the simple life.

So, it had been a while since I'd seen Grammy and Papa, which is not okay. Thus, to fix that dilemma, I was going to go down and visit Papa two weeks ago. Grammy and my mom had gone to the west coast for my cousin's graduation, but Papa refused to go. He said that it would be more fun for Grammy if Mom went. Really, he just wanted to have a week all to himself. Anyway, I called him on Wednesday because I was going to go down and have dinner with him or spend the night since he'd been all alone all week. His response was:

Papa: Wellll, maybe you should just come next week when Grammy is back. I'm going to the Lion's Club for dinner on Thursday and I know Grammy would really like to see you.

Julie: Are you scared to hang out with me by yourself, Papa?

Papa: (chuckled) Yes, I'm terrified.

So, I waited a week and headed down for dinner the other night instead. When I called Grammy to tell her Mom and I were coming down to see them, she asked me if I wanted to eat dinner at the house or eat dinner out. However, we both know that Papa makes the final decision and it didn't really matter where either of us wanted to eat, because Papa likes to go to Kline's in Rosebud, MO. And that's where we went.

We all ordered the same thing: grilled catfish, green beans, a baked potato, hushpuppies and a roll. Except Papa got applesauce instead of green beans. And it was so good. Kline's makes the best rolls that I've ever tasted. Sure, that sounds like an exaggeration, but it isn't. Ask Grammy. Whenever we eat at Kline's, Grammy gets a napkin and wraps up her roll and any extra pieces of roll from other peoples' plates and takes them home. She says they make great toast in the morning. And they do. I can vouch for that.

After we ate, as if we hadn't eaten enough already, we went back to Grammy and Papa's and ate a fresh strawberry pie that Grammy made especially for us. And it was good. Really good. I wasn't going to put ice cream on mine because I figured I would cut back on calories, but then Papa came in and said:

Papa: Aren't you going to put some ice cream on there?

Julie: No, I wasn't going to.

Papa: But did you see what kind I bought? Lactose free.

Julie: You bought special ice cream for me!? You're the best. Pass it over.

I'm glad I put the ice cream on. Ice cream is probably one of my favorite things ever created. I don't know why I even thought about skipping it.

summer.

Today is the first day of summer! Well, for me at least. I'm not sure when the real first day of summer is, but mine starts now. So, in honor of the season:

1) I'm not going to wear pants. I'm tired of wearing pants.

2) I'm going to sit in my bed all day and read a book Sarah gave me called Same Kind of Different as Me.

3) I'm going to eat frozen pizza and drink coffee. I've decided to venture through the infinite varieties and brands of frozen pizza because I love frozen pizza. Yes, (get ready for this)... I love frozen pizza even more than delivery. Even more than Papa John's. There. I said it. Thus, with my mad Excel sheet skills, I'm going to make a chart categorizing the different kinds of frozen pizza and the pros and cons of each. Don't worry, I'll let you know the outcome. So far, however, Palermo's Rustico Rising Crust Pizza from Hyvee is winning. Lots of toppings, lots of sauce, crispy on the edges, and the box is really awesome (which is the reason I chose it). It has all of these old timey pictures on it. I just ate the Vito's Supreme Pizza. I highly recommend it. I think that if I had the choice and the metabolism, I might eat frozen pizza every day.

truluv.

I was just sitting here thinking about ice cream and wanted to tell you all how much I love Yogoluv. Seriously. I could eat it every single day. Maybe you're not from Columbia, and maybe you don't know what Yogoluv is, so if that is the case, here are the reasons your life is not complete:

1) Yogoluv is basically like the dorms except 1,000,000 times better. Imagine walking into your old dorm dining hall and heading to the soft serve ice cream section and multiply that excitement and wonder by 1,000,000. What does this even mean, you may wonder? Well, it means you can pick any flavor of frozen soft serve yogurt and any toppings you want!

2) It's really cheap! And who doesn't love things that are awesome and inexpensive?

3) They have these little green bucket chairs that make you feel like you're in another world. And the colors are super bright. Like Playdoh bright. Now, I really love Playdoh. The mushy texture. The bright colors. The wonderful smell (Sometimes at preschool, I make a Playdoh mustache so that I can just sit there and smell it). The way it makes spaghetti with the spaghetti machine. The salty taste (Yes, I like the taste of Playdoh. Judge me. I don't care. It isn't like I just go to preschool and start eating all the Playdoh, I just remember how wonderfully salty it is from my childhood, when I did sometimes eat Playdoh). And, believe me, if there is one thing I love more than Playdoh, it's Yogoluv. I hope that gives you a sense of Yogoluv's power.

4) I tell myself it is healthy, because it is frozen yogurt. I bet it even has probiotics in it.

Currently, I'm trying to make Matt go with me, because what is better than Yogoluv on a sunny, perfect day? NOTHING.

A wonderful day in the neighborhood.

I just want to tell you all about my day so far. Why, you may ask? Well, because it has been AWESOME!

1) I thought I had a stain on my shirt, but I don't! The other day, I went to Old Navy and bought a really cute shirt. Then I was eating chips and salsa and obviously dropped a huge blob of salsa on my new shirt. Bummer. BUT, for Christmas, Grammy gave all of us this soap thing called Fels Naptha and told us to use it on our stains. It looks like this:

And it worked amazingly well! Grammy knows everything.

2) I went to Hyvee this morning because I'm making German Potato Salad this afternoon and when I was putting my groceries in the car, I looked down and there was a penny shining back at me! Wahooo! I'm one cent richer!

3) It is BEAUTIFUL outside and when I was walking to class, my sis called me and biked alongside me all the way to my building. What a great sister!

4) THERE IS A DIPPIN' DOTS STAND ON CAMPUS! I mean, what could be better than that?! I think it is here because it is State Band day or whatever, but maybe they'll realize how awesome MU is and just set up a permanent stand. How wonderful would that be?!

5) There is also a huge farmer's market on campus and I'm going to eat a fresh hamburger and some honey ice cream for lunch! Mmmmmmmmmm! AND, I'm going to buy some baked goods from the Amish people!

6) Today is my last day of Jumpstart. Which is actually sad, but I'm really excited because Sarah let me borrow her camera and I'm going to take pictures of my adorable children. THEN, after our session we're having a big Jumpstart BBQ. Which means I get to eat ANOTHER HAMBURGER! AHHHHHHHH!

7) I showered this morning! Which means that I don't have to shower again for another day or so!

Happy Thursday!

Found it.

So, I had to start a blog for one of my classes and I apparently posted this one under that blog instead of this blog. AHHHH TOOO MANY BLOGS! Anyway, here's my life update. Pretend like you're reading this last night, because that is when I wrote it:

I don't really know if anyone will even see this, but if you were wondering, I am alive and have been reading your blogs, even though I haven't been posting. Yes, that might be selfish, but what are you going to do about it? I'd like to say that I've been eating yummy things like Abby or being fashionable like Ashley or something, but I haven't. In fact, I eat a toasted cheese sandwich for every meal and I wear sweatpants and a t-shirt smeared with snot and saliva every day. No, it isn't my snot or saliva, don't worry. I go to preschool.

It is amazing how many bodily excretions children have. Seriously. Maybe it's because I'm a pushover or maybe it's because I'm really good at hugs, but crying children are magnetically attracted to me. It's crazy. Today I walked into preschool and within the span of 15 minutes, three crying children came over for hugs and consolation, smearing a tear/snot/saliva mixture onto my shirt. This happens so often that I've decided to stop caring about it. I mean, everyone has snot, right? Plus, even if I have snot all over myself, one little boy always tells me that I look beautiful and he loves me. That's why I work at preschool.

Hm let's see...I joined a gym and currently am so sore that I can hardly breathe. Literally. I didn't know that was possible, but it is. I went to Cardio Kickboxing yesterday and thought I was really in-shape because I made it through the entire class. Then I woke up this morning and was sure I had malaria. Turns out, I'm not in shape.

Uh, what else? I got a new computer! Yes, the Mothership finally died. She led a long and fulfilling 6 year life, but her time had come. Conveniently, she crashed while I was studying for a test. Perfect. So I just went and bought a new one. It is weird being able to open .docx documents and being able to use the internet without waiting 3 minutes for each page to load. I'm a whole new woman! Look out, World, here I come with my cute, trendy MacBook! AND I have a camera on my computer now! Isn't that exciting!?

I also got a free flower pen from the Mexican restaurant the day after Valentine's day! Awesome, I know. It's one of those pens that restaurants have that are really big so people don't steal them. Why do I like this pen? Because it looks like I stole it, but in actuality, the lady at the cash register gave it to me! What a great day.

That's about it. I'm getting ready to go to Addison's for happy hour. And by "getting ready," I mean I'm putting on sweatpants and a t-shirt. Why, you may be wondering? Well...

1) I'm tired of dressing nice to go places. No one really cares what I look like, and if they do, too bad. I'm declaring it the Dress-Down Movement. This is gonna be big.

2) At least I'm taking of the snot-shirt.

3) I'm an independent woman, remember?

Constant.

So, I had an entire post written to update you on my life, but for some reason, my computer/blog-world decided to delete it. Isn't it comforting to know that technology still hates me? No matter what changes in this world, good or bad, at least we all know one thing stays constant...I will never be good at technology and technology will never love me.

So, until I find the energy to retype all I had written, just know that I'm alive. Even though I haven't been posting, I've still been reading about all of you. And yes, I meant for that to sound creepy.

My apologies.

So, it's been a while. I know, you've missed me dearly. You've probably been sitting at your computer refreshing your blog-update screen, hoping that I would remember to post another blog. I'm sorry I've cost you all these hours of anguish.

But, I finished my finals this week, so I'm back! I wish I could tell you that my life has been really exciting and I've been ending world hunger or something, but that would be a bold lie. Really, all I've been doing is writing papers and going to Christmas parties. I know, my life is tough.

Speaking of Christmas, however, if I could magically have one wish granted to me, do you know what it would be? I would wish that Muppets were real and actually mingled with humans, like they do in Muppet Christmas Carol, the greatest Christmas movie ever created. I mean, think about it. Imagine walking down the street and seeing these guys walking next to you (figure 7):

Figure 7: Muppets doing what they do best. Acting like they're real humans.

And, to make things better, they're probably singing, because that is what Muppets do. They sing and tell hilarious jokes. My favorite part about my wish-come-true is that seeing a Muppet walking around the streets would be completely normal. That would mean that if you see a small green frog talking to a family of mice, it's no big deal! Or say the birds are talking to you from above? It's just an every day occurrence! I bet that sometimes inanimate objects would even talk to you! I've always thought that the world would be more fun if bridges could talk, and anything is possible in a world with Muppets. I'm sure bridges are funny when they talk.

Another great thing about living in a land with Muppet citizens is that you never get seriously hurt, no matter what happens! It's like Muppets act as an instant force-field against all calamity. I mean, not that the calamities don't occur, but when they do occur no one gets hurt! I once saw Gonzo fall 30 feet from a tree and simply get up and continue on his merry way. I think this invincibility factor would make my life a lot easier because I fall a lot, and it would be nice to not get injuries all over my body when I do so.

Sometimes I wonder why I fall so much and what I could do to prevent that, but then I can't think of any solutions that I haven't tried. I've tried marching, wearing shoes with exceptional traction, walking on my tip-toes, pounding my heels into the ground when I walk and scuffing my feet, but none of these tactics have worked in keeping me upright. I mean, the other day I walked out of a restaurant and just fell on my face. How did that happen? I have no idea. Granted, it was a little icy, which makes everything worse, but still. Rain also doesn't help my situation. On campus, there are a lot of brick sidewalks and I always, without fail, fall when I'm walking across them in the rain. No matter how careful I am, my feet tend to end up above my head. Needless to say, I always have some pretty awesome bruises, and I won't lie, I kind of like bruises. Sure, they mean that I'm bleeding internally, but they always make me feel really tough. One time I had a bruise on my hip in the shape of a snowman and just because I had to fall down a flight of stairs to get it doesn't make it any less awesome.

Anyway, if I couldn't have that first wish, I would wish that I could just be a character in Muppet Christmas Carol. I mean, is there any better portrayal of Dicken's story!? No. There isn't. I would want to be the little bunny that carries the huge turkey to Bob Cratchet's house at the end because he is so cute and bouncy! Plus, I think it would be fun to have bunny ears. I just realized that that little bunny has a name and that name is Bean Bunny, and Bean Bunny is also the bunny in the movie The Tale of the Bunny Picnic (figure 8):

Figure 8: The cutest Muppet in existence. And that is a proven fact.

Seriously. This is the cutest Muppet I've ever seen, and I've seen my fair share of Muppets in my day. This movie makes me think of all those Wee Sing-Along movies that used to be so cool when I was little. Actually, they might still be cool, but I haven't been little for about 18 years, so I'm not sure. My favorite one was Big Rock Candy Mountain because they had root beer rivers. Wouldn't that be incredible?! We also had the Grandfather's Mansion sing-along, but we could never watch it because my little brother, Logan, was terrified of it. Like seriously. There was one scene where they said the Hickory-Dickory-Dock poem and the mouse who ran up the clock gave him nightmares. Needless to say, we led a pretty sheltered childhood if we were having nightmares about mice from a children's movie.

The last thing that would make my wish complete would be if I could touch the Ghost of Christmas Present's beard/hair (figure 9):

Figure 9: Wow. That beard looks soft.