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

up to date on sexual harassment and blood pathogens!

well. it's been a long week. it was a great week in science. we had some heating up and cooling down....investigated and hopefully have a better idea of what condensation is.

on wednesday  we celebrated hispanic heritage month with a little pot-luck. last minute i stopped at the store and got the ingredients fro a little spicy chicken chili and some salsa. good times. there were some fabulous dishes-always love maria's cornbread, velez' flan, and robin's brownies-i had some other delicious items, but i have no idea who brought them. yum-o.

this week i had to finish my compliance videos-which took longer than i might have liked...i cannot believe that the sexual harassment video was so long, and there were so many stinkin' law cases to read about-don't care! if i wanted to read whoever v oncale or whatever, i would've studied law with bmayes and taken the bar. but oh well, 2nd try was a charm, and i got my certificates of proof:

i should frame all of my certificates and post them around my classroom...

 and yesterday, i was so excited that our tamale mom (kinda like a soccer mom...only not really)...anyhoo, i didn't order any, but she had extras and i bought me some tamales!! yippee!!

so good you don't need salsa, but it doesn't hurt either.

so, yes, it was a busy week, and here is something that i did that just added to the 'busy'-my own fault. we had not put our bulletin board up in the bathroom yet, so i wanted to get it up-fall colors, black cat, and i'll change it for thanksgiving again, once halloween's over.

those are actual feathers in his mouth.

 and our little accessory table was removed from the stall at summer break, so i decided to replace it. i went to walmart looking for something cheap. well, i first picked up two yafa blocks and thought i would zip-tie them together, so i put them in the cart, then went to find other materials i might need. then i went back toward the plastic shelving units, just to check. and they were, in fact, more expensive. then i looked at the little box/drawer things made of cloth to set inside the blocks, but they fit really funny. when i turned around, i saw the laundry baskets and decided that was actually a better option, so i took the blocks back and put them on their shelf. i was playing in my mind how i was going to make this work.

when i got home, i pulled out the drill and hinges and made the top shelf to lift up, then i sanded down the top because i didn't like the tacky finish that was on it. then i pulled out my little handy-dandy mastermind saw and cut the corners off of another piece of wood i had so that it would fit as a lid and middle shelf that would lift up. and then i drilled a few holes and zip tied it in the back so we could store things in the bottom as well. i know, clever. it may look a little silly, but it does the job.

the necessities.

oh, and i have a great little book that has some great pictures of signs that people have sent in from their travels, and many of them are potty humor, so i decorated the top with a few of them-perhaps i will add more at a later date.

just making sure everyone knows.

so, the weekend is finally upon us, and i have so much to do. i feel like the weekends have yet to feel like weekends. i have yet to come home with nothing to do. i think that's part of what makes it so exhausting.

have a great weekend!!
julie

there's no crying in teaching! so i went home.

aarrgh. i missed it! double tree provided lunch today and i missed it. boo. this morning was very normal until i got into my car and started driving. i don't know what it was, but i stopped at an atm to get money and then off to school, and my back and leg hurt more than ever-it literally brought me to tears trying to get out of my car. ms. johnson was in the parking lot and she came over to help me with my bag-i hate being dependent, but i am super appreciative.

dr. hughes saw us slowly making our way down the hall, and she strongly urged me to go home (at that point, i knew i needed to), so i went up to my room to write out detailed instructions for brooke to deliver the lesson today and i'm sure she did an excellent job.

it wasn't until i reached the car that it hit me that i was missing the doubletree lunch! boo. and i was on the way home when i remembered why i stopped at the atm in the first place-for tamale money! so i had to txt maria to see if she could grab my tamales and give our tamale mom the message that i would pay her on monday. maria graciously agreed and offered to drop them off for me. i am looking forward to sharing them with bmayes who is coming for a wedding this weekend(which i am not going to, and the way i'm feeling, i am glad!) and staying w/ me (she'll be able to play with the boys)..and then i can't wait for mom and dad to be able to have good tamales again. smiles.

for some reason i thought this week was the last weigh in for the biggest loser II, but alas, i was wrong. we have 2 (count them...one, two) more weeks left! ugh. not like it's a big deal, because there's not much i'll be changing after it's over, although i might indulge in some pizza or something fun like that.

i really wish three were floating mountains and a world like pandora (avatar-although the movie is somewhat cheesy, the scenery is to die for!) if i could visit any movie location, that would be it!! and i would fly on one of those dragon things, too!

alright, have a great weekend!
julie

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

me want food.

well, 5:00 comes early every morning~but i'm never tired until i get home in the evening. so this working out in the morning gig has been good so far. i've only been following the 'caveman-ish' diet since monday, and i'm really surprised that i am not really craving sugar-nor diet coke!

i thought about taking a pic of the cover, but who wants to see perfect bodies that have probably been airbrushed? anyhoo, please notice the last line: enjoy your next 31 days! really?

i forgot to mention this earlier!
my parents are planning to move to mo! they are excited about this new adventure, and i am excited that they are moving a little further south, away from the bitter cold winters.i know missori has cold winters, but nothing compared to the harshness in iowa. mostly, i'm glad because it will be a shorter drive to visit and help them out with the 'fixing-up' of their new place....they'll be near springfield, which is fun and familiar for me!

today we had our practice writing test (part 1), and i'm a little worried. when we were getting toward the end, the electricity went out and the fire alarms went off, so we had to file out. good timing. fortunately it didn't last long.

and....tomorrow i get tamales!! no worries, i am taking some to the apt. office on the way home tomorrow night~ i feel like recently they have become my 'go-to' conversational source. ah, a good mix: humans who love my dogs, try my food and laugh at my jokes. (and remember my name...my students don't even remember my name half the time!) one of them did confess today that she knows most of the residents' dogs' names, but the actual people...mmm not as much.

well, my eyes are about to shut themselves, so i'm calling it a night (shortly),
julie

i think they meant santa punch bowls, not santa punching balls....

tomorrow is going to go by quickly and i still have a lot to get done! i shouldn't, but it seems like it always happens this way around the holidays. boo.

i actually have some things that i can do tonight-like a thank you card to our brookhaven college for coming to visit, but that's just a drop in the bucket and more of a fun thing than a task...as i was flipping through the channels, the boys made me stop on charlie brown Christmas. (they actually had charlie brown Christmas trees on sale in a box at tom thumb).

when school let out, one of my students' mothers found me and yes, i will be purchasing two dozen tamales tomorrow-i am such a sucker for fresh tamales!

this morning i stopped and got some spray at walmart because it was very close to the spray my mom had so long ago (you may remember i mentioned it back in november) it is called winter wonderland, but i just call it Christmas in a can. and while i was there, i may have come across this Christmas novelty, which i think is a flop-whoever invested money in this must live in a country that doesn't know who santa is or why it might not be a good idea to punch him.

and not only that, they call him a critter...coal for you

we had a little  exchange amongst co-workers today at work, and i was blessed with some fun and thoughtful gifts! which i will be able to put to use right away, thank you very much! then when i got home, i had a note to pick up a package! i went in and i had a package from david and hollie-love it! yes bakerella cake pops!

no excuses now!

almost all of my students have finished their books! one of them wrote a dedication that was more of an academy awards speech...she even dedicated it to beyonce and her fiance. hmm....


countdown is in full swing!!
julie

ice chunklets from heaven posing as snowflakes...losers

so when i woke up this morning, on the news, they were saying that it was snowing in some parts of dallas. so when i got to my car, i looked real closely for this 'dusting', and i found this little cluster of wanna' be snow...pseudo-flakes. i'm betting they all got together before they left the cloud and said, "hey, let's make sure we stick together, since we're not even the real deal...that way, maybe someone will actually think we're a full, beautiful snowflake and not bastardized ice chunklets!" 

sorry, it was dark out, you can see the little line just right of the center...they didn't fool me!

it was another good day at school- i feel like i've been pushing the kids so hard on these book-stories that it's thursday or friday! oh to be friday! but alas, we're only half-way through...BUT tomorrow i get tamales!! yippy-ki-yay! (sp? who cares) we did notice in social studies today that mr. man-from-early-texas should have fired his portrait painter...

look at those fly-aways at the back of his head! they look like crab claws!

when school was over, i got a few things done in my classroom, then we made our way to fair park and got started on the fun and games! we helped pack a bunch of bags with another couple of schools.

i didn't take a button because we're teaching our kids to read and i don't want anyone asking me about it.

there was lots of ribbon and it was kind of a race to get the ribbon into the little tag to tie on the bag before the bag-knotters snatched the bag and did it themselves. they didn't trust us to tie ribbon into a knot apparently. snooty.

this is a Christmas gift. please notice the chains, grapples and hooks..and the name of this action figure-"tortured souls'...creepy-no one would bag it!

we were so thankful that our principal drove because she is much more familiar with the area! we got back to our vehicles at school at about 7p.m. and on the way home, i had to stop to get this pic because i love this little area near my neighborhood! they do such a great job.

and this is only a small portion of this little park-it is so great! it really puts me in the Christmas spirit!

alright, it is getting late, and i want to get some puppy-time in...it's been a long day!
julie

tags UTILA, you're it!

i'm so glad today is friday! and what makes me even happier is that when i went into the training site to see if there was availability for a training class. guess what. there wasn't! i was ecstatic because now i won't feel as guilty about not going!

got tamales today and i was not disappointed! i didn't need all dozen of them, so i stopped by the front office of my apt and shared some because i had to get my tags for UTILA! finally! we were getting worried! (we, being UTILA and me). i'll put 'em on tomorrow!

and remember when i showed you the bat? here's the  vicious guard dog responsible...if you recall, i mentioned that he goes for the eyes-well, he just got the second today. i told him it didn't even matter because bats had poor eyesight anyway.

he kinda always gives me the fake-innocent look...even when he knows that i know he did it; i should've told him to take out the sonar ears

(all this as he huffs, sniffs and barks at the door because he just heard the neighbor..and this time bruno even told him to shut his yapper and laid back down.)

this morning we had burritos for breakfast at school and i smelled it. i don't quite know how to explain the smell. but i took a bite then read the label. it had a very processed cheese and sausage crumbles. and on the package it said keep frozen (but they warmed them up....might have made great popsicles).

i've tasted something like it before...i think it was one of those taquitos that they sell at the gas stations...

i was about to say something, but the kids piped up, "ms. robinson, these are good! save the extras for me!" hmm. so i decided not to rain on their parade. i didn't even drizzle...i just smiled and let them enjoy it.

got an AVID visit this morning-thankful that laura took a moment to come out and explain what exactly she was needing and looking for because i feel like we're a little in the dark...that beginning of the year assessment...is more like a beginning of the middle of the year assessment. oh boy. i think i need to go back to square one and locate the plans of action that we wrote up over the summer; but apparently they're more difficult to find than expected. oh well, we'll get there.

we met our new principal yesterday. i'm not skerd. but on the same token, when it comes to being the first person to ask for something.....NOT IT!!!!!

anyhoo-hopefully this weekend is productive for everyone-do not fuel up on breakfast burritos.
julie

bulletin boards...a contact sport.

at the end of a long dark corridor there is a board. a green board. a green bulletin board. my responsibility. uf..

nemesis or challenge in disguise?

so today i set my jaw and decided to tackle it! and by tackle it, i am not talking football, although let's be honest, it might have been slightly comical for our interim principal to walk out and see me running down the hall and jumping on the bulletin board and pulling it down...but no, it was more like this:

hopefully we'll get some interaction!

today i heard a boy say, "i have something in my brain." as he felt a little bump/scab on his head toward the front of his hairline. i wanted to say, "if there's something in your brain, you'd better leave it there! that's what we've been working toward!" but i didn't. 

later, i noticed that my coworker had a bag of loving-kindness (the only place i've ever heard that is in the Bible, but this bag was full of deliciousness of biblical proportions)...tamales! now...i will preface this with: nothing beats the tamales that doña angelica used to make in honduras with banana leaves-they were our Christmas and new years love). anyhoo, back to the tamales of today. they were typical mexican corn husk tamales. there were three different kinds and each was very good. the last one i had was packed with heat (not packing heat).

reminds me a little of corn husk dolls.

the picture kinda reminds me of when i was small and we went to a turkey farm in michigan (hopefully i haven't mentioned this before), but i really wanted a corn cob pipe. i don't really know why- i think it was the smell...and maybe the popeye cartoons.  but my parents voted me down...kinda like when i wanted the sword from mackinac island, mi. must be the michigan souvenirs. hmm.

well, i am thrilled about the rain outside because it's like goldilocks: not too light, not too hard!
hope your weekend is just right!
julie