HISTORY

A Little History:
Our story begins in Pocatello, Idaho, circa 1972, when the lovely Debby Christensen agreed to a first, though fateful date with admirer, David Croshaw. Long story-short, he bade her follow him, and they went arm-in-arm to the Logan, Utah temple for establishment of an eternal family unit, Generation 1, on May 23 1973.

From their first blissful summer in Salt Lake City, educational pursuits took them to Provo/Orem, Utah, birthplace of Leslie and Rebecca, and to San Francisco/Oakland California, birthplace of Colin and Matt. Then, for establishment of livelihood, expansion of the tribe with Abby and Dana, and for raising/unifying of Generation 2, it was back to the roots in Pocatello for a rewarding sojourn.

In time, driven by a raging, but commonly shared sense of adventure and independence, one-by-one, Generation 2 escaped the homeland to distant regions of the country and the world, each ultimately developing their own tribal expansions by pairing with worthy mates and initiating Generation 3.

Now sensing fulfillment of their purpose in Pocatello, Generation 1 has also left those roots and transplanted to Cascade Idaho, from which base, they anticipate more abundant contact with The Posterity, Generations 2 and 3, in the future. That contact however, awaits fulfillment of a call to LDS missionary service in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, wherein they hope to help the state of the world by sharing the love of Jesus Christ.

So now, including Generation 0 (Grandma and Grandpa Christensen) home base includes Yuma, Arizona, Pocatello, Idaho, Cascade, Idaho, Vancouver, BC, Fort Lauderdale, Florida, Spokane, Washington, Boise, Idaho, Los Angeles, California, back to Boise, Idaho, and on and on (Generation 3+) to infinity.

Our Mission Statement:
This is the blog of our eternal family unit. Initiated years ago, it served well as a journal, but even more so, as an archive of our personal interaction. It was a gathering place, a confabulation instrument, a unifying force for four generations of widely dispersed and progressively prolific posterity, and their valued associates. Though it served these purposes well for many years, it eventually took a back seat to new-kids-on-the-block, Facebook, and Instagram, and was sadly forgotten.

We now move to resurrect this blog with an added functional purpose of archiving the missionary experiences of Generation 1, of their movements and activities as they participate with The Gathering of Israel in the land northward. In so doing, we hope that via their own comments and posts, this blog will again serve to gather and unify the posterity and their friends.

As in the past, that the young and vibrant may know the old and tired, that enduring bonds may be fostered and maintained, that experience and encouragement may be openly shared, that posterity may embrace truth, and that hearts may be knit together, we must resist detachment despite our geographic divergence. We shall do so here.
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Friday, January 30, 2009

Death and Taxes

Regardless of the fact that Colin and I have lived here in Cleveland for a year and a half we have just been informed of MORE TAXES that we have to pay. It is called a municipality tax. I can't figure out what it does or what it is for but they told us we had to pay them for 2007, 2008 and we need to pay quartly for 2009. I used to roll my eyes when my dad would gripe about paying taxes. I thought he just needed to get over it. Well, I have learned a thing or two in my 30+ years and in 6 months of owning a home and I have decided to jump on my his boat and start complaining. I do know this will do me NO GOOD whatsoever but I am going to do it anyway.
Since Colin works in one municipality but lives in another you might think that we would only have to pay for on or the other but no, we have to pay for the town we live in AND the town we work in! It is just outrageous!!! What gets me is we don't even have to pay federal or state taxes, thank you exemptions and credits. Do they not realize how hard Colin works? They just want to take it and then take some more.
All I can say is,
IDAHO, I REALLY MISS YOU!

6 comments:

Unknown said...

we miss you too. come back as soon as you can

Unknown said...

I can't believe they would charge you for the municipality he works in unless he owns a business there. How do they even know where he works? I also can't believe they would charge you for the year you were esseentially students (intern) and non-home owners, and your residential status was tenuous. I think you should look into that deeper. There has to be some kind of exemption available. Is there an ombudsman or lawyer available through the hospital who could advise you? Keep complaining and complain hard. Maybe it will make a difference. I also can't wait till you come back to Idaho.
David

rebeccaV said...

Idaho misses you too!!!

Crystal said...

Ah, taxes. Don't get me started. We got Matt's unemployment statement and we have to pay taxes on that meager income AND none were taken out, so... yeah. AND my job was not taking enough out of my income and I never changed my exemptions, soooo I get to make a trip to the business office (with all my extra time) and fix that for the remainder of 2009. And why, exactly do I have to pay the government for being a working person? that still just irks the heck out of me. It just makes no sense.

As for the state squeeze, I think that it is so fun dealing with all that. I think a major problem is that all the states are hurting badly, so they are going to tax to the max in order to function minimally, not cool still though. JMU is facing an 11 million deficit and Mary Baldwin a 2 million deficit. That astonishes me! As for getting around it, I am sure if you can afford to hire someone, maybe they can find a loophole. I am not good at finding those but never feel like paying anyone so I have been asking anyone who knows anything about tax law for advise. I really do not feel like we should be paying in!

Anyway, good luck- I know it is awful, one day maybe we will all be financially set. maybe? I used to think if you got a good education, you pretty much were automatically set. HAH! That is not the case at all but I am hopeful still- maybe in 10 years it will be better. That is what I thought 10 years ago, I needed to shoot a little further down the road is all, I think.

Also... I think the tax sitch is only going to get worse with all these bail-outs and stimulus packages. I say keep the $600 to the government and stop bailing out retarded businesses! I heard these packages, in effect place a $27,000 debt on every family in the US. How are we allowing this?!

David and Debby said...

AMEN!crystal

Leslie said...

Yes...Amen! And maybe we should all consider moving to Texas. They have no state income tax! (I guess they probably make up for it in property and sales tax, but at least you can control what you buy.)