Esprit Adopt a Family

Gifts have been pouring in for our Christmas 2010 Adopt a Family! You can't step into my office without smiling :) So if you need one today, come on over to 131.

All gifts have now been snatched from the wish tree! If you are still wanting to purchase a gift for our family, please consider a grocery store or restaurant gift card, or something nice for mom. Our kids each have 14 presents to open! Awesome.

The Adopt a Family committee will be delivering gifts to the family on Friday evening. I have spoken to the mom several times and she is beyond appreciative for our help and super excited for her kiddos.

Esprit thanks you for making our 2010 Adopt a Family project a huge success!

DCE Adopt A Family

DCE has adopted a family for Christmas 2010!

A single mother, age 25 with 4 young children. Macaiah is 9, Jacqueline is 8, Zionna is 7 and Yadun is 4.

Here is the plan:
1. Starting November 23 you can go to room 31 and take 'wishes' from our wish tree.

2. Shop! Shop! Shop!

3. A wrapping station will be set up in room 31 December 13 - 16 for your convenience. Don't want to wrap? Student & Faculty Services will do it for you!

4. December 13 - 17(NOON) Drop off your gifts to room 131 (Stud/Fac Svcs)

The committee will deliver the gifts to the Flint Hills Breadbasket on December 17 at 3:00.

When you choose a 'wish' card from the tree, keep in mind that some of the wishes are more expensive than others. Feel free to take several cards or choose to find a friend to go in with you on a larger ticket item. Sizes will be indicated on your wish card.

Here are some of the wishes for our family:

Macaiah is 9 and he wishes for a new bible, a new coat, gloves & hat, used xbox 360 or wii games, mp3 player. He likes collecting rocks and spy stuff. His favorite colors are blue, red and green.

Jacqueline is 8 and she wishes for a new bible, some fun make-up, arts & craft items, a karaoke machine, mp3 player. She is a girly girl who loves iCarly & Hannah Montana. She would like a pink rug for her room, a pink coat with gloves and a hat to match. Her favorite color is pink and loves glitter. (my kind of girl!)

Zionna is 7 and she wishes for a leap pad with math games, arts & craft items, mp3 player and a new bible. She likes the Backyardigans and Tinkerbell. Her favorite color is purple and she would like a new purple rug for her room, a purple coat and gloves. (Cara's kind of girl!)

Yadun is 4 and he wishes for anything that lights up and is noisy! He loves Cars, especially Lightening McQueen. Tonka trucks and matchbox cars are on his list, along with a new fleece blanket for his bed. His favorite color is blue and red, and he could use a nice warm coat for winter.

Mom's name is Katrina. She doesn't wish for anything for herself, but likes anything that smells nice for the house. She would be very grateful for anything for her kids and a gift for her would be relief from her grocery bill. I will have Dillons or Ray's gift cards as an option on the tree for Katrina.

Let's make this a wonderful Christmas for our breadbasket family!

Fall Planting

Fall planting is complete :) We took out the tall reddish plants on the sides, replaced those with purple mums. Petunias are gone, fresh mulch has been laid, and you might even see a few little pumpkins out there too!
We put fresh mulch at the center tree, and planted three mums under our new sign. If you are part of the circle garden crew, please feel free to transplant these somewhere else when you are ready to plant the circle garden. We had three extras that we were unsure of what to do with and thought they would be a nice touch by the sign.Thanks so much for the fall planting contributions. I'm amazed at how our DCE employees will take out of their personal wallets to make our courtyard awesome!

Take a minute & visit our new fall garden!

Happy Fall Y'all!

Fall weather is here, which means our lovely petunias are just about to die :( But we are now on to fall mums! I think our garden would look awesome with some purple mums to fill in the spaces where the petunias will be dug up.

Eventually I hope to get the garden to a point where we don't have to keep putting our money into it, but for now, I'm needing to beg for some donations!

If you would like to contribute to our fall planting efforts, you can do that a few ways :

Bring you cash (or check) donation to Suzy in room 131.

Buy a mum or two the next time you're out & about (purple please), any size is ok, and bring to the front of the building.

Planting day is Tuesday, October 5 from 1-5. Join us for planting if you can!

Garden Update

We have been maintaining and enjoying our garden all summer. The grasses are filling in really nicely, and the plants up front are growing so tall we have to cut them down about once a week!Here is a new pic of our front garden. Have a great weekend!

Sprinkler Anyone?

Hopefully you have had a chance by now to step away from your desk and peek out at the front garden! The grasses are doing well, the purple lily's are blooming this week, the petunias are spreading and the rose moss is blooming yellow and pink flowers :)

One request - If anyone has an old sprinkler they no longer need, or if you happen to see one at a garage sale....I could really use one to help with the watering. Our garden fairy donated the money for a timer, so I would like to set a sprinkler out there on a timer instead of watering by hand.

I want to take just second to thank our generous DCE employees who donated their personal funds to buy the plants for the garden. We are enjoying them everyday!

Have a great weekend everyone!

Phase II

Pedicures destroyed, chiropractor appts scheduled ....... but the front garden is done! (for now) I think the plants that were chosen will fill in great through the summer, but we may add more later as needed. For now, we will focus on taking care of the ones we have.

Dark purple lilys are in the middle, with some yellow on the sides to tie in with the other lilys on the side of the building. The front of the garden will be the only thing we have to replant every spring. All the other plants will come back year after year!

There are still a few opportunities for people to have a space if they would like one! Over on the side, there is a small garden by the back door that a little bit of grass has been planted in, but 1/2 of the bed is empty. That bed could use some love if someone would like it. Dillons has plants 50% off now, so it wouldn't cost much to get that one going.

Under the stairs on the side is just screaming for some vica vine and mulch! That would be easy for someone to do - just water it until it gets established and it will take care of itself from there.

Here is the new and improved front of College Court!

Phase I

Phase I is complete....7 hours later....the front garden has been weeded, grasses planted and ready for the pros to tell us where to go next. We'll be getting a design from Blueville early next week and we'll see what we can do. We still have a ton of work to do, but we're getting there!

Linda & Dedra planted the back triangle garden yesterday and more planting will be happening over the weekend!

Thanks to everyone who brought plants today! We didn't have enough workers to get all of those plants planted, but we managed to plant lilys on the side of the building, a few things in back and on the side of the building.

Thanks ladies for the food as well! Just what we needed at break time!

Check out our new humming bird feeders on the front tree :)

Green Teams

Our gardens are assigned and our tools are ready!

Here is the plan:

Front big garden - Peggy, Erin, Suzy, Ruth S., Dawn (Janice helping with ornamental grasses)

Side garden by parking lot - Tracey

Circle garden under the tree in front - Barb N., Melinda, Rosemary

Triangle garden in back - Dedra, Linda M.

Transplanted or purchased plants can be dropped off:
Thursday, June 3 or Friday, June 4 by 9:00 am.
Bring your plants to the courtyard on the side of the handicap ramp. We'll have a sign. If you are bringing transplanted plants from your garden, thank you!

Team plant shopping day:
Friday, June 4 starting at 9:00 am
Your team will be able to 'shop' in the DCE plant shop. First come, first served so if you want the pick of the liter your team should be there at 9:00 am

Team workday:
Friday, June 4 or Saturday, June 5 (your team can choose)
Your team is responsible for tools & mulch to make your garden beautiful!

If you would like to help with any of the above projects, please get with one of the team captains to join in on the fun!

Garden Update

Just wanted to let you know a few happenings today on the garden projects.

Sue has adopted the garden outside of the Dean's office. She planted some Vinca vine there over the weekend and will take care of getting it established.

Facilities will be coming over this week to weed the front garden and laying mulch next week after we are done planting. So that is something we won't have to spend money on :) This team is going to wait to see what Facilities does this week and go from there.

Where have the hoses gone?! We only have a few hoses. There is a short one connected at the front of the building and Sue also has a short one. On planting day, please coordinate with your team to see who could bring hoses to water your garden. (teams will be decided Wednesday)

Let me know if you have any ideas for us as teams/gardens are being set up. We hope to have everything looking spiffy in time for the Provost to visit!

It's time to plant y'all!

No flowers in College Court?! pfft, we can't have that! The Green Team has met and we have a plan!

If we all pitch in this won't be such a big task and might even be some fun! :)

We have several seperate beds around CC that are just begging to be cared for!

If you are interested in helping, please read below and then shoot me an email. We will be dividing the interested parties into teams and assigning an area.

However! If you have no interest in getting your hands dirty....monetary donations can be made to be put towards the large bed up front. That bed needs serious help and we anticipate needing to purchase plants & mulch for that area.

We have a garden fairy (who wishes to remain a secret) who will be helping with the expense of the large front bed, but your donations would be appreciated. You can give at any time - drop off to Suzy.

The plan of action ~
Teams will be assigned an area of CC by Wednesday, June 2

Transplanted or purchased plants can be dropped off:
Thursday, June 3 or Friday, June 4 by 9:00 am.
Bring your plants to the courtyard on the side of the handicap ramp. We'll have a sign.

Team plant shopping day:
Friday, June 4 starting at 9:00 am
Your team will be able to 'shop' in the DCE plant shop. First come, first served so if you want the pick of the liter your team should be there at 9:00 am

Team workday:
Friday, June 4 or Saturday, June 5 (your team can choose)
Your team is responsible for tools & mulch to make your garden beautiful!

After your plants have been planted it is your team's responsiblity to nurture and care for your garden throughout the summer! Wonder who's garden will be the best? hmmmm....