bachert martinez wedding

Lions, tigers, and bears....

On Friday we took a "family trip" to the Cincinnati Zoo.  Did y'all know that the Cincy Zoo is the second oldest zoo in the country?  It is a historical landmark- so cool!  Of course, it was too big to see every exhibit we wanted to, but we did see some great ones.  In the children's area, Julia wanted to feed the animals but didn't like the way it felt to hold the kibble or the way the animals eating it from her hands felt.  She seems to really dislike "dirty" things on her hands.  She does this cute little shake of her hand(s) when she dislikes something she has touched.

Here are some of our pics!

Something's Cookin!

Julia and I have been cookin up a storm!  Here are some pics of our recent baking activities.  We made a YUMMY cake for Jeremy (Father's Day).  It was from the Best of Southern Living Dessert cookbook, so you KNOW it was fantastic!  The cake batter actually had candy bars melted into it!  Woot woot!

We also made "Gramma Cookies" today.  I wanted to teach her how to make some of my favorite cookies my Gramma used to make, and taught me to bake. My favorite Gramma cookies are the ginger snaps.  And, for those of you who have been around when there are ginger snaps available, I can be kinda stingy!  LOL  Here are the pics of our progress.  Julia wanted to make two huge ones with the last of the batter.  Aaron, we are HOPING to bring some to you since you <3 them too!  Keep your fingers crossed that some last until next week!  LOL

Craft time during our stay-cation

Check out some of our crafts during Julia's staycation with us!  These are bowls we made by melting colored plastics.  She had so much fun making these into various shapes, colors, and sizes!  These are actually BOWLS.  You melt the tiny pieces in a pie pan, then you take the disk out and put it on a piece of foil laid on top of a cylinder and cook it some more.  It melts against the foil and creates these cool bowls.

Today, Julia is finishing her stepping stone mosaic we gave her for her birthday.  She is experiencing some frustration as a result of the color choices in the paints.  She wants red and there is no red.  She wants black and there is no black.  Time to get creative!  LOL

She will be able to place the stepping stone at her mom's new house!  Exciting stuff!

A girl after my own heart!

Julia and I enjoyed our outings today- boy did she wear me out!  The best part of the day was when I took her into the local Sephora and she gasped, "Ohhh, look at this place!"  Now THAT is a girl after my own heart.  Many of you know that I call Sephora my "mecca".  I LOVE that place!  It is my favorite playground- LOL.  Today, Julia tried on many eye shadows, sparkling dusts, lip glosses, nail polishes, and perfumes.  Thankfully, she did wash up between or we would have really looked and smelled funny as we continued our shopping experience into Journeyz for Kidz!  Here is are a couple of pics of "my girl"!



Would you look at that eye make-up?  She saw the design on an advert for sparkle liners ( we must have tried on every glitter eye liner in the joint) and then we asked one of the make up artists to do it for her.  The make up person was a guy done up in full glam!  And, did I mention it was 80's day in the store?  Everyone was there: Boy George (our kind helper), Olivia Newton John, George Michael, and even one of the Heart sister singers.  What a sight!  LOL

Julia also introduced me to her shoe preferences.  I am not sure I will want to do that again any time soon.  Thanks Mom, by the way, for all the times you took me shoe shopping!  I had no idea!!

And so it begins

You can see how much we have accomplished in such a short time.  This is our living room and we are REALLY enjoying the space!  Jeremy has worked so hard to get things moved, put in storage and thrown out.  For those of you with nothing to compare this picture with, let me say that where you see the windows here there were comic book shelves in practically this exact space just one short week ago!

Saturday starts "Camp Julia" and our "stay-cation".  Julia will be with me and Jeremy for a week!  I am so excited but I also have done a lot of mental planning!  One of the things that we (insert I/ME) really wanted to make sure of was that Julia didn't see this as a vacation for her to be entertained during.  Rather, we wanted to make sure she had some sort of schedule so that he and I could make sure we are able to continue with our "to-do's".

What I came up with was a list of: chores, crafts, outings, and cooking items.  Jeremy and I wrote them out each on their own color coded sticky note and Julia will be able to place her choices on the specific day she wants to do them.  She has to have at least one chore per day until all of them are done, and she may not have more than one cooking or craft activity on any given day.  We have also planned some "Daddy and Me" times along with "Alison and Me" times, plus we have some family time planned which includes a day-trip that Jeremy is planning!  I am really excited about this and hope my "glasses" aren't too rosey!

I am also getting in the swing of my new job, Academic Dean.  Each time I meet or talk with staff members, I gain a clearer understanding of what I will be doing.  Something that really struck me today during the leadership meeting we had was that the school has some significant mistrusts between the campus, faculty, district, and neighborhood.  The school was once known for not only poor academic performance, but also poor professional performance and it seems that much of those stigmas have left quite a negative scar among these groups.  Having had some experience with this in the past, I hope that I will be able to demonstrate (mostly to myself) how I have grown from those past experiences and bring some helpful perspective.

Next week, the leadership team will meet again AND, I will take my exam for certification here in KY as a qualified administrator.  Wish me luck!

A day in the life of Stella

Stella seems to really be enjoying the new bed.  I have found her sprawled out numerous times.  But, the funniest thing is how she likes to lay at the head of it between me and Jeremy.  She is putting her head on my pillow and her tail across Jeremy's FACE!  I laughed at her and she started wagging her tail which amounts to a "whap whap whap" across Jeremy's face!  She even threw a leg on him for better comfort!  What a girl!

She is having some difficulties with the time change I think because she keeps asking for her meals at the wrong time.  Dinner is especially difficult around here.  She starts hounding us for dinner around 4.  Her dinner time is 5PM.  Jeremy is so funny about it; he will look at the clock, and tell Stella how much longer.  A while back, the vet told me to tell her "15 more minutes" or whatever the case may be.  So, Jeremy is trying that out!  The funny thing is that every time he tells her how much longer she seems to respond more loudly!  We actually caught her LOOKING at the clock today!

I want to be Stella when I grow up!  LOL