Storms on the Horizon

Accourding to the weatherman this part of California is experiencing one of the worst storms in 40 odd years right now. So far I have been inimpressed with this storm. Yeah it's rainy and slightly windy. The air is a little cooler I guess but it was even before the clouds rolled in. It rained pretty hard last night, but it's just been drizzley today. Perhaps there's more to come, I don't know. I do know that the ocean was a lot ruffer yesterday when I went walking/jogging at the beach. The sand was spongy rather than firm beneth my feet where it was wet and the beach had more contours to it instead of the usual smooth and eveness. The water looked really cool! I don't think I would have wanted to get in though, it was a little to cold and rough for that.
Another great thing about rain in California is that people forget how to drive, so traffic was backed up everywhere as there were so many crashes and fender benders. I didn't get it as the roads were dry and there wasn't even hardly enough moisture to even require the use of my windsheild wipers, heaven help us if it really pours, no one will be going anywhere!
I found out today that I get to register for winter semester on  November 2 so I have started looking at classes and trying to figure out what I have left to take. Accourding to the schools website I only need 13 more credits, but I can't help but think that it will take a few more than that. But I am close to being done! By this time next year I could quite possibly have my bachelors degree in landscape design!!! So close and yet so far!

Missing Idaho

I realized something today, I miss Idaho! I am still having a great time here in California, but I realize that I am so glad it's just for a short time because it really isn't home, Idaho has always been the place where my heart feels at home. Last saturday, Uncle Brian and Aunt Deb had their annual cider pressing, and this was the first year that I didn't get to go! I heard they had a good turn out and made lots fo cider, hopefully my family saves me some in the freezer!
As funny as it may sound, I am even missing Idaho's crazy weather! Here I sit in a warm seventy degree California and I want slushy rain, snow, and wind... what am I nuts! All the same though I will be glad to return to Idaho in a about five weeks, yep that's all that's left. I am half way through with my internship! How time does fly when you are having fun!
Another thing I am missing is my puppies. I have almost chased people down when I am out and about in hopes that they'd let me pet their dog, but don't worry I haven't gotten that extreme yet.  I keep hoping they'll walk past me so I can comment on how cute their dog is and ask if I can pet it, but they always turn just before they get to me, it's frustrating. I am needing a doggy fix. I have contemplated volenteering at an amimal shelter but I can't help but think that that could end badly, as in I decide I simply must keep this or that poor, homeless dog who needs my love and that only I can save him. Pathetic as it may sound, that is about the truth of how my mind works in those situations, just ask my parents, they know it's true! Besides that, I'm have strict orders that I can't get a dog until I have a morgage, no I haven't forgotten Dad.
Anyway, now that you have all gotten a glimps into my chaotic thought processes I guess I'll stop before you all rally think I'm crazy. For all you in Idaho or similar climates, catch a snow flake for me!

A Visitor!

This morning as I walked through the door the receptionist told me there was a call for me. This in and of itself was intersting as I never get phone calls. It was Bro. Reese Nelson, one of my teachers and school supervisors. He was calling to see if he could stop by later and see where I was working at as he was in town.
Around 11:30 he arrived and I was able to show him what it is I do and introduce him to some of my co-workers. I also gave him as good a tour of the offices as I could as I don't even know where everything is exactly. I also showed him around the grounds and was very glad that my supervisor, Hue Ta had taken me around and shown me where stuff was just a week before, otherwise it would have been a very short tour with very little information about what we were seeing.
 I was able to show him the holding area for plants that are waiting to go out or that were left over from jobs. I showed him where we keep the equipment, irrigation and erosion control supplies. I also was able to show him this rally cool wire root basket that they use to keep critters from eating the roots of plants, it can also be used to protect the leaves and stems also.
It was fun to share what I've been learning with you Bro. Nelson, thanks for coming and visiting!

Pictures of the New Port Temple and Church

The Temple

Our meeting house, which is right across the street from the temple!

Hiking in El Moro

Yesterday I went hiking with a few people from my singles ward, and when I saw a few I mean just five. No ne knew about it till last minute so they already ad plans. I was going to go surfing but decided to go hiking last minute. It was fun, when we started there was a cover of fog but that quickly burned off and we were left with lots of hot sun and humidity. We were only going to hike for an hour but it took closer to two. It was so hot and by the time we got back to the cars we were all out of water. It was fun despite the heat.
I had forgotten to grab my sunglasses so I  borrowed my roomies sunglasses, they were very bright! They did the job but I still  really wished I had remembered to grab a hat!

Last weekend Sarah-Dawn was gone to Utah for a weeding so Nacolynn and I hung out. We went to some second hand stores at one we found an adorable stuffed llama/alpaca. Sarah-Dawn really wants an alpaca so I bought it for her! She loved it!

Work work work

Well all is still going well. I was very happy for the weekend to finally have arrived again. We are so far ahead with takeoffs at work that we were all struggling to find something, anything to do besides twiddle our thumbs. We got cake and ice cream today in celebration of all the september birthdays, it's something they do every month. Last month we got ice cream sandwhiches. It's interesting to try to sing happy birthday to seven diffrent people all at once!
Tuesday my roomies and I went to a $1.00 movie, we saw 'The Proposal' it was pretty good. After the movie as we were starting up the isle to leave two ladies were arguing, we never did figure out what about exactly. I think it had to do with the one ladies children. That was intersting, they sure had everyones attention!
I get to try my luck with surfing again tomarrow, my roomie Sarah-Dawn and our friend Brenda are going in the morning, I'm stoked! I also get to go to a fireside tomarrow, it's the Releif Society Broadcast. My rommie Nacolynn has to make soup, she didn't like my suggestion of home made chicken noodle and didn't really beleive me when I said it really wasn't all that difficult or time consumming to make. As of yet she still hasn't decided what to make. Sarah Dawn told her to just buy some!
I have now finished watching two seasons of 'The OC'. Sarah-Dawn had season one and after watching season one with me Nacolynn went and bought season two! Now we just need to figure out how to get ahold of the other three seasons! It's been fun watching then together and discussing the characters and the choices they are making!
Well I gotta go, have a busy friday night planned. Okay so that's not true, I jusst can't think of anything else to add right now. Maybe I'll go watch a movie or read one of my new books I bought at Salvation Army for 75 cents!

Coastal Clean-up

Well it's been another busy week here in sunny California.I learned some new tricks at work to make me more efficient in my take-offs. Saturday my roomie Nacolynn and I met up with a few of our ward members at the church before carpooling to the Back Bay to participate in an annual coastline clean-up. It's a statewide day of organized coastal clean-up. There were alot of people there to help pick up trash along the coastline. We were given a vest to wear that said 'Mormon Helping Hands'. We got alot of garbage and had a great time while we were at it.

We were all given a tee shirt, a water bottle and our choice of an isulated or a small compactable reusable grocery bag in thanks. I also got another bag at one of the other stands so now I have two reusable bags so I can help with lessening the use of plastic bags! The insulated one will be very useful I think. It felt good to be out and doing something good for the community and the environment!

The back bay is a very important ecological area. One of the main volunteers putting it on told us that there is this endangered bird that lives there, I can't remember it's name right now, but anyway 50% of the remaining population of these birds lives and depends on the back bay and similiar areas in this area. The back bay is where the ocean and river meets. It's also a part of the migratory routes of many birds and it's used by shrimp and certain fish to lay their young. It was interesting to learn about the area!

Back home my family was busy this weekend also! Jed, Corben and my Dad have been working on a car Jed bought for super cheap to get it ready for a demolition derby in St. Anthony, ID yesterday. Jed drove and one of his buddies was co-pilot. They did pretty good, though they got out pretty quick when they got stuck to another car, that's okay though because that just means that they can use the car again next year!

Grandpa Pond's birthday was also on saturday, I had a hard time trying to catch them at home so I could tell him happy birthday as he and Grandma were out running around town all day long! Happy Birthday Grandpa!

Lets Go Surfing Now!

I did it, I learned to surf!!! I even managed to stand up a time or two for a few seconds before falling back into the water! It was way fun!My roomate taught me the basics, she grew up next to the ocean so she's been at it for a while. I completely wore myself out!

I was already tired when we went because I had a late night the night before. My boss was kind enough to give me two tickets to the LA Angels home game in Angel Stadium, it was huge. Sorry no pictures, I didn't have my camera and I didn't know I was even going until I was at work. The Angels played the Chicago Red Soxs, LA won! After the game they shot off fire works, it's something they do every time they have a home game on a friday night. I invited my new friend Brenda to go to the game with me and thank goodness she said yes! We both had alot of fun.

One of my co-workers, Joe and his friend Will were seated in front of us. After the game they talked us into going to Dave and Busters which is basically a Chuckie Cheese's for adults. I got a mug with the tickets I won.

What a great weekend, it's just begging and I've already done so much playing and experienced so many new things! It's a great life!!!

I played alot last weekend to, it being a holiday and all, I got three days off. Saturday my roomie Sarah-Dawn and I rode bikes to the beach along the Santa Ana River. Not much of  a river if you ask me, there wasn't even water in most of it! We were just going to go walk and sunbath, not really get wet. We both should have known better, first thing we do is get in the water. We decided to hunt for shells. She found a HUGE one! we filled a sandwhich bag clear bursting full! We got lots of big, unbroken ones! It was nice riding bikes, it took about 50 min to get there but that was also how long it took us to park the car last time we went so we figured that was pretty good!

Whew... it's kinda warm!

Well my internship is going well, I am learning lots of new things each day. There is only one other lady in the estimating department and she has been giving me lots of good information that is helping me to do my part of the job better, for which I am very grateful! I am getting faster at doing take-offs, though I always make sure I go back over everything before I sign off on it, just to be sure. We are keeping very busy making bids. There is this thick newspaper like book of construction jobs that they go through every day to make sure they aren't missing out on good jobs for us to bid on, it takes a long time to go through the whole paper!
Traffic has been bad this week, traffic jams almost the whole way. One of these days I am going to take the back roads instead of the freeways to see if it is any faster. The problem is that I never know if it is going to be a good traffic day, or a bad one. The best news of the day was that I made it to work today without getting lost for the first time. I have a navigation system but we sometimes disagree or I just plain miss my exit and then we (my TomTom) and I , have to figure out how to get me back on the right roads. I am learning though and after this, SLC traffic is going to be a peice of cake!
It is very warm here today, I was sweating on the way home. Luckily we have great ac at my apartment so when I got home, I quickly changed into shorts and turned on the ac. I've been eating lunch outside, they have a couple tables for us to use. The breeze and fresh air is  always nice after being inside all morning.
Well, ta ta for now!

California: A small town girl in very big city!

Well, I've gone and done it this time. This fall I going to spend three months in California. I have found a very nice, very reasonably priced apartment in Costa Mesa where I will be sharing a room with a great girl named Sarah- Dawn and another girl named Nacolyn. Sarah-Dawn is polinesian and Nacolyn is Navajo, so I am kind of the odd one out being the only white girl, but that's fine becasue they are both so amazing and sweet.

The best part of being in Costa Mesa is that the beach is only 10-15 minutes away depending on which beach I decide to go to. Having a beach so close is definatly something I can get used to. After just four days I had already been to the beach three times, though only once to go swimming.
Corben drove down with me and helped me move in and then flew home on Aug. 25. We took three days to drive down to California. We spent the first night at a campground in Yuba Utah. The next night we were in Vegas where it was 107- way to hot for me. Corben wanted to stay at one of the casinos but they were to expensive to to his disapointment we stayed at a Motel 8. The next day we finished driving to Costa Mesa. It wasn't to bad of a drive.
I started work on August 26. I was worried about traffic so left home an hour early which turned out to be way to early as I was a half hour early. The next day I was 15 min early and today I finally got it right by leaving a half hour before work. The company I am working for is called Marina. They do mostly commercial landscaping jobs that are drawn up by outside designers and they bid to get the jobs. I am in the estimating department. What we do is when a job comes up that we would like to install we get the plans and do what is called a take-off where we use a program to count up specific types of trees, shrubs, plants, grass, sprinkler systems parts, etc. This is the part that I am getting to help with. Once the initail take-off is done it is passed on to one of the senior estimators who gather prices for each item and put togehter a bid price which we then give to the company who is looking to have their landscape installed. Then we wait to see if they choose our companies bid. It's interseting to listen to the other estimators talk because they speak of a $50-100 grand job as small when it seems like alot of money to me. I am learning lots, making a few mistakes, but learning never the less. They seem to think I'm doing well for a novice.
I almost forgot, my computer screen is HUGE! It's not actually a computer screen, but a big screen TV, and everyone has one just like it, at least in my department, though I am the only one without a regular computer screen on the side. Oh well, I'm not complaining. I don't know what I'd do with two screens, I'm just trying to get used to having a gianormous screen.
Traffic was my biggest worry and I have found that I don't actually mind it as much as I thought I would. Yesterday I got stuck in rush hour traffic becasue there was a wreck. I made the discovery that though it's not any better or worse that SLC traffic jams, it's less stressful becasue people are better at letting you merge in unlike in Utah where they speed up simply so you can't get in.