'Merica

This week I celebrated living in the USA.
Monday was a holiday, President's Day. I don't think I've ever had the day off before. 

Growing up in the south we always had a long weekend to remember Martin Luther King Jr, but President's Day was a holiday that seemed to only be recognized by car dealerships and furniture stores. As a grownup working in a hospital the tradition continued. I'd get Monday off for MLK which I often celebrated with a ski trip, but President's Day would come and go without me even noticing. 

As I found myself enjoying the long weekend, I realized a disappointing fact... I had no idea what was the point of the holiday. As usual, I turned to Wikipedia for answers. 

Apparently President's Day is celebrated the 3rd Monday of February in honor of George Washington's birthday.  There was a side note that Lincoln's b-day was also in February. So HAPPY BIRTHDAY GEORGIE & ABE!!!

Now what better way to celebrate our nations forefathers than by doing my own taxes?!? Turns out that I had enough life changes in 2013 to make this process tricky. Here's the things that turned completing taxes into a day-long process:

- Moving always seems to complicate things. Apparently I get the bonus of deducting moving expenses; however, I was punished and had to file not one, but  two state returns. 

- Giving to charity is a good thing. It would have been even better if I had remembered to keep all my charitable receipts in one place during the move. Organizational fail. 

- Being a homeowner gets you some tax breaks. Being a rental property owner apparently gives you even more. Of course extra tax breaks means extra paperwork!

At least the paperwork is behind me.  Now I can start dreaming of what to do with my refund. God bless 'Merica!

Here's some pictures from my week:

This is a Vietnamese tofu bun bowl. I got it from the local farmers market from a tent called The Pig Lady. Good thing that lady also knows how to do vegetarian food. 

Special treat: sugar free, gluten free, chemical free peach popover. Now I just have to figure out what the heck was in this tasty treat!

 FaceTime with my sweet JoJo.

And oh yeah, I talked to Mom & Dad too!

Morning sunrise. It looked line the sky was in fire as I was walking into work. 

And now for the pic of the week:

BG 

I can't take credit for this one (Mom got this great shot), but it really made me smile. 

Mahalo!