i did not tell the students tomorrow was the last day, but i wish i had!

well, last downhill slope of summer school! almost finished with the end of ss fluency tests (which may have been due today?) and tomorrow i have more paperwork to work on...had to turn in GRADES...that's a first! i truly doubt that any teachers are going to be checking summer camp grades! fo real now....someone in a glass office has come up with cruel and unusual punishment...i would put money on it that many teachers who worked this summer will not do it again...unwarranted stress.

anyhoo, tomorrow is an amazing day because we are having a cookout! THANKS KAY!! G-O-O-D!

oh! i went in on monday to the physical therapist and he said, "hmm, it's very uncommon for the disc to bulge into the spinal canal. but it does happen more with young folks." honestly, if that were the only thing that came out of the whole visit, i would've been plenty happy. but something even better happened! he confirmed that it usually takes about 3 months to feel better and heal, and he gave me some exercises. twice a day..it takes me about a half hour to get through them each time...ugh. but i will do them if they'll make me feel better!!! baby steps. maybe it's psychological, but i am already noticing small differences.

i might have even slept through the night last night, BUT the electricity went off in our complex at exactly 10.42. and i sleep with the ceiling fan and the ocean waves cd...the boys like it because it drowns out sounds in the parking lot. it was so hard to get to sleep..and i started thinking about what i was going to have to do if i woke up in the morning and it were still off..refrigerator items to the cooler, lug to car, ice up, take to school with me..dear Jesus, if you love me, please let the electricity come back on! then it got warm and i wanted the ac to kick on...nope...then we were rudely awaken at 2:46 by jerks down in the parking lot laughing and talking very loudly-i was very close to going out and telling them to pipe down, but fortunately the electricity came back on right as i was thinking about peeking out the window to later identify them and figure out where they live so that i could walk the boys by their door at 5:30 on saturday or sometime next week and give them something to bark about....

they got lucky.

i got to make a fun collage yesterday at school, which i turned into a letter for a dear friend. we were supposed to be creating flowers like georgia o'keefe did, but i took a different route...no flowers for me, that wasn't where my mind was.

looking out over tablerock, from a cabin.

when i got home, i had a silly catalog with a bunch of 'as seen on t.v.' items addressed to the former resident. wow, some of the things in there were comical, but some of them were actually kinda' neat!

who would take the time to load the lucky horsesheoe lotto scratcher?...that just seems strange.

help your lawn breathe better...kinda funny...looks like a good way to sprain an ankle or tear an acl...

and then there's the magnetic back support...helps improve your posture...but it's really a bummer when you get too close to a moving car...

excited to get through tomorrow and eat my burger...maybe tell the kids that surprise, thursday's the last day of summer school!! take everything home, sleep in on friday! hahaha...sounds like something gigi would've done...wonder why parents always showed up late for parent conferences and stopped coming early? smile.

then saturday it's off early for another oklahoma wedding! love my friends!! love celebrating their happiness!!

goodnight!
julie

fun friday and plans that are making me reminisce! lisa lisa and the cult jam...where did all the good music go?

oh fun friday! it was fun for me all day long knowing that classes were smaller and that the kids were going to be playing games in the afternoon- which they enjoyed...then their afternoon arts person came in and they have changed from drama to visual arts. they are a little bummed because they were playing and being crazies and now they have to sit and use their brains...

at lunch, i sat with my friend and worked on some quick healthy eating ideas. she kinda' wrinkled her nose when i mentioned avocado. that made me laugh because i used to feel the same way growing up (when we had the huge productive avocado tree and we gave away paper bagfuls of great, ripe avocados every year)... today for lunch i had made a quick guacamole dip with my homemade salsa, so i took it down for her to try and i could tell she really did not want to, but she was a sport and she knew i wouldn't do her wrong...she said, "ok, that is the first time i have tried guacamole, and it wasn't bad!" and she even took a second bite...ummm, i told her to imagine this on chicken breast...maybe she'll buy into it and give it a chance. smile.

today was a sticker day. i offered stickers to finish the assignment and it worked! that was easy...

tonight is another lord of the rings night. i just feel it. i learned that one of my coworker friends has the same taste in t.v. shows-very unique flavor...heroes, the cape, lost, once upon a time, grimm....crazy!

visiting bilbo baggins!

there are 3 rawhide chews out right now, but my youngest has gone and hidden 2 of them so that he can monopolize on the one that is visible. who IS he?

and i read something in the dallas board highlights about:• Accepted a donation from IBM valued at up to $36,399.86 to support the Kidsmart Program at William L. Cabell Elementary School.
wow! dr. hughes has been very instrumental in making friends with the right people at the right time! she has said that she is a really good beggar. i don't know exactly what the kidsmart program is, but i am really excited if it helps make our kids smart...hopefully it's kid smart and not kid's mart...know what i mean? ok, just kidding. because i was curious, i looked it up; go back and click on that link and you can find out more about it...lucky preK..get excited angela!

i started getting excited about next wednesday as i was driving home today!

thanks to the church on the corner for being patriotic!!

i must go to the pet store and see if there is any patriotic collars or not...that may be a custom order. i also need to get a collar that matches up with the harness that i just got because it is just a little too small for chaco, so i realized that all is not lost if i can find a matching collar it will hook in and be just the right size!

clearly, he loves it! it's the whole fire...i'm tough look.

i love it when the 15th falls on a sunday and we get paid on friday! i have a wedding to go to on the 14th! then i'll come back to dallas to finish physical therapy; i was planning on going up to see mom and dad that week, but i will have to wait. we will get to go up to iowa for a family reunion that i wasn't thinking i would be able to go to, but now i am very excited about seeing everyone! i am going to check on renting cabins at the state park- that way the boys could stay there in the air conditioning or come down and meet everyone for a bit. smile. we'll see...i will try to call tomorrow to see about reservations and such. mom has a big family-she is one of 10...so there are lots of cousins and babies i do not know any more...

when we were in 9th grade and my family was in iowa (on furlough), i was visiting and went to babysit with my cousin stacey..while we were in the front yard, people would drive by and one car the guys were staring and she yelled, "SHAKE YOUR HEAD, YOUR EYEBALLS ARE STUCK!"  and i thought that was pretty clever, so i held on to it and filed it away for later use. that was the year that lisa lisa and the cult jam was big and lost in emotion was a big hit! (so i may or may not have just played it and am still listening to it right now...great memories!)

alright, it is time to say goodnight and prepare for a simplistic weekend!
julie

reagan and chaco meet the management

yesterday was such a long day! parent conferences are brutal. i was caught with one foot in one class and the other in the another (sounds like a song or something).

as the construction draws closer and closer to an end, the old doors are getting ready to come off and the new ones will be installed...how do i know? i'm always at school late and i saw the guys working on the holes for the new hardware. so i put up a note to let the boys know i wanted to keep my door and to please put it inside my room.

STRAIGHT-FORWARD

i hope my request will be fulfilled because they said they would do it for me. now i will have a door to use however i need it. i could use it for art OR a table...or shelves...i love lumber! i'm kinda' thinking it will be art.


saturday a.m.

 ok, i didn't get very far last night because i was cleaning up a little and i was exhausted, and once bmayes got into town, it would've been rude to be on the computer! (mediocre excuses)

i love it when brittany and reagan visit-very chill and relaxed. we do what we want! i'm a little bummed because i'm not 100%- i feel like i'm in the midst of drainage-maybe a cold...i don't even know anymore. my eyes were getting bothersome yesterday and my voice was going at school toward the end.

chaco on the right looks a little bigger than reagan because he is sitting on top of the pillow, but in reality, reagan is a little bigger.

who knows what we'll do today-i would love to take the pups for a walk so that reagan can meet the office staff and  chaco can stop in to say hi-he hasn't been over there in awhile.
//later that same day:..so we went for our walk, and true to form, bruno was in anti-walking mode, so we took chaco and reagan by the office and one of the gals was there and she jumped down from her chair and got on her knees to play with the pups. i've said it before, i have great managers! then we went back to the trail area and after playing for a minute, i let chaco come all the way back home off-leash because there were no other dogs around, and i am happy to say that he did a fabulous job!

alright, because i don't want to be rude, this is where i will close for tonight! back to the rangers!
julie

aw gash, that was sharp!

this morning i was going to get something off the shelf in the cabinet in my bathroom and i didn't duck back quick enough. the lethal corner of the door almost ripped my shoulder off. no exaggeration.

i suppose it could be deemed a deadly weapon, it's all about the angle..it certainly felt like it killed my shoulder.

and just as i expected, after i checked it out and had a few choice words with the door, i went back and looked. and sure enough, there it was. a thin layer of skin was just hangin' out on the corner of cabinet and door.

i'm not sure why, but i kinda' walked into class today on a short fuse...or just very impatient. i think it might have been just the spending time yesterday going over what we would be doing in our campus PLC today. i think i was also a bit frustrated b/c several students had not completed their draft even after i extended their due date over the weekend. boo. so they got behind. i make students write why they didn't have their homework and how that affects them in class to not have it. and that will go into their files...plus they didn't get to move their markers to the coveted revising section. (please say revising section like you're speaking into one of those toy microphones with the spring inside that echoes...thanks).

OMGOODNESS!!! i just peeled a carrot and ate it with chive and onion philly cream cheese! yum. like i said before, not a carrot lover...i guess i had just never encountered the perfect, supplemental coating.

i remember when we were young in wi and mom decided to have a small garden out back. we had the sweetest carrots! there were also some tomato plants and sunflower plants...peas, green beans..."i don't know what happened to the green beans and peas, mom....perhaps it was the rabbits....picked them right off of there and scattered them around..." don't worry, it didn't really happen that way, there really were rabbits.

early to bed-hopefully i'll wake up with more patience and a brighter disposition.
julie