Piano….

As I write, I have the sweet music of birds in the trees and my husband playing the piano. Can I just say I love listening to Jon play the piano? When he plays, it’s full of emotion, but also lighthearted and SO enjoyable to listen to. I could easily be serenaded to sleep because it’s so enjoyable to listen to. Lexi isn’t too used to us playing the piano since we haven’t had time to do much of it since we got her, but both Jon and I got a chance to serenade her this evening. She just stared at us wondering when dinner was going to be served. She’s looking forward to Sunday though. Jon has begun feeding her, her very own Sutter Spaghetti dish. She gets noodles (which she loves cooked or dry) as well as some french bread and sauce. She is always the first to finish.

So, by the mere fact I’m listening to Jon play the piano, that means I’m home from my business trip. I’m so thrilled that the Lord has carried Jon and I through another busy season. Being apart as much as Jon and I have since we’ve been married just makes me more thankful for every second we are together. Thankfully, I have traveled for the last time until June or July…..How wonderful!!!! Now it’s just full swing taxes. My hours will pick up a bit since we have a big deadline in a couple of weeks and then to work on all of the returns that we had to extend their deadlines.

Other than that, nothing too exciting is going on here. We are slated to have a big Easter Egg hunt here at the house after church on Easter Sunday (big is definitely an exaggeration, but I’m really excited). Jon also bought me some egg painting kits last year, so hopefully Ethan, Madelyn, and I can do that together since I’ve never done it before. My sister, Brandi, is coming in from Virginia, so we’re looking forward to seeing her. Still praying though that she finds a house soon.

Well, off I go. Early morning tomorrow, so I better start dinner and be preparing for the morning. Love to all.

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Crab Cakes anyone?

Today was the first day in almost three months that I did not have to work on Saturday. I’m not going to get too excited, because I will probably have to work the rest heading into our tax deadline, but it was nice to have an unexpected day off. I didn’t set an alarm in the morning which was so nice. I don’t remember the last time I had a morning like that.

 The day was spent doing things that are relaxing to me. I started by weeding my flower garden and tilling Jon’s veggie garden. Jon has been eagerly waiting to shoot his new shotgun so he and a friend went clay pigeon shooting (where he shot 25 out of 30 clay pigeons). I wasn’t in the Annie Oakley mood, so I went to my mom’s to try to help her with her kitchen makeover project. My mom has knocked down a wall, insulated and put up a new wall in a room that used to be in her garage, and removed all of the tile flooring in preparation for her new floor. I would post pictures, but we are purposefully keeping my sister in VA in the dark so that she is surprised in what we have done since she’s been gone. I’m not too sure though how she left just in time to miss this major renovation. Lucky duck. Anyway, now it’s date night. BJU is playing Furman in soccer tonight, so Jon and I opted to have the house to ourselves while Joey and his friends went to cheer them on. It will be a night filled with Shrimp Scampi, Homemade Mashed Potatoes, and Homemade Ice Cream (thanks to the ice cream maker the Fortney’s gave us for our wedding 2.5 years ago….using it for the first time tonight) 😉

 Yes, Jon’s cooking experiments have been going well. This past week, he made us homemade crab cakes, homemade pizza….not too unusual, but this was the first time he made the dough from scratch and tonight, he’s trying the potatoes for the first time. He and his co-worker spend most of their day talking about their next food creations. I can’t say I mind. At first, I was a little put off because you always here that the “good wife” has dinner on the table, laundry done, and clean house for her family. Some woman in the ministry even said that the reason my parents split up was because my mom didn’t cook enough, so I have tried from day one to learn new recipes and add variety to our meal schedule. Well, obviously, not cooking kind of took that role away from me, but Jon enjoys it, so I have been finding other ways around the house to make myself useful, and I can’t say I have minded the new recipes. . . very delicious. What has been more fun is all of the money we have saved this year on food. When we sat down to do our 2010 budget, we wanted to rein in the money spent on food, so we have been couponing and we have saved so much in comparison to where we were last year, and we haven’t sacrificed the quality of our food. If anything, we are eating way better.

 My next class starts Monday. It feels so great to be slowly chipping away at this degree. Joey says he’s still fine with me graduating with him, so that’s what we’re hoping for. Definitely mark your calendars for a big Sutter graduation party when Joey, Amy, and I all graduate together in 2011. Well, I’m going to sign off and spend the evening with my sweet husband. I will be traveling next week (for the last time this season…woo hoo), so I must soak up all of the J&A time that we can get. Love you all, and thanks for reading.

Family….Yesterday…in History.

I am sometimes accused of loving the Sutter family more than my own, which is an unfair statement, but to shed light on the falsehood, I want to honor my family in the same way I do the Sutters on their special days. I’m a day late due to busy season, but yesterday, March 13th was my sister’s birthday. She recently moved to Norfolk, Virginia with her company, Penske Truck Leasing, and she is relying on God to help her locate a home so she can move out of her hotel, and she is also relying on Him to find a tenant to rent her home here in South Carolina. So, as I do….let’s see what happened on “This Day in History.”

1781	The planet Uranus was discovered by Sir William Herschel.
1852	“Uncle Sam” made his debut as a cartoon character in the New York Lantern.
1884	Standard Time was adopted throughout the United States.
1901	Benjamin Harrison, the 23rd president of the United States, died in Indianaoplis at age 67.
1906	Suffragist Susan B. Anthony died at age 86.
1925	A law went into effect in Tennessee prohibiting the teaching of evolution.
1933	Banks began to re-open after a holiday declared by President Franklin D. Roosevelt.
1938	Defense attorney Clarence S. Darrow died at age 80.
1947	The Lerner and Loewe musical “Brigadoon” opened on Broadway.
1964	Kitty Genovese, 28, was stabbed to death near her Queens, New York, home. The case came to be a symbol of urban apathy, though initial reports that 38 neighbors ignored Genovese’s calls for help have since been disputed.
1969	Apollo 9 returned to Earth after a mission to test the lunar module that was used in the moon landings.
1980	A jury in Winamac, Ind., found Ford Motor Co. innocent of reckless homicide in the fiery deaths of three young women riding in a Ford Pinto.
1996	A gunman opened fire on a class of kindergarteners at an elementary school in Dunblane, Scotland, killing 16 children and one teacher before killing himself.
2005	Robert Iger was named to succeed Michael Eisner as chief executive of Walt Disney Co.

The notable people that she shares her birthday are….William Macy….he’s the only one I recognized.

Another interesting fact about Brandi???? She was the one who led me to the Lord back in ’93. Whether she remembers or not, she and I will always share that special moment in my life. I love you Brandi. I miss you dearly, but I know you’re where the Lord wants you. See you soon!!!

(She’s the one in the middle).

Woo Hoo…Finish Line is in sight

This weekend I ran in my first ever 10k which is 6.2 miles. My girlfriend and I have been training for some time, and we were elated to finish the race on Saturday and to do in a much better time than we did the week before. What was a bigger blessing was the beautiful weather the Lord gave us. The weather on Saturday was truly beautiful. It was evidence of His creation, and the birth of new things. The lilies were popping up out of the ground preparing for their vibrant appearance in spring. This was the first race though that when I could see the finish line I also saw my husband cheering for me. VERY encouraging. He knows I want to change my health and that it’s hard for me and somehow he knows how to encourage me without degrading me or discouraging me. To see the rest of our pictures, feel free to follow this link to my facebook album. You don’t have to facebook to see them. http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=392506&id=603205205&l=9d97a19b4a

Another finish line I can see is the end of the audit season. I have three more weeks of audits which includes only one more week of out-of-town travel. When we started our interim work back in the fall, it felt as if the audit season would never be over, but the Lord has given strength to complete my second audit season. It was refreshing this week to be in the office and to accomplish a lot. I was able to complete all of the extensions for my clients and prepare for the week ahead. Once we are done with the audit portion of busy season, I will begin doing the tax returns for all of those clients.

The finish line though that was most exciting to see was this past Friday when my husband came home from his audit. He had spent the week in Columbia working on an audit for a a construction supplier company. He met a controller named Jimmy. Jimmy has really impacted Jon’s cooking. Jimmy is a food critic who takes pictures of almost each meal he eats, and he blogs about it. Jon tried cow tongue tacos for the first time. DISGUSTING if you ask me. When he came home, he was inspired to make a thin-crust pizza. He had recently had a pizza with duck, cherries, and onions. Frankly, I was thankful mine only had onions, pepperoni, and tomatoes. Don’t mind the odd shape. It was DELICIOUS!!!! He also spent yesterday making his own butter for our dinner today.

I miss this Guy! Can’t wait until you come home, Love.

Running, Jumping, and Who knows what else

Short update. This week is a bit slower. Time for me to catch up on family taxes, our own taxes, and extensions for clients. I am almost done with the family ones assuming you have told me you want them done or need help. Ours are close to being finalized…yeah, and today is extension day at work for all of my audit clients. So it should be a pretty fun day. Since Jon is away all week, I’m also catching up with some friends who have been neglected during the heart of busy season. I’m very excited about Thursday night. My maid-of-honor, Analeisa is coming over, and we are having a play date with our “kids.” I’m very excited to wear Lexi out with her dog Cooper.

This weekend is going to be a bit different. On Saturday, I will be running in a 10k (6.2 miles). It’s the longest race I have ever done. My girlfriend and I from highschool have reconnected over the last year, and we started running earlier this year. For me, it was running again, but for her it was running in general. It’s very exciting that we are both going to run and finish this race. We went out Saturday to practice on the course, and wow was it long! Thankfully, the weather is supposed to be gorgeous Saturday (hard to believe with snow in the forecast today, but that’s SC weather). We are expecting a great race and a successful finish. We have hopes of doing a half marathon at the end of April. This is our test run to see if we are on track since this is half-way through our training. We saw how well my 2009 goal of running a half went, so we are being more cautious this year on making that the end-all, be-all goal…especially since I don’t really like running, and I don’t really have time to do the long runs associated with the training. So, we’ll see. You’ll have to check back for pictures of our grand event. Or you can check my friends blog every Tuesday when she posts our progress. She’s working on trying to get healthy this year, and she’s been blogging about it for accountability. Her Tuesday posts called Triumphant Tuesdays can be found at www.simplesavingsecrets.net The only downside is since I’m running in the morning on Saturday it means I have to work in the afternoon/evening on Saturday to make up my hours, but on the upside….we’re nearing the end of busy season so hopefully that means less Saturdays too.

Until next time……