things that make me happy: diy hair, stamps, flowers, green screen, and istation cake

home. once we got home, i had to quickly get a picture, lest i forget. angelica and i were talking about her grandson and she said she flat-irons his hair because it is super curly. so i suggested getting a brazilian blowout...and the obvious,"they're just so expensive!" so i explained how i've been doing mine for the past year (once every 3-4 months), and it really isn't that difficult, just a little time-consuming. so i promised i'd let her know what product i used.

i was really excited when i went to the post office, and i'd received letters from two of my aunts-kim and mindy! it's always just so good to hear from them, and to know what is going on with the family up in iowa. it especially felt like Christmas in July, because mindy had seen one of my facebook posts back on april 29...i was down to 1 stamp...well, she must've known...i must have been emitting my anxious "i'm-almost-out-of-stamps" vibe...strong enough to be felt from iowa! you do the math #imawriternotafighter (line from michael jackson the girl is mine, had he been thinking shakespeare)

i dropped one of my friends off at the airport with her mom, and got to meet with another friend later at kona grill, because we hadn't gotten together since summer school. it was really great to snack on sushi, and catch up! then of course we went into the mall and made our way strategically to 3 stores to find the products that she was in need of and i escaped unscathed! we did get a great historical lesson regarding how the perfumes were made and how they layer, and how many actual molecules went into the making of each fragrance...and yes i actually found one that i really liked...just sayin..this man loves his job! #pasionateaboutscents

i also put it on my shopping list to grab some flowers from the store. the boys love flowers...

this work week started out (as usual on monday-yesterday [two days ago now..this is what happens when i procrastinate]), and when lori walked in, she came bearing someone new! she introduced us to her friend lori (not a typo), who will be joining us at istation! so here's what i'm thinking. from now on, we should start hiring people who share names of current trainers and then pair us all up whenever possible so that it makes it really easy on the participants! it also makes for a great cover-up....oh, that was the other julie, not me...

 i spent part of the day with toni, visiting some of her TACKLE SUMMER SLIDE campuses. it was great to get out and see the kids working with tutors and enjoying their time on istation. we made our way back to the istation tower just before lunchtime, and i joined suzanne and deane, who has finally been freed from the chains that bound her...and was doing the on-boarding process, so i got to sit in and when lunch rolled around we had a casual lunch in the war room (where all of the important battles are waged...). it's always a good idea to take every opportunity to get to know people as well as possible!

besides, hard to beat turkey-wrap pinwheel sandwich bites, pita chips with hummus, and the cinnamon-crumble bites. and i kinda' screwed up and took too many pita chips-they just came out of the bag too fast, to my horror, and i don't know these people well enough to be manhandling pita chips and putting them back in the bag, having them wonder if i washed my hands or not! so...i zoned out of the conversation for a minute, thinking through my dilemma. i was going to have to be creative about rationing this little scoop of hummus. so i mixed it up and used the veggie dip (meant for the carrots), intermittently and it paired well with the pita chips. i was very proud of myself when i was able to finish that last chip... those cinnamon bites, though...addictive! yikes!

when toni returned, we finished our rounds, but i forgot to go up to get my new id badge pic...but that morning, i did get the exciting news that i will be training in florida (one day...but at least i get to see the palm trees, right?) so an overnighter- i'm going to try something new with the automatic feeders-separate the boys so that bruno doesn't eat chaco's food and give chaco a reason to write mommy dearest memoirs.

then tuesday we had an office field trip, so i got there a little early. when i pulled into the underground garage, it seemed so dark. when i turned the car off, it was too dark to see what i was doing. that was strange-i don't remember having this sensation previously. when i got up to the lobby area, i looked around and there were a bunch of people sitting around. "hmm," i thought, "all of these people here for an interview?" then i saw some familiar faces--and realized that the lights were out. i made my way toward the first floor restroom, because the elevator was out. then i realized that the bathroom was pitch black. just as i was preparing to use my phone flashlight, with visions of cave-spelunking, the lights came back on. when i got back to the elevators, people were still waiting around for the elevators to begin running. they were fine on the other side (floors 1-12), but the express to the upper floors were a little sketchier...and we may or may not have heard someone in one of the elevators who'd gotten stuck when the electricity went out-20 minutes...

once the first run up was ready to go, i was intent on going up-not a worry, lisandra was not as sure, but bless her willingness to take a walk on the wild side! she was thinking claustrophobia, and what if... i had been on a netflix adventure binge for a minute, and so my mind went to the panic-room mode, and if i were stuck in an elevator, what would jason bourne do?  but there were no hiccups, which is good, because we were about to have kiddos coming for a field trip! the cool thing is that i got to go through the tour-which i hadn't done yet, so it was fun to go through and see what happens with the students! the group i was with-silly and antsy, but no more so than any other group of 2nd graders! at one point, the kids were told about tiger, the office dog, and they were asking about him from that moment on, wanting to get a glimpse of our mascot..i don't think we saw him once, but would not stop asking where the dog was (one track minds!) my favorite part of the entire tour was definitely the green-screen room! the kids loved it, and the walls were padded (not for crazies), which gave the kids a chance to scream at the top of their lungs once. it was still a little loud in the room, but no one really heard them from the outside.  the bottom line-they had a blast!

if i were a super-hero in space...this might happen. 

if i were just a normal semi-normal person stretching out in front of a regular green screen, though...this might happen.

masks of the characters-students got to choose their faves

it really is a fun field trip-highly recommended! very fun, because they have been interacting with these characters and now they got to see how everything comes together!

afterward, toni and i went out to another site- i've loved tagging along with her, because we've been able to have some great conversation time.

so today, we got to go out to one of the sites toni has been working with, and i got to meet ms. nutall, one of the dallas isd board members. she is a treasure, and she has been working with students during the summers, to help curb summer slide. they have an impressive support system. we also went to the boys and girls club and today was their celebration! i love that we were able to be there-these kids were so great!

over the top cute!

so that kinda' sums up the past couple of days, and it's going to start getting a little crazy up in her.

blessings-
julie

final sessions and old friends (wait. who's calling who old?!)

i am a light sleeper-not bragging...it's just a fact. that said, i did not sleep well tuesday night...but then i usually toss and turn anyway, trying to adjust to a comfortable position (back issues), this was no exception. breakfast came early. i made my way to the hotel 'restaurant' (using the term loosely), and partook of the eggs, potatoes and baby waffles...the main course: coffee. always coffee.

again, alicia led the trek to the campus garage, and we found the building that we would start in with the preliminary meeting of the minds. basically just getting together to debrief...prebrief...chit-chat about how to tackle the day. joyce and i went to find our classroom-easy, it was about 20 paces north. prime real-estate, we were two lefts from the women's bathroom, and one left from the diet dr. pepper machine...like i said: location, location, location. if it were a musical, i'd have been singing this line: "i could not ask for more"-thank you, edwin mccain (skip the love lyrics, and just keep that line)... each room we were stationed in had a different audio/visual presentation set-up...and they were progressively getting more...rudimentary as we went. not complaining...this was good for me. technical issues will always be THE issue-so might as well get as much experience as possible, right?

the first session went off without a hitch, and then we proceeded to our next building, the last session. we polled the audience and 98% were bilingual teachers! my kind of people...joyce dominated with our fearless facilitator (whom we affectionately dubbed melissa) answered all of the district-level questions, of which there were many. what i loved was that in each session, there had been teachers who had piloted the program, and they were able to speak into that a little, with a bit of tweaking about how they would be moving forward with the roll-out this year that would make their lives even easier. i'm sure they will appreciate the automaticity of the monthly ISIP.

and so we ended our last session in a timely manner, and we were thinking we were the first ones finished..not that it's a race, or anything, but nooooo...we got to the parking garage, and julie and randi had beat us (but it's not a race...unless we'd gotten there first). once everyone was there, we bid our farewells to jami and got a quick group pic before going back to the hotel.

the group went to maggiano's that night for dinner, but i was going to be meeting with one of my former college friends (not a former friend..still a friend...formerly in college-you get it). so once everyone took off, i had about an hour and a half to kill, so i took off to explore the neighborhood. as i was making my way up zuni, i felt like someone was following me. no worries, just a girl with a yoga mat. not a threat. it really was a neat neighborhood-older buildings, being revitalized, lots of restoration happening.

neighborhood art-i'd just had this conversation with a friend the other day about loving to see graffiti in different neighborhoods!

i should've gone to see if there was a historical marker or not...beautiful church!

when stacey arrived, we didn't even have to go very far to find the cute little highland area to eat. parking...there were some interesting parking signs with very interesting instructions. i'm sure the city thought they were explicit and clear, but when we pulled over and it took 5 minutes to read the sign, and 2 additional minutes to decipher it...we realized that we indeed could not park there, because it was not a monday through thursday before 5 p.m, even though it was not the third thursday of the month, had it been a saturday or sunday, we MAY have been able to park there...but alas, 'twas not. so on with our search. we decided on one of the first places we saw: three dogs tavern. it looked like a good bet (something to tell the boys about when i got home). great burgers and sweet potato fries (every time..i'm a sucker for the sweet potato fries).

this one!

i could handle meeting up with friends more often!

we had a great time catching up and playing the live trivia game-which neither of us wanted to win, because we truly did not want the prize. after dinner, we checked out that neighborhood-hoppin' even for a wednesday night. very dog-friendly, there were water-dishes everywhere; stacey may or may not have practically stepped in one (dangerous things, they are)! but it gave a good reason to sit on one of the benches, and she got to share a track she's been working on. stacey does open mic nights around town-very talented vocalist and guitarist. took us back to college days when we took a road trip to nashville to visit my brother and we got to record a song she'd written in the studio he worked at on campus. fabulous trip, fabulous memories! oh, nostalgia. how i've missed this one-we were known for our crazy antics.

when i arrived back at the suite, my roomie was already in bed--we really didn't get much quality bonding time, but i'm sure there will be other opportunities. i went upstairs and packed it all up, so that come morning i'd be ready to go. another restless night...some heavy sleepers sleep much more heavily, and hence have a heavy breathing pattern, so i ended up playing my classical music (yo yo ma cello), but still from 12:30 on, i woke up hourly, so finally 5:30 was upon us, and i gave in, took a shower and went to breakfast. upon my return to the suite, my roommate had left for the airport leaving a sweet note-i was sad to have missed her, sabrina and julie because i didn't get to say goodbye; i'd bid joyce and alicia farewell the evening before, knowing we wouldn't see each other in the morning.

final unexplained activity: back to brian's room. strangely when he returned to his room, the murphy bed was down...i suppose it could have been let down by the house-keeper, but why? i mean who would leave evidence of sleeping on the job? (apart from someone who was being paid for sleeping/dream studies...)

fortunately when we got to the airport, the security (please join me in saying it like bon qui qui and if you're not familiar, you MUST watch the entire video-find it!) nothing too exciting on the flight-apart from the fact that it was delayed by a lot, due to the southwest issues the day before. so when i got back, i went to pick the boys up from joanne's-they said they had a great time, and i got a great report on them, as well. they got to meet all of the principals from her feeder pattern, and they were on their best behavior. smile. when we got back to the apt, i felt like a freaking sherpa carrying all of my travel crap and the boys' necessities up to the third floor. #mymounteverest i swear, they have more travel needs than a baby...just different.

home will always feel good!
julie

serious about driving, training, eating (especially eating), and good talks; friends whether you like it or not

tuesday morning, so yes, i do get up early, as i am a morning person...early to breakfast, means i have some leisurely time-i'd rather be real early and have that time, than be rushed and all last-minute-y. we took off early enough in a tight little caravan of three cars to figure out a parking scenario in which we didn't have to walk a gazilion and one miles (while i love the old:I'M GONNA BE by the proclaimers, by no means did i have any desire to "walk 500 miles"). so we left the 'seasoned trainers' and randi, angelica and i set off to retrieve the cars and drive around to a central parking location. once we got there, we had to figure out the parking meter app, and accidentally put in the rental car number instead of the license plate # the first hour...but then changed it in the app-hopefully no one came by to scan the cars in the first hour...yikes. we meandered around the campus like we were on AMAZING RACE, and once we found our assigned peeps, we helped them settle in for the morning session.

i was having to be super time-conscious to "feed-the-meter" to add time for our by-the-hour parking app. so i got to hang with joyce for our trainings this round, and while it deviated from our "normal" trainings" (although, what really is normal? thank you very much), there is always something to be learned! we battled the technical difficulties (with the grace of a high-functioning drunk panda bear)...we plugged the podium power in. it went smoothly, but lets be clear, these teachers were HARD-CORE-SERIOUS about their lunch-time...i mean, olympic time-keeper-serious! (but i am too), which led to our NASA-style countdown timer on day 2. i'm sure in her heart of hearts, joyce wanted to stay one extra day and give it a try to see if she could shave off another two minutes, but since our flights had already been booked...ok, maybe not..but back to that first session. once we finished, we channeled our dale earnhardt jr...jeff gordon...richard petty-you pick...and hoofed it over to the other campus. a little rushed, but safe, and smooth. once again, we took our chances to find vip parking...and to our pleasure, they provided parking passes! the parking gods were watching out for us. fortunately we retained our same facilitator for all of the sessions-she was a gem. not even being sarcastic, we could be friends! end day one session two.

driving back to the hotel had to happen, so we knew the hotel was on zuni street...we may have been too..tired (better than lazy, right?) to look up the exact address, so for whatever god-forsaken reason, when you just put in the street name with no address, the gps map takes you wherever it wants to on that street...we had one other car following us, and we certainly took the scenic route because gps maps gonna take you for a ride! eventually we did opt to put the address in and got rerouted to the hotel to drop a passenger and consolidate vehicles. during the scenic route, one of the ladies in the car behind us texted. and alicia asked, "why is she texting us?" my response, "because she didn't want to tap it out in morse-code with the lights." that may have been the turning point of appreciation for my humor with alicia. we share a delicate affinity for sarcastic humor. actually, i prefer to view it as clever, well-timed wit...anyoo, we arrived at rio grande for dinner and 3 from our group were already there, with a table, and they had already ordered apps and requested from our magnanimous leader a special dinner-approval for intentional bonding. smile. it was delicious, and it was especially nice to be able to laugh and get to know the crew a bit.

drove past rei, and certainly wished i could go in! wished i had limitless funds to purchase hiking, climbing, etc. gear and had the time to go out to play!! such a tease!

toward the end of dinner, i received a call from one of my friends from dallas who needed to talk-i could tell something was up on the home-front, so it was an important conversation. #alwaysthereforfriends

when everyone finished, we made our way back to our hotel and i had an opportunity to hang out with three other trainers in the breezeway outside of the rain-it was quality. taking opportunities to get to know everyone better, because who knows when we see each other again. i loved getting to have a little heart-to-heart with julie. you have to understand that we are the same person. ok...not really, but she was julie robinson first at istation; now she is julie k, and i'm the new julie r...which i'm sure is confusing as all get-out to some...but in all seriousness, it's a little comical how much we actually do have in common. she's one i really did want to get to know better, because we were on the light blue team together (remember this); we didn't really get enough time to talk at the conference, but i was really impressed by her knowledge, so (unbeknownst to her...poor, unsuspecting soul) i decided then and there that as sure as the sun rises in the east earth rotates in such a manner as to create the semblance of the sun rising in the east...we were going to be friends.

at some point while we were chatting, julie had to go up to their room to use the restroom, and she came back visibly shaken. (goosebumps and all). she asked if we'd gone up or not. nope. hadn't moved an inch. so when she told us her story, it was like a continuation of the weirdness that had transpired in brian's room. she said she was in the bathroom and heard the distinct sound of the front door opening and closing. she didn't think too much, but started to call out for sabrina, thinking she'd come back up for something...she was the only one with the key-card. no one answered, she repeated, "sabi?" and she said she heard an audible "hi, hi" in a soft, raspy voice...but when she walked out-nothing. ew...got goosebumps when she told us, before she rushed out of the room, she turned around, and said in no uncertain terms, "in the name of Jesus, i command you to leave!" then she rushed down to where we were and asked if we'd been up there- obviously creeped out, because wouldn't you be? great. i signed up for the haunted training trip. i knew before we left that it was not going to be normal, but this? a little warning next time, peeps #notevenhalloweenyet ...but that led into a pretty deep conversation that diverged and branched off into two conversations before resuming into a single flow of conversation again. it really was enlightening, and i cherish that time...priceless.

we wandered off to bed, so that we could wake up the next morning for the next round of sessions. and there were no strange paranormalities to speak of when we woke up the next morning...thankfully so!

julie

the pre-cursor...travel, hotel check-in and psycho (but not in my hotel room)

monday morning i had some last minute things i needed to do before going to the airport. i'd forgotten to make a reservation at the parking spot, so i ended up going with: PARK-N-FLY...not sure what to expect. i also knew that before the flight, i had to stop at the store for more chaco-food and drop it off at joanne's. i really should have set up the new printer the night before...so here i was last minute trying to get the printer all set up, somehow (i don't even know) i was able to set it up through the router and manage it all and it actually worked the first second third time! i may or may not have accidentally turned it off a couple of times and blah blah blah...what you need to know is that i was able to get my parking receipt printed!

so park-n-fly...i reserved a spot, and when i arrived to the spot my google maps indicated, i didn't see it, so i had to do a stealthy turn-around in a private parking spot, and on the second pass, i found it...only it looked incredibly full. there was only one slot left-and i snagged it, then made my way to the shuttle.

i was thrilled when i got to the terminal and brian informed me that due to the nature of our tickets, i was able to go through the tsa prepass! woot!! so i LOVED it...i may be investing in the tsa prepass and going to the bldg to get approved. totally worth it. i mean, who doesn't want to feel like a super-rock-star?!

brian was on top of it: he was our go-to-guy...our contact man...our 'handler'(just finished a great fbi/spy series on netflix)... he booked our flights, kept us in the loop, checked us in, booked the rental...we were certainly spoiled this time! #nevertakeitforgranted 

randi met up with us at love field, coming in from new orleans. and then we met janet at the gate. we had fabulous seats (always a plus in my book), plenty of time to write a great letter to one of my former kampers, whom i've not written to in ages. we got to denver a little delayed due to storms in the area-we were in a holding pattern for a bit before the let us land, so we met up with angelica when we landed, and took off for our luggage and rental car. on the ride to the hotel, randi provided her own version of navigational play-by-play...glad he was driving, not me.

in the airport upon arrival

upon trying to check in to the inn, there may have been a couple of glitches. it was almost like mary and joseph when the keeper said:NO ROOM IN THE INN, and there was no stable or anything like that, because all was booked in town for special conventions or something...but basically we KNEW that we had bookings, but the nice, young man at the counter couldn't find us. apparently when the reservation names were changed to reflect the correct inhabitants, the random on the other end of the line may have either had too much 'legal cannabis' in their system, or been of thick, heavy accented persuasion, not inputting names correctly. either way, we had to call in the heavy hitters..julie k and sabrina were there in a minute and it was as if they were all playing with one of those three part kid books, with the mix & match pages where kids create alien-looking-animals, only with names...so we made it work, as the place was completely booked...we may have inadvertently snatched someone else's rooms, but the fact is, we booked it, we weren't leaving the counter without our rooms! #notfeelingguilty.

after settling into our rooms, a group of us set off in search of food. parking was the biggest issue, so finally when push comes to shove, one must valet the mom-mobile. and due to the excessive wait-time at the restaurant LINGER (irony)...we backtracked to vita...apparently a fancy wine boutique/restaurant. the hostess was by no means "the mostest." well, perhaps she is the mostest rude...snide...there were six of us and it was slow, not busy, yet under her breath she mumbled something about a reservation and how we should have one. i was about to giver her the stink-eye, but i'm pretty sure alicia got to it first, so i got to be nice. dinner was lovely, but we were all exhausted, so we finished, and made it a short night.

great area-restoration and lots of historical buildings

the following morning, we were going to be off to our first training-not going to get into that right now, it will come later. i went out to wait for the rides to pull around and the girls were out talking, which was when i heard the story. brian had heard noises all night long, and had difficulty sleeping because it sounded like someone was in his suite (they are two bedroom suites-one up, one down), so he went down in the morning to shower in the good bathroom, and when he came out, the mirror had fogged up, as mirrors do when one takes a hot shower. then he saw the word HELP! on the mirror...cue twilight zone music and psycho scene... of course, i'm of the nancy drew persuasion, and i explain stuff away. in my mind it was previous tenants, college students our silly teens pranking and writing it on the mirror in soap or something..ala invisible ink-type thing. but i digress, if i were brian, i would probably still be a little weirded out.

so there you have it, round 1, just the beginning-tomorrow will be promising! we've only begun! more to come-
julie

PSA: you cannot un-corkscrew a non-corkscrew...but you CAN in fact unstick a stuck t.v. cable with a screwdriver!

we made it! first trip-done! so..just call me shadow.  ////ok, so i obviously started this last week, which seems like it was a month ago! my first trip was great-i got to be a part of a texas success training. the best part was getting the opportunity to hang with sarah and cris-and to watch them do their thang.

once we got settled into our rooms, we met in the restaurant area and had some snacks, and then prepped for the next day's presentation. these ladies are on top of their game-preparedness is key.

i was in dire need of a carbonated diet beverage, and so i purchased an overpriced diet dr. pepper at the front desk "store"...and while sarah and cris were talking to one of the ladies, whose son uses istation at school, i was trying to unscrew the cap off the bottle...5 minutes later my hand was raw and on its way to looking purple and bruised, so i stopped. excused myself to go to my room (bedtime), and tried to cut it off with a dull knife provided in the suite...that didn't work, so i stopped that because i really didn't want to impale my hand and have to be hauled into the er in a foreign city...and being desperate, decided to try this:

ok, well...corkscrews are meant for corks...just so ya know. 

 yep, didn't work...so, back to the knife. only this time, since i had poked a hole in the cap, i poked a hole in the clear plastic part to create the best flow and poured it into a glass. desperate times call for desperate measures.  what you may not know is that my alter ego (unbeknownst to anyone traveling with me on that trip) was mother of dragons...yes, a little sad about the shortened season next summer. boo...

so yes, the training went off without a hitch, although sometimes not everyone that signs up shows up...it is summer, and as a teacher, i KNOW how it is-we cannot even keep track of what day it is, so..there's that. and sometimes when a training goes a little long because you're 'splainin' things, lunch gets shorter and shorter, and when in the rural-ness of texas, sometimes lunch just has to come straight from the gas-station, because no entrepreneurial restaurateur has foreseen the amazing possibilities of monopolizing on mealtimes near the airport and regional school building...hmm. just saying, wise investment!

the deal is this, though. i left the boys at home alone, with the automatic feeder. now, the cool thing is that it will call them over, and it is on a schedule that i set; also cool is that it has a webcam, so i can watch the boys, or spy on them, and because there are two, i can watch from different angles. what i have learned is that chaco was too busy waiting for me to come home to eat, and thus bruno (aka: fatty) ate his own, and then proceeded to dash over to chaco's to make sure he could eat it all. he did this not once, not twice, but three times. he's the kid that probably beat up someone's child for their lunch money. i mean, seriously? so if we do an overnighter like that again, i will have to separate them. for real though, why can't they just work with the plan? it's not like i'm asking them to cook their own fajitas and make guacamole or something...just eat-your-own-food!

so yeah. i got home and they weren't too angry.

on friday i text one of my friends who was going to be moving from her apt. because i wanted to make sure that i was going to be able to get my vacuum to her for check-out. i got a text back saying that she might need a little help saturday with the move..i was originally slated to go to the lake house to drop the boys off with joanne, who would be watching the boys on my next trip, but this is actually a pretty big deal, because this is my friend who is a lot like me in the aspect of being independent and not wanting to ask people for help, so i was thrilled to be able to offer that. plus, it was one of the only days we'd really get to hang out this summer. so after all was said and done, the movers-amateurs...took way longer than expected! but everything got moved and then we made our way back to the old apt, which was pretty much all cleaned and ready to go, the only thing was we couldn't get the t.v. cable out of the wall, because it kept getting stuck on something, and then we ended up pulling it in the wrong direction and not being able to get it back where it was supposed to be...STUCK! and even worse, i'd left my tools in my car at the new place...grr. so we asked if i could turn the keys in the next day after i came back to retrieve it. YES. good. so all it took was to unscrew the plates and the wires came right out. child's play.

so sunday i worked to get everything packed and ready to go, and then dropped the boys off in town with joanne, whom they adore! they are always pretty excited and each time they tend to warm up more and more quickly. once they were dropped off, i finished last-minute stuff as i would be leaving for  a longer trip the next day. and guess what, we'll get into that next time, but trust me, you won't want to miss it!

alright, i'm done because it's late, and i don't have any more to say about this topic.
julie

my balcony is only good for one thing...one day of the year...for 30 minutes.

here's the thing: my balcony is the worst. it faces the complete wrong direction. it does not face the fountain...it faces the garage (the BACK of the garage, at that, so people-watching and developing nancy drew mystery conspiracy theories is out) and the small parking lot. it gets no sunlight, so i cannot grow anything...ever. it doesn't even face the right direction to get satelite t.v. (i tried when i first moved in). so..the only day of the year that it validates itself is july 4th from 9:30-10:00 pm. addison kaboom-town. the 'kabooms' were far enough away that it really didn't bother the boys.

i did make them take their independence day pic...chaco wasn't excited about it. and today on the radio, he heard the dj's asking for people to call in about a time they had family pics, wedding pics, prom pics, etc., after being injured, but had to take the pic anyhoo...he wanted to call in so badly, but i wouldn't and he couldn't (lack of opposable thumbs...) besides, i told him, no one would understand his yapping.

balcony shots:

so, yes, great shots from the balcony...and shortly after it was over, we went to bed. and lo-and-behold, there was a huge thunderstorm, which really brought the kabooms! that  got the boys going. maybe i should invest in a thunder shirt for chaco...although, i could probably just cut the ends off a sock and pull it over his body and it'd do the same thing. i'll bet he'd love to be swaddled. if he were a real-live-boy, he'd be the one wearing skinny pants and the skull t-shirt. bruno, on the other hand, would be wearing the preppy pastel plaid shorts and polo...but i digress-it was quite the storm!

pretty sure i've been sleeping wrong, or something, because yesterday my shoulder and arm hurt (like a sprained rotator cuff-not like i've ever experienced anything of the sort, but i imagine it would've felt something like this)...then in the middle of the night last night, i tried to adjust, brought both hands behind my head, and something clicked. i broke my neck. (no i didn't)...but i certainly did SOMETHING wrong, because my back and shoulders were stiff ...tight ...ridiculously miserable. but i had decided last night that i was going to get up early this morning to go grab breakfast because i'd been too lazy over the long weekend to get the eggs, bacon and fruit.

i'm glad i did choose to get up and go, because there was an awesome rainbow after the storm 

it seemed the safest, closest and i knew i would get back home fairly quickly. (they're predictable like that)

breakfast was great-and i was ready to get started when i got home. i have plenty of reading and i did a lot of cutting and preparing teacher resources.

alright, so i don't know if you're all aware or not, but there was a terrible amount of flooding in sealy, tx back in april. one of the trainers i work with was a victim of this flooding, and i got to hang out with her last week at our conference. neddy never said a word about it, and had such a positive attitude; i didn't realize this had happened until they gathered the pd training group together and said they were creating a go-fund-me-page. she broke down in tears...i cannot even imagine being in a situation where everything you own is damaged and lost.  "Neddy has received very little emergency assistance, and at a "mature" age, is literally starting completely over."  i've been blessed, so i will be contributing. i would love for you to consider this, if it is within your means, as at a certain point in our lives we are all called to be a part of community. while she may not be in your immediate community, you could certainly bless her by displaying compassion in a tangible way! i don't often post things like this, but it struck me and i hope this blog can serve as a tiny means to help out! please check out the page here.

alright, time to call it a night-may the fireworks of life never end (but all that noise can stop about now).
julie

how is it that i can cut my own hair, but make chaco look like frankenstein's monster?

on friday the contractor came by to fix the mess that the water damage left on my ceiling. i was showing him what needed to be done, and pointed out the sprinkler and need for the patch job, and i wasn't sure he was getting the entire message, because he responded in broken english...so i continued in spanish-which surprised him. it usually does, so i explained that i was from HONDURAS. he smiled and said his wife was from HONDURAS, so i asked what area. when he told me tegucigalpa, immediately visions from my jr. high era flooded my memories and i told him that i had lived there 2 years. (a great two years, and i still keep up with some of my friends from there!)

he said he needed to go to home depot to pick up some supplies, so i figured i had enough time to give chaco a trim and i began. well, apparently he didn't need to go all the way to home depot, because just a few minutes later, he returned with another guy; they taped off the area they were working in, and i continued to work on chaco, but he got fidgety and i accidentally nicked him in a very sensitive area on his hind leg. poor guy. and it may have been a bit of a hatchet job because i got in a hurry...so he had a couple of little patches that made him look like he had skin problems...oops. how do i know? well, a lady in the parking lot at petsmart said she had problems with her maltese, and they had her on a special diet, "and it cleared her skin right up!"...ugh.

bruno is fine with the ride...chaco-not loving life.

i took the boys into the banfield vet and dropped them off to check on their vomiting issues. i got a call from the vet saying they wanted to do some blood-work to make sure, and also they were giving an anti-nausea injection that would last 24 hours, as well as some antibiotics to help keep them from licking their paws and clearing up any skin issues. it took several repetitions for me to understand what in the world he was saying. i am just not as good at deciphering accents from india...banfield must have some sort of exchange program, because the last 3 vets i've had there have been from india. anyhoo, i told him it was my fault, i'd done a hatchet job (i had to explain that term-because nobody wants doggy cps coming after them!) i had gotten in a hurry when i was shearing chaco. sigh.

i left them and ran several errands. office depot for some office-type thingys...i was in dire need of a calendar; umm...i don't quite know how i got this far through the year without one! when i picked them up, they were fine-they didn't throw up last night, which is a plus (because it saved me from having to clean up).

it was good to see that all of the work was done, and the drywall had been replaced in the bedroom by the sprinkler! go me! after i brought the boys home and got them settled in, i went to sip-n-doodle to meet up with 4 other teacher friends. when i arrived, denise and kim were already there, so we got to do some catching up--they follow my blog, so they had a basic idea of what was going on, which made it easier to fill in the blanks with the details. we had fun painting our designs and chatting, and catching up. i'd seen nafia and nicolette at summer school, so there wasn't as much to catch up on, but kim and denise had news to share, and it was good to see what all was going on with them as well.

we searched through all the painting models for one that we were interested in, and found our places, prepared our drinks and got our popcorn! i was really wanting to do a different picture, but i couldn't locate it on my phone-boo. the owner quickly gave instructions and let us get to work! when we finished, we had our masterpieces (which will not be hanging anywhere in my apt). for real, it was all about just hanging out and being together to catch up and keep in touch. we'll need to schedule another get-together before summer ends!

the owner loved jumping in to help!

kim making one of many stops at the blow-drier station

nafia with her work of art

nicolette working her artistic skillz

fun night-something new and different

 i noticed there was a problem friday night when i got home, because chaco kept licking. well, i think he made the spot that i nicked worse, and it was pretty raw, so i had to break out the CONE OF SHAME. he was not happy about that. but i am going to have to keep the cone on because it is very red and tender right now. hopefully it will clear up a little by tomorrow and at least be a little less red...i do NOT want to have to take him into the 24hr vet care. note to self, next time: scissors around the legs (i should have paid more attention...that's a tender area for all of us!). bad mom...it's the equivalent of giving your boy-child a bowl haircut. (no offense to those of you who think that's cute...but in my book, not real cute).

today i was going to go to kaboom-town addison, with some friends, but that ended in a bust. (not like i'm going to go down and hang out there by myself-it's one thing to go to a restaurant or coffee shop alone, or a museum, but a fun event or celebration. no. not as much). fortunately i can see the fireworks from my balcony, so that's how i'll be watching tonight's fireworks. i wasn't planning on much for tomorrow, but i am slightly intrigued by the plano fourth of july event--mostly because they will have foodtrucks. i know, what's the difference between addison celebration and plano celebration? foodtrucks. but then there's also fairpark. their event was actually editor's pick. let's just wait to see if it's an out-and-about day.

alright, remember, FREEDOM isn't free-thank a vet (and i'm not talking about animal vets, like my doc from india)!
julie