J. and I went to the Orthodontist today. We both liked him. Of course J. liked him, he said to her, "hey! let's get this done quick! You are too cute to not have your teeth straightened out!" She was instantly in love :)

The first step is just braces on her top teeth to make space for the stuck tooth. I believe that the timing makes it so that her summer at her father's will give the tooth time to see if it wants to come down on its own. If not, she'll have surgery when she returns, where they'll put a brace on the tooth that's stuck up in there, connect it with a wire, and then close her back up ... the braces will then force it down where it goes.

I spoiled her afterward. I took her to the knitting store to get some new needles and new yarns, and I bought her a very decadent Nutella Wrap from a local "burrito" place. They used to be called The Wrap, and then decided that that name was freaking people out, and people didn't trust it, thinking it meant the place was all vegetarian and full of sprouts, so they changed their name to something that has to do with burritos. I have two favorite wraps from there --- one is the "Mediterranean" which is full of cucumbers and olives and chicken and other very Mediterranean type veggies; the other is the Bangkok, which has Asian cabbage, peanut sauce, and chicken --- to me, these are NOT burritos. Notice that neither has rice? Or beans? Whatever. Hers was a flour tortilla and 2 scoops of Nutella. The end.

Before I picked her up from school, I crossed one of the items off my week's to-do list -- I did my taxes.

Ho.leeeeeee Shit.

Wow.

I owe a lot of moola.

$2400, to be relatively precise.

Because I am a) in law school and b) not a trust fund baby and c) a mom to two kids who grow out of their clothes faster than I can digest my dinner .... I don't have $2400.

I haven't owed money EVER. I've gotten considerable funds returned to me for the past several years. Since in law school, I've qualified for Earned Income Credit every year.

Stupid Summer Firm.

They're the problem.

Well, not really. I'm likely the problem. I probably inflated my Allowances on my W-4, because I'm used to filling it out for both girls, but I don't claim both girls since my divorce from the ex was finalized. It's just hard to answer the question "how many dependents do you have?" with the number 1. I don't have one dependent. I have TWO. It's also hard to answer the question "how many kids do you pay for childcare for?" with the number 1. I wish I paid half the childcare that I do pay, but I don't!

When you add inflated allowances onto some weird finagling of "monthly table" instead of "weekly table" that Summer Firm offered us so that we wouldn't have too many deductions, I ended up with zero federal withholding. Zero.

For most people, the finagling means that they aren't forced to have a savings plan whereby 40% of their summer pay is held onto by the federal government until March or April, since they are only making money for the summer.

Since I have a healthy(ish) scholarship AND was paid for two other co-ops and a work study job all in 2006 .... I ended up making more money, and thereby owing more taxes than I have in recent years.

And of all those jobs, I only had $146 withheld for federal taxes.

I owed more than that. By a good bit.

I may go to an H&R block person to figure out if there's anything I can do with my tuition expenses and with my scholarship funds to reduce this tax, but I'm not optimistic.

Somehow, though, I think it will all be okay. My days of being broke are quite numbered at this point, and I feel that I'll be able to get extensions or set up a payment plan.

So it isn't the end of the world, and I'm certainly not feeling wronged in any way. It's just the first of many years where I'll finally be contributing to our nation's coffers, rather than in the past few, where I've taken away from them (in the form of Earned Income Credit).

Labels: kids, life

posted by Zuska @ 5:26 PM

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