I don’t have all the answers, hell one couple in our little town just celebrated their 70th anniversary and even they say they don’t have all the answers, but after almost 14 years together I know this-My husband can’t read my mind.

IN our 13 1/2 years together, I will say this-we have had more good times than bad.  Even the ‘just ok’ times, have been pretty darn good for me.  Sure the big gestures are nice, the extravagant family vacations are wonderful and the kids love to reminisce, but the little things are pretty cool too.

The way Roy smells when he crawls into bed at night.  The way he rolls over at night and seeks me out even while asleep.  Joe playing squinkies (if you don’t know what they are, where have you been?!) with Dean.  Corey taking Addi out for Chinese food.  Hayden slamming into the house, cheeks red from the chill in the air.

Roy spending the day (yes, the entire day…) washing his car, while I read silly blurbs to him from my women’s magazines.  Or finding a movie the whole family digs and sitting around the family room with them watching it.

BUT, Roy won’t know how much these little things mean to me, unless I tell him.  It isn’t that he’s clueless, far from it.  It isn’t that he’s dumb, he’s one of the most intelligent men I know.  It’s that after being together for this long, and having five boys-I finally realized men just don’t see things the way we do.

There were times in the past when this made me CRAZY!  Roy and I would get into a fight, or my mom would hurt me, and I would go to Roy fussing and venting.  He would do one of two things-tell me how to ‘fix’ the problem (UMM…excuse me!  Are you implying you’re smarter than I am?  I didn’t ask you to fix anything!) Or he would stare at me and say as little as possible.  (HELLO!  McFly, anyone in there?) Both approaches DROVE ME NUTS.

And yet, if I have EVER sat Roy down and said, “Look, I really need you to do this, this and this for me.  It would mean a lot, and I need you.”

He has NEVER let me down.  Sure sometimes, we can’t do this, this and this.  Sometimes he doesn’t do it the exact way I pictured, but he has always tried, and he tries for me.

Men can’t read our minds, and that doesn’t make them bad or wrong, it just makes them different.  

seeing my little one on the bus smiling.

Hayden is like Roy, NOT a morning person.  But this morning, he got up with a smile, ate all his breakfast, got dressed and even danced with me in the living room.

When it was time to go he put on his jacket (without being told!) got his backpack, and grabbed my dog for me while I put my shoes on.

ONce outside, we joked around, and he told me he almost has his chart full in running club.  And then the bus came.

Every day I take him out, put him on the bus and then wait on the porch to wave goodbye to him.  If I don’t wave, he always says something to me.

Today, I heard his friends calling him as soon as he climbed the stairs-our Hayden is a popular little guy!  

I waited on the porch, and when the bus turned the corner, I waved and smiled.  His back was too me, and for a second I was sad (silly I know) but then he turned around, plastered his face to the window, blew me a kiss and waved wildly.

Happiness for me this morning was knowing my baby didn’t forget his good old mom, even though he was surrounded by all his friends.

Last year we watched the first season of a show called Face Off.  It’s basically a competition for FX artists.  Each week they have a new challenge.  Our favorite last year was creating a zombie that had to stand up to a very energetic dance routine.  Since we all love horror movies, the kids, Roy and I really enjoyed this competition last year.  The new season started a few weeks ago.  The first challenge was boys against girls and they had to reimagine four iconic characters from The Wizard of Oz. It’s just a fun show, and most of the reality shows these days are just ridiculous.  This is just something a bit different, and some of these guys are so talented.

I saw an article on “TvSquad” about another show called “Lost Girl.” Bo is a succubus and is finally coming to understand what she is with the help of her best friend, Kenzi (a human), her friend (with benefits) Dyson (everytime she yells his name all I can think about is my vacuum cleaner!) and a doctor named Lauren (another human).  Bo is part of the world of the Fae (otherworldly creatures…Dyson is a werewolf for instance).  The show is sort of ridiculous, but it’s a lot of fun.  Lot of sexy time going on though so beware!

Ok, we already filed ours.  I admit it, I want to know first thing if we are going to owe anything, and if not, sure I would like my refund.  There is also another reason I prefer to file early-has to do with my ex husband…but wont’ get into that.

Anyways, even though we are lucky and Roy makes a good living, with the five boys, the house and what we try to donate, we usually get something back. 

Again, I know we are lucky that we don’t have to count on our refund to pay bills or get caught up on the mortgage (knock on wood).  We usually look forward to it, and do something fun-last year I got a new dryer!  YEAH!  We give the kids some money so they can get something they really want, Roy will get something he really wants, but views as a luxury-I usually get something pretty I have been drooling over but could never justify.

This year we decided to put a good portion of our refund towards a down payment for another family vacation-yep another trip on the big boat.  

And because I want to lock in my price, I admit..I would like my refund.

BUT, some of these sites are CRAZY! People bad mouthing the IRS, calling 10-20 times a day, etc, etc.

There is a link on the IRS page where you can check on your refund status…if you check it too many times you get locked out.  Not sure how many is too many, but really wow?!

I get it, it sucks waiting, but bad mouthing or yelling at Customer Service reps isn’t going to get you your refund faster.  What’s bad is they usually farm out calls to call centers, and the people there have limited information and are just reading a script.  They are doing a job, for a paycheck, just like everyone else.

I will say it again-if you are due a refund, of course you want it whether you ‘need’ the money or not, but driving yourself crazy over it, will not get it to you any quicker, and will do nothing more than make you crazy….