Christmas Time

To catch you up on whats been going on the past few weeks:

 The past few weeks have been a bit crazy.  I have started teaching a fitness class at the high school on Thursday afternoons, which I am really enjoying!  I am finding that I really love teaching high school students.  They are receptive and engaged and since I am young I come off as being the "cool" teacher hahah which I also really enjoy.
  I have put together a rather tough work out routine which they have been very receptive to.  After my first class they were all smiles and laughing and saying how cool that was.  Even the teacher that brought me in was saying "that was SOOOO cool!!!!!!!!!!!!!"   So that gave me a bit of a boost and I was on cloud 9 the rest of the day.  So each week I really look forward to that class.
  My nutrition class with the middle school girls has also become a big hit.  I make fun yummy goodies with them, which they enjoy.  One girl in particular has become a teachers pet and is always telling the other girls to stop messing around... she generally says "hey guys!! we are here to learn!! stop playing around!" which always makes me smile.

  As for my ladies in the wednesday nutrition class, that has fallen off the grid... the past few weeks no one has shown up.  But i've also been told that this time of year is hard and most adult classes diminish because a lot of people start gearing up to go back to Mexico for Christmas.

   And my venturing girls! Oh how I love them!  All of them high school age, and they are just so great.  They have given me a nick name "Sid" no reason other then they think I look like a Sid.  I take it, its a cute name.

  Here are a few photos of everyone I've been talking about:

Most of the venturing group, a few missing

My nutrition group ladies, (most of them, a few missing) every tuesday after their english class we all have a potluck lunch!

My co-worker/resident Mom, Mitzi

At the Venturing Holiday Dinner, we made pizza's! This is Anna and Adilena

Vicki and Mariela

  MERRY CHRISTMAS EVERYONE!!!

A typical Saturday morning in Boonville

I wanted to share with everyone a lovely Saturday morning here in Boonville via pictures! I tried to upload video but that didn't work :-(

New Program!

 Hello Everyone!

 Well to my surprise it is actually getting cold  here!! I did not plan very well in terms of which clothes to pack... I definitely need more sweaters, long sleeve shirts and my tall Uggs!!
  Anywho! So I recently came up with a new program idea which I developed from listening to the needs of the older women in the Family Resource Center.  I pitched this idea and it was a HUGE hit, major brownie points for me!  So I have begun the planning process and this will begin sometime in late January early February.  The program is going to be a nutrition/fitness class for women ages 60 and over.  No worries I wont have them running sprints and doing military push-ups or anything.  This is going to be a lot of balance training, functional fitness (like squats with a chair, standing push-ups against the wall to give them more arm strength) and stretching.  The nutrition part will be a lot of making sure to drink more water, get more vegetables and fruits into their diet, but nothing too durastic.  Since most of these women have never cared for themselves before, always putting their families before themselves this is super important for them, and I want them to keep coming and not get overwhelmed. 
  I am also going to set a goal for them, and that is to have them all sign up together for the Bootling 5k run/walk on May 5th.  Not to have them run it, but to have them all walk it together as a class!  It'll give them something fun to train for and keep them motivated.
  So I am super psyched for this class to get started.  It will be on Friday afternoons for an hour and a half, and I will leave Friday mornings open for them to be able to make appointments to meet with me one on one if they have any personal questions they would like to talk about.

   Other then that, things are rolling along quite nicely, and oh.... I am now dating someone!  His name is Jason and he's awesome.  It has been quite some time since I've dated anyone I've really been excited about, so this is a nice turn of events.  I guess AmeriCorps really does have a good luck charm to it now doesn't it??

 That's all for now, I hope you all are enjoying the East Coast fall (and the Montreal Fall!)

 XOXOX

Volunteering Gig

 Hello everyone!

   So a part of this whole AmeriCorps gig is that we have to take on a volunteering job, of no more then 10 hours a month.  This officially starts in November, so I've been trying to figure out what I could do.  After my co-chaperoning the field trip I decided that this would be the perfect volunteering gig!
  So I am officially part of the Venturing group!  I am very excited about this, as I loved hanging out with those girls and feel that I could really be a good "cool" adult for them to talk to and perhaps look up to.
  Also, I have joined in helping out with the Garden Club on Thursdays at the Elementary school.  Lets see if I can get those garden skills sharpened!

  That is really all the news for right now.  Other then I am super excited for Thanksgiving!! I am going to be having Thanksgiving in Sonoma with Leslie and Owen and the rest of that side of the family.  Very excited to see everyone! And very glad that I can still have Thanksgiving with Family :-)

  I guess there is one more exciting thing going on.... but I'm going to wait a bit longer before I share that one with you all ;-)  I'll give you a hint though... it has to do with a boy! :-)


  Will fill you all in more soon!

xoxoxo

Field Trip + Zumba!!

 Yesterday I co-chaperoned a field trip to Fort Bragg with the Venturing Girls group.  This is a group that my co-worker Mitzi leads.  It was started by the AmeriCorps worker last year and is like a girls version of Boy Scouts, but not quite.  They meet a few times a month and plan fun day trips like the one yesterday. 
  We first went to MacKerricher State Park and walked around to look at the tide pools, however the tide pools weren't really there since the tide was in.  None the less, it was beautiful!  On the way back to the van we came across two men who had just come in from catching Abalone, they look like ginormous slugs!! Gross.  But the girls were fascinated by them. 

Mitzi, the girls and Zach (mitzis' son)

  After that we went and got lunch, then headed off to the water park. Mitzi and the girls and Zach (Mitzis' son) played around in the water, while I took advantage of the gym!  I then talked Mitzi into taking a Zumba class with me.  She was hesitant at first, but she also used to be a dancer and I knew that this would be a form of exercise that she would actually enjoy.  She is quite out of shape, self proclaimed mind you, but she kept with it, I was quite proud of her.  Afterwards she was just beaming!! The rest of the ride home she couldn't stop reminiscing about her old dancing days, and we both were talking about our favorite musicals.  I was so happy that I convinced her to take a class because she was like a different person afterwards, totally into it!  She even said that she'd be willing to take the one Zumba class that is held here at the high school once a week with me!  Woohoo!!
  The trip was a great trip.  I got to know the girls and they all said that they really wanted me to come into the health class to do some smoothie demonstrations and talk about nutrition.  I need to get that squared away with the health teacher on when I can do it, but super excited about that!

Local Womens Music Festival

  What a beautiful Saturday today was/is!! It's in the mid 70's, sunny, breezy, and was filled with lovely women playing music at a winery.  Today in Ukiah at the Nelson Family Vineyards was the Local Womens Music Festival.  I went because a fellow AmeriCorps colleague was playing her very first show at the festival.  It was  a small affair, but still totally amazing.  Although, there were also a few musicians who played, where you really wish they hadn't... not quite so musically talented.  In any case, to my surprise there was an old celebrity there! I had no idea who she was until I googled her after they announced that she used to sing with Pete Seeger... Now after being home and googeling her some more and watching some old youtube videos, she was quite an amazing singer back in the day!  Can you guess who the celebrity was??  It was Ronnie Gilbert!! She is now about 85 years old, and can't quite sing like she used to, but still I loved hearing her speak.  She is writing a memoir which I hope will come out soon, because from what she read of it, I want to hear more of her stories!

  She read for about 20 minutes, with a few songs in between of some old campaign songs.  Then she ended with a song which apparently she sang quite a lot of back in the day.  She sang "Goodnight Irene" (click on that to see a great old video of her singing it with The Weavers) which we all joined in on singing with her, it was very cool indeed.

 
  The festival continued on, with some nice singers, and a few not so great singers, then my favorite of the day were these two girls who called themselves "The Plain Jane Society", they both were in two separate groups who toured around together, then they joined together and recently started their own group, and they were totally awesome!! Really wish they had a CD but they said in the near future they will have one.  Their voices together really meshed very well.

 Click here for their Website! (They have one song under the Audio tab that you could listen to)

Then finally came time for Katrina to perform, my fellow AmeriCorps buddy!  It was just herself and her guitar, she was quite good for it being her first time performing, I certainly could never do that, unless it was dancing of course.  But I was glad I was there to cheer her on, no other AmeriCorps people came, so it was just myself and Katrina's girlfriend as her cheering section, and the rest of the audience made quite the applause when she was done.

  As you can see I am getting better about bringing my camera with me when I go to various fun things now!  I had my camera with me last weekend, but forgot to use it!! Oh well... 

 Oh and HAPPY BIRTHDAY HANNAH!!!!!

Week two of classes

  Well it has now been 2 weeks that I have been teaching my classes.  So far I am totally in love with my Mom's nutrition class, the women are so engaged and eager to learn and love everything I am teaching them!  In fact, I was so proud of them this week, they also come on Tuesdays for language class with Mitzi (my co-worker) and afterwards they usually have a potluck style lunch.  I've been around them for a little while now to see what they usually bring for lunches, and usually its a lot of traditional foods that are heavy on the oils and overall just not so healthy.  Well this week they all brought salad stuff!!! They were so proud of themselves too and made sure to show me what they all brought, lots of it was fresh from their gardens too.  Made me feel pretty good.
  This week we made homemade Almond Butter in class, I separated it into three batches: 1st was plain, 2nd had some honey added to it, the 3rd had honey and cinnamon.  They all liked the 2nd and 3rd batches the best and made the most hilarious looking faces when tasting the 1st one.  Meanwhile I was like "what?! oh my goodness the first one tastes so sweet!!" They all looked at me as if I was crazy.  But then we talked about that, and how since I don't eat much processed food that my palate has adapted to natural tastes and that I don't need a whole lot of added flavors to the foods I eat.  Where as they are used to lots of processed foods and processed salts and sugars which require a lot more to flavor their foods.  This was a great way to demonstrate that factor, and they understood it well too.
  As for my kids.... this has become a lot harder then I was expecting.  This week I made up some sheets of paper that had on the top of them: "Being healthy means...." and I gave them all about 10 minutes to draw or write what they think "being healthy means" then we reconveined and talked about their answers.  Most of them drew fruits and veggies and sports.  I then asked them "well what about our insides? have you all heard of Diabetes?" most said yes, then I asked if anyone had any family members who had diabetes, a few said yes, so then we discussed that a bit.  For the older kids I am creating a chart for next week, which they will  be partnering up with another kid in the class to have a Nutrition and Fitness Buddy system.  They are going to have to do 30-60 minutes of some type of activity each day as well as to make sure to get 5 servings of veggies a day along with 3-4 servings of fruit a day.  This is going to be like a competition and at the end we will have some type of a prize... yet to be determined.  They are going to have to check in with each other to make sure they are doing it, and it also makes it a  bit more fun to do.  I'm also going to be doing a salad competition, where I'll split them into groups and they will have a list of salad stuff to choose from and they will create a salad that will have a lettuce base then they choose veggies, fruit, proteins, good fats and some add ons, then whoever wins (or maybe they will all win) I'm going to get the school to feature their salad creation for lunch!
  Still trying to come up with some fun things to do with the kids.  Next week we are going to be making a replica of their favorite snack, which are "hot cheetos".  I am making them with whole wheat tortillas brushed with olive oil, kosher salt, garlic powder, nutritional yeast (for the cheesy flavor) and cayanne pepper.  Then we will toast them for about 5-10 minutes.  I still need to test this out, but I'm pretty sure it'll be tasty and hoping it will taste some what like hot cheetos... since I've never had them before I wont know for sure, but I have an idea of what they probably taste like.
  So thats what's going on over here!  Oh and the race last weekend totally kicked my butt!!! Running 3 miles in the soft sand plus add in some obstacles...... I was dead afterwards.  But it was a blast, and I got a funky tan line from my capri pants Lol.  Then the Bluegrass concert in San Francisco was amazing!!! I totally plan to go to all three days next year!  So awesome! 

Rollin, Rollin, Rollin

   Finally things have started rollin along!  This week has finally felt like a real work week!! I can't tell you how excited that makes me.  I had my meeting with both my supervisors on Monday and I expressed my frustrations with how I felt that I did not have enough work to do.  They sympathized and said this is usually the case in the first month while everything is getting started up.   I still have to meet with my other supervisor at the health center to figure out what exactly I am doing there.  So far she has not been there the days I have been there so I have not done anything but twiddle my thumbs.  Seeing as how I am not sure what I can and cannot do, more rather what I am supposed to be working on.  Especially at a health center where a lot of things are confidential between patient and doctor, there is not a whole lot of self starting abilities at a health center.

   Mitzi (my co-worker at the Family Resource Center, where I primarily work at the Elementary School) and I just had our Nutrition class with about 8 women from the community and it went smashingly!!  It was so great!! I taught the whole class while Mitzi sort of elaborated on things and was there as kind of a comfort blanket for me haha as well as for the women since they know her really well.
  Today's lesson was an overview of what the class is going to be like.  Which will be as follows:  first half hour will be sort of a lecture/discussion and then the second half will be making healthy foods and snacks.  Each month will be focused on a particular vegetable or fruit.  October is Squash month!!
   Also on today's lesson I went over the dangers of processed foods, why sugar and salt are bad, and healthier alternatives for snacks for their kids.  Then ended with giving them two recipes they can take home and make.  Each class I will give them a few recipes to take home.  Today I gave them the recipes for Apple Chips and Homemade Lara Bars. 

   I am also now counseling 4 kids at the elementary school helping them to figure out better choices instead of outbursts at home, bullying, impulsive behaviors, as well as helping them to lessen anxiety or gain better social behaviors.   This has been a bit of a stretch for me, but I find I kind of am settling into it rather well.  I've taken to doing art therapy with them.  For example yesterday I had the little girl I am counseling and had her start by just drawing whatever she wanted, asking her about what she was drawing (she likes art a lot) then I had her draw a picture of her family, and as she was drawing I asked her about why she put her family members in that particular order, who she is closer to etc... The reason she is doing the counseling is for outbursts at home.  I found it rather helpful to do it like that as she opened up a bit more then our previous session.  So I am slowly navigating my way through all of this.  But more importantly, I am super happy that things are finally picking up as the classes are getting started now.

   Woohoo!!

  This weekend is going to be a busy one as well.  Another healthcorps member and I will be heading to LA to do the Beachpalooza 5k race which is on the beach (oh dear god) but it also has all kinds of things on the beach that we have either go through, climb up, jump off of etc... Then Sunday morning we will get up extra early and start driving back, but will stop in San Francisco for the Hardly Strictly Bluegrass Festival!! It's a free concert and her brothers band is playing in it!
  I'll probably be wiped out on Monday, but it'll be totally worth it for a weekend of awesomeness!

That's all for now :-)

Living In A Small Town Part II

   So to continue with my observations of living in a small town here we go:

1) No one locks there doors.  Its so comforting to just leave my cottage and not worry about locking the door, same with my car when I'm in town! It's an odd feeling, but I rather enjoy it.

2) Everything closes early.  This is something that's been hard to get used to.  Since I don't have a whole lot to do on weekends or the evenings, I miss having coffee shops to go to or something like that.  So I've taken to having dinner, then going on an evening walk, which I do enjoy and its healthy!

3) There are no cops, anywhere...ever!  I only just saw my first "highway patrol" this evening on my nightly walk.  So strange.

4) There are no daily services, such as trash/recycling pick up, or daily mail service.  Most everyone has PO Boxes.  I have yet to figure out where to take the trash and recycling that is building up outside my cottage, I shall so figure that out though.

I found this amusing, because its true!

  That's all I got for now,  but I'm sure there will be more to come as I continue this journey of living in a teeny tiny dollhouse of a town!

Challenge Day

   Wow.  Today was by far the most amazing day I've had in a long time.  I was literally blown away, brought to tears, and just amazed by how strong these kids are!
    Challenge Day is a day where 100 kids are brought to the assembly room and there are enough adults to be facilitators to groups of 4 kids.  During the day we did exercises that basically break down the  barriers.  We danced, we did lots of hugging, played games to cheer each other on, and did some really in depth work which brought lots of tears, we went through lots of tissues for sure.  There was one exercise called "Cross the line" where everyone stands on one side of a line and the person leading reads out things like "cross the line if you or anyone you know has had an addiction to drugs, alcohol, eating disorder etc.." and you cross the line if you or someone you know has had that.  Thats the one that got me and I totally broke down, but there were lots of hugs to support me which was awesome.  Then she went through all kinds of ones like "cross the line if you or someone you know has been in a gang" or "been arrested" or "been abused" etc..... everyone was crying by the end basically.  It was so moving to see how much these kids have been through already at only 16 or 17!!
   We broke into groups as well and went around the circle finishing the sentence "if you knew me then you'd know that...." the kids in my group were apprehensive at first but I helped them along and finally they opened up.  It was truly incredible.
  All in all, today really solidified my desire to further my psychology part of my degree in addition to my nutrition certification.  I LOVED working with these kids!
  At the end of the day we did this one on one thing where we sat facing another person and said what we are great at.  I ended up going first, then when we were done the other person had to get up and "celebrate" by dancing, cheering and hollering the other person.  The girl I was with was clearly the teenager shy and kinda shuffled around me, so when it was my turn to celebrate her I jumped up was dancing around her, screaming out, stood up on my chair and was pointing at her haha it was awesome and it was something that I could tell she'd never had happen to her before, which made me feel even better that I could do that for her.

   At the very end of the day I was totally blown away, because quite a few of the kids got up at the front of the room and apologized to either specific people or the whole room for bullying or making fun of someone, then that person got brought up and they had a moment of apologizing to each other, then hugged it out and sat down.  Other people got up and said that they really wanted to make a change and start including people that they ignored because they were scared to go sit with the "weird" kid that sat alone.  Absolutely blown away I tell you!

  Sooooo today was an incredible day!!
Here is the website for what we did today    http://www.challengeday.org/

 

First Week

   I have now had my first full week.  Although to be honest it wasn't quite full... I had lots of meetings but that was about it.  I can't wait to get totally into it all!  I'm needing to keep myself busy so I don't get bored.
  I have to say I have found it so incredibly bizarre to be back in schools only this time I'm meeting with teachers and the principle like a grown up!  Very strange feeling for me....

   So two days a week I will be working in the Anderson Valley Clinic doing a bit of this and that (TBD) then on Wednesdays at noon I will be teaching (along with another woman, Mitzy) a nutrition class to the women of the community.  Mitzy and I did a lesson plan and this month the topic is going to be health benefits of Apples along with dangers of processed foods.
   Then once a week I'll be doing a health fitness class with kids and teenagers, 2 classes split into various age groups.  I believe i'll even be teaching Tennis!! I've never played but Donna, my supervisor, seems to have lots of faith in me that I can do this with them haha

   There are more things to be brewing up soon, in fact I went out with my friend Nate last night and we got to talking about what we want to do in life.  He had started a non profit farm out in Willits but got totally burned out by it all which is how he ended up here.  He also had started a bakery in Berkley.  In any case, he loves to cook and work with kids so I said "hey maybe I could bring you in once a week for a cooking class!! and this could incorporate foods picked from the school garden!"  He was very excited about this idea so I am going to talk to Donna about it.  I have no doubt that she will be thrilled by this idea.

   Oh and I will also be doing a mental health program with little kids teaching them about anger management and how to deal with bullies etc... So lots to do! I am ready to get started!!!

Living in a small town

 

      As I slowly get more settled into the new small town living I am finding a lot of interesting fun things that I am definitely not used to, which I thought I would share with you all.  So far these are my top 3 things I've noticed.  I will periodically update the list in new blogs as I discover them.  But for now, here are my top 3.

1)  This one is not such a shocker but everyone knows everyone along with their personal business

2) People have tabs!! I go to this local coffee shop almost daily now to sit and observe people and use the internet.  And I am amazed that people go up, get their coffee and then later in passing say "hey should I pay now or just put it on my tab?" Just amazing to me!!

3)  Everyone is REALLY nice!  It's a little jarring to be honest, I'm used to people being very cold.  However, I myself have just been totally stepping outside my comfort zone and to everyone I run into I go "hi! I'm Erin and I just moved to town, what's your name?"  It's been really awesome to totally put myself out there, especially because the responses have been so open and inviting.  Its actually really refreshing being so social and just striking up conversations with everyone.  I fell into this awful bubble back home where I didn't go out, and none of my friends wanted to ever go out.  I had a feeling that this would happen once I moved into a place where I didn't know anyone, and I was right!! So cool.


    Have a great evening (or day!)

Orientation Recap

   This past week my orientation happened up at Rivers Bend Retreat Center.   It was such a beautiful serene place to be, though I do admit to going a tad bit stir crazy..... this whole MUCH slower pace of life thing is going to take some time to adjust to.  I really do like it a lot, but I am most certainly not used to it.  I'm sure my dad and anne can relate a bit??

    We did a lot of team building exercises and get to know each other games of course.  There are people from all over the United States! I am the second oldest one as I pretty much expected would be the case.  But I really like everyone in our group.  We have a bunch of fun activities planned as a group.  Lots of runners!! So overall I am very excited about this upcoming year.  It would be boring to list everything we did, but I do have pictures!!

The Beautiful Garden ( I took LOTS of pictures in there as you will see)

View from my cabin

The River!

Getting a free fish pedicure! Lol

Lavender drying

   As you can clearly see, it was just gorgeous up there.  And its about 10 minutes away from where I live! So I can go up there anytime I want, especially now that I have a friend who works up there now :-)  Woohoo!!

Cross Country Pictures (part 2)

Leaving Colorado, heading into Wyoming

Utah!

Utah

Salt Lake City near the salt flats

Welcome to California!! (don't mind the squished bugs on my windshield, they are purely decorative)

Leslie and Owen's back yard! So beautiful

more of their back yard

and more

So pretty and happy!!

   So those are all my pictures from my cross country road trip! Orientation pics coming up soon!