last update before irma...i think.

quick update because i still can. it is was early-ish saturday morning, and we are continuing to get updates on irma. over the past 24 hours, irma continues to move west and as it moved into cuba, it may have weakened for a minute, who knows. that said, it will probably swing up the west coast, if it heads along the current projection, the eye may pass over our area, but by that time the strength will have dwindled a bit. still enough to cause a lot of damage, but much less threatening.

i've been stocking up and preparing for the worst (Kamp-WILD, survival instincts, thanks Hank Harmon!) and i pulled out all of the emergency candles, batteries from every nook and cranny, and the list goes on. i filled ziploc gallon baggies and froze them, filled the tub, for necessary flushing (in the guest bathroom), filled a couple of lined trash cans with water in case that gets shut down (for necessary pot-washing..not 'pot-pot', 'pots-and-pans-pot'.) and after doing all that water-prep, looked out at the pool and thought, 'for the love...i HATE YOU, IRMA!'

that said, i do have a few more last things to do, and then we will settle in over at shea's for the impending doom..(there was talk at one point of going over to the school, but it is actually in a lower zone than we are, so, you do what you do-we'll be more comfortable there anyhoo).where i'm pretty sure there will be some pirate shenanigans (you think i'm joking...if you know us, you realize it's no joke). i purchased the disposable doggie pads, so the boys are taken care of; the only issue will be chaco, and his incessant need to let me know that there is lightning, thunder and random sounds outside. fun.

it's great that miami misses the eye of the storm, but still looking at high winds and surf-this is a relief, because i have several friends/former classmates in that area...they keys still look to receive a beating...one thing that makes me sad is that there are still so many turtle nests, and we will probably lose all of them with this storm. #heartbreaking 

we're hoping to get out to casperson shortly after the storm...maybe the storm will bring up some nice shark teeth...#priorities

i'm a little leery of the towering bamboo trees in my backyard..hopefully they will hold true to the ancient chinese adages and bend in the wind...not snap! yikes. by the time irma hits our area, she's predicted to be around 100-135 mph winds-which equate to between an f-1/f-2 tornado, so we'll be hiding from the wind.

i'd include pics, but i just want to get this posted and finish up some last stuffs.

-ju

you don't know a thing about me! i wish i could be a pirate..instead i have to settle for super hero.

so today was not my best day ever.

when i got to school, i stopped in and my principal was kind enough to let me know that i did not make it into the masters program i was hoping to get into. i am thankful that she was very up front with me. now i can move on and make plans for the next three years that will not include said program. i am not real keen on going into 'any ol' masters program.' i still think this is one of the top programs available in our area, even if they weren't astute enough to recognize that i would have been a solid candidate, and whatever they perceived as lacking, i would easily be able to overcome and conquer!

so, that said, it was a rough morning. i definitely had tears this morning, in part because i really wanted to do this thing, and in part because it hurt-- i don't deal with rejection well. i think i went through the phases of grief today...apart from denial. then i got a little angry, and the song playing in my head was : you don't know a THING about me... and by the end of the day i was into a different mindset-forget about it, i'm going to wicked on friday, and i don't have time for this, so...

defying gravity...

so anyhoo...i will be working summer school, and preparing for next year. i will probably spend more time up in missouri this year than last year. regardless, whatever the next phase is, i'm going at it 110%!! i'm fired up-i just need something more to be fired up about..i finished grading my end of year DRA, and when i left school, i wanted to just drive and play pink's SO WHAT! that's kinda' how i feel right now.

chaco said he wanted me to become a pirate.

i think he just likes to say aaarrggh!

anyhoo, i am slightly sad to say i will not be joining pirate school, i just don't think it would a wise investment.

ok, life. bring it on!

julie

super market sweep...trippin over your booty

oh my goodness! it felt SO great to sleep in today! and it felt even better to no do anything related to school (kinda...i had my papers out and was thinking about doing schoolwork, but decided it would wait).

when i woke up this morning, i awoke from a dream of being reprimanded for googling 'YORKIES' things are tightening up in disd...and then i was thinking about friends who have recently had babies or are about to have babies, and for whatever reason, the thought that came to mind was a statistic that i remembered about the average u.s. household having about 2.3 children. from there, i decided that i didn't want to see that .3 of a child, and visions of the eyeball monster from monsters inc flooded into my head. two normal children and one eyeball with arms and legs. hmm.

 so..i watched the debates the other night. i make no apologies, i am in favor of mitt romney, because at this moment in time, i believe that our country is in an economic crisis and i believe that he is much more capable in matters of fiscal responsibility. people who know me well, know that i am also quite socially conservative. and people who know me really well know that i'm not voting for the white guy, i am voting for the guy i believe is most capable. trust me if herman cain were running against president obama, i would be voting for the black guy over the half-white guy, because i again, believe that cain is much more fiscally capable than president obama as well.

on a news show just now, the lady said people tend to vote for the person they'd most want in their living room for the next four years...well, after reading the amateur, and seeing how mitt and his family interact and play olympics games at their family reunions, i think i'd prefer to have him in my living room.

ok, off that topic.

saturday, october 6

this morning i woke up and my alarm went off on my phone and i realized that today was the day for my 'shopping spree' at world vision...i was thinking it might be like supermarket sweep and all of the teachers would be lined up and ready to go running after their supplies!

we were very fortunate that our principal bought a membership for our school for the year-we get another shopping spree in the spring! woo hoo!

as i was driving to the place, i was thinking it seemed to be in a rather remote location. well, something even more interesting is that i am pretty sure i have driven by there before (on accident, following some directions off of mapquest-anyone remember mapquest? from before gps?) anyhoo, i finally got there and i was early, so i went in and filled out the paperwork (next to nothing), and then the tattooed man brought the shopping carts and gave us instructions. it was painless. the only thing they didn't have that i was really hoping for was a nice pencil sharpener; mine is on it's last legs...

some of my spoils! i did feel somewhat like a pirate who stumbled upon my booty (butt then, if you're stumbling on your own booty, perhaps it's time for a diet and some stair stepper exercises...just sayin)

here's a partial list: 2-hole punch, a couple of binders, several spiral notebooks, pens, pencils, 2 reams of copy paper, some books, 2 kid-usb ports, zipper pouches, thermal bags, drawstring bags, markers, crayons, and the list goes on...thank you dr. hughes!

yesterday i was in need of spinach and artichoke dip and salsa, so i took a quick trip for the ingredients and whipped up a batch, and it was phenomenal! hit the spot!

i wish i'd gotten a larger bag of chips!

 i'm so good to myself!

and in other news, my apartment complex has painted the mailbox 'carousel-pavilion-looking' things a poopy-diaper green. gross...bruno looked at it and told chaco it looked like when he pooped after eating his greenie treats. fortunately no one else was around to hear them discussing it. 

the boys have loved having me home. last night they were laying around-kinda like they are right now...and every once in awhile, they would get on a barking frenzy-neighbors-and i'd have to pull out the treats in a failing effort to distract them.

bruno guarding his treat.

i've been kinda bad about their treats lately. chaco likes to save his and keep playing with it and goading bruno after his are gone. so, i've been pulling the progressive redistributive act and taking part of chaco's treat and giving it to bruno. it's highly unfair, i know...and chaco would probably have lots of treats stored up for a rainy day if it weren't for me saying he has plenty and he should share his wealth...bruno kinda liked it because he didn't have to work for it, he just acted like: woe is me, i don't have what he has.

ok, time to get some work done!
julie

cancer/heart/stroke insurance-check. pirate in the sink-arrgh

i don't get political often because it can be so divisive, but i will say that i was very disappointed with the president's comments about those who have built a business cannot take any credit for it because the government that allowed that to happen..“If you’ve got a business — you didn’t build that. Somebody else made that happen.”outrageous. please. if someone has an amazing entrepreneurial idea, you'd better believe that they should get the credit for their work-that's what capitalism is, and that is what made AMERICA a land that people flocked to-we studied inventors of the 1900's and AMERICA  should be proud of that spirit...it wasn't the government that allowed thomas edison to create the phonograph and the light bulb...

is infrastructure necessary? absolutely...but that comes out of my ridiculously high taxes. i am tired of paying high taxes and knowing that 50 percent of the population does not. maybe it's time for that part of the population to stop driving on the highways and streets i'm paying for. and why the heck are my taxes paying for someone else's foodstamps and their children's meals when they are driving around in a car that is more expensive than mine?

i believe that federal government has grown much too large for it's own britches (which is one of many reasons we are struggling fiscally). i also believe that a bulk of what the federal government is trying to take over should be given back to the states. let the states take care of the things they should be taking care of. if you don't like what is happening in your state, move to a state that has a philosophy you agree with.

ok, enough about that. no need to comment on that because i am not out to be divisive, just expressing my thoughts...

oh! i almost forgot that when bmayes and i were on our way home from the wedding, we were driving from the downtown okc area and we definitely saw hooker activity. i've only seen this on t.v...pretty woman, this was not.

and driving home from oklahoma yesterday, i saw an suv with "just married" all over it, and "hardy" on the side...yep, i passed dave and lauren. smile. it was a congested area, and i'm pretty sure they didn't see me.

today i had to get up early to take chaco in for his dental and vaccines. i have to take him in again on wednesday for his heartworm shot. then bruno and i got to take a walk and it was a beautiful morning-great little breeze and cool! at 10 i had a meeting with my cancer/heart/etc person who wanted to go over my policy...so i got a little more heart and stroke insurance...it reminded me of when my cousin dick used to be the insurance man when we played fake town as little 'uns. anyhoo, the only reason i agreed to do this was because if i don't need any of it, when i reach a certain age, all of the premiums i pay into it are 100% refundable. not a bad deal. i just hate meetings.

it's actually a pretty good deal.

in other news...i woke up this morning and there was a pirate in my sink. ok, not a real pirate, although if jack sparrow had been looking up from the sink it would've made for a very interesting morning! nope, rather it was an amazing dried spatter left from washing off my eye makeup last night.amazing!

if you squint just a little and use your imagination, you can see him, right? (i find myself doing this a lot, not only with clouds, but pretty much wherever i see patterns-tiles, walls, ..sinks)

i did eat at jack in the box this weekend-i couldn't stop myself...my car just sneaked into the drive thru and i had to order the sourdough burger. yumm-o! but apparently married people cannot drink from their cups...

as my friend meredith grooms would say, "rude."

still trying to get over the sinus-sickie issue...hopefully the medicines i'm using will take care of it all real soon!

hope you don't have a yo-ho-ho and a bottle of rum staring up from your sink!
julie

move over, andy warhol...i got this stamping thing down!

it's first friday! (we have tomorrow off) i am excited to watch the fireworks tonight! i was seriously considering going down to kaboom...? but i hate to be uncomfortable-and it's still pretty hot out, so i think i will be watching it from my apt tonight with the lights out and we'll pretend we're there. smile.

it was a great day at school today because our art person showed us a great trick with foam rubber and i was able to make a really cool thing that i can throw in with a letter for a friend of mine who is far too far away! hopefully being in florida and having fun, she won't have time to read the blog, because it would be more fun to just get it in the mail...ou colors...not so much the black, but i needed the black to show the white...besides the black is pirate-ou colors...

i am the next andy warhol...only not for real and only for friends!

very inexpensive-i could certainly do something like this in my class for my students during the year! so much better than trash sculptures that i am expected to paint.

i'm excited for the fireworks, and i'm trying to decide exactly what tomorrow might entail. i think i may just opt for a relaxing day of revolutionary documentaries about independence day. that's probably the most relaxing thing i could do...i might have to get netflix.

last night i had woken up, but i was still half asleep, and trying to go back to sleep. i reached out and there was bruno, so i pet him for awhile, which was strange, because usually he gets up and moves if i pet him for too long. i realized that he wasn't moving at all....

i was petting my pillow. good thing IT didn't get up and move.

opted against sparklers for the boys...but i might pull out the pop-confetti...
julie

that was delicious, bunt i really shouldn't have!

oh goodness! i am so glad it is thursday! today the students got on the computers to look up statistics and expert opinions for the persuasive papers they will be writing, and someone who is trying to persuade grandma to come visit searched for grandma, statistic, child and came up with some story about grandma shooting a kid...probably not the most convincing piece of information they could use.

and today was a wonderful beans, rice and enchilada lunch-thank you ms. perez for making all those enchiladas, and navarres for the beans and rice (which i shouldn't have, but it just went so well with the mini bunt cakes that mattress firm supplied for us!) the bunt cakes actually brought back gigi memories because she got me one for my birthday last year and it was amazing! wish you could have been here to appreciate it!

 i'm very curious to see what double tree is bringing tomorrow...i'm going to have to be super good next week!

we got a really cool gift today! and just in time because i am running out of post its!

and one of the sweet moms of one of my students gave me a sweet gift-it's a tealight candle holder-it doesn't particular;y go with my decor, but the sweetest gesture.

then when i got home, i took the boys for a walk (slow walk, but they needed some fresh air).we stopped by the office to say hello, but it wasn't much fun...it's just not the same. and when we got out of the office, bruno said, "i don't think they really like us." and chaco piped up, "i know, we need to find new friends!"

then we made our way around to the back and there was a big dog in the fenced area, so we kept moving and then we saw the cat behind another fence...

bruno said, mama! we're at the zoo and watching the silly feline!" i think he was really thankful for the fence because secretly he was a little fearful of the kitty.

and last but not least, we have a lady who comes to our school in the afternoons with her metal detector thingy to look for foreign objects. i wonder what all she finds that's worthwhile because she keeps coming back with her machine and her mini trowel. hope it's worth her while! perhaps when i grow up i'll find a fun hobby like that, although i will be wearing leopard pants and a hot pink top.

a few quarters here and there...maybe cabell was the old site of a lost treasure...from when the pirates used to use the jungle gym as a hideout?

time for bed,
julie

muumuulan hangs out with pirates and cowboys

it's halloween...BOO!! (this time say it like you mean it, it IS supposed to be scary!) i know i looked scary today! blonde, white girls can never be mulan. it just isn't possible.(i actually called it mumuulan, because instead of the graceful, flowy garments of mulan, i had an oriental-colored muumuu). in fact, i hate wigs and i felt like susan sarandon in STEPMOM when she was going through chemo wearing her wig and painting on eyebrows. i hate wigs because 3 hours after i take them off, i still feel like i'm wearing a wig! boo. (not scary).

i'm hoping there are no trick-or-treaters; i forgot the candy at school and all i have are butterscotch candies, starlight mints and tealight candles...i know if i were a kid and someone gave me the first two, i would NOT be very happy with them! and as for the tealight candles...parents would probably frown on that.

bruno and chaco are ready..there has been a medley of "yo ho yo ho a pirate's life for me" and "home home on the range."

bruno said no to the peg leg, but he asked if he could carry a sword-i told him no, i didn't have one, he could blame my parents for not letting me get one when i was visiting mackinac island!

chaco heard my conversation with bruno and said, "oh, but you DID get a whip...can i borrow it?" and again, i had to deny his request because i'm pretty sure it began to unravel and at some point we had to get rid of it.

there was a ponytail in back..i realize that this actually looks slightly akin to a poor alec baldwin impersonation (which is why the muumuu and the sign that proclaimed mulan)

i got a cute little halloween bucket-o-pretzels today, AND one of my co-workers gave me a delicious, cutie-cute cake pop of a ghost (thanks maria!) the cake pop reminded me a bit of mr. reimer, my music teacher and the ghost story i shared awhile back!

how cute is that?! (doesn't the stapler look like a spooky floating stapler?)

well, i think i'm going to try to fry some of my dehydrated potatoes tonight-wish me luck! we'll see how it goes!

it's getting cooler out, i might need to invest in a heated blanket this year-i know, i'm in texas...but there are usually two nights in the winter when one would come in handy!

i was just reminiscing on the phone last night with my brother (it seems like last night--perhaps saturday night...) i was recalling a couple of the outfits we'd had back in the day. dad found some old shoulder pads and a helmet and we pretended we were green bay packers at one time. david was a robot (complete with dryer hoses for the arms)..and remember the cheapy plastic-ish masks that cracked and ripped with the stapled elastic band around the back and little nose holes that you breathe into and feel the humidity of your own breath? usually they came with some kind of plastic outfit the was probably made of the same material as the plastic bag you were collecting candy in? those were fun. no, no they were not.

i wish we had pictures of every year we dressed up! i do have these two pictures from when i worked for a teen crisis center and we worked the 'haunted house.' they are a little disturbing, but it was all in fun.

i am the creepy clown.

this was picture night

there is a church sponsored 'haunted house' called hell night and one of the ladies at the front office was telling us about how she went to hell night back when she was young and it rather mortified her; well not two days later, i was going through facebook and saw that one of my old college friends acts in one for their church! strange coincidences.

i remember in kindergarten back in good ol' raytown, our principal had created a 'haunted maze' in the gym and there were silly things in it like pillow lumps, sheets separating the walled maze, i don't remember a whole lot else except that the principal was dracula and if he got you, you might never be seen again!

all that said, the only thing i loved about halloween was the candy.

when all is said and done, all hallow's eve is merely the precursor to all saints day!
julie

walmart is not really a relaxing break, but it got me what i needed

i'm having a very difficult time getting motivated to grade these writing papers...i finished another class earlier today and am in the middle of the 3rd class. it's just so time consuming! boo.

so i took a break and went to drop letters in the mail and run to walmart (isn't that what EVERYONE does when taking a break??) i think KANAKUK 2-4s are just ingrained into the fiber of my being...that's where we'd stop because there were relatively few options.

so, while i was there, i had to snap a pic of johnny b/c it made me think of shea-so, this one's for you, shea!

your pirate look is almost as good as his, and HE has professional makeup artists!

i will say that apparently a lot of other people needed to take breaks today as well, because it was pretty busy over at montfort and arapaho. and when i stopped by the post office to drop off my letters, the mail delivery vehicles were all lined up.

i began to wonder what in the world will they do with all those vehicles if the post office goes out of business?

will they auction them off? will they sell them to some european country where people drive on the 'wrong' side of the road? incognito secret service cars? somehow use them in the creating of green energy?

i remember in honduras my parents got a small jeep that seemed somewhat like a mail jeep. i believe it was a hyundai because it was way before they were popular, and i definitely had difficulty trying to pronounce it in my head (i never wanted to say it out loud for fear that i was wrong...and as time would tell, i WAS wrong).

this morning i used the last of my coffee, so i was very excited to see that they had a holiday favorite!!

thank you, millstone, for capitalizing on Christmas long before they even begin playing the carols on the radio.

why do they make the best coffee flavors seasonal?

the last items i had to get were to make some posters for my classroom-we need to get our transitional words up so that the kids are seeing them constantly, and begin to used them! i had a bunch done in spanish, but i need to get them up in english as well! so we're going bright on a black foam board...that seems to be eye-catching.

tonight when i got home, i browned some beef and dumped the beans, tomatoes and paste and seasonings into the crock pot. then i had to cut up some onions...well, i looked everywhere to find a clothespin because i just wanted to see if putting a clothespin on the tongue would really keep the tears from coming...i wonder how many people have actually tried that after seeing THE HELP....i didn't find one, so i got the mini processor out. unfortunately the onion was strong enough that i still got teary eyed, darned onions. so, i got it all ready and now i am waiting to turn on the crock pot until i go to bed because it takes 7-8 hrs, and i don't plan to be waking up at 3 am to turn off the crock pot...i need to get one with a timer!

going to get some coffee-the good stuff...i think it's going to be a long night!
julie