Julie A. Duncan

 The picture says it all. This week I got new struts on my 2011 Chevy Traverse. She has been amazing. 252,525 miles and have had to fix few things on her. They told me my front struts were completely shot. It was actually a lot of fun to drive though. On the drive back from Salina, we went over a bridge and bounced the entire way across. It was more fun than a roller coaster! I kept my hands on the wheels though. No more bouncing now. It's a smooth ride all the way. It's almost like driving a new car.

 It was a hot day for going to garage sales. (Fun fact, Jordan actually got a sunburn being out in the sun it was so hot!) Jordan and I went with Mom and Dad searching for bargains for over four hours. I found several books and UNO cards to use at school. I also bought another puzzle, but it was a good one, I promise. I found a Bible journaling set that has one or two books of the New Testament bound with the verses on the left side and lined pages for journaling on the right. It's perfect for the way I like to study. I like to do book studies and this will allow me to record everything in that book instead of mixed all together in one journal.  I also found Hailey some cooking utensils.  Mom cooked us some panini turkey sandwiches for lunch and then promptly kicked us out so they could take a nap! Ha. We're going back for the Elgin sales next weekend. Mom is also decluttering. She found these pictures when Dad was practicing taking black and white photographs. This is me...

 I had my first violin lesson today. I have wanted to take lessons again in the summer for several years now, but I never really knew who I could take lessons from. This year, Cameron University hired a new violin teacher, Steve Story, and he joined our orchestra at Cameron Baptist. I mentioned lessons shortly after he came and he remembered it. My last lessons were from 1992-1994. That was nearly thirty years ago. Aagh!! I can't be that old....Anyway, I have apparently acquired several bad habits. I don't hold the violin high enough. I don't hold my right elbow high enough. I don't have my left elbow in enough. I play with the bow flat instead of tilted. I have my head positioned wrong. <sigh>  This is going to be a lot of work unlearning bad habits..... Allegro in G major by Fiocco - the piece that will take me all summer and maybe next to master

 Hailey had traveled to Salina, Kansas (pronounced with a long i) for an orientation week and Jordan and I drove up to get her. It was a five-hour drive and I actually drove the ENTIRE way! I drove through the City on I-44 and then took I-35 to Wichita, Kansas and then 135 the rest of the way to Salina. The drive there actually wasn't too bad. We timed it so I wasn't driving through rush-hour traffic and before lunch-hour traffic started in OKC. Driving back, though, I ended up in Saturday evening traffic from OKC to Moore on I-35 and that was REALLY intense for me. I would prefer to never do that again.... Anyway, Salina has a beautiful downtown with lots of little shops. The city really promotes the arts and has murals and statues everywhere. Most notably, though, they have an annual sculpture tour downtown where they display several sculptures and you get a ballot and vote on your favorite. This year, there were 24 to choose from. Each year the sculpture that wins the most v...

 Well...it was a year for learning. For me anyway. This was my first year to teach Title Math. I messed up by allowing it to be partly study skills as well. Next year, we will start the year with more structure and better expectations. I feel like the kids did learn though. Almost all of them saw good gains on their STAR test results. I like to think I helped them anyway. Every year, I question lots of things I do and this year is no exception. The end of the year is when all teachers do lots of reflection and think about what they will change for the next year. I had everything packed up except my computer and a little bit of cleaning to do and managed to get all of that done in about an hour. Then, I spent the rest of the day planning for next year with the "new" math teacher, as in this was her first year as an Elgin fifth grade math/reading teacher. We are going rogue and are going to concentrate on teaching reading through novels which I am very excited about and really ...

 Ashley arrived in town Thursday night. We drove up and got the rest of Jordan's stuff on Friday morning. She's been in those apartments for a couple of years and now....all of that stuff is in her tiny room in our house. Ha! Mom and Dad and Tyler joined us for supper. We had Indian tacos and Greg made the fry bread. Afterwards we played Play Nine until Mom and Dad left. Then Jordan taught all of her favorite game, Root. It was difficult. It took us a long time. While we were still trying to figure everything out, Ashley suddenly announced she had won. !!  The next morning we had a large brunch with bacon, sausage, biscuits, waffles, eggs, and fruit. Then we headed to Edmond. Hailey turned Jordan into a model with a photo session on campus before we went into the arena. It was the fine arts and science majors graduating so the theatre art students put a show on for us and the president gave a few short words before everyone strolled across the stage to get their names read. I ...

 Our director, Brad, likes to put his churches on the OBS list every year. One year we're at his current church, First Baptist Church Tulsa, and the other year we're in his hometown in Fort Gibson. This year was a Tulsa year and it was our last concert for the year. It's a beautiful church in downtown Tulsa. It's also a massive church and we always get lost. I've enjoyed the music this year. It was quite playable and for the most part we had enough violinists for our concerts. We consistently had four or five second violinists show up this year and almost as many firsts come as well. It's always easier to play when there are several of us. Our fearless seconds leader talked to Brad about trying to get bowings on the music before it's posted next year. We'll see. It's always nice to be able to practice the music with the correct bowings instead of getting used to one thing and having it change again, and again. Anyway, I'm looking forward to next ...

 We headed to a few garage sales in the morning and then drove to two book stores in Tulsa that we wanted to try out. The first was Impulse Creations Comics and Collectibles. Greg has bought from them online before and was excited to try out the physical store. Today was National Free Comic Day and they had a table where you could choose five. I picked up five for school, and Greg picked up his five as well. Then, just down the street was a bookstore I had seen a post online about how massive the place was and how amazing it was. Gardner's Used Books and Comics was indeed pretty large. However, their prices were not the amazing prices I was hoping for. Plus, I didn't find most of the books I had been looking for, despite their large inventory. I ended up getting the first two books in the Poldark series and that was all I found. I had watched the PBS version of it a few months ago and really enjoyed it. I hope the books are good as well. Gardner's has several life-size Hulk...

Greg goes every year to the 100 500-mile garage sale in northeast Oklahoma. We had an inclement weather day, so I was able to go as well. We made a weekend of it and spent the night in Tulsa, so we wouldn't have to rush back. We meandered through several small towns picking up all sorts of items. We made it to Pawhuska for lunch and ate at the Pioneer Woman's restaurant. We looked at all of her wares there and then drove a few blocks to a garage sale to buy one of her recipe books for only $1.50. LOL