Thursday, November 29, 2007

Internship

I was going to take a picture of the letter, but my camera is DEAD! Gr. Anyway- I know I said we were going to stick with Rexburg for my internship, but this opportunity presented itself and we decided to hop on it! I saw an add online for 3 open positions for an internship in Idaho Falls with a CPA firm, for a Tax Accountant. The requirement for the position was that you have taken a tax class. I am currently taking a tax class. It says that it pays $8/hour. So I call up and ask if the position is still available. It's just the secretary and so she tells me to just e-mail my resume. I e-mail my resume expecting to wait a week or so to see how they are doing, and like 20 minutes later one of the partners calls me and says, I just got your resume, it just so happens we got a cancellation THIS morning and so I was really glad to see your resume. We'd really like to meet you. When can you come down to Idaho Falls? I told him I could make it the next day. So I went in my pinstriped pants and button up shirt with my blazer atop and talked to Kent Oseen. The business is called 'Crandall and Oseen, PA' Well anyway. He basically said, well we are very interested in hiring you, are you interested in us? I said, yes, I am very interested! He asked me a few questions, introduced me to a couple other accountants (I think, he never really clarified their role in the office...they seemed somewhat important) and then he said that he would send me a formal letter that I would need to sign and send back and thats that. Well, I got the letter today! Wooohooooo! So I am going to take it. I am actually pretty nervous though. I mean, the thing about this internship is...I really am going to be doing a lot of stuff. Not just...running errands and getting coffee. You know? On the letter it says:
"As an intern, we ask that you be willing to help in all aspects of our office including answering phones, helping clients, as well as completing tax returns...."

Wow. Helping clients? In the interview he said I'd be helping clients understand their returns and things like that and that I would be doing everything they do. He said by the time I am done there I will definitely know how to do tax returns. WELL- I know I have fulfilled the requirement for a tax class but I just always fear the worst that they are like expecting me to know everything about taxes and have my entire tax book memorized. Let me tell you- I DON'T! I know more than I did last semester, but the thought of giving advice and explaining things to clients?!?! That makes me nervous. I always fear that when I take a job, they are just going to let me loose and say, good luck! Like...no training. I KNOW that's not realistic...I hope it isn't anyway. I mean, what if I start and they are like...what?! We thought you would know all of this stuff...why did we even hire you? Am I crazy thinking all this? Probably. Anyway. I'm sure it will all be fine. They said numerous times in the interview, 'You will learn SO much here. It will be SUCH a good experience to you and will even help you in the rest of your school.' Stuff like that. So when they say stuff like LEARN and EXPERIENCE I figure they expect that I don't KNOW a lot of that stuff. That makes sense. I am reassured.

Ha, now that you have all read my mind and the crazy worries...if you even got this far...I will tell you that I LOVE christmas time. I love that there are christmas lights outside and I love Sunny radio station that plays christmas music all the time! Yesterday I made chocolate chip pumpkin bread. YUM! Oh- one sad note. I just realized because I looked at our fish tank. One of our tiger barbs died. I don't know if I mentioned this, but one of the tiger barbs was chasing the other one NON-STOP. Literally. Nipping at it too. It was crazy. We worried about it. Clay kept saying that he was going to tire him to death. He did. We watched him die. Well...Clay watched him die. I watched him suffer and twitch and then I couldn't take it anymore. How sad. Now we think that the aggressive tiger barb, and the aggressive Rosemary are friends. It's funny. Not the dying part, the friends part.

Okay, that's all. I love you!!!

Saturday, November 24, 2007

Just a little update

WELL- I would've posted some pictures but I left my camera at Rebecca's accidentally. BY THE WAY- you all need to check out Rebecca's blog because she has now started updating!!! There are WAY cute pics on there of the girls.

So anyway- Clay and I enjoyed our last day of thanksgiving break relaxation today together. It was SO nice. We just hung around, watched 2 movies: Oceans 13 and World Trade Center. I enjoyed both...kind of. I mean, how do you describe World Trade Center? I was thinking in the middle of it, ' I can see why some people get upset with hollywood made movies about real events that were tragedies...it's like- this shouldn't be a form of entertainment' you know what I mean? I guess it is good though because it was a total respect to all of those policemen and firemen and all of those brave people that sacrificed themselves for others. I was definitely crying by the end. It's weird because I remember that time, I was so scared and sad but wasn't thinking of those brave hero's- I was thinking of all the poor people in the planes and in the buildings- which of COURSE, were so sad- but the movie really really put in perspective the amazing people in the world that put others before themselves even with the prospect of dying in the process of saving them. I can't imagine being in the situation some of those people were in. I am so grateful for them.

Anyway, we had a wonderful thanksgiving. I was able to see my parents which is ALWAYS wonderful. I got to spend time with my sister and nieces. Anna was of course, obsessive over Clay the ENTIRE time. Poor guy, he was a VERY good sport about it. Only once, on the last day we were there, did he come to me and say- "I need you" while anna was clinging to his side. He played piano with her, he played games, he colored, he let her climb all over him. We were all very impressed! She is a cutie though, he did say that she called him Greg a few times, and told him that he sounded like Mike. Clay thought that she thinks of them all kind of the same or something. I don't know. But all of the girls were way cute and fun to be around. Gracie was talking up a storm and SO busy. Oh, and she was singing ALL the time! It was so cute. Aliese was of course writing and playing and a very good big sister. I made an Apple Pie, and thought it was very delicious indeed. Rebecca made an amazing Pumpkin Cheesecake which was wonderfully delectable. We also had chocolate pie, chocolate creamcheese pie thing, caremeled apples, and I THINK that's it for the treats. We had all of the traditional items for the main meal. Thanksgiving is wonderful.

Mom, Rebecca, the girls and I all went to see "Enchanted". It was SO CUTE. Oh my goodness, we all loved it! It was so funny and just really cute. You should all see it.

Lets see....we were very pleased to come home and see that all of our fish were still alive! I even fed them by myself today. I felt wonderful about that.

One funny story to tell....while we were watching world trade center today- we had cadbury mini eggs. DELISH! Anyway- We were eating them and then Clay wanted to lay down, so I needed to move to the end of the couch right? Well I got up and there was melted chocolate all underneath where I was sitting. I turned and saw that I had melted chocolate all over my left bum cheek! Oh my goodness- I have NO IDEA how that happened. I'm guessing a few just rolled out of the bag or something. Anyway- we were laughing so hard about it for some reason. We cleaned it up, I changed pants and then came back to sit on the couch. Well, the movie got over and I stood up- MORE CHOCOLATE WAS MELTED UNDER MY LEFT BUM! Can you believe it?!?!?!! You can imagine, we were laughing even more. How did this happen!?!?! Clay told me that from now on, if I eat cadbury mini eggs, he has to hand feed them to me himself. Isn't that crazy? Dear oh dear.

Lastly, it has finally become winter here! Typical 20's to 30's. Snowy....the works. Hoorah for us! It's kind of a relief. Because it was so delayed, I think there was a subconcience struggle inside of me wondering when it would come. I no longer feel that struggle.

Alright, Clay and I were going to play some Nintendo Wii, so wish me luck on beating him to the pulp! :)

Monday, November 19, 2007

Christmas decor!



Well, there it is! I love it. I LOVE Christmas decor. Well, right now my house smells amazing. I am making chicken noodle soup (homemade- but from canned broth and canned chicken) it smells great! I think we will eat some tonight and then I will freeze the rest in baggies for lunch.

Tomorrow I get to hang out with my Mom and I am SO EXCITED! I love her so much and this morning I was watching Gilmore Girls and got even MORE excited. I am actually really excited to see my dad too, AND my sister and her family.

Today was basically decorating and cleaning. It wasn't that great considering our heater wouldn't turn off for two days- making our apt 84 DEGREES! Yes- that's right, 84! I was sweating my brains out. I would've opened my front windows but it was blowing around my bulbs and I didn't want them to break. We can't control the heat in our apt. It is run the same through the whole building. Finally it turned off in the middle of the day. I was overjoyed.

We are watching Episode 3 tonight with Zane and Kristen and maybe Harmoni, Clay's sister. She is coming up sometime tonight so we can help her register for classes at midnight. She hasn't done it yet so she is a little nervous. I am excited to see her. We barely ever get to talk when we are at Clay's families house because she is always working or dating or something. I figure a crowd of company deserves a batch of cookies, so I am very excited for that:) I always love an excuse to make cookies...and eat them.

All right. I love you all!

Saturday, November 17, 2007

I guess that it's tagging season again because Lizzie just posted a tag and it's completely different than my tag. I got tagged this specific one by a couple of people, so I figured I'd do it! It was a fun one. Here goes...

5 Things I was doing 10 years ago:
1. Begging Steph and Jenni to ride bikes…ALL the time…they never wanted to (they remind me of this a lot whenever we get together)
2. Making up dances with jenni and by myself- begging steph to make one up with us, but she BARELY ever wanted to.
3. Listening in on Amy’s conversations with her friends and DYING to be in her bedroom with them doing cool teenage things.
4. Playing Soccer and loving it!
5. Taking Piano Lessons and practicing for junior bach festivals

5 Things on my to-do list today : It’s the end of the day so I will put what it would’ve been this morning

1. Make a yummy breakfast

2. Go to the temple

3. Curl my hair

4. Get something from Joanns to make a gift ( I cant say what or for whom)

5. Decorate our apt for Christmas time!


5 Foods I enjoy:

  1. Mashed Potatoes
  2. White Chip Chocolate Cookies
  3. Chicken and Rice
  4. Homemade whole wheat bread RIGHT out of the oven. I usually eat about half of a loaf the day I make bread.
  5. Breakfast food- I LOVE BREAKFAST. I usually prefer IHOP or some equivalent over Olive Garden or some other nice place.

5 Bad habits:

1. I bite my nails

2. I pick my nose…seriously, I don’t know how I started doing that but I do it and I’m sorry if that makes you nervous around me now.

3. I can’t believe it…but I drive under the speed limit. This has happened since I have lived in Idaho. Can you believe that?!?!?! I used to be a speeding maniac in Oregon. Idaho has slowed me down. I try to speed up to the speed limit and then eventually I look down and I'm like 5 under. It just feels more safe that way.

4. I buy lettuce a lot, and we eat some the first day I get it, and then I forget about it and it spoils. Ugh. I hate it.

5. I don’t work out. I think that is a bad habit. A good habit would be to work out. Therefore, not working out is a bad habit.

5 of my favorite toys:

  1. Computer
  2. Camera
  3. Gilmore Girls
  4. Bosch
  5. Paint

Well, hope you enjoyed! Love you all:)

Thursday, November 15, 2007

Fish, Floor, Bathtub, LOTS of stuff

WELL- I should be studying, but the fact of the matter is...I really don't want to. Sometimes, I just know that I wont be able to concentrate, so I decide not to study. Don't worry, I will once I'm done.
So I'm sorry if you are all sick of hearing about our fish. It is really just the most exciting thing of our lives right now. I promise, this is probably our last video. Here are our 2 new fish- this was RIGHT when we got them. You heard the story...right? These are the ones we traded in for King Triton. We've had them for a week probably by now. Well anyway. I watched the video and realized I sounded like a total dork. Oh well...



So when Patty and Paul came to do our floor, they brought a couple presents for us! This is our tank currently. Patty brought Clay 3 more plants and an awesome cave/rock thing in the right corner that the fish LOVE. It makes our tank look sooooo much cooler.


Just a sidenote...I can hear a marching band playing "In the jungle, the mighty jungle, the lion sleeps tonight" I can also hear screaming. I can also see the campus football stadium lights on! How cool. I wonder what's going on. I wish that BYU-Idaho played competitive college football. I would love it! I'm not a huge football fan or anything, I would just love to be one of those people that LOVES to represent their team. I don't know. Anyway, I've heard the inermeural (I don't know how to spell that) football games are very exciting. Never been to one though.

Okay- here is our floor!

Before:

Here was our huge gap in the middle. This actually looks better. You know how it looks like it's been peiced together? Well, we only did that right before the new floor was put down. Before that day, the entire thing was just cracked and gone.


Here's just an up-close look at some paint sploches ALL over the floor. Lovely eh?


WELL- after the WONDERFUL Paul and Patty Phillipp put this floor in, WHALA! Look what we have! Clay and I love to just walk up and down it. We love it so much. It has DEFINITELY Improved our place.

We have decided thus far, that we aren't going to paint. The idea sounds wonderful and all, BUT- opportunity cost...eh...well the thing is, we aren't sure we want to spend the money, put in the time, put in the EFFORT, to have an apartment that looks nice. We are already pleased with our place, so...........so far we've decided to just be happy. We HAVE however, decided to rearrange our living room. It will look great.

Well.............lets see. Not much more going on in Danielle and Clayton world. School...tests...cold weather (no snow still...it's weird to me)....macaroni and cheese (I think I hit my max of that meal tonight)...we are pretty much just WAY excited for tomorrow to be done so we can have a WHOLE week of no school. We already planned a movie to watch on Friday, Saturday, Sunday and Monday. Friday- Oceans Thirteen; Saturday- Star Wars Episode 3; Sunday- The Dance (it is an LDS made film that Patty lent us); Monday- The Outlaw (another LDS film Patty lent us) OH YES- I decided I can't wait any longer. Saturday, we are going to Idaho Falls...Temple/Laundry at Clay's parents house- AND I am planning on bringing back our Christmas Decorations that we store at their house and decorating my apt! I'm sooo excited. I do kind of want to do it so that mom can see all my decor in person, and I am just soooo excited for christmas time. Well, that's it. I love you all!

Sunday, November 11, 2007

Just a quick update!

Alright- there are just a few items of news! I don't have time to upload pictures so I am going to just update, and do pictures later.
1. Our manager came over today and told us that he got it approved for us to paint! (as long as they are neutral colors like browns/tans...that is what i'd do anyway!) We are going to pick up paint tomorrow for an FHE activity:) We are WAY excited! Our apartment will look like gold.
2. Our owner of the building FINALLY came and fixed our tub! We have cheap new handles now, and yes...like I said, they are cheap, but now we don't have to store our tools in our shower to turn on the cold water. We feel so spoiled to be able to use handles for our shower. (ha..ha..) Oh yeah, and he fixed our sink in our bathroom that was constantly dripping. That's nice, except it is harder to turn the knob now...oh well.
3. Our hallway is really gross. We finally complained to the managers over and over again. Showed them the HUGE cracked floor in the center that we covered with a rug, and all the paint splotches and basic grossness of it, and they finally brought by flooring! The silly thing is, they aren't installing it for us. Basically I think they would if we wanted to wait until summer, but we don't want to and so Clay's AMAZING parents are coming to put the flooring in for us in our hallway! It is called "Pergo". It is that fake hardwood floor. It looks awesome! We are SO EXCITED.
4. One of our fish died. Our little sucker fish. The one that always hid in the rocks. It was sad. Then, the other day we took back King Triton. He was trying to eat all our fish so....we decided he didn't belong with us. In place of him, we got two "Tiger Barbs". They are WAY cool. One of them is kind of a bully though. We have come to realize that it is just natural for there to be bullying with fish. We just have to deal with it. But they are WAY cool- I will post a video tomorrow.
5. I just looked over at the TV THIS SECOND- and Clay was on his x-box and he was downloading a 'demo' on his xbox last night. ANYway- demos are just little like excerpts from games that you can try out for free to see if you want to get it. SO- he downloaded Harry Potter and the Order of the Pheonix demo for us to play! hhaha, he is so sweet. I know he probably did it just for me.
That's it! I love you all and will update you all with pictures within the next few days!!!!
PS- I took my tax test on friday and did GREAT! I know it's because I have been reading my scriptures. Seriously, I KNOW that. And I studied SO HARD before I took it. I am sooooo happy.

Thursday, November 8, 2007

Fish

Okay, so here is a video of our fish tank.


Just to clarify- Clay was going to get fish and a tank for Christmas. One of Clay's friends called him up about a week ago asking if he could help them pick out a big screen TV and a sound system for their parents. Clay researched and went to Idaho Falls to help out and completely set it up. REALLY, it only took him like a few hours. Anyway, we were only expecting him to get reembursed for gas and stuff, but they reimbursed him AND gave him $100! It was a HUGE surprise. So, Clay came home telling me we would split it 50/50, but I told him that he could just get his fish stuff. SO he went and got this gigantic tank that included like...EVERYTHING a tank needs: filter, heater, light, etc. And four fish. You heard the story in the previous post, these fish in the video are our CURRENT fish. Clay is happy. We think that Rosemary is bullying Gimli, and not letting him eat. (We called one Gimli because they are 'dawrf fish'...you know, Gimli from Lord of the Rings, Rosemary somehow came out of somewhere...i dont know, but it stuck) ANYWAY- we watch, and King Triton and Rosemary always race to the top and start eating all the food when clay feeds them, and then when Gimli tries to go eat, Rosemary goes really fast to him and pushes him away! We are kind of worried Gimli isn't getting any food. Fish are stressful.

Anyway, I come into our living room seeing THIS quite a bit now.

LITERALLY- the first thing Clayton does when he wakes up, is go check on the fish. The last thing he does before we go to bed is check on the fish. He loves them, and is VERY concerned about them.

Nothing else is really new. I have a huge tax test I have to take on saturday. I am worried. He said the last test was one of the hardest. I got a C. He said THIS test is probably the hardest. I'm scared. I didn't study as well as I should've last time though- that was the week I read the Twilight series. Hopefully this week I will be more concentrated.

I am so ready for friday. Thank goodness that is tomorrow. That means I only have to do ONE MORE week, and then I have an entire week off. That's right, we get the WHOLE WEEK of thanksgiving off this semester!!! I am so happy.

WELL- I guess I'm off. Love you all. Bye!

Wednesday, November 7, 2007

Okay, Okay

Well, I guess I haven't posted in a week! That is probably a record for me. I don't know why. I guess we've been busy...or simply I didn't have anything to blog about. That's not REALLY true though. We have a huge fish tank in our apt with 4 fish swimming around it. We already took one back because it was biting and chasing all our other fish and replaced with with a calmer one. Turns out, they gave us the wrong fish! This fish was in the wrong tank...or something? I don't know exactly. I think Clay told them what he wanted, and they 'went and got it' but Clay didn't realize it until he took it back, that they gave him a completely different fish. Anyway, the fish tank is a lot calmer now. It's funny, we end up just sitting on the floor watching them. They are fascinating. I get bored faster than Clay does. I don't think he EVER gets bored. I have pictures but I have no way of putting them on this computer right now. That will be another post.

I really can't think of anything exciting that has gone on lately. We went to Idaho Falls last saturday for Paul's birthday. That was nice. We went to a breakfast place! Breakfast is my favorite food I think. So...I had a lovely time.

School has been...just as stressful as ever. I can't wait to graduate. I don't know if I'll ever get an internship though. I've been looking everywhere in Rexburg and they are either like, we don't know yet (if we need one) or, you can't because you don't speak spanish (that did happen). WELL, I'm just about to give in and go work for H&R Block. That's considered like...the lowest internship ever, but whatever. I just want to graduate. A kid in my class just got offers from 2 of the biggest CPA firms. Offers like...26.50 an hour with a $2000 signing bonus. JUST for an internship. I kind of wish I could do something like that, but it's not like Clay and I are going to move out to New York for 4 months so that I can get a good internship. It's not like I'm looking for a good job after graduation. Whatever. This whole process is just irritating. I would have way more options if I looked for one in Idaho Falls, but most of the options are in Winter, you know, tax season, and me driving on one of the most dangerous highways in WINTER in IDAHO, is not the best idea. Especially because I'd be going in the morning and night, not the best lighting, and the mornings the plows still plowing. So...we kind of DON'T want me to do that. I am losing hope. I wanted to do my internship next semester. It is very not likely that I could get one in the summer or fall, so that would mean I'd have to wait a whole year, and graduate even later. UGH. We'll see.

Lets see. What else has been in my life lately? Yesterday I cleaned the kitchen. That was an accomplishment. It had been messy for days....finally it got done. I felt way good. It took me an entire hour to do JUST the dishes- remember we don't have a dishwasher?

Well, there's nothing more to talk about. I'll post the pictures later. Love you all.

Thursday, November 1, 2007

Free Prints

Directions: Click on the "Download File" link underneath whatever print you'd like. It will lead you to a Google file and all you have to do is click "file" and then "download". Each file is made to be a 16x20 print. You can obviously print it smaller, but I wouldn't suggest any bigger. If you get it printed at Costco, you may see that it says on the site that it's low resolution or something weird like that. Ignore it! It always comes out perfect :) I highly suggest printing at Costco or Sam's Club for only $5 bucks!