symmetrical egg arrangements...wait, is that thunder? in your living room?

so..tuesday was day 1 of our state test and i was monitoring for 4th grade. i'm glad the air was on-i was worried that it would get super hot for the people upstairs. unfortunately, there may have been over-compensation. i was so cold...(EVERYBODY): how cold WERE you? 
-if it had been any colder, my blood would've coagulated
-if i accidentally knocked my hand against a table, a digit probably would've fallen off
i was actually imagining all of the things in the room i could use to build a small fire in the middle of the room: base-boards, tables, shelving, books, paper..and then my mind wandered and i began to calculate how long i could survive if i depended on the fire provided by the consumable products in the room..brrr.

yes, testing will do strange things to you.

i decided to be prepared today when i walked in. i had my space heater, jacket, coffee...and to make my morning complete, someone brought in special edition dunkin donuts-spring edition!! crowned with a peep! straight up, i should've just eaten bowl of sugar cubes...but this was much prettier!

cute...but not on my diet...i shouldn't have, but i did! and i don't feel that bad about it.

 peeps..Easter..eggs...

i do like my eggs. please tell me that there are those of you who do the same thing i do; i'm not ocd, but i do like to leave my eggs balanced...symmetrical if possible. sometimes if there is an uneven number (because i usually eat one egg), i either scramble an egg to mix into the boys' food-which they love, or i pull out a quantity and boil them so i have an even number...anyone? no? hmm..me neither...

yes, i play around until i get the right combo

 i couldn't refrain, i had to get basil plantlings because i didn't want to wait for the seeds to sprout! and i decided to plant them today-i'm so excited!

fresh pesto!!

 today i made a little detour to the store to get some colorful planters for the garden. and while i was there, i was planning to get a fan to cut down on the air-conditioning, and i found the perfect one-it's more of a blower than a fan-i loved it! but there wasn't another in stock-only the display. the lady with purple hair said they ordered 3 more and she expected them in 3 days (apparently 3 was the magic number). while i was at walmart, i saw one of the downstairs neighbors (the one whose twin fell out of the window awhile back...)..she had also come up to borrow my phone one time when hers was not charged and she had to reach her boss because her husband was late (you're welcome for all the background info)..so i saw her with the twins, and i smiled and gave a small wave and she looked at me like i was a complete stranger (maybe it's the hair cut)...and of course, it never fails, i saw them around every turn there-after. ugh. i think sometimes she doesn't recognize me even here at the apt complex when i see them in the parking lot.very odd.

i must have some type of invisible sign or something, because she came up to borrow my phone, the neighbor next door(who has since moved) asked to borrow baking soda once to make carrot cake, the guy neighbor across the hall-strange one-asked to borrow one tomato, and the new girls across the hall, one sister knocked to borrow a charger for her iphone because her sisters had locked her out (when i met her sister a couple weeks later, she said that was strange 'because we usually leave an extra key under the mat.' i found it alarming that she told me that...they probably tell everyone that, and then have a nanny cam set up somewhere in the breezeway to see who looks under their mat for a key) is it just me? it kinda' makes me laugh, but at the same time, it makes me wonder if i'm just overly cautious and independent, because i don't think i would knock on any of their doors for any of those reasons.

i cannot get to sleep without some background noise. i have a great cd with ocean waves that i fall asleep to every night, and lately it has been skipping a little, so i knew i needed to get a noise machine-which i had written down on my hand (so that i wouldn't forget or lose the note). i had seen one before--so while i was there, i asked the kid in the electronics dept and he said no, maybe in the camping dept...he asked a lady and said i was looking for a machine that makes animal noises; i don't think i explained very clearly exactly what i was looking for....well, needless to say it was not in the camping dept, so i set out toward the potpourri and music scapes easy listening- i didn't see it, but the young man caught up with me at the end of the aisle and said, "there you are! good!! here's the machine!" exactly what i was looking for!

i'm so excited...i kinda want to take it with me everywhere!

 it may or may not be raining in my living room right now...with a little thunderstorm....then it stops and all of a sudden i'm on the beach. then as i'm walking along the beach i find a small tributary which as i follow it becomes a bubbling brook. finally the boys and i lay on our backs and stare at the glow-in-the-dark stars on the ceiling and listened to the crickets- it's been an adventurous, evening in my living room!

 g'night!
julie

comfy shirt for some intense nba watching

i haven't felt very blogg-ish lately...perhaps it's just from being a little tired. so, i am going to try to finish this one today. (i said to myself last friday).

ok, so let's try this again. i wasn't feeling very well for a couple of days-my doctor just prescribed another steroid pack-hopefully it does the job-today it has begun to feel better. cross my fingers.

i am very excited about the nba finals tonight...after going to a thunder game with shea, ally and katie, i must say that i have become a thunder fan. i do not have a t-shirt yet, but i'm sure i can remedy that situation. sorry robin, but i'm pretty sure that i was cheering for the thunder when they played the mavs...i have friends in miami, as well, and as much as i love ya'all and wish you the best, i am hoping for some rumbling up in here! so to truly enjoy the evening, it's time to put on the comfy shirt...i just recently noticed that my favorite shirt is starting to wear thin...

pretty sure this was an old kamp trade-best shirt ever!

so, thankfully, there is a small teacher work room right across the hall from my room. someone began a painting in the bathroom, and it just looks hideous. i forgot to take a pic..

call it a hunch, but i think people have difficulty turning off the lights and fan...3 signs..isn't that a little overkill?

my student teacher's evaluator came by today and she found out i am a bilingual teacher and she looked at me and said, "we're always looking to hire bilingual people if you're ever looking!" she went on to mention some people she knows who are making about 120k translating. hmmm......

after school i stopped by the post office to pick up a piece of certified mail, but when i got there, it was not available...apparently my 15 days had passed by and they sent it back. boo. i have no idea who it was from, nor what it was. i guess if it was really important, they will try again.

curious...but i will lose no sleep

last night i was looking through a magazine that mom and dad left behind. apparently they live in dallas county (so if i were ever enticed to move back up toward mo., i could still be in dallas. smile)...i must say, i do love the outdoors up that way-always something to do.

hopefully not all of the men up there wear skirts and fight with swords and sticks.

looking forward to going up to visit at the end of summer. me and the boys might be staying in the pop-up trailer while they're remodeling. smile.

and tomorrow for my third grade class, we will be re-creating an assembly line so that the students can experience it and really go away understanding what it is! i'll try to take pictures if all goes as planned! many kids are sent to summer school because they are behind in reading, writing and/or math. this year is no exception! woah. i am praying that none of them live anywhere near the cabell vicinity.

that said, i think a storm is a brewin...thunderstorms likely,
julie

start pedaling, said the bike...stop yankin' my chain! i yelled back...(in my mind)

i'm tired. i need to get my sleep tonight-tomorrow is a long day of art museum/field trip and parent conferences at night. ew.

this morning we woke up to crazy thunder and some rain and lightning. very very frightening....(not really). but i decided to wear brown shoes with my khakis instead of my chacos because i didn't want wet cold feet today. well, the shoes i had were cheap and the inside pad that your foot sits on was sinking below where it was supposed to down into a hole in the heel of the sole. it bothered me like the pea under the mattress with the princess and the pea...so when i got to my classroom, i cut an eraser to size and filled in the hole so that it didn't bother me as much! janky fix, but it worked! i'll have to share the pic tomorrow because i left the cord that hooks up to the computer at school. boo.

today i came home to the gym at the apt, and there were lots of men in there using the weight machines, so i looked and the elliptical machine was out of order (glad the sign was on it because last time, it squeaked with every round)...and on of the 3 treadmills was not working either...and 2 people were on the other two. so i got on the electric stationary bike and the pedals felt kind of like when the chain comes off the gears....well, i kept trying to set it and the screen kept flashing to start pedaling. in my head i was shouting at it, "I HAVEN'T STOPPED YOU DUMMY!"  and so i kept pedaling and some guy got on the bike next to me and started on it- he went for a few minutes to warm up, and then he went to the weights and i was still pushing random buttons the whole time thinking that i was doing something wrong. i'm sure he probably wondered what i was doing and when i was going to start riding the bike. and i'm sure everyone else in the gym was thinking i didn't know how to work the bike because it was beeping so much and turning off and back on.... finally i switched bikes and instantly i was riding and feeling the burn-the piece of equipment i was on had been out of order as well with no sign...apparently our equipment needs some maintenance.

then i came home and threw some chicken, quarter of a cooked sweet potato, some kale and a little spice into the food processor and made some chicken salad-it was actually better than i expected!! before i did that i threw some asparagus into the oven to cook. well...i kinda' forgot about it until i smelled it quite awhile later. when i pulled it out, the tips were crispy (which is fine because i actually like the texture, and the stalks were soft and easy to cut through). and i'm not gonnna' lie, just gonna' put it out there: i almost licked the spices off the baking sheet it tasted so stinkin' good!!!!

anyhoo, that's what i got tonight!
julie

teepees, thunder and napping!

wouldn't it be nice if whenever you drove into oklahoma, there was a group of people standing at the border dressed up in bright dressy clothes that would burst into song and sing oooooooo-klahoma where the wind comes sweepin' down the plains.... well, it would put a smile on my face anyhow.

i do love that the rest stop picnic tables are set up like teepees! that's pretty cool!

so i got to norman with no major mishaps, but when we pulled in and i went to get chaco out of his dog seat, he had had a little accident, and he wet himself (this usually doesn't happen in the car, and we even stopped to walk at the rest area).i don't really know if it happened en route, or if it happened once we stopped at the apt. complex and shea was at the car door-chaco was so excited to see her!so i came in and fortunately shea is a dog lover, so i gave him a quick bath and he was much more comfortable and presentable!

then we went to grab lunch with merce and bmayes at cool greens (a wonderful little salad/pizza place) and on the way home we made a stop at hobby lobby to grab some essentials for our crafting day with jrob. smile. then we came home to just play with the boys for a bit before leaving for the thunder game! it's nice to be vip...we got to go down to the pub and have dinner and then we grabbed some popcorn to take down to the game. best popcorn i've had in awhile! (saltiness)...it was a blow out-the thunder are having a great year!

this morning we got up in time (remembered the time change)! and went to church with bmayes and sarah.

then shea began clearing off her table (i thought maybe for lunch), then she started getting out the canvases and the paints and was ready for some crafting. and now they're all black. don't ask, just trust!

i am trying to convince shea that she needs to teach down in roatan at childrens palace, where my dear friend, nina, is an administrator. i think it would be such a neat experience for her! (not to mention, there is a group of pals who would be more than happy to go down to visit and rent out an island!)... i wonder if they have a class she could teach about rest and relaxation?

chaco loves cuddling even with shea!

we're off to the grocery store to get items for dinner tomorrow night and fudge today-not to eat, to share of course...

well, more adventures later,
julie