Move to St. Bernard Parish....

Drew visits NOLA for the first time..on Bourban
Alden, me, Jess, and Julie
Olivier House..where we stayed for the weekend, Americorps discount! $77 a night
Drew and I walking around the Quarter

So last weekend was awesome! We all had a three day weekend, three of my teammates went home, I spent the whole weekend downtown, as did Ben and Drew drove the lone 14 hours all the way from Kansas to visit! On Friday the Blitz houses were finally completed and those 7 were dedicated to the families and handed the keys! Amazing. The last two days were quite rainy, so our groups that were working on the dry-in houses were unable to work since whatever work we had to do required being on ladders or the roof. This past week we have been working in St. Bernard doing siding and adding shingles to the roof. We were switched from New Orleans Habitat to St. Bernard because there is still a ton of work that needs to be completed in this area. There are two teams working in the St. Bernard project and the other 3 or 4 are still with New Orleans finishing up the dry-ins we started last week. My latest house has been in a forest and near a Bayou. Lots of bugs and interesting animals. Big spiders, Hornet nests, Chameleons, bright green and blue dragon flies, green frogs, crickets, grass hoppers, tons of ant hills...you name it. This past week has been like a training week and then next week we are suppose to decided what we want to specialize in and do for the next month. I think I'd like to lead roofing because I really don't mind the height and I kind of think siding can be a big more pain in the butt doing it over and over again. Well there is a little update for you all! My parents are coming to visit today for the weekend! Ciao Ciao!

Jimmy Carter Blitz Week: the 25th year anniversary

Gina! My roomie from CTI
Manny comes to visit!
Leading volunteers building walls preparing for the Blitz houses
Our dry-in during Jimmy Carter's blitz week

Jess, Julie and I...our progress after our first day of Blitz week

So we leave at 5:30 am, arrive at 6, and begin working usually by 7. This week has been busy, but productive. We are now putting OSB on our roof and we have put up sheath along the entire exterior of the walls. I am working with a bunch of guys that know a lot about construction, so we have gotten pretty far: Stephen, Danny (our house leaders) as well as Stephen's roommate, Dave, Nate, Kenny, and Dan. We have had different volunteers working with us everyday including a bunch of frat boys from Canada. Ha...Today was rained out so we couldn't work, hence why I just cleaned my entire area of my bunk and am now blogging. It's nice to have a day off to do these sorts of things though. Back to work tomorrow and then I have a three-day weekend.

HOT, SUN, HAMMERS, LOVE BUGS, SWEAT, AND BLOOD

It really has been awhile since I've written, maybe because work has been stressful! I mean, well we're just all really tired and crabby, and storming a bit. It sure helps working with different people everyday. I mean it feels like my team isn't as close as we were last project, but I think once this Jimmy Carter build is over, things will kick back into gear and be normal. I think it's just the heat and the sun that really has been draining on us all. No lie, I love the work we do, just day by day sometimes things can be slow to get started or the fact that lots of us stand around sometimes and watch the volunteers making sure they're doing things right. Overall, it has been a loooooooong two weeks and thankfully it's Saturday. We have tomorrow off and then we have to be back at work by 6am sharp Monday morning and everyday that week. It will also be cool though because we will get free lunches, dinners...etc and lots of other cool stuff to do after work...i.e. live music, bbq's....etc...Manny has come in for the weekend so that has been great seeing him! We went out for dinner last night, walked down Bourbon together, and caught up. Hopefully I can see him tonight, but frankly I'm just exhausted. I have quite the nice boot tan! This week I have done a number of things from measuring, cutting, and laying down the top and bottom plates of the walls, building walls with volunteers, making partitions for the walls, moving lumber, building stands for air conditioners to rest on, hammering, using cat paws to take out nails, cutting with the circular saw....lots of stuff. I worked a lot with some of Water 2 this past week as well as one of our Americorps Direct people, Mike. One day, I literally measured, cut, nailed, and layed down all the top and bottom plates for one house. I felt pretty productive and busy that day. But that's the way I like it. I hate standing around. This definitely is a lot of word vomit as I like to call it...I'm really rambling...I'll write more later! Drew comes in a week! yaaay!

Leeves
My girls, Nick and Frank

Nick, me, Reg, Nell, Marge, Marah, Adriene
Reg and I
On our way out of the fest
Gettin' down and dirty! "Nasty Girls!"
Salute!

First full week of Habitat, Jazz Fest, and my Chi-town girls!

Habitat NOLA
FEMA...
The girls visit NOLA! Reg, Nell, Marah, Marge and Adriene (Nick's BFF)
Jazz Fest

My home girls!

LOVE BUGS also known as march fly, honeymoon fly, telephone bug, kissybug and double-headed bug

So if no one has heard of LOVE BUGS before, here is a brief synopsis:

I'm not sure if they were genetically created to fight off mosquitoes or if they just appeared in the Gulf coast years ago, because now I'm reading that it's a myth they came from a lab...I'm still researching though. So, anyways, these little black bugs don't bite, don't sting or anything, but there are SO MANY OF THEM and I swear yesterday at work I swapped one away or off of me every minute. It was driving me crazy! The funny thing is that they mate the entire time while flying around and they never stop! Apparently they only feed off of decaying plant material while larva and live two days while adults, mate all 48 hrs long, lay their babies and die. I even ate one today by accident. I was quenching a thirst and opened up my water bottle not realizing that there were bugs in my drink, took a swig, and then coughed them out...in addition I noticed another pair of "honey-mooners" sun-bathing in my water bottle! As I sit here Jelly is making fun of me and calling me Dr. Lovebug because I am obsessing about not having the right databases to do my research! I miss Wooster's databases. I'm going on a tangent now.

Today I led about 20ish Canadian volunteers decking. It was more exhausting for me mentally just having to make sure they all knew what they were doing and doing it right. In addition, today was my third day on the project, (second full day) and I basically led off my knowledge of the hour of decking I did last Friday...crazy! But I am up for the challenge. For those of you who aren't familiar with construction, decking are the floor boards that you lay down on top of the joists (wood nailed together) in the beginning foundation process of a home. After decking, you begin chalk lining where the walls will ago according to the floor plan. Yesterday, I did most of that type of work by nailing two long 2 by 4 floor boards together, which resemble the bottom and top of the walls we will eventually build during the Blitz. Now that I have this right, I can explain the Blitz a little better. The Blitz with Habitat NOLA is two weeks from this week and we will be putting up 7 houses in a week. INTENSE WORK. So hopefully I'll get to meet a former president, Jimmy Carter, and some other celebrities!

This weekend is the second weekend of Jazz fest and I can't wait to see you girls: Marah, Nell, Marge, Reg and Nelly's Bro and Dad.

P.S. For anyone who reads this blog notice if you click the "comment" at the bottom of every post, you can write a comment to me and post it...

Goldstar Diner and Balderdash

All I have to say is Balderdash....it's the name of a game that a bunch of us played tonight and we all laughed our asses off! EVERYONE GET IT! I also went to the diner right next to Camp Hope tonight for some sweet potato fries that I've been craving ever since we got here! So much has happened and I'm sorry it is so hard to keep up with it all. By the end of the day, I'm usually so tired that I don't even have the energy to blog, but here is worth a brief attempt of bloggin..today work was a bit slow, but I guess because we are just preparing the seven houses for the Blitz build that takes place in less than two weeks. Today I nailed boards together and marked the joints and layed out where the walls will be built during the Blitz.

Random but Frank (family friend of my parents) sent me this link in an email and I think you all should check this out....


http://www.chrisjordan.com/current_set2.php?id=7

It's almost midnight and I have to wake up in six hours for work, off to bed I go..I"ll write more later

Miss and love you all!