Wednesday, July 31, 2013

Long time due.

Ok so I first apologize for not updating this in forever. Time just gets away from me here and it's crazy busy sometimes. 

This project has been a short one consisting of only 3 weeks at Taltree arboretum and gardens in valparaiso, IN. Our work has consisted if trail maintence, building of a stage, working with a kids camp, spreading a lot of wood chips, and removing invasive species/weeding. A lot of their idea of removing invasive species is, in my opinion just weeding. One of the many fun parts of this project is getting to drive around the golf carts and gators they have for us to drive to our work sites. We have been sleeping in tents the past 3 weeks and I have been loving it every minute! This place is beautiful and is the best project we have had so far. We don't want to leave. 

On our next round we will be heading to Omaha, Nebraska to be working with Habitat for Humanity. This will be the biggest city we will have worked in so hopefully we will be able to find a lot to do. We will be living in a 4 bedroom house and will be able to cook for ourselves. 

This round we have been really close to Chicago and Lex and I took a personal day on Tuesday to tour Chicago. We went and saw the bean, the Shedd Aquarium, and a Cubs game. During the 5th inning of the game, I was told by Lex to watch the score board. On the board were the words, Alyse, will you marry me! :) Sooooo now I'm engaged!!!! :) And now the planning begins! 



Tuesday, July 9, 2013

Vacation!!

This past week when we came back from Iowa we made a couple pit stops.  We stopped to see the worlds largest buffalo. Americorps people must love seeing the worlds largest things because it seems I be a popular thing in most groups. There was a little town where the biggest buffalo was so we spent some time there exploring. We also stopped to seethe wood chipper from the movie Fargo in Fargo, North Dakota. We stopped in Minneapolis for the night and then headed back to Iowa. 

After we got back to Iowa, we had a couple days of trainings and then it was vacation time!! Lex and I went to his parents house in NorthCarolina for the week. We spent out time hanging out with his whole entire family. Extended and all. It was such a good break from the day to day working and living with the same people. In North Carolina, we went white water rafting, camping for one night in the rain, walked around his town quite a bit and hung out with his family the rest of the time. 

Now it's back to Iowa. We have training for a week and then we will be heading to Valparasio Indiana doing more invasive species removal. We will be working at the Tall Tree Arboretum for about 3 weeks. I'm kinda bummed that its only going to be 3 weeks. We are really close to Chicago and really close to Lake Michigan as well. I'll see if the feeling is the same after I do all the work! :) 


At the worlds largest buffalo! 



Playing around. Lex was having some trouble.