Tonight's picture was taken in May of 2008. Mattie was 6 years old and it was grandparent's day at Mattie's school. As my parents were touring around Mattie's kindergarten classroom, I snapped this photo! THANK GOODNESS, I volunteered on campus that year, because if I hadn't, I would never have experienced the grandparent's day festivities. I thought Mattie would have many more of these happy moments. Unfortunately, it was his first and only grandparent's day, because two months later he was diagnosed with cancer.
Quote of the day: You gain strength, courage, and confidence by every experience in which you really stop to look fear in the face. You are able to say to yourself, 'I lived through this horror. I can take the next thing that comes along. ~ Eleanor Roosevelt
Last night I stayed up until 1am, doing Foundation work. By the time I got into bed, I literally passed out from exhaustion. When I got up this morning, I went downstairs and continued Foundation work before showering and getting ready for the day. In the midst of doing this work, it dawned on me...... I have my mom's annual teacher's retirement paperwork to do! I literally paused, because I do it every spring, but I truly had to stop and ask myself.... what season are we in? What month are we in? Sounds funny, but when you are caregiving day in and out, everyday is the same! So truthfully this morning, I was running around dealing with Foundation stuff, retirement paperwork, and let's add IRS requests.
Some of you may recall that my parents received an unexpected refund check from the IRS a month ago. If you read the April 28th blog, then you know that nightmare I endured. Of course anyone who has ever had to call the IRS, you immediately know exactly what I am talking about. Any case, when I received that check a month ago, I knew.... NOT to cash it! After my April call with the IRS, I learned the process for returning the erroneous check and where to mail it. So naturally I wrote a cover letter, included documentation, and certified all of this with the Post Office. I have been tracking that letter for weeks now.
This is the third time I have sent a certified letter somewhere and the third time I can't track it. This morning, I tried to contact the post office's customer service. Now here's a kicker.... the post office said that sometimes the carrier is unable to scan the letter/package at its intended location. Which makes it impossible for the customer to track. Because the letter can't be tracked, guess what? I have to call the IRS back. Especially after the notice I received yesterday, as the IRS has calculated that I cashed this check and therefore wants more money from us. Seriously, I am on the treadmill to lunacy! What I have learned from this is I will NEVER EVER use the post office to track a letter or package. I am going right to UPS or Fedex.
In fact, I used to certify letters with big Foundation checks in it, and just like with the IRS, the post office tracking was ineffectual! So now I do all payments electronically because I have to be able to track and account for all money. By the time I woke my dad up today, I felt like I went ten rounds already. Sometimes the feeling of being overwhelmed just floods me. Last night I was so strung out with juggling the mortgage assumption and the IRS, that at dinner time, I thought I was going to have a meltdown. I got into the kitchen and literally looked at the stove, oven, and the food, and asked myself.... do you have the energy to make dinner? I felt like the only thing I wanted to do was jump out the window. But I focused and started working and of course there was a hot dinner cooked and served.
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