more problems after I got back home and resumed work on my taxes. Now THAT's good service.
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Well, taxes were due at midnight today (technically, yesterday since it's well past midnight now). By 11:35pm, I had finally muddled through to the point where I felt confident enough with what I'd done to even suggest to QT that we file an extension. By my reckoning, WE WEREN'T GOING TO OWE ANY MONEY! That's right. ZIP. ZILCH. ZERO. I can hardly believe it. I'm totally stunned not to mention completely exhilarated at the prospect of keeping my house and home. Oh boy! This calls for a celebration! I think I'll have some celery. ;)

Itchy and Scratchy!

That's me after having gone into the attic to try and find this elusive pipe thing that's supposed to connect straight from the attic to the basement to make it easier to wire the house for sound, cable, etc. Dang insulation is the blow-in kind so it was impossible to tell what or where everything was. I was thinking of calling the builder's office to ask them where I would find this fabled pipe, but in going through my paperwork to figure out what the heck it's called, I can't find record of it existing at all in our house! It seems the "Design Center" detail sheet is missing from all of our paperwork!! . Coincidence? I think not!

Anyway, I'm done with that. I'm just going back to my original plan of drilling a hole from one room to another in order to run the cable extension that I want. Bah!

My Son the Jr. Super-Genius

The other night, Pumpkin and I were driving home from the store, and he says, "I can't see moon, Mommy." He enjoys looking up at the moon and stars, and he always points them out to us. Well, I made some mumbling noises in response to his statement, and then he says, "Sky cloudy. Can't see moon." Whoa, kid! Where'd you learn that? For starters, even I couldn't tell that the sky was cloudy until I got out of the car to check! Next, he's gonna be telling me what type of clouds are in the sky "Those cumulus clouds, Mommy." hehehe

The next morning, I'm changing him getting ready to head out for our daily whatever, and he starts showing me his toy cars ("That Bastian's car.") I think it's so cute the way he says his name so I ask him what my name is. I tell him I'm Mommy, but he says, "You Cristina" (Actually, it sounds more like "You Kwitina" but still, whoa! My eyeballs nearly popped out of my head when I heard that. Seriously, this is getting painful.)

Hardly anyone calls me Cristina, but I suppose he's heard my CO friends call me that. I'm dumbfounded, not only that he's apparently paying attention, but also that he remembers what he hears. I guess it really is time to start watching what I say...for the reals this time!

Pumpkin sings Wiggles. Ahoy!

Here's another video for the kids to enjoy! He's singing "Go, Captain, go! Go, Captain, go! Go, Captain Feathersword, ahoy!"

I will try and record a better copy where you can hear the music more clearly....and maybe where I don't accidentally almost cut Pumpkin's head out of the shot, hehe.

I did it!

I still haven't finished transferring all the pictures I took while in Texas, but I suppose it's time to move along anyway so here's what's new.

For his birthday, I gave QT a new XM radio that's also an MP3 player, and as usual, he wasn't too enthused about his gift. He put it away and supposedly did not think about it again until Pumpkin & I returned from Texas a couple of weeks later. When I got back from Texas, I asked QT when he was going to have his new radio installed, and he said something like, possibly maybe someday soon he might take his truck to Best Buy to get it done...maybe (hehe, I've taken a bit of artistic license here). I even offered to meet him at Best Buy after work the next day so that he could drop off his truck, and nothing.

The following weekend, I decided that if he wasn't going to get it done, I may as well give it a shot myself. I mean, I've sat alongside my brother and watched him install plenty of radios over the years. I figured it couldn't possibly be that difficult, and besides, I once installed my own radio antenna! ;)

So, I started messing around in QT's truck and somehow managed to remove the previous radio without damaging anything or cutting any wires. From there, it was easy enough to figure out how to install the new radio, and Presto Chango! I did it! (that's one of Pumpkin's favorite phrases, btw)

Here's a pic of my handiwork:
I'm so proud of myself! I think QT was too b/c he immediately set out learning how to use it and has already recorded dozens of songs on it. When he got home from work the following day, it was easy to see that he was truly happy with his new radio. And, when he told me that he LOVED his gift, I even believed him. :)