County Fair, County Fair. Everybody in town'll be there.

Our third team activity was to go to the county fair, where we had to get our picture taken with a prize winning animal. Really, who can resist the county fair? We made our way down (a few times in fact) to the fair while it was open. We met up at the fair for lunch one afternoon. We got to eat the delicious fare including cheeseburgers, fish sandwiches, pork, and ice cream. After we ate, we waddled over to the livestock barn and took a tour. One of the favorite animals was the pygmy goats. We stopped along the way to pose with a few of the lucky prize winning animals.

Our first stop was with a New Hampshire hog that won Champion County Born and Raised Gilt. We also posed with the Arnholt Holstein, which was not only a prize winner, but a Grand Champion!

Won't you be my neighbor!

After our trip to the Farmer's Market, we strolled down the street to Neighborfest. Again, Annie joined in the fun. The band that took the stage was Manifest Blues Band. We spent some time listening to the band and hanging out with the team members and some friends. Neighborfest is always a great way to spend the summer nights!

We support local farmers!

Our first official activity that we completed was our visit to the Farmer's Market downtown a few Thursdays ago. One of the team's namesakes, Annie (Beth's dog) accompanied us on our venture. We walked around and visited many of the booths eying a number of the delicious looking vegetables and fruits. We were ultimately lured in by AppleWorks. Who can resist a 2 lb. Apple Danish?? We also bought some corn and since we're in Indiana, we thought it would be appropriate to capture that special "Kodak moment" with the corn.

We had arranged for a friend to come meet us, as he works downtown, but he was bit tardy, so we enlisted the help of one of the AppleWorks workers to do the pleasure of taking our photo for this task.

The Kick-off

The day of the kick-off event was June 28th. We did not have a creative mode of transportation, but we thought maybe our banner might make up for some of those creativity points. There were a lot of other pretty creative ideas done by other groups. You can check out the pictures from the event by going to the CYP Amazing Race Photos Website.

Some of our friends and family came out to support us on this adventure. We'd like to thank them!

After the kick-off, we wandered over to the CB with our friends and family for some dinner and the tapping of its first keg of beer they brewed themselves.

Getting ready for the Amazing Race

Getting ready for the Amazing Race was kind of hard. First, we emailed back and forth some clever names, such as GlitterGirls, which got several votes from non-team members. GlitterGirls would have required that we wear glitter to all the activities, which would have been A LOT of glitter. Then we toyed around with maybe using our kickball team name as a tribute (since we were champs last year and all). Our name was Holy Rollers. The name might not be what you think. We're not really holy rollers. The reason we were called that was because everyone (except one or two) were either Catholics or Lutherans. Also, most of us went to private school for elementary and middle school. So, being witty, we thought the name worked.

But, we thought about names some more, we came up with Team Spade. As mentioned before, Spade stands for the first letter of our pet names. Sadie, Pete, Annie, Dora, and Emma.

We bought some shirts and put our team name on them.

We thought about what kind of creative mode of transportation we could arrive in. You'd think with two people on the team with backgrounds in education (which supposedly is creative) we would have thought of something good. All we could think of was to arrive in a Gator or ride up on the little toy tractors. The day of the kick-off we decided we'd show up on the toy tractors, as we had access since Kelly's husband is a farmer.

We also wanted some sort of a banner. Emily and Amanda were put on that task. They went around Columbus looking like tourists with a camera in hand. They took pictures of some of the Columbus landmarks, such as the court house, Chaos I at the Commons, the Large Arch or aka the "dinosaur bone" at the Library, First Christian Church, and Tre Biccheiri (since their uncle is an owner it's a landmark to them). They also printed pictures of the team members. All of these pictures were put onto a piece of cloth, which made their banner.


Final decisions on the mode of transportation were left until the day of the kick-off because of the chance of rain.

Who we are: Part II

Let's look at who we are a little more in depth.

First, we have Kelly Glick. Kelly is originally a DeClue. She was born and raised in Columbus. Kelly went to East and graduated in 1995. Then she went to Purdue University, where she majored in Forestry. Kelly lived in Charlotte, NC for a small stint. In the summer of 2004, Kelly moved back to Columbus. She started dating Trevor Glick, who was her brother's long-time friend. They got married in November of 2005. Kelly works for Cummins during the day. She also works some nights at her dad's restaurant in downtown Columbus called Tre Bicchieri. (It really is quite delicious. You should check it out sometime.) Kelly is expecting a baby girl this coming December!

Second, we have Beth Myers. Beth hails from a small town in Georgia. She went to college at Georgia Tech. Beth moved to Columbus in 2005 with her husband, Ben, who works for Cummins. After trying her hand at real estate, she decided it really wasn't her thing. She has a love of animals, therefore, she works in a vet's office in Greenwood. Beth also has a love of NASCAR and Tony Stewart, aka "Smoke". Beth is a new homeowner and finds herself consumed of all things involving home improvement.

Next, we have Amanda Taylor. Amanda is originally a Schubel. She was also born and raised in Columbus. She went to North and graduated in 1998. Amanda started her college career at Butler University and quickly realized she didn't like the small school atmosphere. She transferred to Purdue as soon as she could. She graduated from Purdue in 2002 with a Bachelor's Degree in Elementary Education. Amanda got married to Matthew Taylor in 2004. She is currently employed at Clifty Creek Elementary School, where she is a sixth grade teacher. Amanda is also working towards her Master's Degree through Ball State as a Reading Specialist.

Last, but not least, we have Emily Schubel. Emily and Amanda are sisters (that's right, Emily's not married...the only one of the group). She was born and raised in Columbus (that makes 3 of the 4). She went to North and graduated in 1999. Emily went to Purdue, where she studied Elementary Education (it really runs in the family) and graduated in 2003. She is the Media Specialist at St. Bartholomew School. Emily is currently working towards a Master's Degree through IUPUI in Library and Information Science with a specialty in Youth Services (a certified librarian). What can she say, she loves to read!

Kelly, Beth, Amanda, and Emily have been friends for a few years. Well, Emily, Amanda, and Kelly have known each other since birth...Kelly is Emily and Amanda's cousin. Beth was welcomed into the group by Kelly's mom, when Beth worked at Tuesday Morning. Beth's husband was a substitute on the kickball team that Kelly, Emily, and Amanda played on...and the rest, as they say, is history.

They now hang out regularly at various locations throughout Columbus, including Tre Bicchieri but not limited to each other's houses.

The good thing is that they enjoy each other's company, which makes being on a team together not so hard to handle. With all of their busy schedules, the Amazing Race will definitely be a challenge, but they're up to it!

Who we are

Team Spade is comprised of Kelly Glick, Beth Myers, Amanda Taylor, and Emily Schubel. Kelly works at Cummins. Beth works at a veterinarian's office in Greenwood, but lives in Columbus. Amanda is a sixth-grade teacher. Emily is a Media Specialist (otherwise known as a Librarian) in an elementary school. Here they are (in respective order)...
Kelly
Beth
Amanda
Emily

Some of you may ask why our name is "Team Spade". Well, for starters, we have "team" because obviously we are a team. Spade, and we don't care how nerdy we sound, comes from the first letter of our pet names. S stands for Sadie, who is Kelly's dog. P stands for Pete who is Emily's cat. A stands for Annie, who is Beth's dog. D stands for Dora, who is Emily's other cat. E stands for Emma, who is Amanda's dog. Some of our pets got left out, but then the team would wouldn't have spelled anything resembling a word.

So, in a nutshell, that's our team.