vanilla is better as ice cream than as a shot, and unpacking standards is much more involved than unpacking a suitcase!

so...went on a walk yesterday morning in the beautiful 70's weather and we were in walking-heaven.

had to get a pic-they had a neat look about them, and it reminded me of something.

when i lived in costa rica for a year (5th grade, when mom and dad were going through language school), chris (girl) and i used to go to a little park and she showed me these weeds that you could pull the 'berry' off and pull the stem out along with some fibers that went through the middle of it, and make them into beads for bracelets and necklaces. i thought it was the coolest thing ever!

we also made cookies at her house one time and i distinctly recall her setting out the vanilla for the dough. well, i guess i'd not made cookies with mom yet, because i looked at the vanilla and thought, "hmm..i like vanilla!" (ice cream). i may or may not have taken a small swig while chris was looking the other way and gagged a little. no worries, i never did that again.

back to yesterday-we went up to the office later in the afternoon to say goodbye to jessica our office girl. sad day. the boys have grown quite fond of her because she loves to get down and play with them.

then i ran some errands-had to swing by lakeshore to pick up borders and fade-less paper! and the best part was when i got up to the counter and paid with my gift card, i only had a balance of like 1 dollar and change!!

and i learned that one of my friends-mere- who is not a teacher recently joined the cult out in cali so she could become a laminating queen! welcome aboard, i'm sure your sister is proud! (she teaches, right? do they have one of these in la-the state?)

of course, since i had only spent $1 and some, i obviously had the misguided notion that i was rich and lucky, so i crossed the street to bed bath and beyond. fortunately i knew exactly what i needed and i did not tarry. 

remember how i brought another pallet home? well, it took awhile but i decided on a design; it was probably the most time consuming one i could choose because i had to tape it out and move tape and what not, but i think i like the result. all that's left is to paint the back boards-there are 5. i am trying to decide what color to paint them. i thought white at first, but i am now leaning toward yellow, green, blue, orange and red-or white...any thoughts? then i think i'll sign it on the 2nd board from the right at the bottom (red, white and blue-gotta' love this country!) it took about three evenings (because i had my wide brushes at school, and was alternating between two, which meant waiting until they were washed and dried to re-use. i finally broke down and went to get some yesterday).

and this morning i was kicking myself (all the way out of bed) for saying that i would go to this curriculum alignment training-thing down in south america...ok, well...south of hwy 30...(i've told you a hundred and fifty million thousand times not to call me an exaggerator)

it would have been REALLY cool if i had actually looked at the time instead of assuming (love that word) that it would start at 8 am. and of course i left early to have a cushion for being lost or having traffic...i did end up having to stop at quicktrip to put air in my tires

well, needless to say, i got there early. best seat in the house. i chose the back corner. it was actually a really good training. all kinds of terms were thrown around-align the curriculum, unpack the standards, create dol's...if you ever get to go, do it! susan walker provided an excellent presentation.

cute tables.

at one point we had to get up and go into the hall with a mixed group of people and come up with lists about a section we read from a packet, and the instructions were to come up with as many points as possible. and we were off to the races. and when we were told to stop, we counted them up and then read them off out loud for the group. well, my group had the most, but some lady from group 4 had the audacity to look at me and say "it's all about quality." blah blah blah. in my mind i was thinking, "we still won, yo!" and then we were given a prize for winning-added bonus!

i would not have been so excited were i not teaching science this year!

so, all in all it was a good day and i learned some things. the problem with learning things and liking them and knowing in my heart that they will improve my practice as a teacher is that it is always something that is going to be time consuming and a slow, long process! grr, but in a good way?

julie