Recent Happenings: April 4-18

• Clothes Update: Sarah is not the only one at her school in long clothes.  One morning after dropping her off at school, I noticed that the dean was also dressed in a long shirt and pants. So there are two people at her school who are wearing long clothes still.  Sarah will tell me, "I looked outside and it looked cold so that is why I'm wearing this." She actually has started wearing shorts sometimes, maybe because some of her long pants have holes in them and are being thrown away. She's still in long shirts, though.  (As a side note, since when do elementary schools have deans?)
• Mom/Daughter Date: Sarah and I have gone on a few mom/daughter dates so we make sure to have some time alone.  Sarah likes consistency in her life and so when I asked where she wanted to go, she wanted to go the same place we went last time (Paradise Bakery) and get the same food as before (a cookie and carrot cake bite).  It is fun to do.
• Bureaucracy: When I was doing our state taxes I discovered that the end of 2010, our legislators decided that, while the federal government allowed a tax deduction in 2009 for charitable donations to Haiti, in the state of Arizona these donations wouldn't be an exemption until 2010.  Too bad we'd all filed our 2009 taxes months before!  Not to worry, though.  They created a special form to amend our 2009 taxes.  Of course, the crazy thing is that our 2009 taxes increased by the amount our 2010 taxes decreased so our net taxes paid didn't change.  Wouldn't it have been simpler just to let us take the deduction in 2009 (since it had already been done...)?  Gotta love the government! 
• Dew: Sarah was really excited one morning recently: "Mom! Mom! There's frost on the grass!"  We discussed how this likely wasn't frost (way too warm for that) but dew.  She was still quite excited and went outside to feel it and walk on it.
• Church: Our whole family went to church together today.  It's the first time we've gone together and the first time Matthew went at all.  It took a bit of planning, especially since U leaves a few hours early for meetings, but we managed to get there.  We were even a little early!
• Sleepy Megan: Megan fell asleep in the car on the way home from church today.  Since she had just fallen asleep, I decided to transfer her to her crib in hopes that she'd get a better nap.  She was so tired that she slept in my arms as I carried her upstairs and put her down.  Not to worry, though:  She was awake enough to grab her pacifier and put it in her mouth.  She sure loves her pacifier!