Update

Well, I haven't blogged in a week. I guess I should give you all an update. Although it seems kind of pointless to do that since I saw over half my readership at some point during the past 5 days....

Here are the highlights:

Sun - Alpha wakes me up at 3 am to tell me it hurts when she coughs. She has a fever of 102.6. Later that morning, she's diagnosed with strep throat.

Mon - Jim stays home with Alpha. That afternoon, I take Beta to an allergy appointment follow-up. The doctor recognizes that she is sick. He orders a strep test for her. It comes back negative. (after much fighting and teeth clenching.....motherhood is not for the faint of heart!)

Tues - I stay home with both girls. Even though Beta wasn't officially diagnosed, we're pretty sure she has strep. I don't want to ruin anyone else's Thanksgiving so we keep her home. That night, her temp is 102 before bedtime.

Wed - Beta wakes up with 101.1 temp. Time to see the doctor! I take her to the walk-in clinic where Alpha was seen. I try to convince them that she doesn't need another strep test since she's got the same symptoms as her sister. IT WORKS! No strep test and a prescription! Whew!

Thurs - Turkey Day! We have lunch with Jim's grandparents in Benton. Pop takes the grandkids on a ride in his trailer attached to a 4-wheeler. Awesome! They love it! That night we have Thanksgiving supper at my mom's house with all my family.

Fri - Shopping! Jim and I tackle the crowds. But not too early. We got out about 9:00 and things weren't too bad. Although, we tried shopping at Toys R Us in Little Rock. The line to check out wound all the way around the store! It was probably an hour long in and of itself! We left without buying anything. (Amazon, here we come!) That night we met Alpha's and Beta's cousins, J and Z, for an evening at Chuck E. Cheese. FUN!

Sat - My birthday! I'm 29! (again.....) We have my birthday lunch at mom's house with Matt & Robin. The girls baked cupcakes for me the day before while Jim and I were out shopping. They were yummy! I got a purse from Matt & Robin, and a billfold from Jim. Yay! We left about 2:15 and made it home exactly 3 hours later. Beta fell asleep almost as soon as we hit the freeway, so we just kept on truckin'! (Let sleeping dogs and babies lie.....)

Today - It snowed! The first snowfall of this season. It was funny how we found out. I got up, got my shower, and dressed like normal. I was making breakfast. Alpha was up so I asked her to go get the paper. (it lands on the front porch) She opens the door and screams, "IT'S SNOWING!!!!!!" Beta runs to the door and looks out. They both scream! They run in to tell Daddy, "It's snowing! It's snowing! We're not lying! It's snowing!"

It has snowed ALL DAY. It's been light, but steady. Luckily, the temp has stayed above freezing so none of it really stuck. I don't know if they'll have school tomorrow or not. I hope they do just so neither of us has to have a kid at work or try to work from home. Plus, I don't like going later in the summer....

So there you go. You are all officially updated. Here are some pics of the weekend:

Z wearing his "Mary Poppins Hat", as he called it. It's a craft hat he found in Meme's house.







The kids on Pop's trailer. Our kids are up at the front so you can't see them.







Happy Birthday to me!








Look on the left-hand side, near the house. Those white dots are snow!







Bonus pic! This is from Lights of the Ozarks last Saturday. The girls each wanted a "light saber". Alpha's is green and Beta's is blue. When Alpha woke me up last Sunday to say her throat hurt, she had used this green sword to find her way to our room. All I saw when I opened my eyes was green!

38 down....

82 hours of CPE to go!

I finished another self-study course on Friday. This one was the half-price fraud course I got at the same time I bought my ethics course. So now I've got 5 more hours of CPE to count towards my 120!

I've also got courses on C Corps (2hrs), S Corps (2hrs), and Minister Taxation (10 hrs) waiting in the wings.

Plus, next week I am attending the tax update conference on Thursday and Friday. Yeehaw....BUT, it's 16 hours of group study CPE! So it'll be worth it.

So after this conference and the 3 self-study courses I have, I'll only need 52 more hours! Yay!

Things will have to stop for tax season. No one does CPE during tax season. Heck, tax season is the reason we do CPE!

I may try and do a course or two in January just to get a few more hours out of the way. My goal is to be able to apply for my license next summer.

Jim has said he is taking me out to celebrate once I get it. I can't wait!

Santa panic

I've got a problem developing.

My girls want a pony for Christmas.

There's one called S'mores, and one called Butterscotch.

They cost $225. EACH.

They are 3 feet tall.

Here is what I have said:

"Oh, I'm so sorry sweetie, but I just don't think we have room for such a big toy."

"It's kind of expensive."


Their replies:

"We'll just keep it in the living room."

"SANTA WILL BRING IT!!!!"

*sigh*

Good ole Santa. Bringer of Things too expensive for mom and dad.

How do you explain that Santa might have a budget as well?

What am I gonna DO???? They are BOTH just convinced that they are getting these darn ponies. I can possibly distract them with other things, but what if they are still hoping for it on Christmas morning and,when it's not there, they hate me forever?

Maybe they'll just have to work it out with their therapists.

I Did It! I Did it!

Cue the "Dora the Explorer" theme song!!!!

I just passed my first self-study CPE course. I've now got an additional 2 hours of ethics. This gives me a total of 4 hours of ethics so I am DONE with that requirement!

Yeehaw!

Whohooo!

I've now got only......well....87 more hours to go.

*sigh*

I'm going to get 16 hours of tax in the first week of December, though. I also have that 5 hour course on fraud I purchased. Plus, this course was very easy to take and pass. So I may have to use some more of their courses. The only thing holding me back is time and money. (The two classic constraints.....) These still take time to do....which means my "spare time". They also ain't all that cheap. (See previous post)

But at least I'm 2 hours further along than I was!

Bargain Guardian Angel Returns!

My Bargain Guardian Angel is back! She has visited me again and blessed me twice in one day!

This afternoon, the girls and I went coat shopping. Oh joy. "Shopping with the girls" USED to be fun. Now, not so much. So we were at J.C. Penney's looking for winter coats. (they keep growing every year...I guess b/c we keep feeding them.) There had been some "doorbuster" sales earlier in the day, but we had missed them. Well, unbeknownst to us, they had another sale starting at 3:00! This one gave you $10 off a $50 purchase and I guess $15 off a $75 purchase because that's what we got! The girls coats were $35 and $40. So instead of paying close to $80 with sales tax, I only paid $65!!!! Whohooo!!!!!!

My second instance came after we got home. You all know I've been trying hard to rack up the CPE so I can apply to be a CPA. Well, I was looking at this website called Pass Online. They sell online CPE, downloadable CPE, as well as books and CDs. I found an ethics course that I need. It is 2 hours of CPE for $40. Not bad. When I clicked on "purchase", a note popped up that said "Wait! Add a non-ethics course to your order for 50% off!" Hmmmm. I was intrigued. I had been looking at a $65.95 fraud course and it seemed really interesting. So I went and added that one to my order. When I clicked on the checkout button, it had added that course and given me a $33 discount! So I got a 5 hour A&A (accounting and auditing) course for only $33!!! I don't know when I'll have time to do it, but the website said their courses are good for one year from date of purchase.

For comparison purposes, an 8-hour, day-long, CPE seminar-type class usually runs around $200. Two day courses are close to $400 easily. So that's about $25/credit hour. I got the ethics course for $20/hr and the fraud course for about $6/hr!

Go me! Go me!

(sorry....)

2 for 1

Who doesn't like a good deal? Well, tonight, you all get 2 for 1. Two blog-worthy events in one post!

First, it's beginning to look a lot like........
Christmas! Yes, your eyes are not deceiving you. That is a Christmas tree in our living room. So why, pray tell, do the Kanes have a Christmas tree up already?

Well, we're going green. Last year, we decided we were tired of messing with needles. On the carpet, on the tile, in the garage, the living room, the bathroom, our broom, etc. We also didn't like trees being cut down just to be decorated and discarded in a month. So we've been saving our money all year and finally purchased an artificial Christmas tree online from treeclassics.com.

And we don't like it.

Well, when I say "we", I mean me. And Alpha.

We ended up with a tree that has fake pine cones on it. I had to agree to them because it was one of the only trees with non-star shaped LED lights that was on sale.

Oh, yes. LIGHTS! Did I mention the LIGHTS??!! This tree has LEDs that are 50% BRIGHTER. And let me tell ya, the picture on the website might not have been true to life, but when they say these LIGHTS are 50% BRIGHTER, they mean it! It lit up not just the living room, but the kitchen and half of our bedroom.

It hurt our eyes to look at it. The girls kept saying "turn it off!"

My main problem with it is that the "white" LEDs have that bluish cast to them. I know, I know. It IS a purer "white" than normal, incandescent bulbs. But they look blue to me, and I don't like them. We thought we were purchasing a tree with the newer "white" LEDs that don't look blue. (We saw some at Target.) Apparentely, we were mistaken.

Anyway, to make a long story short, we are considering our options. We can return it if we pay return shipping (yikes!). We can possibly buy an entire set of replacement bulbs that are a different "color". We can exchange it with another tree from the same site. I'm sure I'll let you all know what we decide.

Now for my 2nd blog post, you all get a 2 for 1 deal inside a 2 for 1 deal:
Two girls dressed as one! It's already beginning. The girls promise me they did not plan this. It was the first day it's been cold in quite some time. So they both got dressed, emerged from their rooms, and TA DA! Identical sisters! At least at these ages, they thought it was fun and cute, and no one pointedly stared at the other demanding "YOU change!"

I Want Candy!

Big Announcement!

Alpha has something she'd like the world to know:

SHE CAN RIDE HER BIKE WITHOUT TRAINING WHEELS!!!!!

This is a HUGE accomplishment for her. She is very proud of herself, as are we all.

So, without further ado, here is the proof: