my balcony is only good for one thing...one day of the year...for 30 minutes.

here's the thing: my balcony is the worst. it faces the complete wrong direction. it does not face the fountain...it faces the garage (the BACK of the garage, at that, so people-watching and developing nancy drew mystery conspiracy theories is out) and the small parking lot. it gets no sunlight, so i cannot grow anything...ever. it doesn't even face the right direction to get satelite t.v. (i tried when i first moved in). so..the only day of the year that it validates itself is july 4th from 9:30-10:00 pm. addison kaboom-town. the 'kabooms' were far enough away that it really didn't bother the boys.

i did make them take their independence day pic...chaco wasn't excited about it. and today on the radio, he heard the dj's asking for people to call in about a time they had family pics, wedding pics, prom pics, etc., after being injured, but had to take the pic anyhoo...he wanted to call in so badly, but i wouldn't and he couldn't (lack of opposable thumbs...) besides, i told him, no one would understand his yapping.

balcony shots:

so, yes, great shots from the balcony...and shortly after it was over, we went to bed. and lo-and-behold, there was a huge thunderstorm, which really brought the kabooms! that  got the boys going. maybe i should invest in a thunder shirt for chaco...although, i could probably just cut the ends off a sock and pull it over his body and it'd do the same thing. i'll bet he'd love to be swaddled. if he were a real-live-boy, he'd be the one wearing skinny pants and the skull t-shirt. bruno, on the other hand, would be wearing the preppy pastel plaid shorts and polo...but i digress-it was quite the storm!

pretty sure i've been sleeping wrong, or something, because yesterday my shoulder and arm hurt (like a sprained rotator cuff-not like i've ever experienced anything of the sort, but i imagine it would've felt something like this)...then in the middle of the night last night, i tried to adjust, brought both hands behind my head, and something clicked. i broke my neck. (no i didn't)...but i certainly did SOMETHING wrong, because my back and shoulders were stiff ...tight ...ridiculously miserable. but i had decided last night that i was going to get up early this morning to go grab breakfast because i'd been too lazy over the long weekend to get the eggs, bacon and fruit.

i'm glad i did choose to get up and go, because there was an awesome rainbow after the storm 

it seemed the safest, closest and i knew i would get back home fairly quickly. (they're predictable like that)

breakfast was great-and i was ready to get started when i got home. i have plenty of reading and i did a lot of cutting and preparing teacher resources.

alright, so i don't know if you're all aware or not, but there was a terrible amount of flooding in sealy, tx back in april. one of the trainers i work with was a victim of this flooding, and i got to hang out with her last week at our conference. neddy never said a word about it, and had such a positive attitude; i didn't realize this had happened until they gathered the pd training group together and said they were creating a go-fund-me-page. she broke down in tears...i cannot even imagine being in a situation where everything you own is damaged and lost.  "Neddy has received very little emergency assistance, and at a "mature" age, is literally starting completely over."  i've been blessed, so i will be contributing. i would love for you to consider this, if it is within your means, as at a certain point in our lives we are all called to be a part of community. while she may not be in your immediate community, you could certainly bless her by displaying compassion in a tangible way! i don't often post things like this, but it struck me and i hope this blog can serve as a tiny means to help out! please check out the page here.

alright, time to call it a night-may the fireworks of life never end (but all that noise can stop about now).
julie