tea cups and gnomes and grizzly bears, oh my!

so...i've been pretty sparse lately on the blog posts-sorry about that! it's not like i don't have things to say, because i certainly do; it's just that i have been busy!  to start with, i am going to blame b-mayes, because when she came to visit back in december, she suggested i watch alias, and once i started, game over, i had to watch all 5 seasons! oops.

and then i decided i may apply again for this urban leadership program at smu, through the teaching trust. hmm..i might be a little crazy or maybe optimistic..b/c i'm pretty sure next school year will be no less busy than this year has been, and if i haven't mentioned it before, it has been crazy. in fact, i have other things that i should be doing right this very minute, but i am trying to keep life in perspective, and if this is what it takes, so be it.

and if that doesn't work out for whatever reason...i could always do this...

yes, well, my drivers license came in the mail today too, time to cut up the old one

and when that was all over, i had to write a 'serious' blog post for ed-reform policy

i was thrilled to look in my mailbox the other day and receive real mail!! i love it that gigi is so creative! this made me smile!

and to top it off, she sent me box tops and labels!!! woo hoo-priceless!

 i also had an evening that i had to GOT TO go to world vision to pick up some amazing supplies!! our school purchased a 'membership' and all of our teachers have the opportunity to take advantage of the supplies to use in the schoolroom! i know it's hard to appreciate everything, but there is over $300 worth of stuff in this haul!check it out!

 books, binders, pens, pencils, markers, paper, craft supplies, post-its, scissors, notebooks, glue, labels, clipboards, zipper bags, shoulder bags, thermal lunch bags, etc...i hope we do it again next year!

over mlk jr long weekend, we had to create a little big banner for a baby shower, so, having a lack of space, the only thing i could really do was pin it up on the wall and paint it there! and it worked just fine.

congratulations luis and susan!! can't wait 'til we get to meet tommie!!

  the weather over the weekend was awesome, so we definitely went walking. the boys loved it because i told them we were going to visit the ancient ruins in a foreign country and on the way, we saw wild life...b-mayes, i know you're in wyoming, but today, we faced a grizzly.....container.

todd them this was the mayan ruins....

and....there are grizzly warnings in farmers branch...

                         

the morning we came back was a teacher work day, so we had breakfast provided by the NIGHT HOTEL here in fb (farmers branch, not facebook). maria was so thoughtful, when i got to my car, she gave me a little box, and i opened it before i left (curiousity!) it was a beautiful cup from anthropologie, and she insisted it was the best for tea. i was so excited, and i couldn't wait to get home to try it! then we finally got back to school and my 4th grade team was so sweet-they got me a target gift card-which i definitely used for some fun goodies!

fast forward to the moment i got home from school. i was carrying my bag, purse and another bag on one side of my body, and i had the box in the other hand. if you will recall, i live on the 3rd floor. it wasn't that i didn't have a good grip on the box, i did. the problem is that i hadn't snuggled it back in as well as i should have, and i didn't realize that this designer box opened from 2 sides! it was pretty much slow motion as i felt the box get infinitely lighter and saw the paper-wrapped cup drop to the stair, praying that it not fall through the stairs all the way to the ground floor, which it didn't. my stomach dropped with the cup and that feeling of wifpofinasjdnf (because there is not really an onomatopoeia  to accurately describe the feeling...although there may have been a different sound, or set of not-so-Godly words that came out of my mouth-not as holy as i wish i were). i didn't even have a chance to sip from it! sigh.

devastation!

the next day i mentioned it to my principal, who does a pretty good job at keeping us on our toes, and she asked if i was going to tell maria. i will admit, i was going back and forth about it, but i cannot live a lie and pretend to love it if i didn't even try it, so i did tell her. and she was so gracious-when i told her i was planning on going to get one because i hadn't even gotten to try it, she insisted on getting a replacement for me. THANK YOU, MARIA!! and i know she thought i was joking, but i was thinking about drinking from it all weekend long-every time i had a tea (which was at least once every 2 hours)! so, when i got home today, the first thing i did was unwrap the paper from the cup (which took about an hour, b/c maria asked them to 'extra-wrap' it!) and i don't know if it enhances the taste of the tea, but it certainly enhances the tea-drinking experience! it's simply a 'made-for-tea' cup.

i LOVE it maria, it is perfect for me!

 and just for fun, this morning, when i stopped in at the store to get science supplies for some lessons, i saw this guy in the garden department, and i realized i don't have a gnome. i kinda' like this one. i walked away, but if i keep thinking about it, i may be a gnome owner this spring. so....

he's spunky!

 hey, let's not wait so long to do this next time!!
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

goats and chickens for angel tree!

alright, i go my second batch of Christmas cards sent out (obviously not the dog ones- the boxed set i got so i could get an early start)

you have to understand that i am NOTORIOUS for sending out 'be-lated' Christmas cards!

then i went through some gre practice yesterday and i did ok with the vocabulary, but i really must brush up on my math and the rules...hmm. i never was very good at math- i think i could have been, but i had a poor teacher in 9th grade (poor as in not very good...although he may have been poor as well), then i struggled at e.i.s. as well-thankfully i was able to get tutoring from my volleyball coach's wife-God bless mrs. smallwood! and then there were the study groups-thanks to my classmates for trying to explain things! my brain just didn't really function that way!

this morning when we got up, i had a craving for those pumpkin pancakes i had over thanksgiving! (i bought canned pumpkin yesterday, because that's when the craving actually began)

the only problem was that the store where i found it only had the huge cans, not the small one which i needed...so..it's a good thing the dogs like a little pumpkin

so i found a great little recipe on cooking.com i think...of course i had to add my own topping, but that's no biggie. it hit the spot even without the whipped cream.

you cannot tell, but they were delicious!

yesterday i also got a little package in the mail, which i have been waiting to receive for an awful long time. i didn't want to pay the extra fro shipping, so i chose the 'value shipping.' i didn't realize that when i ordered it back on october 25, it would take for-NEVER to get here! it literally got shoved into my box yesterday. oh well, it arrived. i cannot show you what i got until i send it off and it has been received because it would ruin the surprise. it's not even going to be that exciting for most of you. so don't get your hopes up.

note to self:plan ahead if i plan to get gifts for people or don't use value shipping.

i mentioned that we are participating in angel tree at school for families at our school. well, i just got a catalog in the mail and it made me rethink what i bought for our family. this is the kind of thing that really makes a difference..

this is the QR code if you have the ap, you can look into it a bit more. i thought it was a great opportunity- a way to really help those who know need.

we have a very skewed vision of 'need' here in the united states. we are fortunate and most people don't even realize it or appreciate it. i wonder what our angel tree family would do if we got them a goat and a couple of chickens...

ok, so breakfast was good, but guess what makes a delicious snack? pumpkin pancakes with nutella! don't knock it 'til you try it! 

it's been a relaxing, lazy sunday for me and the boys and we've loved it-they cannot wait for Christmas break!
julie