Paige Wakefield's Observations » General Life

Raleigh CPA

Paige — Wed, 09 May 2012 02:50:46 +0000

When Allison told me that she was thinking about starting her own business in Raleigh, she asked me if I would do her bookkeeping for her. I told her that I was very flattered, but I really do live too far away to be comfortable doing that for her. Sure, we’ve been friends a long time, but I suggested that she contact her Raleigh CPA Carson Thorn for a recommendation for some kind of local bookkeeping service. I told her that if he said that he thought it was “doable” even at this long distance then I’d give it some thought.

Scary time

Paige — Tue, 08 May 2012 15:42:49 +0000

Tomorrow I am acoompanying my mother to the hospital. She is scheduled to have surgery to remove a tumor in her right lung. The doctor told me that he is sure that it is cancer. His plan is to remove the lump and send it to the lab for testing. The results will come in while she is still under anesthesia, and if the find that it is benign they will just close up the wound. If malignant, they will have to remove the entire upper third of her lung and then will have to plan what kind of therapy to follow.

I’m trying to keep her spirits up, but we are both quite worried. She is eighty years old and is not sure that she has the strength to battle the “big C.” Regardless, it will be a long road ahead. I don’t want to lose my mom.

Eyelashes

Paige — Mon, 07 May 2012 22:45:38 +0000

I don’t know if it is stress related, or inherited, but it seems that lately there have been a lot of times when my eyes feel like there are eyelashes fallen into the eye and I end up rubbing my eyes and pulling at my eyelashes. A lot of the times when I do that, several eyelashes come out and I see them on my fingers. I’ve heard that when eyelashes fall out that they don’t grow back. Well, I don’t know if that’s true or not, but if it is true I may have to look into buying some of the ds laboratories revita eyelash growth product that I’ve heard so much about.

Burn pile

Paige — Sun, 06 May 2012 22:44:55 +0000

Over the past year my hubby has been piling up a lot of things in the back yard, into what he likes to call “the burn pile.” The pile was very close to the woods, and I was very nervous that when he did actually burn it that it would spread to the woods and engulf the entire neighborhood. My hubby always “pooh-poohed” my concerns, telling me that he has been managing burn piles for many years over his lifetime and that there was nothing to worry about.

Well, it rained all day yesterday, and most of the day today, and I was quite surprised when I heard the tractor running in the back yard. I looked out of the kitchen window and saw that the burn pile was burning and my hubby was using his tractor to keep a fire line of fresh dirt between it and anything that wasn’t supposed to burn. I have to admit that I was rather impressed that he did manage to keep the fire in control, but I’ll never tell HIM that!

London apartments

Paige — Sun, 06 May 2012 00:39:54 +0000

One of my fondest wishes is to travel to London someday and spend several weeks (or months, actually) in some London Apartments while I travel around England to see the places where my grandparents grew up back in the early 1900′s. Recently my sister sent me a copy of a letter she had found that was typed up by my grandfather back in the 1980′s where he wrote a short autobiography of how he had met my grandmother and how they had come to live in America back in the 1920′s.

He wrote about how difficult life was in London back then, and how poor they were before they moved here. Then he wrote about how he and my grandmother lived in an abandoned chicken coop and raised their family, and how they could see the sky through the slats in the roof when they went to bed, and how the rain and snow came into the house. And yet they thought that their lives here in the United States was better than their life had been in London! When I think of the life they led, and the poverty they endured, I feel a deep desire to go back to London and meet my distant relatives and see where they had lived. Staying in some
London Apartments while being there would really be an experience to cherish forever.

To cook or not cook, that is the question

Paige — Fri, 04 May 2012 00:30:12 +0000

Usually my hubby cooks dinner for the family. You might think that is awesome, and in a way it IS awesome. But the way it came about was not so awesome. You see, I got really tired of spending hours in the kitchen and then sitting down to a wonderful dinner alone. I KNOW that my cooking is super-yummy, so my feelings are not hurt with the thought that I’m a horrible cook. But usually when I cook dinner my hubby declares he is too tired to eat, and my son claims that he can’t wait that extra ten minutes for dinner and grabs a bowl of cereal instead. So then I end up dining alone and having lots of leftovers. If I had known that I would have been dining alone I would have just made myself a peanut butter and honey sandwich.

So that is what I started to do. Simply make myself a sandwich and be done with it. Not long after that my hubby was complaining that there was nothing for him to eat for supper. Not long after that he started cooking supper himself. If he hadn’t cooked supper by 8pm I’d just make myself a sandwich.

As usual

Paige — Tue, 01 May 2012 02:57:37 +0000

One of the saddest things about my parents splitting up and then remarrying is that the new marriages ended up with new babies added to the families, and when my father died his first set of kids got absolutely nothing from his inheritance. Everything he owned was given to his new family – even his left handed Martin guitar that he had promised my left handed sister. As usual, the original family suffers. Sometimes I get angry at how unfair life can be!

Grilled cheese sandwiches

Paige — Sat, 28 Apr 2012 02:54:14 +0000

One of my favorite comfort food meals is grilled cheese sandwiches with tomato soup and bread and butter pickles. Oh, and rippled potato chips, and a cold glass of milk. I don’t know why I consider that a comfort food; I don’t think I’ve ever noticed that in a cook book about comfort food. A couple of months ago my son’s girlfriend came over to spend the day and they were cooking up some grilled cheese sandwiches with apple slices in the sandwich. I’d never heard of that before, but I tried one and it was awesome! I’ll be adding that to my mental assortment of recipes to do again the in the near future!

Beautiful rain chains

Paige — Tue, 24 Apr 2012 23:43:46 +0000

Over the past couple of years I have been noticing that our gutters and down spouts are deteriorating. I’ve been looking at decorating magazines and seen some articles and photographs of something called rain chains that I think I’d like to consider buying and using when my hubby finally declares that it is time to replace the down spouts.

Nobody that I know has ever told me that they have any experience with chains rain, so I’m a little bit anxious about trying something that nobody else that I know has used. Funny how I depend so much on the experiences of my friends and family!

I’ve fallen in love with the beauty of a copper rain chain that looks like lotus flowers, and I’ve bookmarked the website for future reference. My biggest worry right now about copper rain chains is whether or not some one would be bold enough to come up to the house and steal them just for the melt down value of the copper. Maybe I should consider aluminum instead, but I DO love the warm look of copper!

Easiest cake ever

Paige — Sun, 22 Apr 2012 23:29:39 +0000

Tonight I decided to warm up the ham that we bought for Easter that didn’t get used on Easter, and cook up some Potatoes AuGratin (thank you Betty Crocker) and serve up some peas and fresh baked french bread. For dessert I fixed a cake that I only fix once in a rare while – it is called the easiest cake ever.

To make it you take one box of angel food cake and open it up and dump it into a 13 x 9 pan. Then you open a large can of crushed pineapple, open it, and dump it into the pan. You stir the two ingredients together (it gets foamy which is kinda cool) and then bake it for 25 minutes in a 350 degree oven. It is wonderful hot or cold, and I like to serve it with whipped cream or ice cream and with some strawberry flavored ice cream topping drizzled over the top.

The supper was yummy! There are enough leftovers of the ham and the cake for another meal, I think I’ve make noodles for that meal.