A Glimpse of Tax Season

Here are some pics from the end of last tax season! My friend, Bina, was the department photographer until she moved to Chicago. Her work finished before ours so she had time to take pictures of us stressing out at the last minute!



What STRESSED looks like! Working 80+ hours a week, constantly on the phone answering questions from our temporary assemblers, and waving a giant stapler at partners who get on my nerves (unfortunately no pictures of that!) in between doing my regular work!

Seven Weeks and Counting. . .

Seven weeks from this Tuesday is April 15th! woohoo! For those new to this blog, I work as a tax return assembler at this accounting firm. Unfortunately it will be a lonnnng seven weeks as we've just now started getting busy. I put in 58 hours this week, but it will get worse. I'm taking it one day at a time, especially with being a single mom this time.



My universal card reader is shot, so no pictures for awhile. Yikes :o( Especially since there is little time for shopping.

Emily had her cast removed this past week! Yay! She's in a removable walking boot that she wears outside the house. It will be so nice to have her ride the bus to school once again. She'll go back in three weeks for her final xrays and to be "set free" as the doctor calls it!

The divorce proceedings are going way too slow since the Stranger Who Used to Be My Husband seems to think he's entitled to a lot despite all his "misconduct" over the years. His latest quote is, "But they were only one-night stands!" Did I mention he had TEN of them in three years? Did I also mention that he's STILL with the (unmentionable name) who contributed to the final breakup of our marriage? Yes, they just celebrated their one-year anniversary this month. While I was working all those long tax-season hours last year, Mike was leaving our girls at home alone, out galavanting with her (when she wasn't with her other lovers--no joke).

Ah well, life is stranger than fiction at times, isn't it? I'm focusing on what's ahead because things can only get better!

My brother, the contest winner!

A few months ago, Marty told me about this online contest where you had to come up with a creative slogan for a "do not disturb" sign for Embassy Suites. I couldn't get the website to work, so I forgot about it. He recently found out he was one of five lucky winners! They picked his slogan (above!) and now his DND sign will hang in Embassy Suites around the country and world! How cool is that? And he's heading for Waikiki on spring break to collect his prize: three nights at the Embassy Suites Waikiki. Woohoo! WTG, Mawdy!! I'm proud of you!

Here's the press release:

“Shh! I’m hatching a plan to bust some little soaps out of here.”

This is how Embassy suites’ guests say “Do NOT disturb”
Winning Signs to Be Hung on Doorknobs Nationwide

Memphis, TN (February 15, 2008) – Today Embassy Suites Hotels announces the five winning slogans of the Do Not Disturb contest. These guest-designed door hangers will be displayed in all of the hotel brand’s nearly 200 properties starting March 5th and each winner will receive a three-night stay at select Embassy Suites destinations.

“It was so much fun to be able to create something that will actually appear in hotels all over the country,” said Marty Mintman from St. Louis, Missouri, the winner of the stay at Embassy Suites Waikiki Beach Walk (Honolulu, HI). Marty won with the slogan “Shh! I’m hatching a plan to bust some little soaps out of here.”

The five winners have been awarded a three -night stay at select Embassy Suites locations. The winning signs can be viewed at http://www.embassysuitesdndcontest.com/winners. In addition to Marty, the other grand prize winners are:

“Pillow Fight In Progress.”– Susan Suarez, University City, MO - LaQuinta Resort & Spa (LaQuinta, CA)

“There are days when I wish I could wear this around my neck” Sandra Parcher, Milpitas, CA - The Embassy Suites New York (New York City)

“I’ve built a pillow fort and I am not opening the door for anybody!” Amy Forgette, Streamwood, IL -The Embassy Suites Mexico City Reforma (Mexico City, D.F. Mexico)

“Aww, Mom. Just five more minutes. Please?” Brian White, Chicago, IL - The Embassy Suites Washington D.C. Convention Center (Washington, D.C.)

The contest, which ran online at EmbassySuites.com from August 27th – October 31st , 2007 was judged by John Lee, Vice President of Brand Marketing and Communications at Embassy Suites; Eric Melkent from Embassy Suites advertising agency Carpenter Sullivan Sossaman (CS2); and Jody Smith, Mike McGilligan and Sayed Hassan, general managers at the Austin Embassy Suites, La Jolla Embassy Suites and Chicago Embassy Suites hotels, respectively. Guests chose from online designs, images and templates to customize their very own Do Not Disturb design and slogan. Judges were specifically looking for the cleverest and most original Embassy Suites Do Not Disturb signs.

“It was so refreshing to hear the guests’ ideas,” said Jody Smith. “We sifted through more than 7,100 entries and tried to choose winners that had slogans that fit with Embassy’s playful brand personality. The response was overwhelming.”

To see the winning signs, please log onto http://www.embassysuitesdndcontest.com/winners.

Celebrate!

For Christmas, Unc got all of us Dave & Buster's gift cards so that we could celebrate the January/February birthdays there. It was a rushed day for us as we were busy with church stuff, but it was nice to get together with family nevertheless. We had not all been together since Christmas. I'm not a big fan of D&B's. Everytime I've been there it's either been for a work meeting or to herd around a bunch of birthday kids. It was nice to sit and relax. (Missing from the pics are Brad, Melanie and Aaron who were off in gameland during the photo ops!)

Barb and Marty

Jeneane and Chris (Baby Aly stayed home to watch something on TV, according to Chris!)

Unc and Gram

Katie and Emily

Footprints in the Snow

(I bet you were expecting some creatively mushy poem I wrote, huh?)

I looked out on the deck yesterday and saw this:

Hmm...I wonder which flatfooted daughter went barefoot in the snow! Easy to guess since the other daughter has a cast on her foot!

Katie's comments on her spontaneous walk across the snowy deck:

"It was really cold."

;o)

Invisible Moms

A friend sent this to me in an email. The author is unknown, but I could certainly relate to it, so wanted to share it here.

To the "invisible" moms of the world…
===================================================
I'm Invisible

It all began to make sense, the blank stares, the lack of response, the way one of the kids will walk into the room while I'm on the phone and ask to be taken to the store. Inside I'm thinking, "Can't you see I'm on the phone?" Obviously not; no one can see if I'm on the phone, or cooking, or sweeping the floor, or even standing on my head in the corner, because no one can see me at all. I'm invisible.

"The Invisible Mom."

Some days I am only a pair of hands, nothing more: Can you fix this? Can you tie this? Can you open this?

Some days I'm not a pair of hands; I'm not even a human being. I'm a clock to ask, What time is it? I'm a satellite guide to answer, What number is the Disney Channel? I'm a car to order, Right around 5:30, please.

I was certain that these were the hands that once held books and the eyes that studied history and the mind that graduated summa cum laude - but now they had disappeared into the peanut butter, never to be seen again. She's going, she's going, and she's gone!

One night, a group of us were having dinner, celebrating the return of a friend from England. Janice had just gotten back from a fabulous trip, and she was going on and on about the hotel she stayed in. I was sitting there, looking around at the others all put together so well. It was hard not to compare and feel sorry for myself as I looked down at my out-of-style dress; it was the only thing I could find that was clean. My unwashed hair was pulled up in a hair clip and I was afraid I could actually smell peanut butter in it. I was feeling pretty pathetic, when Janice turned to me with a beautifully wrapped package, and said, "I brought you this."

It was a book on the great cathedrals of Europe. I wasn't exactly sure why she'd given it to me until I read her inscription: "To Charlotte, with admiration for the greatness of what you are building when no one sees."



In the days ahead I would read--no, devour--the book. And I would discover what would become for me, four life-changing truths, after which I could pattern my work:

No one can say who built the great cathedrals - we have no record of their names. These builders gave their whole lives for a work they would never see finished. They made great sacrifices and expected no credit. The passion of their building was fueled by their faith that the eyes of God saw everything.

A legendary story in the book told of a rich man who came to visit the cathedral while it was being built, and he saw a workman carving a tiny bird on the inside of a beam. He was puzzled and asked the man, "Why are you spending so much time carving that bird into a beam that will be covered by the roof? No one will ever see it." And the workman replied,
"Because God sees."

I closed the book, feeling the missing piece fall into place. It was almost as if I heard God whispering to me, "I see you, Charlotte. I see the sacrifices you make every day, even when no one around you does. No act of kindness you've done, no sequin you've sewn on, no cupcake you've
baked, is too small for Me to notice and smile over. You are building a great cathedral, but you can't see right now what it will become."

At times, my invisibility feels like an affliction. But it is not a disease that is erasing my life. It is the cure for the disease of my own self-centeredness. It is the antidote to my strong, stubborn pride. I keep the right perspective when I see myself as a great builder. As one of the people who show up at a job that they will never see finished, to work on something that their name will never be on.

The author of the book went so far as to say that no cathedrals could ever be built in our lifetime because there are so few people willing to sacrifice to that degree.

When I really think about it, I don't want my son to tell the friend he's bringing home from college for Thanksgiving, "My Mom gets up at 4 in the morning and bakes homemade pies, and then she hand-bastes a turkey for three hours and presses all the linens for the table." That would mean I'd built a shrine or a monument to myself. I just want him to want to come home. And then, if there is anything more to say to his
friend, to add, "You're gonna love it there!"

As mothers, we are building great cathedrals. We cannot be seen if we're doing it right. And one day, it is very possible that the world will marvel, not only at what we have built, but at the beauty that has been added to the world by the sacrifices of invisible women.


Great Job, MOM!

The will of God will never take you where the Grace of God will not
protect you.

The Neverending Story

I've been writing for as long as I can remember. My goal is not to be published but to figure out who I am and see how I have grown and changed. My hope is that my daughters or anyone else who stumbles across my journals long after I'm gone will perhaps learn something too.

Every good writer loves to read as well! I've been reading Stephenie Meyer's Twilight series, at Katie's suggestion. I love these books! I'm just finding it difficult to make time to read even though I'm at a really good part in New Moon (the second in the series). To all those Twilight fans out there:

EDWARD ROCKS!!!!