came home to find the older sibling of my baby nutribullet

i was at school the other day and caught some dude working on the elevator. it wouldn't have been all that interesting, had i not watched LEVERAGE on netflix recently. so i got close enough to kinda' look at what was going on, and get an idea of what it might be like to ride on top of the elevator to pull off a huge heist. which of course wouldn't occur here at our school...unless you were trying to heist construction paper, kleenex or crayons.

slightly blurry because i didn't want elevator dude to think i was spying on him.

 and we were so excited to have jeri back! she took a long vacation across the ocean, and it was so fun to partake in the morsel that she brought back! yum!

thank you, Spain, with a hint of anise! wish i'd had some coffee to go with that, but i was much too impatient!

 so...things have been a little crazy around campus-as expected. so i have decided to join the crazy and maybe for halloween do a little kitty art...tbd

i have indeed been trying to eat paleo again, and loving it! found a great site that offered some paleo brownies! they were not bad!

http://paleogrubs.com/best-paleo-brownie-recipe

and back to green shakes for breakfast on weekdays-it's quicker and easy cleanup! which means i've been giving my nutribullet a workout, so once again...when i turned on the t.v. saturday morning, i was riveted to another paid infomercial! STOP! it was the big brother of my handy-dandy little guy...i had to have it. it's the RX...and it makes hot soups too! YES!

so it's been a busy week- i was off campus on monday and tuesday locked away in a prison off campus at one of our middle schools, working on some curriculum guides. it was a good exercise, in that it gave us an opportunity to dive deeper into the standards. then today i passed on going to a 'changing the odds' conference because i'd gone last spring to a mini-conference and wanted someone else to have an opportunity..and so in staying on campus, i was able to see how the 'skype-for-business'  could work on campus. it has potential. then, after school today, there was a homecoming parade.

when i arrived at the high school, there were about 3 students there with their parents. so i kept looking for more peeps from our school, and they began trickling in-it was almost nerve wracking waiting and looking for the 'float' and everyone who was supposed to be present! but as the time drew closer, everyone was assembling, and the float made it! so we lined up and prepared ourselves for the march! it was fun to see the kids excited-the cheerleaders in their outfits and they knew their cheers! so proud of them! they kept the noise up pretty much the entire parade! great job cabell!! AAAANNNNNDDDD...i got a free jeans day pass out of it-totally worth it.

proud of our PTA moms that went to work last-minute to get a float put together! bigger and better next year!

when i got home from the parade, i was not expecting it, but there was the package at my door! my nutribullet rx! i can't wait to make a soup and some other fun blends!

so...i may have already gone in and tabbed about a zillion gazillion pages already that i want to try!

and the most exciting little part was the alfalfa brush! look at that single little bristle! i guess that's in case you want to paint? and the single bristle is for the micro tiny line.

i mean...please look at this beast. can't wait-meals for a week! seriously though, the other great thing about it is that at the push of the button on this one, it will do its business and stop when it's good and ready. and as i mentioned before, it makes HOT soup! it's the smart machine. i have to watch the baby...

i may have gone into walmart the other day with intentions of only getting a couple of food necessities, but then i meandered over into a section i never should have gone to..and i had no choice. i had to purchase the cute stationery and pens...

i've been using both types, and i am preferential to the pastel set-finer point gels. and as for the stationery, i've already sent out a few good letters on it! in fact, i am once again out of stamps...down to one batman (refer to previous post).

in other news, i should know better. bruno was out of sight for a bit, and then not too long afterward, out of my peripheral vision, i saw bruno trounce up his ramp toward the couch and a little something rolled down the ramp; he turned around as if he had dropped something and was going back to get it, so out of pure intuition, i said in a harsh tone, "bruno! no!" then i looked up and my gut was right.

it was a little poopie. jerk. why does he insist on this???

the boys do seem pretty excited now that the weather has cooled enough to actually go on walks! i've been doing my best to get up early and go for a walk around the pond in the mornings before school. in fact, they've gotten to the point that as soon as i put my shoes on, they are jumping up on the couch and running around in hopes that i'll grab their leash off the hook by the door, and if i don't take them, they pout.
but last saturday, we took not one, not two, but THREE walks! we drove over to vitruvian park for our long walk, and as difficult as it was, chaco didn't bark at anyone!

this happens a lot when i try to get a good pic of them...they stand looking in opposite directions..is this an 'i don't like you' stance, or a guard-post stance? not entirely sure.

mid-pant, bruno looks like he could almost be pretending to be a vicious piranha. 

alright, so that's really all i got-i shouldn't wait so long next time because details seem to get lost.

jaguars in iowa and marilyn monroe in the web-also in iowa

and now for family reunion time!

it's an 8 hour drive from southern/mid missouri to north western iowa, and we were planning to meet at my aunt's to have dinner with her and her husband. this meant that we would have to leave by 9. of course before we left, i had to drop the boys off at the kennel. suffice it to say that they were not happy with me when i walked out. in fact, i am fairly certain that i felt chaco throw the stink eye at my back... and me, well, i felt a little guilty leaving them. although when i thought it over, i decided that it would ultimately be less stressful for them to stay there and be around other dogs (maybe learn a new dialect from the corgi down the way),than to travel 8 hours with us, be around a bunch of strangers and still have to be in a fenced-in area all day, just to turn around and drive 8 hours back. so the lesser of the two evils it was.

we did fairly well on time-dad let me drive (his mistake); i may or may not have transferred the radar detector to their car before we took off...is 85/90 too fast?

we got there a little before dinner. the great thing is that kim's husband, marvin likes to grill. the greater thing is that he does it well! everything was absolutely delicious! amazing steak and grilled veggies! fellowship with family is fun! they have done a lot with the house since the last time we were there, and it looks GREAT! the additions in the basement for the gardening and canning, the addition on the back with the master suite-they did a very nice job-both of them are incredibly handy!

we woke up early the next morning to do breakfast and get to the park to set up for the reunion. we may have taken a long detour around trying to find the lodge. just as we were driving up and over a hill, 5-6 wild turkeys were gaggling* around so close to the road that we almost had turkey sandwiches for lunch...then about 10 yards further on the other side of the road, there was a baby deer (i suppose some people might call that a fawn..fair enough). i wonder if the turkeys were preparing to gang up on the deer..awesome! we saved an innocent deer! *(please note that i do realize a gaggle is a group of geese, and a rafter is a group of turkeys, but it's also a noisy, disorderly group..)

while we were waiting for everyone to arrive, i took my camera out and found a trail, hoping for more national geographic opportunities...i apparently will NOT be switching jobs this summer-i found nothing. i mean...i wasn't expecting a jaguar, but i did go through the mental exercise of visualizing what i would do and how i would start with the eyes...most vulnerable part. ridiculous? perhaps, until i get attacked by a jaguar and come out alive! (go ahead, laugh it up, you know it's true though). as i was entering the train and had walked in about 20 feet, i turned to see a lady and her dog entering the trail as well, so i kept going, thinking to myself, "great. they are going to ruin EVERYTHING!" she must have heard me thinking because when i turned around about 3 minutes later, i didn't see or hear them. unless of course...the jaguar?

i kept walking the path and wondering how much poison ivy i was brushing past...and which tree the jaguar was in.

so..what's so special about this dew-covered web? well, if you look really closely, you'll see...a likeness of marilyn monroe **

once people started to arrive, i put on my social face and conversed. last time we all got together, i did not get as much time as i was hoping for with my cousin, michelle, so i made a point to sit with her and learn what all was going on in her world and with her family. love that girl! when they started playing games, i pulled my other cousin, trish, in to sit and be a part of the game-playing. i watched, as i am a better watcher until i know what's going on! then stacey arrived-my cousin who is closest to my age-we're about 5-6 months apart-so we got to sit and talk and catch up. it was fun getting to chat with her youngest for a bit as well; bree is a fun young lady and her mom was trying to convince her of the importance and the love for family.

people began to clear out early, but we stayed to kind of wrap it up and shut-er-down. the boys men man-boys and michelle were in the middle of another card game (hand and foot/a family fave), so we decided that it would be fun to pause the game and take it back to uncle dwayne and aunt susan's so the kids could go swimming and we could continue to chat and laugh. when we got there, all of the kids went out to play, and we pulled out the card table. one group in the dining area finishing their game of hand and foot, and the rest of us in the living room playing another card game (i don't recall the name of the game, but i do believe that they let me win...although, susan is very competitive, she probably wouldn't just let me win)...i will chock it up to beginner's luck! i really do enjoy my time with my cousins, aunts and uncles. family is precious. we were missing a couple of cousins who couldn't make it.

my aunts are so thoughtful and went through a lot of time and work to collect pictures of the family throughout the years!

uncle rick in the plaid, next to his wife, marlene. he is the oldest brother, and really resembles my grandpa

marvin and jerry- i would always love to be a fly on the wall..or squirrel in the tree in this instance!

mom joining in the outdoor games

new game...tracks? trains? tickets? routes? it actually looks like a great game!

me and stace-just catching up-i want so badly for great things to happen for her! 

bree-just kickin it with my camera, because that's how she does! ;)

take 1-susan wanted to make sure we got her best side...i mean, her wet side...don't worry, it was wet because of water balloons...nothing more nothing less.

almost all of them there are 10 sibs total. missing: uncle craig-couldn't make it from ohio, and uncle dave had to leave early-due to physical difficulties. i am sad that i didn't get a pic before they left.

and michelle-my sassy, funny, fun-loving cousin! so glad we got to hang out for longer this time!

 we left the party and headed back to kim and marvin's and when we got there, they were watching a show about mountain men-never a dull moment!

we had to leave early sunday morning because i had to pick up the boys between 4 and 5, so we got breakfast on the way home, and again, i drove... with the fearlessness and need for speed of mario andretti. it goes without saying that we were home with ample time to spare!

i asked mom to go with me to pick up the boys, because i took lots of things for them, and i needed a little assistance. when we walked into the kennel, the lady opened the gate, and bruno came running out to me, but no chaco. i was a little worried at first that maybe she'd put him in a wrong kennel, but then i saw him on the other side of the plastic door, just hangin' out outside probably looking at the other dogs and wondering how he could annoy them. it took several seconds before he caught on to what was happening and came running through the plastic door! "WHERE WERE YOU?!?!?" they kept asking. and when i told them, chaco was like, "no worries, mama, we had lots of fun barking at the other dogs. they were SO afraid of us." mind you, even in the small dog section, my dogs were smaller than all of the others. <cough,cough> no one was afraid of them..just sayin'. and i didn't have the heart to tell them that i would be leaving early the next morning--instead, we just hung out all night on the couch enjoying sunday night life with popcorn.

next up...i believe that would be florida!

-julie
**marilyn monroe will not appear in the dew drops on the web...no matter how hard you look and squint your eyes. if you saw her, you might want to get your eyes checked..or your brain. she's just not there. why would her likeness show up on a web in the grass? charlotte, from charlotte's web-NOT REAL ya'all.