Update on Taxes

God is so good. I didn't end up owing $30,000 in taxes for that short sale. And on top of that, I even got a nice little return! This came at the perfect time as we're super close to our modest little wedding fund. Hoping to save enough for a mini honeymoon! Yay!

How do they do it?

Seriously... how do women work while pregnant? I feel so sick and tired ALL the time. A full day at the office has felt impossible to me (I've only been able to pull of one of them in the last 3 weeks). Thanks to some meds, the nausea isn't too bad while I'm here, but the exhaustion is just too much. I can easily take 4 naps a day, so pulling off nine hours in the office without one is not good. I can't wait to hit that 12-week mark for a couple reasons:
1. My chances of having a miscarriage after 12 weeks is so small, compared to those first few months.
2. My morning sickness is supposed to ease up.
3. Some of my energy should return!

Praying to God that these next 4 weeks pass quickly and that I find a way to keep my butt at work!

The past keeps catching up

Reporting an income of $128,645.76 to the IRS would actually be pretty exciting to me. In fact, that's just under 3 years' worth of income for me. Too bad this came by way of a 1099 and an amount of debt cancelled. By the way, debt cancelled is considered income, even though that money never touched my bank account. And it is also taxed as income, meaning it faces the same 23% (or so) I would normally pay on any real wages. We are trying to find a way to work around this one.... there are some laws protecting certain groups of people and there are some other ways around it (none that I understand or am ready to try just to see what happens). Today I am *hopefully* meeting with my boss's tax consultant to see what he can do. Keep your fingers crossed! I definitely don't have $30,000 hiding in my closet that I can pay the IRS thanks to a short sale on my condo.

7 Reasons Why

Just reflecting on how much I love my man! Here are seven reasons why I love him today:

1. He humbly shows his confidence at times, and it reminds me how strong of a man he is.
2. He doesn't get vulnerable with very many people, but he is not afraid to show any emotion with me.
3. He shares my exact level of excitement for our precious baby on the way.
4. He wants to be involved... in my day, in my heart, in our family.
5. He genuinely cares about the people in my life. He is bummed when he misses out on family events, he asks about my friends, and he makes an effort to stay involved despite his busy work schedule.
6. He has, overnight, become a responsible father. His every desire is to love and care for this growing little family of ours.
7. He is so cute when he compliments me. I wake him up to get a goodbye kiss when I leave for work and he always finds something special to pay attention to. Today it was "You look really cute with that clip in you hair". Not many guys notice or comment on things like that.

Grrrr...

My current gripe:

Wedding Planning.

Baby has definitely taken precedence over wedding, so what we had planned to spend on our wedding has now become the Baby Fund. Neither of us can imagine ourselves going to the courthouse for a signed piece of paper and then that's it. Love is all about celebration and sharing it with those around you. We are determined to have some type of party for our wedding, no matter how small.

...but then there's that next little thing: where do we have our party? I've successfully cut our guestlist from 231 to 150. Next step was cutting it enough so we could have the party in my mom's backyard. So then it went from 150 to 104. Then we were told even 50 people is a tight squeeze in her backyard, so I was forced to cut once again. So now... the official number, including hurt feelings and even family being cut, is 70. SEVENTY people is our bare minimum. Yikes! So now that I can't cut it any further, I'm still left with the question: where the heck are we going to have our wedding???

I'm not overwhelmed with the seating chart, matching my shoes perfectly with my dress, selecting my bridal party, or even planning our honeymoon. I am simply overwhelmed with the fact that I can't find a place that won't cost me thousands of dollars just to throw a party.

Wahhhh.

Sisters

I'm so lucky to have these amazing girls in my life! Each one of them enriches me in different ways... they all make me laugh, cry, and love like crazy. I'm so glad we have our lives to share together :)

Rose Gold

Today's obsession:

These rose-gold toned watches! My man bought me an awesome Fossil watch for my birthday that I wear all the time! It's white, so it goes well with most things. The rose-gold will be a little trickier to match, but I'm up for the challenge! Hope this one lands on my wrist for, say, Valentine's Day??

I dig the square fellow on the bottom :)