Wednesday, January 28, 2009

Wednesday randomness

I've been feeling more productive lately. I've gotten out of my every afternoon nap habit and I've actually been getting things done, which is nice.

I figured out how to make a sewing machine cover, without directions or a pattern. It's not perfect, but it serves it's purpose. My sewing machine, however, has problems. Granted, I don't really know what I'm doing, but half the time it works fine, and half the time the bottom half of the stitches are WAAAYYYY messed up. I put the bobbin in the same way every time and I even tried oiling it, but it'll start making a funny noise sometimes, and then I know when I turn the fabric over there's going to be thread everywhere. It's frustrating. I'm going to try to find someplace in town to look at it so I can attempt to make the ring slings.

We "figured" out our taxes last night. I was pretty bummed. Last year we had to pay in around $250 for federal taxes, so I switched my exemptions to 0 from 1 hoping that this year we'd get a refund. We entered all Mark's stuff in first, and it showed us getting $1185 back... and then we entered in my stuff, and it showed that we owe $740. I almost cried. We still don't fully understand how to do our state taxes either. Since Mark is military, he doesn't have to pay IL state taxes. (We still both claim IL residency since we still have IL drivers licenses and he doesn't have to pay state tax.) We *think* that I don't have to pay state tax either since I'm his dependant, but we're not 100% sure on that. So this online program said that I had to pay IL $399 in state taxes, and I was only getting $179 refund from OK, even though I paid $307. Taxes are so confusing... and annoying.

Mark started IFF today. He's been out of the training environment for 411 days now, so he's very excited (and a little nervous) to be back in. He told me today that they're not flying at all next week though, because they're moving into a new squadron. Hopefully they'll be able to make up that time and still graduate on time. If they don't, I'm not sure what's going to happen with our trip going home. As of right now, he's supposed to graduate April 1st. But if that gets pushed back at all, we're probably not going to make it home in time for our own baby shower, which means we might not end up going home at all, and just trying to move to Phoenix earlier if possible. I hate the unpredictability of the military. I like to have a plan, and the military makes it impossible to plan sometimes. We most likely won't know until the week before if his graduation from IFF is pushed back, so I don't know what we'll do about the baby shower if we find out that late. The invitations will already be mailed and the whole thing already set up. No wonder I have high blood pressure.

Speaking of blood pressure, I got a blood pressure machine today at Wal-Mart, so I can check it at home. It's 126/73 at home..... Much better than the 155/91 at the doctors office. I'm going to keep a log to make sure it really is white coat syndrome vs. hypertension.

Sadie Roo gets her stitches out on Friday, and her last antibiotic pill is tomorrow. I'm glad to have that all behind us.

More later...

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

Don't quote me on this, I am by far no expert, but I don't think the active member's tax status extends to dependents. I have always been told that spouses follow the residency rules of the state you're in. John is a CA resident and doesn't pay state income tax while out of state, but I have to claim AZ tax since I am a resident per AZ rules... have a local address, work here, etc. I could be wrong though! Your employer's HR dept. should actually have more information on tax rules, too, since when you were hired they should have gotten you the proper tax forms.

I hate taxes, too, though!!! Always confusing. We had an owing scare one year, so I think John withholds a little extra and I always claim 0 and withhold at a single rate!

BTW - love the layout!!!

Em said...

Hey Mon,

A couple possibilities with your sewing machine:
1. It's not threaded exactly correctly, so the thread is not going where it's supposed to and is getting tangled up
2. The tension is not set correctly so the upper stiches are too tight and the bobbin stiches are too loose, allowing them to tangle
3. Something more serious that a sewing maching professional will have to fix. Sometimes there are sewing machine people in the JoAnn's stores.

Taxes: The higher number exemption you claim, the LESS they take out, therefore the more you have to pay. If you want them to take more out of your paycheck, claim a LOWER number (0) on your W2. By changing your exemption to (1), you actually had less taken out of your check and it probably why you owe more. Ooops. Sorry about that!

Baby shower: You might just have to make the trip home on your own, which would suck, but at least you would get to go to your shower! I hope it all works out how you would prefer and you can both make the trip to IL.

Monica B said...

Yeah, I understand the taxes thing Em. I said I changed it to 0 from 1, not to 1 from 0. I knew they'd take out more if I claimed 0, which is why I did that, in hopes that we wouldn't have to pay in. It didn't work.

Anonymous said...

I agree taxes suck and they make no sense! I really hope u can make it home for your shower, i'm looking forward to seeing you! MISS YOU! --Rachel

Elsbit said...

I say pay the money to have an accountant do it for you. Something does not sound right, but I am not a professional. ;)

RE: the baby shower thing, if push comes to shove have an "online" or a mail in baby shower. A lot of people do this in out of state situations. Not your ideal, but people still get to send you stuff. :) You will just have to plan to go home for a visit after the baby and invite people to a meet the baby party. :)

Anonymous said...

Monica,

I think Em's #2 is correct regarding your sewing machine. I had that happen to me too and it took me a while to figure it out. I'm lucky Waylon's mom loves to sew as much as I do, so she knew right away what it was.

When is your shower? I hope you get to make it home too!