Whew!

My back yard. Mid-April

It has been a crazy, busy two weeks. Sorry I haven't posted or been around much. It has been a rather stressful couple of weeks. I am in the publishing business and last Thursday was our deadline. Working weekends and LOTS of stress. Needless to say it was a hectic one. But then they always are. Oh, did I mention that it has been a bit stressful?

The daffodils are beautiful this year.

Well, deadline is over and now it is time to get my yard in some kind of shape. You know, rake the leaves from fall of 07. Pick up the trees limbs and branches. Maybe even start to weed the gardens. So this past weekend I began that work in earnest. Can we say sore muscles?? But it is a good kind of sore.

I forget what these are called. But they are pretty.

This past weekend being Easter I wasn't really in an Easter celebration type mood. I did plant lots pf pansies at the cemetery. Pansies were one of my Mom's favorites. I spent much of the day at my Aunt and Uncles. Joan cooked a turkey just for me. And she is a good cook. So dinner was yummy.

Some more pretty little purple flowers growing among the weeds.

Monday I took the day off to work outside. I spent 6 hours rakes, bagging leaves, filling garbage cans with twigs and sticks, breaking off dead stalks from last year and just enjoying the sunshine and birdsong. I can't wait until the bulk of the work is done so I can sit and admire my handiwork while I sip on ice tea and stitch.

A lovely pink violet. These always bloom before the purple and while ones.

One other chore for this past weekend was to get my taxes finished. I know I shouldn't wait until the last minute and I don't normally do that. I usually do them in early March before my work gets busy. For some reason this year I just kept putting it off. Well, I am learning that lesson. Can anyone tell me why New York State makes it so difficult?? Getting the state taxes done this year has been a nightmare.

So here's the story. Friday afternoon I get all my federal forms and papers together, sit down and in about 2 hours I'm done. I'm getting back a nice refund. Yippee! Time to do the state. Since I didn't get the forms in the mail (come to find out they aren't mailing them any more. ) I have to run to the local library to get them. get to the library and they don't have anymore long forms left. Wait, the reference desk has a couple. She hands them to me, I go home. Since I won't get these done until Monday I figure I'll wait and work on them then. I KNOW the NY state tax form is always a headache. So definitely put this one off. It's now late Monday and I am pooped from gardening. I'm staying home Tuesday to visit with another Aunt and some cousins so I figured I'll take it to the post off after lunch. Tuesday morning I finally sit down to tackle the state forms. WAIT. I have page 1, page 1, page 3 and page 3. Huh??? I go online only to see that yup, the library goofed.

Well, now I figure I might as well wait until today and print them out here at work, Fill them out and head over to the post office. Yup, you guessed it. I have the forms all printed but left everything else at home!!!!! So guess who's going home early and going to be waiting in line tonight at the post office. Geez. That'll teach me.

Well, I'm off to head home, finish up these nasty tax forms and head over to the post office to get in line. Tomorrow I'll update my stitching for you.

Until next time..........................

Love and stitches

Kathy