i'm so glad the city finally realized that there was no school there...

this morning as i was driving, something seemed very different as i was driving down the stretch past the savoy...ever since i have lived at this apt, the entire stretch has been a school zone (even before the george bush school was built). not sure why because that i know of, there are no other schools in the area, just some apts. anyhoo, this morning, there were no flashing lights. and as i drew near to the place where the END SCHOOL ZONE sign is, it wasn't there! i figured maybe i missed it or something...so i made sure to double check on my way home today, and lo and behold, i was not seeing things! i will no longer be encumbered by the silly school zone of nothing!

a couple of days ago, i came home and saw all of this stuff out in the walkway. the neighbor had suits, some bags and some other items sitting out. it seemed almost as if he was having a small garage sale. i have no earthly or otherworldly idea why he had it all out there, but it's been a few days now, and it is still out there. it has been raining out, and even though the landing is covered, the stuff is going to get mildew and what not...not to mention, it looks a little trashy.

my neighbor has aspirations of becoming a thrift store owner...

yesterday we had a field trip to the dallas museum of art. i love the dma, but i do not love dma + 17 students who cannot keep from touching things and leaning on the walls and talking about 50 decibels higher than need be (those of you who work in decibels, don't bother correcting me because i don't know the measurements and quite honestly, i don't care, i just liked the sound of it!) because it = misery. (i know, you almost forgot it was an equation and that an equal sign was coming!) 

one of my favorite things in the museum is these guys made out of bronze.

they are truly fabulous.

and i'm sure that with all of the nagging, my students thought i looked something like this

then after we got back, we had to prepare for our parent/teacher conferences. they went from 4-8 and it was almost as much fun as the field trip! by the time we left, i was beat! i'm sure everyone else was as well!

i stayed for a minute after school and worked a little on the mural pictures for the walls- there were a couple of extras that we were needing. i got the gallon man up on my end of the hallway by the girls restroom...because it always feels like that's how much water is coming out of my body! i need to stay tomorrow and finish the rest of them. thankfully there aren't too many.

 when i got home and told the girls at the office that i had ordered 2 dozen tamales because they said they wanted to buy some the next time she was selling them, which was today. they were pretty excited. so i might have to leave right after school to drop of the tamales and then go back to finish up the drawings because our volunteers come on saturday. another busy weekend.

oh, and tomorrow we're starting round 2 of the biggest loser. i don't know how many people are actually going to get involved this time, but i think i might just for accountability's sake. i need to turn in my rec center voucher and take advantage of it for the next 6 months since our equipment is all down right now...i'd love to start a kick-boxing class...that'd be fun.

alright, time to color some drawings,
julie

the tour guide probably made it all up

when i woke up this morning, i knew it was an abnormal day because we had a field trip, so i started out abnormally as well. i saw this little sample packet from my last visit to sephora. so i decided that since nothing else would be normal, i might as well try this out. it was pretty potent and for about an hour or two i felt like i had a vogue magazine stuck up my nose.you know how when you open the samples and all of those smells start mixing together?  and even now that i got home and tossed the packet, it got on my hands and i'm getting a headache again.

yes, today we had a field trip to the dma (dallas museum of arts). i love going to the museum-on  my own time...not as much with a class of students i have to keep track of.

this was a wonderful welcome...

..but i found this one more welcoming!

it was good times, and our volunteer tour guide let me know that we were late and that our tour would be short because she had to get home for a plumber appointment. cool. but she was fairly knowledgeable; i think. she could've just been a very good maker-upper. i mean, i know some people who are great liars and do very well at balderdash...and we never would've known.

the kids were impressed...the boys were immature of course when we walked through the african exhibit-because the carvings were naked and well endowed-and they have just recently begun a health class. they giggled.the girls just said ew. after our tour guide went to meet her plumber, i had to get a tag to wear around to continue touring.

i will say this: there are a lot of rude people working at the museum. they do not know how to talk to children. and we may or may not have gotten a little lost making circles around the samurai exhibit. which was perfect, because it gave us just enough time to eat and relax and not long enough to get bored and cause trouble.

so, this weekend i am going to try to finish a couple of projects, get some papers graded and into gradespeed, and start a new art project. the new project has to do with these:

and i'll tell you about the other ingredients after i finish if it works out. i'm pretty excited about it!

so i got a lamp. cheap lamp. but a lamp. since i've been in the apt, i haven't had one. so i got lightbulbs. well, i got quite a few 100 w and 60 w. then i got home and realized it was a 40 w lamp. grr. so i'll go get a bunch of those tomorrow. i am going to go ahead and stock up on a ton of lightbulbs, because according to energy star a bill was passed in 2007 to 'up standards for bulbs," which in essence means phasing out the cheapest lightbulbs. hmm..this seems like a recipe to a monopoly on led and cfl bulbs---price increase? just thinkin'...perhaps beck has something...stocking up b/c either way i'll be able to use them. they don't spoil and i don't even have to store them in a vaccuum seal bag!

shine brightly!
jules

p.s. if you know anyone who is graduating and want to do a fun little something for them, hollie put up a really cute post today!