Just a little update!

So I am in the library and I just finished my accounting homework and have a little bit of time left, but not enough to really get into another assignment. SO-I thought I would update y'all with my life.

WORKING OUT- Yowsa, lets just say- every movement involves some sort of pain. Monday I ended up going to Abs that Rock with my friend Kristen. She was so awesome- she kept saying, "Come on, you can do it! One more!" When we had partner stuff. Anyway- it was a pretty intense 30 minute workout for Abs ONLY. To create the picture in your head- by the last five minutes, I literally couldn't hold myself up. I went to sit down on the ground, my bum hit and I literally fell over. I couldn't even hold a sitting position! The last set of push ups, I couldn't do them. I WANTED to do them- it wasn't desire. I literally could not physically hold myself up. I kept falling over. Anyway- today I am WAY sore. Which is good- that means I worked hard. OH yeah- at the end of the class, the instructor was like- ' okay now this was the easy stuff, so if you want a real good workout, stay for the next class' Kristen and I looked at eachother in astonishment. I was insulted! I got over it though...Last night Kristen and I did the eliptical in the fitness center and she did it longer than me, but I did it for 21 whole minutes! Can you believe that? I was pretty proud of myself actually. Clay put it this way- I willingly put myself through pain for 21 minutes. I guess it was just really hard becuase I haven't worked out in at LEAST a month. Probably more. So being out of shape, I am proud of doing 21 minutes worth of eliptical workout.

Tonight we are going to a hip hop class! We walked in on it before Abs that Rock and thought it looked awesome.

School's going good. Clay is taking his first accounting class because Business Majors are required to take like 2 I think. Anyway- he got an A on his first test! I was so proud of him. I think I was more excited than him about it. I helped him study a bit, and realized I really do love accounting. Wierd huh? :-)

OH yes- Lastly. Good news! Yesterday I didn't wear mascera and my eyes TOTALLY didn't itch. I was finally relieved. So today I tried my old mascara that I used to use, that I don't like nearly as much as this new kind that kills my eyes, and my eyes don't itch. I will just have to wear the old kind and suffer my potential good looks.

Alright- time to go! I love you all and miss you soooo much.

Allergies and Distraction

Okay. I am in the library at BYU-Idaho right now. Usually I am being a very good hard worker on whatever assignment I have to work on (usually accounting). Well, I finished my accounting on friday and have a few other assignments due tonight by midnight or tomorrow, but I just can't bring myself to work on them. I honestly tried doing one assignment and it's making my brain want to collapse. I don't know if a brain CAN collapse, but that's what mine feels like doing. My other assignment is to write a paper about tax proffessionals and their roles and I decided that once I get home, I will call dad and talk to him about that. It even said on the assignment to just talk to a professional. Now, I have a problem with focusing A LOT on the future. You may be thinking- that's a good thing right? Well, it is to an extent I think. My obsession is way past that extent. I can't help it, I always am thinking of the next big thing. For instance, I cannot stop thinking about my internship next semester. I actually DO need to be thinking about this, but I cannot think of anything else at the moment. I figure I need to get this done and find an internship soon so that I can move on and focus on other things.

Now, all of this fuss isn't helped by my horrendous neverending allergies! I don't understand. I decided to get equate facial wipes so that I would actually wash my face at night. Well, I have been sneezing a LOT lately- I mean...A TON! More than I have in my life. So the other night, I woke up in a frenzy sneezing and itching my eyes and crying because I was literally in PAIN I was sneezing so much. Clay and I thought and thought, at 2am, what could cause this? We decided it was the facial wipes. SO- I stopped using them. The sneezing lessened but the eyes grew itchier. Clay thinks it's our shampoo. It is possible, but I think it has to do with makeup. This is the worst possible thing because I've FINALLY started feeling like I know how to do my makeup. Seriously, I have felt so good about myself lately because I have finally found a way to do my makeup that I like, and is easy. So anyway, now that my eyes are acting CRAZY- I feel like I shouldn't do my eye makeup anymore. I am so confused and sad. I have never experienced anything like this. I have had allergic reactions to mangos, and sudafed that led me to hives all over, but not this. The sneezing and itching is horocious. I AM SICK OF IT!

Any advise?

Anyway- sorry for all this complaining. On a positive note, I decided I need to exercise. BYU-I has these free classes at night and I am going to start doing them. I really just hope I love them so that I stick with them. They have just started doing these things called "Getting Started Classes". So they are all the cool classes for people that aren't inshape like me. So tonight I am doing a Step class. I am way excited. Wednesday I am doing one called "Abs that Rock". Cool huh? I really just want to get in some good habits I guess.

Well I must be off. It is time to get Clayton and go EAT. I love you all and miss you!!!

By the way, this computer doesn't underline all the misspelled words so I might have misspelled words...sorry.

My Schedule

A few family members have asked to know my schedule this semester so they know my availability for phone chats and things like that. Here it is!
Monday: I have class at 9-10am, 2-3pm. In between I do homework, and usually don't have my phone on. Still, you may call in case I have time.
Tuesday: Class from 9:45am to 4:45 pm.
Wednesday: Class at 9-10pm, 2-3pm, 4:30-6:30pm.
Thursday: Same as Tuesday except I have a break between 1:00 and 3:15
Friday: Same as monday.

Hope that's not too confusing. Hopefully there aren't any stockers reading my blog.

Love you!

Life for Danielle

Well I am going to start off with a question. Have you ever had an onion with an EXTREME onion smell? I have chopped, eaten, smelled many onions in my life (especially this last year) and I have NEVER experienced an onion like the one that is sitting in a ziploc bag in my fridge right now. This onion has caused my entire fridge to smell like an onion. In fact, I just got the grapes out of the fridge, and they have a slight scent of onion on them. Thank goodness they don't taste oniony, they just smell like it a bit. When I open the fridge, the smell permeates my kitchen for about 10 minutes afterwards. I just smelled my hand and IT smells like onions. I haven't even touched an onion today. Why is this? I have never had an onion do this before. It confuses me.

Anyhow, as you may have discovered, I am eating grapes. Green grapes to be exact. There is something about grapes lately that just make life better. The crunch of freshness is priceless!

Life has been good. Clay and I have been soooo blessed. I truly feel like Heavenly Father is blessing us extra lately for some reason. Life has been like this: Every morning I wake up at 7:00am (or so...every once in a while a snooze gets in)-the fact that I am able to wake up that early every morning is simply amazing. I wake up, and I am okay with it! I then check the blog and my BYU-I email. I eat or go take a shower and then eat. Every morning I drink a Carnation Instant drink with soy milk. I feel that it is a very healthy breakfast- correct me if I'm wrong! And it is sooo easy! I then get ready for school because I have TIME to get ready. In semesters past we've woken up at the very last minute and I always felt disgusting because I never really got ready. Now I always feel cute because I put my makeup on and brush my teeth (yes, I sometimes went to school with un-brushed teeth). I then go to school where I have amazing teachers who always start the class with a prayer, inviting the spirit. Each class has put me into a group so that we can discuss our confusions in the chapter and so we can realize we aren't complete idiots-other people are confused too, and everyone for the most part is dressed and groomed nicely as well as smiling at you as you walk by. As much as I can't wait to be done with college, I know I will miss Rexburg and it's beloved BYU-Idaho. The spirit that is there- which here we call the "Spirit of Ricks", is very unique. After school I come home and do homework or grocery shop or take care of the apartment. The fact that I can stay home and not work is such a blessing. There are so many that are going to school and working, or going to school and working while carrying a baby in their tummy. Then when Clay comes home we talk and laugh and amazingly enough, love each other more each day. Don't get me wrong, of course we have our struggles, but lately life has just been wonderful. It's weird because so many times I look at other peoples life and think, man they have it good. Or, I really hope I am like that someday. Or, I wish my life was like that. But I really feel like if we all just looked around at all the good things we DO have- because no matter who we are and what we look like on the outside, each one of us DOES have problems of our own and trials that many people can't see- we would see that we really are blessed. I feel like a reason Clay and I are so blessed is because we ARE so grateful. Especially lately. We don't take what we have for granted, for the most part.

Now that I have gotten the hang of my schedule and organizing myself, school hasn't been too bad. Don't get me wrong- school is HARD and I do occasionally have those stress attacks creep up on me, but that is sadly inevitable for the young married college student. All in all, I can handle it and create enough time to play Nintendo Wii with my husband every once in a while.

Tonight we played. He beat me in golf and tennis, I beat him in bowling and Fitness.

Okay, now the grapes are beginning to taste like onions. This just isn't fair!

I have also been able to play piano a bit. It's wonderful. I really do LOVE the piano. I am sooooo grateful to my parents for paying for piano lessons all those years. I know I complained a lot- for practicing and stuff, but I am so grateful that I can play the piano. When I play songs that I have memorized, I find myself getting so wrapped into the song that I begin to close my eyes and I'm not kidding when I say that the adrenalin inside me builds up and keeps going until the end nears and I slow my emotions and peace arrives. It is such a range of emotions when I play the piano it almost feels spiritual. I don't mean spiritual by like...hymns, I mean with all of my songs. These men and women that create these songs are inspired in my opinion.

I just want to say that I love my husband Clay so much. He is so good to me and such a hard worker. He never complains about him working and me staying at home, and is always assuring me that it is okay that I don't work. He always tells me I'm smart and pretty and he always laughs at my jokes. I am SO blessed to have him as a husband and friend and I love him more than ever. I know that this is really random but I just wanted to say it because I am realizing more than ever that he is so perfect for me.

Alright. This has been quite a blog. I shall leave now. It is irritating because after I write my blog, about an hour later I realize I wanted to put something but I forgot and I feel it's too late to change it. Does that ever happen to you? Oh well. I am going to use my onion smelling hands to take my onion flavored grapes to my onion denominated fridge. Wish me luck.

I love you all!!! I miss you too.

PS- I was going to put a picture of Clay and me to spice it up a bit, but it wouldn't load for some reason. Sorry.

No Bake Cookies

So- I have never liked no-bake cookies. I and Clay have always thought they were SICK-O! Anyway, Patty, Clay's mom, made no-bake cookies last night and both of us LOVED THEM! I don't know what is different about them, but they were dang good. I was telling Amy about them and told her I'd e-mail the recipe to her, but decided to share the love with everyone. Here is the recipe- very simple, but somehow amazingly delicious.

Bring to Boil:
1 cube butter (melted)
pinch of salt
2 c sugar
1/2 c milk
1/4 c coca

Let Boil 1 minute stirring

add:
1 tsp vanilla
3 Tbs CHUNKY peanut butter
2 1/2 c oats

YUM!

I just took this white/french bread out of the oven. I got the recipe from Lizzie a couple years ago. I LOVE this bread. Everyone who eats it loves it, and it is sooo easy. I will put the recipe for this as well. I know they don't look that pretty. If i wanted to make them pretty, I could...maybe...but I really just like the taste. This is why I just plopped them on there. This is actually a two loaf recipe, but I decided to experiment and put it into four loaves to see how it turned out and how big they would get. That is the REAL reason why they look so funny.


Lizzie's French Bread (that is how I have titled it)

4 1/2 tsp yeast
2 1/2 cup warm water
3 Tbs. sugar

5 Tbs. shortening
3 c. flour
1 Tbs. salt

3 c. flour

Directions:
Wisk yeast, warm water and sugar together and set aside. Mix shortening, flour and salt in mixer. Add 3 more cups of flour and mix. Let rise 10 minutes and then mix for approximately 15 seconds. Mix five more times after the first rest with 10 minute rests in between each mix. Twist dough in 2 and roll into 2 loafs. Spray cookie sheet, let raise 1/2 hour with towel over it. Slice top. Bake at 375 for 25-30 min.

**The raising and mixing part is a little confusing- if you don't get it, call me or Lizzie and we can explain I'm sure.

This really is VERY simple. I love it. PLEASE make it, so you can enjoy it.

Just to update- I am feeling better about school. I got all my accounting homework done and feel like it will all be okay. I am organized and good.

I love you all!!! I miss you all!!! Thank you all for your wonderful comments all the time. I love you- really, I do.

Here's our fun dance!

Random stuff

Before I started school I did a few things like start a quilt, and paint a picture. As you can see, none of these pictures are the highest quality. I don't know why...but, they were the best I could do. So there are some pics

This is the awesome bag I got for $2.95 at the bookstore. I think it is SO CUTE! I carry my books in it!

This one is of me wearing it- I had to do a timer and for some reason it ended up blurry. I really just wanted you to get the idea of what it looked like when I was wearing it.

This is the quilt I have started. I LOVE the colors. (Mom picked them out) The border turned out interesting. I couldn't quite figure it out and decided to kind of make it up. There are borders on the sides...but not on the top and bottom. I still think it looks great though.

This is the painting I did. I know it looks like a little kid could do it, but Clay and I think it looks cool. I enjoy painting. I am not that talented at it-this is the extent of my talent, but I think it is very relaxing.

As for an update. School is a stress! Yes...major stress. It seems like USUALLY, I start the semester off organizing my time and thinking- oh yeah, I can handle this. Not too bad. This time I organized myself and found myself thinking- how in the world will I get all this done everyday?!?!! We'll see. I guess I just need to get used to it and get back in school mode.

So we have this awesome place to rent movies. It's called Horkleys. It's a gas station with a conveinience store. The store has rentals. Old movies- $1.00. New Releases- $1.50! Awesome huh? The only downside is, they don't have TONS in like the big rental places. But hey, you can't beat the price. Oh, and they are always due the next day. Anyway, we rented "I am Reed Fish" from there last night. I wanted to rent it because Alexes Bledel (Rory Gilmore) is in it. I know she's not the best actress or anything but I can't help but want to see everything she's in. Plus, the story sounded interesting and the front cover said- "Feel Good Movie of the Year". I love to feel good, so..it sounded like a good choice. Anyhow, it is like an Independent movie or something. It was interesting. I'm not going to spoil it for you just incase your DYING to see it for some reason, but the feeling I had throughout was like...'I don't know whose side I'm supposed to be on...was that a good ending or a bad one? and how exactly did he find himself? that was weird...' those are just a few thoughts I had throughout the movie and after the movie. I don't recommend it. We did see some other independent films we want to rent though, in the previews!

Well, I am going to get off now and finish Chapter 1 homework for my tax class, then read chapter two and do that homework. After I do that, it will at least be lunch time.

Love you!

PS- Did you guys notice the little button right next to the picture button on here that lets you upload a video? I don't know if it's been here forever, but that might be easier than Youtube and Googlevideo.