A New Chapter: Alaskan Danielle's Chronicles

[Northern Star Girl]

Love your new Avatar!
Was my PM instrumental in your decision to change it?

Hugs and smiles, Jess

@Jessica
Dear Jess:
Thank you for your kind comment regarding my new Avatar photo.

Yes indeed Jess, your suggestions and comments always influence my decisions and actions greatly... 
... just continue to be very "careful" what you suggest to me!!! 
Many Hugs,    [emoji176]
Danielle

[Rachel]

Love the profile pic

Sorry to hear about the fall and cold temps. I hope you feel better soon.

I think it will be 60 degrees in Philly on Sunday. I have no idea how you can survive the bitter cold for so long.

[Northern Star Girl]

Love the profile pic

Sorry to hear about the fall and cold temps. I hope you feel better soon.

I think it will be 60 degrees in Philly on Sunday. I have no idea how you can survive the bitter cold for so long.

@Rachel
Dear Rachel:
Thanks for posting and thank you for your thoughts.

I am indeed feeling better, slowly but surely... the bruise is still quite apparent on my hip and thigh...  it looks like someone beat me up... but it is not hurting as much lately, getting better every day.

Ahhhhh, I love the cold winters.... a nice change from the warmer summers and warm weather insects, here in the summer time the mosquitoes go nuts, on steroids... they only have a couple months to propagate so they are quite busy.

I love the distinct seasons of the year.
Today it has been cold, right now it is -2 deg F  and tonight is is supposed to get down to -12 deg F... but the good news is no forecast of snow and ice for the near future.   

Thanks again for your comments.
Hugs,
Danielle

[Northern Star Girl]

UPDATE:  February 22, 2018   Friday evening  7:30pm

Today at my office it has been a predictably busy day.   I have processed 19 tax returns today and me and my part time gal got them all filed for my clients.   Because my clients had their act together and brought in their paperwork early in the tax season those that are getting a refund can be expecting their direct deposits by early March. 

Regarding the USA tax time... This brings me to the next point I want to make about Income Tax Refunds.  With the changes in the tax laws, new and different IRS 1040 Forms, increased standard deductions, revisions in employee payroll Tax Withholding, many of my clients that have been filing their taxes seem to be shocked and upset to find that they are getting a smaller refund that they are accustomed to receiving... and mostly upset with the IRS and President Trump. 
The important thing that they do not seem to realize and understand is that if payroll withholding is less and they get a bigger paycheck and even though their total tax bill will be slightly less with the tax law changes, they get a smaller refund because of the decrease withholding.  They can't have it both ways!!!

I still get a client or two coming in with a big box of unorganized bills, receipts and check stubs all in a big wrinkled mess and want me to straighten it out for them and prepare their tax returns for them...
... of course I will do it but my bill for my services will be bigger!!!   Time = Money !!

I will be working all day tomorrow... more work to be done.

****QUESTION FOR MY THREAD FOLLOWERS:    Have you filed your Federal Tax Returns yet? 
... or at least do you have your paperwork in order?

Hugs and well wishes, I hope that your evening is going well and that you will have a great weekend.
Danielle

[Jessica]

Sorry Danielle, I know you offered to do them.
My sweetie and I did our taxes a couple of weeks ago, done and sent.  Getting back about the same as last year. 

Hugs and smiles, Jess

UPDATE:  February 22, 2018   Friday evening  7:30pm

Today at my office it has been a predictably busy day.   I have processed 19 tax returns today and me and my part time gal got them all filed for my clients.   Because my clients had their act together and brought in their paperwork early in the tax season those that are getting a refund can be expecting their direct deposits by early March. 

Regarding the USA tax time... This brings me to the next point I want to make about Income Tax Refunds.  With the changes in the tax laws, new and different IRS 1040 Forms, increased standard deductions, revisions in employee payroll Tax Withholding, many of my clients that have been filing their taxes seem to be shocked and upset to find that they are getting a smaller refund that they are accustomed to receiving... and mostly upset with the IRS and President Trump. 
The important thing that they do not seem to realize and understand is that if payroll withholding is less and they get a bigger paycheck and even though their total tax bill will be slightly less with the tax law changes, they get a smaller refund because of the decrease withholding.  They can't have it both ways!!!

I still get a client or two coming in with a big box of unorganized bills, receipts and check stubs all in a big wrinkled mess and want me to straighten it out for them and prepare their tax returns for them...
... of course I will do it but my bill for my services will be bigger!!!   Time = Money !!

I will be working all day tomorrow... more work to be done.

****QUESTION FOR MY THREAD FOLLOWERS:    Have you filed your Federal Tax Returns yet? 
... or at least do you have your paperwork in order?

Hugs and well wishes, I hope that your evening is going well and that you will have a great weekend.
Danielle

cc: @Alaskan Danielle

[Rayna]

Hi Danielle,

I'll add to the chorus of "love your new avatar!"

My wife and I always do our own taxes, and it's been quite simple the past few years since our mortgage interest has gotten low enough that it no longer makes sense to itemize deductions.  But this year we both retired and now have 5 W2's & 1099's to go through!  Oh well, first world problems.  We've been traveling for a month so haven't filed yet, but will soon.

I hope your hip and leg are feeling much better!
Randy

[Donica]

UPDATE:  February 22, 2018   Friday evening  7:30pm

Today at my office it has been a predictably busy day.   I have processed 19 tax returns today and me and my part time gal got them all filed for my clients.   Because my clients had their act together and brought in their paperwork early in the tax season those that are getting a refund can be expecting their direct deposits by early March. 

Regarding the USA tax time... This brings me to the next point I want to make about Income Tax Refunds.  With the changes in the tax laws, new and different IRS 1040 Forms, increased standard deductions, revisions in employee payroll Tax Withholding, many of my clients that have been filing their taxes seem to be shocked and upset to find that they are getting a smaller refund that they are accustomed to receiving... and mostly upset with the IRS and President Trump. 
The important thing that they do not seem to realize and understand is that if payroll withholding is less and they get a bigger paycheck and even though their total tax bill will be slightly less with the tax law changes, they get a smaller refund because of the decrease withholding.  They can't have it both ways!!!

I still get a client or two coming in with a big box of unorganized bills, receipts and check stubs all in a big wrinkled mess and want me to straighten it out for them and prepare their tax returns for them...
... of course I will do it but my bill for my services will be bigger!!!   Time = Money !!

I will be working all day tomorrow... more work to be done.

****QUESTION FOR MY THREAD FOLLOWERS:    Have you filed your Federal Tax Returns yet? 
... or at least do you have your paperwork in order?

Hugs and well wishes, I hope that your evening is going well and that you will have a great weekend.
Danielle

Thata girl Danielle! Time IS money. I have a few clients that I do CNC programming for. If they don't provide a 3D model file, it can double and even triple my time. That gets expensive.

Yes! As always I have my tax forms and documents in order and ready to file. I don't have a lot of things to declare so it usually only cost me around $100 to file. (TurboTax). I'm not patient enough anymore to manually fill out the tax forms. However, it would be cheaper.

A busy girl is a happy girl. Hugs.

[Leslie601]

Taxes! Yeow what a year this has been been for us. Normally we do our own taxes but 2018 was a BAD tax year for us. Lots of stuff happened financially and I guess we're going to use a pro for the first time ever. When I look at ours I can only wonder how you manage hundreds of them - while in pain can't make it any easier. Hang in there girl, April 15th will come and go in no time.

L

[Rachel]

Hi Danielle, I filed on the 19th. I am getting back $650. If I did not have a $22,000 alimony deduction I would have had to pay $6,600. I had a lot of deductions that no longer apply or is capped off at $10,000. I have high local and state income taxes and high real estate taxes and mortgage interest.

If I was smarter I would have structured the divorce settlement to take advantage of the tax situation. Who could have known the change in tax law would have caused such a difference for people like me. I increased my 403B percent from 4% to 8%. My employer changed the matching so I changed the percentage. In retrospect this will help me to not pay taxes too.

[Maid Marion]

I wouldn't mind writing a big check for the entire amount at the end of March if I didn't have to pay a penalty for the privilege of doing that.

[Northern Star Girl]

Cougars are invading my front porch!!!
Cougars, not the female kind but the wild animal kind... this early morning I was awakened by noises outside my patio sliding door... I opened the drapes to see a Cougar Mom and 2 of her cubs trying to look in the sliding door window.  As soon as I opened the drapes and they saw me they scampered off.   

Out where I live there are always bears, cougars, wolves, deer and other wildlife roaming around at night or early morning....   I have a compost pile out a ways from my house and I never go there to dump anything in the dark...  if it is questionable I always make lots of noise so I won't surprise any of them...  they usually run off when they hear any human activity.
Danielle
             

[KimOct]

Danielle I am amazed you find the time to be on the site this time of year.  My uncle is a tax accountant and he is buried as I am sure you are as well.  Thanks for making the time to join in.  You would be missed during a tax season absence.

[sarah1972]

Wow... What a surprise early in the morning.

Love the Cougar footprint (the wild animal one  ).

I can only imagine the kind of wildlife you experience. As a suburb soccer mom, the best I get is deer, a fox or the occasional raccoon. And of course chipmunks and squirrels. The raccoons (a mom and five kids) tried to sneak into our cat door but our two cats heroically defended our house. And we have it all on video too.

I hope you are staying safe and warm!

Hugs,

Sarah

Cougars are invading my front porch!!!
Cougars, not the female kind but the wild animal kind... this early morning I was awakened by noises outside my patio sliding door... I opened the drapes to see a Cougar Mom and 2 of her cubs trying to look in the sliding door window.  As soon as I opened the drapes and they saw me they scampered off.   

Out where I live there are always bears, cougars, wolves, deer and other wildlife roaming around at night or early morning....   I have a compost pile out a ways from my house and I never go there to dump anything in the dark...  if it is questionable I always make lots of noise so I won't surprise any of them...  they usually run off when they hear any human activity.
Danielle
             

[KimOct]

I wanted to share a few intimate thoughts about Danielle's threads that I hope will be inspiring for others.  These thoughts start off kind of sad but end in a good place.  A couple of weeks ago Danielle PM'd me suggesting I join in, she had read some of my posts in other places and enjoyed them.  What I tend to focus on is motivating those that are early in their journey to find the courage to live authentically.

Here's the icky part     I had briefly browsed some of Danielle's postings before and I felt 'less than'.  She is so pretty and has it 'together'.  I on the other hand have had a pretty rough go of it. I will summarize in a sentence or two.  Career collapse, dramatic drop in income, cancer - lost a kidney - FFS money went away, autistic kids, body dysphoria, yada yada - you get the idea.

Everyone in this life has challenges - some are lesser and some are greater but we all have them.  Some people's are larger than mine and some are not.

What I realized is why focus on the crap, the bad stuff, the heartache.  I am sure Danielle has her own pain such as the challenges with her family but on the whole she is doing well.  Reading about positive and happy things can bring joy to our own lives - to emulate them - to strive for them.

I don't want to live vicariously through those that are doing well, rather I want to celebrate and emulate them.

Thanks for sharing Danielle.

And for others that have struggled their fair share let's try to make the road ahead a better place. 

[Denise]

I wanted to share a few intimate thoughts about Danielle's threads that I hope will be inspiring for others.  These thoughts start off kind of sad but end in a good place.  A couple of weeks ago Danielle PM'd me suggesting I join in, she had read some of my posts in other places and enjoyed them.  What I tend to focus on is motivating those that are early in their journey to find the courage to live authentically.

Here's the icky part     I had briefly browsed some of Danielle's postings before and I felt 'less than'.  She is so pretty and has it 'together'.  I on the other hand have had a pretty rough go of it. I will summarize in a sentence or two.  Career collapse, dramatic drop in income, cancer - lost a kidney - FFS money went away, autistic kids, body dysphoria, yada yada - you get the idea.

Everyone in this life has challenges - some are lesser and some are greater but we all have them.  Some people's are larger than mine and some are not.

What I realized is why focus on the crap, the bad stuff, the heartache.  I am sure Danielle has her own pain such as the challenges with her family but on the whole she is doing well.  Reading about positive and happy things can bring joy to our own lives - to emulate them - to strive for them.

I don't want to live vicariously through those that are doing well, rather I want to celebrate and emulate them.

Thanks for sharing Danielle.

And for others that have struggled their fair share let's try to make the road ahead a better place. 

Danielle is one of the most positive, uplifting, supportive (I'm running out of adjectives) that I virtually know. 

One thing I did during transition was to remove all negativity.  If bad things happen, I would look for the silver lining.  It helped.



Sent from my LG-H910 using Tapatalk

[JudiBlueEyes]

You are so correct Kim!  Live life as it comes and focus on the positives.  We've all had down times and it would be devastating if we let it get to us.  I'm glad to read you're try to motivate others.  This is using your experience and love to help others when they need it most.  Yes I agree, our Danielle is inspiring!

Danielle, Wow those cougar prints are large!

[SarahWithin]

I wanted to share a few intimate thoughts about Danielle's threads that I hope will be inspiring for others.  These thoughts start off kind of sad but end in a good place.  A couple of weeks ago Danielle PM'd me suggesting I join in, she had read some of my posts in other places and enjoyed them.  What I tend to focus on is motivating those that are early in their journey to find the courage to live authentically.

Here's the icky part     I had briefly browsed some of Danielle's postings before and I felt 'less than'.  She is so pretty and has it 'together'.  I on the other hand have had a pretty rough go of it. I will summarize in a sentence or two.  Career collapse, dramatic drop in income, cancer - lost a kidney - FFS money went away, autistic kids, body dysphoria, yada yada - you get the idea.

Everyone in this life has challenges - some are lesser and some are greater but we all have them.  Some people's are larger than mine and some are not.

What I realized is why focus on the crap, the bad stuff, the heartache.  I am sure Danielle has her own pain such as the challenges with her family but on the whole she is doing well.  Reading about positive and happy things can bring joy to our own lives - to emulate them - to strive for them.

I don't want to live vicariously through those that are doing well, rather I want to celebrate and emulate them.

Thanks for sharing Danielle.

And for others that have struggled their fair share let's try to make the road ahead a better place. 

Hi Kim - one of the great things about Susan's is that it really is a community of caring, (hopefully) non-judgmental people who are all at various stages of a journey that never really ends. It's a veritable transgender Pilgrim's Progress. We're all here to commiserate, empathize, help and uplift each other in any way we possibly can. It also shows that, despite being in and from all over the world, we're so alike. Ladies like Danielle are rare and she is definitely one of our treasures. I look forward to reading your future posts. And I'm glad you're here! [emoji846]


Hugs x 2,
Sarah From Chitown
[emoji257]

[Jessica]

@Alaskan Danielle

Cougars are invading my front porch!!!
Cougars, not the female kind but the wild animal kind... this early morning I was awakened by noises outside my patio sliding door... I opened the drapes to see a Cougar Mom and 2 of her cubs trying to look in the sliding door window.  As soon as I opened the drapes and they saw me they scampered off.   

Out where I live there are always bears, cougars, wolves, deer and other wildlife roaming around at night or early morning....   I have a compost pile out a ways from my house and I never go there to dump anything in the dark...  if it is questionable I always make lots of noise so I won't surprise any of them...  they usually run off when they hear any human activity.
Danielle
             

Thankfully you were inside when you spotted them.  I'm reminded of a winter backpack trip in Yosemite where I was the lead breaking trail through the snow.  My friend behind me shouted "freeze" to me.  As I looked up a golden blur was racing away.  I was told it was a full grown Mountain Lion.....oof!
We were in their home, and I'm sure we looked tasty.

Hugs and smiles from a California girl

[Donica]

Cougars are invading my front porch!!!
Cougars, not the female kind but the wild animal kind... this early morning I was awakened by noises outside my patio sliding door... I opened the drapes to see a Cougar Mom and 2 of her cubs trying to look in the sliding door window.  As soon as I opened the drapes and they saw me they scampered off.   

Out where I live there are always bears, cougars, wolves, deer and other wildlife roaming around at night or early morning....   I have a compost pile out a ways from my house and I never go there to dump anything in the dark...  if it is questionable I always make lots of noise so I won't surprise any of them...  they usually run off when they hear any human activity.
Danielle
             

A nice morning surprise so long as they are on the other side of the glass.

Hugs Danielle!

[Northern Star Girl]

@Jessica
Dear Jess:
Yes indeed, Cougars are quite aggressive and like any in-the-wild animal, when they are hungry especially in the cold winters they become even more aggressive.
In the original picture that I posted it may have not been readily apparent regarding the paw print...
... look at my closeup and notice the dangerous looking claws in front of each toe pad...  A lot of damage can be done with those. 
My front porch area was covered with the adult mom prints and several smaller cub prints...  it appears that they were just hanging around and loitering...  probably got a whiff of food smells inside my house.
Danielle
     
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@Alaskan Danielle

Thankfully you were inside when you spotted them.  I'm reminded of a winter backpack trip in Yosemite where I was the lead breaking trail through the snow.  My friend behind me shouted "freeze" to me.  As I looked up a golden blur was racing away.  I was told it was a full grown Mountain Lion.....oof!
We were in their home, and I'm sure we looked tasty.

Hugs and smiles from a California girl