Santa Claus Been Here!!!

MERRY CHRISTMAS! As usual Santa was very good to us at the Pond household. I was pleasently surprised to receive a really nice Kelty backpack from my parents. I have been wanting a really good, women's back pack to take hiking and camping but hadn't found one that I liked, or that I could afford being a very poor collage student. It is a really nice backpack with cute little feminine touches like the little designs that are sewn on in places. I also got some movies and books and a fun little glass jar that I put the sand I brought back from California in with some of my favorite shells I found so that I can look at that and be reminded of the fun I had on the beaches! Thank you to everyone for the gifts, I was thourally spoiled!!!
One of the highlights of the morning was watching te dogs with their presents, they always know they also get presents and until they are produced from under te tree both Abbie and Cuddles sit in the middle of the floor witha  worried expression on their faces and when we finally pull out their present they get so excited. I haven't taught them to open presents yet, I try but they don't get it. One of their presents was a bag on rawhide bones, Abbie picked one out and happily went off to chew on it for te next half hour. Cuddles on the other hand alwasy seems to think that there is one that is better than the one he has and he's not content until he's empited out the entire bag. Unlike past years this bag had a closure and so he spent te morning trying to tear into the bag and carried this bag that was half his size around. What a funny puppy!
My job cleaning the collage housing hasn't been to bad. We work in groups of 4-6 and it takes us about 20 min. to clean one dorm. We got a four day weekend, which has been great! We're all supposed to come back in on monday, though I'm not sure what we will be doing as we've gotten all the rooms cleaned already. On wednesday I was sort of in charge of a crew of six as I had the list of what we were supposed to do and the keys to unlock the apartment doors. We were going back through some of the apartments at university village which is married housing, trying to get everything spick and span for the new families moving in next semester.
My poor mom cut her hand on a broken glass christams morning, she didn't want to go in yesterday so my dad bandaged it all up but last night they got to thinking perhaps they should get it looked at. It was too late for stitches when I ran my mom in this morning but the doctor did give her some antibiotic ointment to help keep it from getting infected.
My dad and Jed have been busy all day installing my Mom's new kitchen floor. She has wanted a new floor for years and now she is gettting it. It's a linolum type material that looks like wood, it looks really good int e kitchen and is going to to great when they are all done! My mom is super excted taht she Is finally getting her floor!

Who Turned Out the Lights?

Thursday night we had a huge blackout up here in the Upper Valley that affected people from Ashton down to Rigby, some even said parts of Idaho Falls, for those of you unfamiliar with the area, it takes about an hour to drive from Ashton to Rigby, and another 15 minutes to get to Idaho Falls so it was a huge blaackout. The paper today said it was caused by a damaged and malfunctioning part, or something like that. The power was out for over three hours, and as my Dad was saying it was "darker than the inside of a cow!" There was little to no moon so it really was dark when te power went out arround 8pm. Luckily we stayed nice and toasty warm next to the wood stove and we had plenty of lanterns and candles to give us light. It was kind of fun to only have candle light and was almost like stepping back in time.
I have been busy sewing up a storm making dog coats, I have even sold some! it has been kind of fun using my creative side to make each coat unique and adding little embellishments, buttons, bows and flowers to spruce them up! I am kind of sad because I start a job up on campus to help with cleaning the dorms and such over the break and I'm not sure I'll have any time to make more coats, I have been trying to get stocked up and made 14 coats yesterday alone! they are msotly for smaller dogs, as that is what my mom grooms and I have been selling them for $10.00 apeice. Perhaps what I don't sell this winter I will sell next fall at the local farmers market, if they hold it again.

I recently found out that I was selected to compete on my schools team at the PLANET competition in April, which is a very big national competition. I am really excited, yet nervous at the same time because last year my school took 1st place, so those are big shoes to try and fill. I get to compete in the Business Management, Interior Plant ID and Interiorscaping Design. I have alot of studying and preping to do in the next four months to get ready!!!

Baby... It's COLD Outside!!!

Wow, life has been busy! I have pictures to post about my drive home from California but as they are on my laptop and I am writing from the home computer the pictures will just have to wait, including the picture of my fully loaded car for my roomies to see, I still can't believe it all fit! I have been home about 2 1/2 weeks now. It's good to be home but I do miss California and all my friends there. The day after I got home it snowed, nice welcome home huh! It has been snowing off and on ever since and now everything is coated in a nice layer of snow, making everything look like it's been sugar coated, the only problem is that is hasn't gotten any warmer than about 15 degrees in the last few days.
 I have been job hunting but being Rexburg as usual there are no jobs to be found. I have started making dog coats to sell in my mom's shop, hopefully I can sell some and make some money to pay the bills with but if nothing else it has kept me from going crazy with boredom. I mad one that fits my dog Abbie that is pink with a red skirt, she looks adorable in it but she is less than enthusiastic about wearing that coat much less being my model as I make new ones, she hates being dressed up!
Well I hope that everyone is doing well and to any who are reading this, besides me, Merry Christams!!!