maybe i asked the landscape workers for their water...no shame.

it was a short week, but it seemed longer than normal. they always do. this week i had a little scare when one of my friends told me she had to go to urgent care-when all was said and done, everything was mostly fine. thank God! it's funny-not funny, but the whole day i was thinking: what if the dr. says she can't drive...i wake up early, we could take turns picking her up and dropping her off if we need to...and while i totally would've done that, i'm thankful that is not the case! to follow that up, i had dinner with another friend, and i felt bad because i was on the phone for like..oh..25-30 minutes with a former colleague. i certainly didn't intend to be rude, but it was important information that i was gathering!

also this week, one of my people, whom i highly value, was 100% honest about something and it caught me a bit off guard. i understood the spirit behind what was said before we talked about it, and i knew that it was not said out of malice, so for that purpose i didn't take it personally- and while it was a little surprising, i appreciated the unfiltered honesty, because it eventually led to a couple of good conversations. it's those types of conversations that don't happen very often (because they don't need to), that lead to better understanding and in turn stronger friendships. for that i am #grateful

yesterday, friday afternoon after school, i began a conversation with olivia, but she had to leave, so we decided that we'd meet later for dinner to finish that chat. we were planning to go to the truck yard, but then decided on mi cocina, for the sake of better parking. plus, we were going to go there with nicolette awhile back, but those plans fell through, and she wasn't available last night-so we may make that a raincheck.

fun tidbit-when i arrived, olivia wasn't there yet, and so i found a spot to sit while waiting, and a girl-mid to late twenties got up from beside her boyfriend and came over and said, "jrob?!" obviously i immediately knew it was a kamper...and she introduced herself as melanie dickinson-i remember mel! she was tight with mags, and amy during one of my favorite years! so we caught up a little until olivia arrived. i love that era of my life and the relationships and fun that were built around Christ! there's a bond and it's like family. it's truly a small world! and honestly, i am a little surprised that i don't see more of my former kampers than i do around these parts!
olivia and i always have good talks. funny, fun, real. i love that she is authentic and factual.

it was like the heavenly choir was singing the halleluiah chorus over olivia, and me...just hiding over in the shadow! #oliviastealsthespotlight

today was a lazy day-just a lot of gray's anatomy. so good! then i finally decided to get up and exercise-walk. i had to stop at the tulips they are finally in bloom for a minute. and of course the trees are starting to bloom-proof that spring is finally here!  it was a warm day, and i am now feeling it on my face.

happy flowers!

happy tree! (i know, i sound like bob ross)

i did a loop around the college and then down through the golf community. i was feeling dehydrated...in fact it was so bad that i wanted to ask the guy washing his car if i could get a drink from the hose. i may have imagined myself cupping my hands under the bumper of his car, catching water to drink... i thought about turning on someone's hose at another house...i looked for water fountains at the golf entrances...i debated if i were to find a bottle with a little water in it, would i? finally as i was walking by some workers who were doing landscaping, i saw a 20 pack of water, and i asked them if i could have a bottle. i was so relieved when they gave me a bottle, and i started to walk off, and came back to get a pic (for this post-they probably thought i was flirting or something #nopenotflirting) so as i was walking away, i downed the bottle in about 10seconds-it was so refreshing!! #noshame

and then i saw this abandoned
baby in the road. who leaves
creepy babies on the roadside? sad

water for the damsel in distress

 i was talking with nicolette the other day and she showed me a picture from the beginning of the school year, and i guess because i don't look at older pictures often, i don't notice the transformation as much. so i found a picture from this summer and took one after my walk today; body image has never been a big deal to me, but i feel better than i have in years, and it's due in large part to eating right and walking. it's nice to actually be able to find clothing that i like and it's more fun to dress up.

last summer when i decided on a physical
goal-weight

finally reached goal weight and
ready to go back to florida, just need to
tone now

so, to sum it up, it was a week full of good conversations and 'epiphanies.'
best of the weekend to you!
julie

can you categorize zombies as decomposers? if you're in my science class, you can try.

so...i was grading science notebooks, and under decomposers, one of my students listed zombies... i suppose they feast on dead things... i don't think i mentioned zombies during the lesson.

i forgot to mention that i got a text from gigi on saturday that made my heart smile (well, figuratively speaking, because we all know that hearts do not have mouths) it was a picture of tulip town-fields of tulips!! outside of seattle-GORGEOUS! it will be so great to see her when she comes to town to visit!

it's even better than the poppy fields of oz!!

so, last night i had a great dream- i was flying and i remember thinking how awesome it was! it was super refreshing! when i got to school this morning, i mentioned it to maria, and she said, "that means something...i'm not sure what, but it means something!" so i just looked it up, and it was pretty cool. i suppose that is how i feel.

 hard to believe that we are getting ready to step into may! today i felt like a salesperson...i felt like i was selling clicker all-in-learning systems! we had some principals from our cluster come in, and i was able to demonstrate how i use them in class and how simple they are and how much they have added to my classroom, data collection, and on the spot reteaching! i can't say enough about it!

is anything worse than waiting for results? i submit that there is not. be it results from a test, an interview, you name it, waiting sucks. sometimes there just isn't anything you can do- i was a little bummed that after send an email early in the morning, i still heard nothing throughout the day. i am not a good waiter...i was a good server when i worked at a restaurant, but not a wait-er. if it's a girl waiting for something does she automatically become a wait-ress? (can't help but think of flo and alice at mel's diner...)

and that's really all i got...until i'm done waiting.

julie

testing brought back memories of HONDURAS

well, here we are again...testing wears me out! first it was taks...now it's staar season. i'm not a fan of testing, because it makes for a treacherously long day! and i get so stinkin' bored! at least i was with my students from last year. as i was looking around the room, i was reminded of how much i miss them! they were a good class! i don't remember if i thought that last year, but right now, i am REALLY missing them!

so as i was 'actively monitoring', i had to strategically move around the room. and amazingly enough, it seemed like every time someone important would walk by or pop their head in, i was in the same spot, hence making it look like i wasn't really moving around the room (but if you ask those kids, i think they were getting dizzy...and i did it with such stealth, that they would quietly look around to locate my position).

yesterday was better than today because the windows were open (it was so hot in the room, they had to open them), and it was great to feel the breeze, and hear the fountain and the birds! relaxing. at one point, it made me think about high school in HONDURAS  at e.i.s. we kinda had an open-air ventilation system. i transported myself back to the good-ol-days when i had to do social work-collating dirt, filling 100s of bags full of dirt for our greenhouse, planting plants all around the drive...as much as i didn't enjoy social work because i'd rather have been playing volleyball, i look back on it fondly...if those were the "unenjoyable" moments, you can imagine how incredible the other moments were! i truly enjoyed every minute of it! some moments:

typical computer class..notice how few computers there are..hmmm..

this picture is special to me because freda was one of those friends who was so humble and fun and everyone adored her and her quiet spirit-she recently passed away due to cancer, but her spirit and way of being remain fresh in my memories!

just taking a moment to play a little air-guitar...

eis breakfast club (special spanish class...and we were pretty special....in our minds)

yanira my volleyball pal-and i believe that is chin behind us (he was one of the guys who helped us improve our game)

and here we are at a game-i don't stick out like a sore thumb do i?

i wouldn't give up my high school years in HONDURAS for all the money in the world! sorry-total tangent...wait, no, i'm not sorry! every once in awhile i have to talk about the amazingness of my past because it has shaped who i am today! (someday i will have to share some of the stories about individual friends-erika, helen, sheryl(little sis), bernadette, and so many more!)

so back to testing...last night i decided to make some food for today-somehow it just makes the day a tiny bit better...so i was looking forward to that while we were testing, which made every minute take 7 minutes to pass (and as everyone knows, every seven minutes, someone is thinking about abraham lincoln); by then most of the kids were done with their test. so after lunch, i was a little tired..in fact i may or may not have tried to hypnotize myself into staying awake with my classroom keys....and the natives were getting restless- lots of fidgeting. so when that final student raised his hand to let me know he was done, i rejoiced!

and then when i took students outside to be picked up, i was blind-sided by the cold weather BOOM! there it was! so i was very excited to come home and put on my long-sleeve t that i mentioned yesterday (pretty sure i have worn it every day since i got it). in fact, i have TWO shirts on! i also have the soft, green one (also from bmayes, also from wyoming!) i have just come to realize that i am passionate about awesome comfortable t-shirts! thank you bmayes for helping me to learn that about myself! so, there you have it...to all potential gentleman callers out there (but let's be honest, who even says 'gentleman callers' besides jane austen and marilla from anne of green gables..) but i digress, it's like i was saying, apparently tulips and daisies are only one way to my heart, comfy t's are the other! so , the one who comes bearing said gifts will most certainly be up there on my list (but then he has to pass the intelligent conversation test, and meet the high expectations and make me laugh) well, in the meantime...i'll just buy my own flowers or grow them and wear the t-shirts my friends get for me!

julie

whine or cry? whine....wine or cry? wine.

ever had one of those days when nothing really went terribly wrong...in fact, teaching-wise, everything went as planned-home run (third base at least)...but still felt overwhelmed? yep, that was me today, and at one point i just wanted to curl up in fetal position and cry. and it's not even for girl reasons-so not pms.

so, when i came home, i just needed a good glass of wine.

close call, but i probably really needed a good cry (every once in awhile, it just helps..like once a year)

it also helped just to reflect on the beauty of my walk yesterday! i walked for about 45 minutes, and it was fabulous-45 minutes at my pace is a good little walk! i did stop to take a few pics because they certainly caught my attention! why did it catch my attention? well, see for yourselves, TULIPS!! i said it yesterday, i am a sucker for tulips. the man who finds the way to my heart will be sending me tulips or daisies! roses are too seductive and sexy-not my style...whereas daisies and tulips are more friendly and playful!

add in a little fountain, and how can you go wrong??

then i made my way around the park behind the savoye and life was sweet. i went without the boys because they like to stop at any whiff of urine, and i was not interested in stopping, so when i got home, i took them for an extra walk.

the other thing that helped was thinking about the fact that i am going to see wicked again! with friends!

defying gravity!

and i'm planning on doing season tickets next year! woohoo! i'd love to do the symphony...we'll have to see.

this morning, i did take in the coleslaw that i made out of our garden cabbage and carrots, and when i was picking my kiddos up from specials, renee commented on the coleslaw. she first advised me that she was a connoisseur of coleslaw, always trying out different varieties, and she actually went back for seconds! what a great compliment! it was fun to make something with the goods from our garden!

so, yes, this day wasn't terrible, i just, for whatever reason, had one of those moments. this week has to get better.
julie

tulips look like turbans..a little.

yea!(yea sounds like yay...yeah sounds like ya; people get them confused all of the time, so i just thought i'd throw that in there. yea like i'm cheering) mom got her flowers! i'm not sure what her favorite flowers are, so i sent my favorite: tulips!! did  you know that the word tulip is actually derived from the turkish name for turban because it was thought to resemble the turban, and it originated in the middle east.

and the boys let it slip that they're making breakfast in bed tomorrow-i saw their dry-run, so i know what to expect. i think i'll eat a little extra tonight...they thought hollie had a great idea, (check it out here) and this is their interpretation.

yum.

took the boys up to school today because i had to get some papers in and i had to clean up after bruno...he did his business inside. how embarrassing. twice! i think he may have done it on purpose. as we left, i took them out to the field out back and took off the leash and let them run. they stayed pretty close, then on our way back, chaco took off like a rocket! he is one fast little booger! but he ran back and then he took off again and waited for us.

so right now i'm watching bourne ultimatum..mother's day movie. bourne..born...ultimatum-most good moms issue ultimatums, right?

i've noticed that many of my posts include what i'm watching on t.v. sorry! that comes of having a small apt. i really do most of my living in my living room.

well, happy mothers day to all you mothers out there!
julie

p.s. mom, i don't know if you even read blogs, but i just wanted to let you know that i really do appreciate the way you and dad brought us up! integrity is everything!