lights, christmas party, action!

really? has it been almost a month? oops. my bad.

obviously i cannot possibly give a full account of the entire month...so. i suppose some highlights are in order.

week 1
we did have a team meeting at the istation hq-the first day was just the 3 of us (new crew) with lori and suzanne, during which we did some catching up and checking the temperature...then in the afternoon, we had a fun little webinar with sabrina and julie k on the other end sharing goal-setting with reports (a shortened version of the workshop they presented in orlando not too long ago). it's pretty powerful stuff when you can show teachers how to set realistic goals that can help students make steep gains, and give them the tools to do it!

the new gals at bucca!

the following day all of the local trainers were in for the timeless tales presentation. i got a lot out of that, as well. i'm thinking about my teachers, and if we'd really understood it better last year, i can almost guarantee that we would've used it better for our tier 1 students in 3, 4 and 5-if they were at that point. great stuff! great stuff ahead!

moving into week 2
i got to do coffee and catch up with andrea before going in for a training with some of our dallas instructional coaches at the main bldg. and that was good-we needed to take some time to catch up! love that lady!

i wasn't planning on going to the company Christmas party, in fact i had replied-no....then after talking to a wise friend, i changed my evite to a yes, and sent a desperate plea to nafia. i was thrilled that she accepted (with excitement, i might add), because it'd been weeks since we'd last touched base, and we really had a lot of catching up to do! so i stopped by her place to pick her up and we made our way to the dallas country club (so impressive...so exquisite...so over-the-top)...we took most of our pictures in the bathroom...it was that impressive.

just in case you're coming for a pajama party and forget something, they were equipped!

please ask how many compliments she got on her hat?! i mean, even mr. collins told her how much he loved her hat! i think someone was even wanting to buy it off her head!

because bathrooms need artwork

and the cutest little mouthwash dispenser with cups-felt like communion cups...don't ask.

for real. this lady thought i had negative vibes...please. let's look at how many drinks she's had. thank you.

dear hair...thanks for not cooperating. dear nafia's hat, thank you for partially covering up unruly hair.

getting latte! 

appreciating the lights

said hello to brian, jane, georgia and toni, and a bit later saw suzanne, lori and furie.
the mac and cheese: lick-your-fingers good (but not at the country club, because i don't think that is etiquette-esque). we made our way to a line...i guess it was a 'fortune teller' with a deck of playing cards. i wasn't sure if she was from istation, or brought in for the event. i guess she was NOT from istation. nafia had her cards read (not sure what that means), but i'm pretty sure the lady told her i gave off a negative vibe-couldn't have been my facial expressions as i waited, i'm sure. i can't help it, don't judge.

then we made our way toward the hand-writing analysis, but they were shuttin'-er-down...so as we were standing at a table, i told her a story. a story that someone had shared with me. of course it was SO unbelievable, that i had to call lori over to verify for me, which she did. so once that was said and done, we were on our way out, picking up our coats, and the subject of my aforementioned story came face-to-face with nafia, and i just turned the other way, practically laughing...i did have to use the restroom before we took off...one last hurrah. when i came back out, i saw linda- i hadn't seen linda since we were on the blue team together! i've heard great things, so it was good to touch base with her and give her a shot of kudos for work well done! then we took off for some coffee/hot cocoa at starbucks in the village, and then took a short drive around highland park to check out some of the lights...doing our very best to avoid the carriages.

saturday night
nicolette, nafia and her cousin joce and i drove out to the motor speedway to drive through the lights-it was a pretty cool set-up, beautifully decorated! the hardest part was waiting in the line to get in! it was a beating! fortunately we were able to purchase the ticket online, and go through the 'express line' before it shut down! we waited in line so long that i already had to pee before we even got to the beginning! (i shouldn't drink so much, i know!) anyhoo...

it took before we were ready!

i'm blessed to have these ladies as friends!

water-world

grinch-ish

chaaaaarlie! (there's a kidney joke in there somewhere)

love the tunnels!

and when we got to the end, there was the option of getting a pic with santa. but alas, the line was much too long for these hungry ladies. and trust me you don't want that kind of waiting with this bunch...we've all seen those snickers commercials, and there were no snickers to be found. in fact, after waiting in the food and beverage line, they didn't have pretzels, hot cocoa, or fries-so we opted for buc-ees across the street! i was fully intending to try the sausage sandwich, because nicolette has sung its praises many a time...but when it actually came to it, i caved to my adopted heritage, and went for the fajita meat with avocado...what can i say. ole! (just juan-to eat fajitas).

so...only to week 2, and i will stop after this little note. i was falling asleep when this thought went through my head, so i turned the light on because it was that important to remember. in prayer that lori never hires a juan on our training team. why, you ask. well...if that were to happen, per sabrina's logic, he would become juan 1-as he was born with the name, and i only recently received this endearing nickname i would become juan 2. then if we ever trained together, and i wasn't feeling it, i might bust out in the lyrical genius of queen (please watch the video!!) i juan2 break free! so these are the things that run through my mind before falling to sleep...what's wrong with me?

so with that, goodnight, and WAY TO GO COWBOYS!! AND CHIEFS yesterday!!!
julie