This week in reruns.

Can I just say I love doing taxes. I was given the opportunity to help a friend and man it gave me such a sugar high that I can't sleep right now, so you benefit!

I love taxes, but I've found something that tops it...
I love audits.

I am in the middle of my first audit ever. . . mind you I didn't take the audit class in college because I heard they didn't teach you anything except how to read audit reports and I wanted an education in how to be an accountant. . . Poor Spencer, my trainer, and the lead on the project, is teaching me the ropes, but I think I'm catching on. (It helps that unlike tax I'm not expected to know anything, so the phrase I recently coined when Spencer comes to talk to me is "start at stupid and go from there.").
We get up every morning in order to drive the 1 hour to Blackfoot where we spend 11 hours pouring over, through, and around the books of a company to make sure they're documenting, billing and recording correctly. It is THE PERFECT job for someone who just really needs to be beyond type A. In life I spend hours creating excel spreadsheets which give me statistical and analytical data which I use in a variety of ways. At work I now play with spreadsheets which were specifically created the same way. I pour through files and data logs, generate "random" samples of work-types and categories and then I put it all together in an understandable and cohesive package so that anyone could read and understand whether or not the company is doing what it should be. How perfect is this job for me??
The down side? I still have to deal with people who don't truly have a clue what they're doing, but this was a great first experience. This company has no clue, but they're generally happy to listen to us explain it and once they understand they most often agree. I did have the controller tell me there was no way we were getting what we wanted in one situation, but it turned out to be a moot point because the million dollars worth of expenses had been put into a different category than usual and really weren't an issue after all.
As for Jason and Alisabeth they are thriving as well. She's happy as a lark every day and Jason has got a routine that keeps them both alive and smiling. He's been amazingly supportive of my 12 hour days and has done everything and more to ease my stress levels while I'm at home. Plus he listens to my insanely long stories about what I did at work.
Lastly, Jason and Alisabeth met me in IF yesterday so that Alisabeth could use her hard-earned allowance to purchase her princess dress.
I was terribly worried because unlike Tucson we don't have a "Disney" store here. I thought about going to Walmart and getting one of their dress up outfits, but I knew what she was looking for and that wasn't it, so we headed to the mall.
Inside we headed straight for the department stores (with a few detours to look at the play areas and toys).
She went straight in and Jason led her over to the toddler section where the dresses were on sale and within her price range. I looked in the children's dresses and gasped in surprise. There was a whole section devoted to "Cinderella" brand dresses and they were also the requested color. So after trying on a size 4T dress which fit snugly I convinced the complaining and not understanding child to come and look at the bigger-bigger dresses. Finally she agreed with a sulk to try on this one:

It was also on sale. . .
I've decided not to comment on parents who spoil their children for a while.
She's happy as a lark, as seen in the fact that she posed for about 20 minutes in it. I think we're going to bring them both to Boise with us this weekend and let the girls dress up and be princesses. I know Alisabeth will love it and I'm pretty sure Paige will too.
So guess what size this dress is. . .
You'll notice the bottom is folded under, but it's only folded about 1.5 inches. . .




Come on, take a guess. . .




Size 7. Yes, my 3 year old daughter fits almost perfectly into a size 7 dress. Yes it's tall, and yes when the bow is tight in the back it gathers slightly, but seriously, this is just wrong. (There were no dresses between the 4T and the 7, so my choice was big or wearable for 6 months or less. . . I chose big.)

I hope your coming week is as awesome as mine was.