T4s Coming In

I have now received both of my T4s, and have received my interest on OSAP. I think that is all I have for tax time to come in. I am now wondering if there is a way to estimate what my income tax return will be. Any ideas? In 2008 I only worked 6 months and received a little over $400 back. In 2009 I worked 12 months so I'm hoping for more back this year. I'm anxious for it to come in to make some dents in debt repayment. I just hope I don't end up OWING money.

Are there any ways to estimate this before my taxes are all filed?

Brakes Failed

My brother was borrowing my car for the past two weeks as my parents are in Florida and I'm using their vehicle. He comes to me yesterday and says the brakes are shot. I ask what he did, he says nothing. He only drives to work and back and ocassionally the bank. 10 minutes of driving total. So I didn't believe him, I JUST got the car serviced last Monday. So I take it for a spin, and sure enough the brakes are VERY VERY slow at working, and the brake light is on.

I can press the brake pedal right to the floor, there are no squeaking sounds or anything it just slows down extremely slowly, and I was going about 10km/h. I am going to have my dad look at it when I pick them up tonight, hopefully it's just a basic problem like needing brake fluid or something. Somehow I'm thinking it's more than that though since I'm sure they would have checked for that when I got it serviced. Please be an inexpensive and easy fix!!!

Now I can joke about having a Toyota with failed brakes though. Although mine isn't on the recall list...it's 11 years old.

Impulse Buy?

I don't know why I do this. It's impulse buying. Online shopping is so easy!! Way too easy.

Last night I received a magazine I have a subscription to. It's "The Mailbox Magazine" it's a magazine for teachers, I really enjoy it even though I don't have my own classroom. But I'm pretty obsessed with books and teaching resources. The subscription was a gift :) I was browsing through the magazine and they had an ad for other things this company sells. Gotta avoid the ads!!

I follow the ad to the website. I browse online looking at the freebies that you get for having a subscription, very cool stuff. Freebies make it even better. Then I go to the books section, clearance section. And I browse and pick out a bunch of books that I would want on my wishlist. But instead of leaving them there I add them to my cart, type in my credit card number, and click submit. Total was *hangs head in shame* $151. Yikes! $25 was shipping, darn shipping!

Why do I do this?!? I don't do it often but yikes $150 spent in minutes! On 13 books! Books I don't even have a classroom for. Why?!?! Do you impulse buy very often? Is it usually on gum at the grocery store, or you ever have big purchases for things you know you don't need? One day I'll use them at least (I hope), and at least they were on clearance...

Pancake Tuesday!

Mmmmm pancakes!!

Tomorrow is Ash Wednesday and also the day when I give up something for lent, OR do something extra. I have given up all sorts of things before, chips, chocolate, candy, doing one nice thing for my family each day, etc. I'm not sure what to do this year. I am thinking I will exercise each day and maybe something else like no eating out or I don't know. What about you? Do you participate in Lent, are you giving anything up for it?

Amazing Performance!!

Did anyone else watch pair skating tonight? The Chinese did amazing! It seemed like all of the other teams choked because of the olympic pressure and fell or downgraded their program. The Chinese who have never received a medal in olympic figure skating placed first and second in the pair freestyle skate. So good, happy belated Chinese New Year to them. The French yesterday were also really fun to watch. I clapped for them and the Chinese teams in my living room :)

Happy Valentine's Day!!

How are you spending this Valentine's weekend? Anything special planned for Family Day??

My BF came over Friday night. He stayed for a total of 14 hours before going home on Saturday because I had a Girl Guides sleepover to do. We were thinking, we have been together 7 Valentine's days in our 6 years and 3 months together but we do not think we have ever (this year being no exception) seen each other on the actual day, reading weeks, and then long distance. But that is okay since it's not a big deal to me.

Usually we make a card for each other and that's about it, but this year when he came on Friday he surprised me. Since we are going to Holland this year he got me tulips, while there we plan on visiting Belgium and he got me those shell Belgian chocolates, and we also plan on visiting France, so when I opened up the card I was expecting it to be in French but he just missed that country. It was pretty sweet. A lot more than I expected and I think it was nice. Surprises are always fun.

We watched the Olympic opening from start to finish on Friday night. I loved seeing Betty Fox there carrying out the flag, I actually thought she would be the final torch bearer but they did a good job. I am glad they changed the luge set up and am excited to watch some more Olympics this weekend. That, and some sewing is likely how I will be spending my family day and Valentine's, what about you?

I Believe

Olympics start tonight! I'm excited to watch the opening ceremonies, they should be amazing. I bet the hype is crazy in Vancouver, it's even exciting in my small town in Ontario.

I am mostly looking forward to men's hockey. But I'm also excited to watch some women's hockey, figure skating and highlights of some of the other sports, bobsledding, snowboarding and luge is always fun to watch.

I have a Girl Guides sleepover to do this weekend, and then will be spending family day with my brothers. I am also working on a new sewing project (my first from a pattern) and I am going to try to finish that on Monday as well. I will show you when it's done!

Are you going to be watching the Olympics?? What is your favourite sport to watch?