Apr. 23rd: Birthdays and Break-throughs!

The awesome came on strong today.  First of all (and most importantly) it is my niece's 2nd Birthday.  I can't believe it, but Isla is already 2 years old.  .... How the heck did that happen?  I'm missing so much of this beautiful girl's life.  I cannot wait to get to home so I can spend more time with her and finally give her the gift I made.  I hope she likes it.  On a side note, I need to give props to my brother's girlfriend for taking the mandatory high chair, topless, cake-eating picture and then sending it to me.  It's one of those photos that every child needs to have taken of them on their first few birthdays.  Unfortunately it reminded me so much of some of my old photos.  It's quite possible that Isla got her hair from her Auntie Ali.  Don't worry Isla, it will be long and beautiful soon enough!

In addition to it being Isla's birthday - I went through a major break-through today.  Confession time: I have been intimidated by personal income tax filing for years!  Since being in Vancouver I've been getting my taxes done professionally.  My taxes are perhaps a bit more complicated than the average T4 submission so when I get them done professionally I tend to really pay for it, but it was always worth it to me so that the stress would be off of me.  But last year when I took my papers in, the accountant told me that I really should be doing it on my own as I seemed to know everything I needed to. So - today I tried it out.  And I think ... I THINK ... I got it done.  I'm probably going to make some calls to make sure I didn't completely screw up and make sure that I file everything properly, but I included all of my paperwork and filled in all of the boxes - what else is left?  Everything seems comparable to my previous years which implies that I likely did everything right.  I don't want to get too ahead of myself, but if indeed I did everything correctly than I have just gone through a major breakthrough.  It's not just a matter of handling my own taxes, but more a matter of getting over a HUGE hurdle and gaining a sort of confidence that I've been lacking significantly.  When the only things we can guarantee in life are death and taxes - it seems only appropriate that I at least know how to handle one of those things.

What an awesome day of growing up!