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Mar 10, 2008    |       9 comments

Yay! Our Taxes are Completed

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One of my goals this past weekend was to double-check our tax returns and then submit them. We were due to get about $500 back. Boy, I’m glad I double-checked things. I put a wrong number in under our income. With that correction, it will bring our federal and state refunds to around $650.

I’ve heard reports of people getting their e-filed direct deposit refunds within a week. If all goes well, we will be able to reduce our debt below $13K by the end of the month. For giggles, I took our current debt and subtracted our tax refund and the economic stimulus check that should be arriving in May (for us, it will be $1,500). That will put our debt at $11,249. Wow. With our contributions, by the end of May we could be under the $10,000 mark.

Then we will really be in the “home stretch” once our debt is in the four figure range!

Mar 9, 2008    |       14 comments

A Weekend Present – Aurora Borealis

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This weekend was a very nice weekend weather-wise. Sure, it was pretty cold (near zero to low teens during the day), but the skies were clear and it was very sunny. Our animals were fighting over the sun shining in on our carpet. They both wanted to lay in it LOL.

Very early this morning (around 1am), I noticed a green glow in the sky. The Northern lights were out! We do see them often where we live, but this winter has been so snowy that cloud cover has been the “norm” at night. Not this morning. The sky was a clear as it could be and the stars were shining bright. It was a beautiful early morning because of that. The Northern lights display was the cherry on top.

For those of you who have not heard of the Northern lights (Aurora Borealis), here is a picture courtesy of AlaskaCpl.

northernlights.jpg

It’s difficult for a picture to do the Northern lights justice. I think they are something you have to see in person to really take in the full beauty. The displays that I have witnessed have been green rays of light flowing and shimmering across the sky like a curtain waving in a breeze. They are dynamic and sometimes they disappear as quickly as they appear.

Since this is the first time we have seen them in a while, we had to wake up my son. My son can be very grumpy when we wake him up, but he was excited to go outside to see the lights. Unfortunately, the brightness did die down by the time we made it outside. It was also below zero at the time, so my son was anxious to get back inside after a few minutes.

I will miss these displays tremendously if we move from the area. When it comes to nature’s beauty, we have so much. It takes my breath away sometimes.

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