knock knock...

on our second attempt, stacy and i made it over to dorothy's. she's a spunky 80-something lady who works in the plant lab. dorothy has a faaaantastic native garden, complete with several endangered species. most of it is natural too (she's done very little planting).

dorothy's front yard. native yellow sand scrub.

stacy and i rode our bikes over, had the official dorothy tour, and then got to work pulling "weeds." dorothy hasn't been able to keep up with the garden lately and it's a pretty big area so it didn't take long for stacy and i decide to make it a weekly event.

i have to admit...i got a little nostalgic for grandma's yard. remembering pulling many a weed along side her. thinking about the upcoming spring flowers. made me miss home but all in all it was a beautiful nostalgic evening:)

dorothy and stacy.

ouch.

"biologists don't celebrate easter!"

this is what i overheard while sitting at my desk just now. i'm shocked at how bothered i am by it. shocked because i shouldn't be surprised. i knew this was the mentality here (at least in my lab). just last week i had a conversation with jaime about it. i thought i could handle the random remarks, maybe not a full out debate, but the offhanded comments were, until now, dismissed. but here i am mid day wanting to cry.

i've been through the faith versus science thing before and here i am again. ugh.

get your game face on

today i sat on a cactus. AND i lost my toothpick privileges after dumping a box full in the field. maybe my boss should rethink that performance evaluation...

90 days.

big day at work today. had my 90 day evaluation. a bit premature. i haven't quite hit 90 days yet, but close enough. turns out i'm an excellent employee worthy of continued employment. so far my boss is impressed with my super GIS skills (thanks zach, the best GIS TA. don't worry amy, you're the hottest TA!). props were also given to my ability to work my ass off lopping. do the orchids deserve a shout out for giving me previous experience? or bush honeysuckle? oh well, guess i can add excellent lopper to the CV.

and no mention of me forgetting the data sheets last week:)

texas on my mind

wow. out of nowhere i miss texas. i’m downloading hobo data from our burn today, listening to my ipod, and suddenly pat green starts singing “take me out to the dancehall.” my heart just started aching. these images immediately started flashing through my head....boots, crowds, spins, dance after dance...my favorite dance partners…ryan, jordan, amy (squared)…my favorite two-step songs…oh man. i so badly want to be there. right now. damn you texas. i think you kept a piece of my heart.

a sad farwell

it happened. the free duran duran sunglasses died. this time they did not perish due to josey's goat-like tendencies. their cheap nature did them in and they anticlimactically broke in my purse. sad. so sad.

a picture tribute to the shades...
goodbye old friend.

don't ask me stupid questions! just send down the bucket!

ten things i did today...

1) dreamt i was attacked by an ugly feral hog who could bound over fences like the most agile white tailed deer.

2) drank home brewed starbucks coffee (with lots of milk!) from my missouri department of conservation travel mug while carpooling with stacy. i'm glad i bought that coffee maker amy!

3) worked my ass off hauling big shrubs out of a restoration area. ALL day.

4) tried my first ever veggie corndog. deeee-licious.

5) enjoyed a celebratory beer with some new friends in honor of completing one whole plot today.

6) applied neosporin to my shrub battle wounds.

7) started a new book. isabel allende this time.

8) ate a reese's peanut butter cup egg.

9) watched josey run circles around my house. i do mean around my ENTIRE house. back yard to front yard and then again. i should have clocked her.

10) enjoyed the mild florida evening on my screened-in porch.

the yard machine

i finally did something today that i've been putting off for awhile now. i mowed my yard. not a difficult task. in fact its a monotonous chore often assigned to young children. that said, i love it.

don't you just love the smell of freshly cut grass? especially in the spring time when the world is finally green again and spring flowers are rich and vibrant. the smell is the sweetest then. probably because of the 6 month absence over the cold winter months.

it's not just the cut grass smell that makes this simple yard chore so pleasurable. it's the opportunity to be spend time outside. it's the chance to soak in the sun. it's the ipod playing my favorite tunes while i work. it's the time to be alone and let your mind wander. true, you don't have to be mowing the yard to do any of those things, but the beauty of it is that you can do those things while also being productive. it may be a easy chore but you still get that since of accomplishment of a job completed. immediate satisfaction when you step back and see your good work.

i haven't always enjoyed it though. there were many a hot summer day back in mo where i would dread mowing mom and dad's massive yard. the dislike stemmed mainly from the hours it took and the itchy pine trees i danced with in order to mow under.

but i hadn't had the opportunity to mow in a long time, my yard is small with only one lone pine tree, and the weather a mild 80 degrees. so you would think that i would jump at the chance to beautify my yard, right? it wasn't so much the yard mowing that i was putting off, it was the reassembly of my lawn mower that i was ignoring. i bought it right after graduation when i rented a house with the girls for the summer. after i moved out they kept the mower. i didn't bother to get it back from them until the move here. i put the damn thing together so you'd think "no problem," but not having seen the thing in 3.5 years makes a girl a little leery especially when she can't read the instruction manual. (for the record i'm all about instruction manuals. i may not know how something works but give me written instructions and i soon will.)

turns out reassembly was a piece of cake. just a bit of trial and error and the thing was together in no time. then the really dreadful part. would i be able to get it started? i'm never confident when it come to starting any machine with a pull start. but by the third try, i was off.

my yard looks great minus the dead spots from our february freezes. now i have a new problem...i want a grass trimmer. perfect for edging around the driveway, sidewalk, house, well pump...i am aware that this requires another pull start machine but think how pretty my yard would be. and much easier than the scissors i busted out the take care of some of the major problem areas today. i think i could easily become one of those people obsessed with their yard:)

Why I love children’s books so much

I would love one of accomplishments in my life to be the writer of a well-written, good message children's book. The kind of book that stays with you.

I guess that's because books were my constant companion through childhood. I don't remember a time in which I didn't absolutely love to read. Almost obsessively so. Staying up late to finish a book. Ignoring everyone and everything around me until the story was complete.

There were plenty of filler books. Easy reads that I was addicted to (my modern day equivalent being a good Nora Roberts romance), but then there were those books that hung around through the years. More than the "oh yes, I loved Nancy Drew books!" comment during a random conversation with friends. I'm talking about a much deeper connection to the story. There are several that I can think of to make this list…Chronicles of Narnia, The Rats of NIMH, A Wrinkle in Time. More recently, on the advice of my fifth-grade teaching brother-in-law, Chasing Spirit Bear and Tree Girl. But I can't forget Bridge to Terabithia. The first book I remember being read to me. I was in kindergarten. Carrie was in fifth grade. I distinctly remember a reading in the basement, sharing the old "golden" plastic recliner with Carrie as she read me the story. And in true bridge to Terabithia fashion, we didn't stop at reading the book. Terabithia became our world too…well, our version of Terabithia that is.

I will forever be connected to my sisters through books. Just last weekend, Amy and I bonded once again as we poked around several used bookstores. Recommendations were made. Books were bought. Amy even brought me books to read from TX. I'm afraid my reading hobby would be sadly ignored if not for her. It's reminiscent of the time she bought Prince Caspian after I fell in love with The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe. Amy was so excited for me and the infectious reading that C.S. Lewis inspired that she wanted to encourage it further.

It was through my sisters' example that I learned to love reading. I am lucky to see that example continued for my nieces. I distinctly remember sitting down with Jacelynn (4) and Myla (1) sometime ago, sprawled out on the carpet reading book after book. Myla kept pulling books off the shelf, bringing them to Jace and me, plopping down beside me, and listening with her one year old attention span. And then repeat the whole thing as soon as the book was over. Of the many times I have gotten to be with those girls, that is probably my favorite moment...to participate in the example my sister has established for those girls. The ultimate aunt/niece bonding. And now I hear stories of Jace reading to Myla and Ripley, creating a sister bond just like her mom did with me.

A book tells a story, but it can do much more than that. It provides insight, understanding, knowledge, perspective. And that's just to the individual reader. Books move beyond that. They connect people, not just to the story but to each other, through insight, understanding, knowledge, and perspective.

What message would I want to send through a book? One of understanding. Of stewardship. Of kindness. Of motivation.

I just realized that I violated my blogging band on capitalization. I guess if I aspire to authorship I must embrace all rules of grammar...