bruno and chaco put on a show and i endured awkwardness

and we've made it through yet another monday...wait..it's tuesday. good! this means it's going to feel like a short week! and thank goodness next week is spring break, so that we can recuperate from springing ahead...no. no...thank goodness next week is spring break so that we can have a bit of a break before the madness begins!

on saturday i packed up the boys and we drove to petsmart, and we walked around the parking lot so that if they had to, they could do their business. then we went inside just to get dog food, and while we were in the store, i saw that look in bruno's eyes, and so i hurried along, not allowing him to stop in one place until we got to the register and tried to pay really quickly. while i was paying, a little asian boy approached and chaco started barking, drawing attention to himself, and it never fails when we're in petsmart, bruno decided to take a dump. nice. i'm sure the way it went down was "psst..hey bruno, you go poop, and i'll bark really loud to get everyone to look! ready? here come some people, go, go, go!" pretty sure i know who the instigator is! good thing i always keep a poop bag tied to the leash! and out the door we went with a bag of poop and some dog food.

and i rewarded them by taking them to the park-our favorite...

then we went to the little park near the store that they love so much..it's tucked away so you can't really see it from the street, but we love it! and on the way we saw daffodils! i like daffodils, but they look so stinkin' fragile and sunday morning bonnet-like. they remind me of little miss muffet for some reason.

i tried to get a pic of the boys smelling them, but chaco would have none of it. "no, not a pic of me smelling flowers, what would the other dogs say?!"

 i was worried about the time, but i got them home, then got ready to go to a surprise bday party for a friend. i decided to leave early to try to get up to allen so that i could stop by cabela's to try to purchase ammo for target practice, but they were out. boo. early for nothing. but then, my day was made when i stopped at the register and saw the candied pecans. it made up for the disappointment of coming all the way over and not finding what i really wanted...in fact, next time, i'm not going for ammo, i'm going for roasted pecans, and if they happen to have ammo, added bonus. i am a sucker for these things! it brings back fond memories of renaissance festival in kc! good times!

YUM!!

 i had received a text earlier in the day that one of my coworkers was not going to be there, boo. i had seen olivia and lindsey's name in the email list (i learned later that natalie was also on that list), and since they were going, i thought i would go, as i did not really want to go to a party where i knew no one. well. i got a text early in the day saying that lindsey couldn't go because she was feeling sick, legit...but i thought, "no big deal, olivia will still be there!" 

i arrived late because i missed my turn and had to loop all the way back down to legacy and back up to allen to get there, then when i arrived, it was located in this plaza area, and i had no clue where to park because it was such a beautiful day, and everyone was out and about. finally i circled around and found a spot in the garage. then as i was trying to figure out exactly where it was at, i tripped on the curb because it was much higher than it should have been-nothing damaged beyond ego.

when i found it, i walked in and had to wait for the hostess twice. she finally showed me around the corner, and i was at least hoping to see his wife, but alas, i looked at the gathering and knew no one, so i asked if this was for dallas, and was told yes. so i sat where there was an available seat (the family was all there-5 people at one end and 5 at the other end, the available seat was in the middle, so i sat). it was a little awkward because it was about 15 minutes before they showed up, and no sign of olivia...so i just kinda sat there. didn't really talk to anyone because they were all engaged in conversation...no one really talked to me...yep.i even ordered a caprese salad at one point thinking if i slowly gnaw on some food maybe i wouldn't have to talk to anyone...well, that salad never came...but i still didn't have to talk to anyone (i probably seemed like a jerk...or a loser, not sure which, don't care!) then i was relieved when dallas and diane finally walked in! and that's when diane mentioned that natalie couldn't make it either. boo!

half way into it, a couple of other coworkers showed up, but they were at a separate table, so i just enjoyed the pizza and nothing bundt cake! my first time at grimaldi's pizza and i loved it!

it was worth it, and dallas was truly surprised-diane did a great job!

then sunday i decided to go ahead and make the dehydrated watermelon because xochitl had been asking for it! so i took some down while i was in the library i snuck it over to her in the teacher's lounge..then she had to share it because everyone else was interested! so i took another batch to her in her classroom. i love it that she loves it so much! smile.#goodtofeelneeded

i may have to keep the dehydrator out and do some more fruit! i loved it too! mango's good...

so today i went to the store to get some salsa ingredients, as mine was running low, and it is the best condiment for pretty much anything (minus a hot fudge sundae-which is not on the diet). and when i went in, my eyes immediately glanced over at the spock machine, but i noticed he wasn't there anymore...when i came out i took a closer look:

hmm..interesting, spock's not there, AND it's out of order. i don't know exactly what happened, but i imagine that when the lights went out, he performed some sort of vulcan mind move and got himself out, and then unfixed the machine for the best interest of the others

so, i started to walk out and stopped at the 'gumball machines' that actually sell toys. i really wanted something, so i put my bags down and dug through my purse for three quarters. then i put two of the quarters in, but i wasn't able to turn the knob to insert the third quarter. so i had to shimmy the other two quarters out and try to turn the knob to figure out how it worked...no luck, so being determine i tried the two quarters again, but to no avail...i have no doubt that the people passing by were thinking that i was somehow robbing the thing when i kept trying to get the quarters back out...so i walked away without my toy. sad day.

but not so sad, because when i got home, i saw a package in front of my door! my watch has finally arrived! now i can be a real adult!

it was the blue-silver face that won my heart!

ask me what time it is, go ahead...
julie

baby melon and a homemade wocket in my pocket?

tomorrow is dr.seuss day at school! so on the way home, i had to stop in at walmart to get something to dress up a little bit for tomorrow...so i plan to come to school as the lorax; i was thinking about some orange face paint (which i bought). so i am trying it out on my hand and letting it stand for the night to see if i can wash it off, or if it's going to leave my skin orange. i can imagine people thinking i get a fake tan or something. not what i need. and it took forever to locate the orange socks that weren't kiddie size.

i may have also gotten a small squishy gecko toy to put some hair on to make a "WOCKET IN MY POCKET"  in case the whole lorax idea is an epic fail. if it's just a medium fail, i'll stick with it. isn't it amazing how you can have this great idea in your head, but then when you try it out, it's not all you imagined? kinda' like being a kid and creating your own costume for halloween...great expectations.

i was happy to find a little watermelon as well! xochitl asked me to make some dried melon, so i'll pull down the dehydrator and work the melon magic (umm..perhaps i should call it something else, like dried watermelon)!

sweet love! and as soon as the words rolled into my mind, anita baker also graced every vaccant chamber of my mind! i need to pull that cd out and upload it to my phone!

tomorrow we will be going over a little data from our most recent common assessment. ugh. i already know the results, and i'm already frustrated with the results; it's going to take every ounce of seussical nonsense to keep me positive tomorrow!

today i took my students out to the garden to make videos about natural resources. they wrote their own scripts thinking about the resources they knew were out there, so i am looking forward to viewing their clips and hopefully next week i can show them how to load them into animoto to create their video project! they were super excited to use them-they love using technology to create!

the boys (new subject, now i'm talking about bruno and chaco), keep wanting to lick my orange-painted hand...they probably think i'm wounded. oh, but they would KNOW if i was wounded! wait, maybe not. i usually go down without a lot of noise...(thinking of the 2 acl tears and the sliced pinky tip).

well, time for bed, (except i have to wait for the laundry to dry so i can take it out so that it doesn't wrinkle..boo..should've thought about that sooner!)
julie

is that a watermelon on that lid or are you just happy to see me? both.

ok, WOW! that salmon with the avocado/sweet potato mash-deLIcious!! in fact, it was so good for lunch that i had it again for dinner!! smiles all around! today i also had some of the watermelon i dehydrated the other day! and when i say some...it was half a baby watermelon.which dehydrated only produces about a ziploc baggie...

gigi, thought of you and decided to share with ms. lama (now mrs. sowe)

i took some over to the office as well and i think i've convinced mandie that it is a necessity and she'll probably try to talk her husband into getting her one. smile.

oh, today at school i intercepted the game. this particular game was who you would end up with.

they may or may not have put teachers' names on there as well. and my only thought was the only way any of them would 'end up' with one of us would be if we adopted them. silly kids. oh to be in 4th grade again-i remember making these games. smile.

my shoulders are so sore! i was trying to figure out why, when i remembered it was from cutting things-veggies, fruit...so i have decided that i need to get that nice food processor. and right now i am sitting with the heating pad on my shoulders wishing i had a masseuse! remember how last year they were going to give massages for teacher appreciation week and it got canceled? that was nice.

when i stopped at walmart the other day, i bought early valentines cards fort he students. at first, all i saw were boxes of 25 and 24-too many. i put them in my basket, did the math, took them out, kept going saw some more with 22 count, so i bought 4 boxes-which is almost perfect for all of my classes! woohoo! i'm going to try to put personal notes on each of them-i need to start this weekend if i really expect to get it done. i don't know, though...with that game going around, i might have to make all of them say: no, you will never end up with me. happy vday (v for darth vader).

i think i am going to try to pull out the paints this weekend-i haven't painted in awhile. i also need to do some arranging in my craft corner...craft pile...i also need to grade some writing papers. ugh.blch.

have a great weekend and try to stay off any student lists,
julie

thank you watermelon, you are a superstar

i would like to begin this post by giving a special shout out to the watermelon!  your performance today has been spectacular!

pulled out the dehydrator again last night! raisins in the making (i didn't realize that raisins take 36 hours until after i bought the grapes...apples and watermelon. so, i find myself longing to eat more and more of the dehydrated watermelon, but what if it reconstituted in my body after i drink a lot of water? i also threw in some tomatoes, and they are like watermelon's right hand man, they are delicious as well! if they could be a superhero duo of the world of dehydration, they would be unstoppable!!

i spent a lot of time today in the wanna-be kitchen of mine. i decided that i wanted to make pupusas and tortilla chips. so i had to go to the store to buy tortillas, masa and mexican cheese. somehow i got lured into purchasing 5 lbs of top round-so when i got home i portioned it out and i now have 15 steaks. (the reason i got the bulk size is because it was priced at $23.00 and $10.00 off-you can beat that! that's 15 steaks for less than a buck a piece. yep...grill baby grill!

i know, raw meat gross-don't worry, i washed my hands

i also finished portioning out the soup and vac-sealing it. then i decided to try to make powdered eggs. so i scrambled them all up and now i have to put them in the oven tonight after the game because they have to cook for 10 hours. then i'll grind them into powder (i want to see if it really works or not).

does anyone else do this? i like my eggs to be balanced, so whenever i take one from one side, i balance it out...so they don't fall? idk

i also took the pulled pork and added my bbq and a bit of ken's honey mustard (the secret!) best honey mustard EVER! the first time i was introduced to honey mustard was in college at applebee's i was a-ddicted to fries w/ hm!
anyway, i took the bbq pork and froze it in muffin tins (found the tip on the internet) and then i portioned them and sealed them-perfect portions for sandwiches! thanks lady on the internet!!

bbq muffins!check out THOSE muffin tops, jenna!

and then i cut up the tortillas and fried them into chips for the game! i didn't get around to the pupusas-tomorrow's a new day!

ready!

obviously i was watching master chef last night. 

and as i came in to sit down, i let the boys out onto the balcony, and bruno paws at the glass to get back in. chaco licks it (which is a little harder to hear). good thing he's got bruno!!

if you go to visit someone, either knock on the door, or ring the doorbell, don't lick the door-you don't know where it's been!
julies