Glowing Stars- Americorps Blog

oh disaster

2008-09-29T15:44:00.003-04:00

so im back from disaster. i sat out hurricane Gustav and Ike. Gustav came on the day after my birthday. so i spent on birthday getting ready to set up shelters in Alexandria, LA. i spent the 1st of September to the 5th in a shelter that was only to last a day but end up staying there for 5 days. we never last any power. as the eye was over us i was on the phone with my mom asking her where the eye was and any news on the storm. after the storm passed us i was staying at a hotel for the remaining of my two weeks. then when Ike came i was sent to the coliseum to work the night shift. 9 at night to 9 in the morning. that was tough. but though the whole time i had wounder full people around me. when we had off we would go out to eat and just hang out. i had a great time!

disaster!!!

2008-08-29T21:48:00.002-04:00

Okay. with all of the talk of Hurricane Gustav. I'm going on disaster. I fly out at 12 tomorrow. I flying to Baton Rouge. after that i dont where i will be staying. Insnt this a great birthday weekend?!?! really nervous!!! Im not going to lie. i better go to bed soon. im relly tired. night.

Augusta Georgia

2008-08-27T21:50:00.000-04:00

So right now we are staying Augusta Georgia. I dont have much time to update. i have to shower and go to bed. we are getting upo at 6 to be on the road at 6:30. It is a 9-11 hour drive.
later

The high life

2008-08-22T23:00:00.001-04:00

so all morning i spent my time in this lift. scraping, caulking and putting putty in holes. exciting!!!!! the house that we having working on belongs to the church. so we are fixing it up so that they can rent out the apartments and get some money from them. we are painting the house a bright tarp like blue with white trim and some dark blue for the details. right now that we just have the trap like blue so far in the house.

Heather and James on the lift yesterday. yay them!!!!!

a lizard on our gate to our backyard.

me on the lift taking a picture.

me again on the lift taking a picture. This time i was about halfway up the side of the house. it's a two story house.

the pigeons now watch our every move that we make. they are pissed at us for blocking up the entrance to their home. one day while we worked, i swear, they are going to attack us.

my boots!!! see how purdy they are!!!! that the blue that we are painting the house.

me on posing on the lift. with my handy scrapers.

anther lizard on the work site.

me, acting silly. i was waiting for alex to come back from getting something. and yes sun has really lighten my hair. the strikes that i put in my hair is lighter. they look really blounde in this picture.

New Jersey!!!

2008-08-20T21:40:00.004-04:00

so these last couple of days we have been doing a lot of scraping.

me trying to take a picture of me scraping the house.

hearther working hard.

Me at the back of the house.

chris playing with he's new toy. we have had since about ether friday or monday.

me and heather were on a lift scraping the the side of the house today.

here she is with one of the volunteers.

me and heather were on a lift scraping the the side of the house. really not much else to say about that. tomorrow we should be able to paint the house blue. and boy is the paint blue.

the volunteers. three of them are from belgium. one is from spain, one italy, and three are from china.

amanda is all most done finishing it.

chris told us where are next project is. it's in camden, new jersey. working with camp sun n fun. more info on that later.

Wrath of the pigeons

2008-08-16T21:17:00.003-04:00

Me and Heather on Pigeon shit duty Wednesday. We had to rip a ceiling down because pigeons got the in ceiling and it smelled so bad. And as were taking down the ceiling we had Pigeon Shit falling on us. Not Fun.

This is were they were coming in and setting in. There is another hole like this one that we need to cover.

As we were ripping down the sheetrock. it was just crumbling, because the pigeon shit went and ruined the sheetrock.

This little guy is Alfred who we found. James was his Mama. And he was the best Pigeon mama ever!! Alfred died on Friday Morning.

This is the apartment that we were working on with all the pigeon shit everywhere. As it was raining that day fun. Ripping down a ceiling with pigeon shit in the rain.

The neighborhood that i live in. If you look closely you can tell that the blue building in abandoned. Not unusual in new orleans.

Estell the pigeon watching us as we remove the pigeon shit from the apartment.

Our house that we live in with no pluming still. And lovley Heather in that shot.

Chris being Chris at lunch. What more can i say.

The mural that is on the back of our house. We are working with the coolest people ever. These girls are from Vermont. One of them is a art teacher and one a math teacher. They went to 80's night with us.

Before

After. Almost done.

Heather and Alex being entertaining. We live a sad life. We get so happy when we get new tools. Even if they are pencils or painters tape, scrapers. Things in that nature. The little things. lol

Even trips to home depot after,Pigeon shit duty is fun. Brooke on the "titanic" singing my heart will go on. can you not just feel the love from this picture.

Thursday at a school helping them get ready for the school year. We did this almost all day. that and moving desks in different rooms.

again the small things.

that was a fun day with the tennis balls.

and yes i said pigeon shit 5 times. well now 6 times.

Slow and steady

2008-08-07T19:02:00.007-04:00

Today we finish sliding a house that we have been working on. The front and one of the side is all done. As we had Heather and Alex on the very tall ladders putting up the sliding. While me, Brooke and Ryan (who just volunteering with us for the next couple of days) scraped the house, so we can paint it with a new coat. Then we took painter's putty and filled in any cracks or holes. It was the longest day ever.

From New Orleans 2

The sweet old lady across the street had made us Red beans and rice for lunch. It was so good.
seems like today i took more pictures then anything.

From New Orleans 2

We did finish painting this house. Looks nice. We had to get up on ladders and do all the detail work. That was a head ache and scary.

For the rest of the pictures go here. Both albums are listed on the side.

Team!!!

2008-08-07T00:07:00.004-04:00

From New Orleans

We've been cleaning a lot. This week we've put up sliding. Today I opened a can of some kind of paint and me and anther girl almost DIED!!!! well maybe I'm being way too dramatic. It was more like ran away from the scene. GROSS It smelled like dead animal. Sorry. Then we went over to paint a house. Yay more paint!! Thats about it really. nothing too exciting.

From New Orleans

And we made team p.t shirts. I was glad every one was having fun. I don't have picture. I was to busy helping our TL with his shirt. I had to tell them rules about what not to do. like throwing wet t-shirts at each other. They were good about it. I'm proud. lol I'll have pictures later with the shirts.

From New Orleans

Gutting, Tours and MY FINGER!!!

2008-07-30T22:59:00.005-04:00

We have been painting houses a lot. last week i led a gutting crew with one of my other team members and we also took a tour of the 9th ward. Now this week we are organizing everything for when we get a ton of volunteers. Monbday we went to a amanail shelter and walked dogs and played with puppies. FUN!! Then today I went though a apartment that had a whole bunch of things donated to United Saints. I took pictures and moved boxes and furniture. Then i put it the furniture on cragslist. And while moving mirrors i took a chuck out of my finger. OW. Not like ow i hurt my finger, it was more like OWWWW I TOOK A CHUCK OFF OF MY FINGER OWWWW!!!

I have a whole bunch of picture but i have'nt had time to upload them. I have had a lot of things going on.
Here is the new link for all of my pic. i will still keep up the old one. Picsa

Really?

2008-07-12T00:30:00.003-04:00

So we made it. We are here in our little house. We have a kitchen that has no plumbing a bathroom with no plumbing ether. really? Then we have a a living room and the two bed rooms are connected. so the girls have to go though the guys room. Did i mention that we have two A/C's. Really? Come on. It is fudgin hot!!!! Really!?!?! It's small. Hot. And we have to run across the street to the church so that we can shower and to pee. nice. And we all ready have A/C gremlin. That some one is truning down the A/C in the girls room and that room is the hottest room in the house. I will not put up with that. I will sleep on the kitchen floor or on the floor of the guys room since though two places are the coolest. No way ever! I'm done with that. If it's too cold then cover up with a blanket but dont make other people suffer because your two cold. three vs. one. Three bets one. Really.

2008-07-09T19:59:00.002-04:00

In the morning we leave at 6:45. We are going to get Dunkin Donuts. lol. Then we ill be on the road.

Today we had our brief and it was okay. I found out that we should have wireless. Lets hope so. and that they have beds. so all we need to bring is sheets and a pillow. But I'm still bring my sleeping bag. I like it. And still mad at my self for leaving my Shimmer razer back home. why? lol I have to buy anther one now. grr. lol

So

2008-07-08T22:51:00.001-04:00

Our girls are back from Iowa. But now they are sending one other girl to Iowa tomorrow morning. Sad Also tomorrow we have our brief for our next project. ahhhh and then on Thursday we travel down south to New Orleans, Louisiana. Fun. And we will send a night in Knoxville, Tennessee and on Friday morning we will we on are way to NOLA. EXCITING!!!! But im tired. i need to sleep i have to practice for the Brief. ahhh

GOAL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

2008-06-25T18:46:00.002-04:00

Will today was fun. We went to our community meeting and the had lunch. After lunch we went and had AmeriOlympics. We played Ultimate Frisbee and soccer. I believe we one both games. As we played soccer i got hit in the stomach!! Ouch!!!! Then we went and cleaned out the van. Now i'm just waiting to the drive in movie that they are having outside. It starts at 8:30. Not sure what movie they will be showing. Not sure what is going on tomorrow.

life so far

2008-06-24T21:57:00.013-04:00

We are one good looking bunch of people.

OK i know i haven't been at all good at updating. But their isn't much to say about pulling roots out of the ground. I mean think about it. So we have left Dobbs Ferry NY and now we are back at the Point. For our next Spike we are going to New Orleans, LA. YAh!!!

Who could these hotties be? Could they be the
girls Raven 6?

Back to NY. While we were there we got to go to a Yankee's game and to a Mets game. I got to see Little Mermaid On Broadway.I also got to stop by the schools prom for a short time to say hello to the kids that we had gotten to know. We made a softball field at the school we were living at (St Christopher Inc. ) and it's named after us. Also, we found our that TL's middle name is George. (we might just calling each other by our middle names only, just for fun.) Speaking of names, I'm no longer called by my name but by a nickname that one of the girls came up with. Baby Gap. All because of one Gap sweatshirt that i have from last chirstmas. Why? who knows. I get made fun when say bag. We Climbed a mountain called Saint Anthony's Nose near Bear Mountain. Found out i really like kayaking. We got a award for cleaning up a community (Which we don't think needed our help, the community was pretty well up kept.), the golden trowel award from Groundwork Yonkers with a golden trowel.

These two are always up to something

Try traveling with a trowel though airport security and let me know how that goes.

These two are like children.

Two of our girls have gone on disaster helping with the floods in Iowa. We miss them and hope for them to come back soon. This week we are having transition. We have summer break starting on the 27th and ending on the 6th of July. So we are staying at the point until about anytime July 14th. So we should be traveling about anytime after summer break.

These girls are nuts.

Mid Round Transition is so crazy. The schedule is a mess. They don't tell you what you have to do and the things that you can if you want. Nuts!!

I wish i could have lie there all day.

Yesterday we went the Baltimore School of arts. We played hang man and drew our favorite letter and the then colored. It was a reading camp for 1 - 3 graders. They were all so cute. The girls asked me if I was married , because I have rings on my fingers. and then they were fighting over about the flowers i drew for them. Then we went to a park to do some Mid-Round reflation. Which is not my favorite thing to do all the time. But this time it was a good reflation. I'm happy with it.

Now look at what they've done.

So today we had our specialty role meeting to go to and the times got moved around. AHHH!!! Then i had to and take a practice SAT test. I didn't have to but my wonderful TL signed me up. I sat in the room from 1:30 to about 5:30. Was that revenge for randomly putting that stapler in his pillow, our the computer mouse in his shoe or is it from putting all those weird shaped balloons in his room all while he was gone for memorial weekend. I think so. lol

Look at me!!

Then tomorrow we have all corps P.T day. I guess they are calling AmeriOlympics. Then we have a community Meeting also . It should be a easy day. I hope.

Is she really that hungry?

Right now we are living in different houses and it sucks because we got use to living with each other. I miss the random screaming, throwing things at each other or even piling things in front of our TL's bedroom door so then he just starts throwing things at us, like oranges. They hurt. Did i ever monition that he LOVES to scream for now reason at all. Even on Saturday when i woke up. I could hear him form across the street screaming. It's kinda like living in the same house but only I don't see any of them. It's sad.

Doesn't look like he's gonna jump. Our Fearless TL.

When we go to New Orleans, we will all be living in a house again. Which this time will be bigger, with more beds. So this time i wont have to sleep on the couch for 6 weeks. I did get the bed for the last week while in NY. We will be working with United Saint's 1st Street Recovery. They have a house across form their church, so that's where we will be living. We'll be doing constitution again. Just started to get rid of the horrible boot tans. AHHH!!! It's gonna be soooo hot.

Really? I don't remember being the Titanic.

And finally i uploaded all the Photo's from the last couple of weeks.

I think he's a bit tied up. How did that happen?

This is our team of Raven 6, now that the two girls are in Iowa. One of the other girls that is with us took this pic. But you just saw her pushing one of the girls off the cliff. We have normally have five girls and thee guys. Now we have three guys and three girls. Yikes!!!

Oh we are missing some people. We still look good.

In New York So far

2008-05-31T15:39:00.004-04:00

We have been working with Groundwork. And let me tell it is not easy pulling plants in the hot sun that have roots that travel across the ground. not like normal plants. Horrible.

not fun at all. And working for some that is always changing the schedule. We also have done different jobs. We have plant a meadow, planting flowers for a apartment complex, shore erosion prevention and land use survays. and there is still some things that we are finshing up. But we try to make it fun. Like yesturday, some of the people on my team thought it would be fuuny to lock me in the port apotty on the job site. and the have one of the guy ram a wheel barrow into the port a potty with me in it. Funny and not cool.

In the last two weeks i have gone to two base ball games. one was a yankees game and the other one was a mets game. They were both awesome. I bought a yankees hat. i had to. lol. and i have gone into the city only like twice since i have be here. To save money. but i still found ways to spend it. i need to have are next spike in like the middle of nowwhere. lol

I'm uploading pictures right nowin a cafe and it is taking forever. grrr.

Here are the Photo's

More Photos

2008-05-28T19:52:00.001-04:00

I upload more photos. I'll post more later the Library is closing.

Lots to do

2008-05-01T14:17:00.000-04:00

We had our brief today and a servise projuect. We went to Camp Jacob. I painted and some other people went and sweeped.It was a beauful place, they had a huge lake. So pretty. Then we had our breif at 2 and now im jut packing so that i put my bag in the van at 7:30. Dinner is at 6. Tommorrw we are leaving at 8 and will spend a night in Knoxville TN and then travel to Perry Point and spend a night there Saturday
and then on Sunday we will only be about three hours from New York.

Jackson Mississippi

2008-05-01T01:03:00.002-04:00

That is were im staying right now. I should go to bed. I have to get up at 6. night.I will post more.

New Photo's

2008-04-14T21:44:00.001-04:00

I uploaded pictures of Sunday at the beach. their is also two video's. I have a couple more video's to upload, but I'm to tired.

2008-04-13T11:48:00.002-04:00

i up loaded some pictures of the hockey game and last night's night out.

Photo's

Yonkers, New York

2008-04-10T21:59:00.001-04:00

We will be working with Groundwork

Excited!!!

2008-04-10T20:00:00.002-04:00

The past two weeks we have been doing rehab. We are gutting out houses. I have been working with saws, nail guns and other power tools. It has been awesome!!!! I also have been learning a lot. I know how to put a house up and how to take one down.

Tonight we will find out our next project. I'm sooooo excited!!!! On the 26th we will be in Jackson MS and will spend almost two weeks in a hotel, then we'll go to our next spike.

this past two weeks has been very interesting.

2008-03-21T09:50:00.005-04:00

this past two weeks has been very interesting. We are working for habitat for humanity. Last week we worked in a warehouse, we learned about a floor plan and dug a ditch. For PT we leaned some Kung Fu. Awesome. Almost every night last week i went to the beach. I spent a night in the hospital. I also saw 10,000 BC. lol Over sized turkeys. We also lost some one on the team, they are just on a different team.

Then this week we help put the walls up at one of the houses. That was a lot of fun. i got sunburn but it was worth it. Yesterday we put siding on the little shed that goes with the house. A lot of people are going away for spring break . I will be staying here in Biloxi. On Saturday i will be spending the day with friends of my dad. They live in gulfport and they said that they would make a day of it and we would dinner. I have no other plans for spring break. So i think might go to the beach a lot.

Here are Photo's

we are here!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

2008-03-08T23:17:00.000-05:00

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how much i have traveled to today

2008-03-07T21:35:00.001-05:00

you will have to click on it to see the map better.

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