Up On the Roof...not anymore



Big Blue, our home and work.



Hello readers.  I am in Hattiesburg, Mississippi y'all now.  It is hot as hell and to be quite honest, I haven't complained too much, yet.  We are here working with R3SM and are getting adjusted quite well.  Since I last posted we have met our sponsors and have gotten our feet wet in Big Blue's construction project.  Let me give you a little run down on our sponsors.  Miss Sheila is our main sponsor.  She is an ex-colonel and runs her company as such.  She told us that she would meet with us once a week and discuss our progress in the project and just to catch up with our team.  She is tough, but I feel some people on our team need someone that is as tough as Miss Sheila.  Darryl is our site supervisor and works with us everyday.  He seems to really enjoy the job we are doing with him and loves the house completely.  He is teaching us all different things everyday and is really helping us learn about construction.  He is hilarious and jokes around with us all day.  We were told that by coming here we could build the second floor, or most, of the second floor of Big Blue.  When we arrived, we found out that the plumbing and the electric work is not done yet.  Due to this little problem, we are at a kind of stand still for the process of the house.  We have been doing little odd jobs such as painting, sanding, random touch ups, some floor work and cleaning.  These jobs have kept us busy, but we are really looking forward to what we will be completing by the end of this round.

Tuesday was our first day of work here.  We got an orientation to R3SM in the morning from Miss Sheila and then got into work right after.  Our team put together saw horses where we can do some work on.  It was a pretty easy way, but a good way to adjust to the new project.  

Wednesday morning we woke up at 5am for PT because our new work hours are 7-3 due to the HOT HOT heat of the day.  Everyone got up for PT without a fuss and we all were working out pretty hard.  It was about 5:25 and then we heard a loud hissing noise.  I thought we were going to have to move because of sprinklers coming on, but boy was I wrong.  We looked over at the parking lot where our van and the other van was parked that we picked up from Maryland.  There was a man going from our hissing van to the other van, when he then made that van hiss louder.  This individual was slashing our tires, right in front of us.  We all immediately ran into the house and called 9-1-1-.  The police came quickly, but nothing could be done because the man was gone.  It was a nice wake up call for us to be safe around our house.  The tires eventually got fixed on both vans, but it took some time.  Jamie and I painted an island in our beautiful kitchen.  Delta 4, another team from campus,  was here before us last round and they completed the first floor.  We got to paint the island because of all of the work that Delta 4 did, the island wasn't completed.  Tuesday I worked on this with Jamie and we got it done and it looks good, if I do say so myself. 
We were all just amazed all day that we witnessed a man actually do something like that to our vans.



The blue island in our kitchen.

Thursday found me doing more painting on the house.  We found out on Sunday, Father's Day, that David on our team became a father.  He took a personal day because it was National Go Skate day and he is an avid skate boarder, so we took it upon ourselves to surprise David with a baby celebration.  We went straight to Walmart after work and bought blue balloons and baby outfits and cute baby stuff for David and his son, Leyek.  He is adorable, the pictures look exactly like David and we are all so happy for him.  We have a nice roof area of the house that past teams have used as a place to escape and it has a great view of the sunset.  We went up there after the baby celebration and sat and watched the sunset as a team.  I was singing Up On the Roof by the Drifters the whole time.  Apparently a neighbor saw us because we found our Friday that we aren't supposed to be up there and we are banned, for the rest of spike! Awesome.

Friday was our last day of work for the week.  Friday marked 12 days straight of work for River 10.  We were exhausted.  It kind of dragged and seemed to go slowly.  I was on painting duty of a staircase for the day.  We ended work and literally did nothing for the night. 



Another major room we are working on, both bathrooms.



One major room we are focusing on.



Saturday we woke up at 9:30 for PT.  BIG mistake.  In Hattiesburg Mississippi, y'all at 9:30 am it is already 92 degrees and hot.  The run, workout, and sweat killed me.  I literally will never wake up again and do PT at this time.  We all lounged all day in the AC in our bedroom until the girls all went shopping.  I didn't spend a dime and I am proud of myself.  I instead tried on gorgeous lime green heels for the girls while they were dress shopping.  We got back and a few of us went down the street to the Boom Boom Room, a local bar.  Apparently the man, Benny, who owns it loves AmeriCorps and gives us a large all you can drink discount.  It will come in handy when I am not saving money for a weekend trip like I am for next weekend.  Today was used as a literally relaxing day.  This whole weekend and week I have really done myself some serious service by watching Laguna Beach, Newlyweds, and SVU all the time.  No big deal. 

Tomorrow starts a new work week, with hopefully some new work for me!  I love Hattiesburg and it is a lot of fun.  This weekend a couple of teammates and I are going to New Orleans to visit some friends from other teams.  I am so excited.  Can't wait actually.  Until then I will work hard and enjoy Big Blue and the hot hot heat of Hattiesburg.  Have a good week!

Thank God for hometowns

So, last week I told a little white lie, I was not really in Lorton when I posted, I was on the train on the way home for the weekend! I surprised my favorite 10 year old for her birthday.  I was on hour 1 of a 10 hour Amtrak train ride from DC to South Station.  Let me tell you, I probably will not ever take a train 10 hours again unless I am heavily medicated.  It was not fun, but getting into Boston at 8am on Saturday morning was so worth it.  Mom and Dad picked me up since they were the ONLY people who knew I was coming home.  I won't lie, I may or may not have shed a few tears walking off the train to go see them, I was that excited.  We drove home and I thought Bridget would be asleep still, but obviously she was up watching animal planet snuggling on the couch, just like I left her in February.  Mom walked in with Dad before me and told Bridget they brought her an early birthday present, that's where I came in.  The look of pure shock on her cute face was worth the 10 hours, the personal day, and worth the wait for the past 4 months.  That was the hug I needed the most and it lasted a good 5 minutes.  I stayed home for the weekend until Monday afternoon.  I took my first personal day Monday so I could enjoy Bridget's birthday Sunday, recital the same day, catching up with friends I have missed a lot, visiting MaryKathryn and Bridget in school, seeing my 8th graders who I have missed a lot, and catching up with my family who I have missed more than words can say.  Surprising them all was just as fun, Paul's reaction was great with some profanity, MK screamed on the phone, and Bobby couldn't have been more perfect.  Surprising people may be my new favorite thing...watch out.  Thank God for hometowns! (another Carrie reference FYI, great new song)



Me and my Bridgie.



Tuesday was back to work as usual.  Going home was just the little push I needed to feel like I am ready to push through work until summer break.  We were still working on boardwalks.  There are 5 in total for the entire trail (1.3 or so miles).  We worked Tuesday to Friday on these boardwalks, and let me tell you, we worked HARD.  I actually put in the lowest amount of hours this past week because of my personal day, only by 3 or 4 hours or so.  And by lowest, I put in 60 hours this week.  Wednesday-Friday were all 12+ hours.  Sickening huh?  I wouldn't change it for the world. 

A boardwalk before...



The same boardwalk after!

 By Friday, our last day in Lorton, we finished all 5 boardwalks!  We were so proud of ourselves because we started them last week and finished them all this week.  In order to do 2 of the 5, we had to carry FULL sized telephone poles.  Yes, full.  We didn't cut them at all, we carried the entire 20' and 23' poles.  We carried them as a team one step at a time.  How many times in your life can you say YOU'VE lifted a full telephone pole?  My count is up to 2, no biggie though.  Friday was our last day with Marc the sarcastic Ranger. We worked until 6pm to get everything done.  Our trail is just about finished, but another volunteer group is coming soon to help Marc finish the trail.  We did a lot of hard work and it was a lot of fun learning a new skill.  Saturday was used to clean the van, the house, and to get ready for our departure Sunday for part 2 of our spike. 


River 10 moving full telephone poles...beasts

Part 2 takes place in Hattiesburg Mississippi, y'all.  We started our travel Sunday and drove for 8 hours.  We stopped in Asheville, North Carolina for the night.  Today we continued our trip for another 9 and 1/2 hours to get to Hattiesburg.  In Hattiesburg we are working with R3SM, which means Recover, Rebuild, Restore Southeast Mississippi.  We are building floor 2 of 2 in a volunteer housing facility.  Our housing we are building will help house up to 60 volunteers that come to Mississippi to help rebuild it from Katrina hitting.  We will be living in floor 1 that a team from our campus helped build last round and we will be building floor 2.  It is going to be absolutely awesome.  We are ready to move on and start to build and do construction.  We just arrived in Hattiesburg today at our new home, Big Blue if you will (the houses name) and we are ready to take on a new part of spike 2. 

That is all for now.  I will fill you all in on my adventures this week sometime!

Tics on tics on tics

Me and the Ditch Witch...from last post.

Hello readers! Here I am in Lorton, VA at Mason Neck State Park still blazing our lovely trail.  This past week has been the longest week that we have had here, by far.  Go figure, it was our first full week of work in Virginia, poor River 10.  Anyway, let me start with last week.We had the greatest ISP.  Our team got to volunteer at a festival being firework Marshall's.  Let me tell you, it was hard work....not.We got to wear cool colored vests and make sure that nobody skipped the do not enter sign onto a lovely golf course.  Who did we actually stop you ask?  Well, Sam and I were guarding and watched one cat come on to the fairway of this particular golf hole we were at and scurry away.  Man, it was hard work.  We really are feeling the fact that this program is never just a 5 day a week program.  Given this fact and knowing how tired we were, we got Sunday off, thank God.  This Sunday was the only day we had to ourselves.  I took advantage and literally did nothing.  It was perfect. 

Monday through today we were at it again, blazing our trail at Mason Neck with Ranger Marc.  Marc really is a Virginian gem.  He is so sarcastic and witty that he makes us laugh everyday.  He has taken note who the hardest workers are on our team and uses us enough to make us tired and sore at the end of the day.  This week had a few highlights.  First, we finished the trail!  We were told it was a mile long, but in all reality, it is around 1.5-1.6 miles.  We knew at the end it was totally done because there is a beautiful field where, eventually, there is going to be a field where animals can roam, especially deer and there are bird nests for eagles.  Real live bald eagles.  So cool watching them fly around.  We finished the trail and felt an immediate sense of accomplishment. 



Some trail pics with my cool app on my smarty pants phone



The trail may be finished, but trail work never ends.  There are places along our trail that will hold water if Virginia so happens to "storm" aka rain.  Crazy southerners/everyone else in the nation calling rain just storming.  Anyway, these places that are deeper in the ground and have places where water could build up, we have to build boardwalks.  We would call them bridges, but Marc informed is that bridges need architectural approval and we don't have that.  So, we are building raised boardwalks...bridges.  These aren't your ordinary boardwalks. They encompass many aspects of life, such as 6x6x8 pieces of wood, 4x4 flat wooden structures, and 5ft pieces of telephone poles.  Since all of these wooden structures do not have their own arms and legs, us AmeriCorps Members need to get things done and move them ourselves.  Yes, this includes the 5ft pieces of TELEPHONE POLE.  Imagine that, telephone poles.  So, the first day we were using the poles, Marc decided to take me with him and teach me how to cut the pieces and carry the poles, just me and him.  Since, as I previously mentioned, I am jacked, this seemed like a task that was easy to complete.  Little did I know, these pieces of telephone pole are treated wood and are heavy as all Hell.  I struggled, so did Marc.  For one boardwalk, we cut 6 5ft pieces.  We then carried each of the 6 pieces to the truck and loaded them up.  To cut these large heavy blocks of solid wood, we used what I described to my team as Outback Steak House steak knives (that the Conceison household has several of).  Literally the blade of the "sawzall" was tiny.  It too a while, and I was sweating.  Needless to say, today, the day after my power lifting telephone poles day, I was dead. 



Boardwalk number 1...note the telephone poles



We have 2 boardwalks ready to be boarded up so they can be waked on by people really soon.  My other accomplishment of the week had nothing to do with the trail, but more so the environment.  Being in the woods is really awesome, legs covered in mosquito bites, drenching myself in bug spray every morning, wearing a hard hat so tics don't nest in my hair, and being completely head to toe full of dirt.  Sarcasm.  My big accomplishment this week was successful killing about 5 tics.  3 on me and 2 on my teammates.  Needless to say, I fear no insect anymore.  They're all great, spiders, tics, beatles, bring em on. 

Today marks the end of week 3 here in Lorton.  We love the project and are happy with our work, however, I think River 10 needs a change of scenery.  I look forward to working with Marc for another 5 days, but then I am ready to move into our 15p again to head to Hattiesburg for the remainder of our spike #2.  One week from Sunday and we will be on the move. 

I am just so happy to have 2 days off, in a row, this weekend.  Who knows what this weekend will bring for me...we will see.  Have a great week everyone!



I cut a tree down with a pole saw.  I was a liiiiiittle
happy it finally came down.



Blazing trails everywhere: DC, Mason Neck State Park, and Head Quarters

  

Abe and I.



Saying what up to Barack



Greetings from Lorton, VA.  This state is absolutely gorgeous.  We are really enjoying ourselves here so far.  Last long Memorial Day weekend I had some visitors from home.  It was really nice seeing 4 of my friends I haven't seen since February.  We spent the weekend hanging out and catching up.  I couldn't have been happier with the weekend.  It was really nice to see familiar faces.  Leaving them left me pretty sad, but the Monday of Memorial Day helped a lot.  I went into DC most of my team.  We thought there would be no other way to celebrate Memorial Day than in our nations capitol city.  We went to every monument in the Monument Mall.  I met Abe Lincoln, who is huge.  We did a lot of touristy things, since there were a few of us who haven't been to DC before.  As we left the Lincoln Memorial, we ran into a Memorial Day parade.  Who would have thought on such an important day that Washington DC would have a parade! We sure didn't.  We enjoyed the parade in the blazing heat.  Kris Allen (American Idol) was in the parade and I decided to yell at him and tell him I voted for him on Idol.  He pointed at me.  Happy Memorial Day to me.

Tuesday was back to work for us all.  Trail blazing is really hard.  I learned how to use the Ditch Witch which is a large piece of equipment that helps create the trail, take out roots, and get large stumps of down trees out of the way.  I felt pretty bad-a using such witch.  We unfortunately got it stuck in a ditch the same day.  Oops, whatever.  Wednesday was followed by the same ol same ol.  Benching parts of the trail, clearing brush, etc. 



Hangin at Head Quarters



Thursday was an exciting day for River 10.  We are so close to DC (obviously) and that is where the National Headquarters for AmeriCorps is located.  We were asked to go to headquarters and learn the behind the scenes work of NCCC and the entire program.  We spent the entire day in the office doing question and answers with the director, head recruiting agents, media reps, and anyone who wanted to come in and say hi to us.  They praised us up and down for the work we are doing and told us that it is nice to see the people they work so hard for.  It really was an interesting day to learn the in's and out's of AmeriCorps.  After we spent about 5 hours with the head of our program, we went to the Holocaust Museum.  This Museum was amazing.  It really was an eye opening few hours walking through this amazing place.  We all really took our time going through the museum to see everything that happened during the Holocaust.  Pretty emotional end to the day.  This day was great.  We really enjoyed going to head quarters and seeing our program's directors and head people.  It was nice to get some questions answered by the people themselves.  I really love DC and being in the city.

Friday was kind of a dull day.  Woke up to an overcast sky.  None of us really wanted to do anything.  We had PT at 6am which I have created Friday to be "Friday Funday" so we don't really do strenuous PT for this day.  Every other day of PT is pretty hard still because I am a drill sargent.  Wok on this day was tough.  We had Thursday pretty much off from trail blazing so we were not motivated.  Mother nature must have known because after lunch it rained, HARD.  We left work early and it literally flooded.  It was insane.  We rented a movie for the night for the team.  I am pretty sure most of us were in bed by 10pm.



River 10 with our park sign


Saturday we had our community engagement day at the park.  It was National Trails Day so we helped out with their bay cleaning day.  It was short lived, so we were done by 11am.  Most of us napped and hung out all day until we had an ISP at night.  We were firework marshalls for a near by festival.  We got to sit on a golf course and have a front row seat to a great display of fireworks.  No complaints here.

That's it for this week in Lorton.  Pretty basic week, blazed some more trail, did some PT, and went to the National Head Quarters for our entire program, NO BIG DEAL. 
I hope all is well where ever you may be reading this.  I miss everyone, especially that witty ALMOST 10 year old at home!  Until next time.

World War II Memorial...found the best place on Earth!