pralines and cream used to be my favorite thing in a cone...now bruno is

it is saturday morning afternoon (i'm still pretending it's morning), and it is a beautiful day! bruno went in on thursday for his bladder-stones surgery. there is always that slight sense of anxiety even when you know the doc has done this a ridiculous number of times without incident...so it was good to get the call, "bruno is doing well, we got all of the stones, we took an x-ray and it looks like we won't have to do the more invasive acl surgery!" thank you dr.!

so i was able to pick him up yesterday and on the way down the hall as we walked away, he stopped and peed. a BIG ol' puddle! i was so happy! the fact that he is peeing is a relief, as he has been peeing tiny spurts here and there...

i should've taken a before and after pic of his cones. they gave him a generic piece, and it was janky, so i decided to go in and get a new one at petsmart. he was so thankful! and truth be told, he looks much more comfortable! chaco was starting to get really annoyed with the other cone because it was so big and clumsy that bruno was hitting him over and over when he'd turn around or get too close.

bruno in a cone.

so i stopped at the grocery store and picked up some necessary items for me...i am on a tzaziki kick...i bought some because i really like a cucumber dip (but i ran out and couldn't find any) and i know it is cucumber based. i have really enjoyed cutting up peppers, onion, carrot and throwing a tablespoon or two on, as it is low-calorie. i also got the necessary ingredients to make my salsa! it definitely has some heat this time! but the spices are just right...in fact, it tastes so good, i may or may not have eaten a ramekin without chips! oops #canthelpmyself.

i really like what we did out in the garden, there is still a bit left to do, but i didn't post pics last time of what we had done, so here you go...

tree cookies...a fun place to bring the kids out for class!

the new garden bed that will be producing cucumbers this summer!

one man's trash...found by our dumpster, we have re-purposed this headboard into a trellis for some honeysuckle.

getting excited about this summer's harvest! hopefully some of our staff will stop in to enjoy a bit of the produce!

i had the opportunity to go to a workshop yesterday and while she was not an overly exciting presenter, she did have some good exercises and explanations to help with the resilience and bouncing back of the brain.
one of the exercises involved thanking my feet(that was a first). during another one, i had 2 'safe places' (kamp and little cay) and put a fake friendship rock and shell in my pocket...

i doodle at workshops.

a few minutes ago, i looked over at bruno sitting by the door and said, "i love you!" and a split second later, the man on netflix is saying, "i love you too." what are the odds.

so, why the following picture? well you have to look closely and know your plants. the plant on top with the flowers is honeysuckle-one of my faves, and below it there, if you look closely, poison ivy. every year it's the same thing. i love walking our back trail, but i have to keep the boys on a short leash, because otherwise they will get too close and the oils will rub off onto their fur...but you have to get a little close to appreciate the delicate scent of the honeysuckle. so, i guess the moral is dare to get close enough to enjoy the beauty but be very aware and know where the danger is.

i have this crazy idea that spawned from an idea that we discussed at the workshop i went to, but i'm not sure if any of my old classmates will participate or not. if they do, i think it would there would be a really neat product that would be cherished for years and be very meaningful to all involved. project in progress..wait and see.

it's already the middle of april, meaning only a month and a half until summer!! there is SO much to do to prepare for summer training and for next year!! yikes.

julie

squeaky cabbages that really wanted to be cabbage patch kids, but didn't make the cut

this week has been a crazy-fast week. yesterday i went to a training workshop and i found it very interesting! i wish my students were at this point. anyhoo, while at the workshop, i had to use the restroom during a break. in order to avoid the traffic and all of the tables in the room, i found a door in the back partition-wall and it opened into the grand ballroom (which was dark). fortunately the door to the right was open and light was shining through (now i know what those bugs feel like out in the dark night, flying toward the zapper).

when i got to that door, about 50 ft. away, there was a long line out the women's restroom door... thought 1. go to the men's restroom, b/c there are hardly any men at the conference (not a good plan-pass) 2. go straight back across the ballroom to the door on the opposite side, because surely there is a bathroom there, mirroring the set-up (shouldn't things be symmetrical? i submit that they should) there was a service hallway with no restroom.

so...back into the dark ballroom. i looked across to the far side of the ballroom and saw more doors, and slowly made my way toward them, fortunately i saw the dark shadow of the stage and was quick enough to realize that there were stairs before i tripped over them. with my eyes on the doors, i was able to make it without tripping over anything..note to self: bring night vision goggles to the next training or workshop...

i almost fell on my knees and praised God when i opened the door to find a vacant "family bathroom." YES! (had i not drank my half gallon of h20, it wouldn't have been a big deal, but hindsight is 20/20)

later that night when i had gotten home, i was getting in bed and i felt crumbs on my sheets...that was strange, as i never eat in the bedroom. hmm. that leaves the boys. bruno doesn't get up on the bed as much, but i KNOW chaco burrows into the sheets. so i said to him, "i've told you not to eat cookies in bed." to which he replied (in an english accent, mind you) "but motha, they weren't cookies...they were fig newtons!" ummm...NO. i'm here to tell you that there are no fig newtons in my home--to be clear, i am pretty certain he took his milkbone into the room to try to get it out of the kong toy. jerk. 

this is the one...seriously? fig newtons?

that's pretty much the worst. being ready to go to bed and having to change the sheets...boo.
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oops...a few days later
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so the cabbages have been on my mind, i was worried that the weather had foiled our plans. i kept noticing them when i'd walk by the window going toward the art room. so today, after an after-school meeting, i went out and harvested the cabbage and the broccoli. as i was coming upstairs to the apt, the cabbages were squeaking. who knew that cabbages were squeaky?? so, they weren't huge, but they were enough to make some cabbage salad-so i looked up a random, un-tried recipe....and i'll be honest, once i tried it, i was pleasantly surprised; i'll take it to school tomorrow, and i'm sure there will be takers...it's teachers we're talking about here.

the cabbages were really cute. i totally understand why they called those baby-dolls of long ago cabbage-patch dolls. i kinda wanted to put a diaper on one, make some yarn hair and draw a face in sharpie. no worries, i didn't..but i wanted to. but i DIDN'T- i PROMISE!
 

not bad...for a bunch of greens-heroes. they made it through the frosts and freezes..i love hearty veggies!

 and in closing, i found some sweet-tarts and thought i was eating pac-man ghosts! wocka-wocka-wocka...

 then i took a closer look and realized that it was actually the big guy from monsters inc!

but as it were, being famous wasn't enough to save them, i ate every single one...ok...calm down, there were only 4.

one more monday down...18 more to go!
 jrob

if i'd had a compass and the coordinates, it would've been no big deal.

well. i'm back. i have not given up, i have just been a bit busy. thanks for waiting around!

to explain what happened today, i have to go all the way back to saturday. so, saturday we had an awesome day working in the garden at our school. it was a big deal because we wanted to make sure it was ready for them to work and learn in. (ok, major thrust to get it done because our Real School Gardens trainers are coming on Wednesday, and we needed it to not look totally in shambles. heaven forbid they call the 'garden cps' on us). 

so, yeah, some weeds had taken over 

teamwork is so much quicker and better than solo work!

look at all of those weeds!!! and that is only the first wheel barrow-ful!

i had gone out a few weeks earlier and spent about an hour and barely finished weeding one bed (not nearly as well as it should have been), and by the end of that time, i was drenched and thought i might pass out. so i was thrilled when 11 of our finest showed up at school to pitch in and give it the ol' team effort! linda's banana cake and the pizza made it all worthwhile, the weather was amazing, plus, i had some great conversations!

the best part is that it looks amazing! looking forward to the cabbage, broccoli, cilantro and garlic that will be joining us soon.

well, i thought it would be good to write thank you notes, so i decided to go up to school early this morning to put them into boxes. on the way to school i had to get fuel and a diet coke. so i stopped at the 7-11 around the corner. then i headed to the school and dropped off my notes and stopped in my room to look up the address one last time. when i got into my car i realized that my phone was not on my hip...uhoh. i thought i had brought it from home. so i looked through my bags and did not locate it.

hmm. i had planned to use the nav system on my phone...it's ok, i took a pic of the directions just in case i lost the signal...oh, guess what it's on the phone...so i went back to the apt to look for it. not in the 3 most likely places i had remembered seeing it earlier. not there. so i went to the 7-11 and the girl at the counter said no one had turned it in, and gave me that 'if-i-didn't-have-17-people-in-line-right-now,-i'd mourn-with-you' look. so i pulled out and decided i remembered just enough of the directions to get there.

well, the truth is: i knew just enough of the directions to get lost and frustrated.for those of you familiar with dallas...the numbers 121, and 114 stuck in my head, so i set off on my venture to the west with about an hour to spare. i was feeling like i had gone a little too far south, so i pulled off to a gas station, because all attendants know the area, and are super helpful, right? well...as a matter of fact, that would be FALSE. 

i purchased a map (for 9.98) and went up to the counter and opened it up and asked the lady where we were and how to get to keller. she folded it back up and scanned it as if she hadn't understood what i wanted (she was a foreigner, but i couldn't understand the accent, and her hair was dyed red, so i don't think she was really irish....); i opened the map back up and looked at her and asked if she knew where keller was and she said no. so i stepped outside and there was a guy out at his big construction truck. 

he wasn't a map-guy either...although he was able to point to keller...good job, big guy. i just needed to know where we were because i DO know how to read a map (we actually did that when i was in social studies class in elementary school); i'm telling you, kids need map skills...adults too. so i got back into my car and my clock was ticking at this point. so i got back onto the interstate, and went back to 635, unfortunately my map wasn't complete-it was mostly fort worth...so when i came south again on 121, i actually went through the dfw airport and exited down south. so i took another exit and decided to get off and try another filling station. this time, there was a young man at the counter-also not from around here. he said, "keller?" and he looked at the frito-lay guy who was stocking the shelf for a little think-pair-share, and that guy had a blank look. c'mon frito-lay guy! you deliver stuff, you should know the area. so finally i just asked the kid where i was, and he said, "irving." great.

at one point i was pretty sure i was glad that there was no one else in my car with me because the thoughts in my head were coming out of my mouth, and it wasn't pretty. (i'm glad there was no speaker on the top of my car like the old, old orange crush commercial). and at about the time i realized how frustrated i was, i had to remind myself of what maria reminds us every once in awhile: why get mad? there's nothing you can do about it; it won't change anything. so true. so true.

as natalie so eloquently put it: i took a tour of the major dallas suburbs today...not on purpose...people without phones are probably the most likely to suffer from road rage.

so i got into my car again and this time i stared at my map for a minute and looked for a cross road 1709 looked good. all i knew was that i needed to be going west first, so i kept the sun to my back and took off. i was so frustrated with all of those cars poking along...without a care in the world...80 would be good here, folks. so interestingly enough, when i finally found 1709, i was able to cut across 3 lanes in time to make a graceful exit. i figured i would eventually find keller parkway-even though it wasn't on my map. 

as i was driving, i noticed kimball. guess where i'd seen that street before. it was the first exit i stopped at the first time around, only a bit further south. if i'd known and simply taken it all the way up, i would've been early to my workshop. as i drove, i noticed, i had passed from euless into southlake. then before i knew it, i saw keller signs. i was in keller! i looked at the road sign, and it had turned from 1709 to southwest pkwy to keller pkwy...i mean, why not? then i saw an address close to what i was looking for, only on the wrong side of the road, so i had to make a u-turn-then i drove right past the place i needed to be, so i had to make two more u-turns to get back to the parking lot, which was full.

yes, there are three u-turns in there, and one of them may have had revving of engine and squealing of tires

it didn't look like a building that would host this training, but i asked a lady carrying a bag of ice across the parking lot and she said it was. when i got upstairs, fortunately i recognized one of the reps, and after i explained why i was an hour late, she said let me get you situated and get you a diet coke. soothing words. 

what a great training! at about noon, natalie showed up, and she, maria and i went to fuzzy's for a little-too-much lunch. on the way back from lunch, i was recounting-to natalie- my story of what had happened. at the end i was saying i really thought the phone was lost, but that i needed to stop by school to check and see if it had fallen in my room or something, otherwise i was going to need to purchase another one. at that point maria did her sales pitch for the iphone, and i said i would probably get a samsung like natalie's-i like my android. to which natalie responded, that she liked hers and probably didn't use it to its full capacity.

so we had an entire conversation revolving around my missing phone making me an hour late to the workshop and very frustrated.

when we got inside and linda had arrived at our table, she said, so you got your phone?

what? how did she know about my phone? linda looked at natalie, natalie looked at me, and then she said (mind you AFTER that whole phone conversation)...."oh yeah, i forgot to tell you, linda has your phone." as linda was handing me the phone. it had actually fallen in the room, and one of our other coaches found it and sent it with linda. what a relief! obviously someone had other things on her mind. smile.

i got home much more quickly, and i know i will be early tomorrow because guess what. they have croissants-real ones, not pillsbury...although those aren't bad either-bacon and scrambled eggs. tomorrow will be a good day. today was a good day, but tomorrow will be even better!