i'm alive i swear!

ok, so i officially suck at blogging. and i'm really sorry lauren for picking on you all the time about how you're bad at blogging too... it's harder than i thought! a lot of people have been telling me to blog some more so i figured it's high time i got around to it! so here yall go!
so, i don't know how many weeks i'm in anymore! but, round two is over and i'm no longer in new orleans. i'm now back in denver and in round three working as a teacher's aid in a third grade class at an underprivileged school. i guess i can do a recap on what i've been up to!
my last weeks in nola flew by. i absolutely loved it there. i loved having sweet tea, hearing ma'am and yall, listening to country music and seeing churches on every block. in all, my team worked on ten houses while working with pnola. and we finished three houses! two of those houses were sponsored by two football players from the nola saints. and the players showed up at the house dedications! it was awesome! i got my picture with them.

i also went to my first mardi gras parade! it was... interesting! it was really funny but like it's all parodies and pretty sarcastic. but it was funny and there were SO many people there. and the parades aren't like the ones in sc. you get to stand in the streets and there's no police barricades and they hand out goodies and there are bands playing music and everyone's laughing. it's just fun:)
i'm not sure if i wrote about it or not but i also got to go to the st louis cemetery number one and clean tombs! i got a tour with the head tour guide and i got to go to the building across the street and go to the top floor and see the cemetery from above right next door! hardly anyone gets to see that view but i did!!! i got to spend two days cleaning the cemetery and it was by far probably my favorite thing i did in nola! i loved it! i got to clean the voo doo priestess' tomb!!!

we left nola and had a three day road trip back to denver. we stopped in tyler, texas and then in amarillo, texas and then we were back in denver. the road trip was long and well long. that's about it! the lone star state is entirely too big.

when we got back to denver, we had a little over a week for the transition. my team turned in all of our stuff, did our debriefing with the unit leaders and finished all of our paperwork. oh and i was voted corpsmember of the round for my team! which was a really awesome honor. my team and team leader had to vote for the person they thought worked the hardest and earned it.
then i met with my new shuffle team. we had a lot of paperwork to do and had to do our briefing with the unit leaders. my team is really cool. we all get along really well. we're working at garden place academy which is k5-5th grade and is mostly a hispanic school. none of the kids can afford lunch so they all get free lunch. the faculty is amazing and so nice. i love it there. i'm in a third grade class but the teacher had a baby so the class has a long term substitute who is really nice. but he's been sick all week so we had another sub this week and she was really great too. my two weeks there have been wonderful so far. the kids are pretty good for the most part. there are like four really wild ones but they've gotten better because i'm definitely a more strict person and i think it's good because i'm a constant where as the substitutes aren't. the principal told me at the beginning that i had one of the worst classes and so i've tried really hard getting them to behave. i bought candy and if they're good at the end of the day they get a piece of candy. oh, and we had to make a little book about us and so i told about my family and weldon and they thought it was so cool that he is in the army. i have one of his army hats and so i took it to class with me and i get one special helper a day and they get to wear his hat all day and help me throughout the day. they LOVE it. and when we go somewhere they march and whoever has the hat gets to be the drill sergeant. they're so cute:)

this week the kids are on spring break so we're working at a community garden and we'll be weeding and planting veggies and teaching people how to do it. it should be nice to work with people in the community again.
we've also been to the lifeline puppy rescue to do more volunteer hours and as always i've had a wonderful time. if puppies can't make you happy then nothing can!

let's see what other news??? i've been rather sick lately. my whole team has been. i'm finally getting over this stupid cold. it's already snowed quite a few times in denver. but, unlike hartsville, the whole town doesn't close down! OH! congratulations to alex and meagan! i'm so excited for you two! and the pictures i've seen of the wedding are just beautiful. meagan you're so gorgeous. alex is a lucky man!
i miss everyone tons. we have spring break the 22-25 but i'll be back in sc on the 21st thru the 26th. i hope to see everyone! it will be my last trip back until americorps in done july 31st.
hope all is well with everyone!
xoxo,
B