Current Gasoline Prices

For those of you who are trying to find the cheapest gasoline in your town, www.gasbuddy.com is a website where you can search by your area of town and find the current gasoline price at each of the local service stations. I have found it helpful to check before I leave for work to see where I can get the best deal on gas.

ACE Mentor Program

Student model of West Charlotte High School "Swann Station"














Students from West Charlotte explain their project to members of the design and construction industry prior to their formal presentation.














Brian Bennett, a LandDesign mentor, takes a moment to have his photo take with one of the students from Olympic High School.














The West Charlotte drum line perform prior to the awards banquet. Needless to say it was LOUD.

This semester, I have had the opportunity to volunteer every two weeks at a local Charlotte high school as part of the ACE Mentor Program. I had been looking for an opportunity to mentor high school students about the profession of Landscape Architecture and I heard about the ACE Mentor Program last October at a landscape architecture conference in San Francisco. The Ace Mentor Program was established in 1994 as a way of educating high school students about the construction and design professions. This includes landscape architecture, civil engineering, community planning, architecture, electrical engineering, and so on. After talking to several people at my office, I found that most of my colleagues more or less stumbled into our profession rather than starting off as landscape architects or civil engineers our freshman year of college. I, for example, learned about landscape architecture at the end of my sophomore year at Jacksonville State University after participating in a career aptitude test. It was only at the beginning of my junior year did I begin to take classes at Auburn for landscape architecture.

The ACE Mentor Program has allowed myself and 13 of my colleagues to mentor students from West Charlotte and Olympic High Schools. A total of 12 students participated this year and most had an interest in the design or construction field, although none said they were considering landscape architecture. Throughout the year, we took the students on several field trips to constructions sites, the UNCC College of Architecture, visits to sustainable buildings, and other parts of Charlotte most have never visited. After the Christmas break, the students were assigned a project of their own. They were directed to design a light rail station for their high school campus with the exception they would present the project at the end of the year.

The students worked very hard this semester and presented their project last Thursday evening to approximately 150 local members of the design and construction industry. A total of 9 students from West Charlotte did a PowerPoint presentation which showcased their project. At the conclusion of the presentation, three of the students who were seniors received scholarships in the amounts of $1,000 and $2,500. All three students had their families with them and it was great seeing their hard work from the school year pay off. Our company offered a summer internship to one of the students who was interested in civil engineering. Even though he is a junior in high school, we wanted to give him a chance to explore this profession to see if he enjoys it before he heads off to college.

All 14 mentors from LandDesign enjoyed the ACE Mentor Program this school year. Next year, we have been informed we will be heading up a new high school as the program expands into the school system. Below are some photos from the awards banquet last Thursday. If you know someone in the design or construction industry, I would ask you to encourage them to seek out a local ACE Mentor Program and get involved.

Four Month Check-up

Yesterday afternoon was Abby's four month check up with the pediatrician. Abby did great, until they gave her all of her shots. She now weighs 14lbs 14oz and is 25 inches long. She is in the 75th percentile for height, weight and head size, thus she is a very proportionally sized baby. The doctor said she was a pretty baby and everything looked great with her health. She has a touch of allergies which causes her nose to run sometimes and the doctor said her head was a little bit flat on the back of her head. This is because she sleeps on her back and most of the day lays with her head laying back against something. He recommended we have Abby sit up as much as possible and only let her lay back when she sleeps. Otherwise, we may have to use a CranioCap for a few months to help shape the back of her head. Then came Abby's shots. She got three shots, two in her left leg and one in her right. The proportion of the needles to Abby's body is ridiculous. It would be like you or I getting a shot in the leg with a 4-inch needle. This was the first time I have seen Abby bleed and the nurse has no idea how close she came to meeting Jesus. Abby screamed for about 3 minutes while Cindy sang "This little Light of mine" and I danced around the room. By the time we left the doctor's office, Abby was smiling and laughing.

Last night Abby woke up about 2:30am with a fever and a pitiful cry. Cindy woke up with her and settled her down for a while. She woke up again at 4:00am with the same pitiful cry. I got up with her and held her in the recliner until 5:30am. I put her down in her crib, only to have her wake up again at 7:00am. Cindy got up with her while i slept until 9:00am. Cindy went back to bed at 9 and slept until 11:00am. Abby ate at 7:30 and puked up her apple sauce then took 5 ounces of formula from me at 9:30. She didn't eat again until 3:30pm and took 6 ounces. About 5:00 she started gagging and then puked all over Cindy, herself, the recliner and the throw pillows. She went back to sleep and started sweating, which Cindy recognized as her fever breaking. Tonight Abby is going to bed a bit later than her usual 6:30pm. Hopefully she will feel better by tomorrow morning, if not we may miss church to stay home with her.

First Food..

Yesterday we gave Abby her first taste of rice cereal. She has more than doubled her weight since birth, holding her head up, and staring at us intently when we are eating as if she was wanting some real food. I was going to wait until i took her to the doctor this Friday just to make sure but my instincts took over and I made the decision. Of course I was a little scared to give her too much and made sure to dilute it into a soupy cereal just to make sure she would not have trouble swallowing. Her first spoonful was really funny. She made this face and looked at me like she was saying, mama, what in the world is this stuff. The second bite she looked as if her face turned upside down. It was like she wasn't sure about the taste of it. The third bite was a gag- and if you read one of my previous posts this is classic Abby behavior. After that she seemed to decide that it was okay. She couldn't quite get the hang of it too well at first, she just wanted that spoon to rub her gums, which by the way I think she is already teething. We bought her a teething ring and she loves putting it in her mouth or letting you rub her gums with it. If you put your knuckle in her mouth she just bites down hard. I know it can take months for those little teeth to emerge but she is on her way. So the cereal went okay last night. I gave her just a little bit tonight and she was just too tired to even try and enjoy. She is going to bed so early now. Some nights it 6, tonight she made it to 6:30 and its like she was about to fall asleep in the high chair. Monday night she fell asleep at 5:30 and was out for the night. I read a book on healthy sleep habits and naps and have tried to be consistent about her sleep schedule and it seems to hold true that she is a happy baby when she gets her rest. We're going to work on the napping this summer when I'm at home again to get her schedule a little more regular. I can't wait to be home with her soon. Only 4 more weeks of work left. I was holding her this afternoon while she napped and just thought about how thankful I am for her and all the joy she brings to our life now. Her latest thing is loving when her daddy plays - near and far with her. Remember Grover from Sesame Street playing this- Heth has come up with his version and Abby thinks it is funny. She smiles and laughs. She loves her daddy!

Mondays are always hard..

Lately Mondays are the hardest days for me. I long for more rest, even after the weekend, and also just want to be home with Abby. This past weekend I gave a baby shower for my friend Laura at our house. Laura and I have been friends since Jr. high school as well as suite mates and roommates when i was at Carolina and after I moved back to Charlotte. So, I am so excited for her and really wanted to give her a great baby shower. I worked so hard this weekend trying to prepare and make sure the house was just the way I wanted it. I have noticed that whenever I have showers or invite people over to our house I have a strong desire to decorate and do things I have been procrastinating. Saturday was just busy, I picked up around the house, went to Costco to pick up the various food items for the shower, went to Lowe's for flowers and plants for the yard, made my chicken salad croissants, made tea, went back to Lowe's and bought curtains and mirror, went to Target to pick up some things, back to Home depot to pick up the curtain rods that Lowe's didn't have, picked up Abby at my mom's, then took care of Abby and got her ready for bed, asked Heth to hang the curtains and mirror :) (it was already around 9:45 by this time) and then finally went to bed around 11. Needless to say, it was a busy day. On Sunday I got up and continued the rush to finish everything and start decorating my table and had Heth move all of the baby stuff out of the family room to the upstairs. The shower started at 2 and my friends Stacey and Erin arrived around 1:00 to help set up the food. The shower was great. We had great food, and my friend Stacey even made a watermelon baby carriage that was incredible. I will post pictures of this as soon as I get them downloaded onto my computer. So, in doing all of this on the weekend I woke up Monday morning exhausted. The last week at work was already starting to catch up with me as well as all of the nights of interrupted sleep for the past 16 weeks of my life. Don't get me wrong, I can't complain, Abby is a great sleeper. Last night she slept through the night and has been doing this off and on for the past week. But, the adjustment with working, since school starts for me at 7:15 and I usually get there by 6:40, has been really hard. Some days I just wish I could sleep all day. Those of yous who are moms out there know exactly how I feel. Furthermore, as I woke up yesterday I was so tired that I seriously did not think i was going to be able to make it through the day. I found myself almost on my knees asking the Lord to give me strength. I was yearning for the word of God to fill up my spirit and give me the energy I needed. I turned to an old devotional book that my mother bought me before I went to college. I can't tell you how many times I have gone through this book and every time I open the pages it seems to apply to the current situation in my life and God speaks to me. The verse for Monday was Psalm 3:4. "I cried unto the Lord with my voice, and he heard me out of his holy hill. Selah". I learned that Selah is the Hebrew musical word for "rest", a "pause", "a lifting up". This reminded me that in times when i need rest I can pause, lift my prayers up to God and He will refresh, renew and help me to rest in Him. I was amazed that even when I get busy and don't always put God first in my life, He still seeks me out and wants me to find peace and rest in His presence. This was a refreshing thought that helped me get through my hard Monday. I am so thankful for the loving, giving, merciful, caring God that loves me unconditionally even when I am so far from being my best for Him. God continues to use Abby's life and my new realities to teach me more about His love for me and draw me closer to Him everyday.