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PS - The opinions expressed in this blog are just opinions and personal preferences regarding the way I view life in general. Nothing in this blog is meant in any way to provide professional advice or guidance (no matter how good my opinion is) - seek a professional for your professional needs and just come here for entertainment and occasional tidbits of useful (again - my opinion) information.

Category Archives: Just Me

Movin’ on Up!

So, I have finally done it. Or…i should say, almost done it. I have found office space! I am a little bit freaking out since I never in my dreams imagined that my business would grow to the capacity that it has. I am even on the verge of my first employee. More later.

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2010, Slow as Molasses

  • January 5, 2010 – 12:50 pm
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So the year has started slower than pouring molasses (and I had my first experience with pouring molasses this holiday season with a new recipe of cookies) – anywho – S-L-O-W. I feel like someone turned the dial on my brain and life is moving faster than I can think. As many of you know, not good! I have a very fast paced life and therefore need to think – FAST. I usually have 17 balls in the air and the past two days I can’t even manage two. UGH! I spent the weekend lolling on the couch watching a CSI/Law and Order marathon and having a “jammie party” with my six year old. The rules of the party were that you needed to stay in your jammies from the time you got up until the time you went to bed – sounds good to me!

All of these things I had planned for the new year – organization, style, flair – nope. I got nothing. Maybe next year?

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ummm…yeah, about that…

  • January 2, 2010 – 4:45 pm
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Okay, so it doesn’t take any special genius to figure out that I have been slacking on the blogging. I would like to blame it on the holidays but let’s face it, my last post was in October (HOLY CRAP!). I am going to try and make a better effort in 2010.

So 2009 ended on not a great note for me. My long time puddy-tat friend, Mity, took her last breath on December 28th. She lived a nice long 22+ years and held on long enough for the family to say their goodbyes – still sucks!

I finished all of my holiday baking and delivered goodie baskets a bit later this year (due to a full day of baking where everything I touched turning to shit-OY!), received a few requests to cease the tradition due to more than a few pounds gained but I don’t think that is going to happen.

Spent the Eve of Christmas wrapping presents for charity at the local Best Buy with the MOMS Club of Coon Rapids-North (of which I have been a member for almost six years now). The club raised over $1500 to redistribute back into the community in various service projects. It is a fantastic way to kick off the holiday celebrations and I look forward to doing it for many years to come.

I am in the process of “gearing up” for tax season. This year I have decided not to go back to work at the private tax service I have been working with the last two years and instead went back to the “Nationally known” company (which can not be named by name due to a confidentially contract that was signed) where I got my start in taxes with three years ago. I took a $20/hour pay cut but I am hoping the trade off will help me be able to get what I want out of tax season – keeping up my knowledge and helping people realize their maximum possible refund or lowest legal tax liability along with “teaching” them even more ways to achieve those goals (while NOT working 90 hours a week). I met my office leader and fellow staffers last week and it should be an interesting season, it has been a LONG time since I have worked as a “true” employee.

I am also looking at adding an “Ask the Bookkeeper” section to my website where you can ask bookkeeping and tax related questions which will be added to a refence page on my site (yet to be named, any ideas?) with answers. I find that I enjoy sharing my knowledge and also the research involved in finding answers to questions I may not have the immediate answers to – I also find that many people ask me the same questions and it would be nice to be able to send them a link as a reference.

My website will be going over some revamping in the coming year and I haven’t decided if I want a complete overhaul or just some tweaks – I get a few comments on it each year and most are positive so probably just some tweaking.

I keep saying that 2010 is going to be a big year for me so I am looking forward to the challange.

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I’m not cut out for exercise

So…last night I am sitting on the couch in the later evening watching my recording of The Biggest Loser. As they pan from the tippy tippy toes to the top of the head of one of the larger guys my six year old looks over at me with some of the biggest eyes I have ever seen and says”WOW” -  that’s all, just that one word and I silently nod.

After putting said six year old into bed and grabbing a beer and my Jimmy John’s sandwich (oh so yummy) from the fridge I settle back into the crook of the couch with the remote and press play to watch the rest of my program. So they are having a challenge, a CUPCAKE challenge and everyone is doing so well. Some are smelling the cupcakes (how do you just smell a cupcake without taking a lick?) and only two ate any! All I can think is…”I want a cupcake” – doesn’t a cupcake sound good, one with sprinkles?

At the end of the program they get up on the scale for the weekly weigh-in. Now I am not so silently wondering “How did these people get so big?, Don’t you notice? I glance over at the table next to me and see my balled up sandwich wrapper and two empty beer bottles and the fat fairy slaps me on the side of the head – “THIS is how you get there!” I make a resolve, I AM going to start working out…tomorrow.

I have nightmares all night long, I wake up several times thinking – “Oh God, I have to work out tomorrow” and then as the clock creeps slowly toward the waking hours of dawn “I have to work out TODAY”. I am already finding excuses, “I didn’t sleep well, I have too much work to do, I have to sit around with a fire extinguisher at the ready in case the house starts on fire.” (I was REALLY reaching).

The time comes when I can avoid it no more, the children are all at school, the dog has been let out and it’s just me and the TV. I pull out the Jillian Michaels 30 Day Shred DVD (You know, the woman that tries to KILL people on the show) that has been in my collection for a couple of years now. I have watched it a few times while sitting on the couch in fast fast forward but that is the extent of my time with this workout DVD.

It takes me almost 15 minutes to figure out how to use the XBox 360 remote to get the DVD started and I make it 7 minutes into the workout DVD before I died – I think I actually may have died. My eyes were closed, it was dark, I could hear the blood rushing to my head, I could hear myself breathing inside my ears and some crazy lady was saying “just keep it going” from a far away distant place.

When I regained my senses and realized where I was I started to laugh – what the hell was I doing? Leave it to me to go full steam ahead from the get go. Tomorrow maybe I will try a leisurely walk?

PS – I hear that lady in the living room winding down her workout and asking me “Don’t you feel better now?” I sure do!

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Breakfast-Ice Cream and Cookies

  • September 17, 2009 – 11:00 am
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So in one of most stellar mommy moments I fed my six year old Mint Chocolate Chip Ice Cream and Chocolate Chip Cookies for breakfast. Now, in my defense, this was HOMEMADE ice cream so I know exactly what was in it. I am almost willing to bet it has less sugar than the Coco-Roos he usually chooses. AND I did make the cookies with whole wheat flour.

Totally reminded my of the episode of the Cosby Show where Cliff gives Rudy cake for breakfast which is taken from a Bill Cosby comedy routine.

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Coffee Ice Cream

So, not sure if it was a request from one of my friends for coffee ice cream or if I decided to do it on my own but I pulled the following recipe from a website titled Simply Recipes (and want to try some of the other recipes – the pictures are amazingly appetizing!) a couple months back in the height of my ice cream making frenzy and never got around to making it (Minnesota has been unseasonably cold this summer – I actually turned on my HEAT today, IN AUGUST, IN MINNESOTA – what the heck is going on here!). Well…tomorrow night is “Girls Night In” and this is going to be my contribution.. I have added my comments preceded by ***

Coffee Ice Cream Recipe

Ingredients ***I doubled this recipe for my 4 quart maker and I could have tripled it

  • 1 1/2 cups whole milk
  • 3/4 cup sugar
  • 1 1/2 cups whole coffee beans (decaf unless you want the caffeine in your ice cream)***I wanted the caffeine)
  • Pinch of salt
  • 1 1/2 cups heavy cream
  • 5 large egg yolks
  • 1/4 teaspoon vanilla extract ***Shit! just realized I forgot to add this – still chillin’ in the fridge so it’s not too late.
  • 1/4 teaspoon finely ground coffee (press grinds through a fine mesh sieve) ***I omitted this, I am going to sprinkle crushed chocolate covered espresso beans on the top after dishing up

Method ***these are NOT my pictures, my camera was full

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1 Heat the milk, sugar, whole coffee beans, salt, and 1/2 cup of the cream in a medium saucepan until it is quite warm (***this is a bit objective but I got the gist) and steamy, but not boiling. Once the mixture is warm, cover, remove from the heat, and let steep at room temperature for 1 hour.

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2 Pour the remaining 1 cup of cream into a medium size metal bowl, set on ice over a larger bowl. Set a mesh strainer on top of the bowls. Set aside. ***be aware that if you double (or more) this recipe that your strainer may not be big enough, unfortunately I did not foresee this problem

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3 Reheat the milk and coffee mixture, on medium heat, until again hot and steamy (not boiling!). (***at this point my milk/cream mixture was kind of curdled-I started to panic thinking I had just wasted over an hour of my evening and would have to start over but I forged on – all was OK.) In a separate bowl, whisk the egg yolks together. Slowly pour the heated milk and coffee mixture into the egg yolks, whisking constantly so that the egg yolks are tempered by the warm milk, but not cooked by it. Scrape the warmed egg yolks back into the saucepan.

4 Stir the mixture constantly over medium heat with a heatproof, flat-bottomed spatula, scraping the bottom as you stir, until the mixture thickens and coats the spatula so that you can run your finger across the coating (***be aware when your “run” your finger across this spatula that this mixture is H-O-T – I have a small blister to prove it) and have the coating not run. This can take about 10 minutes. ***All right…10 minutes is a long freaking time when you are stirring constantly. Now I love to bake and make desserts but I usually am not one for the tedious type of crap (except Christmas time when I go a bit overboard). I even adjusted my grandmothers 7 hour long strudel recipe to be able to utilize my bread machine to cut the work in more than half. So… I am stirring and my arm is going to fall off and NOW my dogs is whining at such a decibel that makes it hard to keep my eyes open because she needs to go outside and my repeated “just a minute!” exclamations are not getting through to her. I take a 15 second break to let the dog out and the cat promptly takes advantage of the open door and bolts. I am looking from the door to the stove, door to stove – UGH! I have too much invested in this freakin’ ice cream – I hope the cat comes back.

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5 Pour the custard through the strainer and stir it into the cream (***again, make sure you have a strainer big enough, I had a MESS, my picture definitely would not have been this pretty). Press on the coffee beans in the strainer to extract as much of the coffee flavor as possible. Then discard the beans. Mix in the vanilla (***Ummm, yeah – apparently was too focused on the beans and ice cream base dripping and spilling all over the place that I missed this part, good thing this had to chill) and finely ground coffee, and stir until cool.

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6 Chill the mixture thoroughly in the refrigerator (***I plan on doing this overnight), then freeze it in your ice cream maker according to the manufacturer’s instructions.

Makes one quart. (***If you don’t double it)

Now I obviously haven’t tasted this yet so I will post an update tomorrow.

PS – for those of you wondering, the cat came back (after I called him, anyone else have a cat that comes when called? Certainly surprises the neighbors or a random passerby when I am standing at the front door calling here kitty, kitty kitty and a cat actually comes running from out from under the neighbors bushes) when I was done with this post.

Update…the coffee ice cream was D-A-M-N G-O-O-D, even made better with a drizzle of Kahlua (or Amaretto as others had). DEFINITELY a keeper.

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Back from Hiatus!

  • August 21, 2009 – 11:20 pm
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So, I have been “off the grid” for awhile tryin’ to get back on track after the office remodel (pictures soon – promise). It took some doing. Not to mention that I went on this new diet program with a girlfriend and it literally made me stupid. After feeling constantly like I was LOSING my mind I decided this program was too carb restrictive for everything I am going through right now. Do you realize that your brain NEEDS carbs? My brain NEEDS carbs. I will try it again in September to see if it works out better after the kids are back in school and I have less stress. I also decided that rather than trying to keep up with two blogs (Personal and Professional) that I am merging them into one (not actually merging as I am just letting the personal one go – bye). My follower (just one) may find the work stuff boring and my colleagues/clients may find some of the personal stuff shocking but it is what it is – pure Sonia Rae. Take it or leave it but no excuses will be made.

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Office Makeover updates

So I have been out of touch the last couple of days because I officially began my “Office Makeover” on Thursday evening. I pulled everything out and every surface in the main and lower level of my home has stuff from my office trying to take root. The resounding words are “All of this was in your office?” With a Holy $h!t buried somewhere in there. I am amazed as well. My office is slightly smaller than 10 feet by 8 feet when it is empty but like I said the stuff that was in it is taking up the better part of three rooms during the transition. My friend Simone (at least I hope she is still my friend after we are done) and I worked until 2am Thursday (I was up until 4am) and she left here at 4am this morning (I was up until 6am) and we have completed the “construction” phase of the project. New paint, cabinets, molding and trim. I am really believing the old adage of double your cost and triple your time for renovations. Also, next time you see one of those people in the hardware store that is ripping open a box and checking the piece count of an item they need to assemble, don’t laugh – it may be me. (finding out you are missing a “cam shaft” at 8pm with 40 plus little pieces spread all over your floor is nothing less that a wet cat experience)

Today we will begin the process of moving back in the furniture and over the next week gradually sort and sift through all of the crap I have accumulate in the last six years (jeez, I can not believe it has been that long since I opened my doors, so to speak, of my new business – almost to the day!)  and toss what is no longer needed and craig’s list the rest. (When did “craig’s list” become a verb?).

It has been a long two days and the coffee is finally ready. About that, I know I am beyond tired when this is my morning recap…

9am:I got out of bed at  and pulled out the coffee pot

9:45:  I remembered I was going to make coffee and put the grounds and water in and pressed start.

10:30am: I went to get a cup and realized the machine was not plugged in (plugged in)

11am when I went to get a cup I realized I had not pressed start.

It is now 11:30am and I am going to have the first cup. Now to mention it the house doesn’t smell like coffee? – there had better be coffee!

Ironic – I just received an email from the Improvements Catalog to check out their new items.

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Dogs – UGH!

  • July 20, 2009 – 9:35 pm
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So I am still! waiting on the Dept of Revenue website and I have one return left to file. I decide to take a break and find something to eat. I say “find” because I have yet to go to the grocery store (remember my post a few days back about the grocery store?). So I am at the point that I have a few lemons, coffee and condiments in my fridge – no joke. (oh and a gallon of milk I sent my son to the store for, there are limits to being a HORRIBLE mom. (breaking news…my husband just made contact with his birth mother for the first time in 36 years – exciting!). So like I was saying, finding something to eat was a search. I open the freezer and lo’ and behold WAAAAAY in the back is a box of taquitos – SCORE! I pull out the toaster oven and set ‘er for 12 minutes. I pull out the salsa and grab a beer (PS – ALWAYS beer in the fridge) and I am set to sit for a spell and eat for the first time today. I start a program from the DVR (93% full) and decide I am just going to take 30 minutes to myself. The teen is locked in his room doing the current version of socializing which is simultaneously texting and chatting via an internet war game and the hubby and youngest are out loading a buddies ATV onto our trailer for the “dud’s”, I mean “dude’s” trip – yuck – won’t even go there. So I am enjoying my breakfast/lunch/dinner (should I be using separate paragraphs here? I get confused) and my DH (Darling Husband) pulls in. I have one taquito left. Dilemma, scarf it down or go out and say “hi” and come back in and enjoy – I go for the latter. I go out and exchange pleasantries without a lot of enthusiasm (as I mentioned I haven’t consumed much in the way of solids today, I did have a hard bolied egg for lunch though ;) ). As I head back to my well worn place on the couch with the faint taste of taquito in my mouth and a smile on my face I glance at the end table and see my plate is EMPTY! ARE YOU FRICKIN’ KIDDING ME – I look over at the dog and just stare – hard! Like she is going to give me an explanation? At that precise moment she licks her chops loudly to which I exclaim – REALLY! and then I grab the camera and snap this picture. Does she look guilty?

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To add icing, I turn around and my youngest is in the hall brushing the cat with my hairbrush “DO NOT use my brush for the cat” “Why? I always do” – I need a vacation.

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Lazy Sunday

  • July 19, 2009 – 5:41 pm
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Mity

Puuurrrrrfect example of a cat nap!

Monte

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