A Sweet Family Gathering

On Saturday three generations of my family gathered at my sister Laurie's home in Winlock, WA to meet the newest members of the family, my niece Jessica's twins Margrit ( Maggie) and Adeline (Della). Jessica and her husband Bill and the babies traveled from Virginia and gave us a great reason for a family get together. 

(Disclaimer - some of these photos are mine and some I borrowed from Ilene and Katie. When they go on Facebook, I can steal them, especially when they are better than mine.)

 The Mamas and the Papa - My siblings and the "old people" now. 

 Of course there was lots of baby hugging. 

 New mother Jessica, and her sister, the new Auntie Jordan. 

 Baby huggers of the middle generation.

 Jill, who was clearly a baby hog.

 Ericka

Katie

These are the cousins of the middle generation. 

Grandpa Hank with his daughters and granddaughter. 

The youngest generation, the twins' cousins, no longer the center of attention, spent most of the time glued to a TV. 

Although Isaac did not escape attention completely. 

 Of course there was eating and talking and sharing.   

Bill, who is the father of the twins, had family come from California for the visit. 

 Left to right, Arnold, the host, Bill, the father of the twins, his sister, Andy, son of Arnold and Laurie, and Grandpa Hank. 

 Ilene with DIL Cathy, son Scott and son Tim. 

Ben, providing good service for his mother, and the hostess, Laurie. 

 There were showers before the twins were born, and gifts sent after their birth, so this time we did a book shower. 

It was great to meet the new family members and just have time together. 

Pretty Pictures from Phipps

It rained off and on here today. 

We did get out for a walk this afternoon, and now at 4:30 it seems to have cleared off again after the latest shower.

I confess I have not accomplished much so far today. I got myself into trouble arguing politics on Facebook and ended up unfriending someone because his posts were bugging me and in turn I was annoying him. Better to let that one go.

I did get back to a bit more photo editing today, now working on the pics from our trip into Pennsylvania and Ohio in August of 2013. 

On that trip we spent two nights and one full, busy day in Pittsburgh. We loved that newly renewed city. One of the highlights, though, was something built in 1893, the Phipps Conservatory and Botanical Garden.

So here are some pretty pictures to brighten your winter day.

We are now ten days into February. It's 5:00 and still daylight here at 47.61° North.  We'll make it through. 

The Vagaries of Weather

Facebook likes to remind us of what we posted in years gone by. Today, February 9th, 2016, I found this photo of the same day two years ago. 

Today the witch hazel looked like this. 

Yes, that's blue sky you see in the background.
And this just popped up on Facebook.

It just officially hit 63° at the airport, which is just a mile or so away from us, but our weather station recorded a high of 64.3°!

Of course we spent quite a bit of time outside. 

We had 40° fog this morning and we were in no hurry to get going. I got some grocery shopping done, and by this time the fog had cleared and we got in a walk in the sunshine that had me shedding layers as I walked. Back home I went through my floor exercises before spending time at lunch with the newspaper and the online New York Times Opinion page. Tom got going outside a lot faster than I did, but I joined him in adding to the growing pile of purnings  that is the overflow from the two already full yard waste bins. 

It felt great to be working out in the yard for the second day in a row in such pleasant weather. It won't last, of course. Rain may return tomorrow.  The camellias won't like the rain. 

This spoon and fork flower won't mind the rain though. It's just borrowing its color from the flowering kale. 

With not much to pick for bouquets from the yard, my kitchen table blooms come from the grocery store. 

I've got to have color for the dark days.

But today was spectacular!

Taxes

It's always great news when I get this e-mail message!

Great news, Linda I Reeder!

Your federal tax return was accepted by the IRS.

I began the tax filing process on Wednesday, using Turbo Tax, linked to my online banking with the credit union. This is my third year of filing on line.

Always before that I filed using the standard paper forms, you know, the ones the IRS doesn't send you any more. Since we have a simple life with no debt anymore, that means there is no point in itemizing deductions. The standard deduction works best for us. That simplifies the filing process.

However, income reporting has become more complex. Tom reached the age, 70.5, where he had to start taking Required Minimum Distributions (RMD's) from his IRA's several years ago, so I had that figured out. Then this year I reached the magic age and had to report the RMD's from two IRA accounts.  Except, in the process of filing, just as I was about to tap the final "Send", I realized I didn't have a Form 1099-R from one of the accounts and hadn't reported it. Whoa. Put the breaks on. 

Too late in the day to call on Wednesday, I put the process on hold and waited until Thursday morning to call the number provided for the financial service. I was told the forms had been sent out. Well, I told the nice person, that doesn't help me since I don't have it and I want to complete the filing. 

I found out I could access my account online and get the 1099-R that way, but I needed to set up an online account first.  Well, that got messy, what with having to wait for an email verification code, my newly registered user name getting screwed up, having to make another phone call, finding the problem and starting all over again. 

Success! I got access, got my form, and managed to get back into my TurboTax process, go backwards and find the place to insert the additional RMD information. By now I was feeling a bit shaky about the whole process, but I carefully reviewed everything, finalized the forms and hit the "Send" button.

Then I waited, and waited. Finally Thursday evening I got the e-mail message I was waiting for.  Hallelujah!    

Now my refund can come, and I can apply it to my property tax bill. :-/

At least with that one all I have to do is send a check. 

Crime

I work very hard at not being paranoid about all of the criminal activity that is happening around me. I prefer to be cautious and feel relatively safe. It isn't always easy.

There is a reason why we have a locking mailbox. On our walks around the neighborhood we frequently see mail that has been stolen from mailboxes, rifled through, and dumped. 

This morning when I went out to get the newspaper, I found this. Someone with a small pry bar broke into the mail box.  As I looked down the street, I saw other neighbor's locking boxes had suffered the same fate. Picture a single guy, or a small group, walking down the street after dark, popping open mail boxes as they went. They may have been looking for something of value, or may have just felt like being destructive. How annoying to a mail thief to have to have locked boxes. 

Fortunately we had collected our mail for the day, as we always try to do. We have let it collect for a couple of days when we are out of town for short stays. For longer stays we have our mail held at the post office. 

Most of our mail is junk anyway and ends up straight away in the recycling bin. But occasionally there are sensitive documents, like 
tax forms that have been arriving throughout January. Most checks got directly to the bank through direct deposit. 

We will repair or replace the box, and try to remember to have mail held even for one overnight from now on. 

But nothing is really safe. 

Early Spring?

I saw my shadow today. I hear that Punxsutawney Phil did not. That is supposed to mean an early spring. Here it just means it isn't raining. It will be by tomorrow. 

Clouds are beginning to move in.

We enjoyed a cold sunny 3.75 mile walk this morning in the neighborhood. Since then I have completed my floor exercises and have spent a lot of time at the computer reading political articles and getting involved in debates on Facebook. 

I see that Hillary Clinton has now been cleared by  the DOJ as well as the State Department of any wrong doing with her emails, and the FBI is only checking to see if she was a victim of hacking.  She has apologized once again anyway. Meanwhile Hillary bashing goes on as doggedly as ever. 

While I was wasting my time trying to set the world straight, Tom actually got some work done. I just went out to check on him. I took my camera. He's pruning the espaliered apple trees. 

 While I was out there  I was surprised to see how far the daffodils had popped up out of the ground.

 I found a wall flower blooming. 

  New growth is happening and blooming is beginning.                                                                                   

 Snowdrops and cyclamen say "Why wait for spring?" 

Happy Groundhog's Day. May your days be sunny and your spring be early.