Below is the Spring Concert this year. I'd like to apologize about the poor quality up front. This is the first time I've ever used this camera and it was a learning experience for me. The batteries "kinda" went dead right after Christian's class finished their performance, so what I tried to do was capture clips from the other classes (6th, junior high, and high school) and piece them all together. It's not great but will give you some idea of jus how well the 5th grade did in comparison. They did EXCELLENT! They've worked so hard this year. They were all looking forward to the Arbuckle Wilderness Contest trip, but because some moron felt the need to threaten the schools it was canceled. There's always next year tho and they'll have a years experience under their belts!

Jus in case you dont feel the need to watch let me jus say...MY BABY GOT THE AWARD FOR MOST IMPROVED!!! Only two awards were given out to their class, Christian (most improved) and Josie (outstanding) Every once in a while you'll hear scratches or squeals this is when the camera screamed that it was going to automatically shut down lol I did my best to cut them out! Tick I am not! lol

Well I hope you enjoy at least listening to it since the picture isnt too clear.

Tax season is upon us once again and I've been lacking blog inspiration so I thought I'd share a few tax tips and hints. At least the major ones brought to my attention and places you can go that walk you thru doing your own tax return by e-file and places you can go to print off forms you need for free. Keep in mind this is US taxes only, at least til I get better informed on Canada taxes.

First I received an email this morning about the new TELEPHONE TAX REFUND. This is a TRUE credit you can use to receive the refund, however I'm thinking some are under the impression that its if you ever had a phone, let me clear some things up for you...Any individual, business or nonprofit organization that paid the tax for long distance or bundled service billed after Feb. 28, 2003 and before Aug. 1, 2006 is eligible to request the refund. This means if you didnt have LONG DISTANCE or BUNDLED SERVICE during this time you arent allowed to request the refund. The refund is between $30-60. There are 2 ways you can go about figuring the amount. First you can go with the standard amount, which would be my personal choice seeing as the second way is the much more involved and time cost consuming. With the standard amount you check to see how many exemptions you have and jus play a matching game:

• one exemption, the standard refund amount is $30
• two exemptions, the standard refund amount is $40
• three exemptions, the standard refund amount is $50
• four exemptions or more, the standard refund amount is $60

The second way is to find every bill from Feb. 28, 2003-Aug. 1, 2006 and add up all the federal excise tax paid on all long distance/service bundled packages or it could be listed as toll charges. IF using this way you will need to attach a FORM 8913 My suggestion to you, as a tax preparer, if you use someone such as Jackson Hewitt or H & R Block go with the standard method. Places like this charge for EACH additional form you file. Not to mention the fact that that is 41 months of old bills you'd have to locate and chances are really good that after adding all of it up you'd find that it is less then the standard amount anyway. I'll add some pictures of the actual forms so you can click and check to make sure you've added it in the right spot on the right form. You can click the telephone tax refund at the beginning of the 2nd paragraph and it will take you to the IRS site where it has ALL the information to a Q&A about this refund. Good luck.

I can not begin to tell you how many customers I've spoken with that have said H & R Block is informing them they can only carry 2 of their children, regardless of how many they have. One word to this...WRONG! I'm trying to give them the benefit of the doubt here thinking maybe they're jus not explaining this as well as they should. You carry EVERYONE in your household that you financially support. However, only 2 of the children will be used when figuring out the EIC (Earned Income Credit) But jus think of what you're cheating yourself out of if you dont list everyone...$1000 exemption for dependant, this exemption is extremely important because it LOWERS your taxable income, the child tax credit and the sales tax relief credit (OK) which is $40 for every member of the household. There are certain guidelines as to whether or not you can use them as dependants.