Well, we've started a new year in this world....and as a treat to myself, I wanted to post some new thoughts. I don't know if anyone still follows this blog, but that's OK. This is mostly for me. It was a long and difficult year. So this is my treat to myself. Anyone that wants to is more than welcome to read my meanderings and comment if so desired. Just please be gentle with any critisims and feel free to be lavish with praise. Grin. So, let's start.......
Dec 2011, my parents were in a horrible car wreck. Mom, being blind so not seeing what was coming, sustained almost no injuries. But Daddy was rushed to hospital a bloody mess. It was quite scary to view it all. Once in hospital, they glued him back together, took tons of x-rays, CT scans and took even more of his blood for tests. The end result is we found out Daddy has 3 abdominal anyerisms. All are small and I found the love letter from Papa in the whole episode. We had no idea he had this problem! Now we know and he knows that he has to kinda mind his age....giggle. We took him to the doctor every three months for all of 2012 for checkups on the anyerisms and in Dec 2012, the dr said we could go 9 months before our next checkup. Whoo hooo!
Shortly after the accident (about 3 months later) Mom started complaining about one of her feet hurting. It took another 3 weeks for me to get her to let me look at it. And when I did, I almost spit! She had a sore on one toe that was black and I knew it was gangrene. Mom had Forneire's Gangrene about 9 yrs ago....so I recognized that awful smell. She refused to allow me to take her to a doctor, but once tax season was over (about 3 more weeks!) after I'd spent every night going to her house after work and washing her feet in a sonic bath with aloe vera and epson salts. I convinced her we HAD to go to the dr. We spent another month or so working on that foot, and got referred to a specialist when tests showed she had hardening of the arteries. (That kinda explained her contraryness about going to the dr) The specialist informed us she had more calcium in her veins than her bones and was shocked she hadn't had a stroke or heat attack. So after some new meds, and a home health aide to help me out a bit, and 6 months, we got the gangrene cleared up and she didn't loose any toes! (another love letter!)
Then during the summer, the owner of the building our office was in, sold the office and we were told we'd have to move by Feb of this year. This after we'd spent a little over $6000 to renovate the office. ARGGGH!!! By now I was beginning to seriously discuss our situation with Papa! So we started looking for a new office space. There were NONE to be found that we could afford the payments on and I was getting a little stressed. Then in Oct 2012, a storm came thru, tore up the awning in front of the building and the new owner had it taken down. OK. Kinda ugly, but OK. EXCEPT the man taking down the awning had a wind gust throw a metal bar thru the 8ft, 100yr old plate glass window directly in front of my desk...here's the next love letter! No one was at the office when this happened. The glass shattered the next day about 30 seconds after I LEFT my desk! I heard that glass cracking and ran....glass was everywhere!!! Folks came out of buildings two blocks away to find out what that loud crash was. The new owner refused to replace the glass since he planned to tear down the 100 year old building......can we say historical? But the next day, we found a new office space. (Another love letter!) We had 2 weeks to get out of the building, get into the new office, paint everything, redo the hardwood floors and get all the computers back up and running for the opening of our season. Whew! We did it. The next love letter was as our customers started coming in and told us how awesome the place looked. We now are in an old house...folks say it's more like visiting a friend than getting their taxes done. Pretty cool love letter eh?!
Then in the middle of all this, Daddy started seriously loosing weight and looking ill. Another trip to the doctor and another round of tests confirmed our worst fears. He had Prostate Cancer and it had metacisized to the bones. He is now on hormonal therapy which is kinda like chemo without the heavy duty drugs. It's more holistic and mostly hormones. This DOES mean he's having menapausal symptoms at times, but I told him if the hot flashes get bad just stick your head in the freezer a few mintues. It feels SO wonderful. Giggle. After a couple months of treatment, he seems to be adjusting pretty well and the weight lose is slowed way down. In fact, it appears he's beginning to gain a little! The only real problem he has now is the confusion that is really confounding. He gets easily confused and calls me at the office on how to operate the TV....but at least I can help him with that over the phone. And he's still with us....I realize each day is a blessing and a gift. And I choose to cherish each day I have with my Daddy and my Mom.
And possibly the best love letter of all from my loving Papa is that Daddy shared all of Hanukkah with us and even began going to shul with us! Mom still refuses to join in, but now doesn't make as many nasty comments about our faith. I count that another love letter. (Sometimes you have to look to see them! Grin) So all in all, 2012 was difficult, at times harrowing. But we were blessed. We survived it, grew and learned to look for His love letters more carefully. I think I have lots to be glad for and as we start the new year...I look forward to seeing what new Love Letters from Papa I will find! I hope you find them too. He sends them to all of us...we just have to look. Shalom, Spitfire

Shana Tova

We celebrated Rosh Hashanah this week. It's the beginning of the Civil New Year in Israel. It's also when the year changes. And as I was thinking back over this past year, one of the things I really want to improve on is my blogging....I've been horribly silent for several months now. Please forgive me my friends. I will try diligently to post at least once a month if not more. So let me catch you up on the news and the blessings!

We finished tax season 18 April 2011 with more returns done by fewer people than the year before. Even the district manager was impressed. We did not pass last year on income, but that's OK. We finished the season with money in the bank to pay the bills thru the end of the year, got several new clients and overall had a really impressive season for newbies. (Newbie owners, not tax pros. Grin) Then in March we were informed the bank was going to raise the rent on our office....to an unacceptable rate. So tax season ended and we moved the office to a new space. We have spent the entire summer renovating and redecorating this new space. But look at Papa's hand in this.....We have almost 5 times the space as  before, and our rent is almost $100 LESS! Isn't Papa awesome!?!?! The new location is only around the corner from the old place, but we're in a 100 yr old building, with landlords that are incredible!!! They pretty much have let us do whatever we want to do and when they came to see our improvements the end of June, they were speechless. I'll try to get pictures to post in another post the show the before/after. It's pretty cool.

We had a wonderful Pesach in our yard with several friends joining us. (Got pics of that too.....sigh) Then got to go see Grandma in July. We've had almost no rain down here so leaving for any extended time is a little scary. (We're about 25 inches short on rain so everything is crispy and a fire hazard.) In June we went to Dallas for the district convention and the boys had a blast! They got to go places, play and see folks....I was at work. Double sigh. But I got to go to the Holocaust Museum with them before we left Dallas to head south to home again. It was horribly sad, but incredibly informative at the same time. And there was a Holocaust survivor there who signed a book for Little Critter! That made what we saw inside even sadder....this poor man had experienced all that horror as a teenager. Praise Yah, he survived and is willing to tell others how to prevent it happening again!

In August we went to Kansas City Mo for a new franchisee training I had to attend. Again the boys had a BLAST!!! I was in class all day.....this seems to be a recurring theme doesn't it. Hmmmm. But I learned lots, made some great friends and got to enjoy some fun with the boys on the way up and back. So it's all good.

Now I'm teaching 5 new folks how to do taxes, coaching Little Critter's soccer team, taking care of my folks and attempting to keep the house from being condemned!!!! While still doing taxes at the office. We have a couple of book keeping clients (toda Yah) and hope to get some more. Life is full, we're enjoying ourselves and Papa has sent SO many love letters I could write for days trying to tell them all to you...but you're my friends and I won't do that to you. This time. Giggle. Know I pray for you daily and ask Papa to show you His love letters too. May you find your names written in His Book of Life and may your new year be a sweet, joyful, healthy year. Shalom, Spitfire

The Tax Man Calleth.....

Boker Tov (Good Morning), my dear friends. I realize I haven't written in more than a month...boy have I got news to tell you! I don't remember if I mentioned this several months ago, but Dodi and I were discussing buying the H&R Block office I've worked at and managed the last several years. The owner has some health problems, and really needed to sell the office. He approached me and asked if I was interested. Well, long story short, we did it. We bought the office back in October. Due to change ups in Corporate offices, the contract with Block wasn't signed until the Thursday before the office officially opened in December. So we signed papers with Corporate, and then opened the office the following Monday....whew! We did great in December with the Emerald Advances....beat last years total done. Pretty good for a couple of rookies! We'd prayed and told Papa if it was His Will for us to have this office, He'd have to provide what we needed. And He did. If things continue the way they're going, we should be completely out of debt both in the office and the house in 3 years. WooHoo!
Come January, we rehired two employees from last year's tax season, Dodi was hired and my former boss stayed on as my mentor. So far this tax season, we've already done more than half the returns we did last tax season. And we've gained several new clients. Pretty exciting for us and for the office! We're hoping to pick up some book keeping work for the off season to help with getting everything paid off. And to broaden the scope of services for the office. So it looks like we'll be busy for a couple more months. Of course this means I  may not get to post as often as I would like....but I know you'll understand.
We also got some troubling news in January. We've been driving 3 hours one way to go to Tabernacle for the last 7 months. We LOVE the congregation and the Rabbi is wonderful. We'd hoped to be able to work out something with them for Little Critter to begin his Bar Mitzvah classes there. Unfortunately, they require him to attend weekly...and won't allow us to do any of the work in homeschool. That made it impossible to do with tax season and the shop too...so. I'm relying on Papa to take care of this problem. Little Critter will be turning 11 next month and we REALLY need to get him into some kind of Bar Mitzvah class soon. And while I was devastated that we were denied our request, I also understand the teacher's refusal. And I know Papa wasn't at all surprised at this turn of events. So we're waiting to see what direction He would have us go now on this issue. There is a slightly closer Synagogue we can approach, but it's in a higher traffic area. Sigh. There just isn't one near us. So perhaps we're to go somewhere new. Again. I know He has a place for us....we just have to find it. And listen for His directions. But Little Critter is doing pretty good on his other school work and doing his work at the office too. (He gathers trash everyday and takes it out twice a week, and then makes the coffee first thing when we arrive.) So overall, it's all good.
Well, it's getting late and I have to get up early. No calling in sick for me for another 2 1/2 months.....but look out May!!! Giggle. Hope things are going great for everyone. Pops, thrilled you're doing better after your surgery. Abouna, you take care of yourself Sweetie. No more pnuemonia or I really WILL send you Jewish Penicillin!!!! Nanc, hugs to you dear one. Stay warm. And to everyone else, know that even when I'm silent for a bit, I pray for each of you daily. May Papa bless you with His joy, peace and love. Stay warm! Shalom, Spitfire