4 days till Spring Break and only 51 days to go till sweet freedom!

Today was the first day of trying out the new behavioral contract with "M'. It went . . . well . .. okay I guess. Of course the day started out very non-routinely which sure didn't help. Before letting the kids go back to the rooms this morning, we had a presenter from Thomas Nelson Publisher's talk to us about the fundraiser we started today. He wasn't that exciting of a speaker, to say the least, and quite honestly could have said his piece in half the time or less. But what made matters more interesting was that when he was FINALLY done, our principal decided that she'd go ahead and have a short worship/devotional with the whole school, since the first 20 minutes of the day was already gone. So, by the time we finally got the kids to our rooms, it was nearly 9a.m, or 30 minutes past the usual start time. All but 10 minutes of my Worship/Bible class time. I ended up having the kids practice their new memory verse and sing a couple of songs, then went to the next class period. "M" did well right up until morning recess where he got into a swinging contest of some sort with another of my boys (involving bodies only, not swings). He didn't earn any more smileys until 2:30 at P.E. So he earned 3 minutes of computer time.

One piece of GREAT news is that the parent who was thinking about taking on the aide position, has accepted! Today she was a substitute for another teacher who was out, but tomorrow, barring anymore teachers deciding that they are the exception to our principal saying *Don't* take days off unless your deathly ill, I *should* *hopefully* HAVE AN AIDE again!!!

After school I got my laundry done. I decided to try to do it all in just one load. So I did only enough laundry to last me till next Monday when I can do it at my Mom's house. This saved me $1.50.

Last night (or should I say early this a.m.) I got a call from my brother at 12:45 a.m. Needless to say I was pretty out of it for the first few moments. He apparentally had gotten off the phone with mom and she had told him that I didn't think it was right of him to ask her for money to fly here for the trial. He basically wanted to ask me if he'd heard right. I told him that yes, he'd heard right. He then explained to me a bit more of the behind the scenes/extra details that mom had left out. By the end of our conversation I told him that I understood more where he was coming from, but that unfortunately, LIFE does cost money. Now to myself I'm thinking that even with all the bellyaching money woes he told to me, that still doesn't come close to accounting for the amount of $ he'd told me he had in the bank at Christmas. I did tell him that for him to fully understand where I was coming from with my statement and my annoyance at him for asking MOM for $, he'd have to understand that mom's situation IS NOT pretty - but that he'd have to ask her if he wanted to know more than that. In a way, I almost felt like he was trying to hit ME up for the money - and I did feel quite manipulated. I thought about offering to pay up to half/or $200 whichever was less, but . . . I don't know if I really want to do that. Ack! I will be so glad when this is all over and done with. Either way it goes, it will at least be over with, and we can get on with our lives.

Today was not a no spending day for me. I had a real craving for chocolate chip cookies, but didn't have choclate chips or eggs. So I stopped at Albertson's and got some of both. Although I ended up not making any. Maybe tomorrow.

Spending Log:
Today:
Albertson's: $6.18 (Amazing Eggs, CChips)

Keeping It Frugal in Texas,
Laura