AmyluvsTrees

Winter To-Do List Update

2012-02-11T11:07:00.000-06:00

Remember my Top 8 list of things I wanted to do this winter? If not, you can find it here.

I thought it would be a good time to see how I'm doing!

1. Go ice skating - Can you believe I have never been ice skating? It's true, never once. I'd like to try it some time! Although I can probably predict some injuries from that haha.
Negative. I haven't come close, let alone even considered it! I actually forgot it was on my list. It's only February... do you think I can still try it??

2. Build a snowman - I don't so it's think I'll ever outgrow building a snowman. They are just too cute. :) No one could guess that my parents have a 23 year old living with them. Ha.
I think part of the reason I haven't done this one is because we haven't had any significant snow!

3. Go to the Walnut Room - I've never been to the Walnut Room downtown, either. It would be so fun to check it out. Chicago in winter is so beautiful!
Well, it looks like I've totally missed out on this one! The holiday season always seems to fly by... and I didn't have any time to go downtown! :(

4. Make college scrapbook - I keep putting off all these scrapbooks that I want to get done... so it's about time I get cracking on them! I have 3 in mind right now, so I am eager to at least get one done this season. It will be good to have a project to work on after Christmas cards are sent out.
Ooo ooo! I have this one sort of started... I ordered the supplies from Stephanie when she hosted a scrapbooking party. They supplies haven't arrived yet, but I am excited to pick out the pictures and get started!!!!!

5. Go Christmas shopping with a friend - I absolutely love Christmas shopping... but it is usually a lot more fun when you do it with a friend! The past couple of years, I have shopped alone because I lived alone or was the only person not working during the day. Hopefully this year will be different.... (if I don't happen to buy a lot of in online!)
Wow, this is depressing... haha. No, I did ALL of my Christmas shopping alone this year. Like I said before, the holidays snuck up and flew by me again! I managed to do shopping during my small windows of free time between work, working out, baking cookies, and cleaning!

6. Have a movie night with some girly friends - I haven't had a movie night in a long time, it would be fun to watch a chick-flick with some friends and eat chocolate. Yum! I'm definitely not having enough girl nights.
Did I have that movie night with Stephanie after I wrote this? We watched her wedding video and 10 Things I Hate About You... it was awesome!!!!! I love hanging out with her! I am going to go ahead and assume we did that after this post, haha. :)

7. Do a holiday project found on pinterest - I pinned a million things I wanted to do for fall on pinterest.... and I didn't do any of them. :( So I want to do at least one of the projects I found for winter!
Uhhh.... sort of! I found these adorable dessert recipes on pinterest and made them for my work holiday party and for family parties! Brownie Santa hats for work party. A melting snowman for the family parties. I want to still make some of the other winter projects I found... but not sure if I'll do it! I like doing projects with someone! Haha.

8. Go to Kriskindlemarket - I loved going in high school with my friends. Warm treats, cool vendors, and cute crafts. I'd love to go back this year and see how it has changed!
Aww, sad again. Never got downtown for anything over Christmas. I need to get there sometime next year!!!

Well it looks like I have done a less than medicore job of my winter to-do list. How sad! I do still have some time to do some of them! Is there anything else I should add to my list this winter?

Help young filmmakers achieve their dreams!

2012-02-06T14:00:00.000-06:00

Howdy! This post is a little out of place considering all of the posting I need to catch up on... but it's important to do this now!

I've mentioned my brother, Doug, and his passion for film making before... but I've got a little something different to post about his current project.

He has a buddy, Casey, who is working on his senior thesis project. It is about George Lucas and his journey to get Star Wars into production.... and Doug happens to be staring as George Lucas! Here is a teaser for the film that Casey posted:

I am so excited to see the final product! Especially because for some reason I love Star Wars and I'm really proud of Doug and his acting... usually Doug says he is not a good actor, but I was super impressed by these shots from the teaser.

The film is set in the 70s, thus Casey needed to buy some period appropriate clothes and props to make it authentic. Also, in March, Casey, Doug, and a few production staff members are headed out to LA to take a few shots in front of the Hollywood sign. With all this mind, it has cost Casey a lot of money to work on this student thesis film. He wants to do a great job as well as catch the attention of Star Wars fans everywhere.

He needs your help to make this film the best it can be, as well as help absorb some of the costs of making a film as talented as this one. Check out this video he and his production team posted:

You can visit his Kickstarter page here and donate money to his cause. I am trying to help spread the word because the team only has until the end of February to raise $6,000, and I know how much they all need the help. And also, Doug has played such an important role in this film, I want to support him as much as I can!

Keep in mind, there are prizes you can choose from if you donate a certain amount of money... but in the end, every penny you can donate will help the team.

Let's get to $6,000, everyone!!!

***Note: Doug's thesis film, which he is also working on, is set in modern day time and he does not anticipate spending nearly as much money. If you are concerned about pledging for him as well, you probably won't need to!

Thankful for...

2012-02-05T13:40:00.000-06:00

In order to get back into my normal posting routine, I'm going to have to rewind all the way to....

THANKSGIVING!

Yikes. Considering it is February, this is quite the jump. Of course, I want to apologize for how boring and irrelevant this probably is to 99% of you... but in order to remember and enjoy these special times, I want to write about them! And if you do the math, you'll end up suffering through Christmas and New Years, too. :)

So I had the idea of writing a post about the things I am thankful for... how cliche, right? So at work, I came up with this sort of set up to switch it up a bit:

T

H

A

N

K

F amily and friends

U

L

Then I couldn't be creative enough to fill in the letters! Geez Amy!

So here is a list, in no particular order, of the things I am thankful for this year (originally written in November 2011):

My amazing parents who support me and love me despite my faults... spending weekends in Ohio with my grandparents... long talks with my brother... being able to have a high school and college education... Sunday mornings at the farm... Spring Valley and its outlet for me as well as its preservation of nature... my amazing bed... the Eric and Kathy morning show on the radio... the relationship I have with my extended family: cousins, aunts, uncles, and grandparents... my favorite stuffed animal, Buster, still being in one piece and still having the ability to comfort me... having a wonderful laptop and access to internet... my mom's delicious cooking each night... my smart phone and its ability to let me communicate with Erin when she is abroad... pasta (any and all forms)... laughing... my GPS unit... trees and people letting me plant them in their yards... having an appreciation for nature... being able to landscape friends and family's houses... working at ISU for a year to meet Maria... having two lifelong friends who are more like sisters and cousins (Erin and Stephanie)... being able to travel to New York twice this year... my iPod... being asked to stand up in Erin's wedding... finding time to rediscover my love of reading... facebook and its ability to let me connect with friends and family all over... having support in order to find a job that is a good fit for me...

There's the list I wrote at work during the week leading up to Thanksgiving! Did you post about Thanksgiving? Do we have things in common? What's one unconventional thing you're thankful for?

Hang in there, lots more throwbacks to come. :)

Today's breaking news....

2012-01-21T11:42:00.000-06:00

.... Amy did not, in fact, lose the password to her blog.

Did you face go like this

:-O

when you saw a new post pop up on my page?

I promise I'll get better. I apologize for the 1.5 month posting hiatus. :( More soon!!!

Foliage Friday - Poinsettia

2011-11-18T12:00:00.000-06:00

Haaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaappy Foliage Friday! Great to have ya here!

Ready for a Foliage Friday update? I hope so! Here is your friendly plant post, where I talk about a plant I love and hopefully convince you to either plant it or just be more knowledgeable about it.

Plant: Poinsettia, Eurphorbia pulcherima

Poinsettia plant

Why: At Ball, employes are able to purchase poinsettia plants for the holidays. Upon asking my mom if she was interested in some, we both realized we didn't know too much about plant care or what they prefer. What a perfect topic for a Foliage Friday post! So here comes some information on a popular holiday plant.

Landscape/Plant info: The bright parts of the plant that we think are flowers, are really just brightly colored bracts. They turn to the color we recognize (red, white, pink) after spending at least 12 hours for 5 days in a row in the dark. The poinsettia prefers a lot of light during the cool part of the day to have the brightest color, so a solid light source is important after the color is established. But if you can avoid sun during the hot part of the day, it would be better. Typically the poinsettia is an indoor plant, don't let it get exposed to temperatures under 50 degrees. If you want to continue the plant's longevity after the first season, you need to put the plant in the dark for around 2 months along with some light watering. Be sure not to let it sit in water, that can cause rot, etc.

Red, pink, and white colored poinsettias

See these green/yellow parts of the plant? THAT is actually the flower... not the red leaves!

Other uses: Other than a delightful holiday plant, there are no other "uses" persay.

Fun facts: The poinsettia is native to Central America and Mexico. It was named for Joel Roberts Poinsett who introduced it to the United States. While the poinsettia is irritating to the skin and stomach, it is not as toxic as their reputation leads people to believe. If sap from the plant gets into an eye, it can cause blindness for a small period of time. December 12th is National Poinsettia Day.

Check out this article for some information about how to keep your poinsettia for more than one season.

Information and pictures from: http://urbanext.illinois.edu, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Poinsettia, http://gardening.about.com

Top 10... errr 8

2011-11-14T12:00:00.000-06:00

Remember my post about the places I want to visit? I thought it would be fun to do a "Top 10" post from time to time about random subjects. If you want to revisit my Places I Want to Visit, go here! And if you happened to have read that post, you'll notice I could only come up with 8 places. So I am going to do Top 8 lists. :)

Soooo, let's see. Today's Top 8 is....

Things I want to do this winter:

1. Go ice skating - Can you believe I have never been ice skating? It's true, never once. I'd like to try it some time! Although I can probably predict some injuries from that haha.

2. Build a snowman - I don't so it's think I'll ever outgrow building a snowman. They are just too cute. :) No one could guess that my parents have a 23 year old living with them. Ha.

3. Go to the Walnut Room - I've never been to the Walnut Room downtown, either. It would be so fun to check it out. Chicago in winter is so beautiful!

4. Make college scrapbook - I keep putting off all these scrapbooks that I want to get done... so it's about time I get cracking on them! I have 3 in mind right now, so I am eager to at least get one done this season. It will be good to have a project to work on after Christmas cards are sent out.

5. Go Christmas shopping with a friend - I absolutely love Christmas shopping... but it is usually a lot more fun when you do it with a friend! The past couple of years, I have shopped alone because I lived alone or was the only person not working during the day. Hopefully this year will be different.... (if I don't happen to buy a lot of in online!)

6. Have a movie night with some girly friends - I haven't had a movie night in a long time, it would be fun to watch a chick-flick with some friends and eat chocolate. Yum! I'm definitely not having enough girl nights.

7. Do a holiday project found on pinterest - I pinned a million things I wanted to do for fall on pinterest.... and I didn't do any of them. :( So I want to do at least one of the projects I found for winter!

8. Go to Kriskindlemarket - I loved going in high school with my friends. Warm treats, cool vendors, and cute crafts. I'd love to go back this year and see how it has changed!

There is my winter list of fun. What do you want to do this winter? Do you want to join me with any of these?

Foliage Friday - Japanese Spicebush

2011-11-11T12:00:00.000-06:00

Happy Friday! Look, my second post in a row. I didn't forget this time. :)

Ready for a Foliage Friday update? I hope so! Here is your friendly plant post, where I talk about a plant I love and hopefully convince you to either plant it or just be more knowledgeable about it.

Plant: Lindera obtusiloba, Japanese spicebush

Why: This one is for you, Erin! While I was in New York, Erin and I went to the New York Botanic Gardens and came across a spicebush. I remembered from my undergraduate class that the stems of the spicebush smell citrusy when you scratch them, so I asked Erin to smell it. She was amazed that I remembered such a random fact and how pretty it smelled. So I told her I'd write about it sometime for her. :)

Me with the spicebush we saw in New York!

Landscape info: In mid-April, the spicebush flowers greenish yellow flowers and has some obvious fruit that ranges from red to black. In summer, the foliage is bright green and turns yellow in the fall. It does best in an environment that has full sun tpart shade. I did read that it does better in USDA zone 5. If your winter gets very cold, you may want to cover it with a tarp to keep it safe from severe elements. It can grow about 10 feet tall if left unpruned.


A close up of the yellow flowers of the spicebush

The yellow foliage of the spicebush in fall. Beautiful!

Other uses: I would assume that you could crush the leaves and/or twigs for an aromatic potpourri!

Fun facts: This plant is attractive to bees, butterflies and birds. Great way to get some pretty creatures to your yard! Almost all of the features of this bush are easy to overlook because they are so small, but if you take some time to notice them, they are very endearing!

The spicebush in New York again!

Information and pictures from: http://www.backyardgardener.com, http://www.tripleoaks.com, http://stevesplantsandrants.blogspot.com

Thanks for tuning in for another week of Foliage Friday! :)

Off to the Big Apple

2011-11-08T12:00:00.000-06:00

For whatever reason, Erin and I started planning my second New York trip right after my first one ended. We talked about doing the things we didn't have time for and redoing some of the things we did the first time. Suddenly, the joking planning turned into the real thing! I researched and booked my own flight and flew out to see Erin one last time on October 13th for the weekend. It was AMAZING! Erin is such a wonderful host and I got to do so many new things again this time!

Please enjoy the photo journey of my trip!

This luggage check ticket symbolizes my travels to the Bronx. Aka - everything that could go wrong, did. First, my flight was delayed 45 minutes leaving Chicago because of rain in New York. And then my bag was checked at the gate because the flight was full and there was no overhead space left. Then, when I landed, I went to get on a bus through Queens to Harlem. Except the I realized the bus doesn't take dollars, only quarters... and guess who didn't have quarters? This girl! So I ran to a metro machine and got a card, just in time to catch the bus. Oh, it's not over yet. THEN, I managed to miss the stop I was supposed to get off at in Harlem. When I realized it, I jumped off and booked it 6 blocks through Harlem back to the Metro North to ride to the Bronx. Luckily, nothing went wrong with the train ride to the Bronx and I met Erin outside! Whew!

After my epic traveling experience, I told Erin that I needed a drink. She had the perfect place to go! We went to Michaelangelos right down from her apartment and enjoyed a small pizza and some delicious wine! We took this picture in front of $10,00 alcohol. No pressure not to fall into it!

We spent the night talking and catching up and planning our weekend. The next morning we went to Polombos, my new favorite place, to have their wonderful eggels. Even though it took the waiters awhile to get our order right.... it was SO worth it!

After our wonderful breakfast, we went over to the Botanic Gardens. This was one of the things we wanted to be sure to do together this time. It was raining, but we were determined!

There was a conservatory and we spend a bunch of time in there looking at their feature exhibit - the mums! This is Erin enjoying some huge ones!

I taught Erin all about peppers and capsicum.

This is a shot entering the mum display. Amazing color!

Erin heard that lily pad garden was in full bloom so we definitely decided to check it out. It was beautiful and filled with gorgeous lilies!

I came up with the genius idea to take a picture with my auto timer function with Erin across the lily pond

Before starting our day, we decided to take a picture in our new pose. Did you know this is in? Haha.

We went to the garment district to find some lace that matches the lace on Erin's mom's wedding dress. It was a very daunting task!

We found a place that had a whole upstairs full of lace. We found some possibilities!

We stopped in Central Park to enjoy some of the fall colors but were disappointed to see none. :( So instead we bought a waffle from a cart vendor and enjoyed it while doing a crossword. Love!

THIS is my ultimate favorite picture of us now. So adorable. <3

Between Central Park and this picture, we played around in Manhattan, pretended we were really rich, pretended we wanted to adopt a dog from a shelter, and found this sushi place. Then we enjoyed some AMAZING sushi in Manhattan. So so worth it!

After sushi we went to see one of Erin's classmates sing at a bar in Manhattan. She is from South Africa and did an amazing job. We enjoyed some mango martinis during the night. Yum yum!

What did you think of my recent trip to New York? Keep an eye on Erin's blog to see her rendition and her pictures of the trip!

Foliage Friday - Blanket flower

2011-11-04T14:00:00.000-05:00

Haaaaaapy Friday! Did you miss me the past THREE WEEKS? Yikes, I certainly owe you... but I'm not sure how to make it up to you! We'll go ahead and start with a post that is on time. :)

Ready for a Foliage Friday update? I hope so! Here is your friendly plant post, where I talk about a plant I love and hopefully convince you to either plant it or just be more knowledgeable about it.

Plant: Gaillardia, blanket flower

A cluster of Gaillardia, so pretty!

Why: At my new job, I am working with a variety of landscape plants and one of them is the blanket flower. It's ironic because this summer when my mom and I went to the garden center, she came across a blanket flower and immediately wanted to buy it. We added it to our backyard to give it a go. I love it because of the colors! Red, orange, and yellow! Who knew 5 months later I would be working for a company who is trying to develop the plant further? Awesome. :)

Landscape info: The blanket flower is a perennial plant and is from the sunflower family. The face of the flower resembles a tiny sunflower. It is native to North and South America. They grow from 1.5 to 2 feet tall and the bright flowers bloom in summer time. They grow the best in full sun and under dry (and sometimes harsh) conditions. Look, a plant you don't have to water very often! I even read that they will even grow and bloom along a sandy seashore! That would lead me to assume the soil you plant this flower in does not need to be very fertile. Overall, it is rather short lived and won't be a long lasting perennial. I would guess 2-4 seasons.

Can you sort of see the sunflower resemblance?

Other uses: I couldn't find anything for an "other uses"!

Fun facts: The common name, blanket flower, refers to the flower's resemblance to brightly patterned blankets made by native Americans. There are more than two dozen known species of Gaillardia. And I happen to be working on a few those right now. ;-)

Here is a variety of Gaillardia, with flouted petals. Love it!

An all red variety!

Information and pictures from: www.wildflowerinformation.org, http://easywildflowers.com

There is my first Foliage Friday for a few weeks... featuring a flower I work with daily! Who knows what other varieties you'll see in the near feature. ;)

End of the season

2011-11-02T14:00:00.000-05:00

Did you notice the chill in the air? Fall is here and winter is just around the corner! While I LOVE LOVE LOVE summer, I am actually excited for the change in the season and for the holidays to start. I was really able to enjoy summer this year between my job and extra activities at Stephanie's, unlike previous years. So I was pretty satisfied. :)

Speaking of my job... if you recall from before, I worked for the Forest Preserve this summer. It was amazing and I totally loved it! See the post here. However, it was only seasonal and was due to end in November. In September, I reluctantly started the job search. I wanted to wait as long as I could because I loved my job so much and didn't want to leave. But alas, I had to start.

I applied to a handful of places one night and just plowed through them. It was not fun! I don't enjoy job searching, but I knew I needed to get started so I wasn't unemployed for the holidays! After a few weeks, I received three phone calls to schedule interviews. How exciting!

For one job, I had to take a typing test to be considered. Needless to say, I rocked it and was moved to the next stage of the interview process. For another job, I had to schedule and attend a 4 hour interview. And for the third, I immediately turned it down because it was only part-time.

And (drum roll) I was offered the job that I attended a four hour interview for! YAY! Job offers are exciting!!! After some consideration, I accepted the job and started on October 17th. I'm starting my third week this week. I am currently working for Ball Horticultural. Have you heard of it? Check out their website here.

It's basically awesome! Here are a few things Ball is known for:

The wave petunia. Ball created it!

Fiesta Double Impatiens

Dazzler Impatiens

I work with a breeder and carry out pollinations that she wants to see in order to create or fine tune a plant. We could be working on the color, the habit, or a combination of the two. I spend many hours a week pollinating plants based on my breeder's decisions. I personally am working on 2 groups of petunias and helping another technician with Gaillardia (see upcoming Foliage Friday). It's really interesting and I have A TON left to learn.

I want to share everything I'm doing and what colors and shades and stuff we're working on, but I signed a confidentiality agreement and I'm not 100% sure what I'm allowed to say and not! So I'm going to stay on the safe side and not blabber too much. :)

Here goes another adventure!!! What do you think? Do you have any questions?

Happy Halloween!

2011-10-31T21:36:00.001-05:00

Happy Halloween!

Want to see all FOUR pumpkins I insisted I needed this Halloween? I actually wanted one more, but I ran out of time haha. Thanks for all the pumpkins, Stephanie! They are of such high quality. :D

Dad picked out the pattern for my scary pumpkin face! Love this guy!

My mom decided to carve a pumpkin and made this ghoolish Frankenstein!

Here is my Yoda pumpkin and ghost pumpkins

Let's just talk about how awesome this pumpkin is. Go ahead.

I was completely obsessed about having a Yoda pumpkin this year. I had seen some patterns at Target, but sadly didn't buy them when I saw them and they were gone when we went back. My mom jumped online and found this pattern and I went to town. It was SO hard! But I am pretty proud of it, now that it is all lit up. :)

Did you carve pumpkins? How did they look? Hope you share some pictures!

Guilty face

2011-10-30T20:27:00.001-05:00

Oh yeah, I have this blog... and I've been really bad at updating it!

Sorry everyone! There's been a whole ton going on!

I went to New York City to visit Erin before she graduates in December with her masters degree
Then I returned and started my new job (Did you know I was looking for a new job?)
Halloween is approaching and I was busy at Spring Valley with their Halloween programs

Are any of those excuses ok? Maybe not... but I'll make it up to you!!! A few Foliage Fridays are on their way, along with a summary of my new job and my trip to NYC!

Thanks for being patient!!! :)

Shameless plugging....

2011-10-13T09:59:00.000-05:00

Recently Stephanie and I were talking about our online selling endeavors and how unsuccessful we have been. She opened an Etsy shop to sell adorable hair clips for young (and old!) girls. It's her first attempt at a shop and she is still figuring it out. And if you read earlier, you know I am attempting to delve into the world of Ebay and sell some collectables.

Sooo, I decided to completely, shamelessly plug Stephanie's Etsy shop. She hand-makes all of her clips and is completely willing to make a clip customized to you. Like the Bears? How about the color purple? Or is Thanksgiving your favorite holiday? She totally has you covered.

Her shop name is "Our Suburban Farm." Which I'm sure you know matches her blog name! Here is a link to her shop: http://www.etsy.com/shop/OurSuburbanFarm?ref=ss_profile#

And here are some pictures of her cute hair clips!

Rosette clips

Halloween themed mini clips!

You pick a color, she can make it happen!

Flower clip!

Do you know a girl in your life that is totally into hair clips? Or does your baby finally have some hair to start playing with? Check out Stephanie's shop! It's so adorable. :) Support handmade goodness! :)

End: Shameless plugging. :)

Foliage Friday - Burning Bush

2011-10-07T20:57:00.003-05:00

Happy Foliage Friday! Are you absolutely loving the change in leaves? I sure am! And honestly, I sort of wish the weather would cool back off, these 80+ degree days make it hard to enjoy the changing leaves and Halloween decorations! But anyway, back to trees!

Ready for a Foliage Friday update? I hope so! Here is your friendly plant post, where I talk about a plant I love and hopefully convince you to either plant it or just be more knowledgeable about it.

Plant: Euonymus alatus, Burning bush

Burning bush in fall

Why: To go along with the changing leaves, I was trying to think of a plant that has a wonderful fall color and I thought of the burning bush immediately. My parents have 2 in their back yard, my friend Maria has one in her front yard, and I am just in love with the color. I know you're probably shocked that I'm not posting about a TREE, but it's ok. It's probably only temporary. :)

Landscape info: Like I mentioned, this really isn't a tree, it's more of a bush. If not trimmed, they can get pretty big (20 feet tall), but most of all, if taken care of, this is more of a shrub around 5-10 feet or so. It does best in an area of full sun and well trained soil. As you can probably tell by its name, it develops a gorgeous (obviously biased) fall color in late September that can range between shades of red, orange, and even pink. LOVE!

A close up of the burning bush's leaves

In summer, the leaves are usually a dark green color. It does well transplanted and has very few to no reported pest problems to be concerned about.

Burning bush in summer

Other uses: Sorry, I couldn't find anything!

Fun facts: Is this really a fun fact? Not sure... but the burning bush can actually be classified as an invasive species in some areas. Before you plant it, it's always a good idea to check its classification. Your garden center should (key word: should) be knowledgeable about this. As I mentioned above, there is a wide variety of colors the burning bush can be in fall, and there are at least 15 different cultivars!

Thanks for joining me for yet another Foliage Friday! Anything at all you'd like to know more about? Leave me a comment!

Information and pictures from: http://www.hort.uconn.edu and http://www.bhg.com

I'll just sell it on Ebay

2011-10-06T10:14:00.003-05:00

So, for some reason I decided to dive into the world of eBay selling recently. When I moved back in with my parents I cleaned out my room and came up with a bunch of collectible items that I didn't want to just throw out, so I decided to try to sell them. Then my mom came up with a box and my brother followed up with a box of stuff as well.

Why not? Make some extra cash and get rid of some clutter!

Ha. It's kind of a lot of work to sell something on eBay! Take a picture, write a detailed description, clean up item, research/decide on a price, determine shipping costs, open a paypal account, and post the item. *whew*

And of course I had no idea of all of the little charges that come along with posting something. Do you want to be listed in more than 1 category? That will be an extra 10 cents please. Want to list more than 7 days? That's an extra 20 cents. You want a gallery picture? Well, if you're not lucky and get a free promotional offer, that will be 20 cents. Oh and let's not even talk about the percent kick back you have to give back to eBay after you sell something.

I originally refused to give in to all of these nickle and dime charges to make my product look better. I'm supposed to be MAKING money on these items, not losing it! Not to mention that none of these collectibles are incredibly enticing or expensive. But now I'm rethinking that decision.... I had maybe 20 views total on my 16 items the first time.... and a few of those were my own mom!

My first round of listings had 16 items in it.... and 1 sold. ONE. It was a picture frame with Toto from Wizard of Oz on it. Talk about a ton of work for 12 bucks. I have since then relisted the other 15 items to try again.

I'm wondering... do you sell on eBay? What are your tricks? Do you shell out that 10 cents to have it pop up under more than 1 category? What do you do to make your "description" sound like something a person can't pass up?

And how in the heck do you figure out a shipping cost? That is taking me the most time, and quite frankly it is a pain! I have at least 15 other items that aren't listed because I can't figure out a cost effective way to ship them!

And finally, let me know if you happen to know anyone who is interested in Wizard of Oz collectibles, Peanuts collectibles, Pokemon cards, or Beanie Babies. I'm trying to find good homes and I promise the prices are not outrageous. :)

Help!

PINK

2011-10-02T12:00:00.000-05:00

Not sure if you've seen my latest Foliage Friday post about a pink flowering tree or not....

But, I picked that tree because Stephanie asked to learn about "the tree that flowers pink in spring." I wasn't sure which one she was picturing in her mind, so I picked one to start! But then my mom suggested listing out a bunch of pink flowering trees that she could be thinking of since some people pick out trees because of how they flower! What a great idea....

Here are a few trees that Stephanie could have been picturing in her mind and would do resonably well in our zone and climate. See the redbud post below. That tree counts, too!

1. Saucer magnolia
There are a bunch of magnolia varieties and cultivars, but I chose the saucer magnolia because I know for a fact that it does well in our zone and I am sort of a fan. :)

Closer up of magnolia flowers


A little farther away of the magnolia

2. Crabapple
There are a bagizillion different kinds of cultivars of crabapple trees. I did a general search of pink flowering crabapples. These are pretty standard colors/shapes of flowers to get an idea!

Close up of crabapple flowers

I have no idea who that man is in the foreground!

3. Pink Kousa Dogwood
There are also a bunch of dogwood cultivars that flower pink, but I love the kousa and I believe it would do well in our area.

Close up of dogwood flowers

Farther away of the pink flowering dogwood tree

4. Kwanzan Cherry
I don't know too much about this cherry tree, but it is super pretty and I'm a fan of cherry trees, they are so pretty!

Close up of cherry flowers

Farther away of a cherry tree on a random slope

5. Pink Flowering Almond tree
I will admit, I know nothing about this tree. But I wanted 5 trees in this post and googled to try to find a 5th. I think this is really pretty!!!

Close up of almond flowers

Farther away of the almond tree. They have sort of a branchy shape, but still nice!

There you go! A very pink-y post!!!

Foliage Friday - Eastern Redbud

2011-09-30T13:21:00.002-05:00

Happy Foliage Friday! Holy cow, is it really Friday? And really the end of September? Time is flying! But luckily for you, something that always stays the same - is your Foliage Friday. :)

Ready for a Foliage Friday update? I hope so! Here is your friendly plant post, where I talk about a plant I love and hopefully convince you to either plant it or just be more knowledgeable about it.

Plant: Cercis canadensis, Eastern redbud

Eastern redbud flowering in spring

Why: Not sure if you read comments from other posts, but my lovely cousin, Stephanie, commented that she wanted to learn about "those pretty trees with pink flowers in the spring that I want." First of all, this made me giggle because there are a bunch of trees with pretty pink flowers in spring... and I can't remember which one she liked the most! So today I picked one of the pink flowering trees to see if I was right. If not, I'll try again until we find it. :) And of course, hugs to Stephanie for actually commenting/reading/and making a suggestion! Steph and my dad are the best for humoring me haha.

Landscape uses: I forgot to mention this before.... but I love this tree. Love. This. Tree. I'm not 100% sure why. I do remember that it was one of the first plants I learned about in my woody plant ID class. Maybe that was part of it!

Overall, the Eastern redbud gets between 15-30 feet tall and 25-30 feet wide when it reaches maturity. Yes, this is a little on the shorter side compared to some of the trees I have written about. This makes it a lovely ornamental tree for a lawn or need a building since it doesn't need a large amount of space for its crown or spread.

Eastern redbud in summer

Its leaves are heart shaped (vocabulary: cordate means heart shaped when referring to leaves.) and it has zig-zag-gy (I just made that word up) delicate branches as well. In spring and summer, the leaves are a common green and in fall are yellow.

Heart shaped leaves of the Eastern redbud

As you can imagine by the name, it flowers! But not red, it's more of a deep pink. The flowers bloom before the leaves open, so it makes a striking statement in spring. You'll see the flowers typically between March and May, depending on the weather and which zone you live in.

Close up of the pink flowers of the Eastern redbud

It does best in well drained, fertile soils and doesn't require a lot of watering once established. Prefers to be planted in full sun to partial shade. Keep an eye on the leaves scorching if the leaves are splashed with water during high peaks of sunshine.

Other uses: I didn't know this, but after reading a little bit, I learned that the flowers and flower buds can be added to salads, breads and even pancakes! They are very high in vitamin C. Who knew? The seed pods can also be eaten and prepared in a vareity of ways: raw, boiled, sauteed. Also, if you boil twigs from the redbud in water, they produce a yellow dye. This would be an interested experiment to see if the dye is strong enough to dye an Easter egg!

Fun facts: Looking for a pretty flowering plant that attracts animals? Here is your plant for bird attraction! And as a perk, deer are moderately resistant to this tree. If you garden, you certainly would not want to attract anything else closer to your house!

Habit of the Eastern redbud

Couldn't be anymore excited to research and read about this beautiful, low maintaince tree! I actually planted one in my parent's backyard. I can't wait to see it grow into something as beautiful as this!

Information and pictures from: http://www.wildflower.org

Now, is there a plant YOU'D like to hear about next week?

Foliage Friday - Willow Trees

2011-09-23T17:58:00.000-05:00

Happy Foliage Friday! Did you miss me last week? Sorry about that!

Ready for a Foliage Friday update? I hope so! Here is your friendly plant post, where I talk about a plant I love and hopefully convince you to either plant it or just be more knowledgeable about it.

Plant: Salix babylonica 'Pendula', Weeping willow

Why: Did you read last week's update? Probably not because I didn't write one. ;) But the one before that I asked what sort of plant you wanted to learn about next time. And my wonderful father asked to hear more information about the willow tree. This makes me laugh because I really believe that he knows enough about them, but I will humor him and post about willow trees! Because the willow genus is huge, I picked the weeping willow since its relatively common and my mom loves them!

Landscape uses: This popular tree grows between 70-80 feet tall and is a relatively fast grower. However, it is has a short lifespan. In spring the leaves are a silvery green and in fall turn to a golden yellow. This cultivar is known for being a little bit stronger than other willow trees and is overall more disease resistant than others. This helps offset the short lifespan! The flowers are pretty small yellow spikes. The trees are either male or female, so cultivation is a little trickier to establish. They prefer very moist soils and can be found naturally near ponds, lakes, streams, etc. This is not very ideal for landscape uses because of its short lifespan and need for constant water.

Fall color

Other uses: The bark has been used in ancient Egypt as remedy for fevers and aches associated with it. There is a compound called salicin that resembles aspirin and can relieve headaches and stomachaches temporarily. Bark can be used for baskets, wicker, brooms, etc. In natural circumstances, willow branches are used for decorative fences in gardens, etc.

Fun facts: There are over 400 species of willow trees! Cut branches of the willow tree almost always take root into the ground if the conditions are right. That is fascinating to a plant nerd. :) If you google willow trees, you will find a ton of legends about its uses and benefits. I won't
bore you too much here, as a lot of it is scientific-y biological-y. :)


Pendulous leaves of the willow tree.

Thanks for joining me this week! What do you want to learn about next week?

Down on the farm

2011-09-22T16:41:00.001-05:00

I think I've mentioned before one of my favorite things about being back at home is being close to the farm. I missed it a lot while I was at school and work for the past 5 years. Now I get to be a morning feeder and I absolutely love being able to hang out with the livestock and get dirty. I actually don't mind mucking manure! :) Along the way, I like to snap some pictures with my phone because the animals do some funny things, hehe.


This was the first picture I took this summer. It was approximately 90 degrees at 8am and Otto, our steer, came over to the spicket to get a drink and cool off! I thought it was hilarious and adorable!

After a few weeks of getting back into the habit of feeding, I volunteered to milk as well. I mean, I was going to be there anyway! This is Heidi, our milking shorthorn. She is a sweetheart and VERY patient!!!


I think Otto is just one of the cutest cows ever. He likes to follow me around when I'm out in the paddocks! Be careful, he's a licker!

One morning, Erin asked me for a picture of the ducks and I joked around with her and sent her a picture of "cow butts." Hehe. Ducks. Cow butts. They rhyme! It made me laugh.

This is an unflattering picture of our new heifer, Bertha. She's a little shy and wont let me get near her face, so I had to settle with a shot of her back end!

The same time we received Bertha, we also got 3 more pigs. I snapped a pig of the small pink one. We haven't had pink pigs in so long!

This is another one of the new pigs. I giggled because she immediately jumped into her food trough to snarf down the food I dumped in.

This pig is now our veteran pig (we just recently cleaned house and purchased new ones) at just a year old, and she has only been here for a month or two, but she is wonderful! I think she is pretty sweet!

And to end this picture post of cute animals, here is a shot of some pig butts. Aren't animals butts so cute?

Next time I'm at the farm, I'll try to get some pictures of our horses and fowl. I just love being there and am really lucky to get to go back to help out! Piggies are my favorite. :)

Foliage Friday - Ohio Buckeye

2011-09-09T10:00:00.001-05:00

Happy Foliage Friday! Thanks for joining me. :)

Ready for a Foliage Friday update? I hope so! Here is your friendly plant post, where I talk about a plant I love and hopefully convince you to either plant it or just be more knowledgeable about it.

Plant: Ohio Buckeye, Aesculus glabra

Why: Surprise! Yet another tree, and yet another option for my parents to consider for their front yard if we replace their ugly silver maple. Now, honestly this tree has a few liabilities, which I'll explain in a bit, but I had to go over it anyway. First, my mom is from Ohio, where their state tree is the buckeye. Second, this tree is commonly overlooked because of its fruit liability, but it has some lovely qualities as a landscape tree! And third, I tried teaching Erin about this tree when we were in Central Park in April... I thought it would be fun to jog her memory. :)

Ohio buckeye in mature form

Landscape uses: Starting off with its form, I can only describe it as a lollipop. Do you remember drawing trees as a kid? Stick for the trunk and a green, round poof for the leaves? That is sort of what this tree looks like from afar. Classic form! It is usually 30 feet or so tall, but can get up to 80 feet.

In the spring and summer, the Ohio buckeye has a deep green leaf color, and in fall typically has orange-ish, red-ish leaves. Refreshing from the commonly seen yellow leaves!

Fall leaves of the buckeye

Springtime also brings a bright yellow/green raceme flower. I honestly believe the flower is overlooked in this tree. It's definitely unique and a great spring addition to your yard. Oh, but I will warn you - it doesn't smell the best!

Early flower of the buckeye

Overall, the buckeye can be tolerant of shade, and can survive any shade your house or buildings cast on it. But it does best in full sun. As I mentioned above, the fruit of the tree (the buckeye) are a bit of a liability. That basically means the tree produces something undesirable at some stage of its season. The buckeyes are bigger than a large marble and drop to the ground beneath it. This can create an issue when mowing or landscaping under the canopy.

Dried fruit of the buckeye

Because of the crown size of the tree, it does best in larger areas where it can thrive. Be sure the area of your yard is big enough if you consider it for around your house.

Other uses: The buckeye nuts contain tannic acid (which is poisonous to animals and humans), but this acid can be used for leatherworking by Native Americans.

Fleshy fruit of the buckeye before drying

Fun facts: Ohio State University uses the Buckeye as its schools' nickname. All parts of the buckeye, leaves, fruit, bark, flowers, are toxic when consumed. Be careful when around this tree! The dried buckeye is often carried around with a person in their pocket and rubbed for good luck.

Information and pictures from: http://www.hort.uconn.edu, http://www.cirrusimage.com

Thanks again for joining me! Now come on... let's give me a suggestion for next week! What do you want to learn about?

Nursery Tour

2011-09-07T12:00:00.000-05:00

I realized that I talk about the nursery a lot in my blog and quite a few people don't really know what I'm taking about! Since I'm there every day at work, I took some pictures for a little mini tour so you can see what my nursery really looks like. (Ha, my nursery. It's definitely not MINE, but I am in love with it!) Plus, Erin asked for a mini tour, too!

Ready? Please keep all hands and feet inside the tour bus. We'll start off the pump house.

This is where all of the tools, pump, and first aid kits are kept. Every morning Brian from the forestry crew opens up the pump house and we work out of there all day long. I usually close it up at the end of the day. It looks sort of small, but it keeps all of our tools nice and organized!

Inside of the pump house is a set of cabinets where I specifically keep my tools for volunteer groups, etc.

Only my boss and I have keys for these cabinets since these tools are expensive and important for the success of volunteer work days. To the right of the cabinets is the big pump for the water source. There's a dial to turn and then the pump starts up and sends water to all of the hook-ups in the nursery.

We'll be moving past the pump house now, to see more of the nursery. Next is the man-made pond that the water is drawn from when the pump is turned on. There's actually a sign that says, "DANGER, sharp drop off. Stay out!" Again, I feel like this was directed at me. Haha.

Now we go to the actual planting beds that I work in every day. There are 20 sun beds and this is a shot from the very end of the beds. As you can probably see, most of the sun beds are up on a raised bed. When I weed, I just throw the weeds off the side of the bed and scoop them up once a week into the compost pile.

Here is a shot of the East planting beds. This was right at 7am so a lot of it was dewy and flattened down. It usually perks up around 11am. Right now we really only have yellow growing in the sun beds!

Here is a shot of the West planting beds. For some reason I spend less time in the West beds because of East beds are a little more needy and delicate. But the West beds are full of sunflowers which are so fun!

I just thought this was pretty in the early morning. :)

I also have 8 shade beds that I take care of, as well. They are right next to the sun beds, but are not raised. Here are the East shade beds. It's fun to work on these beds when its sweltering hot! The shade canopy is made to simulate the sun breaking through the upper canopy of a forest.

And here are the West shade beds! Recently I've been putting a lot of time in these beds because many of the seeds are ready to collect! The white signs indicate what was planted in each bed and where you can find them. Very helpful!

I ALSO have 3 extended beds that are full of little bluestem grass. It's funny - one of the forestry crew seasonals accidentally tilled all three of these beds under when he was tilling between the tree rows. He didn't realize that I was growing grass in these beds! So the grass is a little short, but doing ok after that incident lol.

And because I talk a lot about the forestry crew and their role in the nursery, here are a few pictures of the rows of baby trees. :)

There are a MILLION trees all over the nursery. These are just two shots near the planting beds that I work. It's fun to see them grow from teeny tiny to bigger trees that can be put in the preserves!

And to wrap up our audio tour of the nursery, here are some beautiful pictures of some flowers and plants that are headlining right now:

Sunflower

Yellow coneflower

Great blue lobelia and silky wild rye

Cardinal plant

Thanks for joining me on the nursery tour! I hope you enjoyed what I work with each week! Have a great day! :)

Foliage Friday - European Beech

2011-09-02T17:00:00.000-05:00

Happy Foliage Friday! Heeeeere we go!

Ready for a Foliage Friday update? I hope so! Here is your friendly plant post, where I talk about a plant I love and hopefully convince you to either plant it or just be more knowledgeable about it.

Plant: European beech, Fagus sylvatica

Why: I'm still in my tree kick and am going through my 3 inch binder from my undergraduate tree class, page by page. I came across the European beech and remembered how much I pestered my dad to consider planting one in our backyard. And yes, if you're wondering, our backyard is really not that big for this tree, but I just LOVE it. It's the ultimate climbing tree and I always wanted one of those in my backyard as a kid.

Can you imagine climbing the branches of this tree?

Landscape uses: The European beech can be a very large tree in its mature stage, and can be up to 120-140 feet tall! Because of that, it also offers a lot of shade, and you cannot grow much underneath it, there isn't enough sun. This would be a problem when planting in a yard, as the grass underneath can die. But this tree can be used as a lawn tree in a large open space. The beech also tends to have shallow large roots that can poke up through the ground but can be controlled by the method it is grown and planted. Because it can be so large and have such a large span, it is self pruning and the smaller, inside branches fall to the ground as it grows. Less work for you! In fall, it commonly gets a beautiful red color. It's flowers and fruit are generally small.

Can grow to be enormous trees! I'd love to read a book under there!

Other uses: The tar from the beech can be used to help treat bronchitis, and also on the skin for various irritants. There are a lot of theories about how the fruits (a nut) can be used in a variety of ways. I can't keep up!

Fun facts: The bark of this tree is a grey-ish color and is soft. Sometimes it's described as looking like an elephant's leg. I have to agree with that! The European beech comes in a few different popular cultivars, including one with purple leaves, gold leaves, and one that weeps. I'm a big fan of the purple cultivar. :) There are actually a few forests that are primarily beech trees. Note to self... find one and find bliss....

Can you kind of see the elephant leg? I do!

Thanks for tuning in this week! What would you like to learn about next week?

Information and pictures from: http://www.hort.uconn.edu, http://www.botanical.com

My first big purchase

2011-09-01T16:49:00.002-05:00

Guess what I did last Monday?

I bought my first car!!!!!!!!!!! Holy macaroni! I know, I didn't see it coming either. But, after some discussion with my parents, it was determined that my brother would most likely be needing a car during his senior year. And to be fair, the car that I was previously using was bought for both of us, and he should really get it!

So that meant I needed to get out there and start looking at some car options. I knew I wanted something bigger than what I had, possibly an SUV because of the extra storage space for all of my gardening and lawn care tools. My awesome dad went with me to look at cars on Friday night and we started at Ford and Chevy. I know I wanted to try a Ford Escape and a Chevy Equinox. Of course I LOVED both of them! We went home that night because it was late and I went to be dreaming of a Chevy Equinox.

The next morning my accountant dad crunched some numbers according to my income and savings and realized that I could not afford a new car, as I previously believed I did. I was devastated! My dad suggested downsizing to a larger sedan and I just couldn't do it... I had my heart set on a SUV!

Luckily, he wasn't going to give up and brought me to CarMax that afternoon. If I really wanted a SUV, then I would have to settle for a used one! While that was disappointing after looking and driving a 2012 Equinox, I started over and looked at used SUVs at CarMax. There was an awesome selection, and it made me feel a lot better. I looked at and drove a Jeep Liberty, a Hyundai Tuscon, and a Saturn Vue. I also looked at Fords again, as well as other models of Hyundais and Hondas. Our sales agent, Terrance, was excellent sticking within my budget and didn't let me look at cars I couldn't afford very long, let alone drive one. I really appreciate that!

After a few test drives, I decided I loved the Saturn Vue. My dad has a Saturn and I love driving it! It was very smooth and had great space in the back trunk. However, I did not love the color. Our CarMax only had black models. Ehhh, not my color. I preferred silver! We headed inside and Terrance pulled up all of the Illinois CarMaxes to see what other Vues were out there. Unfortunately there were no silver ones with acceptable mileage (I didn't mention that I had a long list of things I required of my new car!). But there was a red and blue one with my requirements. For some reason the blue one spoke to me! We ordered it to be delivered to our location and made a date to test drive it on Monday.

Monday night, we went back and I test drove the blue Saturn Vue.... and loved it. I was extremely critical of every inch of the body of the car, I felt silly, but I wanted to make sure it was in good shape! It was, and it drove wonderful. This time my mom and dad came and they both loved it as well! We went inside, and signed the papers, and I drove home my brand new car! :)

Here are some pictures!

My new wheels!

Front shot of my car. What do you think of the color?

One important thing for me was how comfortable the back seat was. I had my dad sit in the back seat of every car and let me know how they felt! He liked the Vue's back seat the best. :)

Obviously another big factor was the trunk space. And I cant even tell you how perfect this back seat is for me to start with!

All in all, I am VERY excited and grateful for my dad's help with this entire process. He remained very patient and supportive during the car shopping, researching, and paperwork portion. And of course thank you to my mom for letting us gallivant around to dealers for a weekend and for co-signing!

What do you think of my new car? What do you think of the color? What was your first car?

Foliage Friday - Pawpaw Tree

2011-08-26T14:17:00.001-05:00

Happy Foliage Friday! Let's get to it. (I'm ignoring your disapproving glances when you realized I forgot to post last week....)

Ready for a Foliage Friday update? I hope so! Here is your friendly plant post, where I talk about a plant I love and hopefully convince you to either plant it or just be more knowledgeable about it.

Plant: Common Pawpaw, Asimina triloba

Why: I work with prairie plants all day long in the nursery at the Forest Preserve, and I love it! But in college, my absolute favorite classes were about woody landscape plants and woody perennials. Once I shared this with my coworkers, they all start asking me questions about trees and I realized I am getting a little rusty! Uh oh! It's time to get unrusty and revisit some of my favorite trees. I picked the pawpaw for a few reasons. First of all, there are a few pawpaws in the preserves of our district, and everyone gets excited about them, as they are a little hard to establish. Second, the name is fun. Say it. Pawpaw. Say it faster. Pawpaw. Hehe. Third, I love trees with unique features, and this one has a few!

Pawpaw in landscape environment

Landscape uses: Well, I will start off by saying that the pawpaw is not a very common landscape tree, and this tends to be because it can be hard to establish. It prefers deep, moist, sandy soil and have delicate roots that require this soil. Never fear, it's possible! Stick to pawpaws that are in containers, not bare rooted. But, as I mentioned above, it can be found in shady, moist wooded areas... which is exactly where a few of my coworkers found them! They have a relatively loose, horizontal branching pattern, and supply a nice amount of shade. They can get to be 30-40 feet tall and are easy to maintain when established. There hardly needs to be use for herbicides or pesticides for this tree.

Pawpaw in a woody environment

Other uses: The fruits of the pawpaw tree are believed to be consumed by Native Americans for years, and is safe for human consumption. Some believe in the fruit's medicinal uses!

Pawpaw fruit

Fun facts: I think this is where I will put the fun attributes of the pawpaw tree. We'll start with the leaves. They are a bit larger than the average tree's leaf, and have a droopy quality. In the summer the pawpaw has a distinct, rich green color, while in fall, it has a rich, full yellow color. It's one of those trees that will pop out from the rest!


Droopy leaves

Another interesting feature of the pawpaw tree are its flowers. Do you ever stop and see a tree's flowers? Probably not! Unless you're passing a magnolia tree, it's hard to even imagine that trees have flowers because they are so small! Luckily, the pawpaw has a unique flower that is easier to notice. It is purple/maroon in color and droops downward. I am a big fan of how unique it is for a tree.

Flower

Finally, their fruits are also produced widely and are excellent for jams and jellies! Their picture is above, under "Other uses." What a large fruit for a tree! I find it really interesting that pawpaw trees are actually produced specifically for their fruits. Do be aware... once the fruit is picked from the tree, it ferments quickly. It's best eaten or used straight off the tree if possible. If not, freezing is a good option.

I could also get into how interesting the buds are, the color of the pith, and the pinnate venation.... but this is an intro class, and we'll stay simple. ;-)

Thank you for tuning in again for today's installment of Foliage Friday. See you next Friday! :)

Information and pictures from: http://plants.usda.gov, Yahoo Images

Foliage Friday - Black Gum

2011-08-13T11:18:00.001-05:00

I hope you don't notice that it's actually Saturday.... I'm SORRY! I have no idea how I let it slip my mind this week, it felt really busy!

Ready for a foliage Friday update? I hope so! Here is your friendly plant post, where I talk about a plant I love and hopefully convince you to either plant it or just be more knowledgeable about it.

Plant: Black gum or Tupelo, Nyssa sylvatica

Why: This is one of the prettiest trees in the fall, in my opinion. It is a BRIGHT red color and I think it is just wonderful! My parents have a tree in their yard that (in my opinion) needs to be removed and I would love to replace it with this tree. It can be a little hard to grow from a large transplant, but I think it is totally worth it in the end. There are a lot of yellows in our neighborhood, and we need some more reds!

Landscape uses: The black gum is more common in southern United States, but is hardy to zone 4. (North of my area.) They can be a little difficult to grow from transplant, but I think that may be more of a reputation that the actual truth. If you stick to a smaller transplant in balled and burlapped form, it does better. It has a pyramid shape, which is nice for a tree lawn or street tree. In the summer it has a nice, dark green foliage color. It gets to be 30-50 feet tall in its maturity and offers excellent shade for summer. :) It's a little on the slow growing side, so patience is a must! It can have some rust or leaf spot problems, but both are pretty easy to control.

Other uses: From what I have learned about this tree and researched about it, I have not been able to find any other uses besides a landscape tree for shape and excellent fall color.

Fun facts: Fall foliage can range from yellow to orange to red to almost purple. Talk about a party in your front yard during fall! Sorry that the fun facts are also lacking a little bit!

Information and pictures from: http://www.hort.net, http://www.hort.uconn.edu

VBS

2011-08-10T07:11:00.003-05:00

One of my favorite weeks of the year is volunteering at our church for its Vacation Bible School (VBS) camp. Stephanie is the director and since I was 11 years old, I have volunteered to help, as a crew leader and eventually a station leader. Unfortunately last year I was unable to help out because I had to be at ISU for training. Because of that, I wasn't able to be at my station and it was given to different volunteers. So this year, I took over Doug's station which involved me taking pictures for a slideshow each day.

This year theme was Pandamania. We spent the week in the bamboo forests hanging out with pandas while learning about God and his great power.

We had some pretty cool decorations created by my parents all over the church, including a big happy panda hiding in the leaves, and a bridge over a pond in the bamboo forest.

We had a very cute visitor, Panda Patty, visit us each morning. She also learned along with us as learned about Bible stories!

Every morning, we also were introduced to the Bible buddy for the day. Each buddy helped us remember the Bible point and the Bible story. They are usually a really big hit during the week of VBS! You should see how many kids want their picture taken with the buddies at the end of the week. :)

Each day we learned the Bible point. Whenever the Bible point was said by anyone, the kids were to respond with "Thank you, God!" and fist pump. Some times we would be really obvious about saying, and other times we'd sneak it in. It was fun to see their reaction throughout the week!

We displayed all of the Bible points above our panda throughout the week to remind the kids what we've learned.

Imagine the church jammed with 82 kids just like this one... with big smile and excitement on their faces!

Me and Stephanie, the director, together after Day 4 - sports day.

It was a wonderful week with Stephanie, the kids, and the volunteers. I'm already excited for next year!

Places I want to visit....

2011-08-07T07:11:00.006-05:00

I have no clue where this post is coming from... but I was surfing the "travel" category on pinterest and I got to thinking about all of the places I want to visit in my life time. I overcame my fear of traveling alone and visited Erin this spring in New York City! That was pretty much an AMAZING trip, and I want more of those!

1. Italy - Let's act surprised that this is on my list, let alone listed first. I cannot even DESCRIBE my desire to travel to Italy, see the major tourist sites and see where my family came from. Now, more than ever, I wish I was able to do this with my grandparents and cousins. Not to mention that I would love to take a staged picture with the Leaning Tower of Pisa. Haha.

2. Egypt - Good thing is.... this will probably happen in my lifetime as Erin is ENGAGED to her wonderful boyfriend. I believe she will be having a wedding here in the US and in Egypt... and I WILL be going to both! Hopefully while I'm there, I'll be able to visit the pyramids. In school, I was in love with the Ancient Egyptian units, and putting the REAL thing in front of me would be so surreal.

3. Grand Canyon - I got majorly jealous of Stephanie when she went to the Grand Canyon for her 1st Anniversary. Her pictures were breathtaking! I think I would appreciate the landscape and natural wonder so much more given my current job, passion, and degree.

4. California - Doug has spent a summer semester out in LA for an internship, Erin and Stephanie visit frequently to see their grandparents... I feel like I'm really missing something! I'd love to see the Hollywood sign myself and dip my toes into the ocean and see the Golden Gate Bridge!

5. Hawaii - When I was in 5th grade, we were assigned a state to research and do a report on. Well, we weren't assigned a state, we were able to pick the state. And what state did I pick? Hawaii. Why? No clue. But I learned a lot about its culture and even today I still remember that project and the AMAZING diorama that my mom helped me make. What a beautiful island to see in person! My aunt and uncle have gone several times, and the pictures they come home with are just breathtaking.

6. Crooked Forest - In Poland, there is a forest of all crooked trees... I remember hearing about it in one of my college classes, but I saw it again on pinterest, and now I basically need to see it myself. What an intriguing forest to see!

7. Mount Rushmore - I'm sure it's one of those things you look at, take some pictures, and wonder why you made the trip, but I'm pretty sure it would be fascinating to see in person! Big piece of history. I think that would make my dad proud. :)

8. Eiffel Tower - I studied French for 6 years (don't ask me to say anything to you - it was not a gift of mine) and France in general fascinated me. But I think it would be amazing to see the Eiffel Tower at night, let alone eat breakfast at an outdoor cafe before going to an art museum.

I had a few other "natural" wonders written down somewhere and now I can't find it. My woody plants professor in college talked about quite a few amazing sounding places to see nature wonders, and I can't find the list I made! Hopefully I'll come across it... where do you want to visit? Do you want to join me on any of these trips? And/or help fund them? :) Hehe....

Foliage Friday - Lucky Bamboo

2011-08-05T07:11:00.001-05:00

Happy Friday!

Ok, I'm sure someone noticed... but there was definitely not a post last week for Foliage Friday. My bad. :( I've been a little absent from bloggy world! Last week I helped with our church's annual Vacation Bible School and this week I have been suffering greatly from allergies. But, enough of my excuses! Let's get back into it. :)

Here is your friendly plant post, where I talk about a plant I love and hopefully convince you to either plant it or just be more knowledgeable about it.

Plant: Dracaena sanderiana, Lucky bamboo

Why: As I mentioned above, last week I helped out with VBS last week. The theme was Pandamania, where we spent the week in the bamboo forests with the kids. I have had bamboo plants in my residence hall room in college, and then Stephanie gave all of the station leaders a bamboo stalk as a thank you. I thought it would be fun to do some actual reading and learn about bamboo outside of the tag that comes with it! I actually learned that the bamboo that we call "lucky bamboo" (the plant that Stephanie gave us) is actually very different than the plants that those cute pandas eat in the bamboo forests. Those bamboo stalks are actually a part of the grass family. Animals do not eat the lucky bamboo plants we keep in our houses.

Landscape: Draceena is considered a house plant, so it is not used in outside landscaping in our USDA zone.

Care: Because there are no landscape uses, I researched care for this plant. It does best with indirect light, as direct sunlight can burn the small leaves it sprouts. This means, keeping it on a windowsill facing south will most likely burn it. Putting it into a room that receives sunlight at some point during the day will be good enough. Many times you will find bamboo planted in water and rocks, but it actually grows better potted in soil. If it is kept in water, be sure to use distilled or filtered water. The less fluoride, the better. And for the healthiest plant, change the water every two weeks or so. Try not to keep your plant by a drafty window in winter, relocate it to the top of your fridge or an upstairs bedroom to avoid it getting too cold.

Other uses: There are no other uses of lucky bamboo.

Fun facts: There are about 1,450 different species of bamboo plants that the pandas eat. As for the lucky bamboo, there are many cultivars sold. In order to get the fun shapes you see in stores, you can manipulate what kind of light and what direction of light the plant gets. This is extremely difficult, but can be done!

Beware - don't let your pet get close to these plants, as bamboo can be very toxic to them. One your bamboo is cut (and you buy it), it will not grow any taller, but it will grow leaves and they will grow.

Information and pictures from: http://luckybambooshop.com

Foliage Friday - Rattlesnake Master

2011-07-22T10:15:00.002-05:00

Good afternoon! I hope your Friday is going well! Welcome back to another edition of Foliage Friday.

Here is your friendly plant post, where I talk about a plant I love and hopefully convince you to either plant it or just be more knowledgeable about it.

Plant:Eryngium yuccifolium, Rattlesnake Master

Why: I have spent the last 3 (scorching hot days) in the nursery working in a few beds that contain rattlesnake master. Let me just tell you... working in 94 degree weather, sweating, planting seedlings, and snagging your face on these flower heads is not the best experience! I was starting to get fed up with them to tell you the truth... but when a few visitors from another site came out to the nursery on Tuesday, they were very impressed with the rattlesnake master's progress in the nursery. Is that so? I decided I needed to learn more about it so I could be impressed, too!

Landscape info: Prefers full sun and even moisture, which makes it easy to grow in a prairie setting, as well as a low maintenance yard plant. It is commonly used in roadside plantings, as well. There are no reported insect problems or diseases. It does not have weedy-like qualities and self pollinates. A huge attracting feature are the unique, spiky flowers that form into balls. Be careful! They sort of hurt if you brush against one. :)

A full shot of the rattlesnake master plant

Other uses: The early American pioneers believed that the roots could be used as an antidote to a rattlesnake bite, hence the name of the plant! But it is not believed that this actually works, there are disputes about the effectiveness!

A picture of the rattlesnake master roots

Fun facts: The rattlesnake master is actually a member of the carrot family, but it sure does take on the qualities of a succulent, doesn't it? The dried seedheads of the rattlesnake master were used as rattles by the American Indians. The specific epithet, yuccifolium, is Greek for "like yucca leaves." Check out a previous post for information about the yucca. :)

Some information and pictures from: http://www.illinoiswildflowers.info, http://plants.usda.gov, and yahoo images

I took a picture...

2011-07-20T18:25:00.000-05:00

Here are some pictures that I snapped with my phone or otherwise and haven't posted... until now.

I took a picture....

... of my tan line after a month of work

... of the purple coneflowers at work because they are my favorite flower

... of the nest of robin eggs I found in my parent's backyard

... of the photobooth strip Shannon and I took at Ted's wedding last month

... of the hatched robin eggs in my parent's backyard

... of my grandma's 40 year old lilies she removed from her house

and gave me to plant at my parents house

... of the steer at the farm drinking water our of the water spicket like a water fountain

You should take some random pictures and tell us why you took them! I love random, fun pictures!

Now Introducing Mr. and Mrs.....

2011-07-17T11:31:00.002-05:00

A few weeks ago, I was very lucky to witness a good friend of mine get married to his long time girlfriend. It was a wonderful ceremony and reception!

I met Ted my freshman year of college. I had just been elected to president of Central Campus (CCRG) and he had just been elected the senator for Central Campus from Student Government Association (SGA). As a side note, SGA and the area governments did not have a history of getting along very well. But, I didn't really know that and was more nervous that he would find my first meeting as president horrible, since had more experience that I had.

Luckily, none of that happened. In fact, at this time, Shannon and I were the only elected officials (President and Vice President respectively) and we had a few programs to throw right away. Ted stepped right in to help us out and attended all of our events as the next school year started. We also realized that he went to a rival high school and lives about 15 minutes from us back at home! Small world!

As the year progressed, Ted became more than an ex-officio of the CCRG executive board, he became more like a member of the board, and we treated him like one of us; one of the family. And before long, he became a dear friend to Shannon and me. Neither of us had a car on campus our sophomore year, and we frequently needed help getting to stores to buy supplies. Guess who stepped up to drive us, no matter the day, time, or how much he had to do? You guess it, Ted.

My junior year I became Vice President of all the residence halls and Ted became President of Student Government Association. We were both thrilled that we were able to work together for another, just in a different capacity! We served the student body in different ways, but worked extremely hard to bring SGA and ARH together, while achieving our goals. I couldn't ask for a better person to serve with than Ted!

The friendship didn't end as he graduated from ISU, thankfully. When we had school breaks, Shannon, Ted, and I would meet up for dinners, text, and update each other. When I was down at ISU for my last job, Ted was in town doing grad school and we STILL met up to catch up and reminise.

Over 4 years of a friendship and Ted is one of the dearest people to me (and I'm sure Shannon, too). That made us even more thrilled to get an invitation to his wedding to his wonderful fiance, Michelle, whom we also went to college with. I don't think we ever thanked her for all of her patience with us when we stole Ted away for CCRG events!

Enjoy some pictures of the ceremony and reception below. :)

Ted being escorted in by his parents

Michelle, the beautiful bride, being escorted in by her parents. Cue blubbery Amy!

Saying the "I Dos"

Kiss the bride, Ted!

Leaving the church... I loved the bright flowers. And of course I love the big smiles on the new couple :)

Our gift all wrapped up. We found shiny silver paper and bright green (sparkly) ribbon for a bow. (Ted's favorite color is green!). We also added 2 stickers that represent Shannon and me. Shannon - crayons (art major). Me - gardening tools (horticulture major). We thought we were soooo clever hehe.

A dark picture of the couple's first dance. Awww!

Posing with Ted during the reception. Good ol' times together!!

Roommates/best friends dancing the night away at the reception!

Congratulations, Ted and Michelle. You both are amazing people and I wish you all the happiness in the world. Thank you for having us at your wedding, it was such an honor and a wonderful day. :) Lots of <3!

Foliage Friday - Japanese Maple

2011-07-15T23:46:00.003-05:00

Happy Friday! Yikes, this post is barely getting in under the wire today for Foliage Friday! Oops, I had a busy, busy day and it almost slipped my mind.

Here is your friendly plant post; where I talk about a plant I love and hopefully convince you to plant it or just be more knowledgeable about it.

Plant: Japanese Maple, Acer palmatum

Japanese Maple as a common cultivar, Bloodgood

Why: Well, first of all, I think it's time for another tree in the Foliage Friday mix. I do love trees (see: blog title). Then, I honestly couldn't decide on a plant to do, so I asked my mom. After a little while, she suggested the Japanese Maple. I am just proud that she knows what one is to ask to learn more about it! Maples are seriously one of my favorite genera of trees, I have no clue why. They are so common and over planted, but for some reason I love them.

Landscape info: There are MANY different cultivars of Japanese Maples, so there are many different landscape uses for them. Some get a little taller (15-25 feet) to be used as a tree, while others remain small and can be used as a shrub in landscaping. Naturally, this tree is found as an understory tree, as it can survive with dappled canopy shade. It's leaves are unique because of how deep the lobes go (see below picture. ) Depending on the cultivar, leaves can be green, yellow, red, orange in summer, and can change again in fall! It needs constant and steady water, as it does not do well in overly dry locations. There are no reported major pest problems.

Close up of leaf shape - 5-9 lobed palmate leaves

Other uses: Besides being used as a landscape tree, Japanese Maples can also be cultivated into bonsai trees and are pretty popular!

Fun facts: The Japanese Maple is native to Japan, North Korea, South Korea, China, Mongolia, and southeast Russia. Since it was discovered, it has adapted to survive in just about every climate.
There are probably over 100 cultivars that have different shapes, sizes, and growth habits!

Japanese Maple as a bonsai tree

Have a great weekend! Thanks for stopping by! :)

Some information and pictures from: www.hort.uconn.edu and Yahoo images

I gots a new job

2011-07-12T07:07:00.003-05:00

It just recently dawned on me that I have been talking about and referencing to my new job, but I haven’t really explained what it is! Would you like to know? Hope so, because that is today’s post. :)

As mentioned a few times before, I realized that my position at ISU was not for me. I loved working with the student workers, organizing the desks, and being busy… but it took a toll on me. In addition to the 8-4:30pm hours, also had to work many nights where I was on-call. That means I was the professional staff member that RAs would call if there was a situation. There was an average of 8 nights a month. Some nights were a piece of cake. Other nights, I would be up all night with emergencies or unsure RAs. In spring semester, I had EIGHT marijuana confrontations and arrests! I’m sure you can imagine that these normally happen in the middle of the night.

Currently, no matter how the night went, we were expected at work the next day. That wore me out! In addition, while loving my student workers, there were a handful of them that were extremely needy. I would get calls and text messages all day, all night, all weekend long about questions, comments, and problems. If I ever left my apartment, it was a guaranteed sign that someone was going to be late for their shift and I was going to have to work. I shouldn’t have, but I felt chained to my apartment and to my job at all hours. (Yes, yes, that is more a personal issue than a hazard of the job.)

Those demands were rough, but that’s in addition to the administrative side. I always felt like I was behind and that my desk had a pile of paper a mile high. When I wasn’t doing rounds at the service areas, I was shuffling paperwork back and forth, answering emails, trying to finish projects and committee work, and of course billing students for damaging the halls. Oh, let’s not even get into that! Meanwhile, the sun was shining, the birds were chirping, and trees were flowering… and I was missing it all. My employees were hilarious and would basically watch me stare out the window when spring hit. They were super sweet and even got me plants for holidays, my birthday, etc.

In addition to missing my family like CRAZY, I decided that I would not return to my position. Even with what I just made it sound like above, it ended up being a little harder than I thought. Again, even with how demanding 55 employees were, they were my number one reason for staying all year. Once they found out, many expressed their sadness, which almost made me stay! But, today, I am very glad I chose to follow my true passion. (Thank goodness for facebook so I can keep in touch with them all!)

That brings me to today… where I am working? Luckily for me, I received 2 interviews and 2 job offers before leaving ISU. It was a hard decision (hmm, a pattern here?), but I decided on accepting a position with the Forest Preserve District of DuPage County as the native plant nursery assistant. Before I go any further, I will just say… I LOVE IT!

What do I do every day? Well, there is a native plant nursery that is fairly new to the District. My direct boss is in charge of it, but she has WAY too much on her plate, so I directly care for it. There are about 40 planting beds in the outdoor nursery. The beds are about 30 feet long. Each bed has a mixture of plants in it, the District practices companion planting. A big part of my job is weeding, watering, collecting seeds, planting new plants, and organizing volunteer work days in the nursery. Besides working in the nursery, I also help my boss with a variety of other things, including pesticide application, pesticide distribution, inventory, visits to other sites, and administrative tasks. I’m glad it didn’t take her long to realize that I am super organized. :) One rainy week, I redid the Grounds and Resources herbarium and made it easy to find specimens. Now, my boss will give me something and let me have at it. It makes me feel so good that she trusts me!

The nursery on my first day

Every day is something new and different. I have learned something about a native plant every day! I love seeing the plants from seedlings to mature flowering plants. My plant identification skills skyrocketed, as did my passion for plants outside of trees. :) But don’t worry, I still am crazy about trees. In the nursery, there are hundreds of small trees that are also taken care of for the District. So once and awhile you can find me wandering in the rows!

Rain overalls. Gotta love my look.

Taking my 2pm break on the gator in the woodland.

Do you have a question about what I do? Did this clear it up? I hope so! If you still have any questions, please let me know, and I can definitely answer them. :)

Foliage Friday - Yucca

2011-07-10T15:01:00.005-05:00

Happy Friday*! Are you ready for another installment of Foliage Friday? I hope so since I didn't get another post in here this week to break it up! Hehe. :)

It's your friendly plant post; where I talk about a plant I love and hopefully convince you to plant it or be more knowledgeable about it.

Plant: Soapweeed, Yucca glauca

A full shot of the yucca plant

Why: Well, this sure seems like a random plant, doesn’t it? That’s good, because I want to cover a ton of different plants on Foliage Fridays. Actually, I was inspired to pick this plant because of my mom. We have recently been giving my parents’ yards a facelift. Currently, the backyard has a few holes in it. One day, she was driving to work and saw these beautiful, tall, white flowers spiking up from the ground. She immediately asked me what they were. I had seen them before, but could not remember their name! Later that week, while gardening at Stephanie’s house, she pointed out how much she loved this one plant…. And it was the same one my mom was interested in! Well, that just seemed like fate, I had to write about it! Luckily, Stephanie knew the name… the yucca.

Landscape info: Plants I am currently trying to learn more about are perennials. I haven’t given them enough attention! Usually, annuals offer a great deal of color, and bloom for a majority of the summer. And let’s face it, I love color. But as I learn more about perennials, I learn what they can offer besides consecutive years of life. The yucca starts out as a 3-4 foot clump of spiky, green, succulent leaves. In summer (June through August), it grows a 4-5 foot flowering stalk. The flower stalk contains many white, bell-shaped flowers. It is a great plant to give your garden a completely different look mid-way through the season. It offers a wonderful texture and height difference to any shorter annuals or perennials planted in the area, yet works wonderfully in a rock garden because of its spiky leaves. It is believed that the yuccas, being in the agave family, can withstand hot, arid temperatures, along with drought like temperatures. Easy maintenance! It also attracts butterflies to its white flowers.

White, bell-shaped flowers of the yucca, with its spiky leaves

Other uses: If the roots of the yucca are harvested and pulverized, you can mix them with warm water and drink it, which apparently helps with stomachaches. The juice from the succulent leaves can be used as poison for arrows and fishing. That’s not it! You can also mix the roots to make a shampoo which can help with dandruff, hair loss, and lice. A lotion can be made out of the roots, as well, for the treatment of poison ivy! Want to know why it’s called soapweed? That’s because the roots can be used to make soap, as well as the shampoo as mentioned above.

Fun facts: Sooo, if you’re a plant person, you probably have figured this one out… but the soapweed is actually not native to our area. In fact, it is not native to Illinois at all. Do you know what that means? It’s technically a weed! This plant is native to just about every state west of Illinois. It can turn invasive if not monitored while it flowers. But since our area is not known for its extreme arid temperatures, it does not get out of control. This plant has many different common names, other than soapweed. Here are a few: Great Plains yucca, Spanish bayonet, beargrass, small soapweed, and yucca. Finally, the yucca will not produce seeds every year because seed fertilization is highly dependent on the Pronuba moth. Note to self: learn about this moth!

Inside of the flowers

Thank you for tuning in this week! Hope you have a great weekend :)

*Post was written on Friday but unfortunately not posted due to lack of internet. Apologies for the 2 day delay.

Additional information found at: usda.gov

Foliage Friday - Purple Coneflower

2011-07-01T07:07:00.001-05:00

Happy Friday! Are you ready for another installment of Foliage Friday? I hope so! It's your friendly plant post; where I talk about a plant I love and hopefully convince you to plant it or be more knowledgeable about it.

Plant: Purple Coneflower, Echinacea purpurea

Why: I dont remember when I fell in love with this plant, but it was a long time ago. It always stuck out in my head as a pretty flower and it was usually the first plant I would think of when I would talk about the prairie. Even today, at my new job, I am surrounded by it and it makes me so very happy. It comes in many cultivars, including a pale purple color. I also grow that one at work. But with technology today, there are red, yellow, and orange cultivars of this plant! My heart will always belong to the purple. :)

Picture: Center of flower

The center of the flower holds its pollen and the bright hues of its petals attract pollinators.

Landscape info: Technically the plant is a prairie flower, and thus can handle a lot of sunlight, heat, and drought without any problem. It is great to plant as a garden border, as it can get 3-4 feet tall. I personally think they would look great against a fence or shed. They do get a little droopy, but that is at full maturity. They are also found in meadows commonly, and quickly make a massive open space appealing. Sadly, they do have a slight problem with Japanese Beetles.

Other uses: For a long time, it was believed that the roots of the coneflower were a good treatment against the common cold. I believe it helps the immune system. However, I did read that not many scientific studies support this anymore. Also, in addition to making an excellent garden border plant, the flowers can be cut and used as a cut vase flower for your kitchen. The blooms last quite awhile!

Fun facts: Looking for a plant that will attract butterflies? This will definitely do that for you. Well, it also attracts bees, but mostly innocent bumble bees. :) The purple coneflower cannot pollinate itself (it is a single sex plant), so it needs bees and other pollinators to exchange pollen in order for its seeds to be fertile. So we like the bees in this case! If you recall, the scientific name starts with "Echinacea." In Greek, that is the word for hedgehog. Take a look at the center of the coneflower to see what I mean!

Some information and pictures from: http://blogs.scottarboretum.org and http://www.mobot.org

I'm in New Yorkkkkkkkk!

2011-06-28T07:07:00.001-05:00

This post is definitely going to seem out of place, but I HAVE to blog about it! At the end of March I decided I was finally going to visit Erin in New York. I have never been to New York and what a better way to see it that with my lovely cousin? I had it all set for the weekend after my birthday, but then I was required to stay at work and be on call. :( Luckily, between my schedule and Erin's, we were able to find a common weekend. End of April! I was so excited... even though it was a few weekends before I had to leave ISU.

I was lucky to have my parents drive me to the airport on Friday morning to fly out to LaGuardia. And that was the beginning of an amazing trip! Please enjoy these pictures and commentary of the coolest trip I've had in awhile.

First of all, I have never flown alone before. Second, when I do fly, I HATE being at the window seat. I did both of those this time! So this was a picture of me overcoming my fears. :) I survived flying out of O'hare and into New York!

Erin met me at the airport and took me to a bus which took us to the Bronx. It was exciting, we drove through 4 of the 5 areas of New York in just that time! We got to her (adorable) apartment and got ready to walk around and get dinner.

We (finally) decided on taking a walk over the Brooklyn Bridge first. It was very beautiful and exciting!

After we walked over the Bridge, we went to a yummy pizza place in Brooklyn. It was very fun to walk over the Bridge and have random conversations with Erin. We hadn't talked like that in a long time and it was wonderful. :) Once we got to the pizza place, we waited in line for about an hour... which was ok, we got to talk more!

Here is a picture of the AMAZING pizza we ate at Grimaldis. Incase you were wondering, we finish the whole thing. :) DELICIOUS!

We had a very cool walk back to the Bronx over the Bridge at night... I can't even describe how pretty it was!

The next day, we got up early to meet Erin's friends for a yummy Indian food lunch. Then, we ran off to... TIME'S SQUARE! We picked out a show that we wanted to get tickets for, but we wanted to try to get half price tickets, so we went to stand in line for awhile. I was seriously stunned about the size and lights and busy-ness of it!

After we bought our tickets, we had some time to kill, so we went to see the Empire State Building. Talk about a massive building! We decided to pass on the $26 tour fee to see the top. :P

We were on an ethnic food kick, and while walking around, we found a cute festival thing around dinner time. It was about to close, and a lot of the food was being sold for very cheap. What good timing! We found this sushi for about $5. Talk about DELICIOUS and very affordable, lol. We decided to take it to Central Park and eat it together. How adorable. :)

After we finished our dinner, we had time to walk around Central Park... and we got this adorable picture in front of a pond. Talk about love!

A beautiful view of the trees in Central Park. Next time I visit, I want to do a bike ride tour of the park. :)

After our wonderful Central Park tour, we went back to Times Square to watch the show we bought tickets for.... Wonderland! It was a take on Alice and Wonderland, but was set in New York and the main character fell into an elevator shaft instead of a rabbit hole. It was AMAZING! It was funny, entertaining, well written, and had wonderful music. It was the best experience ever!

On the way back home to the Bronx, we stopped back in the middle of Times Square to get a picture of me with all the lights. Again, I was in awe of how busy and bright it was, for 10pm! What an awesome experience.

The next day, we decided to check out the Statue of Liberty. We went to buy tickets and got into line for the ferry, while eating hot dogs and pretzels from the carts. Yummy! I cannot even express how cold the ferry ride was! Brrr... but we finally got to Liberty Island and it was amazing! After we saw Lady Liberty, we also went to Ellis Island to look around and get educated.

That day, we also went to Ground Zero. It was a very humbling moment and very powerful. This is the memorial wall. It was amazing how silent the grounds were compared to across the street, where it was bustling. Very powerful moment.

That night, we went to dinner at a great Italian restaurant in the Bronx. We had quite the experience. We planned on eating at Roberto's, a place that Erin loves to go to. We walked over to it... and found that it was closed! What?!?! We were devastated! But luckily, there was a sign on the door indicating that the owners had another location, a few blocks away. Well, why not! So we went over there and were overjoyed to see that this location had basically the same food and atmosphere. We split 2 entrees and a bottle of wine. Whew, that wine sure got to us! :) It was a great meal and I would totally love to go back there! Plus, that waiter was pretty darn adorable.... ;-)

The next morning (after an evening of even more wine at Erin's apartment, and watching Obama's speech), we went to breakfast at another one of Erin's favorite restaurants. We had yummy eggel sandwiches and did NY Times crosswords. It was so adorable and I want to do this again with her!

The last thing we did on the trip was see Fordham's campus. It was absolutely beautiful! I'm glad Erin loves it so much because I certainly did!

It was a great trip and I had a BLAST. I can't wait to go back and see more of New York and hang out with Erin some more. I can't even express how much fun I had seeing an exciting city with a dear cousin! Thanks for being a great tour guide, Erin! :) <3

New Feature: Foliage Friday - Ginkgo Tree

2011-06-24T12:13:00.001-05:00

Since this blog is called "Amyluvstrees" and I love plants and work at a Forest Preserve, I thought it would be fun to do a feature called...

Foliage Friday!

Each Friday I am going to pick a plant that I love and share it with you. Maybe you will be inspired to plant it in your yard to make it more green. :)

Plant: Ginkgo biloba

Why: Ok, this one is sort of obvious, but I have to start off with this one! It is my absolute favorite tree and was one of the trees in the unit of my woody landscape plants class that sealed my new love for plants. It has a very unique leaf, very different from other trees. Also, it is one of the oldest trees that has been found as a fossil, approximately 270 million years ago.

Picture: Unique leaf

The leaves of the ginkgo tree are very unique in the fact that they have fan-shaped leaves, with radiating veins. Also, the leaves usually also have a notch in them between some veins, which makes them also easy to identify. They have a lovely light green to dark green color in summer, and turn a vibrant yellow in fall.

Landscape info: Ginkgos adapt very well to urban landscape areas, as they can tolerate pollution, soil compaction, drought, and small soil spaces. They do not have many (if any) documented disease or insect problems. They are also a great shade tree when they reach maturity! They can be found planted in street medians or alongside roadways.

Other uses: I'm sure you've heard that ginkgo can be used in supplements for short term memory lost. The medicine is extracted from the leaves. Also, roasting the fruits from the trees is considered a delicacy in China.

Fun facts: There are some ginkgo trees that are believed to be over 1,500 years old and are still standing in China today! In fact, it is a very common tree in China. Female ginkgo trees produce a round, fleshy fruit... which unfortunately smells like a stinky diaper. Be sure to buy a male plant if you are interested in planting this tree! This smelly fruit also gives the ginkgo tree the nickname "Stinky Tree." In Japan, it is rumored that gingko trees planted near the 1945 atom bomb explosion were the only living things that survived. Even though they were charred, they healed and were strong, healthy trees again. Amazing!

Hope you enjoyed this first edition of Foliage Friday! Hope to see you again next Friday for some more foliage fun. :)

Some information found from: http://www.arborday.or g, http://landscaping.about.com, and http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ginkgo_biloba

I'm not flippin' you off....

2011-06-20T07:00:00.000-05:00

But I slammed my finger in a door!

Back in March I mentioned in my post called "I like to slam my fingers in doors" that I accidentally slammed my finger in a residence hall door. It looked like this the night after:

It was lovely! As it started to heal, I noticed that my nail was getting funky looking. I got sensation back and could type, use the computer mouse, and text just fine within a week or so. I used the brace for awhile, and then was able to move it without any more pain. I thought things were getting back to normal. But still... the nail was looking funky! Like this...

The blue part seemed to be spreading... this was about a month after the slammage. Hmm. Not long after this picture, the pain started to come back. Almost as severe as when I slammed it in the door. I started to freak out about my fingernail spontaneously falling off, so I went to the doctor to be sure.

That appointment was interesting. I explained what I did and he actually laughed at the situation. It's ok, I really liked this doctor, lol. When he started to take a look at it and considered draining the blood from under the nail. To be sure that was the best idea, he asked an associate for a second opinion. And the associate decided that it was worthless since the injury was a month old. However, they did notice that I couldn't bend it all the way down and it was hyper extending. I honestly didn't even notice it was a problem!

They left the room for a bit and my doctor came back in. Concerning my finger nail, he blatantly informed me that I was going to lose the nail and there's nothing he could do about it. I turned to him and said, "Look doc, I do NOT want to wake up in the middle of the night with my fingernail laying next to me in bed. That horrifies me."

He laughed again.

But seriously, he apologized because removing it that day would be more painful then letting it fall off. *sigh* Then he gave me a few exercises for my finger to get the motion back. If not... arthritis will set in and surgery is a major option. Eek!

I won't put any pictures on here of what the nail looked like as we started trimming it, or how it currently looks NAILLESS (yes, it is finally gone, and now I look all gnarly!) because I don't want to scare away my very loyal readers. :)

What injury should we go for next? Hehe....

Ending ISU Career

2011-06-17T07:00:00.011-05:00

Greetings!

I am indeed the owner of this poorly maintained blog. :( To be fair, a LOT has gone on since my last real post, but still... I deserve a slap on the hand for this! Let's see... since April, there were a few fun events that happened down at ISU. I'll throw a few pictures in here with the events!

Passing of the Gavel
I've written about ARH's Passing of the Gavels before. This year I was invited as an alumni! Talk about funny feeling, but it was great to catch up and see some people I haven't seen in awhile. Shannon came down and we went together... and caught up with Glenn and John! We had a blast sitting at a table together reminiscing. Of course it was a little awkward at some moments, but let's not talk about that anymore. I'm over it!

Roommates at their fourth Passing of the Gavel!

Last year's President and Vice President

Part of the 2009-2010 ARH Executive Board. So sweet!

Another really special moment was being inducted into the AAFN. That stands for Association of Alumni and Friends of NACURH. What does that mean? Well, the current ARH executive board decided to induct someone into the AAFN to represent ISU. The AAFN are a group of people recognized for their support and activity within NACURH. I was very honored to be nominated, let alone chosen to be inducted from ISU. (Because let's face it... 1/2 of this year's board doesn't care for me.) At Passing of the Gavel, they announced I was selected!

Maureen (director of UHS and the last person ISU inducted) presented me with the selection

She had some very sweet things to say and it was very cool!

Finally, I got to see a good friend of mine, Angel, become the new President of ARH. I am very proud of him and look forward to what he can do! I remember when he was just a small freshman, running for president of West Campus... :) Regardless, I am excited for him and Kayla, the new Vice President. I'm always here for you two!

Angel giving his presidential remarks!

It was awesome to catch up with Kim and Shannon and Glenn. We had so much fun remembering good times and making plans to return to ARH's Passing's for many years to come!

End of Contract
Well, I did other things between Passing of the Gavel and my contract ending, but it fits into this blog post better than any other ones. Plus, I don't really want to write its own post. Honestly, I very excited to finish and start another opportunity. I was counting down the days... but right at the end, I got very sad. Looking at my empty office and empty apartment was very rough. Some employees and coworkers came forward to tell me how much they were going to miss me. That meant a LOT because a lot of the time, I didn't feel appreciated at all. My last service area meeting (with all 55 of my employees) was very touching. Some came forward to hug me, while others verbally told me how much it meant for them to have me around.

I'm getting teary thinking about it...

Even though I didn't really come out and tell any of them, they were probably the number one reason I stayed, next to my loyalty to my boss. Some of my coworkers, higher administration, and the extreme demands of my position pushed me farther and farther away. Some days that I wanted to throw the towel in... an employee would say something, do something, or show that I was needed for that moment. Now, having 55 people to supervise is a lot, and keeping track of them all was tough... but in most of them, I saw some sort of improvement. Whether it was in organization, reliability, respect, or job pride, they all took small strides. I couldn't leave that or them for me. I started the job and wanted to finish it. Some days I wonder if I stayed another year, what difference that would continue to make in their lives.

I'll never know, but I can thank them for a nice "goodbye" experience at the end. VERY few coworkers said goodbye or made an effort at all. It was very tough to put in the extra hours I did at the end, do summer training that was not required of me, and empty my office without anyone really caring. However, the outpour of facebook friend requests, letters, and emails that came in were really amazing. And once again, those crazy kids kept me going. :)

My office the night before I moved out. All empty.
No more of my color or spunk. :( Good times in there!

And with that.... that is all I have to report from my ISU experiences. On Wednesday, May 11th, my parents came to pick me up, and I turned my keys in for the last time. As I drove away from Atkin Colby, I did tear up and I knew this was an experience I'll never have again, and I did learn A LOT. But here is to new beginnings! :)

BREAKING NEWS!!!!

2011-06-14T15:13:00.003-05:00

THERE IS ACTUALLY AN OWNER TO THIS BLOG.

Her name: Amy.

We have located her. She is indeed still alive and does accept full responsibility for the lack of updates of her blog. Slacker.

Please stay tuned for ACTUAL UPDATES regarding the end of her ISU employment, her trip to New York, her new job, and... of course her poor finger.

Regrets and apologies are passed along from Amy.... if there's actually anyone left!!!

25 Years in the Future

2011-04-24T22:48:00.013-05:00

When I was an undergraduate student, I served as the president of Central Campus and the name of our organization was Central Campus Residential Government (CCRG). Sadly, when I was elected, it was the last year for Central Campus, as the long range plan called for it to be replaced by a new recreation center.

One of the things I did with the CCRG executive board was put on different programs to help celebrate the 50 years Central Campus was around. Our most exciting project was creating a time capsule to be opened later by the students who use the fitness center. We worked on the time capsule for a few months, and when we were done, we gave it to Housing to hold onto until the Rec Center was finished.

Well, three years later, the Rec Center is up and functioning, and Housing decided to plan a ceremony installing the time capsule we created. I was invited to serve on the planning committee and we planned things from the invitation list, the location, the program, and the speakers. I was so excited to have some say about the ceremony that would put my project into the foundation of the Rec Center! But that's not all - the director of Housing asked me to be a speaker at the ceremony!

So, on April 6th, a bunch of people gathered to celebrate Central Campus for the last time and to install the time capsule.

Vice President of Student Affairs beginning the ceremony

The director of Housing introducing the project and ceremony

Mary, an alum of Central Campus, speaking of her memories

Speaking my part of the ceremony - introducing the parts of the capsule and giving my memories

The director inviting me and the current Association of Residence Halls president to the front to unveil the capsule

The director of the Rec Center promising me that she will pass on the legacy that CCRG started and will keep the time capsule safe until it is opened.

Posing with the Central Campus Time Capsule cover!

The cover close up

Ok, this may have been a bit picture heavy, but I wanted to show all of the exciting parts of the ceremony! It was such a precious moment and I am honored to have been apart of it!

Wait. Does sugar come from a bush?

2011-04-03T18:59:00.008-05:00

My all time favorite event at Spring Valley would definitely have to be Sugar Bush. It's an event that they hold to show the sugaring process of making maple syrup out of sap. Did you know that maple syrup is made out of the sap that flows in trees? It is basically another reason why trees are awesome.

Since I was like... 14 I volunteered at the Sugar Bush festival. I started out mostly doing the puppet show for young children. I did this for like... 5 years! It's a cute little show that teaches kids about how trees are tapped for sap. I loved doing it, but after awhile, the thought of moving puppets around on a stage and memorizing the dialogue did not sound exactly appealing anymore. So, I graduated to the interpretation stations out by the cabin and food tents.

I fell in love with the boil down station and have done it for quite a few years. I did it again this year! Luckily, I was able to apply for travel and it was granted. So this year, I relived my station again!

The evaporator that the sap sits in

Basically, my favorite station involves putting the raw sap, straight from the tree, into an evaporator and boiling off about 75% of the water. Sap is primarily water, and in order to get the color and taste that we all know, it needs to be boiled off.

We do that at Spring Valley by using a wood burning stove with an evaporator on top, as seen here. That chamber in front in where the wood is put in to keep the fire going.

Part of the interpretation is to discuss the different grades of maple syrup. Aaaand, here is an awful picture of me showing the different grades. Yikes!

Throughout the weekend, we had tons of visitors (I think upwards of 1500 people) come and learn. Here is me telling this little girl what I was doing!

I know, I know, another awful picture. I'm no good good at candid shots :)

So, all and all, it was a pretty awesome weekend! I love Sugar Bush and can't wait for it next year!!!!

Nature and Me = :)

2011-03-27T18:04:00.007-05:00

Over my spring break I decided I needed a few healthy doses of nature to make up for how much I was missing by my job. First place I went - Spring Valley of course! It was a warmer day, so I didn't mind trekking around. The week was pretty chilly and rainy.

Salt Creek

I went to my favorite spot - Salt Creek first. It was definitely flowing as the snow was melting steadily. For some reason, I just love sitting on the bridge watching the water flow and the small creatures running around. :)

Me in the creek

Yes, I know how silly this picture is. But I saw a bottle in the creek and wanted to pick it up. So, I set my autotimer and was going to pose with to prove my awesomeness. Well, I underestimated how long 10 seconds is, as well as how soupy the creek bank was. So, my camera has about 10 tries of me trying to get it out, as well as me having fun with the autotimer in general. Haha...

Pond

I went from the creek to the cabin and took a look at the frozen pond. It was oddly peaceful sitting on the bench. There was a little breeze, but other than that, it was completely silent. A very rare moment in this spot!

Hay field

I wandered over to the farm and took the back paths to see what was new back there. This view is the back of the hayfield. On my camera lens, it looked like that light colored grass was smoke. I thought it was sooo cool!

Horse and Engel

I ended up walking all the way to my car by the time I realized that I never to got to see the livestock. I went back to the farm and caught Engel and one of the draft horses outside. I'm horrible and have no idea which horse this is! It's either Price or Duke. Ooops! I had fun watching them and sitting on the wagon seat.

Later on during my spring break week, I decided to finally go and check out the Chicago Botanic Gardens. I have never visited the gardens, and that felt silly, especially given my major, my passion, and that I wanted to apply to work there. I finally decided to go and at least see what the major attractions were, so I could sound semi knowledgeable if I got past the application stage.

I loved the saying above the door in the visitor center. Everyone here was SO friendly! And of course, there was a sweeeeet gift shop in here ;-)

This is what I saw as soon as I walked outside of the visitor center. It took my breath away and it was still technically winter! The blues were so blue and the yellow in the tree was just as beautiful. I knew from the minute I left the center that I could love working there.

I also wandered over to a huge set of greenhouses that were connected. I learned that there were different types of plants/environments in each greenhouse. I LOVE working in greenhouses, especially show/educational greenhouses. I didn't want to leave! It reminded me of working in the greenhouses during my undergrad!

This little guy is a young ginkgo tree. I do what I can to subliminally hint to my dad that we should plant one in his backyard. :) I love this tree!

Well this sure was enough pictures huh? I'll keep the pictures and/or nature to a minimum has I post in the next few weeks. Thanks for suffering through it. :)

I like to slam my fingers in doors

2011-03-15T18:49:00.005-05:00

I just got back from a week off of work - it was ISU's spring break. It was a pretty amazing week! i got to relax, hang out with my parents, see Stephanie, and go to Spring Valley and the Botanic Gardens. It was a perfect break from all the ISU craziness.

But Amy, why didn't you blog AT ALL?

Oh, that would have a pretty simple explanation..... I slammed my finger into a door!

Haha, ok.... I will explain. I was helping close Hamilton Whitten because a co-worker was feeling under the weather. Closing a building includes checking every room to be sure the trash is removed, windows are closed, blinds are open, and everything is unplugged. The RAs do a majority of this, but professional staff needs to go through and recheck everything... specifically sign each window.

I decided to check Hamilton and was given 3 RAs. What cracked me up is all the boy RAs went with me and all the girl RAs went with the other helper, which happened to be a man. It's ok, they are very fun RAs! We started on the 10th floor and started doing our thing....

... 1 RA would unlock the doors
... 1 RA would follow me (to make sure I dont steal anything) and do a final check
... 1 RA would follow us and relock the doors

We had a great system going, and we were zipping through it. They are hilarious to listen to and they decided to play their own music, which was entertaining to watch as they danced around and sang. When we got down to the second floor, we got an text saying the building service workers suspected a cat living on the second floor. We decided to be extra thorough to see if we could smell or find any evidence. The boys started to spring ahead of me, checking the rooms. As I was done with my check, I would pull the door shut behind me so the locking RA knew I was done.

Well.... for whatever reason I was at one room and as I was pulling the door shut, I heard the boys laughing about something. I turned around the corner and simply did not pull my hand out fast enough! Plus... the door was randomly lighter than the rest of the doors!

I was INSTANTLY in indescribable pain. I felt my eyes bulge out of my head. Now, I've jammed my finger in a door before, but this was different. As I looked down at my finger, blood was seeping out around my nail. I wanted to fall to the floor in pain, but we were almost done and I didn't want to over react to something so dumb.

As I started to go into the next room, I could feel my finger swelling and throbbing. It didn't take long for the boys to notice something was wrong. I showed them what I did and got a unanimous "ahhh that looks like it hurts!"

The blue under my fingernail formed instantly. As we finished the rest of the building, I was struggling to hold back tears. I went to my apartment and wrapped my finger because touching my nail was incredibly painful. I packed up my car and was determined to still get home. As I drove, I had to keep my hand up on the passenger seat headrest to keep the throbbing under control.

I came home and showed my parents what I did. Of course, they started to laugh before anything... Amy slammed her finger into a door and it's semi-serious? Of course! After my 2 hour drive and packing and unpacking, it was feeling and getting worse.

I unwrapped my finger and noticed how much bruising developed on my ride home. I could barely bend or straighten my finger! Owie! The pain kept getting worse, and I honestly thought I was going to throw up after trying to shower with it. :(

The next morning, I was in just as much pain, if not more. My dad gently suggested going to the ER to be sure there wasn't a minor fracture anywhere. I agreed, maybe I would get an anti-inflammatory to help the unbearable pain under my finger nail!

Mom went with me to get her own situation checked out, and we split up. I was cracking up almost the whole time because it was a family trip to the ER on my first day home. Before long, my x-rays came back negative and the doctor told me (in not so many words), "Well, I can't do anything for you, this is just going to really hurt for a week or two."

She gave me this sexy, new brace and a pain pill prescription and wished me luck. Good news - it wasn't broken! But boy that pain under my nail is killer. Moral of the story, typing is pretty difficult to do over my break! What a break, huh? :) Luckily, things are getting better and the pain is not as difficult!

I'll put up some pictures soon of the rest of my break!!

Square

2011-03-01T21:41:00.005-06:00

I haven't posted in a bit... but I can't think of anything to post about that isn't really wordy like my last post... and I can sort of tell I'm boring the few readers I do have. Hmm...

The only thing I can think of sharing is a few pictures of the square vase I've been using to make arrangements the past week or so. When I first got home from surgery, Mike, Adam, and Nicole gave me this really pretty arrangement.

It had gorgeous carnations and roses and orange and everything ! I absolutely loved it. It lasted for quite a long time, too. Once some of the flowers started to fade away, I decided to combine this arrangement with the one from my parents and grandparents. I ended up with something like that.

This is a bad angle and after I took the picture, I fixed the baby's breath so it wasn't sticking out so far. I had fun with the colors and working with flowers again! This arrangement seriously lasted another week and a half! This is ANOTHER reason that I LOVE carnations... they last so long and I just love looking at them. They are soooo pretty to me! I can't get over it. I don't like roses... at all. A few here and there are nice... but they aren't pretty to me, and what bugs me the most is how quickly they fade. I shouldn't hold that against the flower... but I do. :P

Once everything in that arrangement faded, I went out and bought a random bouquet of flowers from Jewel. I was loving the color and... they were really cheap. Haha... so I arranged them in the square vase. I think it looks fun! Don't worry, the random spiky green filler isn't there anymore... I thought it looked kinda dumb after I took the picture.

So moral of the story.... I am totally at a loss of things to talk about, and I love my new square vase!

Got a few things on my mind...

2011-02-23T07:11:00.001-06:00

Recently (or since the new year), I have had SO much on my mind. Some days, I come home from work and just worry about things. To the point where I get upset! (Me, upset? Nahh)

What am I worried about right now? Ok, I'll start with one of the random ones. I feel very out of shape and unhealthy. Since I had surgery on my foot, I was given strict instructions to watch out for my physical activity for 9 months to a year. I thought that would be easy to do, but it turns out it was harder than I thought. 9 months hit in January so I'm hoping I can get back up to my normal activity level. I'd love to lose a few pounds and feel more energetic overall. Right now, by the time I get home from work, I HAVE to nap because I am so exhausted. That is not how I want to live my life!

Speaking of work... That's another thing I've got on my mind. I know for a fact I won't be staying here at ISU in the Housing Department for long. I am not happy here and I know that this is not the career path for me, like I once thought it was. So now what? Where do I go from here? Should I start looking for a new job now? Or should I go back to school? I am very stressed about finding a place for graduate school.

Graduate school. That was a good lead in. Do I want to go back to school? I can be honest with you all and say that I don't really want to go back to school. By the time I got to my senior year of college, I was done with the books and standard tests. I wanted to get out in the world and experience things rather than read about them. But now I wonder... is continuing my education the best thing for my career and future? Should I find a way to dig in and go back to school? Where in the heck am I going to go?

Another factor in this decision is the money. I am blessed by the generosity of my parents who decided to pay for both my 4 years of school as well as Doug's. So I am in great shape in the sense that I don't have 4 years of college student loans. But the cost of graduate school does worry me. I know, I know, there are ways to get assistance... Graduate Assistantships and what not. But I worry about my current experience with a job that is similar to an assistantship and balancing school.

Speaking of paying for it... the last thing on my mind is money. MONEY. Oh my gosh this is on my mind just about 24/7. When unexpected expenses come up (my car battery dieing, dropping my laptop, etc) I can take care of it, but I worry about all of things I am trying to save for... all of the dang time! I feel like my paychecks just aren't enough... and I can't even describe how worried I was around tax time. I want to pay for so much.... Graduate school? Buying my own car? An apartment?

Apartments! A place to live? Not only this summer, but beyond... where am I going? Should I move back in with my parents? Boy that'll be a tough adjustment after this past year of living on my own. But there's no way I cant afford my own place with the money I'm making now, let alone without a confirmed job this summer.... and most likely without a roommate. Where do I even look for apartments? Is there like a website? How do I know if the rates are good?

Whew. Well, you definitely got the full list of current concerns. It just keeps going! The end of February is approaching and I can't stop thinking about the immediate future. Oh boy! Well, it does feel good to have it all written down... it's just time to make some things happen!

New Years Resolutions

2011-02-19T22:23:00.001-06:00

Just like I did last year, I wanted to make some resolutions and write them down. Now, as we know, I didn't do such a great job keeping to my resolutions last year as the summer started. That's not cool! So I made another list for this year and hope to stick to these and better myself!

Get into shape - I had surgery on my foot back in May of last year. Woohoo! Except as a part of my recovery, I had to avoid using it until January. I understood why I had to be careful, but that also greatly reduced the amount of activity I could do. I pushed myself to the limit right after surgery until Stephanie's wedding so I would be in shape for that, but since then I have limited activity so I didn't reverse the surgery. Now, I am feeling quite out of shape and unhappy with how I feel. I'd like to get back into shape and feeling better! Losing a few pounds wouldn't hurt, either! And of course the appendectomy pushes things back a bit!
Continue to work on not being late - I am doing a little bit better about being on time. As a matter of fact, the RAs today thanked me for being on-time to check-in since other pro-staff typically aren't. That made me feel better :) But overall, I'd love to stop stressing myself (and others) out because I'm late!
Find more time to do things I love - Well, this also means.... find more things to do! I think this is mainly applying to living in Normal. I spend so much time working, coming home, and working from home. Example: it's the weekend and I brought home time cards to fill out.

Let's hope these three stick for the year... I'd love to feel better about all 3! Do you have anything you're working this year?

**Disclaimer. This post was actually written in January, but a few things prevented it from being published.

Answering your questions

2011-02-14T08:00:00.001-06:00

I have been getting very similar questions as I have been recovering. Incase you have been wondering them... here they are.

Q: How did you get appendicitis?
A: According to the doctor and my own research, it just happens. Something got stuck in there and started to back things up. As that happened, it became more and more swollen, eventually leading to it rupturing. Luckily for me, I had it removed before that happened.

Q: What symptoms were there?
A: Besides the intense abdominal pain, I also had chills and a climbing fever. It started at 98.2 degrees at 5am and by 10am, I was at 102.5 degrees

Q: How did they remove it?
A: I had my first larthriscopic surgery!. I have 3 small scars. Two small ones where they sucked out the appendix and 1 larger one where the camera went in

Q: How has recovery been?
A: Well, the largest struggle has been my lack of appetite. It's a common recovery symptom. I literally have not been hungry for going on 14 days. It sucks, but soon it'll come back. Also, the large scar for the camera has been very painful. It's in a different spot that usual, so it's taking longer to heal. I'm also very tired and get winded easily, but that is partially because I haven't been eating.

Q: How long are you out of work?
A: I was told to avoid going to work for about a week, until I saw the surgeon again. He wrote me out for another few days because of the camera scar

Q: Does it feel different?
A: Ha. This one makes me laugh. No, I don't notice that I am missing an internal organ. I did lose 1.5 pounds the day after surgery from the lack of food and the appendix being removed. The only thing that feels different is the lack of energy.

Do you have any questions I didn't answer? Hit me up!

I was bored...

2011-02-12T19:54:00.009-06:00

... So I decided to get my appendix removed.

Wondering where I've been recently? Well, that would be recovering from major surgery! I know, I know, I can already hear most of you... "Really, Amy? Really?" Haha, well I have nothing to say back to that! Let me tell you about it... with pictures!

On Monday, January 31st I basically had an insane day at work. I was running around like crazy, everyone was freaking out about a potential blizzard, and I slipped and fell outside of Ham Whit. That was all in the morning! Want to see my knee? I thought so.

Ouch.

So it turns out, the puddle I slipped in was actually coming up from the sidewalk... because a water main burst outside of the residence hall. Really?! By the time I told my building mechanic about it, all of facilities arrived to survey the situation. Broken water main about side a residence hall? Never a good thing.

As the day progressed, we found out that they were going to have to turn off the water in the area to fix the problem. Yikes. No water for 1600 residents? Quickly, I learned that we were going to be under a boil order for a day or two, and we would have to get bottled water to each desk as soon as possible.

After three hours of hauling water, organizing the desks, and making announcements, I finally got home for the day. Of course, I burst into to tears, for a variety of reasons. First, I literally got nothing done all day. Second, I was exhausted. Third, I wore heals all day and my foot (see: bunion surgery) was killing me. I don't even remember the rest of the night, but I know I was tired and frustrated. I went to bed early, anticipating a hectic Tuesday because of the snow.

Well, I got woken up around 2am instead. Why? Oh, that would be because of the intense, searing, HORRIBLE pain in my abdomen. It started off mild, and I had more nausea than anything. I had a few friends who were recovering from the flu at the time, so I thought maybe I was coming down with that. I had serious chills and it was about 3am when my abdomen pain was taking over.

I got about 10 minutes of sleep at a time until about 5:00am.

At that point, I was in so much pain, I couldn't move. I had gotten to my couch somehow and I literally couldn't swing my legs to get off of it. I texted my mom to call me. What was she going to do? I don't know... but moms always make everything better, so I had to call her. She called me immediately. I couldn't even talk on the phone, it hurt so bad. She urged me to go to the hospital. We hung up and I texted a few people who I thought could drive me. Finally, a coworker and friend, Mike said he could bring me.

As he warmed up his car and got dressed, I managed to shove a few things into my purse and put some clothes on. He picked me up and dropped me off to the ER, which is just a few blocks from campus. I was in tears from moving from my apartment to a car to the ER. The lady in registration immediately got me checked in and I was in a room before I could process what was going on. By the time I was settled, it was about 7am.

After some blood and other tests, I was given an IV and pain meds. AMAZING. I felt really horrible for a few minutes and then it took away all my pain... and promptly knocked me out for hours. I took 3 hits of the stuff while I was in the ER.

I don't remember much while I was laying around, drugged up... until after the awkward CT scan. The ER doctor looked at it and came to tell me he wanted a surgeon consult on it. I was like... you want a WHAT? I started to panic, not going to lie. The nurse came into my room and started filling out paperwork with me. She gently told me that there was a 90% chance I was going into emergency surgery today.

Yeah, that would be because my appendix walls were swollen and were showing signs of appendicitis.

Of course. At this point, it was about 3pm and I was starting to think a little clearer. I was alone. I deseprately wanted someone with me. I started texting people and it became clear that there was the storm of the century. It was basically dangerous and impossible for someone to get to the ER to be with me.

At 5pm I went into surgery. I should spare you the details of me having anxiety attacks, and asking the male nurse in the OR to hold my hand. Oh, and that I had to be SEDATED because I refused to let them put the anesthesia mask on me. Yeah, I was basically repeating, "I wish my mom was here. I'm alone, I want my mom here."

I woke up about 3 hours later and was told everything went well. My pain was about a 3, which was fantastic!! The recovery nurse finally released me into my own room for the night, where I had to wear an oxygen mask because I was having some post operation anxiety. However, the oxygen mask was making me MORE anxious. AHHHH. The floor nurse had to put me back to sleep so I would keep it on for the whole mandatory hour.

Haha. Oh me.

The rest of my stay was laying in a bed, getting IV fluids, and being woken up at all hours of the night. I begged for food and was informed that I couldn't have the slab of ribs I desired. The nurse politely informed me that removing my appendix meant my digestive system was changed. Everything had a different route to take and it was going to take a few days for my body to adjust to fats, so I had to stay away from them.

I sucked down ice chips (because they're filling?) Oh, and because the breathing tube scratched up my throat. That was all I could eat for the night. Yum!

Luckily for me, the doctor released me at 12pm and Mike was able to pick me up after finding his car under the piles of snow. Him and Nicole were amazing for picking me up and returning me to my apartment!

So, were you really wondering where I've been? Well, like it or not, I just gave you MANY details about it!!! Haha well, for whatever reason, you read the whole thing! :P Hopefully I can get back on top of my other posts I was writing and get my strength back! It's been 13 days since surgery and I'm finally feeling better!

Christmas with "Family" + the new guy

2011-01-29T00:12:00.001-06:00

I promise - this is my last post about Christmas. I had a goal to finish Christmas posts in January so we can leave that behind. :P

I had to share one last favorite tradition about Christmas time. I have posted this a few times in the past. You can read about those times here and here. Ever since I can remember, we have gotten together with our "family" for Christmas. It's right up there with my love of Christmas Eve. We usually switch between my mom hosting and Aunt Kathy hosting. It's hilarious because they will always "bicker" about it and try to convince the other they can host again. This year though, Stephanie stepped in and offered to host at her NEW house this year.

I think it was a great idea! I mean, it was Adam's first year of being "officially" apart of the family so it was only appropriate. Even though Stephanie and Adam were hosting, some how my family still brought the pasta sauce! Hey, it wouldn't be a Christmas without our pasta and the whole family together!

As mentioned before, since I lost all of my pictures on my old computer, I don't have any to share with you... but I did steal some from Stephanie... so if you follow her, these may look a tid bit familiar! I'll keep it quick. :)

Before dinner, we sat and watched Doug's video he made for a final product. We were all pretty impressed and it was fun to show what he has worked on.

A picture of our "family" eating dinner together at S&A's house!

After dinner, we started to open gifts.

Erin opened up a gift she was VERY excited for - a yoga mat!!

A picture of the 3 girl cousins on Christmas!!!!

And I thought it would be sweet to end with a picture of the hosting couple for this year's celebration!

Even if some day we don't buy each other gifts and we eat old Chinese food... as long as we are all together, it will be one of my favoritest days of the year. :) It was a super fun celebration, again this year!

Aaaaaaaaaaand............ this is the end of Amy's Christmas updates! Thanks for being patient with me as I finally was able to update!!!

Christmas Day

2011-01-24T22:27:00.000-06:00

Is it weird to write about Christmas about a month afterward?

Well, if you say yes - please consider my horrible computer catastrophe! I just saved some pictures from my facebook so I could write this post... which is not even half of what I actually took sadly! Regardless, here is what I have to share.... :)

Christmas this year was a TON less dramatic than last year. Do you remember? The basement flood? Yeah, we didn't have that issue this year... something we were ALL thankful for. :) We slept in only because we wanted to this time!!

We had another fabulous Christmas as a family. I can't even wait to talk about this part... so I'm just going to jump to the best gift that we got this year...

My mom made us quilts!

Here it is up close... It's all flowers!!! I just LOVE it!

Doug got one as well... all film related!

I was surprised to open this awesome gift! Mom made it all by hand for each one of us. I love how thoughtful this gift was. It is currently hanging up in my apartment so I can look at it each day. :) It has little beaded embellishments all over it, too! I'm lucky to have a crafty mom... My kids probably won't be as lucky haha....

Doug also opened this army-ish coat. I'm sorry that I'm not sure the significance of this coat, but he was so excited about it so I wanted to post it! lol

I had to post this picture because it is funny. :P I've been joking around that I don't have a pizza pan or pizza cutter in my apartment so I resort to interesting methods to make pizza... I was pretty excited to open this gift up! Haha

Mom might not be too happy with this one... but Dad and I planned to get her a craft cabinet/storage/work area for her craft room... and we planned to have it delivered the day after Christmas... except it was delivered the day BEFORE. We had already made a certificate saying it was coming in the mail... so we gave it to her anyway and told her to pretend to be surprised!

And here is a funny one of my dad (to make it even!) haha... He asked for a rotisserie for his grill... except when he opened up the box, he totally forgot he asked for one and was so confused! It cracked me up!

It was a very fun Christmas morning... as usual, my parents got carried away with our gifts. But I know Doug and I feel very luck to have such generous parents! Mom made us some very yummy breakfast and were lucky to have our grandparents over for dinner later that day. Christmas is one of my most favorite times of year... family, traditions, and generosity!

First week of the year

2011-01-16T23:16:00.002-06:00

I had one heck of a beginning of 2011... want to hear about it? Now, bear with me... I find it a lot more amusing now, but at the time I was very upset!

I had to move back into my apartment at ISU on the 2nd. This isn't necessarily a bad thing... but I was in TEARS the night before because I was leaving my parents and family. I put off leaving on Sunday until the last logical moment because I didn't want to leave. It was a tough - living alone is not as much fun when you have people you love around during the holidays!

As I was adjusting and settling back in - my job started to FLY. As we got through a day of staff retreat and training, my days seemed to be 12+ hours long. I was covering for a coworker who had surgery in my area, as well as serving on the RA Training Committee AND trying to do my job. I was BEYOND stressed! Then, my supervisor reminded me I was to help train a new coworker across campus during that week. I was pulled in about 2938208 directions and I missed my family even more.

In the middle of the week, I had a doctor's appointment to test my allergies and come up with a plan. I had 97 shots put into my back to test the allergies and such. It was a little painful and time consuming... and scary because the doctor injected me with tree nuts! I had to wait almost a week for results...

As my week was droning on (and flying by), I took a few minutes in my apartment on Thursday. Deep breath, grab a snack, and go to the bathroom. As I was in my bedroom, I started to hear my cell phone ring, which was in the kitchen. I noticed the ring tone was the one I made for the new coworker. I sprinted across my apartment to answer it....

... and I tripped on my laptop cord. As I answered the phone, it crashed to the ground. When I say crashed, I am not being dramatic. It landed sideways on the screen and I heard a huge crack. After I frantically ran over to it, I saw the screen cracked and the CD drive bent. I burst into tears and called my mom. Hysterical probably isn't even the word to describe it. I forced myself to go back to work as my mom called my dad to sort it all out. As the week ended, it took everything in me to stay sane. Once the weekend came, I brought my laptop to Best Buy... to find out that the warranty my parents bought me did not cover accidental damage. What??? Are you kidding me?!

I burst into tears again as the Geek Squad guy told me it would probably be more cost effective to buy a new laptop as the repairs could cost between $400 and $2500 and take 4 weeks. I called my parents again and made them talk me through what I should do. By the end of it, the three of us agreed it was a better idea to buy a new laptop. After over an hour, I finally picked a new one out and paid for it. I left it with Best Buy because they were going to transfer my old hard drive onto the new laptop.

Remember the allergy tests? Just as I went to start the next week, I got the test results back. They came back positive... for being allergic to PEANUTS as well as tree nuts. Wait... what? As I tried to explain that I eat peanut products all the time. The lady explained that this is probably a new, gradual allergy that could possibly develop to one as serious as my tree nut allergy. I was literally stunned in silence and she told me I should consider altering my diet, added new meds, and said she'd follow up with my respiratory test in a few weeks.

As if my week couldn't get any more tiring, I got a call from Best Buy. My laptop was done!! YAY! Oh wait... except, my old laptop was so damaged that they couldn't retrieve anything off of it. Anything! As I hung up the phone, I called my mom immediately and sobbed... AGAIN. I was crying so loud and so much that I'm sure my coworkers heard and wondered if I was going nuts. I honestly thought I was going to throw up, I was so upset. I lost tons of pictures, music, and just ...documents.

THAT, my friends, is how my first few weeks here at ISU have gone. Talk about stressful! But now.. I am blogging from my new laptop, saving pictures from facebook to my hard drive, and throwing out all of my peanut products. I'm feeling a lot less frantic, and find it amusing that my first few weeks of 2011 were this random! Let's hope it get's a little less eventful in a heart breaking way!

Computing....

2011-01-12T23:40:00.003-06:00

.... from the newest member of the family - my new Asus laptop.

So I logged into blogger and saw the 6 blog posts that I was in the middle of writing during my first couple of days back at ISU.

And right now, it makes me want to cry to think about posting anything that was supposed to have pictures in it. :(

I'll be back soon to update on what I can from my new laptop... I just have to get over the heart break!

Christmas Eve - the night to trick my cousins

2011-01-03T23:48:00.000-06:00

I. Love. Christmas. Eve.

Seriously... it's my favorite day of the year. The entire family gets together, eats a feast of gramma's pasta, and we get to enjoy seeing each other happy and grateful for the gifts we receive. I actually lose more sleep before Christmas Eve now!

Of course the day started with me jittery and excited to get over to grandma's house. The day before I was cleaning and organizing so we would be ready to go on Friday. Finally it was time for us to get going!

Once everyone started arriving, we all lumped in the TV room to watch Christmas movies together. I thought it was cute how many of us crammed in there at one point!

What a goofball! It looks like someone is tickling him, but he is just giggling really hard :)

After our amazing dinner, Megan and I usually do the dishes. We've done so for the past 5 years or so. Some how we "tricked" our cousins into helping us. It was adorable. :)

While we had Jack hard at work with the dishes, Ben helped us by wiping down the table, counter, and stove!

A very cute picture of the my dish washer partner in crime!

After dinner and the oh-so-famous after dinner jello... we went to play some games with the boys. This would be the start to a very intense game of war hehe

After the intense game of war, we got a 10 person game of Uno going. Talk about INTENSE... get some Italians together to play a child's game! Haha it was hilarious how closely they were reading the rules and how cut throat it got!

And here is the annual grandkid picture. Yes, if you do the math, we are missing one cousin! :(

Annmarie got a great job down at school, and had to stay over her break. We missed her, but tried to "include" her in the traditions anyway. There's a silly picture somewhere of Uncle Matt holding up the phone where Annmarie was on the other end. Haha, I loved that! She still got gifts, stocking stuffers, and an ornament gift. Hopefully next year we'll all be together.

I have a whole load of pictures of us opening gifts, but I don't want to bore my very few, loyal readers. It was great... the boys were thrilled with their gifts and everyone had fun unwrapping, telling stories, and laughing. I love this day and I really hope that it doesn't ever change... well, any time soon at least! I hope your Christmas Eve was special, too! There will be some more Christmas posts, so hopefully you won't get too bored! ;-)

Happy New Year

2010-12-31T23:55:00.000-06:00

I hope everyone has a safe, healthy, fun new year's celebration tonight! Bring on 2011!

♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥

Happy New Years!!!!

♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥

See you next year with some bloggy posts of Christmas and more fun!

There's a man in my ceiling...

2010-12-24T12:27:00.004-06:00

So for about 2.5 months, my shower was basically being the devil. Every time I set the water at a reasonable temperature... it would scream at me.

Yes, I mean SCREAM. If I had to type it out... it would be like this.

Sqaaaaa-WEEEEEEEEEE- EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE- AHHHHHHHHH - EEEEEEEEEE

For the ENTIRETY of the time I had it set at the temperature that wouldn't freeze my leg hair or scorch off a layer of skin, it would sound like this. Needless to say, it was starting to drive me NUTS.

I decided I finally had enough (why I got thru 2.5 months, I have no idea...) and I put in a work order. Since I live in the halls, I can put in requests for maintenance things and the building mechanic will come and fix them for me - for free! I put the request in with the hopes that he could fix it. I am busy on Thursdays, so I never saw him (his name is Steve). Usually when he does maintenance in my apartment, he'll stop by my office and give me updates. Well, that wasn't the case sadly this time.

After a long day, I finally got home around 5pm. I went into my bathroom to, well... you know. And I noticed it smelled funny. Huh? I moved the door and saw what the source was...

Ahhh! That would be because my shower is in pieces and someone left their tools behind!

I kid you not... I stared at this for a good minute or two in awe. Usually Steve NEVER leaves a project undone, and certainly without telling me first. I sighed but figured I could get through one night until he could come back to fix it.

I changed into some comfy clothes and collapsed on the couch. Yay, I could finally just SIT down! Not even 5 minutes later, a got a knock on the door. Huh? No one knocks on my door... and if they do, it's usually in the middle of the night cuz they are drunk...

I checked the peep hole. Hmm, looks like a scruff man with tools. Interesting. I opened the door to be greeted by Jeff, the plumber as he introduced himself. He walked right over to my bathroom and inspected it. He apologized for leaving the job half undone... but it turns out my shower is so old he didn't have pieces with him to fix it! Lol, of course...

I maintained my position on the couch while he worked from about 5:30pm until 9:30pm. Yes... me and Jeff the Plumber hung out for FOUR HOURS. He was determined to fix the problem! At once point he went into my ceiling...

Yes, I am aware of how creepy this is!

He went into various parts of my ceiling, since almost all of it is drop down. My kitchen... my bedroom... my living room... he couldn't find the switches to turn off the water. He ended up leaving to find a taller ladder. I knew exactly where the water shut off was... I looked once! So while he was gone, I went into the backroom, turned the light on and moved everything out of the way... I thought maybe he would get the hint.

Haha, luckily he did... but he also brought another man with him. This guy was about 6 foot 5 inches. And DAMN was he tall. This was the guy that went into the ceiling the second time around. Haha, I could hear him crawling around and it was call I could do to pray that he didn't fall through. He was a big guy!

Well, by the end of this, they ended up fixing my shower. I got brand new pieces and it works like a dream. The pressure is fixed, the temperature is perfect, and it doesn't scream. Lol, I always tell people how "special" my apartment is... and this sure does put the icing on the cake! I wonder what else I will come across this year.....

Oh yeah, I'm a supervisior

2010-12-23T10:00:00.001-06:00

Part of my job that I really wasn't sure how well I'd do is being a supervisor. Let's face it - it makes me cry when people are mad at me. And this job basically makes people hate me all day long. Needless to say, I've gotten a little thicker skin since I've been on the job!

Yes, I discipline my employees when they do things wrong. I also call them into my office to lay down the business when they disappoint me. And yes, I also have sent a few of my very own scathing emails. I currently have 10 on probation.

Come on! I've got 50 of these people to look after 7 days of the week, 18 hours a day. There are 31 of them working the front desks, 4 of them in the mail room, 14 in the fitness center, and 1 as my office assistant. I can only be their friend for so long....

Yes, there are about 5 of them that are older than me. Awkward, yes. Especially when I hold 1:1 meetings and one of them tells me about her kids. *gulp* Excuse me while I go back and watch reruns of the Nanny tonight like an adult. haha.

Regardless, something I do try my hardest to do is to understand them and give them the benefit of the doubt. I'm proud to say that I have not needed to fire anyone. Development is a HUGE thing for me... and while some days I want to wring necks for not signing out packages or verifying key deliveries... I'd get fired for that. hahaha, jk jk jk.

But really, I spend EACH day having a conversation with whomever is working. How are classes going? How's your day? Busy week? Many of them have opened up to me and I learn ALLLLL sorts of things. (Oh, you and your bf are fighting because he leaves the bathroom door open, huh? Interesting...) Deep down, even though they drive me nuts, I know that while I teach them, they are teaching me, too. And I do appreciate how hard they work. So for the holidays this year, I decided to do something for them.

While I was shopping, I decided on picking up little bags and filling them! In theory, this seemed adorable! I bought a bag of EACH kind of Hershey's kisses, a bag of variety chocolates, sparkly ornaments, and candy canes. Before long, I realized that 50 bags was a tid bit insane! Luckily, with all of the goods, they weren't too empty! I stapled them shut to avoid snoops going in and stealing chocolate from other people. It made me REALLY happy to deliver them on the first day of finals week. I sent an email out for everyone to grab a bag.

It didn't take long for me to get "thank you" texts, emails, and hugs that day. It was amazing! It made me feel even better. They said things like, "we've never gotten anything like this before" or "you did this for US?" I hope they know while sometimes I have to be the bad guy, I do appreciate them!

Also... the plastic bag next to the box of bags has candy canes for each of the 38 RAs in south. I attached a little tag that said, "Thanks for a great semester. I "cane" done it without you!" Bahaha, I crack myself up. But really, many of them thanked me for the thought! I've learned a ton from them, too.

So, I was feeling pretty good for making people smile, but then something caught MY attention on Thursday of finals...

I was working late in my office when I received a call from the desk... they needed me to come out for something. Grrr... I am technically off for the day! I went out there and 3 of them were holding this plant!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I almost cried! They did some sneaky work and figured out what plants I like and surprised me with it! How perfect.. an orange plant!!! I was seriously speechless... but then they also gave me this...

An adorable card!!! It's funny, I saw one of the desk managers making it that day, but didn't think anything of it... she is always doing something crafty!

And how CUTE is the inside? They signed their names and added little messages. I was floored.

I guess deep down, they don't all despise my being! :P I know I'm not well liked overall because of the policies I force them to follow, but it's good to know there are a good bunch who appreciate ME and think I'm a cool boss. :) I hung the card up in my office to remind me that even though I push them, bug them, and sometimes discipline them.... there are that bunch that know why I do it. :) What a great holiday surprise!!! :D

Christmas in my apartment

2010-12-22T17:00:00.000-06:00

Hmm. Sorta seems like my blog has been a lot of posts consisting of what my apartment looks like for the holidays. That's sort of sad. But you know what, this post is going to be the same way. Why? Well, I'm at a loss for things to talk about... and I really LOVE my decorations, so I want to share them!

Stephanie and Aunt Kathy sent me this orange Christmas tree right before Thanksgiving. I LOVE it!! I dug around in my mom's ornaments to find some that wouldn't overwhelm it haha.

Throughout the years, I have acquired many deocrations that other people just don't want. Haha.. luckily the two heritage Santas are some of my favorite!

I decorated my 3.5 foot tree again this year, and it was pretty sweet that I didn't have to worry about either Shannon or me tripping over it! By the middle of the week, I had presents to put under it. :)

When we were in Ohio for Thanksgiving, my grandma wanted to try to throw this out... so I took it. :D I love it!

If you're keeping track, this is the third Christmas tree in my apartment. Haha... I just LOVE Christmas!

Can't forget my holiday pig! He's Santa now!

It's crazy to look at these pictures and think that just last year, I was cramming most of this stuff in my residence hall room! While I was decorating, I was a little sad... there was no Shannon around to ignore my awful carol singing and laughing at my "reject" ornaments. Talk about change! I loved our traditions as just the two of us in college. Somehow for 4 years, she put up with my INSANE decorating of the room, over usage of lights, and constant Christmas songs playing on the iPod. While I LOVED my apartment this year, there was a part of me that really wished I wasn't alone in it - and that Shannon could be there trying to ignore it! It was definitely good times and I miss them! But I look forward to creating more traditions as I go where life takes me.

Last year, small residence hall room. This year, 2 bedroom apartment (still in a res hall lol). Next year? Lord only knows....

Merry Christmas! I'm excited to share how the rest of our holidays go!

Thanksgiving in Ohio

2010-12-11T12:54:00.000-06:00

Incase you didn't know, my mom's parents live in Ohio. When Doug and I were younger, we used to go to visit pretty often. But as we have gotten older and have gone to college, it's been harder and harder to travel out there. Luckily, we were able to get it together and go during Doug and my Thanksgiving breaks!!! We went for the first half of the week, came home, and celebrated the second half of the week with my dad's side. Talk about a sweet deal!

It was nice to hang out with my grandparents, catch up, and eat veryyyy tasty food. :) One of the most fun things we did was right at the end of the weekend. Grandma wanted to document some of the beautiful heirlooms that she has in her house. It's funny, Doug and I have definitely taken them for granted - they have always been on those shelves for our hour whole life! But this week, we got to actually learn where they came from!

The first item my grandma wanted documented was this beautiful pocket watch. Of course Doug was instantly attracted to it, he has a thing for them. It's my great-great grandfathers! (Sorry! I dont know why it uploaded sideways!)

Another one of my favorite items was this coffee pot and cup set. It has always sat on my grandma's kitchen shelf and I have admired the colors and beauty of it. It was my great-great grandmother's set!

This hot chocolate pot and sugar and creamer set were sitting on a kitchen shelf for years too! I love how beautiful they are! Both were my great grandmother's.

Doug found these in a box that both my grandparents forgot about. They are German lighters my grandpa brought home from the war! He LOVES them and has basically a new addiction haha.

Obviously I am very partial to the vases and such!! But I loved how beautiful this one is too! My grandparents bought it in Texas.

Doug and I sleep in the basement when we visit... and I guess for YEARS he has been eyeing these pipes my grandpa kept by our beds. He brought them up and learned that my grandpa bought them during the war and sent them to his father.

Finally, a picture of us hanging out in the living room, going through more lighters my grandpa collected over the years. It was a really fun night of learning about family, hearing about the war, and treasuring the items we have taken for granted for 22 years!

My Awesome Weekend & Thanksgiving In My Apartment

2010-12-06T22:09:00.002-06:00

Well, as you recall, I had a super awesome weekend planned - Shannon and her mom visiting on one day, and then my mom the next day. It was gonna be awesome... and it was! I am a little bummed because I didn't take ONE picture the whole time!

Shannon and her mom came by and it was so fun. We stayed up, chatted, watched the Nanny, and played Yahtzee. Sounds like a bunch of old lady business, honestly, but it was a blast. Even though I was on-call for the night and got about 1,000 calls, Shannon and her mom were super patient. We even had our favorite take out - D.P. Dough. :) Shannon and I stayed up talking until almost 2am... just like the good times!

The next day, Saturday, they left and about an hour later my mom arrived. I was thrilled! We sat and chatted, I answered about another 1,000 calls about how Haynie didn't have hot water, and we started working on our Christmas cards. Thank goodness for my mom because she is good at designing... I'm typically just there for opinions, lol. We started mass producing and got a good portion done! I am so excited about how they look! When my on-call was over, we went to dinner at a Chinese place I like. It was so fun - no one eats Chinese with my mom!!! She spent the night and I promptly PASSED OUT when my head hit the pillow. With staying up late with Shannon and being on-call, it was rough.

The next morning we hung out some more, worked on the cards, got lunch, and my mom was off. As she was pulling away, I burst into tears. I didn't see it coming!! But I sobbed and sobbed for the rest of the day. I was feeling incredibly lonely and I just wanted to go home and be with my family! It was a verryyyy long week until Thanksgiving Break....

But my oh-so classy decorations helped me get through it! :)! Haha, they make me so happy and I have fun doing it. :) So for your viewing pleasure... more of my apartment!

My mom sent this adorable little group and I sent them up on my kitchen table

I also decked out my walls with these guys all over my living room!

Of course my piggie got his new outfit. Shannon's mom thought he was dressed as a German person. Haha it cracked me up - he's supposed to be a pilgrim!

And finally, my FAVORITE decoration, my super cute turkey on an end table. I just love him!!!

Things I'm Currently Obsessed With...

2010-12-03T22:50:00.007-06:00

I know my last post was just about a month ago... and I really don't have too much to say about that besides I'm sorry. :\ Just about the time that my fun weekend came... so did a lot of other things.

That's a post for another time.

Anywho, here are a few things I'm obsessed with...

Drink: Now that the weather has changed and I've been sicker than a dog, my absolute obsession is the Spiced Carmel Apple Cider drink from Starbucks. I was craving it a few weeks ago as it got chillier, and if I ever have an extra few minutes during lunch or I'm in the area, I'm all over it. Yum!

Thing: Puffs Plus Lotion. Somehow, in my office I snagged a box of Puffs with lotion. And in less than 1 week, I finished the entire thing. I was very sad as my cold has been very nasty. Lucky for me, my mommy sent me another box of them in a package today. I can't get enough of the soothing lotion!!!

Holiday: Christmas. Seriously... I LOVE Christmas! And I picked lights as the picture because honestly, you should see my apartment. It's loaded with them! I love how they are cheery and light up the place and are jolly.

Hopefully now that I can breathe a little better and I feel like I've got a hold on stuff, I will get more posting in. I am a bad blogger!! How have you been, bloggy world?

Exciting Weekend!

2010-11-05T03:36:00.002-05:00

A few weeks ago I posted the following on my facebook status:

"I am getting jealous of all my coworkers who have guests and visitors. Hey you! Come visit ME!"

And I am being blessed with just that!!! Shannon and her mom are coming down on Friday for the night to hang out and then head to Eastern. THEN, after they leave on Saturday, my mommy is coming down for the night til Sunday!!

I AM SO EXCITED I CANT SLEEP!!!!

3 people I miss more than crazy are my mom, dad, and Shannon. And I get to see 2 of them this weekend. :D

PS. Stephanie, you are in 4th... hint hint ;-)

Anywho... I am even on call from 5pm Friday to 5pm on Saturday, but my guests say they are cool with that. And so am I if that means I get to see them for a bit!

YAY!!!! I should get back to bed... I woke up because I was so excited and vacuumed my apartment. Haha, bet my neighbors appreciated that. See you later, I'll let you know how the weekend goes!!!!

Happy Halloween!

2010-10-31T20:43:00.013-05:00

One thing about me that has not changed since I was 5, and probably wont change until I'm 95, is I LOVE to decorate. I'm not sure what started it, but I think many of my childhood memories included our house being decorated for the holiday season. (So, let's go ahead and give my mom credit for my decorating obsession! Haha)

Once I moved down school, my mom would send us a bunch of cute decorations for the holidays: Halloween, Thanksgiving, Easter, Mardi Gras, Chinese New Year... it was something I looked forward to each month! Once Christmas rolled around, she probably thought there was no point in sending us stuff because we were only in the halls for a week or so, but I took care of that one... I snagged a bunch myself and took it back with me. ;-)

Nonetheless, something that I love about October is the beginning of the holiday season. Oh, and I just LOVE Halloween. When I was in high school, my parent's house would be totally DECKED out in orange and silly decorations. With my own apartment right now, I tried to make it tacky to remind me of home. :)

I decided I wanted everything to be in my living room, so every picture takes place there. I'm not sure these pictures are very good, but rest assured, I have LOVED every minute of my tacky Halloween decorated apartment!

Above my kitchen table, I have pictures of areas I want to travel to... and some cute little Halloween signs

Above those signs, I have a light up strand of pumpkin lights. :) I love them!!!

In my kitchen, I just loaded up my fridge with some goofy little stuff! Hehe

Here's a close up of one of the ghosts I have flying around. You'll probably notice them in the pictures :)

Against the wall splitting the kitchen and living room, I added some more tacky decorations. Haha, I'm a fan of the witch!

Here's the cat head in the dark! I love my light up decorations!

On the wall with the windows (again, with the light ups!)

My light-up skull heads and holiday piggie!

A fake gourd with hilarious body parts. This is probably one of my most favorite decorations!

I have a bunch more pictures, but they didn't come out so great with the dark/light up factor. So Mom- don't worry, I'll have more pictures to show you at Thanksgiving! :)

I hope your Halloween has been spooky and fun, too!!!

My Mom's 30th Birthday!

2010-10-20T21:16:00.008-05:00

Psych!!!

It was actually her 31st birthday.

Bahaha. Anyway.

On the 8th, I traveled back north to spend the weekend with my mom for her birthday. I hadn't been back up there since Labor Day, and it was safe to say I was missing everyone a lot. I was SO excited, I stayed up til 1am cleaning my apartment, packing, and preparing for the drive home. I just couldn't wait!

Of course Friday dragged onnnnn and onnnn but finally 4pm hit and Megan and I hit the road. Once I finally got up to my parent's house, they had a nice home cooked meal waiting for me! How exciting and spoiled I felt. :)

Saturday started off verryyy early, which at first I was worried about, but then I realized it was totally worth it. We met up with Aunt Kathy and Stephanie for a mommy-daughter stamp class. It was... interesting!

This is us at the class during a brief break!

It was a little nuts! The teacher for the class was a little intense and rushed. At first we were all a little irritated and annoyed by it, but it didn't take long to just be amused by it. It was hilarious as Stephanie and I started to laugh and repeat some of the snippy comments the instructor had. Ok, I admit, it wasn't incredibly mature, but hey! We had to do something to make it a little more enjoyable! In the end, we walked away with a bunch of cute Christmas tags and a fun story!

We then went to lunch and had some delicious Noodles and Co. and then went over to Aunt Kathy's brother's house to check out some trees he had some questions about. It was a little funny, they asked me to check it out and said they'd understand if I didn't want to. Hehe, when do I not want to look at trees? :P

This is what we found in their tree!! Some nasty mushroom fungus! Sadly the diagnosis is to remove the tree before it removes itself from high winds or severe weather. :(

After that little side trip, we were all a little tired and ready to head home. During the drive, my dad and I were scheming via text message....

Well, as we arrived back at my house, we all went inside and surprised my mom with a few gifts from Aunt Kathy and her family. They had gotten her some fun things to help organize her craft room... after I cleaned it over the summer, we are hoping she can use it more for some stress relief! But that wasn't all! As we went upstairs to look at her craft room, there was another surprise for Mom.... Uncle Ed and my dad had installed lifts for the washer and dryer!!!

Ok, I know when you read that, it seems sort of random... and it also sounds like we are encouraging mom to do laundry! But really, we had been talking about them for a LONG time... so for a few weeks, my dad, Aunt Kathy, Uncle Ed, and I were emailing, calling, and texting each other to find a way to surprise my mom with it. It was fun to see her reaction and I hope they help!!!

After our dear friends left, the three of us hung out and my mom called her mom. I accidently fell asleep on the couch watching TV, because let's face it... I'm not a morning person and we were up early and were busy! I was woken up in time for dinner.

We met my dad's parents at an AMAZINGLY yummy restaurant, Ted's, and had a great dinner. To top it off, EVERYONE enjoyed it... even my some times picky Grandpa enjoyed it!

I HIGHLY recommend this place! Very yummy!

Once we got home, Dad and I pulled out a few last gifts for my mom. She isn't a fan of pictures, so I just took a picture of the pile! haha.

This was probably one of the best weekends I've had for awhile!! It was something I exactly needed and I hope my mom had a happy birthday!!! :)

Welcome to My Blog

2010-10-17T13:21:00.009-05:00

My goodness. Finding time (and interesting things to blog about) has been nuts lately!! This post is a little overdue, since I promised pictures like a month ago!

Things at work sure have been going... really fast. The students just went through midterms. Which means.... the semester is half over! WHAT? I barely feel like I am in a routine with everything, but I guess I am! My office sure has evolved since my first few weeks here....

July

October

Whew! Check out that change. I look at this picture and laugh because of how busy and disorganized it is.... but this is how I work the best! My room is like that in my apartment. And really, it is quite organized!!!

Here are a few other views of my busy body office:

This is the area next to my desk. Right now its a holding place for supplies and materials to be delivered to my service areas

Next to that holding area for supplies is my "point board." And no, it's not done yet (I KNOW, it's October), but it will eventually have who has how many points. BTW, points are bad.

Across from my desk is my jam packed file cabinet and extra crap that I took out of the front desks/fitness center. I'm holding onto it just incase I find a need for it later.

Shot from the file cabinet to my desk! :)

My door with a bunch of door decs from RAs. :)

Even though sometimes being in my office is overwhelming, it is definitely my place. Just a little bit into my life here at ISU! :)

Apple Pickin'

2010-09-26T19:20:00.011-05:00

Last weekend, some friends wanted to go to an apple orchard near town. I was excited because I love apple picking and it was a gorgeous day! We set off in 2 cars to travel to Tanner's for a fun day away from campus.

Me with a bunch of trees? Yay!

As soon as we walked over to the paths to the orchard, we saw this adorable school bus. Because we are all basically children, we posed with it and threw in some silly faces! :)

After hanging out, we got onto the covered wagon and drove out to the apple tree rows. Here are my good friends Maria and Adam! AKA goofballs :)

I love this pic for a few reasons... the cute little apple trees and the wind turbine in the background. How cute! Thanks for the pic Nicole!

It's a tradition for the group to take a pic eating an apple. So I (very unattractively) took a bite out of one. It was delicious!! I had like 5 different apples on this day... :P

The girls at the orchard! It was a beautiful day!

I was bonding with this llama at the petting zoo. We are mocking each other! Hahah

There were a ton of these cute(ish) scare crows. I tried hitting on Mickey, but he wasn't interested :(

Us posing with the cute Wizard of Oz characters!

It was a really fun day to get off campus and enjoy being outside! I can't wait to go back and look for some pumpkins! :)

ISU Fame

2010-09-22T21:35:00.002-05:00

I forgot to tell you about this when it happened! Right at the beginning of starting my new job, I was working in my office and I started to get alerts in my facebook and email about the front page of the ISU website. I tried to ignore it because, come on.... I'm a little busy with this new job, guys!

I finally went to the site and found out what they were trying to tell me...

I was on it!

I'm the tie-dye shirt in the middle! This was during my second year as director for student move-in. It made me smile to see it because I definitely miss doing it and I miss the people in the picture! I laughed later because I finally made it on the front page of the ISU website.... AFTER I graduated! :P

Hey, it's still pretty cool :)

My newest love...

2010-09-19T01:57:00.005-05:00

.... is an inanimate object. Like, you can't really even snuggle with it comfortably. But I do. Because I love it that much.

It all started a few weeks ago during Labor Day. I walked into a store and saw it....

The blackberry torch.

Sooo, the family decided to go to the AT&T store to check out some phones, as Doug and I were interested in getting new ones. I was agonizing over phones because I wanted one with internet access but there were quite a few options. But I couldn't stop thinking about the epic commercials I was seeing about it. I had done some research about it and the reviews were pretty good. Hmm...

I tossed around other phones, but since we talked about getting new phones, I confiscated Maria's blackberry and fiddled around with it to see if I liked using a blackberry.

Yeah. Um. That was a hands down not a problem for me. I loved it. :)

So at the store I was looking at the blackberries to see if I wanted to do this for sure. Eeek! Syncing my life up with email and internet... is that the best idea? Sadly, with my job, I need it.... or rather, it would REALLY help. So I decided yes.... here we go.

I bought this baby. Slide screen, touch screen, blackberry goodness. I am in LOVE with it! I'm sooo excited.

Oh. And I've only dropped it twice. That is good for me, fyi. :P

Labor Day

2010-09-15T07:07:00.000-05:00

Horray for me! I was able to get travel granted to leave campus for Labor Day. This was exciting for a few reasons:

I hadn't been back up north since my Dad's birthday in July
I had a short list of things I needed to bring back to my apartment
Austin was playing at a street dance
Stephanie and Adam were moving into their house officially
It was the weekend of celebrating my grandmother's 80th birthday

There was a ton happening and I am so glad I was able to come back for it all! Came back into town Friday night after driving with Megan. It was fun for us to catch up and for me to hear about her classes, roommate, and how she's liking ISU. We got into town around 7:30pm, so she went home to her family to eat dinner, and I was greeted by my parents as well. With... a HOME COOKED MEAL. Something I suck at is cooking anything besides pasta... and let's face it, my stove scares me enough as it is. Yum yum yum, I LOVED enjoying my momma's coookin'!

Saturday morning was an impromptu birthday breakfast for Doug. My mom cooked his favorite breakfast, we gave him our gifts and chatted as a family. It was very nice and fun to do. :)

I got him this clock. Ok, I know its random, but he's been eying a similar one that my grandma has in her basement, and there's no way he'll get that clock - my dad will! So I got him a similar one - hopefully he likes it!

The rest of Saturday was running around town - got my car's tire fixed, got new cell phones, and then went to watch Austin sing. As I have mentioned a thousand times, he is trying to get the word out about his singing and song writing! I am a big supporter, so I try to make it out when I'm in town.

Austin on the stage singing some of our favorite country songs!

Closer up! It was a beautiful day for it, too!

After Austin sang, the corny DJ got the kids up and dancing! It was so cute!

Sadly I couldn't stay too long at the street dance, I had to get to my grandma's birthday dinner. She was turning the big 8-0! My dad and his sisters planned a nice dinner at a beautiful, yummy, restaurant. Most of us kids came into town and we were all there for her!!! We even surprised her by bringing her 89 year old sister in, too! It was great to have everyone together - even if we are the LOUDEST people in the restaurant. Hey, we're Italian!

Grandma and Grandpa posing with the cake!

My wonderful cousins who joined me at the wacky end of the table! :)

The group toasting, eating, celebrating, and just being plain awesome!
My grandma opening up cards and gifts after we surprised her with the cake canolies!

I had to end this post on this goofball. I have a whole folder of goofy pictures of him! Haha!!

It's times like these I can't wait for the holidays for us to all be together again!!! Until then.... I loved my Labor Day weekend!

Things I am currently obsessed with....

2010-09-13T21:18:00.009-05:00

Currently, I am trying to get through adjusting to my new job, my own apartment, and living on my own.... and there are a few things that I am obsessed with. They get me through it on the rough days!

Ready? They are random....

Food: Bread and butter pickles. Oh. My. Gosh. I just cant stop eating them! Sometimes for dinner, I make a sandwich specifically to put many pickles on it. One night, I couldn't get the pickle jar open and I went ballistic. I couldn't even fathom eating a sandwich without pickles!

Drink: Mango Strawberry Frutista Freeze from Taco Bell. Sometimes when I leave the office late, or I'm running errands, I go to Taco Bell for one. You will ALWAYS see me with one if I'm having a bad day. My lunch break will end with a quick trip for this frosty delight. Best $2.40 I ever spend. Ever.

TV: Keeping up with the Kardashians/Kloe and Kourtney Take Miami. How trashy am I? But I seriously tune in every Sunday to watch the new episode. I love it! It's my new reality TV guilty pleasure before I start a loooooooong work week. Why are they all so gorgeous?!

Music: Country. Country?! AMY LIKES COUNTRY?!?? Ok, well first of all, I blame this on Stephanie. When she got engaged, I knew her wedding reception would be loaded with country music and I was determined to know it and dance! So she gave me a mixed CD with songs I should know. Then, down at ISU, my friend Maria loves country and we listen to it whenever we drive anywhere! The picture is Keith Anderson... because really.... he is the hottest country singer. EVER.

Beverage: The Diva Martini. Oh. Em. Gee. My friend Mike turned me on to them, and they are DELICIOUS!!!!! At a local bar and grill, they are $3 on Thursday nights. That is a fun hangout for us during the tough weeks! YUM!

Person: Maria. She is my position, but in West Campus, and she is GREAT. She is freaking hilarious and we are always making each other laugh. We motivate each other, calm each other down, and amuse each other. I'm glad to have met a friend like her down here! I have a few stories of some fun times we've had.... coming up!

Well there ya go... some random things I'm obsessed with lately!!! Hehe, I wanted to something fun before updating on some stories!!!

Happy Birthday

2010-08-31T00:07:00.004-05:00

Today, August 31st, in my little brother's birthday. Can you believe it?!?

My baby bro is 21 YEARS OLD!!

We are definitely growing up toooooo fast!!! I am excited it's his birthday and I hope he has a great day. :) I'm excited to see him this weekend for Labor Day.

We were once this small! Splashing around in the pool!

And look at us now! This picture was taken over a month ago.

Love you little bro! Have a great day!!

You should all go wish him a happy birthday too, he's a pretty cool kid! :P