Better Know A Classmate: Juli

What do you remember about your first day at Bishop Carroll? What was your very first class?

hmmm...first day, I was a little nervous about the size of the school compared to SFA across the street, but I remember being so excited about meeting all these new people that it quickly absorbed the anxiety. My first class memory was in Mrs. Barton's English class. We had alphabetical seating assignments so I was behind Mikey Harp, and Mrs. Barton would balance gracefully atop the bar stool seat at the front of class. I marveled that she was who she was and could get away with that...

You were SUPPOSED to say, “I remember walking into my first hour Old Testament class with Sister Mary Anne and sitting to the right of you!” I recall Sister Mary Anne noticing you occasionally wore a choker necklace, and she was surprised they were back in style.

You DO remember! Well, I was hoping not to make you feel uncomfortable with not remembering so I avoided that one. Except, I don't remember Sister Mary Anne noting my keen fashion sense... It was a very cool choker though.

Juli in 1993, basically

Are you serious that you didn't say Old Testament because you thought I wouldn't remember? Because I didn't know if I should bring it up either, because it's creepier for me to say it. HURR A PRETTY GIRL SAT NEXT TO ME HURR HURRR HURRRR. But it was memorable for me, because I was going from a K-8 class with 6 girls in it to a high school class with 106 girls in it, and I was overwhelmed.

I DID remember sitting next to you in a religion class freshman year, but I wasn't sure of the semester... 6! There were only 6!?!? Wow, I didn't realize that. SFA had at least 12 in each of the 3 classes in our grade. Fun fact: SFA class of '93 was the first year that SFA had 3 rooms per grade.

Your husband has a website detailing the goings-on of your household. The "About The McClure Family" section states that you have three children, but everyone knows that you have four kids. Am I to believe that managing four children is detrimental to website upkeep? 

I had to smile when I saw you asked about this. I tease Mike about it every once in awhile or whenever someone makes a comment to me about our "expanding family". It was long before number four, Maddox, came along that Michael started losing vigor on the upkeep of our site. It began as a pet project for him when his sister moved to Colorado so she, and the rest of our family, could stay up-to-date on the goings-on with the McClure clan. He also used it to test out different web design concepts and programming styles. He's pretty cool like that, fine-tuning his craft and all:) Now he is regularly helping others with their pet projects so he doesn't have a lot of extra time to update ours. With FB and Instagram, we are still keeping tabs on all the activity the family can handle to hear about.

The site lists you as a "Purchasing Specialist". IF that is accurate, tell me what is so special about your purchases. Describe a typical workday in mundane detail, please.

HA!!! I like that..., special purchases... Well, it is now inaccurate and two positions ago. I'm still at Cessna. Within Cessna, Purchasing Specialist, a title used in the procurement profession, means you work with suppliers in a more strategic manner-negotiating contracts, improving their quality, work with them on developing new technology, etc. I moved from Purchasing Specialist to a role on a Business Team that was specific to our two largest jet aircraft (Sovereign and CX). On the Business Team, I was still focused on supply chain efforts and worked to focus on the issues specific to improving cost, quality, manufacturing and ROI to the model lines I was responsible.

Those were good times but I'm SUPER excited about what I'm doing now...

I'm dubbed Sr. Engagement Manager. (no, it has nothing to do with getting people hitched!) Some people say I'm a party planner extraordinaire. My team is responsible for planning and coordinating all the logistics, details, and marketing efforts that go into an aviation related event for Cessna. Daily, I work with all areas of our internal Marketing and Sales teams, external suppliers, and creative companies to pull together events that are as far out as 9 months and as far away as Asia, Latin America, or Europe. I've even gotten to use some of the Spanish skills Senora Roberts taught me back at BC!

Wait..., you said mundane...so, I take a lot of phone calls and get a TON of emails with "opportunities", try to keep my team focused on the priorities and motivated to get them done, encourage the management teams to make decisions before deadlines/expedite fees kick-in and juggle budget dollars so we can make the most amazing displays/events/parties. Was that mundane or detailed enough?

So you’re throwing parties that you don’t get to attend? Are you ever eating ramen noodles at your desk, thinking about the aviation executives enjoying the caviar and cocaine brunch you arranged for them in Italy?

HAHAHAHAhahaha (me laughing at your cool and unassuming wit) I do go to the big events but not the small ones and we avoid cocaine on the menu, especially the mid-morning gatherings. My preferred lunch is Lean Cuisine or Smart Choice vegetarian selections and I do tend to eat at my desk often.

Aircraft executives enjoy brunch

How vegetarian are you? 

Very, if it bled, I don't eat it. 

When did that start? 

I was actually vegetarian on the trip to Cancun. It was around the end of junior year.

Do you remember when we were having dinner (and drinks, featuring very large hurricanes) in Cancun with some people from Louisiana? Do you remember the phrase one girl used to describe it when underwear was improperly wedging itself?

I DO!!!! That was so fun. A definite highlight of the trip. Did I thank you for inviting me to that?!?! Thank you. I'm not a 100% sure I recall the exact word she used...was it snuggy? She didn't call it a wedgie though.

The Louisianan said that the phrase they used instead of wedgie was, "My butt's hungry." We laughed a lot about that. You know, because of the all the rum we had ingested.

I'm embarrassed I forgot about "hungry butt". That was hysterical! And she said it with an accent so it made it more entertaining.

Are you more of a “it’s inhumane” vegetarian, or a “it’s more sustainable”, or “it’s healthier”? 

It's healthier. 

What is the worst vegetarian food, and what is the best meat dish? 

Hmmm, I don't eat bad vegetarian food... As for meat, i really used to like poultry-chicken mostly, and I do miss my mom's Thanksgiving dressing. Mmmmm, dressing....

Pad Phet is the best vegetarian dish on earth. (Ignore the shrimp in this example image.)

Your oldest daughter is entering high school and has a Facebook page that states she is single and she is "Interested in: Men". Tell me how that sentence makes you feel.

Oi! and whew... (Honestly the first time I read it, I almost got sick. IS THIS REALLY HAPPENING?!?!?) It is surreal to have a child (can I call her that?!?!) this age at our age. Especially since I remember a lot about what I was thinking, doing, watching, saying and where I was going when my parents weren't around.

You mean the mall? Going to the mall without your parents’ consent?

Yes...that is exactly what I meant. The mall...

In all seriousness, I keep reminding myself that I still turned out alright and this is the best time for her to learn the hard life lessons with less severe consequences and now's the time when I can see if Mike and I have done a good enough job as parents to get her through it.

It still freaks me out though...

On Facebook, on October 2, 2010, you stated that you made mashed potatoes, and that you "never made them from scratch before". WHAT THE HELL, JULI????! WERE YOU MAKING MASHED POTATOES FROM DEHYDRATED POTATO FLAKES???

...oh, for shame! I was, alas, making instant mashed potatoes until that point in time...My grandma Hein and aunt Mickey were the only two women in my family that ever made homemade mashed potatoes.

Yikes.

Did you mash them with the skins or without? What are your feelings on garlic in mashed potatoes? Also, your aunt was named Mickey?

Absolutely with. Garlic is a definite requirement. Mickey was her nickname. Both her and my grandma were Margaret Ann's so they started calling her Mickey and it stuck. I loved it growing up and found it intriguing that she is, in fact, a HUGE Mickey Mouse fan, as well as the correlation to the beloved 80's hit "Hey, Mickey!".

You teach yoga. What kind(s)? Is there a yoga teacher certification process? My wife says during the last 10 minutes of her yoga classes, there is silence while everyone lays there and relaxes. Is she being scammed?

Yep, I teach yoga. No, your wife is not being scammed. Savasana (a.k.a. the nap, as it has been called) is one of the most critical and, for some, the most difficult.

My classes range in intensity from prenatal to power. I teach an intermediate class at the NW Y here in Wichita. It is vinyasa/ashtanga class which means I focus on alignment and flow through poses/asanas. In my own practice, I love doing arm balances!

To teach at the Y, I had to go through their general group exercise instructor classes and take the yoga specific 64+ hours of initial yoga instructor training. I have been going to yoga workshops or instructor trainings on my own since 2009 when I first started teaching. Recently, I started an internship program with Yoga Central where I audit or teach most Saturday mornings. My intention is to become RYT 200 trained in the coming years. With my new day job and the travel schedule it requires, the timeline is getting pushed out a bit...

Would you like to hear some of my father’s complaints about the traffic the northwest YMCA has created around his once serene area?

I am interested but I wonder if they are appropriate to be in writing?

My dad, thinking about the intersection of 21st and 135th.

What do you say to people who think they are not bendy enough to practice yoga?

THAT is WHY they need to do yoga... it is a practice for a reason. You have to do it to get more from it. Jus' sayin'...

What is your favorite word?

...that is a really hard-hitting question...I'm a fan of words so it is difficult to narrow that down to one. 

[several days later...]

i think I will pick "duty". It makes me laugh to hear people say it & I like laughing. My kids caught on that it was a trigger word for me & now they crack up too which just makes me laugh harder. Not worth waiting for, huh?

What is your least favorite word? 

But...

What turns you on creatively, spiritually or emotionally? 

People with faith and a willingness to believe and trust, especially when there are no particular reasons to do so. I love seeing how they allow themselves to be excited and enable themselves to be successful.

What turns you off? 

Excuses.

What is your favorite curse word? 

With four kids, I tend not to curse. Usually, I say things like, "FRUIT!" or "SUGAR!". If am sans kids, I've been known to drop the f-bomb. I know..., not so creative, right? but I like to think I'm a cussing purist:)

What sound or noise do you love? 

rain/thunderstorms

What profession other than your own would you like to attempt? 

I am doing something that I have always wanted to do now, but if you want me to think of something I'd try, I used to dream (like when I was 8) about being an interior designer for extravagant homes or at least where money was no object, a landscape designer, rock star/professional singer or maybe a celebrity stylist! 

What profession would you NOT like to attempt? 

Any profession that has to deal with defecation...oops, I'm a mom... so...yeah...

What was your favorite class at BC? 

Immediately after I read this question, different English classes popped to mind: Ms. Billy Ramsey, Mr. Barber, Mrs. Depenbrock (sp?) and I had good times in Yearbook and Mr. DeMars' class even though he was cantankerous beyond words...maybe that was just Peter and Greg's affect on him:)

Is there anything you would have done differently in your time at BC? 

While many may know I did things that were not in my best interest academically, socially, spiritually or physically, I believe the choices and consequences of those choices that I made only served to "season" the person I am today. You could say they made me spicy! :D

Between this answer and the earlier one about your oldest daughter, I’m thinking I was oblivious to the wild and dangerous side of high school Juli. I was probably distracted by those choker necklaces.

You are cracking me up! You were not oblivious. You were at many of those occasions.

Well, it’s not like I opened a door at one of Keeler’s ragers and saw you in a Requiem for a Dream “ass to ass” situation, or whatever. You might be being hard on yourself for normal Class of ‘97 partying. Or I’m just clueless.

Whoa! Sooooooo did NOT do any of that... I may be scarred now... It was pretty normal partying, I suppose, but a lot of it. Just weird to think of my kids doing the same thing.

Juli made better choices than Jennifer Connelly's character in Requiem 

How do you feel about getting older, fellow thirty-something? 

I LOVE birthdays (all birthdays, even yours!) so getting older hasn't bothered me. It is, in fact, a month long celebration every year so I look forward to it;) August 1st (July 15-Aug 15, don't dispute the time. It will only make it longer;) You can send gifts, happy birthday recordings, and well wishes anytime. There's pros and cons to the whole deal, but the pros are definitely winning in my book.