My last advising legacy - RSA and No Frills 2012

Most of you know that I work in student affairs - the land of student development on college campuses. Part of my job at Delaware was advising student groups, including the Resident Student Association. With me leaving University of delaware for Temple, one of things that I was most proudly helping the group with was bidding to host a small conference (No Frills)  next Jan. 2012. It was already planned for me to go to the conference to support them but my students had no clue I was coming. During the weeks leading up to the conference, I skyped in and consulted with the group on their bid. I even went to their meeting the next before they left to show them my support and wish them luck. Little did they know I was going to be joining them in a few hours. 

At 3:30am Kyle Griffith, my fellow co-advisor and friend, came and picked me up. I hid in the back of the mini-van as we went on to pick up all the students. The first student picked up was Marisa (the NCC). She had no clue I was in the van. I just kept quiet as she talked about the conference preparation. Then we picked up everyone else and as they opened the doors I popped up. Marisa was shocked to know I was in the car the whole time. Everyone else was happy to see me and have me come along. Then off we went to the Philly airport to fly into Dayton, OH to be driven to Ocford, OH to Miami University campus, the site of No Frills 2011. The other advisors in the region knew I was coming, since I had communicated with them. I was also presenting as well with my friend, Kevin Gates from Bowling Green. 

There was one more thing that the group was doing at No Frills: submitting a bid on my behalf for Advisor of the year. With so many bids going on, tension was high. The group did wonderful presenting and it was announced a the banquet that Delaware would be hosting No Frills 2012. Though I didn't win advisor of the year through CAACURH, I was so happy and proud of my advisees. My legacy will live on within each of them. I wish them good luck as they plan forward to next year's conference. 

Kyle and me - co-advisor, co-conspirators, friends forever!

The winning team!!!!

Videos of Luka kids

Here are some clips of the Luka kids over the past few months. Enjoy!!

Luke and Carlita dance it up!

Swim Lessons for Carlita and Luke

Jumping Cousins on the Trampoline

Carlita singing in St. Thomas Little Lights group, April 3, 2011

Flowers and Flat Stanley - March 15th weekend

So winter has been tough this year. Lots of snow and coldness. Finally we are getting some nice weather here. On one day it was 70 degrees. The kids and I started our garden out back and were so excited for spring to be here. We went to a local park where we met up with one of "mom" girlfriend and her kids. Carlita is helping out with a "flat Stanley" project so he came along as well.

The next day, I had purchased tickets to Longwood Gardens from Groupon so one Sat. we all went off to the gardens. It wasn't as nice as the day before but still nice. They have a very nice outside kids' garden but with the weather nothing was in bloom. We did get to be "queen bees"

The inside garden is amazing. Carlita took hold of my camera and went crazy. She took amazing shots of the flowers. So much to see but our favorite is the Children's garden. The kids got to play around in water and all type of things. Then we went out side to the treehouses. Again amazing designs and so much to see. So we're ready for spring to come - please come fast!

Click here to see the pictures of our adventures to Longwood Gardens. 

Life off campus

It's been a while since I've last posted. With all the transition of a new job, home, and life there really hasn't been a moment when I could have sit down and write.

There's been alot happening. We survived our first month living off campus. We really are having $$ shock with the cost of paying for electricity and random other items. We had a huge snow storm which caused us to be snowed in with no power. Then we had a clogged toilet and had to get new tires on Karl's car. To say the least, the plan to save money for buying a house has diminished. We're still hoping to do so in April but I have little hope on this now. We may just have to rent for a year in a house closer to my work.

Work has been good - I'm adjusting to a new campus and culture. I'm trying to figure out how to gather all the pieces of my job from others who have been taking care of it since no one was in this position for a while. I really enjoy the campus, students, and the people I work with. The commute is the hard part with roughly 40 hours a week is spent traveling. That's alot on my body. I leave my house usually 5am to go work out, catch the train by 7am, and get into work by 8am. Then work work until 4:45pm and catch the train back to Newark, getting home (hopefully) by 6:45pm. I leave and return in darkness. Now that daylight savings time has occurred, there's still light when I get home which makes it better but not really. I prefer to get home no later than 6pm so there's time for dinner and play. Karl has been so flexible and amazing with this whole situation. He really has taken on the "stay-at-home" role. He stills works (usually 1-9pm) but the kids stay with him in the morning and all day Fridays. They do trips to museums, the Y, and the library. Everyday when I get home there's new art projects and stories of their adventures. O how I wish I could be with them.

So we're adjusting to this new life. I'm missing my flexibility and ease of my Delaware job. I miss my family and homelife but hopefully we can move and improve our situation.

Breaking News: Sickness overcomes the Luka family

Everyone, and everyone has caught whatever it is that now resides in our home. Last week when Carlita was off with her tia, she threw up four times. In my office there's been an awful stomach bug going around and people have to take one to two days off. "Not me.. I won't get this.. I never get sick" I told myself. This past Wednesday Luke threw up twice. Poor baby. That should have been a sign.

Then at 4:30pm at the end of my work day I wasn't feeling so good. hmmm... what's up with my belly? Off to the bathroom. Hmm... I'm not feeling so hot. By the time I walked from my office to the train station (10 minutes) I was sweating and ready to pass out. I had to lean against a sign to hold myself together. My friend, co-worker, and fellow blogger, Gina (aka hiyaluv) was with me and asked if I was okay. No I wasn't. 10 minutes into our train ride home I threw up badly! I was so lucky to have a box of food that I was taking home for the family to hold all that puke. Really it was disgusting! And then I passed out and Gina had to wake me up when we arrived in Newark. Somehow I drove home, walked into the house, and was in bed by 7:30pm. I spent the time sweating and hoping for no re-occurrence. Instead, I spent quality time with my friend, the toilet. My intestines were so loud that you thought trains and planes were going by. Really so disgusting! The next 36 hours I stayed home from work. At moments I was fine, nothing wrong so I would eat food. No that was a big no no. Next minute I was back with my BBF for at least an half hour.

So now it's Friday night and I think it's over for me but you know what ... Karl just threw up and is having a cheating relationship with my BBF (actually you can have her Karl I really don't need to see her again for a while). It's all quiet in the house at 9pm and I'm ready for bed. I really hope Karl is the last one to have this bug and we can have a good weekend. Otherwise, it's going to be a long weekend.

I'm moving on up... to off-campus!

hello everyone. It's been an exciting and exhausting two weeks. After the New Year, I had my last three work days at the University of Delaware. It was mostly spent working on helping the RSA (Resident Student association) group prepare its No Frills bid (and Advisor bid). I had last meetings and a final farewell from my department.

then I started my new job on Jan. 6 at Temple University in Philadelphia, PA as their Asst. director of Residential Life overseeing staff recruitment and development. I am so excited for this new job and working at Temple. My first day was spent meeting with HR (and getting benefits all set up), spending some quality time with my new supervisor (Kevin Williams), and picking up the colors for my office (yellow of course), and RD training. The next day I actually spent time in my office trying to get my computer set-up which I had no luck because its a Dell desktop - yikes... I haven't had one of these since 1998. Then the following week (Jan. 10-13) I was in retreats all day. We had RD training (setting them up for a successful RA training), and then the Division of Student Affairs retreat, and lastly RA training. I have met amazing people and am so lucky that I did come in at this time so I could make connections faster than another time of the year.

But the really big day came on Friday, Jan. 14th when the moving truck came to Ray St. and moved all our stuff to our new rental home in Landenberg, PA. It really was amazing to see all our stuff placed into a truck and moved. And yes we have way too much stuff between the holiday boxes and kids' items I'm a bit overwhelmed by it myself. Our stuff takes up half of the car garage. Other items went into the house but not alot since the house is fully furnished (okay my clothes, shoes, and purses and I guess some kids' stuff and o hey Karl's one box of stuff).

We slept for the last time on campus in our Ray St. apartment. We have little things to do like clean and laundry and then we're off to set up our new home. It's definitely going to be weird not to be driving to a residence hall or being around college students all the time. It's going to be weird the silence (okay... not so much because we do have Carlita and Luke). but it's going to be weird to open a door and not have that instant community. I have mixed emotions about it - I really do enjoying living on campus - the energy and the pulse but after 18 years I guess it's time for me to give up my college ways and move off.

So good bye Ray St. Good bye on- campus life. Good bye UD. Hello new life!

Things to do with kids -Surviving Winter break and countdown to New Year

The week after Xmas, as a mom, you are excited and fearful of what to do with kids. Really you love them but they are a handful. It was also a week of no work, and I really wanted to enjoy doing things with the kids since with my new job I'll have less flexibility to be with them. I started planning out what we would do everyday to keep these kids entertained.  If we stay indoor, they will go crazy (as they did on snowy Monday). It was just too windy and cold to be outside - we couldn't even make a snowman. Karl tried to take them outside - they were able to go down the hill once before rushing back inside. The rest of Monday was spent keeping kids entertained, drinking hot cocoa, and watching kids' shows.

On Tuesday, Dec. 28th, we went to the Delaware Natural History Museum for Dino Days. There were lots of activities for kids to do around Dinosaurs. They got to dig for fossils, take dino pictures, touch fossils, and act like dinosaurs looking for food in a stimulator. We enjoyed it so much that we signed up to be members. It's a nice small local museum for those rainy days. Went home for afternoon naps (only Luke who slept until 5:30pm). Carlita and I played and packed up more stuff. In the evening, had dinner as we watched kid shows (i.e. Word World, Dinosaur train, Curious George) and of course Cars, Luke's favorite movie. We introduced him to this movie over Thanksgiving and now we see it everyday (we only see the beginning and the end since he only wants to see the racing).  Then it was bed time!

 On Wednesday, Dec. 29th, we headed up to Strasburg, PA to go to the Choo Choo Barn. I got a 2-for-1 admission coupon through Tropicana Juicy Rewards (we drink alot of OJ in our house). Love free coupons. I thought this would be fun for the kids, especially Luke who loves trains. And it was fun! The Choo choo barn is a huge room of miniatures, with trains going around and so many different elements to look at. there was a ski lift, circus, a replica of Dutch Wonderland, a parade, and even a fire that was put out by firefighters. Luke so wanted to get into the trains so we went upstairs to a store all about Thomas the train. I purchased a holiday video that came with a little Thomas which satisfied the little boy. Carlita got a fairy for herself and by noon we headed back home. On this day Karl came home early from work so he stayed home with the kids for the afternoon as I went for some post-Xmas shopping at Ronny's. I'm excited to have another tree to decorate next year. I returned home and we all went out to eat at Cici's pizza. Ate way too much food but it was so good. Home for an evening of kid shows and sleep time (though Carlita struggled getting to bed).

On Thursday, Dec. 30th, we headed out to Pump it up, a local indoor bouncy playroom. What a blast we had. It was really packed but it was worth it. Luke loved jumping up and down and Carlita was up and down the slide so many times.  We liked it so much that we purchased a frequent return card so Karl can take the kids every Friday in Jan. this is what we needed to do with the kids - bounce them out of all their energy. When we drove home there was silence and then no complaining about lunch, and Luke went down for his 4-hour nap in a snap. Carlita was calm all afternoon, while we did our mails, play a game of "jail" (a game she invented - something along the line of seek and you should be jailed), laundry, and playing. Once Luke woke up, we went to the local teacher store (since they have a Thomas the tank engine table there) and played for a while. The evening was our usually: PBS shows, dinner, bath, Cars, and nighttime. Luke has a really bad rash which isn't making him too happy.

Friday, Dec. 31st:  The last day of 2010. What a year it has been so it end it all we met up with my sister at the Port Discovery Children Museum in Baltimore, MD. We actually are members there but haven't been there in a long time since we just go to the new Delaware Children Museum in Wilmington, DE.  We got there at 10am, which I'm glad we did since it was getting packed. They were having a countdown to noon so there were lots of families and children. Luke immediately ran off into the huge sphere thing they have as well as Carlita. We didn't see Sandra and her family (Mike, Sofia, and Ruth - Mike's mom) for at least 20 minutes due to the kids doing their own thing. We had a blast there, did the noon countdown, ate lunch, and then headed back to Delaware by 2pm.

Once back in town, Luke went down for a nap, we watched shows, made dinner, and went to bed at 9pm. Actually I fell asleep with Carlita so Karl had to wake me up for the midnight countdown.

10-9-8-7-6-5-4-3-2-1~~ Happy 2011 New year~~~ We ate our 12 oranges pieces and grapes, broke the coconut out in the street, and drank sparkling cider. Carlita woke up due to the loudness and we were all in bed by 1am. Luke slept and slept until the next morning. What a boy and what a family we have!