project going strong...just a few days, and lots to do!

this morning was a bit chilly out, but i decided i was going to try to run anyway. i do not enjoy the cold...i was breathing into my sleeve half the way around the park-must invest in a scarf or something like..i don't know, maybe a miniature heater for my face! (needless to say, it was rough going-ready for dallas weather again).

i heated up a tamale and took it with me so that i could eat on the way to my next stop...

courtesy of ms. samarripa's lady who does tamales--they were not bad, not bad at all!

i was going to stop at an antique store to look for some drawer pulls, but unfortunately, they were closed, so i drove down i-44 because i knew that i'd seen a billboard for one the other day. unfortunately it was further than i thought. and they didn't really have what i was looking for. so on the return, i stopped at lowes for some additional materials that i needed ... i asked this one employee if he could help me with some hinges..i should've known better than to ask anyone for help, because the guy came over, looked at all of the hinges, and pulled out a regular old hinge and said, "this should work, you just put it on the inside like this..." i smiled, nodded and thought, 'please leave so i can look this up on google and get it right.' should.have.known. anyhoo-got my things, came home, and mom and dad had already left to go drop of Christmas things for some of the families at the trailer park-church ministry. 

so i jumped right in and got to work on my project. i finished sanding and started painting...i kinda' changed up my original plan and it morphed into something artistic--sorry dad. he put up with these changes, and i certainly do appreciate that he is working on this with me, because i would've gone strictly by: OH, THAT LOOKS PRETTY GOOD...whereas, he, being the perfectionist that he is, and math person, measured everything-fractionated (new word for whatever he was doing with the fractions...don't judge). and then did the major cuts...he was having a hard time envisioning what i had in mind, so i had to do a mock layout for him, now we're on the same page...and i'm a mess.

oddly enough, the colors are not that indicative of what i am working on...i know..weird, right?

had to share a pic of the boys for jo anne, because i couldn't leave them with her (my parents would have been disappointed!)

they are thrilled to be at mom and dad's they cozied right up to the new house.

so after working all afternoon, i ran out of something, so i had to sneak back into town, and when i came out, there was a beautiful sunset, and i'm so glad i didn't miss it! i am a sucker for beauty, and sunrises and sunsets take my breath away!

even at the lowe's parking lot!

i'd be lying if i said i wasn't missing my people in dallas a little...but there are still things to be done here, and time to be well spent! i am going to make my best effort to get down to nixa on saturday afternoon to see the rest of the rees family--it's been a long time trying to connect, so i am going to do whatever i can to make it happen this time! (carmen's family)...i was reminded by chris that they have been storing my flip flops since the last time i was there! i'd clearly forgotten about them, but i am now somewhat excited to be reacquainted with this stellar footwear. i'm pretty sure they kept them hidden away in the back of the closet as a way to tempt me and lure me back...it worked! saturday, it's a date!

and tonight i had the sweetest voice message from my 'lil sis' sheryl...we have been trying get a call together via skype, but timing just hasn't worked out, so she sent the most endearing message. to the moon and back, dear friend, to the moon and back! 

happy Christmas Eve! get to bed, or santa can't leave toys...go! now!

julie

i'm a great candidate! pick me!! i can also paint murals and tell jokes!

well, it's been a long couple of days, and i am tired, but i feel like i just have SOOOOOO much to do still and not enough time to do it!

yesterday i went to help procure the appropriate paints, but i really wasn't much help and although we all arrived at 10:00 a.m, we still weren't done until about 2:30! woah. and it ended up costing us a pretty penny...we may have extra paint left over if anyone from school is interested in painting a mural in their classroom! i could draw it, you'd be in charge of painting it, though!

when i got there, i noticed this in the parking lot; i guess someone was really nervous about their home repairs or something....

the colors were plentiful, but we went for basic warms, neutrals, and cools so that we could mix our own! woo hoo!!

and i am pretty sure that the home depot bathroom should win some sort of award for cleanliness of a public restroom!

this morning i got up earlier than i desired so that i could go over to the school and do some outlining for the paintings on some of our walls at school. i went straight upstairs and started my hot tea and got my projector out and went to work on the science stuff upstairs and ms. camacho went down to the kindergarten hall to do some of her stuff down there. i was later joined by dr. hughes for a bit, and later she and sandra kinda' switched out and we finished up the science upstairs and then made our way down to the front wall to work on the social studies portion.

tomorrow i am going to work on the cafeteria mural and then we are going to have to wait on the wall that looks out into the courtyard because they have to re-mud, dry and paint the wall so that we can get it ready for reading stuff...that will have to happen some evening this next week (probably thursday or friday evening..i think tuesday or wednesday we have parent conferneces. boo. you know how much i love those.

well, i would've stayed longer today, but i had my 4 hour group interview today. i can't really talk about it because i signed a confidentiality agreement, but it was long. interesting how you can feel like you did a great job, but then still not be sure if the answers were what they were looking for. (it seemed like i was out of my role plays earlier and than everyone else-which i will just attribute to being more articulate. smile) i won't find anything out until sometime in april. 

the cool thing about the building we were interviewing in today was that the bathrooms have blue dye in the toilets for cleaning purposes and well, since it's st. patrick's day, it was perfect because i told you how the multivitamins make me pee fluorescent yellow...well, i didn't take a picture, but today, those toilets were looking irish!

as i was walking away from the bldg after the interview, i thought, well, the positive is that i am already putting money into savings for this program, so if for whatever reason i don't get into it, i'm going to have money for something special!

and that's all i got...trying to impress people all day long is exhausting!
julie