"It's sorta like playing Monopoly"

These were my words to Steve last night as I was "helping" him with our taxes. We had a little snack on the couch and then he said he was going to go start getting our tax stuff together to send to the accountant. I had a terrible headache, so he told me to go relax upstairs. BUT - I decided to poke my nose into his office to see what preparing for taxes entails as the only time I've ever filed by myself I did so over the phone and they involved the letters "E-Z." But wouldn't you know I got drafted into helping!

Segue - Steve has taken multiple days off work to stay home with Madeline. This has allowed him to get the true "stay at home parent" experience. Although I have worked my entire life and have a good idea what getting up and putting a full day in at the office entails, I don't give my husband the credit he deserves a lot of the time. He's up at 6am to let the dogs out, feed them, pack his lunch, and leave for work in the cold cold car. He puts in a full day at Ball State and then drives 45 minutes home to be greet ed usually by a frazzled wife and whiny baby - plus 2 dogs who want to play. He immediately takes over and plays with Madeline while I finish up dinner, gets her ready for dinner, feeds her dinner, plays with her while I clean up, gives her a bath, and puts her to bed. After that he pays bills, mows grass, empties trash or a myriad of other "Honey-Dos". Usually without a thank you from me.

Steve assigned me the job last night of going through the checkbook, credit card, and medical receipts to figure out how much money was spent on medical bills in 2007. It was an arduous job to be sure. It involved sorting, and computing, and listing, and calculating, and eye straining. Then it involved coming to terms with the amount of money we had to spend on medical bills last year. I thought my eyes were going to bug out of my head. Yes, I couldn't help thinking about all the shoes I could have purchased - or nice sports car for that matter, but I was amazed that my husband had been able to finagle our savings to pay it all off without medical debt.

Sometimes you got to get in someone elses skin and walk around in it to really understand what their life is like. I have no idea (literally, none- I am not exaggerating) about how to balance a checkbook, put money into IRAs and 529s, invest in mutual funds and the like. If he dies before me I will, literally, be lost. I don't think I've ever once thanked him for being so wise with our finances, for working so hard so that I can stay at home with our daughter, taking out the trash and alllllllll the other yucky jobs he does that he doesn't like either - that he does because they need to be done. Sitting there, on the floor of his office, I was doing something that he normally did. If I hadn't done it, I would have no appreciation for the job. I would have been like "Ohhhh sorting receipts - BIG DEAL." It makes me wonder how many other things he does that I take for granted. Picking up toys at night isn't a personal high of my day, but it beats paying bills and doing all that complicated stuff. It was up to me I'm pretty sure we'd be in financial ruin because I'd keep forgetting to write checks, let alone trying to keep track of bills.

So, after I finished my job, I took out "the packet" - the big thing we have to fill out for the accountant. So I sat there and read the questions aloud while he worked on a website.

"Did you operate or otherwise take part in a S Corporation purchase or franchisement?"
No

"Did you or any of your dependants pay a luxury tax of 5,000 dollars or greater?"
No

"Did you purchase or sell any real estate this year?"
No

Ok, so I'm making some of those questions up, but it sounded like the Monopoly game from Hell. Apparently there is a tremendous amount of work in getting ready for someone else to do your taxes. Who knew?

Thank you, dear husband, for taking care of me. For not complaining that you paid for a baby instead of a new car. For sparing me from doing things, not because I'm not capable, but because I just wouldn't like doing them. Thank you for always walking into the house with smile on your face, and open arms for your daughter. Thank you for all the times I should have said it and didn't. I love you.

But please don't ever ask for help with taxes again.