MOTW - Jul 8 - Jul 14, 2012 - NatureLady

[Jenste]

This weeks MOTW is NatureLady!

Can't wait for tomorrow to start learning more about you!

[DC101]

Well done Natuelady! Congratulations!

[Jenste]

Monday, tell us all about you! We know you obviously like amphibians, but we want to know about the rest of your life. Details about you, your life, hobbies, families, past times, favorite colors, poems you have written etc etc....just use this post to brag/boast/bore us how you please.

[NatureLady]

Thank you for the nomination! I am beyond honored to be here so here goes nothing.

Monday, tell us all about you! We know you obviously like amphibians, but we want to know about the rest of your life. Details about you, your life, hobbies, families, past times, favorite colors, poems you have written etc etc....just use this post to brag/boast/bore us how you please.

We let's see...

I live in Northeast Oklahoma or as it is called green country. My area is the foot hills of the Ozark Mountains, so we have a very diverse area including grasslands, forest, agriculture, plenty of lakes, and you guessed it TREEs (hence green country). I have lived in this corner of the state for my entire life and it has shaped me for who I am today. I grew up as the only female born in my generation, with two brothers and several cousins that made it very hard to play the normal young girl games of house and barbie. I grew up chasing frogs, snakes, and all the other creepy crawlers that lived in our yards. I remember chasing my parents newest friends son around our yard with the toads that I had just found, because he squealed like a little girl. I also kept a zoo as a young child and kept logs of their feeding and cleaning schedules. Lol

As I went into middle and high school I was a band dork, yes laugh now...super band dork! I played flute, saxophone, drums, and any other instrument that my director would allow me to use. I decided that I wanted to be a band director and pursued that as my very first college degree. I went off to college and quickly found out that living and breathing music made me sick! I hated every single moment of it. I also found out that being one of the best at my local high school didn't add up to much in college. I moved back home after the first year and decided I needed a new plan. I planned to stay at home and just work, but my parents had other plans and forced me back into college...thanks mom! I had no plan, nothing about college sounded fun after the first year. So I did your regular run of the mill liberal arts degree. I took every kind of class under the sun, but as my biology corse I took (to my advisors amazement) Zoology. I not only did well, but I did great and found my true passion again. My two year college turned into a four year university and started offering biology degrees. First was nursing (I hate people things, surgery channels make me puke!) and then they offered Conservation Biology...ding ding ding...We have a degree! Loved every moment of the degree, every step in the field, and almost all of the lab work. I graduated as one of the first Bachelors of Science Environmental Conservation majors. My father still to this day gives me hell about having a BS degree, such a crack up he is.

I worked at a vet's office through college as a tech, office help, and kennel girl. BUT, I got my first REAL job at an outdoor classroom as a educational assistant. Our classroom was 120 acres of trees, grasslands, wetlands, and ponds. I educated young and old as a supplement to any kid of classroom curriculum or scout badge. My first full year on the job we educated 35,000 people between two employees. We also kept all of the grounds, trimmed 4 miles of trails, and all the manual labor you can think of! YAY, not really. IT has been my hardest paid job to date, but the rewards outweighed the bad. I had a mother tell me after a program that she and her daughter had learned something that would change their lives. Amazed, I had to ask exactly what I could have said to do this. She said, "as we sit around the wetland and listened to the bullfrogs and toads sing and you taught us about it, my daughter leaned over and told me that she would no longer be afraid of those scary sounds at night...she NOW knew they where just frogs and toads singing and talking to each other!" An amazing moment in my career!!!!!!

I no longer work at that job, but I still do the same thing. I now work as a Park Naturalist at Grand Lake's only nature center. My facility is 3,000 square feet and I keep museum mounted specimens (taxidermy), native live animal exhibits, programs for anyone who wants to schedule my time, and coordinate volunteer's in our park. We just finished the longest fourth of July weekend of all time. I did programs dealing with water, because it has been well over 100*F, with a heat index of almost 110*F, and enough humidity to make you feel like you need gills to breathe! I still do a lot of education, but my target is mostly tourist's who are terrified of snakes, spiders, and they are ALL amazed that I will handle that gross tarantula or snake!!! I simply tell them I am the only employee of the nature center and who else is to do it...they usually shiver with disgust. My absolute favorite educational thing I tell people is how a frog or toad drinks. I ask them have they ever seen a toad drink water? They usually say NO and then I ask them have they ever seen a toad sit in water. They say yes and then the I lean down to the littlest kid and ask them to show me where they sit. When they point to their bottoms, I tell them that a frog absorbs it's water through it's seat patches and never drinks water with it's mouth. Then I have to clarify it by simply saying, YES they drink with their butts!!! Best thing to teach an adult too! Then we talk about why it is important to keep water clean and so on! I really enjoy the faces of people as they learn new things about our world and environment.

My biggest job in life is raising my two beautiful little girls. My oldest, Abigale, will be turning 6 this coming sunday and my youngest, Zoe, turned 2 at the beginning of June. They keep me more then busy and they for sure keep things interesting! Abby is shaping up to be the best little naturalist and Zoe is at the phase where bugs are creepy crawly thingys, we will convert her soon enough! We spend a lot of time outside, mostly swimming this time of year and my oldest is learning to ride her bicycle. I always carry plastic jars and things to catch animals with and we learn about them, observe them, and then quickly release them back into their homes. I also love to cook and I just finished putting dinner into the crockpot (so we can swim later and I don't have to slave over a hot stove, lol) ranch potatoes with montreal chicken legs, drool now, it smells amazing!!!

I'm pretty boring outside of working and raising kids, so I think that I am done.

[BlueisallIneed]

Congrats NatureLady! Thats so great to learn about you and your career path! I would kill to work at a zoo, but I only have a degree in Visual arts. Went for Nursing but the 2 year waiting list changed my mind. I am too old to wait around to fight with 18 year olds to get in haah Can't wait to hear more about you and your little ones kids and pets hah

[NatureLady]

Congrats NatureLady! Thats so great to learn about you and your career path! I would kill to work at a zoo, but I only have a degree in Visual arts. Went for Nursing but the 2 year waiting list changed my mind. I am too old to wait around to fight with 18 year olds to get in haah Can't wait to hear more about you and your little ones kids and pets hah

Yeah, nursing is a tough degree to keep up with. I have known plenty of people drop it and decide to do something different. I am very happy that I am able to do what I do. If only the pay was as rewarding as the feelings I get when I do my job!

Oh and if you couldn't tell, I talk a lot!!! hahaha