the writing on the wall...and chaco's nest

i just saw the end of a commercial for a new movie that's coming out called chimpanzee. hmm..wonder what it's going to be about...

i did make the banana ice cream this afternoon, and it wasn't half bad! it was missing something, though, and i cannot figure out exactly what.

i'll try it again...perhaps with the oikos yogurt...that might change it just right.

 last night i had to go get the bananas and i also wanted to get sharpie paint pens at michaels. well, when i got there, the bananas were green...

not quite ready for consumption

so, i went to michaels, and then i had to stop by tom thumb for the nanners. it was a treat to see that the paint pens were 2 for $5! the sale was to start today, but they gave me the sale price because they had signed it early... yippee for me!

i've been stressing a little over the writing on the walls at school (that sounds ominous, doesn't it?), i'm talking literally about the murals, don't worry! i am supposed to do all of the writing, and it would be miserable trying to do it all in paint with paintbrushes..hopefully these guys will do the job. at first i didn't want to use them, but i can't come up with a better solution that would be efficient. i really want to get it done before the end of the school-year.

well, today was a beautiful day to have the windows open, and chaco came in from the balcony with three leaves and took them into my room. when i asked him about it, he said he was making a nest. i lifted my eyebrows and nodded then came back into the living room. he has adhd, so as soon as he started doing something else, i picked up the leaves and threw them away...he'll forget all about it.

off to finish laundry,
julie

going out for bananas...as opposed to going bananas...

i swung by bed bath and beyond on the way home to get some comfy towels and a wedding gift (the wedding isn't until may 5th, but hey, better early than late, right?)...i'm so excited about new towels that i kinda' want to take a shower right now!

 i warmed up the spicy green chicken chili for dinner. i made a batch last night and it is quite spicy (even after leaving out 2 of the poblano peppers! whew!) but it's the kind of spicy that makes you want just a little more!

it mostly makes me happy because i made so much and i don't have to make dinner now.

 i didn't have dessert, but i found a recipe on my friend's blog ...it looks so good! and it seems so easy, i cannot wait to try it!

Ingredients:
Frozen Bananas (approx 1 cup)
Coconut Milk (approx 1/2 cup)
Cinnamon & Nutmeg to taste

pop it all in a blender and eat. (doesn't that sound delicious??!)
 (so i'll probably be heading out for some bananas in a moment)...

 --------next day---------
today i woke up, and my back is killing me once again, so i'm going to have to try to get in touch with a doctor that some friends have used and see if i can't get this taken care of! boo. but i went out in search of a dress to wear for the wedding; saw some cute ones, but i wasn't 'in love' with any of them (perhaps because i was wearing tennis shoes, and it just looked funny...) so i will try again on another day.

i was under the impression that we were going to receive an email from the teaching trust on thursday (the one that already passed), and obviously that was a falsity...i just figured i would receive it on friday..the new thursday. but that didn't happen either, and another gal who went through the same process called and they told her they were mailing out the responses...prolonging the waiting even further.

ok, i'm off to buy bananas!
julie

today i was yoda. tomorrow i might be chewbacca...deal with it.

so...yesterday i had my follow-up interview. i left school right after my last kiddo was picked up and drove down so that i could locate the correct building, as it was not on campus. i ended up locating the place with no problem (besides the fact that i was about an hour early; punctuality is one thing, over-extending their hospitality might be a little on the unacceptable side). so i went to a nearby tom thumb to get some small non-perishables.

while there, i really had to use the restroom-hate public restrooms...when i walked in, there was someone in a stall and the door was about two inches open, then i saw a hand reach down and grab the bottom of the door to pull it shut (thank goodness), so i proceeded to the last stall. while there, it sounded like the lady was giving birth (very vocal), then it sounded like it progressed to a wrestling match....and she was talking to herself. i heard the flush and washing of hands and i thought it was safe to come out to avoid the awkward moment of meeting this person...but no. she was still there when i walked out. it was a store employee. friendliest thing. she was smilin', said hello, asked how my day was, kept talking all the way out the door. hmm.

 while i was there, i purchased this tea, thinking it was a type of green tea (the title was a bit deceiving)...i saw that it had senna, but thought, surely it's not going to have any effect. well, i drank it around 8p.m. and by 4 or 5 a.m. my stomach was hurting when i woke up i realized that indeed those china-folk of old knew their herbal plants and medicines! in fact, i think perhaps the lady i met at tom thumb had drunk something similar!

it's herbal, not green

yep..it works

once i left, i headed back to the smu building. i went inside and found my room. i was still a little early. anyhoo, after i did my thing, i left still feeling uncertain about the results. at this point i have a reason to feel this way. i honestly have no idea which way this will go.

on the way home i stopped at walmart to get my perishable items. i also got doublemint so that i could celebrate grandma today.

i also found a couple of cool cups to use at school...they will work perfectly-

this is for days when i am feeling wise and on the ball.

you can imagine how i'm feeling on the days i use this one.

 so when i got home, i took a few minutes to chop up my greens. i LOVE it when veggies are pre-washed!

i have a student teacher now, and today was her first day. the interesting thing is that when we were talking during specials, i mentioned the class i'd just had, and she said, they're crazy...and not in a good way. (...even she noticed).

tomorrow we continue our poem project for  dancing in the wings.

goodnight!
julie

grandma memories...the best kinds!

i got a call 5 days ago from my mom telling me that my grandma (dad's side) had passed away. they live in michigan and i wish that i could go to the funeral, but it is on tuesday and i have a final interview with smu about getting into the master's program on monday evening. plus, i don't have the funds right now either. but i know that she would want me to get into school again.

so, here's to grandma.

grandpa and grandma anderson

my grandma anderson paid for my brother and me to go up to visit during our summers. when we lived in HONDURAS, they paid for us to come back and hang out. we have cousins our age there, so we always had a great time playing with them and going to their church camp (i loved church camp! capture the flag, snacks, swimming in the  river stream, mitch-who i had a crush on). my grandparents lived on a lake and they had a pontoon and a small speed boat for us to go water skiing. good times. grandma would always get a little nervous when we were out on the water because she's not a swimmer.

my grandma was very competitive, and i remember one visit when my parents were in town with us and we were playing boggle. being a word person, i kept winning. my grandma is very competitive, so when she finally won a round, she ran into the living room to let everyone in the other room know that she had won.

my grandma worked at kelloggs until she retired. that is where she met my grandpa (my dad's step-dad; his father died in a railroad accident), so when we were young, we got to take a tour of the plant she worked at in battle creek, and i remember we got a tony the tiger kite at the end of the tour.

grandma anderson was very generous. she always sent money on our birthdays (and there are 11 grandkids). one Christmas back in the early 80's when microwaves were a novelty, she bought one for my aunt, uncle and dad when we were all up for the holidays. you may remember that the first ones were rather large...but it was pretty special! one year she and grandpa took 3 of my cousins, my brother and me to disney world (we drove down in the van)...it was a blast! we also went to sea world and epcot center. it was amazing. whenever we went on roadtrips, my grandma made special bingo cards and whoever got a bingo would get quarters for every match-she made it fun. we always stopped at mcdonald's for coffee, and we often stopped at bob evan's for breakfast, lunch or dinner.

my grandma got all of the kids a set of silverware when they got married, but about 12 years ago, she told me to pick out a set, because she didn't know if she'd still be around by the time i ever got married. she did the same thing with my cousin dell. i think she was trying to guilt us into getting married. no dice.

grandma loved games. she would play uno, rack-o, phase 10, dominoes, pretty much any card game.

when we went up over the summers, we were usually there for the 4th of july, and we 'got' to go to red-cross swim lessons. one year i remember my cousin pointing out a floatie...i wasn't sure what she was talking about until i got a little closer and realized that someone had taken a dump in the lake. ew. we were splashing that thing as far and furiously as we could!

grandma and grandpa always went to great lengths to make it to special events-david's wedding, my college graduation, etc.

grandma was an excellent cook and baked as well.

the smell that reminds me most of grandma is doublemint gum. the cars ALWAYS smelled like her gum! which is a pleasant smell compared to what it could smell like!

grandma when abbie was a baby

thankfully grandma lived long enough to enjoy several great grandchildren. she developed alzheimers over the last few years and she was beginning to not recognize dad. she remembered david and i as kids.

grandma was a beautiful, generous, God-fearing lady, and I know she rests in peace. I also know that because Jesus rose again on EASTER, my grandma enjoys paradise!

julie

homemade barbells and poison ivy awareness

yesterday was kind of a freebie-i am so glad that we had no snow days because i really needed yesterday off! (even if i did spend a good chunk of it painting murals...a-gain). i don't know if we'll finish before summer. oh well, i got texas, the u.s. and the continents started-need a few more details. i also finished the watermelon shell in the cafeteria because i was working with greens.

 today i woke up at 7 and had to get up because otherwise i would have been laying awake trying to sleep for a few more minutes...so i did it. i got up and chaco said, "'bout time!" and we had a delicious apple, raisin, cinnamon and granola breakfast. well, i did...the boys had the usual.

for lunch i had a recipe i wanted to try out, and not gonna' lie, it was delicious! it was a chicken stir fried rice-wow! and then i decided i needed to work out, but i had no desire to go to the gym (i didn't even know if it would be open). so i made my own barbell because today's workout was deadlifts and squat jumps.

yes, as a matter of fact, those are cement blocks...so?

it was good-got my heart rate up!

yesterday the boys and i took a walk on the back trail, and i had to keep the boys on the sidewalk because they kept wanting to get close to the bushes. normally that wouldn't bother me, in fact i took them over by one to enjoy the smell of the honeysuckle, which is out now.

i've mentioned it before, i've loved the smell ever since my friend, laura, introduced me to the flower!

 but the enjoyment of our visit to the bushes and flowers was short-lived because this was at the foot of the honeysuckle bush.

poison ivy is of the devil.

i am so glad that i hung out with hank at kamp-he taught us how to identify poison ivy. that is truly a need-to-know for everyone! yes, dogs can get rash too (if they are allergic, they can have anaphylactic reactions as well) so, we'll be keeping our eyes open when we go walking from now on!

poison ivy scares me because i have had a couple of friends at kamp who have suffered from terrible rashes all over their bodies in the wretched summer heat of the ozarks! to the extent of needing to take steroids to get better. they were legitimately miserable. and i learned a couple of things about it. you can get it without touching it if you are too close to it because the oils can brush off on your clothes and can transfer to your skin if you touch it. also, just because you don't get a rash on the first contact, doesn't mean you are forever immune...you can still develop allergic reactions.

i was going to watch passion of the Christ tonight, but it isn't on until 10 p.m., so i will be recording it and watching it tomorrow. i don't watch it every year, but i did go to the opening back when i lived in des moines. i went with a dear friend i worked with, but we got there a little late and there weren't two seats together..boo. that's the worst! it is necessary to be reminded of the sacrifice that Christ made on the cross; i think in the society we live in, i take it for granted.

exceedingly thankful for the imputation of righteousness that Christ has bestowed upon undeserving me
 blessings,
 julie

possessive apostrophes have nothing to do with demons.

today i got through possessive apostrophes and rhyming couplets in poetry...of course in each class when i asked what it meant to possess something, i had a handful of students who said it was like a demon or evil spirit living in your body. so they are going to have a view of apostrophes as monsters...i corrected that mentality, and hopefully they will begin to get it, because before they were putting apostrophes in to make things plural...they didn't quite get the concept.

when planning period rolled around, we met with the smartboard lady, but we didn't get to hear what she had to say because we were interrupted by a tornado drill. only it wasn't a drill, it was the real thing. oh the power of wishful thinking. i was wishing earlier this morning that we didn't have tutoring in the afternoon. it was a vision for sore eyes to see parents arriving to pick up their students!

i'm guessing our kids hate these drills as much as we do! (especially when they last for an hour!)

 when i was at school, i was praying that the boys were alright. i wish i could train them to put on puppy helmets and crawl into their crate with a pillow or two to wait out the storm! on the way home, i couldn't help but be slightly nervous about the cranes in the construction right beside my complex! those things are huge and i agree with mandie, i wouldn't be surprised if a tornado knocked one of those over it would probably fall on and crush one of our buildings (kind of like the huge boulders catapulted in LOTR).

two of them, they are huge and right on the other side of the property line!

i'm glad we're out of the red-hopefully there will be no more nasty weather tonight! i do NOT want a midnight surprise.

julie

poetry from the empty rolls...

it was pleasant going in to school today and knowing that we could focus on something a little different-today i got to introduce my students to poetry (not that they haven't seen poetry before, but it was fun to remind them where all they have seen it).

when i got back to the apartment, i had to go in and ask how to get into the indoor half basketball court (in the years that i have been here, i have never used it). so i went in to sign out a key and in the process told on of the gals that i was "going in to do lines..." and mandie (sp?) looked at me and said, "you can't say that around just anyone and not get some crazy looks." i thought about it for a minute...no! line sprints..not like lines of cocaine! not gonna lie, haven't done sprints in awhile (or any type of running), so it was good for me...probably not as fast as i should've been. in fact, ever had those weird dreams where you are trying to run so fast and you get the doinkety doink sounds like scooby doo when their feet are moving in windmill like circles but they aren't moving anywhere?

oh, and p.s. when i stopped in the bathroom to change, i decided it would be good to use the restroom...

i HATE it when this happens and i don't notice it until it's just a little too late!

the only thing that redeems a moment like this is looking back and noticing that there is flushable paper-poor substitute, but when you're desperate...

 sometimes after you sit on the porcelain bowl

you empty your bladder then look at the roll

no paper, it's empty, yep, there's nothing there

so now i have to wait and dry by air...

surely there's something else that will do

wait, look behind you, oh, is that empty too?

no! it's hard to see, but there's the flushable liner!

just pull one out and don't be a whiner.

only one moral to this little plot:

do whatcha can with whatcha got.

so i decided to write a quick poem about it which i will probably not never be able to share with my students during this poetry unit ever! in fact, sorry you had to suffer through it...

although a royal flush may make a poker player giddy...flushable liners made me feel like today's winner.
julie