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An afternoon of baking bread
Jul 17, 2008

An afternoon of baking bread

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I enjoy cooking – for the most part. Well, no, I love to *cook*. The part I don’t like? My kitchen sucks. It’s old, out of date, not near enough counter space and the poor oven has been better days. We keep thinking we’ll go ahead and get new appliances . . . but then something else happens. Like, the kids need new clothes. Or the plumbing goes berserk. You know, “fun stuff.”

So I have a kitchen I really dislike but I like to cook so when I can clear enough counter space to make it happen, I like to bake bread, cookies, muffins, and other good stuff. We’ve had some really great meals lately – crockpot chicken that the kids loved!, a noodle casserole they all gobbled up and apple muffins among other things. I still have some recipes to try and I’ll try to post the crockpot chicken recipe and the others either here or over at The Weight Loss Papers sometime this weekend.

Right now, there is 10 grain bread (the recipe is at The Weight Loss Papers) rising in the pan on the counter. About 10 more minutes until it goes in the oven. There is also a basic sandwich bread in the bread machine. It’s got about two hours until it’s ready to put in the pans to rise before cooking in the oven.

I know – it’s summer. What am I doing using the oven?? Well, I live in Seattle (that alone should explain it) and it’s only 70 today. Just right for baking bread.

Maybe if I can find the SD card for the camera, I’ll take some pictures when everything is baked and post them.

Do you bake bread? If so, what are your favorite bread recipes?

In the arena,

By the way – if this is your first time here, or you haven’t done so yet, please consider subscribing to my RSS feed. You can use any feed reader you wish.

Annie Anderson is a freelance copywriter and graphic designer specializing in the small business and real estate markets. Her tagline “Making your business, my business” means that she’ll take the utmost care when creating words and images for your business – just as if it were her own.

Filed Under: Food, Personal · Tagged: ,
Meatball sandwiches are better hot
Jul 10, 2008

Meatball sandwiches are better hot

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Yes, it’s true – meatball sandwiches are better hot.

But before I tell you what lead to such a discovery, first, I have a confession to make . . . my 3 year old son (who is going to be 4 in August) is not fully potty trained.

For some unknown reason that my husband and I do not comprehend, he refuses to use the bathroom to poop. Now, he totally *knows* he is supposed to do that in the toilet too. But no, no, he just *won’t*.

So, I’m fixing lunch – homemade mini pizzas for the kids and a turkey meatball sandwich for me – when I notice he’s walking rather oddly through the kitchen with his 7 year old sister following him saying, “Mom, there’s something gross on your bedroom floor.”

Great.

Of course, this leads to me ask said 3 year old “Why are you walking like that?” To which he replies, “Please, mom, don’t spank me.”

Uh-huh. My suspicions are confirmed . . . he’s pooped. In his “big boy” underwear. And I told him a couple of days ago that if he continued to do that, I was going to have spank him. He apparently remembered that just fine. So, why can he not remember to poop in the toilet?????

And yes, the “something gross on the bedroom floor” was indeed a glob that somehow escaped his trousers.

So . . . I spent a good half hour cleaning up naughty child and bedroom floor. And now my meatball sandwich is cold. It really does taste better hot but I don’t have the gumption to go warm it up.

In the arena,

By the way – if this is your first time here, or you haven’t done so yet, please consider subscribing to my RSS feed. You can use any feed reader you wish.

Annie Anderson is a freelance copywriter and graphic designer specializing in the small business and real estate markets. Her tagline “Making your business, my business” means that she’ll take the utmost care when creating words and images for your business – just as if it were her own.

Filed Under: Food, Personal · Tagged:
It’s been a while . . .
May 23, 2008

It’s been a while . . .

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It’s been a while since I posted on this site. Lots of things happening. Some good, some not so good. But all of them have given me a broader perspective and that is a wonderful thing.

You know, I’m generally a pretty private person and even though I have given glimpses of insight into my life, I don’t really discuss myself or my family much publicly. But today, I do want to share something immensely personal that has been a major factor in my changing perspective of late.

And that is something that happened just a couple of days ago on Wednesday.

My 14 year old daughter had a tooth that suddenly became infected a few months ago and as a result, we were referred by our dental clinic to a specialist at the University of Washington Hospital. They have a huge waiting list but thankfully, they managed to get her in last week to begin treatment – a root canal – which they do in 3-4 visits to help lessen the trauma. Her appointment last week went well although she was quite sore for a few days following the treatment.

This week, however, she had a severe reaction shortly afterwards and luckily we were still at the UW Hospital when it occurred. Her blood pressure dropped to a dangerous level and she began convulsing.

The staff at the UW is wonderful. They went quickly and yet discreetly into action and managed to stabilize her very fast but it was all so overwhelming for her that she had a mild anxiety attack, which I’m sure contributed a lot to whole thing and probably actually began before the blood pressure issue.

Much to my relief, the doctors are certain it was a result of how much pain she was in at the time and not a medical condition or anything to worry about. Since she’s not the kind to complain a lot even when in considerable pain, it’s often hard to tell exactly how much she does hurt and it seems they underestimated her pain level. Once they administered some ibuprofen after they got her blood pressure back up, she was fine and we were able to walk out of the hospital and head home.

She’s fine now, albeit still a little embarrassed by what happened and still a little sore from the second phase of the procedure on Wednesday. She’s been resting the past few days and is trying to keep up on the ibuprofen and hopefully by her next appointment next week, she’ll be ready.

Now, thankfully I’m not one to get hysterical in these situations although I will tell you I was scared out of my mind. And even though it was MY daughter, I did keep a level head and managed to stay calm.

Until yesterday. When the magnitude of the whole thing suddenly became clear to me.

And that’s what’s caused a few aha moments for me, maybe brought me back to things that are most important in my life.

So, although I will continue writing (and with any luck, I’ll have some great assignments coming up) and all those things I normally do, I doubt I will be posting on the blog every day as I had been. At least for a couple months here while I sort out some stuff in order to head in the direction I really want to go with my writing and music endeavors.

I do plan to post as often as possible and who knows, maybe it will be every day. But right now, I’m just intent on taking things day by day and see where they lead me.

I hope you enjoy your Memorial Day weekend if you’re in the US and I’ll see you again soon!

Until next time,

Filed Under: Life, Mindset, Personal, Self · Tagged:
Where was I?
Apr 21, 2008

Where was I?

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Sometimes I find it hard to be consistent every week with this blog. And I don’t know if this blog warrants consistency or not, really. It doesn’t have a particular theme, after all. But I do like to keep up here, if not for my own thought process and to keep track of the bits and pieces of my various endeavors, then at least, for you because I know every once in a while you find something useful.

So, where was I?

Well, kind of an unplanned vacation of sorts. The kids were out on Spring Break the week before last and we had intended to actually take a family vacation. But it didn’t happen. We wanted to go down to Seaside, Oregon – about a 6 hour drive from our home near Seattle but nearly everything was already booked. We could have changed hotels every night but that just didn’t sound fun to me for some reason. ;-) (How far out to people plan vacations?)

And I had intended to write some posts and schedule them ahead. That, too, didn’t happen. I did, however, make some serious headway on several projects which I’ll update later this week, time permitting.

Oh! And you know what? We had SNOW. Yes, snow. In Seattle. Last Friday. And then most of the weekend. It’s the latest it’s snowed in the Seattle area since something like 1972. Of course, it also rained for most of Spring Break. We had one nice day of 70 degree weather. Then snow a week later. Weird.

I don’t know if global warming or any of those other politically correct environmental issues has anything at all to do with our increasingly weird weather patterns but I’m becoming more inclined to move elsewhere. You know, somewhere warmer and with more sun. Snow belongs in the mountains. And places like Colorado. And Alaska. Not Seattle.

In any case, I hope you enjoyed yourself the past few weeks and got loads of stuff done. Fortunately, I did manage to get a lot of stuff done on various projects as well as on the home front . . . NW Stone Guide should be going live by weeks end, the yard no longer looks like a jungle and the inside of the house is nearly sparkling clean. All except my office, that is. LOL! It is still piled with well-organized, strategic heaps of stuff! ;-)

The thing I can hardly imagine, though, is that it’s nearly May! Seems like yesterday was January. My 10 year old son informed me this morning that there’s only 8 weeks left of school this year. Yikes! When did that happen?? Shouldn’t there be another 8 months? At least?

Well, enough of my rambling for now. I promise I’ll post something more interesting one day this week. I do plan to post the Reading List tomorrow. Not sure what’s going to be on yet as I haven’t gotten anything new for a few weeks. Perhaps I’ll dig out the gardening books.

See you again soon,

Filed Under: Life, Mindset, Personal · Tagged: , ,
Weight Loss & Marketing
Feb 3, 2008

Weight Loss & Marketing

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Do weight loss and marketing have anything in common?

Absolutely!

How is that?

Well, they both require commitment, they both require a system that must be followed and they both take time. This year, my plan is to go full tilt on both.

But it’s not all about weight loss, really. It’s more about a lifestyle change – exercise, healthy eating, mental clarity – they all play a part. So, to document what I’m doing for health, I’ve created a new blog called The Weight Loss Papers. You’ll find it at http://theweightlosspapers.com. And I’ll continue to track my marketing progress here at internet marketing & more.

I’ve just secured an internship to learn more about internet marketing. I’ll be able to implement what I’m learning there into my own businesses. It’s not a paid internship but I think it’s going to work out well nonetheless, especially as things really get cooking with my own business efforts.

This year in addition to marketing, I’m focusing on my writing business. I’m just now beginning a new marketing campaign that promises some good results. My mentor is sure I can make upwards of $10k per month very soon. And I’m so excited about that!

What are your goals for 2008? Feel free to post in the comments or post on your own blog with a link back here. Whatever you do in 2008, remember to HAVE FUN!

~ Annie

Filed Under: Health & Fitness, Mindset, Personal, Work · Tagged: ,
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