Win an IPOD touch!

Like FREE stuff?

Make it a summer to remember and win a new 32G iPod Touch! 2nd generation!

Winning is much like living at our property ... SIMPLE!






Just write a blog and e-mail it to me at asstmanager@thepreserveop.com. I will post all of your entries right here on our community blog.

Between now and Septembner 30th any resident that writes an article for our blog will be entered to win the iPod Touch.

Never written a blog? Here are a few ideas for what you could write about...

Favorite place to visit?
Your favorite reality TV show?
Tell us about your hobbies?
What's your favorite sandwich shop?

You can write about ANYTHING! As you can see, my blogs are very RANDOM. One winner will be chosen from all blog entries submitted at each of our KC communities.

We have only had 1 resident from The Preserve at Overland Park post a blog so far so that means there is still a GREAT chance to win! Call the office with any questions!

Good luck,
Melody

Hi .. My name is Melody and I am addicted to Caffeine

I love soda. My favorite is probably Mr. Pibb or Dr. Pepper. I know it's bad for me and I shouldn't drink so much of it but I almost have to wonder and here's why...

I am trying to cut back and haven't had any soda for the last few days. Not a drop. I am doing my best to try and drink lots of water. Crystal Light has become my new BFF. My saving grace has probably has been that my 13 year old son doesn't drink soda. He certainly didn't get the water drinking habit from me but I am so glad that he doesn't because it makes it easier not to have it in the house. I have never drank coffee so that makes this much easier I suppose. But last night I woke up with the worst Charlie Horse ever. I thought that Charlie Horses were caused from being dehydrated. If I have ever been hydrated, it is this week so that doesn't make sense to me. After talking to one of my favorite residents today, she told me that the reason that I am having the cramps is because of lack of caffeine??? Huh?

She said that since I haven't had any caffeine that my body is pulling from my muscles. I guess that makes sense but I need more information to validate that. I googled "Caffeine" and Wikipedia gave me 29 pages of reading for this evening. So I guess I will update you on what I find later but wish me luck.

Until next time,
Melody

What exactly IS the Farmers Almanac?

So often, after moving here from Florida, I always hear people talking about the "Farmer's Almanac" and the prediction for the winter we are going to have. I never really knew what they were talking about and haven't given it much thought. But after this SCORCHING summer we've had, I decided to google it. I wanted to see what the prediction for winter was from this "famous" Farmers Almanac.

What I found out is that the predictions will not be released until the end of August. HUH? I thought the Farmers Almanac was written LONG ago by some old wise man? Goes to show how much I know. It's written annually by just a normal guy. How does he know what the winter is supposed to be like any better than the meteorologists on the local news? And why does everyone give him so much credit? (If you could only see the confused look on my face right now?)

Wikipedia says ... The Farmers’ Almanac publishers are highly secretive about the method used to make its predictions, only stating publicly that it is a "top secret mathematical and astronomical formula, that relies on sunspot activity, tidal action, planetary position and many other factors." They also said that independent studies have shown that their predictions are no more accurate than just chance.

I guess we will re-visit this again in a couple of weeks and see what the prediction is but let's hope that after the ridiculously hot summer we have had, that we will be blessed with a long and beautiful fall and a very mild winter. One can dream right?

Until next time,

Melody :)

Annual Pool Party

Our annual pool party was this past Saturday, if you missed it then you missed a GREAT time! We had over $1,000 worth of gift card prizes to give away. We sold raffle tickets to raise money for Feeding America and collected can foods for them as well.

Every year Fogelman Management Group picks a charity for it's Fogelman Cares program. This year it is Feeding America so every Fogelman community will be doing their own fundraising to raise money for Feeding America. If you actually take the time to do some research you will see the statistics for the number of people that rely on food banks to feed their families each month. Feeding America cites 37 million Americans. That number blows my mind and makes me sad to think about all the food that goes to waste each day from restruants and such. It is my opinion that we should have a way to pool all of those leftovers together and feed these people but of course, that will never happen. Bottom line, I think it is an amazing charity and if you are able to help please visit their website to find out how... http://www.feedingamerica.org/

Now onto the reason I wrote the blog, I wanted to say a HUGE THANK YOU to each of our sponsors for donating gift cards and items for our party. I figured I would list each of them and give credit where credit is due:

Signature Landscaping
MC Flooring
Buildwiser
Furniture Options
Dezube Miller Law Firm
Imo's Pizza Overland Park
Blue Beetle Pest Control
HD Supply
Don Ernst Farmers Insurance
Design Source Flooring
National Credit Systems
Matt North Farmers Insurance
Time Warner Cable
Apartment Finder
Great Day Moving
AT&T
CES Carpet Extractions
Thirty One Gifts
Scentsy
Mi Ranchito

We would like to thank them again for their continued support! And if you didn't make it out to this years party you will want to make sure you attend next year. We get better each year!

Until next time,
Melody

Back to School for the Olathe School District

For residents of The Preserve at Overland Park, the exact back to school date will vary depending upon what grade your student is in. School starts for grades 1-6 and 9th grade on August 15th. They will attend a ½ day of school. EVERYONE starts for the entire day on August 16th.

So summer is over next week. :( Seems like the last day of school was just a few days ago. This means I have to start getting up earlier too. No more waking up at 8:00 AM. School starts at 7:50 AM so now I have to start setting my alarm back to 6:45 AM. Ugh! But I have to put on the happy face to get my son excited about starting school. YAY! --> Did you believe me? ;)~

If you have more questions, you can visit the Olathe School District's website at http://www.olathe.k12.ks.us/.

You can download the calendar for the Olathe School District at http://www.olathe.k12.ks.us/aboutus/calendars/district-calendars.