Freewheeling Friday

Image from Google Images

I had a head full of things to empty out in a Freewheeling Friday post today, but they all emptied out prematurely when I got my mail yesterday. The only thing that has been on my mind since then is the letter I got from the IRS saying that I owe a little over $17,000 in taxes from 2009. Yikes! I don't know if it was the getting dizzy when I saw the fat envelope with the IRS return address or the fainting when I read the amount they said I owe, but one or the other pretty much cleared all other thoughts out of my head for a while.

Once I came to and actually read the letter I figured out that there was either an error on my 1099 or an error made by the CPA that prepared my tax return. It is all going to the CPA today, so hopefully it will get figured out soon. It will be a pain, but I feel confident that it will be resolved.

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Even a big tax problem doesn't begin to compare to the horror being faced by the people in Alabama and other southern states after the recent tornadoes. My thoughts and prayers are with them.

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I don't think I have gone quite as crazy over the royal wedding as some people, but I have enjoyed watching all the coverage from London, a city I loved visiting. When I was there a few years ago with my friend Patty, we walked from Westminster Abbey to Buckingham Palace. It was a wonderful walk on a beautiful September day. We took lots of pictures along the way. This is the one that turned out to be our favorite.

Easter 2011 and Confetti Eggs.....Again

The weather was not very Easter-like, but it didn't keep us from having an Easter brunch full of family, food, fun, and the kid's favorite, confetti eggs.

A little cold didn't stop the Easter Bunny from hiding lots of eggs outside. Before we let the kids hunt the eggs we tried to get them all together for a picture. Trying to get all seven of my grandkids in the same picture doesn't always result in a great photo but it is always fun.



We finally let them hunt the eggs.

Once all the eggs were found, it was time for the real fun.....confetti eggs. (Confetti eggs are colored egg shells filled with confetti, very fun to break over the head of your brother, sister or cousin).

Beck watched it all and said "just wait 'til next year".

I hope everyone had a wonderful Easter.

A Rocky Mountain High Night

Image from Google Images

I had a wonderful night last night. Thanks to my daughter, Joanna, I got to attend the John Denver Tribute Concert and his induction into the newly formed Colorado Music Hall of Fame.  For a Colorado resident and a fan of John Denver, the night couldn't have been better.

The show was hosted by Olivia Newton-John, and featured performances by The Nitty-Gritty Dirt Band, Lee Ann Womak, John Oates, Michael Martin Murphy and others, all paying tribute by performing John Denver songs. John Denver's three children and both of his wives were there to participate in the tribute.

There were two highlights of the show for me, other than the main one of getting to go with my daughter, who remembered a John Denver concert being the first concert she ever went to. One was Lee Ann Womak (wearing the highest heels I have ever seen) doing a stunning job of singing Sunshine On My Shoulders, a favorite of mine. The other was when John Denver's ex-wife, Annie Martel, spoke following a film showing John Denver singing Annie's Song. She tearfully expressed what a beautiful person he was and with some humor told how he wrote the song in 20 minutes on a ski lift in Aspen.

A lot of the show celebrated John Denver as an environmental activist, which made the ending especially poignant. All the participants came on stage to sing Rocky Mountain High (our state song) and stayed on stage while the audience joined them in singing the chorus over and over again.

A real Rocky Mountain High night.

It Seems Like It Was Only Yesterday

This is a picture of me and my oldest daughter, Jill, from about 22 years ago, the year she graduated from high school. She is now 39 and today she and her husband, Joel, celebrated their 15th wedding anniversary. I know it is trite to say, but I sometimes just can't believe how fast the years go by.

I just heard one of you ask, "If this is about her wedding anniversary, why this picture instead of maybe a wedding picture?" Good question. It seems that I am such a bad mom that I couldn't find a wedding picture. I know I have them, lots of them, I just don't know where they are right now. It must have something to do with the faster time goes the older (and more forgetful) I get. And it seems like just yesterday when she graduated from high school

I say they celebrated today, and by celebrated I mean that they spent the evening as they spend many evenings as the parents of two boys, at a kid's baseball game. This one was in 50 degree temps with occasional rain.

Happy anniversary to Jill and Joel.

I suppose I should offer to babysit so they can go out and have a more romantic celebration. I guess I just did.

It Could Have Been An Easter Bunny

A couple of evenings ago when I was taking our dog, Dodger, for a walk I noticed an Easter egg laying in our front yard. I didn't think much about it, just thinking I would pick it up when I came back home. As we walked down the street I noticed that nearly every yard on the block had an Easter egg laying in the grass.

It was just dusk, with the moon coming up in the evening sky and I let my fanciful side go a little awry. I imagined that one of the little bunnies that live around our neighborhood (and make Dodger go crazy when we run into one on a walk) had been hopping from yard to yard with a basket of eggs spreading a little Easter cheer. Dodger, being the more practical one, just thought it was fun to have something new to sniff at as we walked.

When we got back home and I picked up the egg from our yard I found out that it was an advertisement for an Easter service at a church in the area. Pretty clever as an advertising idea, but not near as fun as a visit from the Easter bunny.

My Favorite Season Will Be Here Soon

I love that spring is finally here, with summer and fall to follow, all really beautiful times of year. My favorite season, though, is just around the corner. My family has 12 birthdays between May and September so that means my favorite season of all, Cake Season. Throw in the possibility of a cake for Mother's Day, Father's Day or the 4th of July and that is a lot of cake.

Celebratory cakes date back to ancient times when the Greeks made moon shaped honey cakes to take to the temple of the moon goddess, Artemis. In the middle ages the Germans celebrated the birth of Jesus with sweetened bread dough. This practice later re-emerged in Germany in celebration of children's birthdays.  As the art of baking developed through the ages it progressed to cake as we know it today some time in the middle of the 19th century. In our time cake has become an art form.

The world's largest birthday cake, weighing 130,000 lbs, was served in Las Vegas in 2005 to celebrate the Las Vegas centennial.

Our cakes won't be that big or weigh that much. Some of them may be works of art, others made from a box of cake mix and a can of frosting. Whether they are chocolate, strawberry or ice cream, they will all be a part of the important family celebrations that makes Cake Season my favorite season of them all.

Too, Too True

I'm sure this has been all over the place, but it becomes more relevant every day. It is humor that is painfully close to the truth.

Thank you to everyone for the comments and e-mails regarding my previous post. Your concern and support is very much appreciated.

A Tough Week With Lots Of Questions That Have No Anwers

My week at work started by receiving tragic news early Monday morning. A work colleague, a woman who does the same job I do in a different office, had been shot to death as she opened the office that morning. As the news and fear spread from office to office it became known that the primary suspect was the woman's ex-husband, a man she had been married to for 45 years and divorced from for about 4 years.

As the shock subsided and the sadness set in the questions started. Though we all have to deal with death, my work community is not, in general, a population that has dealt with this type of violent death. Many of us were aware that she had been dealing with threats from her ex-husband and had been taking all possible precautions. I've been told that she recently said that she was tired of living in fear behind locked doors.

How could this happen in a public area in an affluent community? What could anyone have done to prevent this from happening? How could a sweet, kind, lovely woman find herself in this kind of situation? Why, why, why? What if, what if, what if? The bottom line conclusion to all the questions about how someone's mind can go so wrong that they do something like this is that sometimes there are no answers.

My company has done a stellar job of supporting the other employees in the area, and more importantly they will support her surviving family in every possible way. They will do everything they can, but we will all be left with questions that have no answers.

Wordless Wednesday

My grandaughter, Anna, almost 3

Springtime In Colorado......It's Enough To Make Your Head Spin

I just read on my friend Betty's blog, A Glimpse Into Midlife about how they are just coming into fall in her part of the world in Paraguay, just as we are coming into spring where I live. At least we are supposed to be coming into spring. Our weather has been so crazy and changed so fast lately it is hard to know what season it is. Yesterday it was 85 degrees and I was wearing flip-flops and short sleeves. Today we are having a mix of rain, sleet and snow, the temperature is in the mid 30s and it is back to snow boots and coats. I shouldn't be too surprised. We have this seasonal schizophrenia nearly every year on Colorado before things finallly settle into spring and summer.

I took this picture last year, but it is very likely what things will look like tomorrow before things warm up again later in the week.

I guess I'll have to go with the plan I came up with last year.......wearing flip-flops inside my snow boots so I will be ready for anything.

Six Word Saturday

Worry is a misuse of imagination

This is not an original thought and I don't know the origin, but I saw it on a sign this week and it has stuck with me as being a very useful thing for me to keep in mind.

To participate in 6WS visit Cate here.