homemade peanut butter because it was raining

i have been craving peanut butter fudge this weekend. the only problem is that the recipe calls for 2 c of peaunt butter and i just had 1 c. now, i could've cut the recipe in half, but then i wouldn't have much fudge to bring to school. because of the rain i decided not to run out to get peanut butter. instead, i decided to make my own, and it actually turned out pretty darned good!

oh, there was some honey too! no sugar.

so tomorrow, we will have to make the determination of whether it's as good with homemade peanut butter. i think my next kitchen purchase will be a regular size food processor. i have a mini, which is nice for small things, but not quite what i need for larger recipes.

today was a beautiful lazy, rainy sunday! loved it! this afternoon i worked on my 'project' again, and i am happy to say that it is getting closer to being done! woohoo!!

the boys are settling in for the playoff game, while i record the good wife -i was surprised to find out that i am not the only one who watches it! there's nothing like mixing politics with lawyers and then throwing in an edgy female detective who, if you're not her friend, you should probably be legitimately frightened...

oh boo. in the middle of writing that, it came to my attention that the game is delayed til tomorrow. grr. the boys are crushed-they had their towels out and everything! i won't get home in time tomorrow for them to see the start of the game; we might have to record it and not listen to the news on the way home.

it's been a good weekend!
julie

witch stickers..which stickers? sticky witchers..praying angel squirrels..huh?

check out these stickers! they're the 3-d cool stickers-they are similar to the ones our principal used to put on our lesson plans last year...so i may just for kicks put some on my lesson plans or in my binder for kicks (or i might just put them in strategic places where they won't be ruined or lost or mangled!)

gigi, i might need to sneak one onto your lesson plans too...a big one.

when it gets closer to halloween, i will share some halloween memories. today i proved that not only grandparents still use the u.s.postal service!

              i had a picture here, but then i realized that the address was visible, and that's not cool!

i did go to family general today for some small stuff. i love getting the small, general stuff i need there..except there was a student from last year there- i don't love that. but i did spot this great find. i asked the student, "isn't that weird?" and he just kinda looked at me like he wasn't sure if he was supposed to respond or not. and to be quite honest, i don't think i expected a response, because i don't rightly know why i even asked him his opinion-he obviously wasn't interested.

it's a praying angel squirrel with wings!

why would someone make something like that? is there really a market for this type of item?? i also found a laser pointer which i was looking for, for school (so i don't have to go up to the screen to point things out), but chaco loves it! so i think i am going to have to get another for home!

i am a kid with a new toy!

chaco basically just asked me to play with it again, so we did. it's so much better than chasing a ball 50 times in a row.

he doesn't know what to do when the light goes out-he is looking everywhere for it!

oh, i almost forgot that i also stopped at home depot today because i had to get some paint for a project that i'm working on (hopefully the rain won't foil my project)...i'm getting excited about it! can't wait to see the finished project and see if it's anything like what's in my mind. there is something about home depot (or any hardware store for that matter)...i always want one of everything. i even saw some chain links and thought, "hmm..i wonder if i need chain for anything." i went through various scenarios trying to see if it was a necessity; it's always good to be prepared, ya' know! seriously though, i looked at the power tools and the clamps and wood...i should have a project shop somewhere...that will be on my house list someday.

don't chase the little red light because it will just lead you in circles, but if it lands on your forehead, be worried, my friend,
julie

days off are made for long lunches!

i really did need today. disd, thank you for fair day!! i am so glad i didn't go to the fair! i slept in and then i went to an early lunch with 2 amazing people and got to catch up and just spend some time laughing. i never really think about how much i love community and hanging out with friends until i actually get out and spend quality time with them!

chuys! love me some mexican food! (well...chimichangas-fake mexican)

but this little guy and his brothers made it feel a bit more authentic...anyone remember animaniacs and the talking pigeons??

i used to come home from the steakhouse i worked at and watch animaniacs with kendra and laugh at all the silliness. i don't think there was really a more perceptive, creative, facetious cartoon out there.

did i mention that it was about a 3 1/2 hour lunch-definitely not a complaint, we just really had that much to talk about! and something unexpected happened while we were there. a young lady and perhaps mom and aunt came in, and you know how there's that look of recognition, and your brain races to try to pull the right file? well, my filing fingers were a little slower than normal. so, i had to pull the recognize but need a name line. as soon as she said the first name (which is what i was thinking, but i've made a fool of myself saying the WRONG name before), i finished with her last name because i remembered it. it was one of my former campers! so random, so fun!

on the way home, i had to stop at bed bath and beyond because i needed more diet coke mix and i wanted to get some dr. pepper mix so that i have it for bmayes next weekend! (i think she likes dr. pepper...i hope). b, if you're reading this, don't pretend you like dr. pepper if you don't!

'THE ONLY NATIONAL BRAND OF ROLLED WAFERS ACTUALLY MADE IN AMERICA"

i might have also gotten piroulines-a wonderful coffee treat..trying to get my 4 cups of coffee a day since they have now done the research to support woman's psychological/emotional balance has a link to caffeinated coffee (umm, i would love to be a fly on the wall in these test groups...and i am curious as to what other factors were taken into account). if the study is about caffeine in and of itself, angela and i should have no problems..but if it is strictly caffeinated coffee, i come close on some days.

today has been a fair-ly wonderful day!!
julie

chaco thought i was eating poopoo-sas, and he laughed

i am so glad tomorrow is tomorrow! my friend bmayes was going to come down for the weekend and bring chaco's sister to visit, but after thinking x,about it, just because she's from ou doesn't mean she has to come this weekend for the game just because it's ou//tx so hopefully she gets a chance to come next weekend. it's been an exhausting weekend, so i think that works out well for both of us!

i was a little late at work today (but i wasn't the last!). i finished vocabulary board #2. i don't know how it will go, but hopefully we get some participation!

affixes and root words. can you prefix something before it breaks? i doubt it.

as you may notice at the top, the B was missing from VOCABULARY,  and i was too lazy to go get the purple marker, so i just made a brown one.

also before i left, i was in our restroom stall and i glanced at the mavs poster in the teacher stall and my eyes played  a trick on me. i thought i saw the words :CARBON BUTTER

then i double checked because my mind switched the idea to carbs and butter thinking perhaps the mavs were promoting a wellness/ nutrition poster...no worries, they aren't.

i got home and cooked dinner and chaco ran to find bruno and said, "mama's eating poopoo." i peeked around the corner and corrected him. "pu-pu-SAs." 

tomorrow i have off because it is our 'fair-day'....may your day be fair as well!

i'm no genius, but sometimes i impress myself with little moments

sorry, i didn't post last night, because i was working on a schedule. my job? no, but i am one of those people who, if there is a problem, i will try to help fix it. i might add that i am also the kind of person that is not willing to put the fate of my schedule in the hands of another (unless they are scheduling geniuses)...

i'm in blue!!!

i was actually pretty proud of myself, because i don't see myself as being schedule-minded (this seems like so much more of a mathematical process), but i am a very determined, practical person.  i'm so glad that i can continue teaching the writing because we are in a great place, and i think they are actually getting it (kinda).

as i was leaving school last night, i saw this, as the construction workers were working on some stuff...it will be so nice when they are done! i suppose if you're 'scaffolding' instruction, you might want to make sure that it doesn't fall on the students.

i'm pretty certain THIS is NOT what they mean by scaffolding for elementary students

and tomorrow is spirit day!! that means jeans! heck yes. (to be said in napoleon dynamite voice, please).

i was thinking about doing a fun project and having the boys help me  it would involve finger paint...and paws...as cool as i think the result would be, i just don't know if i could deal with the mess afterward (even though it would be on the balcony, i just wouldn't want to have to wash or cut fur off later).but it would be so stinkin' cool!

no more scheduling conflict...not that we were scheduling for conflict to happen..who does that?


julie

stop already, the sanitizer is gone, don't bother.

let us all take a moment to mourn the loss of a fourth grade team member.

it was a sad day. it was verified that, in fact, ms. arroyo would be moving to 3rd grade. pretty sure she is not thrilled about it, i was very frustrated because i have appreciated working alongside such a wonderful colleague! raquel, here's to you-my hat is off! thank you for being willing to try anything and seeing the silver lining in all! i'm really glad that at least we get to keep you on our hall, almost next door! i enjoy our after-school chats but i shall miss having a lunch buddy!

after school, we were trying to work through what a potential schedule might look like with our interim principal and our assistant principal and what i was writing down made sense in my mind, but i'm pretty sure it looked more like a football play to everyone else (my stroke of genius)

my explanation of how things are currently

as we were coming in from recess, after lunch, the kids always think they have to use the purell sanitizer.so i was sitting there observing this phenomenon, watching them push the lever to try to get some, but it's probably been out for a month, so i said, "it's out! the hand sanitizer is gone, don't bother!" and a split second later, another decided to try the lever, as if by some mysterious miracle, everyone else was just doing it wrong.. i don't understand the obsession.

it's like the dispenser was the recipient of the AGE-OLD joke and had a sign taped on it's back that said: PUSH ME

after i left school today, i had to make a quick stop at walmart. interestingly enough, i got stuck behind a lady who had way too much perfume on (so much that i had to find something to put to my nose to stifle the smell. then on the way out i caught a crazy heavy cologne smell lingering all over the parking lot...ok, maybe just in the car next to mine. (but still). i told my students that i like them to try new things in their writing, like dialogue. then i compared dialogue to perfume and explained that too much of it is not a good thing-it gives us a headache and overwhelms us.

while i was there, i was especially looking for a couple of things. here are a few of the wonderful things i found!

sassy socks!

 i cannot remember who it was that insisted on having sassy socks back when i lived in des moines...i'm pretty sure it was either jory or cindy...but that was one of my missions today-to find some amazing halloween socks! i looked all over the store. i literally went from one end to the other, and finally found them on a rack right near the front (not in the sock section, nor the halloween section, but in the shirt section).

then i found the honeycrisp apples!! i LOVE them, i really do...and i also found the caramel! woo hoo-it is truly fall!

the boys approved of the sander, then bruno said, "wait a minute, you aren't planning to grind my toe nails down, are you?"

the other item i came home with was a rotisserie chicken. well, i pulled off some huge chunks of chicken and came into the living room. then before i knew it, bruno, as quick as lightning snatched off a huge chunk and threw it on the floor then jumped down and began to scarf down the entire thing! i was so mad at him!! i'm so glad there was no one else in the house to witness it. he's soooo in the doghouse with me (only we don't have a doghouse).

alrighty then, if you ever want people to stop listening to your ideas, write them down like football plays.
julie

move over snuggie, here comes forever lazy!

today i was very disappointed with the cowboys. boo. frustrating. but earlier there was a commercial that made me laugh. it was for the full body fleece pajama-type thingy...it's the improved snuggie (i couldn't think of 'snuggie' for a minute there and kept wanting to put snookie, but i KNEW that wasn't it). anyhoo, they had pics of these people in their forever lazy outfits and they looked a little silly. 

at home party...

tailgating...

using the restroom at a game...i'm sorry, if you wear one of these into a public restroom, i'm afraid you're asking to get beat up.

 i wouldn't wear one of these in public unless it was a joke or pajama-day at school...but i might lounge around in them at home. hmm..i'll have to think about that one.


yesterday, while i was looking through my cd covers for the best of handel, i found this one with 1 of the 2 cds in it. the other is in the player by my bed-i fall asleep to the sound of ocean waves, it's true. 

bringing the ocean vacation to work with me-i need the soothing break!

once when i lived in kansas city, i didn't have the ocean waves cd (i may have left it in iowa or something) but i thought i would get some other soothing nature sounds. i found a cd at a half price books of dessert winds. we had returned from a visit to white sands and dune jumping, where we'd had a blast, so i figured this would be just the thing! only when i put the cd in, i listened for a bit and then out of nowhere, it sounded like screeching and screaming (i must've missed the subtitle howling winds) needless to say it was anything but relaxing. it was more like something you'd hear in the background of a haunted house!  
 
i was thinking about something that someone said just the other day. most of the time we don't remember one special thing that our best teachers said to us, we remember the essence of the good teacher and the feeling that we had in their class. oh, we can remember the bad teachers and the mean things they said. i won't rat out any of the bad teachers, but i do remember 2 teachers specifically. ms. kundert and mrs. van horn from 3rd grade in brodhead, wi. they really made us feel like we were pretty special. 


i wrote a letter in hopes that ms. kundert was still working there at the school so many years later and to my surprise, i got a letter back and was fortunate to communicate with my former teacher, and i had a wonderful opportunity to go back to brodhead while i was working for the airlines and see ms. kundert, who had actually since gotten married and had become mrs. lokrantz. i just wanted to make sure that she knew she had made an impact on me so many years ago just by being nice. mrs. van horn had since moved, but mr. reimer, the music teacher(remember him? the one with the ghost and the guitar teacher) was still there and he remembered my dad was a pastor without any prompting. (that's a good teacher) it was something to see all of the changes that had happened since i was there!


 let people know how special they are when you have a chance, because you never know if you'll pass that way again!
julie