HP Bday gift

Look what Warner Bros. Pictures released, just for my birthday! The first full trailor for Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2. EEEEEEE!!!! I'm flattered that they remembered!  :)

OHMYGOODNESS! Did you just see that!?! Holy cow! I equal amounts cannot wait for July 15th to get here and also never want it to arrive! I'm so anxious to see this epic finale, but I don't want it to all really be over! Oh, the internal struggle!

ACCIO HP7.2!!

Easter Weekend

It's always fun to sing about a special day of the week. So here's a little something to get you excited about the Easter Weekend!

For real, though, I hope you have a great Easter Weekend and get a chance to focus on and give praise for the incredible sacrifice that the Lord and His Son made just because they love us so much.

God is so good! 

The Rescue

So I found this guy on youtube named Tyler Ward, because he loves Taylor and wrote a song about taking her name if she'd marry him. But then I listened to a few more of his Taylor covers and then to a couple other covers, as well. It wasn't long before I came upon some of his original music. 

This particular original song and video really struck me. He had his fans submit videos to stream together for the song. The final result is very moving.

It got me thinking. I need rescued from a whole lot of things, myself. Shame. Resentment. A judging attitude. Complacency. Pain. Skepticism. Distrust. Comparing myself to others and being discouraged by what I see. Self-doubt. Pressure to be someone I'm not; pressure to be perfect.

But mostly I need rescued from Fear. Fear of being myself and simply owning who God made me to be. Fear of not being enough. Fear of being too much. Fear of failure or of disappointment. Fear of others not liking me or of not successfully being who and what (I believe) everyone else expects me to be. Fear of change. Fear of being vulnerable. Fear of being hurt again. Even a fear of hope, because I fear eventually being let down. Fear of the unknown...

Luckily, I have a Rescuer who saves me from the enemy. I am not alone.

What do you need rescued from? Do you have access to the refuge He provides?



Potter & Pizza Tax Day

Generally, on this day every year, I post some sort of "Holla! I survived!" post celebrating the end of tax season. However, this year the deadline was extended through the weekend to Monday the 18th. Which means we still have three more days to go. Boo.



But April 15, 2011 is still going to be a good day worth celebrating, because Harry Potter 7.1 comes out today on video! And I'm having a little Pizza and Potter party tonight with some fellow HP freaks who intend to watch the movie as well as every minute of the "hours of extra footage" of behind the scenes stuff! (We're having to borrow Charles' PS3 in order to play the Bluray, since all the secret stuff is only on that disk. Those sneaky people forcing us to upgrade!)

[pic via]

Even though the plans have been made for a couple of days, I needed a reminder this morning when I was dreading getting out of bed and willingly going back for another busy tax day at work. I finally asked Brad to give me a pep talk. It went something like this:

"Guess what comes out today! Harry Potter! Guess what you're going to do tonight! Watch it with your favorite Harry Potter friends! But in order to get to that point, you've got to start today. So that means just hoppin' on out of bed. C'mon. You can do it. Let's go ahead and start this Harry Potter day. Every minute is a minute closer to pizza and Potter. Whatever happens between now and then is just busy work getting you closer to tonight. C'mon... There ya go... You can do it... Let's get this Potter started!" (Isn't Brad the best? He totally knows me.)

So, here I am counting down the hours (and phone calls, and clients, and returns, and lunch orders, and faxes, and even one very disgruntled client who was not happy about how much he owed) to get to this:

I think I can make it. Leave it to Harry Potter (and Brad Mehaffey) to give me the motivation I need to make it through another tax season!

Oh, and wait! This just in! Bradley not only gives great pep talks, but he also sends "Cheer you up" flowers to my office! Seriously, what a great husband! :D

Maybe I really can make it all the way through this (extended) tax season, after all! :)

Carnivore

Long hours at work = many snacks at the desk. I snagged these mini animal crackers from a stocked "Tax Season Survival Kit" in our office kitchen. These tiny, roaring, scrumptious treats have successfully attempted to maintain my sanity over the last few weeks. Nom, nom, nom.

PS. Don't judge me for literally putting my name (well initial) on my favorite pen. They seem to constantly get swiped off my desk, and I'm very partial to my Blue Pilot G2. When it gets stolen "misplaced," I can always relocate and easily reclaim it, since there's no denying who it's rightful owner is. I mean, a girl's gotta do what a girl's gotta do. Jussayin.

Working while intaxicated

[pic via]

With the tax deadline only a week away, work has gotten pretty wild. Lots of long hours and late nights. Around 9:00 last night one of our partners was belting out "Santa Claus is Comin' to Town" at the top of his lungs while he poured over a return. When I asked him why he was singing Christmas carols in April (besides the fact that all things Christmas are awesome, duh), he frantically responded "because that's just how far behind I am!" with a big chuckle and a crazy look in his eyes. Oh dear. I believe the unexpected increased length of time for the big office reconstruction has put a few of our accountants behind a little more than desired. Oops.

Luckily, at this point at least, we seem to all still be in the delirious stage of sleep deprivation and over exhaustion. (Or what I like to call inTAXication.) I fear that next week we'll all be in the cranky phase. Yikes. Consider yourselves warned.

The last couple of tax seasons, I have literally lost my voice from talking to so many clients as they either come into the office or call in, combined with the extremely late nights of preparing returns. I'll be sure to increase my Vitamin C intake this time around. By the third year through, I should know better. Wish me luck!

March Happiness

I don't usually care anything about sports. I kind of enjoy the Super Bowl, but let's face it; I care more about the commercials than the game itself. However, this year, I totally got involved in the NCAA championship. Check me out!

I joined Brad and the gang in the March Madness hoop-lah. (Ha, see what I did there?) Under his excellent tutelage (aka, extensive knowledge of team colors and mascots), I filled out my own bracket with well informed decision making skills. (Dogs always beat cats, duh...) And would ya guess what! I came in second, over all!! (If UConn hadn't made it to the final, I woulda been tied with Kris for first. So close!) Holla!



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And furthermore, the girls at work created our own bracket. We were intimidated by the main "work pool" that actual sports fans joined, even paying the entry fee of $5 and earning a little prize in the end. But, since we didn't care enough to actually put money on it, we decided to just do our own fun one. Now, granted, the competition in this bracket wasn't quite as steep as the other one (no offense, girls), but seeing as how I filled out the whole thing by randomly clicking boxes within a 3 minute period, I'm still pretty stoked about my first place ranking!

(click to enlarge)

Perhaps I'm a sports-lovin' gal afterall! Maybe basketball is actually "my thing." Well, maybe only comparing colors and mascots during the month of March, actually. I mean, it seems as though I'm pretty much a pro at it. Jussayin...

Entertainer of the Year!

[pic via]

In case you happened to miss the Academy of Country Music Awards last night, here are my favorite moments!

(I can't wait to see that performance LIVE!)

And of course, the climax of the entire evening; Taylor won the highest honor of the show, the award for the Entertainer of the Year! Yahoo! She so deserves it! (And you better believe I voted! And so did my dad! And so did Brad's cell phone and email address!)

And then she thanked me, told me she loves me and that she can't wait to see me on her tour! :)

♥ Isn't she just lovely? I'm so very proud of my "best friend"! Can't wait to actually meet her! ♥

Dangerous Wands

You can't have an April Fool's Day without some shenanigans, so check out this Mashup of Harry Potter and Dangerous Minds. It.is.epic.

Seriously, I would totally watch this movie!