Snow Day!

So I was laying in bed this morning hitting my snooze button every three minutes until I absolutely needed to get out of bed to make it to work on time. Then, I thought to myself, "I guess I will just check my email even though I know we won't have a snow day." However, best surprise ever! I had 2 emails to tell me IUPUI was closed for the day due to the foot of snow we got overnight! I spent about 30 minutes trying to fall back asleep, but the little kid excitement got the better of me and I couldn't so I spent about 2 hours reading before any of my roommates got out of bed.

I had quite the productive snow day! I finished my book- Night by Elie Wiesel- did some laundry, cleaned my room, and helped dig out all of our cars, sidewalk, and our section of the alley that everyone on our street parks in. It was a solid workout and I will be sore tomorrow! I went to get gas this afternoon after our shoveling to be sure that I can get my car out and had to call on some freshman boys walking by to push me out... hopefully tomorrow morning will go better! haha! All of us watched Vicky Christina Barcelona this evening-it was decent but not one of the best movies I have ever seen. Here are some pictures to show you our snow storm!

Our house!

The street in front of our house


My poor car covered in a foot of snow

Let it snow, let it snow, let it snow!

Hello all! We got out an hour early due to a large snow storm moving in...the news is saying up to a foot! I made it home safe and sound and ended up getting home about the time I usually leave, so that was a pleasant surprise for a Tuesday afternoon.

I've been busy since my last post! I finished my survey today and I mailed it to all of the Networking Council students as well as their Directors (to encourage them to have the students fill it out...). I emailed it right before I left to go home, and when I got home I had 2 returned surveys in my inbox! Yeah! I also got to review 7 applications for our Mini-Grants for February and rank them. Later this week I will get to help decide how to split up the money for each project which is pretty cool.

I went to a VISTA meeting at the Red Cross Monday morning then had to spend 1 hour and 20 minutes driving around looking for a parking spot at IUPUI...boo, what a waste of time. Their website is http://bread.org/ you should check it out. But, incase you don't...They basically write letters to congress to encourage them to deal with social issues. The focus of 2009 is to urge them to rework foreign assistance to make it more effective in reducing poverty. Apparently Senator Lugar (from Indiana) has been very receptive to the letters and always sends a response, so that will be fun to get a response from him (or his secretary, whatever). It is cool to see my co-workers being so civically engaged since ICC encourages the students to be involved. It is also an area of being an active citizen that I have never really been involved in, so it will be neat to be a part of that.

This weekend the roomies and I all went to see Crissy, Brian, and the kids. We had a great time! While I forgot my camera, here are the pictures I promised last week...

Carson using Brooke's head as a hill for his toys

Brooke after her bath at 1 month old


So cute :)

Wii just wears you out...

Hello all! Before I forget, you should check out this video compliments of Emily: http://vids.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=vids.individual&videoid=50632298&searchid=097ed16a-2bf0-4f48-bd13-bbdc8ffb9eec It's pretty inspiring!



Apparently Thursdays are the time that I get bored and decide I need to update my blog...so, since last Thursday, a lot has happened! Last Friday I went to that VISTA lunch at Second Helpings. It was really fun! I got pretty lost on the way there and was late, but it all worked out fine. It was good to see some of the people I hadn't seen since PSO in Chicago, and it was nice to meet some of the other VISTAs around the area. It seems like there is a really strong bond between all of them and they are great about planning things to do. I want to go to a lot of the events and really get to know these people, they seem so awesome!



I spent the week getting everything set up on my computer. I have the IT department remote in (where they control and I watch) on my computer 5 times now, 4 in one day. Robert is my new hero for all of the time he spent getting things set up for me, and it was once again reiterated that no matter how great I think I am with computers, I suck. But, we are good to go now (hopefully!!!).



I have my survey for the students finished and we will send it out this afternoon or tomorrow. I am really hoping to get some good feedback from that so that it will help the focus groups and ultimately the resource materials I will be able to develop. We have the Networking Council Meeting coming up at the end of February, so things are getting hectic around here. For that meeting, all of the presidents as well as a faculty member and student from each of the member colleges gets together for a day long meeting full of training sessions, information sessions, and networking opportunities. I will get to help with the student session and I have started compiling some helpful materials for their binders. I am really excited to attend that meeting and to meet everyone. Several students have been emailing me with questions about things on their campus, and I actually have a meeting set up to advise a student on how to get Service Learning programs onto her campus! It is really neat to see how this is such a culmination of my collegiate experiences and what I am able to pull from all of my different activities to help others.



I spent last weekend with the family at Crissy's. It was so great to have time to hang out with the family. Little miss Brooke turned 1 month old while we were there. She has gotten so big and is on the edge of smiling now :) We can't wait! Carson is such a funny kid, he is so smart and so much fun to spend time with. I am at work now so I don't have pictures, but I will try to remember to upload some pictures on here tonight! I found the world's greatest deal on a GPS unit and decided to make an investment so I am not 20 minutes late to meetings anymore because I am lost. It helped me find the bank yesterday without having to turn around once :) Totally worth the purchase already! haha



Off to enjoy my lunch break. I hope you all are having a wonderful day!

Baby, it's cold outside!

Hello friends! How are you all? Life as a grown up is going well for me. Strangely enough, I've acclamated to waking up earlier much faster than I would have guessed! I've been waking up about 2 minutes before my alarm every morning, but don't worry-I still snooze at least once :)

I've survived a few days in each of my offices now and really like them both! My office in the Campus Center is called "The Party Pit" and consists of 5 grad students (one of them is my good friend Jarod) and me! They are all really entertaining and it is a great atmosphere! I've gotten to know a lot of the people in the ICC office a lot better and I feel really comfortable here. I got to go to a meeting at the state Americorps office this week to learn about the summer program for VISTAs who will be based around Indiana from June-August. While I was there I got a free VISTA polo, fleece, and portfolio! Yeah! I love free stuff...especially when it is useful!

I started working on a survey to be sent to students at our member schools. I will be building focus groups around the results, and following the results of the focus groups, I will make a few workshops based on the professional development needs of our students. I'm hoping that my good karma of filling out every survey I've ever gotten will come back around and a lot of students will fill out my survey. We'll see...

I'm excited for my first 3-day weekend! Tomorrow will be a busy day-there is a monthly VISTA lunch for all of us located in Indianapolis and we are getting a tour and lunch at one of my favorite non-profits in Indianapolis! It is called Second Helpings and they get food that is about to expire from grocery stores all over the city, make healthy meals with the food as soon as they get it, then send it out to places all over the city that can't afford to buy their food. My favorite part about them is that they offer a cooking class for, I think, $25 or so and teach unemployed individuals to be chefs so they can get jobs! So, not only are they helping feed people, they are teaching people skills so that they can take care of themselves. So, I'm very excited about going there tomorrow! Also, tomorrow night, the Indianapolis VISTAs that were at my PSO in Chicago are all going to one of the lady's houses for a gathering. It will be so good to see everyone again! After all that excitement, on Saturday my parents and sister are coming into town and we will all spend the weekend together at Crissy's :) It will be a busy, but really fun, weekend that I'm looking forward to.

Alright, I should get back to work. Stay warm, everyone!!

My first week

Hey everyone! I am 30 minutes away from successfully completing my first (short) week at work. So far, I love it! The people are very friendly and I am excited about all that I will get to do this year. It has been a little boring as far as my work is concerned because we are still working through introductory and orientation business. Today I got my own stapler and I got connected to the network printer-cool, huh? :) I am also realizing that I should not have spoiled myself with no Friday classes for the last 4 semesters of college...it made today drag by and it was a short week!

I've started putting together a database for all of our member schools about Alternative Breaks. ICC gives out mini grants to schools for different projects that the students are running so I went through all of the files from the past 3 years and pulled out the ones used for Alternative Break trips. The goal is to publish the database on the website so that you can see who went where, where they stayed, etc. incase you are interested in taking a trip to that area. It was cool to see that the grants have helped over a thousand students in the past 3 years alone! It was also cool to see the grant that we had received from them while planning ASB in 2006 :)

Yesterday I wrote a letter to introduce myself that was sent out on the listserv...which includes all the presidents from all of the colleges in Indiana! It was kind of intimidating knowing who it would be going to, but I think it turned out alright :) I will be officially introduced to them at a statewide Network Council Meeting in February which will be the Presidents and a faculty member and student from each school. It sounds like I am going to get to help run the student breakout session at that meeting!

There is still a lot of gray area about my job which is kind of a bummer but it is great in the sense that there is so much flexibility. I am going to a meeting Monday about VISTAs who will have a summer term working in Indianapolis. I won't be supervising them but I think I will have a role in their program, which should be pretty cool. I had a meeting at the Red Cross this morning and met a couple of other VISTAs who invited me to the monthly VISTA lunch next week! I'm hoping it works out to go, I think it would be cool to meet all the other people in Indianapolis and see what they are doing.

At the end of today, I have completed 24 hours of my 1700 hours of service! Yeah! I'm looking forward to sleeping in tomorrow until at least after the sun has come up...I did not miss waking up early. All in all, I'm satisfied with the end of my first week and looking forward to the rest of the year!

Happy (Late) Holidays!

Hello again! Wow, let's hope I get better at posting once I start working...

The holidays were great for me! It was my first Christmas ever not spent at home so that was a little weird, but it was worth it to be with the family Christmas morning :) We all came to Indy to celebrate at Crissy and Brian's house. Carson was super excited about everything and it was so much fun! Brooke slept through most of Christmas this year...maybe next year will be more exciting for her. We got some great family pictures compliments of Therese's self-timer but she is still hoarding them for herself so I can't share them yet. I got a ton of great stuff but really enjoyed the down time with the family before we all rush into the new year. New Years was great as well. I came back to Indy to see a bunch of friends and it was so good to catch up with everyone! It made me really miss the fact that so many of my friends are no longer in the Indianapolis area. That is just a short update on the holidays, but here are some pictures:

Nana, Papa, and Iron Man

Brooke's first Christmas

Carson rocking his new Butler hat-Go Dawgs!

So anyways, tomorrow is the big day! I finally get to start my VISTA position over a month after my pre-service orientation! I'm a little bit nervous just because it will be a lot of information and a new environment, but I'm extremely excited. I was looking over my tentative schedule for the next week and a half and it looks like I will get to jump right in and get to work, which is what I want to do! I will have a lot of meetings with different staff members I will be working with and get to learn all about both of the offices I will be working in during the year. It is weird to think that when class resumes on Monday I won't be going, it hasn't really sunk in yet that I am done with undergrad! Well, I'll get an update on here in the next day or two to let you all know how my first day went :)