Reflection: Weeks 8-14.

It's that time again, Reflection.
Advocacy
I'll start out with the advocacy project we did. Although this wasn't my favorite project because usually I try to stand clear from politics and that sort of thing. I grew up where politics brought out the worst in people, all that disagreeing and arguing. My family apparently doesn't believe in the phrase "Let's agree to disagree" Besides my sappy childhood memories, the advocacy aspect of this class helped me with taking that last step into the operational phase for the things that I have come to care about most, such as air and water.

Photo-essay
The photo essay was one of my favorite projects. It wasn't the same old, same old write a 1500 word essay and I think that's a big part of what got me motivated. It was something different to experience and try. I have always had an interest in photography and this project allowed me to express that interest but also express what I care about.

Junk
The junk project I think was my favorite. I loved seeing everyones projects and ideas and plan to try some of them. While searching for a project to do, I discovered several other projects that I am going to do. Some projects I am doing for Christmas gifts to family and friends. This project helped me discovered new ways to recycle, renew, reuse, and upcycle.

Share and Voice
I'm glad the share and voice gave us an opportunity to share any subject we wanted to that was environmentally related of course. It was interesting reading other peoples' topics and ideas. It gives us to teach the class and hear other opinions.

Overall, the last half of this semester and this class as whole has been one of my favorites. Thanks to all that have made this class great!

Share and Voice: Color Crayons.

For our last share and voice I decided to share a project that I will do one day. This project will especially be helpful or useful when I children someday. Before I show a picture of it, I will explain what it is. You take color crayons that you have left over from you children or if you don't have children yet I guess you can go buy some. You glue them onto a canvas board or maybe just a board you have laying around. Next you take a hair dryer and blow the hot air onto the crayons. The crayons will melt and drip down the board. You can use all one color or make a rainbow. The result should look something like this:

Source: Uploaded by user via Andrea on Pinterest

Then if you want you can add simple objects or designs such as the silhouette in this picture. I love this idea, great project to do with kids as well.

Advocacy Project: Letter to an Elected Official

December 9, 2011

Sean P. Duffy

House of Representative

1208 Longworth HOB

Washington, DC 20515

VOTE NO ON H.R. 97—FREE INDUSTRY ACT (INTRODUCED IN HOUSE-IH)

The proposed issue will have a major impact on people worldwide and the environment. The bill is requesting that the Greenhouse Gases be taken off of the Clear Air Act. If this bill were to pass, it would be a huge mistake, as we are trying to improve our environment from the damage we have already and currently are causing.

As a student in an environmental health class I have become more aware of issues that are going on in the world, especially in the United States. And although we have made great strides in trying to improve our environment by becoming more consciously aware and implementing new ideas and programs, taking the Greenhouse Gases off the Clear Air Act, I feel, would set us back.

A supporter of this bill might say that industries are capable of regulating what toxins are put into the atmosphere or that Greenhouse Gases aren’t responsible for Global Warming. A supporter may even go as far as to say that Global Warming doesn’t even exist. Although there may be evidence to show that Global Warming isn’t occurring, there is stronger evidence showing that it is.  Glaciers are melting, leaving certain animals, such as the polar bear, without a habit to live in adequately.  

I appreciate you for taking the time to listen. I hope to see that you care just as much about the environment as I have become and vote “no” to H.R. 97. If I can provide anymore information, please feel free to contact me at 555-123-4567.

Andrea Volinkaty    

Share and Voice: Pinterest.

For this Share and Voice I was on a website trying to find ideas of what I could share with the class. Then it hit me, I'll just share the whole website with everyone. This is for those of you who haven't yet heard of Pinterest.

It is a website where people are free to share or "Pin" ideas, laughs, photos, quotes, etc. And I must say, it's addicting!! It's along the same idea as Stumbleupon or reddit. I have discovered and tried numerous ideas and/or recipes to upcycle, reuse, or create at home recipes for every day house cleaners and even make up remover. So everyone can get somewhat of an idea of what the website is about here are some things I have discovered:

Source: 9gag.com via Andrea on Pinterest

These are used bottles that have been painted. Great for a kids project or to do with nieces and nephews.

Source: Uploaded by user via Andrea on Pinterest

For the ladies, this is an old paper towel holder that has been painted and is now used for bracelets.

Source: janedeereblog.blogspot.com via Andrea on Pinterest

These are used beer and wine bottles that have lights in them and hung outside for decorations. Perfect for college students!! haha.

Advocacy Project: Fact Sheet

Greenhouse Gases and Global Warming

Facts from United States Environmental Protection Agency

What are Greenhouse Gases?

Greenhouse gases are gases that trap heat from the sun in the atmosphere causing the atmosphere to slowly keep getting warmer and warmer, causing Global Warming or Climate Change.

What are the types of Greenhouse Gases?

The major greenhouse gases that enter the atmosphere because of humans are as followed:

·      Carbon Dioxide (CO₂)- Carbon Dioxide does occur naturally along with being created by human activity. Carbon Dioxide enters through the burning of fossil fuels (oil, natural gas, and coal), solid waste, trees and wood products, and also as a result of other chemical reactions, such as manufacture of cement.

·      Methane (CH₄)- Methane enters during the production and transport of coal, natural gas, and oil. Methane is also emitted through the waste of livestock and decay of organic waste in municipal waste landfills.

·      Nitrous Oxide (N₂O)- Nitrous Oxide enters the atmosphere during agricultural and industrial activities and during combustion of fossil fuels and solid waste.

·      Fluorinated Gases- Fluorinated Gases are synthetic, powerful greenhouse gases that enter from a variety of industrial processes. Fluorinated Gases include, hydrofluorocarbons, perfluorocarbons, and sulfur hexafluoride. These gases are usually emitted into the atmosphere in smaller quantities, but they are considered High Global Warming Potential gases because they are so potent.

What are the effects of Greenhouse Gases?

Greenhouse Gases are causing Climate Change. Some of the effects of Climate Change is temperatures are rising, ice sheets are melting, oceans are rising, flowers are blooming earlier, snow is melting sooner, and birds aren’t flying as far south as before. These effects cause other effects such as, more powerful storms, more flooding and more droughts. All of these change habitats and lives causing animals to have a harder time finding food and maybe even threaten their species.

Eye Opener: Photo Essay

For this photo essay I decided to do it on how the school helps with reducing plastic bottles.

One of the things the school does to help is sell water bottles as an alternative use.

Another thing the campus has done is put in water fountains that only specifically fill up water bottles. In the upper right hand corner is counts the number of plastic bottles we have kept from using and putting into the environment. 

The last thing I found that the campus does to help was recycling. All over campus there are recycling bin for plastic bottles. 

The UMD Campus has and is becoming more Green. All over you see different ways recycling bins, new water fountains, and water bottles.

Advocacy Project: issue overview

The issue being addressed is to amend the Clean Air Act to provide that greenhouse gases are not subject to the act.  This is also saying that the greenhouse gases don’t affect global warming

Bill Number and Name: H.R. 97—Free Industry Act (Introduced is House-IH)

This bill would affect society as a whole. We would be the ones to lose if this bill gets passed and we would lose the privilege of having clean air. The people who don’t believe that global warming is happening would be the ones who gain from this. It would give them more evidence to help their theories.

The consequences of this issue are the same for individuals, their families, and for society. People may stop caring, worrying, and trying to prevent global warming affecting everything and everyone.

There is one group that supports this bill so far and that is American for Prosperity. Some of the groups who oppose this bill are OMB Watch, Sierra Club, Natural Resource Defense Council, Clean Air Council, Health Care without Harm, etc. The common that both support groups and opposing groups share is they are passionate about global warming. Both groups can contribute to advocacy efforts by just helping make aware of the issue, not to tell their sides. 

This bill hasn’t been in the community long, it was first introduced in January of 2011. The last action was February 1^st, 2011, House Committee on Energy and Commerce: referred to the subcommittee on energy and power. There are no results yet.

An economic cost would be that global warming would get worse faster because no one would be trying to prevent it and society would bear these costs. An economic benefit would be that there wouldn’t be so much money spent on plug-in cars, solar systems, etc. Society would also benefit from this.

A barrier addressing this issue is that there is strong evidence saying that these gasses are causing global warming. This barrier, however, can be overcome by finding evidence that is against global warming.

Some resources that will be needed is the level of these gases that are in the atmosphere.

My recommendation: Vote No for Bill H.R. 97- Free Industry Act

Share and Voice: Eco Trend.

This week for Share and Voice, I went to youtube and typed in environmental issues after watching several videos, I finally found that I not only agree with but like. Along with this video I am sharing the website of the people who made the video. The video is about our usage of plastic bags and how its harmful for our environment.
Here is the link to the video:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CJ-ox6kzwTk

The website is called Eco Trend Bags. It's an organization trying to sell cotton bags for people to in replacement of plastic ones.. I looked at some of their products and I love it. They sell the regular cotton bags that everyone carries their groceries in but one thing I thought I was really cool was that sell cotton bags for wine bottles to go into. Usually wine bottles go into paper bags which isn't as bag as plastic but if you buy more than one bottle they put all the individual bags into a plastic bag. These cotton wine bottle bags have handles so no need for the extra plastic bag. I also find the wine bottle bags would make a great gift, my step dad drinks wine like it's water, so since the holidays are arriving, it's a great idea!

Healthy People/THOMAS

The objective I chose from Healthy People 2020 was Outdoor Air Quality. Poor outdoor air quality is said to be linked to premature death, cancer, and long-term damage to the respiratory and cardiovascular systems.
H.R. 97---Free Industry Act (Introduced in House-IH)

Title: To amend the Clean Air Act to provide that greenhouse gases are not subject to the Act, and for other purposes.

Sponsor: Rep. Blackburn, Marsha [TN-7] (introduced 1/5/2011) Cosponors (125)

Lastest Major Action: 2/1/2011 Referred to House subcommittee. Status: Referred to the Subcommittee on Energy and Power.

Recommendation: Vote NO  for H.R. 97 Free Industry Act

My Political Representative: Congressmen Sean P. Duffy

Share and Voice: Rain Made By Lasers?!

Usually IF you find me on CNN I'm attempting to understand and keep up the latest news on political debates and what's happening over in Iraq and Afghanistan. This time, however, I was looking up topics on environmental health to share with you guys! The topic I found is about a French physicist named Jerome Kasparian, who is testing a method on making rain with lasers. If you are like me the first thing you will be asking is "Is this even healthy, for us and/or for the environment?!"
This method is called Cloud Seeding. From what I understand and according to the article, the old method (chemical seeding) consisted of shooting particles of dry ice or silver iodide into the atmosphere. The water molecules would then cling onto the particles and form rain. Cons to this method is it is expensive, doesn't always work, and the chemicals in the atmosphere are easily spread by winds. With the laser method, they are sending short light pulses containing watts of energy into the atmosphere, verses chemicals. The pluses would knock off electrons creating charged atmospheric particles which would then make it easy for water molecules to cling to. Using lasers is more accurate, can be aimed more easily, and can be turned off and on at any given time. This process can not occur in dry climates. 
In my opinion, what's the point? I suppose it would help in areas that are low on water but as stated in the beginning of the article places like Texas, who have been hit by dust storms due severe drought, it seems pointless because it doesn't work in dry climates anyways. I also feel that messing with nature brings on other consequences that we haven't even thought about yet that could be worse than just having dry climates. I feel that even though the articled never mentioned any hazardous effects of using lasers, there are still effects that could happen. 
What do you think?

Advocacy Project: My Political Representatives

This week we are exploring who are political representatives are.  For our state legislators and governor I decided to do the state of Wisconsin. I currently live in Minnesota and plan on becoming a Minnesota Resident again but seeing that I'm still a Wisconsin Resident and that the majority of the class is from Minnesota, I thought I would change it up and do Wisconsin.
We all know that the President of the Unites States is President Barack Obama and although you can't directly contact him, you are able to send the White House an email at this website. The congressmen (Senate) for Wisconsin is Herb Kohl and Ron Johnson. You can contact Senator Kohl by email via this website and you can contact Senator Johnson by emial via this website. The U.S. House Republican is Sean P. Duffy. The State Legislators are Senator Robert Jauch and Representative Janet Bewley. Senators Jauch's contact phone number is (608) 266-3510, Representative Bewley's contact phone number is (608) 266-7690. Both of them can be emailed at this website.
The Governor of Wisconsin is Scott Walker. You may contact him by phone or email. The phone number is (608) 266-1212 and the email is wisgov@gov.state.wis.us. The closest thing I could find to the Sawyer County Board President was the Sawyer County Board of Supervisors. The head Chairmen is Hal Helwig, there was no contact information but there was a website. The Mayor of Hayward, Wisconsin is Bill Swintkowski, his address is 10686 Beal Avenue  Hayward, WI  54843, his phone number is (715) 634-4198 and his email is bjswin@cheqnet.net, all of this information can be found at this website. 

Reflection: Weeks 1-7

The first half of the semester is over and I still feel like we just started. I'm still learning and getting use to this blogging idea and all the assignments that go with it. I have come to find that this class is very quite interesting. All the conversations we have had about the government and the environment and especially snack time! I haven't had snack time since seventh grade, and I learned that I have missed it! The most significant thing that I have learned and that has impacted me the most is watching the movie Tapped. After watching that video I literally went home and finally went through my cupboards and got rid of all my processed foods, such as chips, mac n cheese, pasta side salads, etc. I also did some informing to my roommates about the big Culligan water jug they drink out of. I don't think it changed their minds, which is okay, but they were happy to listen. I'm excited to start this new chapter in my life of eating healthier and better foods. I have also decided that I'm going to start buying more local foods, such as beef. To help support our local farms. This class has helped me realize a lot and I think it should be required for all majors. I have some friends who won't drink anything but bottled water or pop, and I feel that me explaining things to them isn't as much of an impact as if they were to actually take the class. I'm excited to learn more in the second half of the semester.

Eye Opener: Junk on the Brain

As defined by Wikipedia, antiquing, although there are several meaning, is a shopping activity. And an antique is an old collectable item.  Junking is defined as discarded material, some of which may be reused in some form, this definition came from a free online dictionary. Also defined by Wikipedia, a flea market is a type of bazaar or merchandizing area, where inexpensive or secondhand goods are sold. Also using the free online dictionary, a thrift shop is defined as a shop that sells used articles as to benefit a charitable organization. About.com defines upcycling as the practice of taking something that is disposable and transforming it into something of greater use and value. I couldn't find an exact definition of a resale shop but the free online dictionary, defines resale as the acting of reselling something. Also when I typed in resale shop definition into Google, a bunch of thrift store popped up. So I think I'm save to assume that a resale shop is similar to a thrift shop, in that it resells used items.
These terms have to do with environmental health because it's all about recycling and/or reusing. It helps the environment to reuse old items so big corporations don't have to go through making new and improved ones and releasing potentially hazardous toxins into the environment, although its still happening, it helps. And the more people who reuse and recycle, the need for new and improved decreases.
A local antique shop called Antique Boutique is located on 357 Canal Park Drive Duluth, MN 55802, their phone number is (218) 529-7667. Jadco Special Haulers Inc. is a junk yard located on 4011 Rehbein Road Duluth, MN 55803. Their phone number is (218) 724-5538. There is an annual flea market on the second Sunday in August located at Lake Superior College 2102 Trinity Road Duluth, MN 55811. This organization is state wide so there is no phone number but you are welcome to email them. A common thrift store in Duluth is Ragstock located on 9 west Superior st. You can contact them by phone (218) 722-1201. I couldn't find a store that provided just upcycling products but I found a website with a list of stores that sold upcycled furniture. The are several named stores with contact information on the website for anyone's use. Dannie Duluth is a consignment shop located at 932 E 4th st Duluth, MN. You may contact by phone (218) 724-8507.
Back in my hometown Hayward, WI there is also an annual flea market every summer. Although I don't go every year, I have gone before with my mom and have shopped around. I have also made good use of Goodwill which is another consignment store with several locations. I have gone antiquing before with my mom, and it is one of my least favorite childhood memories, although I may enjoy it now.
"It's a Salad Spinner" It is a big round piece of metal being used to hold salad ingredients on a table and it spins! Avoiding the problem of having people to pass the salad. I grew in a family where entertaining was a big thing. Having big family holidays and parties on the weekends for our closest friends. This would be great for a big family dinner. It's easy and there is no passing the salt or butter. I also find it cool that the bowls fit into the holes in the metal, I didn't even realize there were holes in the metal until I looked at the side pictures. Another project I absolutely love is the this organizational window. I'm all about organization. I think this is not only cool and creative but a very well use of an old window frame. I'm a lover not a fighter, this next project I also love. It is called "Must me L-O-V-E!". They are wooden blocks painted red and then the designer added a dictionary page with the definition of love on it to the blocks. I like this as a great decorative piece.

Eco-Chic Lifestyle Change: Week 5

My SMART goal is to eat 3 servings of fresh vegetables everyday. And well this week, once again, wasn't any better than last week. I have been having some troubles with  my teeth. I started eating regular food sooner than I should have and I became swollen all over again, so I was forced to go back to eating applesauce, yogurt, and pudding, ick! As of today I have resorted to eating soggy cereal because if I have to eat one more spoonful of applesauce I may actually throw up! To deal with this challenge I have been looking and researching a little bit for ideas of soft and different meals that I could eat, especially ones have some sort of vegetable in it. If you have any ideas let me know! This week I learned that when people tell you it's going to be "awhile" before you can eat solid food again, "awhile" doesn't mean 4 days, it literally means "awhile", like a week or two.  I also learned that I need to be a little more patient with these kind of problems. Healing is a long process, in words of my mother and roommates "You have to remember you had your gum tissues cut open and four, rather large, teeth yanked out, you are NOT going to be healed in a week!" Darn it!! I will keep my plan the way it is. My plans for this next week is to do some deep research on meals that are soft and nutritious and if worse comes to worse, I have a blender!

Eye Opener: Environmental Working Group

The product I chose to find on the Environmental Working Group's Skin Deep Cosmetic Safety Database was the shampoo that I use which is Garnier Fructis. The health concern for my shampoo was moderate, which isn't THAT bad but after looking at some of the facts and ingredients I did get a little freaked out. The first two ingredients  that were the highest scored in the hazard concern was the fragrance and some chemical I can't even pronoun but after reading a little bit it sounds like the chemical is Formaldehyde. Although reading about the hazard scoring about my shampoo, I'll probably stick to buying it. I like my shampoo and I feel like no matter we do these days, there are going to be health concerns or risks. It does, though, scare me that there is formaldehyde in my shampoo.

Eco-Chic Lifestyle Change: Week 4

My SMART goal is to eat 3 servings of fresh vegetables every day. This week achieving my SMART goal was very very difficult. I had one big challenge this week, and really no successes, to be completely honest. The one challenge I had was on Thursday I got all four of my wisdom teeth pulled so I have had to eat extremely soft foods. I'm still having trouble eating "normal" foods. I feel like I have failed the project, because I haven't been able to eat hardly anything. It's frustrating and annoying. I miss eating regular foods. I try everyday to eat "normal" foods but it doesn't last long because my jaw starts to hurt, but I'm going to keep trying everyday. I guess the lesson I learned this week is to always brush and take care of my teeth, even though it was my wisdom teeth, not like rotten teeth, but I never want to get teeth pulled again. I enjoy eating solid food too much. My plans for next week is to make up for this week and go ALL week long without slipping up. I will continue with my goal, I can do it!

Eco-Chic Lifestyle Change: Week 3

My SMART is to eat 3 servings of fresh vegetables everyday. Achieving my goal this week was difficult once again. Some successes I had was making sure I ate 3 servings of vegetables daily fresh or not fresh. There wasn't really any strategies that came into when making sure I ate 3 servings daily. But some challenges I had was making sure I had fresh vegetables around the house. This time it wasn't so much that I was leaving to go somewhere, like going home last week, it was more I've been really tight on money because I had car issues and bills to pay and everything just seemed pile on at once money wise. I decided that for this week just the 3 servings of vegetables daily would be better than eating 1 serving of fresh vegetables daily. I felt a little disappointed in myself when I wasn't able to eat fresh vegetables but like I said I figured just eating vegetables in general was better than nothing. I learned this week, and not with just this assignment but I learned in general that I need to manage my money better although some things, like car troubles, I can't help. My plans for this next week is to come up with a budget plan. I will continue with my SMART, I am determined to complete this challenge.

Eye Opener: CSPI

Some of things I learned after reading the facts on all the different components that go into raising and killing cattle are that cattle suffer health problems from a diet that is high in grains. So far in my career of learning about nutrition is that grains, especially whole grains, are very good for you; so it surprised me that cattle actually get health problems from eating too much. I suppose, though, too much of anything is bad. A couple more things I learned was cow manure is equivalent to 33 million cars' carbon dioxide and that manure lagoons break open and spill during a storm or something. One of the most shocking facts I think I read though was that there are far more antibiotics given to cattle than to people! That's a lot of antibiotics.
My results from the Eating Green Calculator were that 2.8 acres are used for growing grain and grass in order to feed the cattle, 58.9 pounds of fertilizer are used to grow the animal feed, 0.3 pounds of pesticides are used on the fields, and 17,732 pounds of manure is produced from the cows. The number of acres and pounds of fertilizer and pesticides doesn't sound like a lot to me, but the number of pounds of manure produced sure surprised me. I can't even imagine that amount of manure. I wasn't able to see the results after clicking "Click here to improve your diet and protect your environment", therefore, I wasn't able to see and decide on the pledge.
After scoring my diet, some foods that gained me points were eating extra-lean beef, fat-free dairy, fruit, vegetables, and whole grains. Some foods that lost me points were eating high amounts and/or low amounts of beef, chicken, egg, milk, cheese, and ice cream. The area in which I need the most improvement on is environment. One thing I can do to improve is eating more organic foods.
To me this means I'm a bad influence, bad influence on the environment and I believe it. I know that some of my actions cause harm to the environment and there are actions I can take to help improve the environment but at the same time I feel like I can only do so much. Although I can maybe buy some organic items such as meat and milk every month, I can't afford to buy all my groceries organic because after all, I am a poor college student. I do, however, plan to do more when I can afford to do so.

Eco-Chic Lifestyle Change: Week 2

My SMART Goal was to eat 3 servings of vegetables everyday. The first few days of starting my SMART goal went really well. I ate some fresh green beans, green peppers, etc. I then went home for the weekend and ran into some challenges, that set me back. A challenge I faced was on Saturday I went to Cranberry Festival in my home town, I was there from 9:30am to 6:00pm and the only food available to for me to eat was either burgers or hotdogs. There wasn't a whole lot of options for vegetables. Solution could have been that when I got home at six was to just eat all three servings but that caused another problem/challenge. Because my house is now used as our cabin and my parents are only up there on the weekends, they don't keep fresh vegetables around. In replacement of no fresh vegetables I ate canned vegetables (which I know aren't as healthy) and recycled the can, so I got in most my servings and still kept it Eco-Chic by recycling. What I learned this week was to plan for different environments, such as traveling home. My plans for this next week are think ahead and what my plans are and try and figure out how I'm going to get my three servings of FRESH vegetables. I will be keeping my SMART Goal as is.

The results of my Ecological Footprint came out to be that if everyone lived like me we would need 4.4 earths to provide enough resources. I'm surprised because I actually thought I would use up a lot more "Planet Earths" than the results said I would. I feel like I use a lot more water and energy but then again the quiz didn't calculate the amount of water or energy I use, it just wanted to know if my house had energy or not. I think if the quiz calculated the exact or estimated amounts I would use a lot more resources. Some ways I could reduce my ecological footprint would to drive less and car pool, walk, or take the bus more and definitely use less water. Some examples would be, take shorter showers, turn the water off when I'm brushing my teeth, etc.

Eco-Chic Lifestyle Change Week 1: My SMART Goal

My SMART Goal is I will eat 3 servings (serving = 1/2cup) of fresh vegetables everyday. I chose this SMART goal because I wanted to do something that was not only good for the environment but good for me as well. I started out wanting to eat less processed and packaged foods but I had to narrow it down and be more specific. I thought about doing fruit but fruit, for me, would be too easy because it taste a lot better than vegetables. I needed to find something that was going to be a challenge but yet doable. My goal is eco-chic because I will be buying vegetables that aren't pre-packaged or in a can and that are crisp and fresh.

Welcome to Fun in the Sun with Andrea

Welcome to Fun in the Sun with Andrea

My name is Andrea  and I'm studying Community Health Education. Something I love to do is to be outside in the sun biking, hiking, or just being a beach bum. This blog is going to be about having fun outdoors, under the warm sun while being environmentally friendly! There are 5 possible types of posts on my blog. They Include:

1. Advocacy Project
2. Eye Openers
3. Reflections
4. Eco-Chic Lifestyle Change
5. Share and Voice

If you notice at the bottom of this post, the categories will be listed as labels. This post has been labeled with all five kinds of posts. You will also see the number of each kind of post in my Labels Gadget at the top of the page. All post titles from now on will begin with one of the categories above.

The members of my web group are:

1. Amy and Kristen@Enviro-Surfing with Amy & Kristen 
2. Sarra@Sarra's Notes in Nature
3. Jamie@Jamie on the Big Lake
4. Caleb@Caleb Cares About Contamination 

You can follow my blog by clicking "Follow this Blog" in the gadget column. You can see my complete profile and all the blogs I am following by clicking on "See Complete Profile." I hope everyone learns to have just as much fun in the sun as I do!