SO proud of my gals!

No, I'm not dead! I've just gone from being sick for a week with a stomach virus (only two days of actual virus-ing, the rest was an overblown recovery time!) to recruitment and now I'm sitting here putting off things I need to do...

I'm so proud of my girls, I can't begin to explain it! Here are some shots from recruitment and Bid Day when we met our 25 AMAZING new members!!

Danielle and Poel at the door for Open House

Walkway in for Open House

Goofy Chapter after Open House

Poel, my AMAZING VP Membership Recruitment and I after Sisterhood

Girls at the door for Sisterhood-- EmJ, Marie, and Katie mug for the camera

The girls went to Piedmont and took some BEAUTIFUL pictures to put on the wall!

Kentucky Derby Theme...

TOO CUTE!

This is Hannah, one of my advisees, doing her best Stepford Wife impression

Me and Diana after Sisterhood-- she is TOO FUNNY

Philanthropy Banner

Welcome Home!!

Chapter after Philanthropy

Balloon Party!

Kristen, Yasaman and I are stuck in the elevator!

Danielle and Poel before Preference

Gamma Sigma Alumnae at Preference

Chapter in Rose Formation after Preference

Vanessa, Jessica and Jessica with the Bid Day Bags

We're going 90's this fall!

Getting ready for Run Out

Chu-Chu with the Alpha!

Alumnae, New Members, and Collegiate Members!!

It was a long, hard, and stressful week for all of us but it paid off in the end-- our phenomenal new members are excited about AOII and we couldn't be happier to have them!

Fall 2011 Pledge Class!

Storm Chasers!

I don't know how many of you watch Storm Chasers, but we're pretty big fans! We LOVE extreme/severe weather! Yes, it's a double edged sword-- frequently people and property are harmed and families lose loved ones and means of living, BUT the Storm Chasers who do it for research are doing a great service to us by learning more about how these storms form and how to predict them.

Fermbank Museum of Natural History is right up the road from us and they are a real TREASURE! They have so many awesome exhibits, recently they've had Geckos and Water, and now at the IMAX they have a Storm Chasers film called "Tornado Alley"-- we haven't gotten to see it yet, but plan on fitting it in. I was lazing around one day on Facebook and noticed the Fernbank page had a picture of the TIV-- THEN I noticed that Fernbank HAD the TIV! The TIV is the Tornado Intercept Vehicle and is SUPER cool! Sean Casey, the IMAX film guy, helped design and build this thing to withstand severe weather so they can get awesome IMAX footage and scientific data!

Rear shot of the TIV

IMAX Camera Turret

Side shot of the TIV

Cameraman's chair

Me and Marcus Guttierez-- the TIV's driver!!

Imagine driving this thing! And yes, that IS a light switch from a house!

Birthday Celebrations!

Our friend Rob got tickets to Gaelic Storm at the Variety Playhouse-- it was AMAZING! 

Definitely a great way to start my birthday!

First Snow!

Snow dusted porch one way 

 Token shot of a wrought iron candle holder

 The Wind, it is a-blowin!

 Snow dusted porch

 I ran out to take a picture in the middle of the road and it started snowing as I pressed the shutter!

 My shadow towards Oakhurst village

Ankle deep in snow and it started all over again! So worth the chilly feet!

"You should get a bonus for this!"

The first week of after school has gone so much better than I could have ever hoped! I'm keeping my fingers and toes crossed that this is an indicator for the rest of the year!

Monday was tiresome, as mentioned in my last post, but we didn't have trouble with the schools and none of the kids were weirded out about getting on the vans.

Tuesday was OK, we did have one of our UMCH kids scare another child in his group in to having an asthma attack, but she was so impressed with my response ("Miss Meg got my breathing treatment in like two seconds! She's awesome!") that thankfully it didn't put her out on playing or after school. I also had a parent tell me that she's never seen it this organized, that she loved my parent handbook, welcome letter, and wish list and that I should get a bonus! Talk about an ego booster :D

Wednesday and Thursday went by pretty smoothly, with not a whole lot of remarkable things to pass the day. Sarah and I have gone ape on getting the place organized and ready for the school year, and I've started writing up a list of goals for the program. I'm almost done staffing, and it looks like a good group of kids coming through! We even have a kid named Bruno who doesn't speak any English only, get this, PORTUGUESE! He's super cool, and is learning a little more English every day and my friend Megan helped me learn a few phrases in Portuguese that kinda weirded him out at first, but I think he appreciated it. He's had a lot of fun with the counselors, each of them trying to figure out what the other's asking for, it's pretty hilarious!

Today was great, it ended with a huge storm and more parent compliments. My entire enrollment is up 30% in a recession!! while other programs are struggling to make ends meet. What's that you say? Reasonable prices, quality service, and an awesome staff made this happen? Why yes, yes it did.

This weekend we'll be back in the office working, but gotta make them dollaz while we can!

Aminals! (aka photo spam)

We went to the zoo on Wednesday! Zoo Atlanta is a really awesome zoo, loads of animals, really helpful staff, and we had a blast! So, here's your photo spam for the week :)

Very cool British guy who told Ellie and Emily about the hornbills Zazu and Gumbi. Thanks to Zazu, I had Lion King songs stuck in my head all day!

Milky Eagle Owl-- he was HUGE!

and really pretty!

Zoo Atlanta has lots of bronze statues around, they're all beautiful!

Keeper Talk at the Elephant pen

Taking blood for the weekly physical

PANDA SLEEP!

PANDA SLEEP! (in tree)

Herow

Komodo Dragon sleeping in the shade

Maclain and Mikinzi taunt the rattler

The rattlers pile up and conspire

The Orangutans were the hit of the day!

This guy was up on the highest point in the habitat playing "Thinking Man" most of the afternoon!

Red Panda

panting in the heat

"Screw you guys, it's too loud, I'm going to my crate."

Sun Bear

This guy saw us taking pictures and started posing

Juveniles playing

Waiting for food

Keeper comes up on top of the building to feed them

The big guy gets first dibs

Willie B, Atlanta's most beloved animal! This statue's dangerous, though-- bronze is such a good conductor that during a freak lightning storm about 10-15 years ago four kids were electrocuted!

The fat one up front was just sitting there staring

Entrance to the Parakeet Cage

They're watching you

She was stripping the vegetation off the branches and munching-- I think elephants are fascinating!