Finally...

I wanted to start out with this picture of the beautiful amaryllis that is blooming in my house right now. I love having flowering plants in the house! I'm currently trying to grow lavender, but so far, all I have are a few tiny, and I mean TINY, leaves! On with the main post...

I'm so sorry for my lack of blog posts lately. I've been working during the week and either traveling or doing things in town with friends nearly every weekend since I've been here. I think I have only stayed in Birmingham three weekends since I've been here. Only one of those have I truly laid around the house and vegged out. My intentions are to vegetate all evening Friday and all day Saturday. I believe I am having dinner with my parents Sunday night after they go to a meeting in Birmingham that afternoon. Another reason for my neglect of my blog has been that my computer would not connect to the wireless network at my Uncle's house. No matter what any of us would do, it would show connected but then display an error message when I opened Firefox. For some reason when I turned on my computer today to do some work on my research paper for school, it connected. I just hope it lasts! It's been really hard to function without internet at home. Thank goodness for BlackBerries! :)

I really am enjoying my internship. I'm working pretty hard mainly doing individual returns. I've only done a few returns for other entities, but so far I really do prefer individuals to corporations or partnerships. I like being able to work on one person or couple for a few hours or maybe even a few days and then be done with them. I'm not sure I could get used to working on the same corporation, partnership, or trust for days on end. It's such a good feeling to turn in completed work and I wouldn't want to diminish the frequency of that feeling. I also liked Individual Income Tax much better in school than Income Tax II, which is entity taxation. I can also work on individual returns independently, so it makes sense that I am mainly assigned this kind of work. Enough about work...

I went bridesmaid dress shopping with my best friend, Tiffany, a few weekends ago. She had already picked out some dresses with two of the other girls who lived in Atlanta, but we ended up picking out a dress they had never seen before, falling in love with it, and by the end of the next week, ordered it for the soon-to-be June wedding.

I've been to Florence the last two weekends. I really miss Emma and can't wait until she can come back to Auburn with me. I'm so grateful to my parents for taking such good care of her, but it's still not the same as her Mommie taking care of her. Grandaddy has been sick too, and I wanted to lay eyes on him to know for myself that he's okay. Mom and Gram can tell me he's much better, but I don't fully believe it until I see for myself.

I've got to work on my research paper for my internship credit, so I better go while the internet is working. I'll leave you with some recent pictures of Emma.

Sleepy time in her little girl bed

Chewing her yummy bone...thank goodness for bones she can't destroy!

Playing fetch with her "get-it"

"Aren't I cute??"

That's all for now. If the internet holds out, I'll try to get back to posting on a regular basis!

Posting from Tiffany's MacBook

So, Tiffany came to visit me tonight in Birmingham so we could go and look at bridesmaid's dresses tomorrow.

I'm posting from her MacBook since my laptop has issues and doesn't seem to want to communicate with our internet here.

Work is going well, but is quite busy! I'm working really hard and I'm pretty tired when I get home at night. I leave before seven each morning and get home after six each night. I pretty much eat dinner and go to bed. I haven't even watched Grey's since I've been here because I can't stay awake until 10 when the show's over.

We're talking wedding now, so I'm going to go. I'm going to try not to wait so long until my next post. Until then...

I'm Here!!

I moved to Birmingham (well, really Springville) yesterday! Mom and Daddy came down to Auburn late Thursday night and they packed on Friday while I studied for my last test until April. Around 6PM, I was finally finished and the cars were packed, so we set off on our way to my new home for the next few months.

We arrived around 8:30, which is really good considering we take back roads and we also stopped to get some dinner. Then, we had to unpack the two cars and get everything up to the second floor from the basement. I think I'm really going to realize that living in a one level house is quite a nice thing. However, I only have to go to the first floor or basement to go to the kitchen or go to the garage or go outside. I've pretty much got my own apartment upstairs--just without a kitchen and a door to the outside. I'm so lucky my Uncle was willing to let me encroach on his life until the middle of April. I've got the best family! :)

Last night and today, we (especially my Mom) unpacked and organized and generally got things settled so there's not really anything left for me to do. I went to Wal-Mart after Mom and Dad left late this afternoon and then came home and have either been talking to my Uncle or on the computer since I got home. We ate a late lunch, so I'm getting pretty hungry now and am going to go make some fast dinner before I go to bed.

I'll let you all know how my first week goes as soon as I can!

Two More Days!

So, I have two more days until I'm finished with this part of my mini-term and until I move to Birmingham! I can't say how happy I am to have a break from these classes. I know work is going to be long and tiring, but coming home and not having homework or tests to study for will be a welcome relief from studying nearly 24 hours a day. Taking multiple Accounting classes in a mini-mester would not be my recommendation, but unfortunately I have to do it again this Summer. I'll deal with that when I get there!

Well, I have got to get off the internet and get ready for my Tax II test tomorrow. I'm going to bed at a decent hour, not watching tv before going to sleep, and getting up in time to shower and get some more study time in tomorrow morning.

I hope everyone is doing well! I'll try to be better about updating once these last two tests are behind me!

What's going on...

Today hasn't been too productive. Emma and I slept in this morning since we were so busy last week with doctor's appointments, classes, and tests. I eventually made some lunch and then got dressed to go get my eyes checked. Thank goodness I took my corporate income tax book with me since I waited for THREE hours before being seen. I had called before I left to try to schedule an appointment, but they were booked for today. However, they told me I could simply walk-in and most likely be seen in 30-45 minutes. Unfortunately for me, today was the busiest day they had ever seen at the Optical Center at Sam's Club! In the end, I was finally seen and got new contacts, so I'll be able to see a little better! I'd put off this appointment much too long, but I really hate having my eyes examined--at least it's over now! :)

I got all of my Chapter 4 reading done for Tax II, so I'm going to work my homework problems in a few minutes. After that, I have homework problems for Advanced Accounting as well, so I'll try to get that done too! I'd really like to go to sleep early though since I haven't been sleeping too well lately since I had to take a steroid pack for a sinus infection. Hopefully these homework problems won't take too long and Emma and I can get to bed before long!

Tomorrow, I need to read my Advanced Accounting text for our section on Derivatives (no, not the calculus kind!).

These mini-term classes are so intense and I'm very happy that we only have nine more class days before breaking to begin our Internships. I'm so excited to move to Birmingham, get to spend more time with my Uncle, and make money!

Test Time Already

This minimester is not going to be as simple as I'd hoped. Although I have taken Accounting classes in Summer School, I haven't taken two challenging courses at the same time. This summer I had one Accounting class and one more throw-away class each minimester. This time, I really can't get behind since I have a test in Advance Accounting Topics on Tuesday and then a test in Tax II on Thursday. I really don't completely understand Deferred Taxes, the topic for our Advanced test, yet so I know I have some work ahead of me this afternoon.

I haven't gotten much besides some Tax reading today since I have had a horrible headache. On top of all the sickness I have had since Christmas, I now have a Sinus Infection. Mom took me to Urgent Care yesterday morning and I got a steroid shot, a Z-pack, and a Steriod Dose Pack. I'm not usually one to complain about getting shots since a few years ago I realized how much faster a shot can make you feel better, but that one sure hurt. The Nurse said it would be a little sting, but it was FAR, FAR from a little sting! I can't remember the last time a shot has hurt so bad. I actually cried afterward because it didn't sting as much as it HURT! I sure wish all of the medicine would help the pressure I'm feeling in my head. My right eye is not as swollen since it's not running as much anymore. I was starting to look like Quasi-Moto since my eye was well on it's way to swelling shut!

I'm glad Mom is coming back to Auburn tomorrow. Emma and I are lonely all alone in our condo. I have another Doctor's appointment on Tuesday that Mom wanted to go with me to, so that's why she's coming back. She didn't have a car here since she drove me down last Monday, but this time she'll have her own wheels! Daddy is going out of town in the morning for a trip to Pennsylvania. I don't know how long he will be gone on this trip. I wish he could have spent more time down here with us yesterday, but he has too much going on right with TVA. I really wish he wasn't on-call this month so maybe a few of the people constantly bugging him would leave him alone. With all the stuff that has happened at Kingston and now Widow's Creek, the poor thing hasn't had a break in weeks! He is desperately in need of some R&R.

Well, I need to take Emma outside and get back to studying. It's not easy since it's so cloudy and dreary here today. The sun did not make it out all day long.

Spring Semester Begins

Today is the first day of my next-to-last semester of undergraduate work! My class schedule is quite different this time because of my upcoming internship. I have classes until January 30 every day from 11:00-12:30 and from 3:30-5:00. Then, starting February 2, I will work full-time in Birmingham. Finally, in mid-April, I will move back to Auburn and have a few more days of classes from April 20-28 (I think that's the end date). Then I will take finals in Auburn and shortly after that start my final semester as an Undergrad.

I really don't think these summer school-like classes will be so bad since I have had both professors in the past and really like both of them. I know the classes will be challenging, but I didn't mind daily classes and everything that goes with it this past summer. I think it makes it a little easier knowing that you don't have time to slack off because you'll have that class again the very next day rather than every other day like classes usually are.

I've got around an hour until I have to leave again, so I think I'll go back to my office and clean up a little. I'm trying to get rid of some of my extra "stuff"--especially old class notes from years ago that I will never look at again. I don't even know why I kept many of these things--like I'll ever actually look at old class notes again! I have plenty of storage space since I have two closets, but my closet in my room is exploding, so I'm getting rid of some things to make room. Clothes are priority one when it comes to proper storage, aren't they? haha