Thirteen Days and Counting...

Conor is also starting a new phase in his life... Kindergarten! And, boy is he excited! We don't talk about it much because he wants to go to school now!

When Tom took Conor for immunizations, he wasn't going to let the nurse get close to him until Tom told him that he had to have the shots to be allowed to start school. He sat still for all four shots and only cried a little. How's that for being excited about starting school?!

Conor will be the first class of Kindergarteners in the brand new building at Cedar Bluff Primary. Next year, it will become Cedar Bluff Elementary when they will add 3rd through 5th grades. They have to tear down the current primary school to build the rest of the school, so K through 2nd grades will have the new school all to themselves the first year.

http://kcs2.knox.k12tn.net/kcs2/profiles/FMPro?-db=schoolprofiles.fp5&-format=main.htm&-lay=main&-sortfield=school&type=P&-max=100&-recid=115&-find=)

Instead of starting all of the kindergarteners at the same time, Knox County has "Staggered Days" the first two weeks where kindergarteners only go one day each week during the first two weeks of school in small groups of four or five per class. Conor's first two days of school are Monday, August 13th and Friday, August 17th, and then on Thursday, August 23rd, he starts going every day. Yes, I know it looks like he goes to school two days one week and then starts at the end of the next week, but since school starts on Thursday, the weeks go from Thursday to Wednesday, (don't ask me, it doesn't make a lot of sense to me to start school on Thursday, though I am sure there is some rationale for it).

We are so excited, (though sad because it means he's not our little boy anymore) to see Conor start school - he is sooo ready to take on the new and exciting challenges of school!

Nine Days and Counting...

Liesel is starting a new phase in her life in 9 days... High School!

Liesel will be attending Karns high school (http://www.karns-hs.knox.k12tn.net/) and will be taking four classes each semester. She will start with World Geography, Accelerated Algebra I, Air Force Junior ROTC (AFJROTC), and English I. After Christmas break she will have Honors Biology I, Keyboarding/Keyboarding Applications, AFJROTC, and Latin I. She has enjoyed summer break, but told another teenager the other day that she likes school and is ready for it to start.

And, for those of you who are worried about her joining the military because she is taking AFJROTC, this is taken directly from the school's website:

"a curriculum designed to help each student achieve the following goals: (1) Develop habits of orderliness, precision, and respect for authority in our society, (2) Instill patriotism, (3) Develop a high degree of personal honor, self-reliance, individual discipline, and leadership, (4) Instill pride, self-respect, confidence, and a desire to do one's best in any endeavor, and (5) Promote a basic understanding of national security requirements and the role of the armed service in the national defense structure. ... Mission: “Develop citizens of character dedicated to serving their nation and community”. ... Cadets are not official members of the US military and incur no military commitment by participating in AFJROTC."

Liesel has long been fascinated with airplanes, and has a sincere interest in flight and aerospace studies. She is excited about the opportunity she has to learn about them in high school. We are excited for her to learn these things, as well as the five goals listed above. There are too many kids (and people in general) who don't truly understand what patriotism, honor, and discipline are, and who don't really understand the role of our armed forces. We are proud of her! At this point in her life, she would like to become a nurse, and, if she decides that she wants to combine her interest in nursing with serving our country in the military, we will support her 110 percent.

Conor's Subway Experience

The other day we went to Subway for dinner. This is one of their long and skinny restaurants, where the booths are all up front and the restrooms are in the back.

The employee (EE), who couldn't have been out of high school, asks Conor what he wants.

"I want bread," pointing to a picture of wheat bread that the employee can't see.

Me: "He wants a six inch wheat bread."

EE: "What do you want on your bread?"

Conor: "Butter."

EE: "Uummmm... we don't have butter, how about turkey, ham, cheese..."

Conor: "Okay."

Me: "Turkey, ham and cheese?"

Conor: "Yes."

EE: "Do you want anything else on it?"

Conor: "Yes, ketchup."

We decided to eat there so we took our food and sat in one of the booths at the very front of the restaurant. Conor needed to go potty, so Liesel took him to the back and waited for him. "Mr Independent" has to go into the restroom by himself, and since its a one-holer, we let him. He goes in and locks the lock on the door knob as well as the sliding lock above it, (the industrial looking ones that establishments put on the door when the regular lock breaks).

Conor finishes, washes his hands, unlocks the door knob lock and tries to open the door. The next thing I hear is Conor banging on the door as hard as he can and screaming at the top of his voice "Let go of the door!"

Everyone in the restaurant, including the employees, turns around and looks at me, at the same time I look at Liesel, who is standing in the hallway outside the door, cracking up but looking totally innocent.

Me: "Liesel, let go of that door and let him out!"

Liesel, backing up against the wall with her hands up as if someone had shoved a gun in her back: "I'm not touching the door!"

Everyone is still looking at me while Liesel is dying laughing trying to tell Conor between bangs and screams to unlock the top lock. He can't hear her and thinks she is still holding the door...

I go back to the restrooms, tell Liesel to go back up front, Conor is still screaming and banging, and now I am trying to tell him to calm down and unlock the top lock.

EE to the rescue... EE goes into women's room, removes ceiling panel, climbs into ceiling, and starts to remove ceiling panel over men's room, when Conor finally realizes the top lock is still locked.

Conor unlocks the top lock, opens door, walks out and calmly says, "I got it." EE replaces ceiling tile, climbs out of ceiling, replaces other ceiling tile, and goes back to work, laughing the entire time...

From now on, I think we are going to order our food To-Go...

"Did She Just Call You Mom?"

Liesel and I were doing our weekly "girls night out" and have both been craving japanese food, so we went to Wasabi for dinner. This is one of those restaurants where they have the patrons sit around the grill and a chef comes to your table to prepare your food and entertain you.

We had been sitting there for a few minutes, the bantering between the chef and the patrons had started, we had all caught in our mouths rice flung from his spatula, and he heard Liesel call me "mom".

He looks at me, a bit puzzled, and asks: "Did she just call you mom?"

"Yes."

Chef, still puzzled: "You are her mom?"

Me, now a bit puzzled: "Yes."

"I thought you were sisters!"

Me: "Oh thank you! You just made my day!"

Liesel: "Gee thanks for the insult," then to me, "I don't want to look like the crypt keeper."

Liesel may someday recover from the tragic blow to her fragile psyche... :))

An Old Conor Story Worth Posting

When Conor first started daycare, one of his teachers was Ms Joey. She was a cute young girl who said she could never stay upset with Conor when he was misbehaving because he would always come up with something to say that would just crack her up. This is one of those times...

Ms Joey, who is white, was dating a black man. No big deal... Conor and the other kids had seen him bring her lunch or pick her up on various occasions, but this day was a little different... when he brought Ms Joey lunch, he leaned over and gave her a quick smooch, and the following incident took place...

Conor looked at him with a puzzled look, looked at Ms Joey, looked back at her boyfriend, then Ms Joey, then him again, and asked,

"Did you know you're black?"

This kind of caught him off guard, and he looked at Conor, then Ms Joey, then Conor again, and asked,

"Did you know you're white?"

Conor looked at him, looked down at his arms, looked back up at him, and said,

"Yup, you're right," and ran off to play, never giving it a second thought.

Ms Joey and her boyfriend roared with laughter... and every time he came in to bring her lunch or pick her up, one of the kids would ask him, "Did you know you're black?" and he would reply, "Did you know you're white?"

Through the innocent eyes of a child...

Liesel's First Purchase With Work Income

Liesel didn't wait too long to make her first purchase - a WebCam! We set it up last night, so she is now ready for video IMing. She has a couple friends who have had a webcam for a while and now they can giggle and make goofy faces at each other!

She has also moved into the world of learning responsibility with a debit card and checkbook...

Next thing you know she is going to be graduating from high school, going off to college, getting married, and making us grandparents...

Update On Renee Studying...

Its less than a month before I take my third exam (August 8 at 9am - set in stone) and I am six units into the study guide - 14 more to go, and with the schedule I have created, its going to take every free evening I have between now and then to finish...

Its amazing that the IRS expects you to remember specific calculations for the exam that most accountants have tables and software to take care of (I know, I know, how can you know the software isn't wrong if you don't know how to do it yourself? Because after a few years, you can look at it and tell if it looks reasonable just by looking at it!). Come on, its not rocket science and it doesn't have to be to the penny - I was told by an IRS auditor the other day that a difference of $10grand out of $1mil, is close enough. But, I guess maybe they have a point for that 1 in 10,000 accountants who still does tax returns by hand, (yes folks, I have a client that I picked up a couple years ago whose previous preparer did all of her tax returns by hand and the final return itself was handwritten).

I just hope I can make it through the rest of the units and pass this thing the first time... Aug 9 and 10 I have a training class on 2007 tax law for businesses, and that would really mess me up (the exam is based on 2006 law)!

And, as some of you know, I am a guinea pig in a two-year drug study for a weight loss drug in the final phase of testing - the study also includes a lifestyle change component. After studying for the exam in the evening, I have been using the elliptical at work - what started out as 33 minutes of sheer torture has become 33 rather relaxing minutes of increasing resistance and incline while clearing my head from the stresses of the day... I am also putting more thought into what I am eating, though nothing is off limits... 17 lbs down, 87lbs to go...

"Mommy, Can We Erase The Bad Word...?"

Liesel and I just picked up Conor from daycare, and there was a note on his cubby saying that he had not had a very good week. Most of the week it was talking back, but today he hit someone, and spent a bit more time in time-out than usual... While I was talking to his teacher, Liesel was helping Conor get into the car. After returning to the car, the first thing Conor asked was...

"Mommy, can we erase the bad word at home?"

Me, a bit stumped, "What bad word?"

"The one Ms Lindsey wrote."

Me, still confused, "Ms Lindsey wrote a bad word at home?"

"No, the one she wrote on the note."

Me, now understanding, "Conor, there isn't a bad word on the note. All Ms Lindsey wrote was that you didn't have a good week so we could talk to you about it."

"Mommy, when we get home, I am going to erase the bad word with a pen..."


I have met my match, and his name is Conor...

Thank You To Our Military Heroes

A few weeks ago on the Today show, I watched an interview with Marcus Luttrell, a Navy SEAL who was the only survivor of a Taliban ambush in Afghanastan in 2005. He has written a book, Lone Survivor, which I gave to Tom for Father's Day. Tom finished it today, and I started reading today. I haven't gotten too far into the book, but Marcus Luttrell, even though says he is not, is a hero.

Every man and woman who wears a military uniform has volunteered to put themselves in harms way to protect the very freedoms that so many in this country take forgranted. They see things that nobody should ever have to see and have to live with the memory of things that most of us could never even dream of. These men and women deserve the best that this country can give. They are the reason that we have our freedom. They deserve our gratitude, respect, and thanks at every turn.

THANK YOU to all who have served in the military, whether it be full-time or reserves, a few years or the rest of your life. Your service, and sometimes your lives are the price we pay for the freedoms we have in this country, and I am grateful for your service.

Liesel Is Employed!

Yes, its true, Liesel is old enough to work, and last week started her first job! She is working in a CPA firm (where I work) scanning files into the Document Management System (DMS).

The job has been a few years in the making... in 2004 the owners of the company decided that filing space was too limited and that the firm needed to go paperless. It was a rather hurried implementation and turned into a fiasco with some people scanning throughout tax season, and others giving up because of the additional time it was taking... The idea fizzled until a couple months ago, when I was talking with of the owners who had just come back from a class about paperless systems. I threw out the idea of hiring a couple of the teenagers of the employees over the summer to get the paperless thing going. She thought it was a great idea and voila... Liesel's first job!

She is taking 2005 and prior returns and workpapers from the file, mating the returns and workpapers by year, preping them for scanning, scanning into DMS, double checking scans for accuracy, putting 2004 and 2005 back into the file, documenting which years she scanned, and bringing to me to spot check. Sounds rather straight forward, but when you have 8 - 10 different people who put the files together, it can become confusing, especially the ones we call "Jane* Files" (*name changed to protect the culprit) - these are files where chaos reigns! Liesel figured out the scanner almost immediately, has the basics of the copier down, and is working almost independently in less than a week.

She received her first paycheck yesterday and today opened her own checking account - debit card and all.

She will only be working when school is not in session, but its enough to fill a much needed position in the office and give her really good work experience, a little spending/saving money, and the opportunity to experience budgeting money.

I think I am getting old... since when did Liesel become old enough to work?!

I Feel Like I Am In School Again

I graduated with my BS and MAcc almost 15 years ago, the same week Liesel was born. I decided well before I graduated that I was going to get all of my education done at one time - none of the "I'll go back later" syndrome that has plagued more than one person in my family. And because, though I enjoy learning, I don't like studying for exams just to regurgitate information that I am going to forget not long after leaving the exam. And, the thing that I dislike even more is not knowing how I did, especially when I had too much time to think about how I did and all things I don't think I answered correctly. Though I am not sure which is worse - not knowing for a period of time or going into the exam thinking, as soon as this is over, my day could be ruined!

When I returned to Public Accounting last year, I decided to become an Enrolled Agent so the IRS would speak to me (though one sided conversations can be interesting, they are of little use when speaking to the IRS). I had considered doing this years ago, but somehow I got it in my head that it wasn't offered anymore, and apparently I didn't do enough research. There are three sections to the exam - Individuals, Business and Representation. I took and passed Representation a few months ago - the study guide was rather short and I knocked it out in a couple weeks. Individuals took a bit longer - because I procrastinated long enough that tax season became a good reason not to have the time to study. So my goal this summer, before school starts again, is to finish the last two.

Today I PASSED the Individuals section! Two down and one to go...

Tomorrow I start studying for the final section, and I have until the first week of August to learn everything there is to know about taxation of businesses...

My First Post... A Conor Story

Liesel and I were doing our weekly girls night out a couple weekends ago. We are sitting at dinner when my cell phone rings. Its Tom with another Conor story...

Tom set up our 4' x 6' pool so Conor could "swim" - Conor in his swim trunks watched anxiously as Tom blew up the sides and filled it with water - cold water and all, Conor jumped in and was in heaven! He played for about an hour, then decided it was time to come in. He got dried off and changed his clothes and started playing on the computer. Tom decides to visit his favorite reading spot where he becomes engrossed in a book. Next thing Tom knows, he is looking out the window at a wet, fully naked little boy running around the back yard, and whose recently changed clothing is floating in the pool...

This is the same independent little boy who is going to be turned loose in the world of Kindergarten in about five weeks...