Lesson learned...

Never sit down on the job! No, really...I'm not joking! Our kids have a Special Olympics track meet coming up, so we were working with them outside today (which was a lovely day, might I add?). The kids were doing long jump, and practicing landing with two feet. (It's much harder than it sounds.) Anyways, I was off to the side with one of my kids in a wheelchair who was not participating. I rolled him over to the pole vault mat and tried to sit on the edge of the mat. Except apparently it's been raining a lot, when no one was watching, because as I started to sink into the mat, it INSTANTLY formed a big puddle around my 'seat.' I had a long sleeve shirt on, and the wrists of both sleeves were so soaked they were dripping. My jeans and undies were saturated too. It all happened so quickly. The water was freezing, and I was so shocked, but my students were laughing so hard, it was ALMOST worth it. Luckily I had some workout clothes with me at school, so I was able to change after we went inside. It was one of those "laugh-so-you-don't-cry" moments. :)

You are the thunder, and I am the lightning...

There is a huge storm going on outside at this moment. I can see lightening and hear thunder, which reminded me of a song I am in LOVE with. If I had a tween, I would definitely encourage her to be a fan of this sweet wholesome girl Selena Gomez (who happens to be from Grand Prairie, home of my bestie Ramsi). Well, I am a big fan of hers. I mean, look how adorable she is:


How you choose to express yourself
It's all your own, and I can tell
It comes naturally. It comes naturally

You follow what you feel inside
It's intuitive, you don't have to try
It comes naturally, mmmm it comes naturally

And it takes my breath away

You are the thunder and I am the lightning
And I love the way you know who you are
And to me it's exciting
When you know it's meant to be
Everything comes naturally, it comes naturally
When you're with me, baby

Everything comes naturally, it comes naturally
Bay bay baby

You have a way of moving me
A force of nature, your energy
It comes naturally (You know it does)
It comes naturally (mmm yeah)

And it takes my breath away (Everytime)
What you do, so naturally

You are the thunder and I am the lightning
And I love the way you know who you are
And to me it's exciting
When you know it's meant to be
Everything comes naturally, it comes naturally
When you're with me, baby

Everything comes naturally, it comes naturally
Bay-bay-bay-baby

When we collide, sparks fly
When you look in my eyes,
it takes my breath away

You are the thunder and I am the lightning
And I love the way you know who you are
And to me it's exciting
When you know it's meant to be
Everything comes naturally, it comes naturally
When you're with me, baby

Everything comes naturally, it comes naturally
Bay bay baby

PS-Selena Gomez also has a movie coming out this summer and it's based on the Ramona Quimby books written by my favorite childhood author, Beverly Cleary! Check out the trailer for Ramona and Beezus!!!

New Journal...

It might not be interesting to anyone besides myself, but if you want to read about my new workout plan, head over to my new website. I just updated it. It's actually a Shutterfly share site that has some cool features. I am using it to share our thoughts and planning for our trip to Espana. When we get back, I will post all the pics on that site also. Enjoy.

Julia Ebert (or should I be Julia Siskel?)

Since I started out the week off sick, we rented several movies to pass the time at the house. Here are my thoughts on them-
The Hurt Locker-Very suspenseful. It was a war movie, but it was different than other war movies I've seen. I would definitely recommend it. We both enjoyed it alot. (Funny side note-one of the main characters was played by the same actor who played Papa Doc in 8 Mile, and Tupac Shakur in Notorious, so I kept waiting for him to start rapping, haha!!)
Law Abiding Citizen-I remembered twenty minutes into the movie why I didn't see it in the theater...I didn't want to! This movie was a bit disturbing and unsettling.

Love Happens-I am not the biggest Jennifer Aniston fan on the block, but I really really liked this movie. I do like Aaron Eckhart a lot, and from the side, he kindof reminds me of my cousin Matt! Zac loved that it took place in Seattle, and pointed out every time they showed something we'd seen or visited last spring break. I wouldn't even call this a romantic comedy, because the funny parts were very subtle and rare. I'd probably call it a drama, but it was neat. Touching. And awesome soundtrack. I loved every song that played throughout the film!
Precious-I didn't know if I could make it through the movie. This felt very "close to home" because of my own students' experiences, but I am glad I watched it. Like The Blind Side, this movie shows how ONE person can make a huge impact and difference in the outcome of a person's life. Very powerful movie. And Monique deserved that Oscar...wow!
We went to the theater last night to see:
Brooklyn's Finest-Ugh...where do I begin? This movie was long and a little slow at the beginning (Zac threatened to go into "Jules at Shutter Island" mode, haha) but when it picked up, MAN I WAS HOOKED! Actually I was always hooked, it's the people I was with who thought it was long and slow. I guess I have to say that it was an amazing movie since it provoked SO...MUCH...EMOTION from me. Whether that be happy emotion or upset emotion, I won't say. I don't want to give anything away, but put it this way...I felt VERY strongly when I left the movie, and I've not been able to quit thinking about the film since. I might or might not have agreed with the ending, but either way it was a powerful movie, and cleverly made. Ramsi said it was "like The Departed, but in Brooklyn, in the projects, without Jack Nicholson." **If any of you have seen this movie, or go to see it, please let me know so I can talk openly with you about it. Uhhh...so much to say!!!!!!!

Slow Motion

Work has been pretty exhausting lately due to the fact that lots of my students have horrid home lives, which eats me up. I think about them 24/7 and haven't even been sleeping well lately because I feel so burdened with all this. It's just not fair, and the worst part is that the system is faulty, so even when the correct people are notified, nothing changes. It's tragic. We just love on them as much as we can while they are with us, and then pray for them when they get on that bus in the afternoon. It's heart breaking. Needless to say, I am so pumped for Spring Break and I'm ready for the fun and stress-free activities. We aren't doing anything near as cool as we did last year, but we do have some good local stuff planned...
Saturday-going out to eat and downtown (Ft. Worth) with a big group of friends. FUN!!!
Sunday-headed to Ray Roberts Lake State Park to meet my cousins and Uncle for a day of nature and relaxing.
Zac has track practice each morning Monday-Wednesday, but I plan on sleeping late! ;)
Tuesday night we are taking the distance runners (the athletes Zac coaches) out to eat and to bowl. It will be lots of fun and the kids have already been asking about it.
Thursday night Liz, Andy, Madeline and Owen will arrive to stay for the weekend. We are going to hang out and have fun around here Friday, and then Saturday the McKinney cousins and their families are coming down for the day. Yay!
Anyways, doesn't sound like much, but I know the week will FLY by!!

Three months from today...

our plane will be landing in Spain. Wow! I can't wait!! In the meantime, to hold me over AND get me ready, I just ordered these two books:

When Stacy and I went to New York, she sent me the Eyewitness Travel guide to NYC and I loved loved loved the way it was broken up...very easy to manuever and read. Some travel guides skip around and some are just organized kinda weird, but I personally love the way the eyewitness books flow. (Does that sound weird?) Anyways, I can't wait to start reading all about where we are going, and get some new ideas on places to visit and things to see and food to try. Yippee!
The best part? I had a $30 Barnes and Noble gift card left over from graduation, so I didn't even have to pay for them! I ordered them about an hour ago, and already received an email that they are ready to be shipped, and will arrive on 3/11, which is Thursday. Wow right? I'm impressed that free shipping could be so speedy! :)
I desperately need to brush up on my Spanish. I used to be fluent (I'm not joking...it was my minor, I took Spanish Lit. classes and used to read, think and even do math in Spanish in my head) but I have not used it in years, and I have lost soo much. I didn't even know you could lose a language by not using it for years. (it's probably been about 5-6 years since I used it regularly) It is so frustrating, but I'm hoping that since I have a past with it and a good foundation it will come back easily. Gosh, I hope so! Today I started speaking to a few of our custodians in Spanish about our upcoming trip and found myself a little flustered and insecure about my speech, and I never used to be that way. I was so annoyed with myself. Oh well...be positive Jules. I'm going to start listening to Univision in the mornings as I get ready for work (instead of music) so that I can get used to hearing, keeping up with, and understanding the language again. I mean really...I don't mean to sound whiny, but it is so aggravating to be fluent in a language at one point, and then find yourself struggling to converse in it just a few years later. Ugh!! I'll let you know how it goes. Zac has requested a copy of Rosetta Stone to learn Espanol, but I'm not sure when he'll get it, or if he'll actually listen. I hope he's not relying on me too much, because at this point I feel like I know less than I did in middle school. Hopefully practice will get me back. Okay, I can tell I'm getting redundant and mopey, so I'm going to close.
Wish me luck! And if you want to say it in Spanish, say ¡buena suerte!