time to change the flapper! (good thing i don't have to say that very often)

two days at school and i got my last grades in, as well as filling out the cumulative folders-what a joy to be done with that! every year i end up not getting around to it until the last day when everyone else is finishing their room or playing cards, i sit laboring on those darned folders! boo.

and friday was field day, so i started the day off with the kids outside, "helping" with the events for about 2 hours, then i pulled out the gimp-card, and went up to my classroom to lay down on my carpeting and relax my back. that helped a ton (although my room was frigid, and i really could've used a blanket!)

this morning i took the boys to petsmart (they haven't gone with me in ages), so they were very excited and they loved the attention! until the old italian lady who didn't speak english saw them and rushed over and tried to go after chaco..he ran behind me to hide and did his little growl thing...so she went for bruno, who kind of backed up and looked at her with pleading eyes, but she picked him up anyway-without even asking. who does that??

i had to get dog food for them because i ran out and was resorting to the old prescription liver-food that i had leftover for when chaco was younger. so i got the big bag. i did look at the weight of the bag...it was a 15 lb bag, so i kinda' slid it into the cart and then from the cart to the car.

then i headed to the only arby's i'm aware of on midway because i've been craving their philly cheesesteak sandwich! well, sadly when i got there, it was boarded up and they have apparently closed down. so i went to the next thing i've been craving...

love their burgers and fries!!

when i got home, i did the responsible thing. i scooped out a bunch of the dog food into a plastic bag and brought that up so that i could feed them, and that way the bag would be about 10 lbs-my max-and i could bring it up later.

dropped some kibbles on the ground...leaving a trail...just a snack for others who are walking their dogs in the parking lot.

when i got upstairs, at some point i had to flush the toilet, but the water kept running. good thing i'm handy...i took off the toilet back and the flapper was practically disintegrated, so i had to run out and purchase a new one. i wish i'd realized this when mom and dad were here, because it would have been one more thing to keep him busy!

anyhoo, i wasn't sure what the part was called that i needed, so i looked it up and found this really cool website that shows how a toilet works...it is interactive and you can push the button to make the toilet flush...

i may or may not have flushed the online toilet several times...

then i headed off to the hardware store to buy me a flapper!

fixed!

i guess i could've called the apt. office and have the maintenance men do it, but i'm sure they have bigger fish to fry, and i'm not patient enough to wait!

hmm...what do you do if your toilet is running? GO CATCH IT!!! good to have a recycled joke once and awhile.
happy memorial day weekend!
julie

flowers, student cards and new shoes!

definitely went to the original pancake house today and LOVED it! best bacon...EVER! (even better than kamp!) poached eggs, bacon and 2 buttermilk pancakes! yummo! mom's banana/pecan crepe looked really good as well. and we finished up and got out probably before most of the kids at school finished their breakfasts!

I LOVE BACON!!!

then i decided to run by school so that i could try to get a few things done so that when i go back it won't be crazy times! i got a couple of things done, and had to stop in to ask maria about a couple of things (which was when ms. johnson and ms. sowe brought down some flowers and a card-what a great team!) they were beautiful-i should have surgeries more often..it's the only time i get flowers! smile.

i had to strap them in! safety first, safety last and safety in between!

i also got some sweet cards from the students. some are very basic, others are rather interesting!

isn't this a great package! so inviting!

i don't know if he thought i was on a vacation to hawaii, or what...(gigi)

are there actually horses at the zoo?

apparently this student understands the basics of back surgery!

i'm glad that i'm not considered hairy.

when i got home, i took a power nap and when i was woken up by the pzizz man, i decided that i needed 2 power naps! and then i went and got some new chacos for the summer because they were on sale! they will certainly get used! this year i hope to come away from summer with a chaco tan! (speaking of the shoes, not my pup)

excited to break them in!

and i just got the call from benefits that i have been cleared to come back to work! just in time for field day. (no exclamation point). what was i thinking...i should've stuck with her suggestion of next tuesday. oh well, less pressure to finish things.

back to the grind...nothing like the end of the school-year!!
julie

i'm not a great co-pilot, but it's ok, i don't have to be any more!

dad drove me to my doctor's appointment this morning, and i was not a very good guide, and i got frustrated as i was giving directions. i need to work on my patience. they've been so great with me, and i was not very appreciative. i must work on this.

well...today was the day- i've been released!!! (don't worry, i still have to follow the guidelines for about 4-6 weeks of no bending, twisting or lifting anything over 10 lbs...so i'll carry a scale around with me-no i won't).

when the doctor's assistant walked in, she said they had to scrape out a whole lot more than they thought, and she was quite impressed that i hadn't needed pain meds. ummm, i believe the phrase was "you are one tough lady" i should've told her that i really felt that the recovery went so well because of prayer.

released but restricted...at least i can drive!

so, i'll be asking my students to help me move things and prepare for the summer close-down! that is if the benefits department clears me. so my doctor's assistant said when do you want to go back? i said thursday would be great, so the assistant wrote it down and faxed in the document. now i am just waiting for them to send the information to my principal. when that happens, i get to go back.

if that doesn't happen this week, i guess i will have an extra long weekend.

after our appointment, we went to panera for lunch, and i tried the strawberry poppy seed salad-which was amazing! new fav! then we stopped at walmart and we picked up items to replenish my fridge and pantry.

when we took the boys for a walk, mom grabbed these fruit things that i see all of the time. she explained that if you put these things under your couch or bed or wherever, they have something in them that keeps spiders away. that was news to me! so we brought some home.

anyone familiar with these or use them in this way? i'll be sure to let you know if they work!

so with me on the mend, mom and dad are taking off tomorrow morning so that they can continue to work on their new house.  like i said, it has been great having them here. although i will be honest, i was ecstatic when i was cleared to drive and dad gave my keys back...(i'm a bad co-pilot). i think we might be going to the original house of pancakes for breakfast tomorrow. i've been craving it for a bit, and i didn't have bacon thawed for them while they were here, they had to suffer through my banana-coconut pancakes with turkey bacon...

i guess i'll have to think of some things to do this week if they won't let me come back to work...i wonder if dr. hughes will let me work on some of the mural painting...well, farmer's market might be more fun, or finding some dog-friendly places to visit.

blessings,
julie

headboard finally up-check! vaccuum-check! bored....check.

so, today i came up with a new project for dad. i got him to set up my headboard. i painted it forever ago and had great intentions, but i never got it set up. so, now it's up!

yesterday mom and i drove to the park near my place and then took the boys for a short walk around the park. they did fine until we reached a shady, grassy patch just on the opposite side of the bridge from where the car was parked. bruno first, then chaco.

 

 

 

 

they weren't about to budge!

today dad caught his big fish down in the pond! mom went down to take a picture; i walked out into the breezeway and took this picture, but you can barely see them by the pool. it was funny because some of the people at the pool were up at the fence watching.

very proud of his catch!

the boys weren't really used to the fish and night crawler smells, so every time he walked in the door they'd bark, get close, sniff, back up and bark again.

mom was great-she's done my laundry, thoroughly cleaned my bathroom and today she vacuumed for me! did i mention that my parents are great?! well, they are!

tomorrow is the follow-up and i am hoping that the dr. clears me to go back to work, but the biggest thing is that they release me to drive short distances b/c i think mom and dad are ready to take off on wednesday...there really isn't much i can't do now that i have my reacher thing...unless it falls on the ground (maybe i should've gotten two- a reacher to pick up the reacher!)

goodnight,
julie

give dad a project and then reach for any stinkin' thing i want!

today i  became convinced that dad needed something to do...

don't ask me how i knew...

so i told him about the little stoop i was wanting to build for bruno and chaco at the window height, and he took on that project. he's also been out fishing. but as i have mentioned before, our little pond is a catch-and-release pond, and so the fish are fairly predictable, and they know the drill because they've been caught and released so many times that i think they pull the hook out themselves and jump back in.

last night as i was laying in bed trying to fall to sleep, the neighbor whose apt backs up to mine was playing a loud techno music with a blaring bass, and i was not at all happy about that. it was around 10:50 p.m. so i dealt with it for as long as i possibly could. at 11:20 i was seriously contemplating going over there and pounding on the door.. but i was so tired i did the next best thing, when there was a lull in the "music," i banged on the wall hoping that a.) the person in said apt didn't have a shotgun to blow through the wall and b.) they didn't come around to my door drunk demanding a fight....maybe when i'm fully recovered i could take them, but not last night. 

thankfully neither of the above happened, instead the music desisted. praise YAHWEH! and when i woke up this morning there was no note on my door and i had no need to go leave a nasty note on theirs, although i was tempted to go introduce myself and let them know that if it happened again i would report them to the main office and then to the police... but again, i did not (i figured that they probably just didn't know what time it was because they don't have a clock nor understand how to read the night sky constellations to keep track of time).


this morning i had to get out for a bit, so mom took me to michael's so i could gather a few things (including bold oil-based sharpie markers to continue the outlining of the murals-the other ones were too small). then we stopped at walmart to get a couple of things (i needed a small pillow to put between my knees to keep my back in line so it doesn't spasm). on the way out i noticed this gem of a car...please notice that it has 5 antennae...

trying to get in touch with the mother ship?

 and tonight we decided to try to go out to eat at applebees. when we got there, i couldn't do a booth, so we got a table, then i had a delicious garlic sirloin with a portabella mushroom cap filled with steamed spinach and a little cheese-so delicious!! mom said i definitely didn't get my taste buds from her or dad! i had a hard time sitting for that long, so i stood and talked for awhile...i'm sure our server was wondering what in the world i was doing.

on the way back, we stopped at walgreens so i could try to find a "medline reacher" i read reviews that it could pick up anything from a penny off the floor to a can of vegetables...that's pretty good! i told dad to drop a penny on the floor, and sure enough, i was impressed! it will be worth it because i will be able to do some of the things mom has been helping me out with.

accurate enough to pick up a paper clip...

strong enough to get my water off the bottom shelf of the fridge without having to bend...

 yes, i think i will use this long after i am done "needing" it! 

the sterile bandage came off today (ok, it didn't exactly come off, but today was the day i got to remove it). hopefully that will help the incision site to heal quickly.

other than that, just trying to think of things to keep dad busy...
julie

surgery, smurgery, this was actaully much easier than both acl surgeries.

yesterday i went in for my operation and i was so hungry while we waited to be called back to the back. i really wanted to have a cappuccino swirl, or a hot chocolate (dove) from the machine...and the water fountain was also calling my name...grr. so when we went back, and they had me put on the silly gown and then the nurse put these sock-thingys on...they went all the way up to my knee (they're anti-embolism socks to prevent clots and such...$50 dollar socks!) i get to keep them at least! and if insurance doesn't pay for them, i'm off the hook.

attractive, right?

the last thing i remember the anesthesiologist(spelled it right the first time around without spell check!) saying was, "so, how did you rupture your disc?" and i replied, "maybe when i fell in the cave...or lifting weights." and that was the last thing i remembered.

i am very thankful for a great doctor and a capable anesthesiologist!

i woke up and i was a bit wobbly as the nurse walked me to the bathroom. i kept wondering why she was walking me to the bathroom because i really didn't have to go. but being under the influence of something i tried because i figured it was the only way i was going to get to leave...then i couldn't find my bra, the nurse found it in a baggie under the gurney. and then they wheeled me off in the wheel chair.

when we got home, i slept for a bit and then came out and text some people to let them know how it went. ate dinner...laid on the floor and watched some t.v. and chit chatted with mom and dad.

then i read the instructions and noticed that i am supposed to be working my way up to walking for a half hour. so this morning we woke up and had some breakfast, then mom and i went for a walk with the boys. they're not used to walking with two people and they get more tangled up that way, but it was good. so i showed mom around the complex. i probably could've walked longer, i am not tired or hurting, but everyone keeps saying don't over do it. well, i don't think i am...we walked for about 20-25 minutes-not fast, but it felt pretty good.

the boys did well, and we will probably take another short walk this afternoon-stir crazy

the hardest part is that i am only supposed to sit from 20-30 minutes at a time and only 3-4 times a day, so i will have to finish this later (or from a laying position).

a few days ago i was getting ready to throw something down the garbage disposal, when i looked down and found this little guy that kinda' creeped me out:

i saw the little green shute poking it's little head up through the opening...

 in my head were visions from little shop of horrors!
 
 i was shocked that the little guy could survive in the garbage disposal, then a little grossed out at the thought that it did...then i thought, hmm. if there were a nuclear holocaust and i needed to grow my own vegetables....actually, i think it was one of the chia seeds.

ok, back to resting for a bit,
julie

too small for a bearskin rug, but he makes a good little yorkie welcome mat...

here are some things that i have realized i take for granted :
tying my shoes
shaving my legs
giving the boys a bath
painting my toe nails
taking polish off my toe nails
lifting things
sleeping through the night without waking up
taking walks 
crossing my legs

not hurting when:
i sneeze
blow my nose
cough
use the bathroom
sit
drive
 bruno runs across my stomach
bend over

so today i thank God for good health and i hope that after the surgery i never take these things for granted again!
this morning i woke up at 4:30 and pretended to go back to sleep until about 6, decided it was a fruitless effort, might as well get up and take a nap later!

last night bruno was enjoying just laying in front of the balcony door, listening to the rain.

haha...he looks like one of those bear skin rugs!

so i threw some of the dogs' blankets into the laundry-it was high time! and i decided to try the coconut pancakes again with a little banana. at first, they just weren't cooking up quite right, so i threw out the first batch, added a little bit of regular flour to the mixture and a little baking powder and that seemed to do the trick! and the "syrup" was just right as well. not gonna lie, i am a big fan!!

yum, yum, yum! they turned out much better than last time!

i decided to try my hand at them again because when i was up in ok, bmayes made some with almond flour and banana and they were really good.

someone found what they thought was a candy and started trying to eat it. apparently they don't care for eucalyptus menthol because they definitely left it laying on my bedroom floor.

pretty much intact

i called the hospital to see if i was reading my pre-op instructions correctly because i cannot have aleve, or anything like that with aspirin, but i wasn't sure about the pain meds, and she said yes, i said wow. i said when, she said if you're in pain how about right now pain can't wait (my re-working of brad paisley's she said yes, for all of you country fans out there). hydrocodone...here i come! i'll be going to bed early tonight. 

good night!
julie

there's no crying in teaching! so i went home.

aarrgh. i missed it! double tree provided lunch today and i missed it. boo. this morning was very normal until i got into my car and started driving. i don't know what it was, but i stopped at an atm to get money and then off to school, and my back and leg hurt more than ever-it literally brought me to tears trying to get out of my car. ms. johnson was in the parking lot and she came over to help me with my bag-i hate being dependent, but i am super appreciative.

dr. hughes saw us slowly making our way down the hall, and she strongly urged me to go home (at that point, i knew i needed to), so i went up to my room to write out detailed instructions for brooke to deliver the lesson today and i'm sure she did an excellent job.

it wasn't until i reached the car that it hit me that i was missing the doubletree lunch! boo. and i was on the way home when i remembered why i stopped at the atm in the first place-for tamale money! so i had to txt maria to see if she could grab my tamales and give our tamale mom the message that i would pay her on monday. maria graciously agreed and offered to drop them off for me. i am looking forward to sharing them with bmayes who is coming for a wedding this weekend(which i am not going to, and the way i'm feeling, i am glad!) and staying w/ me (she'll be able to play with the boys)..and then i can't wait for mom and dad to be able to have good tamales again. smiles.

for some reason i thought this week was the last weigh in for the biggest loser II, but alas, i was wrong. we have 2 (count them...one, two) more weeks left! ugh. not like it's a big deal, because there's not much i'll be changing after it's over, although i might indulge in some pizza or something fun like that.

i really wish three were floating mountains and a world like pandora (avatar-although the movie is somewhat cheesy, the scenery is to die for!) if i could visit any movie location, that would be it!! and i would fly on one of those dragon things, too!

alright, have a great weekend!
julie

that was delicious, bunt i really shouldn't have!

oh goodness! i am so glad it is thursday! today the students got on the computers to look up statistics and expert opinions for the persuasive papers they will be writing, and someone who is trying to persuade grandma to come visit searched for grandma, statistic, child and came up with some story about grandma shooting a kid...probably not the most convincing piece of information they could use.

and today was a wonderful beans, rice and enchilada lunch-thank you ms. perez for making all those enchiladas, and navarres for the beans and rice (which i shouldn't have, but it just went so well with the mini bunt cakes that mattress firm supplied for us!) the bunt cakes actually brought back gigi memories because she got me one for my birthday last year and it was amazing! wish you could have been here to appreciate it!

 i'm very curious to see what double tree is bringing tomorrow...i'm going to have to be super good next week!

we got a really cool gift today! and just in time because i am running out of post its!

and one of the sweet moms of one of my students gave me a sweet gift-it's a tealight candle holder-it doesn't particular;y go with my decor, but the sweetest gesture.

then when i got home, i took the boys for a walk (slow walk, but they needed some fresh air).we stopped by the office to say hello, but it wasn't much fun...it's just not the same. and when we got out of the office, bruno said, "i don't think they really like us." and chaco piped up, "i know, we need to find new friends!"

then we made our way around to the back and there was a big dog in the fenced area, so we kept moving and then we saw the cat behind another fence...

bruno said, mama! we're at the zoo and watching the silly feline!" i think he was really thankful for the fence because secretly he was a little fearful of the kitty.

and last but not least, we have a lady who comes to our school in the afternoons with her metal detector thingy to look for foreign objects. i wonder what all she finds that's worthwhile because she keeps coming back with her machine and her mini trowel. hope it's worth her while! perhaps when i grow up i'll find a fun hobby like that, although i will be wearing leopard pants and a hot pink top.

a few quarters here and there...maybe cabell was the old site of a lost treasure...from when the pirates used to use the jungle gym as a hideout?

time for bed,
julie

i'd much rather watch midget wrestling than draw blood from old people

my student teacher got tickets to an event tonight, and i might be a little jealous! i'm pretty sure i could've pulled some friends to go with me to this!

midget wrestling!!! what?!

what i wouldn't give...

then i made my appointment for the pre-op lab work and ekg, only when i got there, the nurse said it was just a urine sample and blood work. whatev, better for me b/c i won't have to pay as much! so, after the paperwork and registration, the nurse took me back for the blood work and i was in one of the fake rooms in the middle of the place with pull around curtains that you usually see on the ER shows or mystery shows...

methodist hospital in addison, right off the tollway

 it's a beautiful, fairly new building. it kind of brought back memories of when i worked at menorah medical park back in ks...the good old days in the file room! i had my first knee surgery there and after the surgery, they had me sitting up while my mom was talking to the doc, i was so out of it i kept grabbing kleenex and spitting into them and throwing them in the trash can next to me, and until the nurse saw me and came over and realized that the kleenex (plural) were all bloody, so they ordered a stat chest xray, but it was no big deal, the tube in my throat had merely scraped my throat on the way out a little bit.

and as she was tying the rubber band around my arm and pulling out the needle and the tubes, memories of my attempt at phlebotomy came back...not sure if i ever told the story on here, but it was an interesting experience. they sent me to a hospital downtown, and my trainer sent me into a room to draw from this lady, while she stepped out momentarily. i tried to draw, but being an elderly woman, she didn't have the best veins, so i switched to different needle because i didn't get enough on the first draw.

 well, when my trainer came back, she thought it was very strange, and the woman was still asleep...well, the nurses had failed to take her off the rounds chart when she had passed away earlier in the day...no wonder my excellent techniques were not working. that was a little awkward. and i decided this was not the route i wanted to take. the only great thing about  going down there was that they had the greatest philly cheese steak sandwiches around the corner!

lots of memories from those days.

then, as i was leaving, the receptionist poked her head around the corner and told the nurses that the lady who had come in just prior to me called on the emergency button and said she was locked in the dressing room. they looked at each other and one of them said, "i didn't put her in a dressing room." the other one responded that she hadn't either....i hope they found her!

and on the way out, i went to the bathroom and found the must unsettling baby changing station. i would strongly urge people with babies to steer clear!

look carefully, using this station causes baby heads to become detached.

 and i was comforted to see that they had a crash cart ready to go!

i think we're good to go. as i was walking out, there was a nurse wheeling a guy out and he was saying crazy things as he got into the passenger side. glad mom and dad will be here to pick me up! the up side is i know they won't take embarrassing video.

if it doesn't work the first time, keep trying until someone tells you they're dead!
julie

yes, bruno and chaco know all of the dallas hot spots!

got a letter from the doctor today saying i need to get an ekg and lab work, and they'd like me to do it a week before surgery...um..that's tomorrow. really? nothing like a head's up!

did i mention it's teacher appreciation week? well, it is. my coworkers obviously are aware (unless they have been hiding under a rock)...i chose the right week to not have the surgery-no one wants to miss being appreciated! i wonder if anyone is boxing up left-overs for mr. chavez...

we've been blessed to have someone providing lunch for us every day this week. tomorrow is subway! ooOOO! and thursday will be enchiladas, but what i am REALLY looking forward to is seeing what double tree  is going to provide! we are so fortunate to have them sponsoring us!!

and every day our school is providing fun little gifts:

i don't need a flash for my camera because now i have an awesome mini led flashlight!

the chinese make pretty good little light!

and today we got a cute little notepad with great little quotes and a pen.

after the week is over and i've posted all my pics, everyone is going to want to be a teacher! the sad thing is that i'm pretty sure not every school out there goes all out and does the kind of hoopla that our school does. we truly are blessed! it's fun, although it really is enough to know that we are making a difference in lives that is much further reaching than next week, next month or even next year.

my student teacher had an evaluation today and it was fun to see her do well. she has improved since the last time her evaluator was here! at the end of the class, we were called down for the money machine! one of my students won it for selling the most on our fundraiser! so we watched her and wished that we had been in there grabbing for money! i would absolutely love to be in a money machine!

grab and stuff!

  she got like $51! i mean, that's a lot of singles!

i need to tell my dad to bring his fishing pole so that he can fish in our little pond-it's catch and release, but he might enjoy it...or i could point him to another lake nearby..suggestions anyone? i'm trying to think of some fun things that mom and dad can do while they're here, because i'm sure they don't want to be stuck here every minute of the day!

i'm sure bruno and chaco are going to have all kinds of plans, they'll show them all of the hot spots and historical markers...petsmart...dog park...etc.

oh, and i had a dream last night that was really weird. the only part i remember was being tired and wishing i could float. so i looked a my feet and willed it to happen thinking, "it doesn't matter how hard i wish, this isn't even a logical feat to try." and of course, in the split second of that thought, i began to raise up off the floor and i was so excited that i now knew how to float! only when i'm awake, i don't float.

floating is over-rated,
julie

melissa is married!

well, yesterday we went over to bmayes' house to play while she was at training. it was a beautiful morning! i had gotten a text earlier from shea (one of the bridesmaids), but it didn't say anything, so i text back: happy saturday! and didn't hear back from her. so i laid on the trampoline and relaxed while the dogs wandered and explored. then after awhile i went to the back of the yard and there was a familiar sight.

laying on the tramp is one of the most relaxing things

bmayes has a mulberry tree! i picked a few and left them in a bowl for her to try. i remember when we lived in wisconsin, there was a tree in our backyard separating our property from the apt behind us. i remember running through there barefoot and the berries that had fallen on the ground would squish on our feet, leaving them stained purple.

well, then we went back to the hotel to take a nap and prepare for the wedding. we got to the church and got seated. we waited and looked around to see who all we knew. the wedding party filed out the men were handsome the bridesmaids were gorgeous (you may think that i am being slightly partial b/c they are all friends of mine...but no, it's just the simple truth, i have beautiful friends! deal wid it.) then of course there was the ring-bearer and flower girl, which can never happen without a hitch, and sure enough, the flower girl was having some difficulty because she was trying to pick just the right petals to drop, so nika (bridesmaid) took it upon herself to go back down the aisle to prompt the little girl to keep walking (she pushed her all the way down...and we were all grateful). then melissa finally got to make her grand entrance, and she was a beautiful bride!

then we made our way to the reception...what? no, we did not stop at a mexican place for chips and queso first...but it sure was good! and we made it into the reception just in time for the introductions of the wedding party-very witty. and then the dancing, watching-of-the-dancing and posing-like-i'm dancing pics.

they had a great little routine!

the wedding party dance-off was quite a show!

photo booth-best idea ever!

 then we saw them off with bird seed-visions of alfred hitchcock's the birds danced through my head momentarily. it was a beautiful night.

i got up early this morning and prepared for the trip home, and it was more difficult and much longer coming back than it was going.

time to prepare for the week!
julie

chaco, you're not going to the wedding...but you get to play with the president and the prime minister!

i think chaco was trying to send a message that he didn't want to come to the wedding...

he actually snagged the save the date back when i got it, and i caught him just in time, but i wasn't as lucky with the shower information card. brat.

 but now that we're here, he doesn't mind so much since he isn't going to the wedding-he thought he was going to have to dress up and be quiet....not a good combination.
well, i made it to oklahoma for the wedding and last night i went to the bbq/bridal shower and it was such a joy to get to hang out with some of my very favorite people all together in one place at one time...again! the shower was tastefully fun gifts rather than kinky gifts, so bmayes and i got fun games and put them in a fun bag with a fun card because it was a bbq and we figured it fit her personality!

somehow, it just felt right.

the food was wonderful and the company was even better! the only part that was mildly nasty was when melissa kept getting all of the "newly wed" video questions correct....because every time she was right, we all had to put a piece of bubble gum in our mouths, every time she was wrong, she did...as a credit to their future happiness, they know each other pretty darn well! and my teeth will probably all be falling out tomorrow.

our hotel room is actually quite comfortable...

the artwork needs some updating, but other than that, very nice. the housekeeper was in the hall this morning when i was looking for ice, and she only had one tooth and looked a bit like nanny mcphee (even more than my old student did!), but she was super nice, and she went and got my ice because she saw i was walking really slowly. i forgot they have a free breakfast, i might see what they have tomorrow...if they have anything that works with my diet (because the rest of this weekend doesn't really work) ..although i did bring my magic bullet with me and fruit and chard, etc...

and the only good place to plug it in happens to be by the sink

today we slept in until about 8.30, then the boys insisted we watch a little hgtv and then animal planet. i had to change animal planet after a bit because every time the dogs on the show barked, the boys felt they needed to respond in kind. it's ok at home, but not at the hotel!

then we went for a quick walk around the hotel parking lot in the grassy areas and by the time we got back, i had a text from bmayes to go over and play with reagan and thatcher (the cold war coalition)...and so we went over, even though it looked like possible rain. they went crazy when the boys trotted up to the door. then i got to try one of bmayes' banana, almond flour(i think) pancakes. it was pretty great! then the pups went out and played in the yard for a bit.

when lunch time rolled around, we went to mamavecas. before i came, i was looking for someplace with paella... craving. and i found a lot of positive reviews about this place on yelp. so we went and when we sat down, it felt so comfortable and familiar because they were playing hombres g-oldies but goodies, they were one of my favorite groups when i was living in HONDURAS! the food was pretty good-large portions. it didn't quite match up to the paella i had at a spanish restaurant in HONDURAS, though. the seasoning was alright, but there wasn't as large of a variety of seafood, so who in dallas knows of a restaurant that has excellent paella?

the typical lama fur decoration...of a panda because they have pandas in...peru?

and of course there were leftovers...um, we're thinking this used to be a chicken express or something like that because it certainly looks like a barn.

oh, when i tried the paella in HONDURAS, it was on a field trip with our special spanish class. we had a....unique teacher. her name was ms. acosta. she was also the school nurse. which was interesting. i distinctly remember going up to her room once when i had a headache and she wanted to look at my throat. but she didn't have a flashlight, so she made me come over by the window and tilt my head toward the sun...a little loopy. as i recall she was that teacher that always had the huge gaudy jewelry and caked on make-up. but we liked her well enough.

yep, they were all waiting at the door...impatiently; and it took several tries to get this pic because they just wouldn't stay still long enough!

anyhoo, the food was good, then we went back to the house and let the dogs out one more time before coming in and watching life in a day recommended by leah-it was very interesting-great insight on various cultures. during the movie, i was reclining on the sofa, and bruno pounced from the back of the couch onto my stomach and it caused instant pain in my back and leg-he has no clue. so when the documentary was over, we came back to the hotel and laid on an ice pack. and we're in for the night...

more than ever, i can't wait to be back in full swing!
julie