Summer TV Watchin'

Hey Y'all!

Well, it turns out that my hunch was right and my horrible migraine was a warning for a dizzy spell. I have been on my medication since Thursday and no headache in sight! Yipppeeee! The one nasty side effect that I do get from this medicine is that my hands and feet tingle like I am constantly being poked with tiny needles. I have found that if I drink orange juice that it helps, but it is still a pain. So I haven't been able to do any crafting-but that's OK too! Zorro and I have been playing "dodge the thunderstorm" this weekend. We have had quite a few this weekend. We had a strong one last night and then a few more this afternoon. But, my grass is really green! Zorro is really missing his walks though.

So anyway! Summer is one of my favorite times to watch TV. When I was little, it used to all be re-runs, but with the invention of cable, I must say that summer TV is now my favorite thing to watch during the year. I have a few shows that I wait patiently for all during the year, and then during the summer I have to make sure my DVR is set! Here are a few that I am currently addicted to... Check them out!

My Boys on TBS. Y'all, I started watching this show last year. It is so cute and it appeals to everyone. It's basically about a girl who hangs out with a bunch of guys and they play poker. Oh, and they figure out life together too. You can catch past episodes online. This show never fails to crack me up when I need a laugh.

Burn Notice on USA. Oh. My. God. That is all I am going to say. I was reading an article in USA Today on Thursday and they compared this show to Magnum P.I. Now, if you know me, you know that Magnum is one of my favorite shows of all time. Burn Notice is right up there. There's also a little bit of MacGyver thrown in too. Season 1 is now out on DVD and Season 2 starts on July 10th. This show is about an ex-spy who is trying to figure out who "burned" him and why he is an "ex-spy." To keep himself fed and well, designer dressed, he does these odd jobs to make money. Sharon Gless from Cagney and Lacey plays the Mom and she is hysterical.

The Closer on TNT. Hello. Y'all know me. A southern belle in charge of something? LOVE THIS SHOW! I was hooked on it the moment I started watching in 2005. That year was hard, because I had to make sure my flight got me in my hotel room so I could catch "The Closer." Great show. Wonderful story lines. I can never figure out who did what. Last season wasn't as good, but I still enjoyed it. This year I have heard rumors on the internets about possible mean characters coming back and Brenda actually making it to the altar. The one thing I love that this show does is offer a 2 hour show in December! The new season starts July 14th and Season 3 comes out on DVD Tuesday!

Army Wives on Lifetime. I am finally all caught up on Season 1 and catching Season 2 on Sunday nights. I have blogged about this show before, and it is really good! Check it out!

Alrighty, it has stopped raining for now and my furry child wants a walk. NOW. As if to prove his point, he is tapping his paw on the floor. Seriously.

:) JKP

It Really Can't Be That Easy..............

Hey Y'all,

Headache girl here! Well, the painkillers worked for about two hours and then Mr. Headache returned. So, I have still been miserable with the ol' pain in the head. Today was my last day of the teacher academy thingie and I felt so bad that I left at lunch, came home, and snuggled with Zorro in the bed. After about 3 hours of sleeping, I kind of had a thought in my head. Albeit fuzzy, it was there. Many of you know that about two years ago I suffered from debilitating dizzy spells that ultimately spelled the end of my traveling career. These "dizzy" spells were often preceded by horrible migraines. It got me thinking. It got my mom thinking. I ran as fast as I could to my medicine cabinet and found my diuretic pills that they gave me when the dizzies got really bad. HOLY CRAP.. within an hour my head stopped hurting. I wasn't dizzy. I could FUNCTION! So needless to say, something funky is going on, but hey, as long as my head has stopped hurting, and I can take the "magic pills" I am not going to complain! I am not sure why all of this is coming back... but at least I am feeling better. We never really found out why I got the "dizzies" in the first place, but I missed the warning sign this time, mainly the horrible headache. So we shall see.

I have the next 10 days off! Tomorrow I am taking Zoe and Zorro to the doggie spa and running a few errands. Since next week is the 4th, I imagine that we will have lots of beach traffic this weekend, so I want to get home and off the road! I also added some new books to the side bar widget of "Reads From the Beach Chair." I am actually going back and reading some of the classics this summer. It has been fun to read them as an adult! I am hoping to make it to the beach this weekend to get some summer fun reading in.

I have completely caught up on the first season of Army Wives and I am now moving on to Mad Men a show that was on AMC last year. Maybe now that my head is no longer hurting, I can finally get some knitting in while I am catching up! I have been on Ravelry coveting some cute patterns! My fingers are itching for my needles, so that is a good sign! I also brought down my sewing maching tonight to do some sewing over the weekend. It sounds like my mojo and craftiness are back!! Watch out Zoe and Zorro!

Nighty Night!
:) JKP

My.Head.HURTS!!

Hey Y'all,

Sorry I took a mini blog break, but I had some things come up over the weekend. This past year, one of my students was faced with a parent who was critically ill with cancer. I was so worried all year long that I was going to get THE CALL, but luckily, we made it through the school year. However, on Thursday afternoon, I got THE CALL and ended up spending time with my student and his family over the weekend and attending the funeral. It was so heartbreaking, the dad was only 28. This was the first funeral I have been to since Joy's so it was very hard and brought back alot of sad memories. However, I knew that I had to go and be there for Austen, because when you are 8, it means something to have your teacher give you a hug on one of the worst days of your life.

I don't know if it was the stress of the funeral, or all of those memories, but I had a migrane hit me on Sunday and it has refused to leave! I think it has something to do with "The Pumpkin Incident" a week ago, (see "There's a GOOSE EGG On My Head" below) but I am not sure. I have been really dizzy and in a lot of pain. I finally took a pain pill tonight because Tylenol was not working. Although I still have my headache, the pain has eased a little, and I no longer feel like I am going to throw up. My neck and shoulders are killing me because of the way I have been holding my head. I think I will have another pain pill around 10 to see if I can't get this bugger to go away.

This week I have been working, although, not for pay! Every year my school district puts on an "academy" to showcase new things we are going to implement in our classrooms during the next school year. I went last year, and I must say last year's academy was much better. I left everyday excited about what I had seen and couldn't wait to try these new things in my classroom. Sadly, this year it is not like that. Maybe it is the killer migrane that has put a damper on it this year. However, it has been fun hanging out with my friends from school though. :)

I found a new gadget called http://www.goodreads.com/ that I am going to start using to post reads from the beach chair later on this week. I haven't been reading as much this week due to my pounding head, but I think you will like this new gadget on the blog. Hopefully it will be up on Friday.

Well, I am going to lay my head down and see if I can come up with some kind of mantra to make my head stop hurting. I got some movies from Netflix in the mail today and I have started watching Season 1 of Army Wives from Lifetime TV. Seriously, if you have not watched this show, you need to. It rocks! I kind of got hooked on it midway last year and through re-runs and I love it. I also got Definitely, Maybe and The Spiderwick Chronicles. I am actually waiting to watch Spiderwick until I finish the book. It's the stupid "Julia" rule about always reading the book BEFORE I watch the movie. I guess that is the teacher in me!!
Alrighty, please do the "Make Her Head Stop Hurting" dance for me tonight!
:) Jules

I've Lost My Mojo.....

Hey Y'all,

Well I wrapped up my technology training today and came home and straightened up my house! It so amazing when I have work stuff going on, how I just let everything slide. Mail, email, blogging, housekeeping, etc. And I'm feeling kind of blah. I know that is to be expected with all of the tummy issues that I have been having and not feeling great for a while, but this is different.
Folks, I know something is wrong when I don't want to knit. Or update my ipod. Or read knitting blogs. I can't put my finger on it, other than to say I have lost my mojo. My get up and go. My creative thinking. I am hoping this is a temporary phase and my brain freeze or brain exhaustion goes away soon. I can't spend all summer like this!
Next week I am attending a "teaching" academy think tank thing that my district is having. I went last year and I got alot out of it, but I am not looking forward to sitting for 4 days. Oh well.
My writing class starts July 7th and I am excited about that. I hope that some of my creativity comes back before then, because I am going to need it! I have been so out of it that I haven't even been writing in my Writer's Notebook that I am supposed to be keeping.

Folks, I have to find my mojo! If you see it, please send it my way!
:) JKP

HOWDY!

Hey Y'all,

Sorry I have been AWOL for a few days, but this weekend I had to hunker down and get some work done for some technology training sessions that I am doing this week. Yesterday I had two sessions and they went really well. I only have one this afternoon, my morning session was cancelled. That is fine by me, I needed to sleep late this morning! Tomorrow I have a full day of training, but they are fun sessions, so the day should fly by! I have Friday off, and except for a haircut and going to hear a band Friday night, it is a free day!

I woke up today with the doggies and it is so much cooler! You could see the relief on Zoe and Zorro's faces. It has been so hot that we have only been able to walk in the late evenings and they are not happy.

Book Reads From the Beach Chair

Here's what is being read from the beach chair this week.... I still haven't made it to the beach, hopefully on Saturday!

The Appeal by John Grisham

This is the first John Grisham book I have picked up in a while. Grisham sticks to his formula here. It's another good guy vs. bad guy story, but the interesting thing is how this one turns out. A spoiler alert: The underdog doesn't always win!

Wondrous Words by Katie Wood Ray

I am reading this (a chapter a day) for my writing class. If you are an elementary teacher you will enjoy this read about getting students comfortable with writing.

All Eyes on Her by Poonan Sharma

This was a chick lit book I picked up at the library. This one was hard to get into for me and seemed to wrap itself up way to nice at the end. If I would have done more research, I probably wouldn't have picked it up.

The Diana Chronicles by Tina Brown

I just started this last night, you now me, anything that has to do with Princess Diana I have to read! So far, so good!

The Romance Readers Book Club by Julie L. Cannon

I read about this in a review in People and happen to come across it at the library. This book takes place in Georgia, so you know I would read it! This book is about a teenager who starts a book club to basically read romance novels. So far, so good! It would be great for a book club to read and discuss!

That's about it from here! I am off to jump in the shower and get ready for my training session this afternoon!

:) JKP

Tim Russert

Hey Y'all,

As many of you are just finding out, we lost a great American today. I am so shocked and saddened by the news that we lost Tim Russert. Being the political junkie that I am, I enjoyed watching Tim grill folks on Meet the Press on Sundays and I loved watching him breakdown the election process for folks who just couldn't understand what a "super delegate" was. He was great to watch on election night because he was like a kid on Christmas Eve. I really think he helped Americans understand our democratic process and why it is so important for us to take an active part in it. I am sad that he won't get to experience our election night this year, I have a feeling it is going to be one for the record books.
I think one way we can all honor Tim and his dedication to the American democratic process is by taking time the time to vote in November. Explain to others why it is so important. We need to take the time and explain to our children why taking a role in our government's future is so important. He would have loved that.

JKP

I *HEART* VOTING!!!

As you can see, it was primary day here in South Carolina! You know me, I LOVE to VOTE! So despite the heat, I made it to the polls. Ok, really.. my polling place is right across the street from my house, so it wasn't like it posed any difficulty! Zorro was enamoured with my sticker that I got for doing my civic duty. :) Here he is doing some advertising for the Palmetto Project!

Zorro and I have really been enjoying my time off this week. I am almost recovered from my African Sleeping Sickness. This is what most teachers get at the end of school every year. I really do sleep for the first 3 days I am out of school! This morning Zorro and I slept until 10, rolled out of bed, watched Regis and Kelly and then took a shower. After that, I took a nap! It has been so hot here, that I have really been hanging around the house. My head is better, the goose egg is going down, but I am still having headaches and the heat seems to make them worse. Tomorrow I am meeting some friends for lunch and then I have to meet my professor for my writing class I am taking in July. We have to give a presentation about a writing strategy that we have used in our classroom and she wants to make sure we are gathering the right "tools." I was all nervous about this, until I learned that our little talk was going to be over frozen mocachillos at Books-A-Million. I think I am really going to LOVE my writing class!

Speaking of which, I have been doing alot of reading with my time off this week. Some of it is for my class and then some of it is for fun. So I present you with something I am going to try and do weekly this summer to share my love of reading. I'm going to call this section "Books from the Beach Chair!" Now this week obviously, was way too hot to read on the beach, but you get the picture! So here's this week's list. And yes, I have read all of these. Mostly since Saturday!

Writing Class Reads:

On Writing by Stephen King.. This book was WONDERFUL! Stephen King talks about how he became a writer, what his process is and he even talks about his painful recovery from being hit by that crazy lunatic!

Bird by Bird by Anne Lamott.. I have really enjoyed this book as well. It seems to be true that most writers are very interesting characters and good teachers too!

How to Write Your Life Story by Ralph Fletcher.. I seriously love Ralph Fletcher. I use his books in my classroom and I love the way he has written all of his books about writing. He writes for the kid in all of us!

Fun Reads:

Teach With Your Heart by Erin Gruwell...If you have seen the movie The Freedom Writers, then you know who Erin is. She has a wonderful story about how she got her kids to write in her classroom. This book was very moving for me, and I cried in a few places. Even if you are not a teacher, this book will touch you!

Not Quite a Mom by Kirsten Sawyer..I mentioned a book by this author last week, Not Quite a Bride. I enjoyed this book as much as the first one. Fun read and it didn't take a lot of brain power!

Unpredictable by Eileen Cook: I just started this one tonight, but it has my attention after the first chapter. This is a quirky story about a woman who impersonates a psychic to win back her ex... so far seems to be a great summer read!

So that is what is happening here! The doggie door is in and I am working on training Zorro. He has the whole how to come back in from outside figured out, he is just scared to push the door open to go outside. We have made progress over the past few days though. And, if you don't believe me about this being Casa de Snooze these days, check out the pic below!

Cheers and stay cool!

JKP