Our former babysitter and her boyfriend were in a motorcycle accident on Saturday. He didn’t survive.
She broke her pelvis in 7 places, has a rod and 8 pins in her back, lost her front teeth, and has some bleeding in the brain. She has been in a medically induced coma since the accident, and has no idea what has happened to her yet.
She’s 18. If any of you feel like sending up a prayer for a stranger, there’s a good girl over here who could use one.
“We’re getting a refund. We’re getting a refund” (to the tune of Na Na Na Na Boo Boo)
We NEVER get a refund. Well, OK, last year our federal refund was about $500, but we owed the state $280, so we never get MUCH of a refund. The hubby is self-employed, which I believe I have already whined about here. We do not set money aside for quarterly tax payments, since we would be too tempted to tap into it when money gets tight, as it always does. Our solution is to take his taxes out of my paycheck. Although we have children, I take zero exemptions; plus I have an additional $250 per check taken out for federal taxes and $75 taken out for state taxes. Since we file jointly, this seems to offset what he would have had to pay. This gets us off the hook as far as paying quarterly estimated taxes for him goes, without incurring a penalty.
The hubby’s income has TANKED during this recession. Yes, that’s right. I called it a recession. I don’t care what economists say. When the value of our home has dropped 30% in the past two years and our family income has dropped about 25%. Meanwhile the cost of gas, food and utilities has gone up dramatically, that’s what I call a RECESSION!!! Eh-Hem…
I had a point. WE’RE GETTING A REFUND! That would be the one bonus to making far less than anticipated. Since the amount we paid out for his income taxes wasn’t tied into what he was currently bringing home, we over paid and will get back about $4,000! Plus! About $800 from the state!!! Of course this news makes me act like a little kid who has been promised she can go for an ice cream cone “Later..” When? When??? When do we get it??? Can I get it now? Huh, mom?
I found this handy dandy refund payment schedule from the IRS. We should be getting our refund on April 11th, since we e-filed on the 31st. ALSO! This Stimulus Payment Schedule tells us we can expect our economic stimulus payment to be direct deposited into our account on May 9th. Not that we are going to stimulate the economy with it. With any luck, we’ll have some money of our own by then and can use it to pay down debt.
Sorry economy, you’re on your own.
I’ve been wondering… what is the allowed amount you can deduct for charitable contributions of clothing and household goods?
I don’t bother with garage sales. I usually just give my children’s old clothing away to friends. This year I gave much to Goodwill. So how much can I deduct? $2 per pair of jeans? $5 per pair? There has to be a list somewhere, right?
Time to Google.
Ah-Ha! The Salvation Army to the rescue!
I saw the surgeon again today. My armpit still hurts like @$#%, but HE thought it was progressing well. He said it looked “nice and grainy”, and apparently that is a good thing.
He still isn’t putting me on antibiotics. He says all that would do for me would be to give me another infection elsewhere. (Boys, you can ask your women to explain that one if you need a translation.) So far they haven’t been able to grow anything (bacteria) on the sample in pathology, so we really don’t have an answer as to what caused it, except that cat scratch fever wouldn’t have grown anything. Maybe that’s further evidence for that theory.
So, have gave me another Vicodin prescription and says he’ll see me next Monday.
God bless Vicodin. Amen.
So I have been following doctor’s orders and sticking Q-tips in my nasty open wound under my armpit to prevent the tissue from adhering. Apparently I haven’t been sticking them in far enough… until today. I worked in front of the mirror today (I had been doing it in the shower) and could actually see what I was doing. Gross.
While part of it was still about 2 inches deep, the rest was sealing up. So I stuck the Q-tip in and jackpot! The puss literally shot out of my armpit, hit the mirror and ran down. Gross, gross, gross! I screamed, not so much in pain, but in horror! Gross, gross, grosssssssss! I have to wiggle my toes while typing this as the memory is so nasty I can’t stand it. Wiggling my toes helps me cope. No, I don’t know why.
I had a little surgery on my arm Monday. The surgeon thought it was an infected or necrotic lymph node, as did my family doctor and the radiologist. Once he was able to see it from it inside, it turns out I had an large abscess. He speculated that it was from cat scratch fever. And all this time I thought that was just a song!
He made a 2 inch incision, which he hasn’t closed and won’t ever close. The abscess was about 2 inches in and about 2 inches around. Noticing a theme here? Anyway, it has to drain, so no stitching it up. The worst part is when the skin begins to adhere, as it is prone to do, I have to separate it so it can continue to drain. The prescribed method of choice is by sticking a peroxide soaked Q-tip in the incision as far as I can get it to go. Today I was able to stick it in about 1 inch, so I take that to mean that about 1 inch of the depth of the wound has healed. It has to heal from the inside out, so this is good news? I think?
My armpit stinks to high heaven! No deodorant, no soap, and a weeping, pussy wound, all wrapped up in a maxi pad. As sterile absorbent pads cost at $2 each, he suggested I purcahse maxi pads instead. I have a super long Kotex taped under my arm! Ugh!!
I spent last night lying in bed with my son explaining what a lunar eclipse is (the earth’s shadow is cast over the moon, often with a red tinge) versus what a solar eclipse is (the moon travels between the sun and the earth, blocking out our view of the sun). He is very visual, as most men are, so I had to use props. “My head is the sun, my fist is the earth, now you show me where the moon will be during the lunar eclipse Wednesday night.”
Check it out tomorrow night!
There is a bat in my walls, and it’s creeping me out. It sounds like it is just on the other side of my bed. It can’t get out; I know it can’t. At least not without crawling down the interior of the walls and flying up through the basement like the others have. Eeek!
We have got to call Critter Control this spring!!!
I made cosmopolitans again last night. Yummy! The triple sec version, because $38.00 for a fifth of Cointreau is absurd!
I have determined that fresh lime juice is much tastier than Rose’s bottled juice. Made it taste a little too much like Kool-Aid.
I was bested by a 5-year-old.
HOWEVER!!!!! I kicked that 4-year-old’s potty trained butt!
Damn those bumpers! (shakes weak fist in air)
