i probably shouldn't love sauteed veggies as much as i do #notashamed

So thankful for long weekends!!

two days in and what have i done? NOTHING!! besides finishing up the merlin series on netflix...and trying out 3 new paleo recipes! every single one of them was amazing! i loved the pumpkin pancakes and the pumpkin custard. i enjoyed the zucchini/carrot crustless quiche...

so good! i saw this at bmayes' and had to go ahead and make the purchase-totally worth it!

even just looking at it makes my mouth water!

then tonight i did something i probably shouldn't have done. i sauteed vegetables. if eating a plateful of sauteed onions is wrong, then i don't want to be right! yes, a pan full of sauteed veggies is one of my weaknesses. several years ago, while working at kamp, a friend and i went to ruby tuesdays for dinner and i ordered the fajitas because the veggies in the picture looked SO good! then i was sorely disappointed when it came back with a sparse assortment of vegetables with little color. i may have complained to the manager about it due to the fact that my plate paled in comparison to the picture.

the weather has been phenomenal, so i took a walk with the boys yesterday-it's been much too long since we ventured on the back trail leash-less. when we got to the dog park we sat around for awhile because there was no one else there. as we were getting ready to leave, in walks a guy with a very large dog and the famous words: HE'S NOT MEAN. and my common response-NO, BUT CHACO IS.  i just worry that he doesn't realize how big he is and they don't realize how small they are. and just as i said that, the big dog came trouncing up and chaco, my littlest, snarled and snapped (i don't think the big fella even noticed). chaco calmed down as i picked him up and cradled him on his back-then we made our way home.

other than that, i saw some artwork at a friend's house and decided to see if i could do something similar...

it's been fun playing around with that...

tomorrow-last day of this fun little break...i'm sure we can find something fun to do!
julie

tulips & daisies= happy place, but roses? well, every rose has its thorn...

hmm. so last week i was able to go down to the county place to get my passport. i'm hoping to start an annual tradition that should have happened long ago. my desire is to make more of an effort to get back to HONDURAS more often. i still consider it home, so we need to get reacquainted-and i'm SO excited!  

then i treated the boys to the dog park...only i don't know if they really thought it was much of a treat. it sure was beautiful though, and the weather was to die for!(thankfully we didn't have to die for it).

while we were at this little dog park, the boys were on their best behavior, but they aren't big on venturing off by themselves. they followed me pretty much wherever i went. when they finally did go a little further from home base, a group of dogs approached and it was ok for a minute and then they came back for security's sake. once i decided to walk around, they followed me and a medium sized dog came over and was a little more aggressive than chaco liked, so he growled and snarled and did the "IF-YOU-DON'T-PICK-ME-UP-NOW, THIS-WON'T-END-PRETTY" routine; so i picked him up. and then the dog got in bruno's face and he looked at her and said, "i don't know who you think you are, but if you don't move on, i'm gonna lay the smack down!" (which is very uncharacteristic of bruno). thankfully, bad-mannered-dog's owner came and got it. woof.

we didn't stay too long because they really weren't interested in playing...i think they may be 'breed isolationists'...if that were a thing, it would mean that they are discriminatory against dogs that aren't their breed, because they get along great with other yorkies...?  so we went for a walk around the park, and like i said, it's really pretty.

they were so good that we stopped by petsmart, because i knew they would get excited about that! and we found the tulips in front of the store-hence, their Easter picture-

this one will be in next year's calendar.

in other news, i know i mentioned that i am enjoying the garden more this year than ever before in my life. i think it's because i invested in some gardening gloves that are for professionals. that's something about me that is almost ironic. as much as i love nature-caving, hiking, canoeing, playing anywhere in nature, really...i HATE the feeling of dirt. when the mud or dirt dries onto your hands...that scratchy, dusty, powdery feel makes me CRAZY! like fingernails on a chalkboard! so the gloves have helped, but what really tipped the scale is seeing the harvest. it's so amazing to know that i could walk out and get the spices i need to make rosemary chicken or salsa.

one type of mint-we also have chocolate mint-with just a hint of a sweetness after the initial mint

oregano and rosemary (there is fennel in this bed too-but not in this frame).

the flowers are starting to bloom as well

as i walked around the gazebo, i noticed that the rose bushes were budding as well, and they should be flowering soon-i went ahead and pruned some of them back, and i was painfully reminded that beauty can sometimes be treacherous! that is when the musical began, starring poison with every rose has a thorn; because there's nothing like a ballad on a friday afternoon!

this year we will have bees and butterflies (i'm sure there will be birds too, but i didn't want to put it in that order). the passion fruit vine is starting up as well, so hopefully this fall we will be able to show students what passion fruit is, and perhaps use it in some of our garden lessons.

peas. there were a bunch of sunflower weeds growing here that i weeded out so we can plant more veggies.

the spaghetti squash is going to be a hit--this is one of the vines that started in the compost bin-my bad, but look at it grow!

and then i got to the project that i was really wanting to start. i love finding ways to use the pallets, so this seemed appropriate. i brought my electric saw, sander and drill and we did what we could. i had seen a picture of an herb planter on pinterest, and then jeri printed off a picture as we were discussing a garden project. so i figured, well, if someone else can do it, i can too! so i got a canvas shoe holder and cut it in half so that our lower grade students would be able to access and use it to plant some basil, chives, cilantro, parsley, etc. i can't wait to watch things grow!!!

a pallet is a gift! we throw so many of these out, and it kills me!

so with a little paint i had at home, it now has a feeling of 'elementary school.' all it needs is dirt and seeds!

i am no perfectionist; this was more of a 'just get it done' job. i figured it would suffice, especially if we get the real deal from the grant that jeri wrote!

loving spring,
julie

i need a weekend re-do

rough weekend. i'm glad i got my lesson plans done on friday! friday night after i went to bed, i had that nasty feeling of getting sick. i was cold, but sweating...got an extra blanket to bundle up and saturday i didn't wake up until 11:30 and i still didn't feel like getting up, but i did. i didn't do much-dozed in and out of you've got mail, and decided to take a nap. (breakfast was a quick blueberry/banana smoothie) then i didn't eat again until about 6 pm-still wasn't hungry, so i had some peanuts and peanut butter. and went to sleep early.

it must've been a 24 hour something or other, because this morning i woke up and didn't feel that bad, so i was able to do my workout and breakfast...then i was in and out of the bathroom until 2pm when i decided i'd better take two small green pills. i hoped they would work because i promised the boys i'd take them to petsmart for food and go to the dog park.

petsmart was great-bruno LOVES petsmart. so we strolled around the store a bit before taking our purchase up front. no problems yet. we went to the dog park and the boys got to meet some of the other dogs-bruno has been much more outgoing. chaco is slightly overwhelmed because of his size, so i don't mind when he growls and snips at dogs who get in his face...(his theme song is SO WHAT by pink)

and tonight i decided to precook some meals for this week, and whiting fish was one of them. i don't know that i am too pleased with this, i may have to disguise it with other side dishes...oh well, learn by trying.

next weekend will be better.
julie

apparently the dog park is the new place to be

so...today was the birthday-day, and it was great to wake up! that was gift enough. but take it a step further and the weather was made especially for me today! it was up in the high 70's! woo hoo!!! so after cooking a couple of my week's meals, and responding to several fb posts (i usually don't try to, but this time i decided that i was going to respond to everyone), we went out to a dog park.

we didn't go to our apt. park, we packed into the car and drove over to the keller springs park and it was PACKED! when we got there, there were cars parked EVERYWHERE! even in tow zones. so we drove in, the boys heard the dogs and got excited, but i couldn't find a spot, so we pulled out and started back home. i looked over and both bruno and chaco looked at me and chaco piped up, "if they can park in the no-parking zone, you can too!" they looked like they were about to cry, so i made a u-ie and went back. i pulled into the park again and someone was just pulling out-whew! so they got to go in and hang out.

it was ridiculous how many people were there!

the boys were following me around, and they would sniff a dog here and there, but pretty much not overly social. they were happy though...until big dogs started running around chasing each other and almost ran over them a couple of times. i was not happy with the people who brought their big dogs into the little dog section of the park. it kinda' pissed me off. needless to say, we headed toward the gate. on the way, a black dog 3 times the size of chaco (still not super big) came up and started messing with chaco and he was growling and about to nip, so we called it a day as the owner of the dog came over and said, "oh, he likes to play with yorkies!" and i held in my comment of "well, obviously these yorkies don't like to play with him." i didn't want to be rude.

anyhoo, it has been a good day and i am satisfied.
julie

your flea ointment looks like an alien

so this morning i opened my eyes and bruno was ready to be up. chaco...was hiding deep under the covers somewhere off in a corner. so i told him, "oh chaco! you were in your man-cave!" he believed that it was a man-cave, so that will cut costs in the far off future when we look for a house-all i have to do is throw a comforter on the floor and say man-cave and he'll be happy. bruno on the other hand just sat behind chaco looking at me, shaking his head with that 'i-can't-believe-you-just-told-him-that-and-he-fell-for-it' look. now i just have to distract him if we're ever watching hgtv and they have a segment about man-caves.

after i woke up and checked on my loin. if you're dyslexic, you might think i'm a zookeeper checking on the king of beasts...if you're not, you might wonder what? didn't the men in the bible 'gird their loins?' but if you read last night's post, you will recall that i prepared pork loin and put it in the crockpot. and wowzers! i stepped into the kitchen and i had one last step to prepare it-one more hour. but i wanted to eat pulled pork for breakfast! it is so juicy and sweet! again, i wish this were a scratch and sniff blog!

since it wasn't ready, i just had some caramel truffle coffee with my heavenly creamer! (i was actually introduced to the caramel truffle by my previous roommate, heather-we love our coffee!)

and then when i got the keurig, i loved the kcups. although they can get ridiculous expensive! so thank goodness for the filter! if you have a keurig and haven't heard of them, the filter is a must! it allows me to go to central market and get my texas pecan coffee! melt in my mouth please!

and for the record, once i pulled the pork out, it was falling apart as i tried to take it out of the pot! i may or may not have gone ahead and eaten a generous portion for breakfast...it was so good i really didn't want to stop eating...i kept praying that i wouldn't get full. but i did.(which is actually good so i will have a meal or two more during the week). honestly i didn't use any measurements, but if i were guessing, i used about 3 squirts of honey mustard, about 3/4 cup brown sugar, a little garlic powder, a couple splashes of balsamic vinegar, and after poking several holes in it, i rubbed it all over with this little mixture and let it go on low for about 9 hours. then i drained it and took about 1/2 cup of brown sugar mixed with dried onion, garlic salt and a little more honey mustard, rubbed it on and let it form a carmelization for an hour..delish!

i know it's hard to tell, and it would look prettier with some colorful veggies, but i thank the pig that gave his life.

 well, we went to the vet for bruno's blood draw (finally) and he came out smelling like alcohol (rubbing alcohol, not like he'd been back doing shots with the techs). and they told me he has fleas. ew. so we got flea stuff for both of them and i couldn't think of where he could've gotten....oh but wait! when we went to the doggie park...? or how many times has he been in the kennels there at the vet over the last week around the dogs there? or...it could have been that wasp banging on the door yesterday-perhaps he was carrying his little flea friend on his back and dropped him off on my balcony-jerk. (remember the old cartoons with the flea circus??) inevitably when one of our students has lice, my head begins to itch. well, today the same thing happened with the idea of fleas.

so i took them for a walk because the weather was beautiful and we were right near the beautiful dog-walk area in addison. so here are some pics from our walk.

again, wishing for scratch and sniff because these bushes with the white flowers had such a light and airy, delicate smell. a little secret garden

this is one of the secret entrances. it's kinda nestled into this neighborhood and you don't recognize it from the street because there is a huge bush wall hiding the area; we just stumbled onto it one day.

this is a view of the length of the pond-walk

duck..duck..duck..duck...CHACO!!

once we got home, i got the flea ointment out and pulled out treats so they would associate good things with this nasty ointment. i think it must tingle because bruno used to go nuts when he was littler..and this time it seemed to affect chaco a bit more. rolling around on every surface possible-couch, floor, chair, stair, anything...

my biggest issue was 1. that it looked like alien ointment and 2. that they are speceists (like racist only against a species-against cats in particular).

and now there will be no dog bathing for 48 hours.

as the Bible says, fleas are evil. oh, it actually says flee from evil,
julie

p.s. i stand with israel-in case anyone was wondering.

tiger vampires aren't the only ones who drink tigers blood

happy memorial day! we are blessed to have men and women who fight and often lose their lives to ensure our freedoms. may we never trivialize their sacrifice!

today we got to hang out and i drew up a new idea for a greeting card, but i don't know how well it will go over with normal people...so if you like it, you may be slightly abnormal.

bruno kinda raised his eyebrow, chaco rolled on the floor laughing...who's who?

so we did a little bit of that this morning, and another project, and the maintenance guy came this morning before i had my bra on, so quick as lightning i grabbed a fleece to throw on (mind you it was about 89` outside) i'm sure he was probably wondering what my problem was.  so he came in and looked at it and showed me what the problem was..apparently the electric wire used in the drain cycle was sev/ered. so i think he just spliced the wire and made sure it was tucked away to the side.

he left and i did a load and it made funny sounds, but it went through the complete cycle. so i threw in another load. and again it was making loud, whiny noises and so i went in to check on it and it was smelling like burnt rubber, so i shut it off again and let them know in the office and shannon said they just need to get a new washer up there...duh.

so we took off to the dog park, but not our apt dog park. we went to the real dog park.

chaco's new seat in the back..now i need a baby mirror.

bruno is so happy.

 the pups did well-there were lots of dogs there..some mixed breeds, poodles, schnauzer, chihuahua, king charles, french bull terrier, etc.
bruno sniffed around and checked things out and chaco was acting like he was afraid of the bigger pups so that girls would pick him up. little flirt..thank goodness he wasn't too snippy with the other dogs.

once we got back into the car, chaco asked what kind of animals those were. when i told him they were dogs, he was shocked and insisted that there was no way; they didn't look like dogs. i explained that there were many different types of dogs. "how can this be?" he asked (rather stupidly). bruno looked bored and he said, "can we move on?"

so our next stop on the way home was the shaved ice hut for TIGER BLOOD WITH CREAM! i am not a tiger vampire...what is that anyway? it doesn't even make any sense! but i do love my shaved ice!

when we finally got home, i had a voice-mail from the vet. they broke the vial that had bruno's blood in it on the way to the testing facility. rookies. so i now have to take him back in to get another draw. he's going to be so mad when i tell him.

and tomorrow is field day at school- woohoo! translated: tomorrow is field day at school- nothing is about it is going to be woo or hoo...i'll just plan for chaos right now. and i'm pretty sure it will be a sunburn day. (no matter how much lotion i use)

alright, abnormal is the new normal!
julie

eliminating outside...kinda

today was a normal day. unfortunately i don't think i'll have another normal day with my homeroom class until school's out.

so i got home and decided it was time to try to get the boys to pee outside (still on their pee pad, but it's a start). so i put them on the balcony. they wouldn't go and wouldn't go even after i put water out for them to drink..they just kept playing with leaves and dead bugs..."bruno, look at this one!" "hey, does this leaf make me look fat?" and so forth, so i took them for a walk hoping maybe they'd go, but that didn't work either. although they have been doing really good off leash when there is no one else around on the back trail. we hung out in the dog park and another gal showed up with her two chihuahuas and they all got along just fine. chaco was super friendly jumping up in everyone's faces. then a little girl came by on her scooter and the chihuahuas wen nuts-o but bruno and chaco were so great they just came back to me and stuck close (no barking). yes! they made me so proud!

but no potty. so i brought them in and put them out on the balcony again. for a long time...no potty. but bruno did jump up on the small camp chair (he gets in the big one easily, but this was the first time he's gotten on the small triangular one.

i was so proud of him for getting on the chair that i let them come in...and watched them and finally they were sniffing around and i got them out on their pad just in time! woo hoo!! but it's going to take a whole lot more! but hey, they are doing some things right!

tomorrow is and wednesday are going to be long days because of this extra round of testing. not looking forward to it at all, but i know these guys are going to do well~
for the rest of the evening i have got to get things ready for the unexpected sub tomorrow!

celebrating little victories!
julie