Happy Birthday...

to the best (and goofiest) husband and dad in the world.

 

Funny Story!
Mark teaches the 10 year old primary class. He was surprised when he was called up to the front of the room for the primary to sing him "Happy Birthday". Later he asked the presidency how they found out it was his birthday. Well, one of the teachers informed him that she was sitting in junior primary when one of the children reached over and wiped a booger on her skirt.

The teacher said,"Don't wipe the booger on my skirt. Give it to your dad for his birthday."

The child says, "It is my dad's birthday and I have a lot more boogers in the other side to give him."

As you can guess, the booger wiping child was Avery and she told them it was Mark's birthday.

YAY for Avery telling about Mark's birthday.

BOO for the public booger wiping.

Dear IRS,

We are not sorry that our communications have ceased (for now). We want you to know how wrong we felt it was that our family and our measly income was worthy of an audit. However, without too much complaint, we spent 10 months of our lives preparing and submitting documents and information to prove we did not lie on our tax returns.

We even had a baby during the process.

Ah well! What's done is done. We appreciate the letter you FINALLY sent us stating most formally that we were off the hook. Oh how those words, "We are please to inform you we did not make any changes to the tax reported on you return" bring such joy to our lowly hearts. Now if you would please--LEAVE US ALONE!

Sincerely,
Mark and Lake Rhodes

Please Note: If you decide to "review" any more of our returns we may consider some of these helpful tips next time...

HOW TO ANNOY THE IRS
(Without Getting In Trouble!)

1. Always put staples in the right hand corner. Go ahead and put them down the whole right side. The extractors who remove the mail from the envelopes have to take out any staples on the right side.

2. Never arrange paperwork in the right order, or even facing the right way. Put a few upside down and backwards. That way they have to remove all your staples, rearrange your paperwork and re-staple it (on the left side).

3. Line the bottom of your envelope with Elmer's glue and let it dry before you put in you forms, so that the automated opener doesn't open it and the extractor has to open it by hand.

4. If you're very unfortunate and have to pay taxes, use a two or three party check. On top of paying with a third party check, pay one of the dollars you owe in cash. When an extractor receives cash, no matter how small an amount, s/he has to take it to a special desk and fill out of few nasty forms.

5. Write a little letter of appreciation. Any letter received has to be read and stamped regardless of what it is or what it's on.

6. Write your letter on something misshapen and unconventional. Like on the back of a Kroger sack.

7. When you mail it, mail it in a big envelope (even if its just a single EZ form). Big envelopes have to be torn and sorted differently than regular business size ones. An added bonus to the big envelope is that they take priority over other mail, so the workers can hurry up and deal with your mess.

8. If you send two checks, they'll have to staple your unsightly envelope to your half destroyed form.

9. Always put extra paper clips on your forms. Any foreign fasteners or the like have to be removed and put away.

10. Sign your name in ink on every page. Any signature has to be verified and then date stamped.
Find more funny jokes here.

The beast is silent.

When I get restless, I often refer to my restlessness as a beast that's woken up inside of me. Well, that beast has been terribly loud lately especially when is comes to my car. Since I had Spencer, the little Mazda5 has been like a sardine can especially when you try to fit a stroller or groceries. My other big complaint is the lack of rear air. When it gets hot, we cannot even put the air on full blast and be comfortable. So with the summer heat, growing children, and road trips in the near future, I started looking at minivans (for fun). The Odyssey and Sienna topped my list because quite frankly, I've never had the pleasure of owning one of the highly favored vehicles. So yesterday (for fun), I stopped by the Honda dealership, found an AFFORDABLE car I liked and talked numbers with the sales guy (for fun). Unfortunately, I didn't feel that great about the age and high mileage of the vehicle and prepared myself to walk away. Desperate to close their books for the month of May, they pulled the PRIZE out of the back and offered me a screaming deal on a van with less miles and more options. So, I called Mark to come down for the approval and drove away in this baby. It's an older model but YES that is leather and a DVD player you see. So farewell restless beast, I am loving my new minivan!

Too Poor to be Bored

The economy is bad. We are supposed to be focused on saving, budgeting, food storage, life insurance, etc., etc., etc. Why is it I can't stop thinking of ways to spend money I don't have. I have every excuse in the book to run out and buy one of these...

Really, my refrigerator is on its last leg and far from being energy star certified--saving on electricity is good right?

Or a nice pair of these...

Again--energy star--and think of all the laundry I could get done in these babies.

But here's the big ticket item I really "want"...

I'm ready to trade the Mazda5 for something bigger, newer and more exciting (Yes, I think a minivan sounds very exciting right now). I always buy a new car with the intention to keep it forever but the truth is, I like car shopping, haggling, and driving away in something that is new and wonderful. Sadly, the novelty wears off and I get bored much sooner than I expect. I get that from my dad. But, I swear, if I get a minivan, I will be happy forever!

Moving on

A lot has happened this past week. Wednesday was Avery's last day of Preschool. It was bittersweet. She is excited to ride the bus and go to kindergarten next fall but she is very sad to leave her teachers and friends. Here are pictures from her first and last day of school. I cannot believe how much she has grown!
First Day

Last Day


That night she had her graduation ceremony.

They performed a lot of songs for us and received a special scrapbook from their personal buddies.


We had cake and punch afterwards. Sarah and Spencer tried really hard to be good for about five minutes. We spent a lot of time with them out in the hall.

We were all tired and grumpy by the time we got home.

We went to the zoo with some friends on Thursday. Its been a long time since our last trip there. I don't know why, but I always enjoy seeing the monkeys the most. All the animals are just, well, "animals". They eat and sleep and pace around. The monkeys are fun to watch because they interact and cuddle. The biggest male orangutan pressed his face right against the glass where all the children were standing and just stared at them. Then he crawled into a large cardboard box and started rolling around. We were totally pooped by the time we left.





Here are some other random pictures from our week. Spencer sometimes gets his leg stuck in the crib.

Avery jamming an entire Cici's cinnamon roll in her mouth. Sometimes I am just too tired to cook. Thank goodness for Cici's.

Cool!

It has been burning hot here for the past few weeks--shorts, t-shirts and lots of sweat. Well, we got a nice rain storm that finally cooled us off a bit. Yesterday the weather was perfect and breezy. After our Sunday naps, the kids and I decided to go for a walk around our community lake. We saw the ducks and pretty birds. We saw duck eggs and puppies. We just took our time and explored the world. Afterwards, we headed out back to enjoy what was left of the sun. Spencer has decided he loves Sarah's swing. I think I am going to have to invest in another one.

Dear Season,

I think we should learn how to make these bows next.
They are so cute on. http://tipjunkie.blogspot.com/2009/05/fabric-flower-tutorials.html



I finally hung up the bow holders. Thanks for the idea!