Stew News: July 2006

Little Swimmer

We've been taking a "Parent and Me" swim class at our rec center every day this week and next. The only time they offered it was 5-5:30pm, which is exhausting for me because I've been working a lot, I'm tired, and it interferes with getting dinner prepared. After the first couple of days, I was dreading it. And I realized it's because I actually don't enjoying swimming. I never have liked it. And I especially don't like indoor public pools that reek of chlorine and are cold and loud and have lots of kids splashing water on my newly-highlighted hair.

Daniel likes the pool and water, but whenever we go to our pool, usually Dave hangs out with him. Daniel just adores this class and can say "pool" and "swim". Yesterday he put a pool noodle in our van when I told him we were going to swim. I've decided to suck it up for his sake and make the most of our little swim bonding time for the next week. Maybe I'll finally learn to enjoy it myself!

Yea!! Friday!!

This week has just flown by! We had a quick visit from Mom Stewart Sun-Mon after we got back from Atlanta. I have worked and run errands all week and I'm still not caught up. I borrowed a yummy new cookbook by Michael W. Smith's Mom, and used several recipes for a meal I took to someone on Wed. Tonight is scrapbooking night with my friends- yea!!

On the decorating front, we have found satisfactory bedding for Daniel's new room. Do you have any idea how hard it is to find little boys bedding that is not a "theme" like cars, sports, etc. ? I finally found a bermuda plaid ensemble at Pottery Barn Kids I liked, only to find out it's been sold out for months. Of course it's available on ebay for 3 times the original price! PBK always sells out of the popular stuff- this is not the first time I've been disappointed by their quantities. There are people on ebay who actually have PBK ebay stores to resell their stuff!! But yesterday I had a breakthrough and found a patchwork plaid quilt at Target in red, white and blue. I only had to go to two Targets to get all of the pieces I needed. This means I can book the painter because we now know what color to paint the room. Whew!

Next week is a big work week. We are heading into the home stretch on the biggest project of the year. The two girls I've been training are quite sharp and quite adorable (those young'uns!). The big rumor at my soon to be former place of employment is a leveraged buyout was in the works, but it fell through. This drove the stock price up 10% yesterday because it still might happen. Go, go go, because I need to sell, sell, sell since I won't be around to monitor things anymore!

And this is after... one room done and one to go....

This is before....

My Own Craig's List

I need two things: A working VCR (we have three broken ones!) and a twin mattress. I can't find either on Craig's list and I'm not sure I want a mattress from a stranger.

I would like to sell: a 27" 8 yr old working Toshiba TV. I am not sure I want to deal with a bunch of complete strangers on Craig's list over a $50-75 item.

So I am posting it all here so I can feel better about it. Please respond if you can help!

Why you don't take a toddler to IKEA

It's a crazy and scary place for an almost 2 year old.... I guess we could have taken him to the play area if we could have found it.

Next time Daniel will stay at home, even though there were moments of sanity and we managed to get almost everything on our list. Now the great furniture assembling begins....

The Life of a Toddler

Daniel's life is pretty exciting these days. He found out yesterday he is going to have a little brother. We worked on saying "brother", but most of the time he thought I was saying "bubbles". We have a few months to get that worked out.

He is currently obsessed with airplanes. Our little trip to the airport last week only fueled the fire. Everything is a potential airplane: Helicopters, big birds in the sky, the sound of a lawnmower (airplane?). "Whasthat?" is his favorite phrase right now and he is constantly pointing at random objects with his little fingers as he says it.

After his stomach bug lifted (he hadn't eaten much for 3-4 days), he has returned to the table with a vengance. Last night he almost ate everything in the refrigerator. Well, almost everything. I picked three pounds of fresh blueberries at the orchard next to our neighborhood, but he has decided he doesn't like them. Guess he only likes Publix blueberries. He also won't touch the cucumbers I have grown in our garden.

I planted six tomato plants and two little cucumber plants, which have completely taken over the entire space. I currently have about 20 cucumbers to harvest. My poor tomatoes are being choked out of the neighborhood.

Right now Daniel is enjoying the Teletubbies so I can have a few moments to look at my new Stampin' Up catalog, which I got last night!

Tax Notes

I don't talk about my professional interests here much, because I don't want to nerd anyone out. But there are several interesting things going on with the new tax bill and one exciting item for TN coming up in a few weeks.

2010 promises to be an exciting year, not because everyone will have died in 2009 to escape the death tax (which comes back in 2010 and was NOT addressed in this latest bill), but because people with incomes over $100K will be able to convert their regular IRAs to Roth IRAs and even spread the tax bill over two years. The current income limitation is ridiculously low and another penalty on the married who earn two incomes. If you do not already have a Roth IRA, go get yourself one and put as much as you can in it, up to $4K this year, and/or flip your regular IRA to a Roth as soon as you can afford the taxes on it. It's a great tax strategy to pass money to your future generations (if you have anything left over after raising them) tax free and without mandatory withdrawals, unlike other retirement accounts.

My biggest gripe with the new bill is they have raised the kiddie tax limit from age 14 to age 18. That means if you plan to invest money on behalf of your kids outside of their college savings accounts and they earn more than a certain amount, they have to pay taxes at the higher parent's rate. This is not their summer job wages, this is their mutual funds earnings, etc. Not that kids usually have that much saved, but this is usually the money from birthdays set aside for the purchase of a first car. Daniel is not going to have much, but I'll be darned if he is going to have to pay a higher tax rate just because he's not 18 yet. We have a few years so I hope this one gets changed.

And finally, if you're not asleep yet, Tennessee, with one of the highest sales tax rates in the US, is finally having a SALES TAX holiday from August 4-6th. It's about time. Only certain things are exempt, although I will not want to be in Walmart that weekend (or be the one figuring out their sales tax computation at the registers). Here is the link with more info.

You may now go back to your regularly scheduled interests....

Orlando Trip

We just got back from a quick trip to Orlando with Mom & Dad Burden and Daniel. It was nice to get away for a few days to relax and sightsee. We spent a lot of time at the empty pool with our 50 SPF. We did not attempt the Magic Kingdom with Daniel due to the 90 degree heat (bad for both of us) and his terror whenever he goes on any type of motion ride. Except for the train experience pictured here, where he simply put his head in my lap. Maybe next time....