sometimes early breakfast is only funny to the ones making it...

so, here's the deal, i would've worked on a post earlier, because i didn't even finish my last story...but i've been so tired the past couple of days, due to unforeseen events, which i will get into later...suffice it to say i was so tired yesterday that i considered laying down on the sidewalk in the middle of a short walk with the boys...truth, i considered it at about three different points around the fountain. and when i went to return the rental car, it was that nauseatingly exhausted feeling. i now know i need more than 4 hours of sleep per night.

but back to finish what i started!

wednesday morning rolled around, and i was still in SAT at julie and kevin's. remember how i volunteered her to make breakfast (which she was more than willing to do, because she loves her boy); so my alarm clock was set for about 5:30, i believe. when i woke up, she was not out of the room yet, but kevin said she was awake, go on in-so i grabbed the guitar from the stand to perform a little early morning serenade-because that's just what you do when there is a guitar at hand! (right?)

i think we may have been a little much for him in the morning-we were messing with his mojo-his routine! and with that, the coffee, and the bacon in the oven; which i just want to say was ah-maz-ing! melt in your mouth #neverfryingbaconagain and somewhere in the midst of waiting on the bacon and packing his lunch, there was some word that was bothersome and for the life of me, i do not recall what it was, but julie seemed to be stumbling over it, so we reduced it to the lowest phoneme possible... "G" and that was probably where the most annoying part was for kevin, because that's when we started laughing and it got silly (needless to say, it's still funny, and will never cease to be).

juan...julie JUAN-love it.

once the boy took off, we actually did sit to do some work-she had some calls to make, and then showed me how to do some things with the padlets. and we had some data to drill into from the previous day. so it was productive time. it wasn't long before we had to take off for the airport-grabbed a bite to eat first, and starbucks- sat in the parking lot at starbucks for a minute while ju looked through her funniest pins and posts and shared laughs. HA! so, i just want to take this moment to say it again, it was a joy to be able to stay with julie, kevin and bella, and 'do life' for a couple days in a family setting. they truly make my heart smile.

and the flight back was not memorable in the least.

once i got back to dallas, it was a fairly quiet couple of days. i met with nicolette on sunday after church and we went to get some doggy things for her boys-who came home with her last week. i took the boys with me, and they got to meet new friends #socialization. we found a bed for the crate, dog food and i think there was something else, but it fails me now. ah, yes!! it was party city-she had to get hair thingy-ma-bobs so they could be thing one, thing two and thing three! i did find something that i HAD to get, only i cannot post that picture quite yet. i may have found a flannel shirt at target too....just sayin'. anyhoo, when we got back to her place, i helped make some vocab flashcards, because that's what first grade teachers do! and then we headed back home.

nicolette with ALL the boys!

monday i went in to the office to make copies for our training on tuesday- of course i did them wrong.  yay, me! and no one was there really, except for cherryl (just not anyone from our dept), so i went in and chatted with her for a minute. good thing when i got to mt pleasant, jane had enough for the first round, so i was planning on going into the office again on wednesday to make some more for the thursday training. tuesday went well-it was a fairly small crowd-although big for what they've had before.

so, wednesday came (it usually does, right? anyone surprised? didn't think so), and i went up to the office, to make those copies, and to make copies for julie for austin, and grab some folders for sabrina, since i'd be seeing them. so that took a minute. suzanne was there, and she had a special gift for me...i now get excited about ethernet cables..what's wrong with me? cutting those pieces for the thursday training was a cruel beating. but hey, done. brian and lori were 'in the house' as well, and busy, per the usual, so i just did the peek in and say hey.

then it happened. wednesday night happened, and it wasn't pretty. more on that tomorrow. yikes.
tell your pets you love them tonight! (ok, your family too)
julie

so hot my car has to wear shades...

another boring day...it's saturday, and i need to go to the big store, but i decided i would wait until monday when people are at work. what is the big store? it's where adults go to buy major appliances...i need to look at some washers and driers. i've been renting them from my complex and they're kinda terrible. i have way over paid by renting them all this time. anyhoo...i need to look into that! (any suggestions of where to purchase that might have installment plans?)

i took the boys for a walk and we stopped at the office, and i had to ask jessica some questions, but i didn't get all of the answers i needed, because there were some other residents coming in and i didn't want to keep her, so i'll go back tomorrow-important things to finish discussing. they'll be looking for leasing agents i think, because one of the gals (whom i may have mentioned...a little on the snooty side) is no longer here.

i am thrilled that one of my friends (a former kamper) is moving to dallas, and i now have someone who will go to the midnight showing of the hobbit in december!!! woohoo!! i am beyond excited! i mean, i would've gone alone, we all know that wouldn't stop me, but it's just more fun with a friend to discuss points afterward!

tonight i had to stop at burger house because i was craving it...it was so hot i had to put the shades up while i waited in line! heat heat please go away...

perhaps i should invest in getting the windows tinted

 and here's another little blast from the past                                                                                   

feathered hair was all the rave...this was in our first apartment in costa rica.

up on the wall you can see a partial of an art project-a dancing senorita. that guitar-still have it. in fact, my parents had me bring it back to dallas with me this trip. and believe it or not, it's still in tune! i got it in 83 and it's as good now as it was then! this was the apartment where i felt my first earthquake tremor-things actually fell off the shelves! that was 5th grade. so many great memories about costa rica. 

in our training, the trainer mentioned an insect project from when she was in 5th grade, which really made me remember ms. gonzalez, my 5th grade teacher and the same project! only, being in costa rica, it was easy to find crazy looking insects-i had quite the variety from walking sticks to leaf bugs, beetles, etc. it was pretty amazing! good thing peta wasn't around down there!

i got to see my 

first smoking volcano

first inactive volcano

first parrots

first ox cart

first pops ice cream

first 4-square game

first monkeys owned by civilians

first time someone stole something from mom (chicken from her purse-not sure if i told that story...it was on a crowded bus)

first candy with kahlua inside

favorite friend: amy porter. more about her another day.

friend i would randomly meet up with 5 or 6 years later: milagros castro. after i moved to HONDURAS, we had a basketball tournament in el salvador with international schools from various central american countries. i was the token gringa, and being such a novelty, everyone automatically thought i must be a star bball player-could be that my hair is so blonde they figured i must be related to larry bird...anyhoo, we were at a restaurant when a girl randomly walked up and said, "julie!" and then introduced herself as my old friend from costa rica. i don't recall whose team won the game when we played them. i tried to pretend like i had a great time in el salvador, but we stayed with random families, and the gal that i was staying with didn't seem very excited about having me there. so i was like bruno on that trip-pretended it was great fun, but basically i endured it. the fact is the best part about that trip was meeting up with milagros again and catching up.

julie

toastmakers and the early bird award!

don't forget, hospitality committee needs you (if you go to cabell)..breakfast tomorrow!!!!

i haven't had a headache like this in awhile...perhaps i had my ponytail too tight. or..not enough coffee..or maybe it was just a long day.

i decided that it was probably the right thing to do to help the teacher in charge of the mlk jr oratory competition because i remember what it was like being thrown into it last year. so we were doing that stuff in a meeting today and one of the kids said something about 'i think president obama has probably heard of martin luther king jr. and he wanted to be like him.' perhaps...perhaps. and when i talked to sandra, my friend who is in charge of the after school programs, she had talked to the man from the district in charge of funding and she was trying to explain what the speech program was going to be like, sure that he would recognize the organization: toast makers. well, he didn't recognize it. mostly because she should have said toast MASTERS! smile.



by the time i left school, i decided that it was my duty to share my music with the world. it was my time to impose on the world the amazing sounds of florence and the machine. if anyone saw the voice, vicky (sp?) sang it and banged the drums, and it was invigorating.

if you haven't heard dog days are over, you really must!

this is one of those songs that gets me going. one of the other songs that really gets my blood pumping is pink's so what. anyhoo, i definitely had my music on louder than necessary, not worried about others, because if they didn't recognize the music they weren't cool enough anyway...if they did, they were thinking, 'whoa-i LOVE that song! that must be a really cool person!'

on the way out of school today, i had a conversation with the light man at school. he  said they were supposed to have the lighting done within the next couple of weeks. that'll be nice...real lights! we won't feel like we're walking under the hood of a car with a mechanic light shining on us!

did i mention that the reason i pulled out my baby book last night was to look for my 4th grade class pic because a friend from elementary school was tagged in it and one of the guys commented, 'wasn't there a julie?' (i'm glad i was so memorable in 4th grade). so one of my friends who lived close by answered that yes, in fact there was. when i saw that, it brought back even more fun memories.

the guy that had asked was sean, and actually in 4th grade, he and i were two of the students taking guitar lessons from mr. reimer (sp?) one morning a week before school. the first person to get there won the early bird award and their polaroid picture was on the door for the week! once in awhile mom or dad would drive me to school, but often i either had to walk or ride my bike. now, riding my bike and carrying my guitar was quite a chore. thinking back on it now, i wonder exactly how i managed it, but i did! (all 12 blocks!) when you're young, everything seems bigger.

i remember we used to compete at getting there-i didn't really care who was better. ah mr. reimer. what a great music teacher! i loved his class! he had this great ghost he'd pull out for halloween (every year).

the ghost was on a little stick or something

he would turn out the lights, and it wasn't completely dark, just shaded, then students would get to go up and hold the stick and as we sang a simple song in a minor/flat key :there was an old lady who lived on a farm. OOOoooOOoooo and it went on from there, but the kid holding the ghost on a stick would have to move it up and down as the music moved up or down the scale. coolest thing EVER.

i hope our students are making fun memories that they will remember for years to come!
julie