what could be in that package???

Well, folks... It's been a while since I've posted since school's been out.  Let me clarify myself...  I started the first unofficial day of Summer Vacation with the beginnings of a summer cold!  SUCK!  You see, I had a very important role in the Graduation ceremony.  As Lollie T. (our visual arts coordinator) is the official name reader during the graduation ceremony, It is my duty as Lollie 2.0 (thanks, Luis for coining this term for me) to be the hand shaker/hugger representative for the visual arts cluster for all the 180 graduating seniors, on stage...  with the other three cluster coordinators.  During the ceremony, I think to myself, geez, you really need to wash your hands before you leave.  The ceremony ends, I turn in my regalia, grab my shit, and book for the door.  My feet hurt, it's late, and I wanna get home to my Mikey.  I get lost finding my car in the bowels of the symphony center... finally find my car, and head home.  We have had a nice night.  Some drinks, some dinner, go to bed... I DIDN'T WASH MY HANDS!!!!

I realize this two days later when I wake up with a tightness in my throat and a dry cough.  UGH.  Summer colds suck!  This was last Friday, our last day of school.  I go to the school's breakfast at Luby's where they give out funny awards and yearly service awards ( I got the 'Jeff Liston dealing' award and have now served at Arts Magnet for a full 14 years!), then head to school where I snapped the following pictures.

So... I've had this cold for the past week, dear Mother and dear Sister are coming to town next weekend, and Mikey wants me to finish the guest room, which was part of the deal when I agreed to turn Mikey man cave #2 to Paigey studio #1.  I have to move my shit out of the 'guest room', clean it out, paint it, etc... More to come on that later.  Long story long...  I've been trying to get this done while dealing with a lingering, not to severe but still there cold.  More on this later... Just sayin' where I've been lately...

SO... Back to the pictures.

So, I'm leaving school with all my summer crap... ready to get summer vacation on... and I see this.

I take a double take and turn around for a better photo... Really?  What in the wall eyed world could this be in a school???  Really?? They're bringing Roses to school faculty?  I never got any! (note taken)

Wait a minute...  Craft bi fold?  Wait a minute, could not be real roses...

NO!  It's friggin' toilet paper, disquised as ROSES!  I don't know about you, but my shit don't smell like roses!  Doesn't matter what the package says or what fancy kind of toilet paper you have, not gonna change things, IN THE LEAST!  Just ask my dear husband!  WOO!  Stay clear, grab some matches, and leave the door closed for at least 30 minutes!

Happy Sunday, Y'all... I'll have more on the guest room re-model soon!
-P

it's summertime! WOOT!

Well... summer vacation just snuck up on me this year... I mean really, really snuck up on me.  I'm still expecting the temps to be in the 70's and I've got a big week next week... but NO!  It's over.  School's out.  It really didn't process until I got home after our faculty breakfast today and proceed to finish the second book of the Hunger Games trilogy!  I'm like... wow... I'm done... wait, really?  So, I got in the pool to read and started watering our plants 'cause the rain faucet is probably turned off for the summer and the temp is in the upper 90's... like almost a 100 degrees... It's starting.  But as I was sayin, with school being so 'on!' all year, it FLEW by!  

So, Before I was done with school, I got my friend, Cassie, to help me again with the video program on my MacBook Air, iMovie.  I'm not so good at it right now, so I'll be practicing.  I've got a video of Gabey talking to Liz and I when I went to see her last month.  It's a little low on the volume aspect so you might need to stick your ear on the speaker to hear him... or it might not even come up, in which case, please let me know!  I'm learning here, y'all!

Happy June!
-P

visit with gabey

Last weekend, I went to visit my sister, Liz and her beautiful son, my nephew, Gabey.  It was a fun 24 hour turn around... and I have pics for you to enjoy!

Here is a picture of the 'Gallant Fox Vinyard'.  Liz is growing grapes!  They are so beautiful and bountiful!  Way to go, Liz! 

And... they have just recently added chickens to the mix!  I can't remember their names but they are some kind of blue lace thingie.

Here's a close up of the grapes.  Beautiful!

...and some patty pan squash!  WOW!

Here's her corn.

...AND... Her horse, ZOE, has just moved in this spring!  She is healing well from the fence wound she had when Liz went to bring her home from East Texas.  She's such a pretty and sweet horse!

Here is a good shot of her new home!  Liz and Charley did such a good job with the shed/barn and fenced area!  She seems really happy (how does one really know if horses are happy?  She seemed it though...).

So... When I got to Austin, it was early afternoon, which quickly turned to early evening, with us going and buying swim suits and planning on going to Perdnales Falls.  We decided to forgo the adventure and come home to blow up the kiddy pool for Gabey to splash in.  Here is Liz blowing up the pool.  It is a way fancy kiddy pool, by the way!

And here is Gabey playing in the water!  'water... water... water...'.  He's a talker!  For sure!

Yeah, that's our water boy... can't wait for him to come to our house and play in BIG WATER!  YAY!

He's really wet from splashing in the water!  Actually, one of his favorite games is splashing in the doggie water bowl!  Not our favorite thing for him to do though!

Nose kisses!  Sweet!

So, I got a few pictures of him eating.  He likes his kibble!
This is dinner!

And... This is breakfast!

And, here he is in the car... can't help myself 'cause he's so cute!

I'm in love!  I can't wait to see him again!

I've got a really good video of him talking... I've got to format it for the blog so it should be coming soon!

-P

dark skies bring out pranksters

We had some weather last week.  It mostly consisted of some pretty good thunder storms and a really good rain, which we need, badly!  Around 2 - 2:30 the skies started turning really omnious.

It was an 'A' day, which means I teach straight through, with a senior only class from 1:20 to 2:45.  So, my zany seniors were in class as the skies darkened.  As the skies darkened and started to swirl, I went out the back door to check it out.  (our classrooms back up to an outdoor work area then to the faculty parking lot, facing north to uptown)

So I took these pictures...

This is my view towards uptown.  From my classroom.  Look at those clouds!  They were swirling!  Awesome (since nothing got damaged).

Then this happened...

While getting the iCamera ready for action (activating the 'zoom' feature, which isn't really easy to do)  the kids were hovering around me.  Dylan kept trying to get in the picture and I annoyingly gave him the stink eye.  As I focused the camera and took the picture, he timed his jump into my picture frame at the exact time to capture this:

AHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!

WOOT!!!!!

Ha Ha HAA!

Seindfeld last weekend

We went to see Jerry Seindfeld last Saturday night.  I would have blogged about this earlier this week, however I've worked hard this week with three days staying at school past 7pm.  Seeing that I leave the house at 6:30 am every day, I just couldn't do it...

So, yeah, we went to Seindfeld.  I got tickets months ago.  I got a special pass to buy the tickets early 'cause I'm a member of the AT&T PAC (Performing Arts Center) and they sent out a special offer for said members before the tickets went on sale.  It was a sold out house!  We bought two extra tickets so we could take some friends with us.  The idea was that we would take the train to the early show, then go out to Deep Ellum or Exposition Park (via the train) and have a date night, then take a taxi home.  Safe night out for us!  

Here are Mike and I on the train!  Good times!

Here are Gregg and Kelly on the train with us!  I'm so glad they decided to join us for this fun adventure!  They are such good friends to us!

Here are some pics I took of the AT&T PAC as we walked to the Windspear Opera House where the event was!  The first picture is a car.  It's right in front of the marquis.  The second picture is the Wyly Performing center.  By the way, The AT&T PAC is right. next. door. to where I work, the Booker T. Washington High School for the Performing and Visual Arts!  I see this place every day!  It's awesome!  I just love the Dallas' Arts District!  Ok... I'll shut up now...

OK...So, the show was wonderfully Seindfeld!  Everything you could imagine a Jerry show to be!  He's so funny!  The people watching was good and the show better!  After the show I took some pics of the Windspear...

It's so pretty!  We see this from our courtyard from school!
Actually not this perspective though... 'Cause I took this in front of the venue.

Here's a shot of Gregg, Kelly and I.

Here's Ms Kelly!

What a beautiful building!

Ok... So now we've made our way to the train station to go to Exposition park to meet Eric and Chantel at New Amsterdam.  Here, we're waiting for the train.

And... Here we have Kelly and I.  At New Amsterdam... Hanging out.  Good times!

Happy Weekend y'all!

on a walk today

I had to stay after school today for a bit... to let my students finish their AP portfolios.

Upon coming home around 6:30, Mikey suggests we take the dogs for a walk.  It sounds like a great idea, the weather is perfect, sunny skies, and a walk sounds great.

When Mikey takes the dogs for a walk, He always takes the little blue shit bags plus he puts recycled grocery bags in his pockets to put the little blue shit bags in.  We have 'invented' a new way of carrying dog shit home while walking the dogs.  We tie the shit bags onto the dog leash so we don't have to carry said shit bags.  Mikey likes to put the little blue shit bags into a larger recycled grocery bag.  Like anyone is going to wonder what is in the bag...   I can hear them, "Oh I wonder what could be in that grocery bag?  Are they coming home from 7-11 with taquitos?  Maybe some sundries from CVS??  What could that dog be carrying in a plastic bag tied to a leash???  What a mystery??"

So, today, we take the dogs for a walk.  (by the way, our dogs don't know the word for 'walk', however when Mikey gets the recycled bags, the dogs know it's time, TIME! ... and they come a runnin'!)

While on said walk, the dogs do what dogs do while on walks... shit.  Ruby first, so I do the Mikey way of carrying shit home.  We've got Ruby poo in a blue bag then in a recycled grocery bag.  Then Luke does his business on top of a bush (which is his preferred shitting place, on TOP of shrubbery!).  So I tie up both piles in the recycled bag and tie it to Ruby's leash.  So hear's the deal, the bag of shit is maybe 4 inches off the ground while we're walking.  I finagled it so that the recycled bag is on Ruby's back and the poo is hanging off like saddle bags.  It's working like a charm.  She is not fazed At. The. Least!  Then, a car drives by, slows down, and honks at us, with the two guys in the car are bwaaa haaa haa'ing at us, as I bwaa haa haa!  OMG!  Too funny.

I just wish I'd brought my camera phone to capture this funny sight for all of my million blog readers!

Happy dog walking, y'all!
-P

humming bird feeders!!

I recently set up our hummingbird feeder.  Actually I set up our original feeder in late March and had hummingbirds within minutes... Like a ton of hummingbirds!  So, Mike and I decided to place a second feeder in our yard to calm the hummingbird fighting that ensues when hummingbirds are feeding.


Here is the new hummingbird feeder we bought!

It's pretty and glass!

And has an easy clean bottom feature!  Bonus!

This is what you need to make hummingbird food:

It consists of a ratio of 4 parts water to one part sugar.  For example, you could use one cup of water to 1/4 cup of sugar, or four cups water to one cup of sugar (which is what I used for this recipe).  (notice Mike in the background)

You need to use hot water from the tap so the sugar dissolves properly.  Then you must stir, stir, stir...
You can see both of the hummingbird feeders here.

Here is the new feeder that we placed close to our patio, where the original one used to be.

Here we placed the old hummingbird feeder in the back of our lot, behind the pool.  It got immediate attention from hummingbirds!

Now. we'll see how this works.  I am working a lot during waking hours when hummingbirds are out feeding, so I don't know yet if this is a good idea.  I really like having the hummingbirds coming onto our porch to feed so I can watch them and if the other feeder is keeping them from visiting us on the porch, I'll have to re-arrange the situation... I'll keep you posted!

On a side note, it is 45 degrees right now, so I don't expect any hummingbird action 'cause they don't move around much when it's cold.

So, Go get a hummingbird feeder, make some hummingbird juice, and watch the little hummers go to town!  It's so easy and fun!

Love
P