Last Week in Louisiana

On Sunday I volunteered at a breast cancer awareness walk, welcoming people and then cheering them on as they finished their 5k run/walk, which was pretty neat, we also got free t-shirts for that :) And some sweet stick-on tattoos! (As you can see below--my arm is twig-like compared to a normal arm haha)

There were a ton of people at this event and it was a beautiful day, so it was really nice to get out there and support a good cause. 

After volunteering there, we had a big bbq/picnic at the local park with a couple other AmeriCorps teams in the area and some SBP people, which was awesomeeee! We had lots of food, and I ate 2 hot dogs! Ewwww, I am so ashamed that I actually liked them! So much for being a vegetarian! Haha

I also got to Skype with the fam (mama, aleena, jonny, auntie beth, dew, landon) and nate on Sunday, which was soooo awesome! I loved seeing everyone! It was so sad though, because I really miss everyone and wish that I got to see them in person...can't wait til Christmasssssssss! I love you all :) 

This week started out fairly slow at the worksite, because we had no volunteers show up on Monday. This week had a theme of "Women's Rebuild" and we were supposed to get a group of "Tattoo Ladies" but one of them got sick that day, so they all bailed :( 

So Eric and I started mudding the house by ourselves, because this house was in the roughest shape I have seen! Whoever mudded it previously obviously had no idea what they were doing....it was all wrong, there was even one closet where someone put the drywall in backwards! Tuesday we got some volunteers, so that was exciting, I especially enjoyed the company of the gay couple from Toronto haha, they were in Louisiana for vacation and just decided to take a day to volunteer with us! We also had another couple from Connecticut, who were down here for a wedding and had an extra day before their flight, so they decided to use it by volunteering with us at the St. Bernard Project. It was really neat to meet some new people who hadn't planned on volunteering, but just kinda stumbled upon it and decided to use their free time like that. Tuesday night was also our last "Taco Tuesday" which is really sad! The people who put it on for us are wicked sweet and we will all miss them (and their amazing food) a ton! Wednesday was the most fun day of the week, because we had 2 great volunteers and 3 AmeriCorps States who were with us for the day. One of the AmeriStates, Katie, had just gotten done NCCC from the Denver campus (the one I originally wanted to go to) and she shared lots of AmeriCorps knowledge with us and was just a really fun person to work with. She was really easy to relate to, because she knew exactly what we were going through and made our day really easy and fun for us :) She is also from Minnesota, 10 mins from the Mall of America, which is flippin sweeeet (I have been there 3 times!). The other AmeriState, Nick is from Maryland and said that his mom makes the best cookies ever and if we give him our address of where our next project is, he will send us some when she sends some to him...sweeeeeet! After work we had 3 different meetings, but they were pretty cool because one of them involved cake and ice cream for us as a going-away party-type thing, where we got certificates and free t-shirts! Wooo! 

After that, we played football with the other AmeriCorps team that is down here and some SBP staff members, which was really fun! I have been playing a lot of football lately! Mom, dad and Nate, you should be proud haha I caught the ball twice (out of 2) and almostttt got a touchdown! Also on Wednesday, Eric and I walked to the Los Islenos Museum like we had been doing all week, to use the port-a-potties (for the record, they were the most clean and good-smelling bathrooms I had ever used!) and on our walk over, the man in charge of the museum came right up to us as if he was expecting us, and shook our hands and thanked us for what we are doing in their area. He then invited us into his office where he gave us the history of the area and info about the museum (Charlie would have enjoyed it!) and then gave us a tour of the cute little museum, emphasis on the little--it was legit one room worth of displays. But it was really nice, just the same. 

This picture was taken outside of the museum/fountain, and I was attempting to be graceful...

And that brings us to Thursday, today, our last day site supervising for SBP, which was really bittersweet (go figure)! We had 4 volunteers and 2 of them brought us out for lunch at Penny's Cafe today, which was really nice! I got grilled cheese and the largest order of onion rings ever, which I shared with everyone else. Since it was our last day of work, we decided to have a "mud fight," which I gladly started by throwing my mud on Joe, who then gave me a big hug, rubbing the mud all over me, then he threw his mud on Eric, etc...after that we decided to put mud under our eyes, like football players , but it didn't stop there! They then put a "mud mustache" on me, and we took pics, but I look angry in all of them because I was not able to move my mouth to smile with all the mud around it! 

*I forgot to mention that I have been getting up at 6am every day to run with the boys to get ready for our next baseline PT where we have to run 1.5 miles, hoping to beat my previous time!