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!!!

The End of an Adventure

Well this is my last week in California and boy is it going to be busy! My last day of work is on tuesday and my Dad flies in wednesday afternoon to help me drive home. I'm really excited to see my family and be going home but as the end of my time here draws to a close I find that I am sad to be leaving all my new friends and the area I have come to enjoy being in. I will definatly have to come back even if only to visit.
 I got to go camping in the beautiful Joshua Tree National Park this weekend with my singles ward. I had a gerat time shooting guns, and watching the rock climbing and bouldering. The only draw back was that I had a little cold when I went and unfortuantly the cold night air and lack of sleep due to being cold didn't help with the cold and what was a small irritaion has since blossomed into a full out cough complete with sore throat and runny nose, which is why I only watched the rock climbing activities rather than fully joining in. This cold couldn't have come at a worse time as I have so much to do and it is really slowing me down, or at least trying to. The battle is one, now we just have to wait and see who wins- me or the germs.
Here are some pictures from my trip !

Sunrise- time was 7am

Natalie and I on the hill after the morning hike, we had a great view!

Joshua trees everywhere!

Natalie climbing "The Wall"

 Hidden Canyons where we went climbing was like a rock climbers heaven, they were all over the place like a bunch of little spiders climbing the rock faces. It was fun to watch! I dubbed myself the official climbing groupie for the day!

A Whole New World

Well I had a great friday night. Surprise surprise I went to Disneyland. I went to the Aladdin show and it was GREAT!!! They had flying carpets, elephants and camels as well as great dancing, singing and of course the Genie, Aladdin and Jasmine. It was a great play.
After the play I went and rode some rides that I hadn't been on yet, made friends with a little girl named Elle who was in line behind me with her family and was very excited to go on the ride, and caught up on some phone calls to friends while I waited.

While in line one of my friends called and asked what I was up to. I told him where I was and that I would love company, as I really am getting tired of spending time alone, so he came and hung out with me. We caught two showings of Fantasmic, rode a couple of rides and got soaking wet on splash mountain. It was alot of fun!

Happy Halloween!!!

Well I had a spooktacular halloween this year. I started off the weekend with a ward party on friday night at Bro and Sis Packers home. They had chili and soup in a pumpkin and home made rootbeer... YUMMY!

There were also some great costumes. There was Carl and Russell from the movie UP and MJ, a Facebook and many others. I went as a witch!

There was also bobbing for apples and donuts on a string!

Saturday night I went to teo parties. I started off the night at my friend Rachel's house up in Orange and had dinner in a pumpkin with her and her husband. I then ran home to touch up my make-up and pick-up my roomate Nacolynn before heading to our friend Wendy and Marci's house for a party. Their house looked great! The three roomates that live there all dressed as Lady Gaga!

The UP Characters were also at the party but this time they brought Kevin the bird with them.

There were so many people there and so many good treats to snack on. As the night went on people slowly filtered out. Later in the evening they had  music so people could dance and they played The Birds movie on the fence using a projector. it was fun to see all the costume ideas and to talk and get to know everyone better and to meet new people!            

    Here are some pictures from the House of Gaga party!

Just another day at the office

So today we had a bit of excitement at work, okay so it was alot of excitement. We spent the entire morning closing out a deal that we have been working on for over two weeks. The job was for  the California Transportation Department or Cal Trans as we call it at work. Our bid had to be out at 9am this morning, the people we were bidding to had to have theirs in to the job owners at two pm. I found out that with these kinds of bids if you are even 10 seconds late they won't take your bid. We bid to seven of the eight bidders vying for the job. At 2pm we were all anxiously waiting to hear if our bid had been accepted. When the bidding time closes the sealed bid packages are opened one at a time and the total sum is read out loud to all waiting. The lowest bid wins. One of my co-workers was there so we could know the verdict as soona s it was announced and guess what... WE GOT IT!!! We were so excited!

We bid on the landscaping and erosion control and with jsut those two things we got the job for the healthy sum of $7.5 million, whew! That brought out monthy total up to almost $12 million, that's twice as much as they have ever made in a single month before, the largest before was $6 million in April of 2006. We get to have a pizza party in celebration and the teo guys who did the estimating on landscaping and erosion control got a day off, compliments of the boss man himself in appreciation for a job well done and in recognition of the long hours they both put into the job!

One cool thing about this job was that I did the take off for it, so in a way I helped get the job. That's pretty cool to be able to say that I helped bring in one of the largest jobs Marina had ever bid on!

Last night my roomate Nacolynn and I went to Yogurtland with our friend Austin. It was really good. It was cool because they figure price based on the ounces of stuff in your cup. They had about 20 diffrent flavors and you could put as many or as few in your cup as you want, You also get to chose your own toppings if you want them. I had pistacio, tart blackberry and cheesecake with blackberries and gummy worms on top!

Spooky Good Fun

On saturday there was a spider infestation that occured in our apartment, they attacked everything and left a mess of webs in their wake. Okay so no spiders attacked but it sure does look like it. Nacolynn and I had a Halloween party, Sarah Dawn missed it as she was out of town. While Nacolynn mixed up a yummy batch of cupcakes I set myself to imitating a spider and covered everything with spiderwebs. I think it turned out well. We had a bunch of friends over from the ward and watched an old movie called the "Monster Squad" it was pretty cute! We had a pretty big group show up, all the seats were taken as was most of the floor space. After the movie we sat and talked late into the night. It was almost 2am when I finally poured myself into bed, and boy was I ready to be in bed.

Our guests were greeted at the door with the sight of two tombstones that Naco bought for 50 cents.

Sarah Dawns piller looks spooky with cobwebs!A cobweb table cloth sets just the right mood!!!           Even Mr. Potato Head got into the Halloween spirit.

Bewitching treats to be shared by all sat on the chest in the living room for everyone to share, there was candy, popcorn, cupcakes and cookies... YUMMY!!!

Counting Down the Days

So I will only be in California for about 28 more days and then it's back to Idaho. I am excited yet slightly sad, I'll miss my roomates who have been by far two of the best roomates I've ever had and I'll miss them. My dad is flying down on the 18th so drive back home with me. It'll be fun to go on a road trip with my Daddy! We are going to stop and see my Grandma and Grandpa Pond on our way home, I'm really excited to see them and glad that I don't have to wait till the spring when they come home. Hopefully I can figure out how I got all my stuff in the car in the first place, it could be interesting becasue I had my little car stuffed as full as it would go!

A little Obsessed

Okay so this past week I'm afraid I heave been a little single minded, all I've been able to think about was Disneyland and how bad I wanted to go back so.... I bought a season pass yesterday. So I know your probably thinking "what are you going to do with a season pass when you are moving back to Idaho in a month?" I asked myself the same queastion and the answer is that I am going to go after  work a couple times a week. I know where I can park for free that is close to the park, I work 10 minutes from the park so it's close and I won't have to deal with 5 oclock traffic- yeah!!! Plus it ended up costing me only $47.00 so It's completly affordable and  even if I only go once a week it will be worth it! So I can now officially say I am a season pass carring member of Disneyland and I am super excited!!!

I went and visited Toon Town as I hadn't gotten to see it the first time I went. It was fun walking through Mickey and Minnie's houses. I also went and found Pixie Hollow and I suggest that if you ever take a little girl to Disneyland you have got to check it out, because she'd love it! I found out, quite by accident that at night they have a light show which was really fun to watch, I took some pictures, but they don't do it justice.

DISNEYLAND!!!

I had the best weekend ever! A group of us went to Disneyland on saturday, we arrived at 8 am when they opened the gates and didn't leave till 10pm after the fireworks. My favorite rides were the Tower of Terror and Indian Jones. I bought the Tower of Terror DVD as my suvenier, I also got a Tinkerbelle Tiara. I was an excited ball of energy all day long!

We went on all the good rides and only stopped to eat, that and to stand in lines. Most of the lines were 30-50 minutes wait but it was worth it! We got park hopper passes so we could go from Disneyland to California Adventures and back again. The Screamin' roller coaster was a blast and  I was screaming almost the whole time. We went on a ride that shoots you up into the sky, I can't remember what it's called but it was funny because four of the five in our group got on. As we were sitting there all straped in we began wondering who's idea it was to go on that ride and we realized it was the guy who wasn't sitting strapped into the seat aboput to go rocketing up the pole, go figure!

The last ride we went on was Grizzly River Run. I got SO WET! The guy next to me also got soaked, we decided that it was because there was an empty seat on the opposite side so we kept getting all the drops and rapids on our side of the raft. Luckily it was warm out still, even though the sun was setting so I mostly got dry.

By the end of the day we were all getting pretty tuckered out!

There was also a great parade with all the Pixar Characters. I loved it! I was like a kid in a candy shop! I can hardly wait till I get to go back. Perhaps I'll splurge and go just before I go home so I can see the christmas decorations!

The fireworks were great, they had a special halloween show, it was amazing!

Here are the pictures of the Disney Characters that I caught a picture of, I couldn't get any closer due to the throngs of little kids.

Being that I am a student of Landscape design I couldn't help but take pictures of some of the cool things they had designed. Here are some of my favorites.

I LOVE DISNEYLAND!!!