# General Topics > Member of the Month >  MOTW - Jul 8 - Jul 14, 2012 - NatureLady

## Jen

This weeks MOTW is NatureLady!

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

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## DC101

Well done Natuelady! Congratulations!

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## Jen

*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.

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## NatureLady

Thank you for the nomination! I am beyond honored to be here  :Frog Smile:   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  :Smile:  

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.

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## 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  :Smile:  Can't wait to hear more about you and your little ones kids and pets hah  :Smile:

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## 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!  :Big Grin: 

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

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## BlueisallIneed

I have actually been in the medical field for 8 years! I wanted to advance my career from being a medical receptionist. My dream job actually years and yearsssss ago was a tattoo artist haha. I love to talk and I love photography too  :Big Grin:

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## Jen

*Tuesday*, tell us about your amphibians. How you came to keep them, mistakes/learning curves, species kept, breedings, how you found Frog Forum etc....we heard enough about you on Monday, let us hear about them frogs!

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## NatureLady

*Tuesday*, tell us about your amphibians. How you came to keep them, mistakes/learning curves, species kept, breedings, how you found Frog Forum etc....we heard enough about you on Monday, let us hear about them frogs!

How did I come to keep frogs? I was given a grow a tadpole kit as a child and raised a wild type African Clawed Frog.

Mistakes/learning curves? I make mistakes all of the time and I learn every time I log into this forum. I think know it all's are annoying! I will be the first to admit that I make mistakes. My biggest since being here...I used colored paper towels for a photo of my new babies and it was pointed out that was bad. I really thought non-toxic ink would be ok...well duh, for me it is...I felt like an a**. I really enjoy reading the build threads, even though I have not completed a full GS build. I am quietly in progress on my first, at work.

Amphibian Species Kept? On this day I care for...1 Australian White's Tree Frog (Pimby), 1 American Green Tree Frog (Kermit who is a girl). At work...1 Grey Tree Frog, 1 Dwarf American Toad. In the past I have also kept a Tiger, Spotted, and Dusky Salamanders, Spade foots (my favorite W Oklahoma Native toad), Narrow Mouth Toads, Cricket Frogs, and I'm sure I am forgetting a species somewhere.

Other Species Kept...I'm going to post photo's tomorrow of some of these guys  :Smile: 

Breeding? Lol. Not currently, but I have to add this one for you guys. When I was a kid and kept that zoo I spoke of yesterday, I caught two toads stuck together. Mind you I was under 10. I was baffled the next morning as to what had happened. That was a learning curve!!!!

How I found FF? I have been abscessed with terrarium building for a few years and now that my kids are getting a bit older I started building them again (small ones). Then I started researching how to make the displays for work better for the animals and public. BOOM...Frog Forum. I then decided I wanted a viv and then I started the research on what was out there in pet land and what my stores had local. I found a exo terra on craigs list, a WTF local, and boom here we are. :Frog Smile:  My other half calls FrogForum...my frogp*rn because I am always on here looking a threads and photo's of everyone's babies.

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## DC101

Another great read Amanda!

I don't like "know it alls" either.  :Smile:

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## NatureLady

Thanks David!  :Cool:

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## Jen

*Wednesday*, show and tell. Wow us with your pictures/videos/sound clips.    (Most look forward to this day in particular!)

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## DC101

Oooooh, i love Wednesdays!!!

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## NatureLady

*Wednesday*, show and tell. Wow us with your pictures/videos/sound clips. (Most look forward to this day in particular!)

I have to start with my favorite subjects to photograph, my kids....

...How could I not include these pictures!!! These are from the 4th of July  :Yankee: 


The next set is of my animals I keep at home!

Sorry, all of these where taken with my phone. I admit that I have a problem...I can never remember to charge my camera battery! Oh and I love the instagram app for iphone. 

These are some of my animals at work...

I know, one photo isn't mine, but a great photo of my sulcata that was dumped at the nature center. Well he wasn't dumped as much as tossed into my yard, over the 8 foot fence. Other species are...Eastern Collard Lizards (OK state reptile), Albino Corn Snake (also a dumped animal), Coachwhip, Tarantula, Rough Green Snake (without a tail), Living bee hive, 5 Lined Skink, Grey Tree Frog, Dwarf American Toad, Red-eared Slider, the back side of Common Snapping Turtle, Hissers, Ornate Box Turtle, and 3 toed Box Turtle. I have more at work like 750 gallon native fish tank, turkey's, and I also rehabilitate injured animals.

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## BlueisallIneed

> *Wednesday*, show and tell. Wow us with your pictures/videos/sound clips. (Most look forward to this day in particular!)
> 
> I have to start with my favorite subjects to photograph, my kids....
> 
> ...How could I not include these pictures!!! These are from the 4th of July 
> 
> 
> The next set is of my animals I keep at home!
> 
> ...


Great pics! Beautiful family and animals! We actually own a sulcata,red foot,box turtles and a russian  :Smile:  we love frogs and turds hahah I would LOVE to work with animals! Its great what you do!  :Smile:

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## Will

Love the pics Amanda, so many beautiful little critters and of course a beautiful family as well!

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## DC101

Love the pictures Amanda. Might want to keep an eye on your cat, it looks like he's interested in your frog (pic 10)  :Smile:

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## NatureLady

Thanks Blue and Will! I kinda think my family is cute, LOL!!!! :Big Grin: 




> Love the pictures Amanda. Might want to keep an eye on your cat, it looks like he's interested in your frog (pic 10)


Thanks David! Yes, Kirby, loves watching all of the other animals. I often find him sitting on top of the Mantis viv. I am also fairly positive that he has visited the top of both frog viv's. But, who doesn't like to watch our frogs hunt and eat??? I don't blame him in other words.

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## NatureLady

I decided wednesday wasn't over...so here are some random nature photo's that I have taken! Enjoy.



All of them, expect the prickly pear cacti photo's, are from around my work.

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## DC101

haha, love the cactus!

Great pics!

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## NatureLady

That was along side a hiking trail in Austin, Tx. Nature graffiti!

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## DC101

Yeah, i love leaving my own mark, hoping one day someone will see it  :Smile:

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## Jen

Ah-mazing photos!!!!

OK, Thursday - time to pick apart her brain if you have any questions/comments etc, now is the time!! (Sorry about the later post - was having laptop issues earlier. )

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## NatureLady

Thanks again for having me as a member of the week!!!

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## KingCam

Really enjoyed your posts  :Smile:   Thanks for sharing your life with us!

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