I haven't post too much lately, been pretty busy with work and had a couple days where I felt like I almost had what was a migraine ...

I haven't been spending very much recently .. which is good since I'd spent way too much earlier this month...

This past week I had 5 no spend days. Friday was a spend day ... I had to go get fingerprinted and drop off paperwork for teaching summer school. Fingerprinting/background check cost $44.00. But it'll be worth it in the end ... 3 weeks of Summer School pays ~$3k. (More than twice what I'd make in 3 weeks during the regular school year ...) The background check is good as long as I don't take a summer off ... and it counts for me transferring my TX license to NM (which I need to do soon!)

I also finally managed to stop at Walgreens and pick up my prescription - only was out of it for 2 1/2 weeks!! (last weekend I tried twice, and they were closed by the time I got there.)

I sent home overdue notices last week for students/teachers - letting them know the last day to return books was May 18. In short order I had about 40 overdue items returned ... still need 50 or so. 2 weeks left of regular library classes, then the 3rd week will be making sure all books are in/no check out. Then the final week where I'll start inventory (though maybe I'll actually start it the previous week ...) This school does it much differently than anywhere else I've worked. Our final day of school/classes is May 25, and our final on contract work day is May 25. Everywhere else I've been, there's been 4 contract work days past the final school day. Interesting way to do it - would hate to be a classroom teacher with that schedule though.

We only have 25 yearbooks left (started with 84.) I hadn't realized we sold quite so many til Thursday when I counted them to double check the money. I have the feeling most of the remaining ones will vanish this coming week. I've gotten lots and lots of compliments on the yearbook - although I made 3 big mistakes. 1. left out picture of school nurse (she'd asked me to use last year's pic, and in my attempt to do so, I unchecked the box "use this photo" ...) 2. added an extra kid to first grade class (sibling of student not in school yet who got picture taken at same time ...) and 3. misspelled art teachers name on specials page. Arghh! Next year my goal is to have no mistakes!!

Talked to my mom today since I hadn't heard back from her since she'd returned from cruise with friend JH. Surprise surprise - she's back with M with whom she's had a total of 7?? breakups and get backs in a year's time. Oy vey.

I'm wondering if I can make hummus in a Ninja blender?? I was thinking that'd make a good addition to my lunch salad instead of relying on trail mix constantly. But I figure it'd be cheaper for me to make it myself than to buy it pre-made. (plus I can control how spicy it is ... in other words very little spicy!)

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I figured out today that I still have full access to my Rocket Spanish account - something I purchased back in 2007. At that time it was only good for a year, so I thought it'd expired. But the upgrade/update has made it lifetime access, and I guess that was retroactive. They've made some cool improvements - including this feature where you can record yourself speaking and match it against the instructors voice. I'd gone through about half of the lessons previously, but am starting back from scratch.

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I was looking at the AASL site to see where the next conference is going to be - it's going to be in SC in October. I'm trying to decide if I want to petition to go to it or not ... it would be great to be around a bunch of practicing school librarians, but I was kind of hoping for a site in CA or TX or maybe TN ... someplace where I could meet up with people I knew. I missed that opportunity this year (ALA was in Dallas in January!) I've got a few months to think about it.

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There's 3 movies out (or out soon) that I want to see: The Raven (I love Poe, though this sounds like it might be on the gruesome side even for Poe ...); Men in Black 3, and The Avengers. Luckily I have plenty left in my entertainment fund to do all 3 movies. (Will Smith/Robert Downey Jr ... mmmm mmmm!)

So I was checking my Mypoints CC statement on Friday and I noticed something strange. There was a charge for $36.xx at a gas station, and then for that same day/time/station there was a credit for that same amount. I know I got the gas, and I don't remember anything weird about the transaction. I'm not sure who I'd ask about why I got the money credited back - someone at the gas station I guess ... though unless the manager is there I don't know who else would have a clue by 4. The gas station is about 20 miles from here, so not exactly a place I can just "stop by" til I find a person who knows what happened.

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I'm considering going 95% vegan. I'm not interested in being 100% vegan because that would be really difficult here, plus I don't want to have to think about every bite I put in my mouth that much or every article of clothing I purchase ...

So anyway ... one thing I'm trying to figure out is how to make a cottage cheese substitute without using tofu. With my hypothyroidism I need to limit my soy/tofu intake as much as possible (which is hard but not impossible as a vegetarian.) I found one recipe that used soy milk instead of tofu, and am wondering if I could use Rice Milk instead for the same effect??

Vegan Soy Milk CC Mostly I want to use this for making casserole dishes (such as my favorite Special K roast.)

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I was invited out to the home of one of our church members yesterday. It was a lot of fun. She'd made Asparagus soup - yum! As well as vegetarian tamales (again - yum!) As we were talking, I found out that she'd met her husband at Weimar while attending an 18-day Diabetes reversal seminar. Weimar is run by the Seventh-day Adventist church and has at it's foundation the idea of NEWSTART. (She was pretty impressed that I remembered most of what that stood for - from 7th grade science.) Nutrition, Exercise, Water, Sunshine, Temperance (moderation), Air, Rest, Trust (in a higher power.) What you eat while there is essentially a vegan diet, and you learn how to cook numerous vegan dishes. You also get daily massages and hydrotherapy (hot/cold water treatments.)

I've thought about going and participating in a session before, but never had done any real research into it. After talking with her and hearing first hand about it, I was even more interested. I did some research last night on it (i.e. cost) and realized it is probably not something I'd ever be able to afford unless I develop health problems where my insurance would be willing to help with the cost to allay the health problems.

So ... I already know that eating ice cream doesn't agree with me very well anymore and I rarely if ever drink real milk ... so cheese, eggs and cottage cheese would be the main things I would need to figure out how to do without. Even with eggs though I generally use the egg substitute ...

My plan is to finish eating what I already have in my cupboards/fridge/freezer but then from now on, whatever I purchase will be non-dairy.

Two things I won't give up will be honey and chocolate. (Which is part of why I'm not going 100% vegan -- really, technically, I'll just essentially be a bit stricter of a vegetarian. Currently I'm considered a lacto-ovo vegetarian (dairy products.)

I was told we have a health food store in big G - so I may try looking that up and see what they have to offer.

I think by doing this, my grocery bill will actually eventually go down. I'm hoping that my cravings for sugar/junk food will be reduced the more healthily I eat, and I'll feel better overall so will have more energy (mental and physical) to actually *make* food rather than be a mainly microwave cook. (I still would do a lot of microwaving - just of food that I prepared ahead of time myself and froze.)

---Anyway, I probably won't get too serious about this til school is out and I have time to really figure everything out. All I know is that I need to do something to stop the direction of my scale and something to give myself the energy to not be a computer potato.

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This week we have a male candidate coming! I imagine he's interviewing for a mid-school position. I bet our PE teacher would LOVE to have another male teacher at the school so he wouldn't be so outnumbered.

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My hot water went out sometime in the last two days. I discovered it Saturday morning as I was about to take a shower before going to church. No one knows the number for the new maintenance person of course. One of my coworkers has already offered me the use of her guest shower, but it still leaves me with a sinkful of dirty dishes (which I'd planned on washing last night.)

I tried relighting it myself (like the person showed me how to do last time) but I couldn't get it to work. Arghh!

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When I was at Walmart Friday I saw a summer dress with beautiful beading on it's front. I tried it on and it fit perfectly. It'll be a great dress for SrN's special retirement assembly (has a very native american feel to it.) As I was heading to the fitting rooms, I came across a display of flat sandals (the kind with enclosed heels and criss cross open straps.) They had a pair in my size!! Normally it takes me months and months to find a shoe that I like and that is in my size - but here I found *exactly* what I'd been looking for last summer, before I'd even started to formally begin my latest search. (the sandals I wore last summer/early fall are pretty much shot - even with the $50 price tag!) The dress and shoes cost $26 together. I'm thinking of maybe going back and getting a second pair of the sandals - just because I know how hard it is to find them (and because I'm thinking of using one pair for church/dressy occasions, and one pair for every day wear.)

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I called the medical clinic on Monday about my prescription not being refilled. No apologies were offered, but they said they'd take care of it. I finally got a message from Walgreens on Thursday that my prescription was ready for me! I was going to stop by on Friday, but forgot until it was too late. Then it became too late yesterday as well. I'm going to call them today to make sure it isn't the generic, then I'll go in a 3rd time to town - maybe take in "Lucky One" while I'm in town so it's not a trip *just* for a prescription!!

Today I went to ABQ with three of my coworkers - 5th, 6th and IT. The impetus for the trip was to go spend the available Sch $$ before they expired, but of course when you make a 90 minute one-way trip you want to include as much else as possible.

Our first stop was the book warehouse. I ended up spending $134, $91 of which was covered by Sch $$. The remainder I plan on being reimbursed from our book fair cash proceeds. The others with me also bought some books. We all had way too much fun.

6th had a haircut appt, so we headed towards the mall. But first we stopped at Pet Smart where 6th bought dog supplies and I bought cat supplies (including a felliway type collar that is supposed to help calm anxiety in cats ... we'll see ...) At the mall we all got something called Bubble tea - so called because they put these little chewable bubbles inside your drink which you get with most all of your sips. It's good, but different.

While waiting for 6th to finish her hair appointment, the rest of us went to various stores. One was Old Navy where I got a native style top for 60% off.

We were all ready for lunch by this point, so we stopped at Sweet Tomatoes - kind of similar to Souper Salad. It was very good.

IT had never been inside of a Krispy Kreme store, so of course we had to stop there and let her see it in action. We all left with donuts.

I was really wanting some more veggie corn dogs, and 6th grade wanted to go to Sunflower?? Market - so that's where we went next. I didn't find my corndogs, but I did find my very favorite Amy's dish - Brown Rice and Veggies! I got 3 of them at the sale price of $3.99 (Her meals can be up to $5.50 at some places.)

Next, we headed to Costco where I filled up with gas ($3.61/gall ~8 gallons) and also bought 8 veggie/rice burritos for $10.

Our final stop was Papa Murphy's. 5th grade's family has a Good Friday tradition of eating pizza for supper and she was really missing her family. IT and I also both got pizzas (additionally, I bought a $3 S'Mores dessert pizza - couldn't resist for the price/size!) Total for me there was $14 (I added two extra toppings to my pizza - spinach and pineapple.)

Overall I would say that it was a very good day! And I still have 3 days left of my weekend. **Best of all, everything I spent today fits into my budget.

So today the 5th and 6th grade teachers, our Tech person and I all went on an outing together to ABQ. Our first stop was the Sch Book Warehouse. What a blast we had there!

I got quite a few graphic novels, a few sports related books and various other books. I ended up spending $134, $91 of which was covered by Sch $$. Two of the others also ended up buying a few books each. When we were checking out the guy told us that in a few weeks there will be a 50% off sale through May 23rd. We have a half-day on the 23rd. If I can get the remaining Sch $$ (which will be given once Sch gets our book fair check) to NOT expire before then ... can you say Road Trip?!!

After the books we headed over to the mall where 6th grade teacher had a hair cut appointment. Before going in for that we stopped at Petsmart. 6thGRTea bought dog food, etc., and I bought a collar that is supposed to smooth away a cats anxiety (help with scratching, etc.) At the mall we all got Bubble Tea (very different drink - kind of like a smoothie except that most of the times when you sip you get this gel like bubble that you have to chew, and there is something like juice inside of it.)


While we were waiting for the haircut appt to be done, the rest of us walked around the mall. I actually bought a shirt at Old Navy - a very different shirt for me, but I think it'll be good for when we need to wear "traditional" clothing for special masses, etc. It was $12, so not a steal, but a good deal compared to the regular price of $29.

Once we were done at the mall we headed over to Sweet Tomatoes for lunch. It is a place similar to Souper Salad.

Next we headed to Sunflower Market (similar to TJs and Whole Foods). Glory be! I found my very favorite Amy's meal - Brown Rice and Veggies. I got 3 of them (I probably would've gotten more if I had a bigger cooler - they were on sale for $3.99 each ...)

Now on to our real treat of the day ... Krispy Kreme! AL (our Tech) had never been to an actual store, so we made sure to watch the process of the doughnuts going through the baking process and got some hot off the press. Mmmm!

Costco was next on our agenda ... filled up with gas ($3.61/gal - 8.4 gallons) and I bought some veggie burritos (8 of them for $10.)

Our final stop was Papa Murphy's. 3 of us bought a pizza (I bought a pineapple/spinach/mushroom one + also a $3 S'mores dessert pizza. Yum!) We stopped there because 5thGrTeacher's family has a Good Friday tradition of eating pizza on Good Friday night.

All in all, this was a really good day. And it all fit into my budget. (The extra money I spent at the warehouse I will probably take out of the cash we earned from the book fair.) If I did this kind of thing very often, then I definitely would need to curb the amount of spending I did ... but it's very rare that this happens, plus it was good to spend time with others - not to mention that it was really good for AL (she texted me tonight asking if the 5th/6th went on outings fairly regularly - I told her that they do, and she asked me if I thought it'd be ok for her to ask to be included - I told her I thought it would be a great idea! I don't usually go with them because they go on Friday nights or Saturdays - but that isn't a problem for her.)

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Tomorrow I'll probably be in G all day. Church in the late morning/early afternoon, potluck, and then movie night at the pastor's house. I'm not sure what I'll do between potluck and movie night ...

We have the next four days off of school! As one of the teachers put it - one perk of working at a Catholic school.

Today I participated in a Passover Seder meal with the mid-school students. It was really nicely done, and the kids did a pretty good job behavior wise. I was telling AL (our IT person) about how the 3 mid-school teachers washed the feet (1 foot really) of 3 mid-schoolers -- and that in my church we have a foot washing service every 13 weeks where all the women wash each other's feet, and all the men wash each other's feet, and then follow that with a communion service. She'd never heard of the practice of foot-washing. (She's not Catholic, but a fairly traditional Apache.)

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So tomorrow myself and several teachers are headed into ABQ to go to the Sch Book Warehouse and spend some money. I *should* have $175 to spend there, but since we didn't get our final book fair check in yet, I only have $91. I hope that the remainder of the dollars can be set to NOT expire before I have another chance to get down there. (All the dollars are bonus dollars for doing different things during and before the book fair.) Otherwise I'll lose half of them in shipping and handling.

Because of our trip coming up tomorrow (and that I'm taking my car) I took my car to the local auto shop to get the oil changed and a general checkup. The oil + balance/rotation was $49. Unfortunately the mechanic found that 3 of my tires have one or more bulges and need to replaced soon. They are all pretty old, so I'm not shocked at the prognosis.

I'll be having all 4 replaced on Monday for about $269 (the 4th one is okay, but is fairly old too - and I decided that it would be better to have all 4 tires the same age/make, etc.) These will hopefully be the last tires I personally put on this car (only reason I'd be putting on another tire would be if one got an un-fixable hole.)

When I got home today I also cleaned out my car -- well... at least the inside of it. The trunk still is about half-full ... but I at least have room for passengers now.

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A few days ago I signed up for Hulu Plus. What I think I'll probably do is do HP 1 month and then Netflix one month - just go back and forth. Part of what made me do this is that I really wanted to watch The Pretender again and only HP had that. Of course the first couple episodes of S1 aren't working right now (on my computer at least) so instead I started watching the program "Awake." Interesting (2 eps in.)

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I checked my BOFA account yesterday, and saw that they'd taken out a monthly fee again! So I contacted the online CS person. They reversed the fee, and assured me it wouldn't reoccur. If it does, I will be closing that account faster than Superman can fly around the world.

Tonight I spoke with my Aunt in CA to make sure that the night I plan on arriving to her city was ok. She was more than happy, and told me that my cousin J will be there too. I haven't seen J since my brother's college graduation - 2001?? So that will be nice to see her again. (She's 12 I think.)

I will be arriving in N CA on Tuesday night July 11. Then flying to S CA on Sunday. Then going home by train again. Can you believe I saved $12 by going on a Tuesday instead of a Monday or Wednesday??

Total trip (minus flight since dad/grandma are paying for that) will be $188.00. I priced out flights for the entire itinerary, and it was close to $200 more. I may buy a second extra battery though for my phone because after reading the documentation more carefully, it doesn't look like the trains I'll be on will have very many electrical outlets. Of course I'll probably be sleeping most of the first leg of the trip ...

I am really looking forward to this! I hope that I get to meet with my fellow SA'rs on the 14th.

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I bought a lazer pointer this afternoon, and then preceded to tease Kari with it for nearly 30 minutes. She was quite enthusiastic about it. Well worth the $1.

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The DFW area got some really major storms today. Tornadoes touching down and everything. My good friend TC who is a K teacher at a school I used to work at told me they were in the halls for two-hours! So far everyone I've heard from was fine. I did hear though that the hometown of an ex-bf was hit *really* hard. I texted my mom, but haven't heard back yet. She is probably still in the middle of tutoring right now (tutors 4 - 9 M - TH) so I'm not worried.

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I redeemed the last of my 5 $5 AGCs from SBs today for April. I have almost enough left for the first 3 in May - if I get credit for an offer I took a few days ago, I'll have enough for all 5. Then I can start working on June's.

*I think most of the March charges have come in and have been accounted for (other than the hotel charge.*

Income: 2 paychecks, dad's gift, state income tax refund, SB AGC giftcards

Expenses:

Offering/Tithe: $170
Groceries: $230.78
Eating Out: 49.08
Phone/Internet: 129.01
Netflix: 8.65
Life Insurance (1 yr premium): 194.50
Prescriptions: $23
Miscelaneous: 42.02
Kari (cat): 40.07
Library: 369.65
Entertainment: 18.52
Gas: 71.13

Savings/Rainy Day
ROTH : 100.00 (300/1500 goal)
EF: 130.94 (1853.75/5000 goal)
Car Fund: 250 (500/5000 goal)
iPhone: 15 (75/210 goal)
Summer Travel: 190 (190/500 goal)

ROTH + EF savings is more than 10% of income this month, but definitely not where I'd like it to be. Part of the reason it's less this month is because I spent more than I'd planned on my two-day trip, and partly because I spent more than I'd planned on books at the book fair. (Otherwise I'd have an additional $258 from tax refund put into savings.)

I also am now starting to divert some of my funds into travel savings/spending categories, so my total % saved (actual savings with no spending goal in mind) is going to go down.

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Groceries/Eating Out - Ugh. Double ugh. I *must* get a handle on this. A big part of the expenses is that I didn't really budget for my two-day trip. When I decided that I was going to postpone the trip I *really* wanted to do for Spring Break, I kind of stuck my head in the sand about planning money for what I'd do instead.

*Must Not Stick Head in Sand!!*

Life Insurance: This is a $50k 20 year term policy. It will expire when I'm 56. I got it partially so that if anything happens to me my funeral expenses are covered. Now of course with Kari, it will also help cover the expenses of whoever takes her in. I figure by the time I'm 56 I'll have enough other assets to definitively cover both instances (funeral expenses and pet care.)

*I had forgotten about this coming up ... so it also came out of what would have been savings this month. I now have set up a category for it so I'll be ready next March and not have to dip into that months savings!

Miscellaneous: A humidifier, a PIF, and an app. *I realized as I was doing this that a $64 hotel charge has not been accounted for. I thought that the first $40 had already been charged, but I can't find
where I accounted for it. (The last $20 is for the pet fee. My coworker paid me for her part + the pet fee in cash.)

Kari: food, toys

Library - hawaiian leis for book fair, food for the book fair, books from book fair, etc.

Entertainment - "Hunger Games", audible.com, app

Gas - two fill ups

Overall, I'm doing okay. It still looks like I'll be able to make my savings goals for this year. I need to be careful though, and watch my spending more closely. **NO more overspending in the library category!!**

This morning I woke up feeling like death warmed over, but had to get up so I could meet the truck picking up the book fair stuff. They were estimated to arrive at 10, but I figured I should be there no later than 9:30 just in case they got there early. They got there at a bit after 12!!!

Oh well, I used the time wisely and got a good bit done in picking the library up and got most of our new books cataloged (ones bought from the book fair for our library.)

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When I got home I got several loads of laundry done, and a load of dishes. I also took out a couple bags of trash from around the house, swept the whole place, and scrubbed the bathroom.

My pastor and his family are coming for a visit on Friday .... Motivation!!

Kari wasn't quite sure what to make of all my activity, not a usual occurrence here.

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Well, in the midst of all this activity, I found an envelope on the floor and was about to toss it in the trash bag. Thankfully I decided to look inside of it first ... there was a $10 bill!! It was money someone had given me back in September to pay me back for covering their meal - I'd totally forgotten about it.

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On Sunday a co-worker and I went to G and saw Hunger Games and ate at Golden Corral. I wasn't too enthused about seeing it, but in the end I actually did like the movie and am now probably going to read the books.

I also saw a preview for Men In Black 3 coming out Memorial weekend -- now that, that I AM majorly enthused about! (So May will have two hotties out in movies - Will Smith and Robert Downey Jr (Avengers) -- May will be my happy movie month.

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Tomorrow my coworker and I are heading off to Taos and Santa Fe. We are probably going to drive straight to Taos and do sightseeing, then head back to Santa Fe where our hotel is reserved. We may stop at a hot springs and go for a dip on our way too.

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It looks like I will not be needed to make the trip Friday night for the school kids in the state science fair. Whew! I wasn't looking forward to that (the driving nor the gas money.)

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I was going to go into G today to return the unused food from the book fair, but my coworker pointed out that I could return it at the other Walmart on our way to Santa Fe ... so that saved me a trip.

It looks like I'll be going into April with a mostly full gas tank (after 2nd fill up.) That's good since I'll need that money to help pay for gas on our two-day road trip!

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It sure is going to be hard for me to get up at a regular time again next week!

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I cashed in 7500 Mypoints today for a $50 Amazon gift card.

I also got my internet payment switched over to my Discover card. It gives me 2% cash back for paying my internet bill on it.

Well ... the good news is that we met AND exceeded our $2700 goal for the book fair! The total is just a bit over $2800. So that means that SrN will be dressing up in a clown suit -- we did not make the higher goal of $3000 which would have meant two teachers dressing in tutu's and me dying my hair temporarily purple.

I did spend my own money to help bump us up over the goal, however the majority of the books are ones I would have bought anyway. They were priced right (even when compared to Amazon) and if I waited to purchase them through the resource catalog, I would have had to pay shipping.

We will be taking the cash option, which gives us about $640! I already have ideas on how that money will be used - $60 or so of it will be used to purchase some books for this year (from a box of books we already have at the school - 6 books.) The remainder of it will go to purchase 3 or 4 Junior Library Guild subscriptions for next school year. That will basically give us 3 or 4 new books each month.

I have also spoken with the person who will be principal next year (it's official! I'm very happy with who it is) and she's ok'd a Fall book fair instead of a spring one. I think we might have done even better with having a day for previewing by all classes (which we lost due to the snow day this year.) Also, having it in the fall instead of the spring will help it to not be *right* on the heels of the yearbook deadline - AND people will be thinking of Christmas gifts about that time ...

$$I bought $258 worth of books. Graphic novels, novels, picture books, sports books, etc. I think they'll all be great additions to our library. Of course this wasn't really planned spending ... so I guess my state tax refund could cover it.

Oh - I wanted to let the person know who sent Crank (novel in verse) to me that I got it this week! Thank you!!

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At our teacher meeting on Wednesday I found out that summer school (our portion at least) will be from June 18 - July 6. That was good and bad news. Good, because it means an extra week of pay (at $30/hr from the county), but bad because I'd already gotten my dad excited thinking I'd make it out to CA for his birthday.

Thankfully he was understanding and not too disappointed. I decided that I'll go to my brother's first, and then after the SA meet up, will head down to my dad's. I was going to take the train, but my dad and grandma insisted on covering the cost of a flight (from my brother's to my dad's). Can't say that I'm fighting them too hard on that -- I'll treat them to a meal at Cheesecake factory or something.

TR, our principal to be, told me yesterday that she'd like me to do some classroom teaching for summer school - more specifically math!! I just about choked on my own tongue ... she clarified that it would be remedial math ... I swallowed really hard and in my most cheerful voice said I'd be willing to help wherever and however was most needed. Oy vey! There's a reason I taught first and second grade most of my teaching career ... and that the highest grade I taught where I was responsible for math was 5th grade ... Deep breath .. I can do this ... just have to take the book home and try to stay ahead of the lessons!!

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What sold the most at our fair (besides the junky items and posters ...) were Star Wars related books and of course Hunger Games related books. We didn't have ANY basketball related books/posters, which of course is what a lot of the boys were asking for. We actually sold out of one of the cookbooks (for adults) and I had many adults comment on Nicholas Sparks book Lucky One (coming out as a movie soon - never had heard of it previously though I love Sparks!) I had many comments on how much more selection we had, and how nice it looked. That was a relief to me, because I was so afraid that it was too crowded to be workable -- but it did work!

My 8th graders helped to set up the whole thing in 2 hours (and then I spent a few hours by myself doing finishing touches), and then it took us only 20 minutes to break everything down and put it away for the truck to pick up on Tuesday. One of the girls said when we were done - "it looks like a library again!"

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It looks pretty positive that I'll have an assistant next year. More than likely it will be our current Technology Coordinator. She's been having some bad seizures, etc and has been told that she MUST limit her screen time to no more than an hour or so per day. We get along really well, and I know she is intelligent and works hard -- so I can definitely give her plenty to do that will have nothing to do with computers! I really really hope that this is approved!!!

Monkey Mama's blog about life insurance reminded me that this was about the time last year that I got some. Then I was looking at my various credit cards, and I saw that I'd been charged my yearly premium. --Something I'd forgotten to include in my budget. Oops.

Then today I went into town and did some grocery shopping - both for myself, and for the book fair. On Monday (if we don't have a snow day!!!) I'm having refreshments for the teachers during the teacher preview. Then on Tuesday (again, if we don't get the monster storm predicted ...) I've promised to provide snacks for my mid-school helpers.

I also stopped at the Party store, Big Lots and Family Dollar ... all in search of cheap plastic tablecloths to cover the various boxes so I can put them on the tables. The least expensive one I found was $3.25. Ugh! I think I'm going to try just cutting one of the tablecloths provided in half (I get to keep them) and then if that works ok, I'll do the same to the rest of them. Total budget buster today of about $95 between Walmart and the other stores.

At Party City I did see they had some luau themed table trimmers .... at $20 each. NOT!!!! My tables will go undecorated thank you very much!

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Today we did the set up for the book fair. I had 5 8th graders and two 6th graders helping me. They all worked hard for most of the two hours they were with me. On paper my plan for the setup seemed like it would work really well, but in reality ... it is really really crowded. I'm going to have to go in there on Sunday and spend a few hours++ to see if I can figure out how to get a better flow to the whole thing. Next year I hope to have the book fair in the fall (to potentially avoid snow days!!) and I hope to see if I can have it in someplace larger than the library.

I really hate to think how long it would've taken me to setup what we have done by myself ...

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I got my leis yesterday from amazon, which was relief. (Although at this moment I'm afraid they are buried somewhere in the library classroom ...)

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Today when I was in town, I decided to stop by Carl Jr's and get a shake (was really thirsty and out of water ... justify....) This white truck pulled up behind me with three people in it, and I was struck with the urge to do a PIF. So I told the lady at the window that I wanted to take care of the people behind me ... figuring it would be at least $20. After I got on the highway I looked at my receipts ... they'd gotten a small drink ... $1.50. LOL! (The only reason I share this is due to my expecting the bill to be so much more than it was. Too funny not to share.)

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I think that this month I'm going to be doing good to save 20% of my income ... I guess that is okay, as long as it doesn't become a recurring theme. I'm not going anywhere in April (well, at least I don't think I am ... we do have a 4 day weekend -i.e. Easter - so who knows what might happen then ..) and May also shouldn't be too spendy (I hope!!)

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I'm really looking forward to my July trip. It already was going to be good, getting to spend time with my brother and other family, but now with the SA get together, it'll be awesome!!!

Today when I got home I checked ING just in case.... and found that my state tax refund had come in finally!! Yay!

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Today at school I was talking with one of the Navajo teacher assistants and she told me that the 8th grade teacher had a Roset@t@a St@ne program that teaches the Navajo language!! I had no idea that such a thing was available. I Googled it, and after much searching around I finally found it.

There are two options - Online subscription for $75/yr with no included headphones/microphone; or a one-time purchase of the software w/included headphones/microphone for $200 +$45 shipping.

I am very interested in this. If I really do end up staying here for a good number of years, I think it would be very good for me to know the language very well. This way I can learn it on my own, and then see if I can find people to practice it with in person. I'm kind of leaning towards the online subscription, because I think I could find a good pair of headphones/microphone for $50 or less. So I could subscribe online for 3 years and still come out ahead of buying the package deal.

I'm going to think about this some more, and perhaps talk to the 8th grade teacher and see if she's found it to truly be valuable or not.

Any suggestions as to a good pair of headphones/microphone for a computer? Really, I think I would only need the microphone aspect since I don't have to worry about anyone else being disturbed by it. I could use the cheap microphones I got from Walmart a few months back, but their quality isn't that great (hence the $8 price.)

What do ya'll think?

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I submitted the yearbook Monday night at 6:41 PM!! Yahoo! I'm glad I decided to go over it ONE more time before submitting, because I realized that one of the staff members had been left off the staff page!! I had his picture, but had just forgotten to check the box saying "use this picture." Oy vey!!

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All the materials for the book fair came this morning - thankfully about ten minutes before my first class came in. 7 carts full, plus boxes on top. Wow. We aren't setting up until Friday afternoon.

I really hope that we don't get snow Monday night (4" are predicted!!!) Our first sale day is Tuesday - it also is parent/teacher conferences.

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Today I wore my hair in a side braid. I like to braid my hair sometimes, but had not done it here so far (at least not where I wore it to work.) I had SO many adults and kids compliment me. I even had one of my 6th graders tell me that it made me look younger (not that that is exactly something I care to hear ... but I thought that was funny.)

I might just do a braid more often.

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I've been showing my classes the Book Fair video this week for class. Most of them seem to have been pretty interested in it. Some have had more reactions than others. Both my 7th and 8th grade classes got free time on the computers after checking out books - something neither grade had gotten at all this year. I hadn't realized that til yesterday - so I figured it wouldn't hurt.

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My Spring Break seems to be filling up little by little. At first I'd been planning on it being rather low-key and home bound. But now I have a two day road trip with a co-worker, and then I have agreed to go with our students who qualified for State (Science) the second weekend of break. It'll probably just be that Friday night to make sure that any papers that need to be signed are, but it'll still make for a late night.

I normally wouldn't agree to do something like this on the Sabbath, but there are several reasons I decided to: 1. It's the first time our school has had students qualify for State, and they need someone from our school there supporting them; 2. The mid-school science teacher, not knowing that kids would qualify for State nor when it would be, had already made plans with friends in Phoenix for that weekend - two of whom are flying in *just* to see her -- so co-worker was majorly stressed about choosing to not go to the planned for weekend (6 months in the works) or not going to be there for the kids, and 3. I'm pretty much the only teacher who'll be around that weekend.

I'm hoping that most of it can be taken care of before sunset (especially now that the sun sets after 7 p.m.) but if not, I'm not going to stress about it. I feel like I'll be doing a good deed.

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I ordered the Hawaiian leis for the book fair today. I'll be giving one to each person that buys something on Tuesday. I tried calling our local party store this morning to find out if they had any or not, but I never could get an answer. I'd been planning on ordering from Oriental, but the cost of the leis ($16.99) + the cost of 3-5 day shipping ($15) was more than I could get them for on Amazon. So, I ordered them from Amazon for $24, with guaranteed delivery by this Thursday. I also ordered the book "Bad News for Outlaws" which a student has been asking me about over and over ...

My giftcard balance was down to $13.xx, but then I had my AGC come in from irazoo and from Swag, so I am back up to $23.

I also got my payment from Beezag a few days ago - so I have $8 in Paypal that I need to transfer over to put in my EF.
==

We have a bit of a scary situation here. Last night some gunmen shot and killed a number of people. It's not on the news - but people say they (the gunmen) started near our town, then went up to G, and are now out and about on the reservation. There's a rumor that they might do more shootings tonight. Schools in G had a two-hour delay and then were on lock down all day. We had quite a few students absent - quite possibly due to the shootings. Hopefully these people will be caught soon so everyone can breathe a bit easier.

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I never did get a call in to a dentist - but my tooth/teeth are feeling better. Who knows what is going on - just glad it's gone for now.

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I've been watching season one of Crossing Jordan on Netflix the past few days. Jill Hennesey is so awesome. I didn't remember Woody being so ... different when he was first introduced.

On Tuesday (I think) I applied for a Discover card, mainly to get the 3600 SBs (translates into $40 of Amazon gift cards). I was credited on Wednesday - So yesterday and today I redeemed 1800 of them for 4 $5 AGCs.

Today I had two more of my AGC's from SBs come in, bringing my total in my Amazon account to $25. If I can control myself from spending my balance, I'll have around $60 in gift cards within a few weeks. Nice.

Of course I have a list of books I'd like to get a mile long ...

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Over Christmas I'd opened an Ebanking account with BofA. The thrust of it was that to avoid any fees, there must be NO interaction with a teller by *anyone.*

There were two reasons I opened this account; 1 - I needed a bank with an ATM nearby to deposit cash and checks, and 2 - I needed a way for my dad to be able to deposit his "gifts" easily. And of course, I wanted to do away with the monthly fees that Compass had started charging.

So both the person who opened this account and I explained to my dad that he *could not* use the teller at the bank to make a deposit into this account. He had to do an online transaction - which he was walked through.

He's made two deposits since then - both of them via the teller. I can't say that I was surprised.

Today though when I checked my account, I saw that a monthly maintenance fee had been charged. So I chatted with an online customer service rep to confirm the reason for it. After she confirmed that it was due to the two teller transactions, she asked me if I had anything else she could help me with.

I jokingly replied, "Sure, you could reverse the fee for me!"

And .... She did!!

I know it is unlikely to get my dad to make further deposits via an online transaction unless I am there walking him through it step by step a few times, so I'm going to ask him to just send me checks as long as he continues to "gift" me.

I can deposit them easily via PayPal, and thus avoid the $8.95 monthly charge.

---

I still haven't received my state tax refund. I need to see if I can figure out if they have some kind of website with an estimate. I'm anxious to add it to my savings!!

In my effort to be more consistent with taking care of my finances and to be more accountable, I am sharing my end of the month budget recaps and thoughts.

*I use YNAB 3 to track my income and outflow. The money I budget to spend in February was earned in January (other than gifts or tax refunds which I budget to the current months savings.)

*Categories with overspending are generally funded by "Whack a Mole" - i.e. taking money from other categories which are "plump" and can withstand losing a few dollars.

* I put everything I possibly can on credit cards, and pay them off in full each month (usually two weeks before the due date.)

Inflow:

2 paychecks, Tax Refund, Gift Money, Swagbucks AGCs

Expenses:

Tithe: $150
Offering: $20
Groceries: $176.32 ($56.32 over budget)
Restaurants: $32.77 (2.33 under)
Phone/Internet: $130.98
Netflix: $8.97
Doctor/Dentist: 47.80
OTC Meds: 6.90
Kari (Pet): 9.00
Library: $166.08 ($150.08 over budget!)
Miscelaneous: $26.62
Entertainment: 30.20
Gas: 29.51
Car Insurance: $155.10
ROTH: $800

Savings:
EF: 933.67 (1757.81/5,000 goal)
CarFund: 250 (250/5,000 goal)
iPhone: $15.00 (60/215 goal)

*EF savings represents roughly 39% of total inflow.


Expenses:

Groceries: It really should have been a much cheaper month than
last month. However, I succumbed to the lure of the
nearby stores more than once. Also, I bought some things to
contribute to a bake sale, and then of course bought some stuff
at said bake sale ... For March I am setting my budget at $150
and hope to actually meet that, even with the longer month.

Restaurants: $20 gift card, plus several cheese subs at local sub shop.

Phone/Internet: I think this will be the cost going forward. If I could find a cheaper internet service, I would. Unfortunately, this is it here.

Netflix: After not using Netflix in January, I realized that it was much cheaper and simpler to just do Netflix.

Doctor/Dentist: This was partially a co-pay from a doctor visit this month, and partially paying the remaining amounts due on previous visits (after insurance paid.)

OTC Meds: After finding out that NM refunds the cost of prescription meds and copays, I decided to seperate any OTC purchases. This is stocking up on generic Nyquil.

Kari (pet): dry and wet food

Library: This is 3 technology programs, 4 point and shoot cameras film processing, and a $1.01 balance after gift card for a book.

Miscelaneous: GPS app subscription (1 yr) and State Tax efile fee

Entertainment: 2 movie rentals (physical), 1 month reduced fee audible . com (probably am going to cancel), and $11 worth of music from iTunes ($.69 cent songs)

Gas: Somehow I managed with one tank of gas again this month. I only went to church 2 x, which is probably why. This was one of the places I "whacked a mole" from to cover my overspending in other areas.

Car Insurance: my 6 month premium (I set aside money monthly for this)

Retirement: My normal $100 plus an extra $700 to take advantadge of the savers credit

Savings:

EF: Most of this comes from the tax refund since I used part of what I'd normally put here to fund my ROTH.

CarFund: This is where I've decided to put the money sent to me by my dad each month until the EF is funded.

iPhone: This category may need to be speeded up ... am going to give my current phone another week to see if any more issues occurr.

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All in all not the best month. I still need to get the grocery category under control. I have plenty of food in the house - there truly is no need for me to get more between grocery store trips. I am truly thankful the closest pizza delivery place is 35 miles away - otherwise it might be worse.

The library budget is also a black hole. But ... it is much much better than it was a few months ago. A few months ago that is where most of the money was going which should have been going to savings instead.

I can't remember now if I mentioned an incident that happened on Friday in the library or not (brain dead right now a bit ...) but it has caused me to learn something about the Navajo culture - or at least the traditional Navajo culture.

On Friday I usually have the 6th graders from 11:15 - 12:15 and then from 12:40 - 1:40. However, due to the Science Fair, I was not going to have them in the afternoon. So I had each group for 30 minutes - just to check out books.

Towards the end of the second groups checkout time the majority of students were seated at the table reading or looking at yearbooks (one of their favorite things to do - look at old yearbooks.) A few were still up and browsing. One 6th grade boy spied a pair of safety scissors on top of the bookshelf and for whatever reason decided it would be a great idea to snip off a small piece of a girls hair.

When he realized that he'd done something *really* stupid by the reactions of those around him (and the girl), he decided to compound his poor decision making skills by cutting a bit of his own hair. I checked the girls hair, as did the TA and neither of us could tell that any hair was cut (nor did I see any hair on the floor.) The girl involved did not appear to be visibly upset, especially after the TA and I both told her that we couldn't see anything actually cut. I had the boy sit down at the table (he was acting quite contrite.)

Later at lunch I noticed the girl crying in the bathroom with several other girls surrounding her, and SrD talking with the boy involved. I explained to SrD what I'd seen happen and that I really didn't think the girl had lost any hair, but the boy did cut a small piece of his own.

I didn't hear anything more about it due to the Science Fair (I was a judge.) Then tonight I learned on FB through a post of one of the mid-school teachers that in strongly traditional Navajo culture (which this girls family is), having your hair cut is akin to losing power and being in danger (no matter how little is cut - a cut is a cut). The only way to restore this power/safety is through an expensive ceremony (at least $150+). The boy (also Navajo) does not come from a strongly traditional home and so did not realize the seriousness of what he'd done til after the fact.

The grandmother/guardian of the girl is one of our TA's. I'm thinking of giving her $50 towards the cost of the ceremony. Partly because I feel bad that this happened on my watch, but also partly because I know she can hardly begin to afford the ceremony. (She's taking care of at least 3, maybe 4 grandchildren as their sole support and guardian. She makes quite a bit less than I do.)

I've been reassured that this is not reflecting badly on me, although that was not a major concern (somewhat of a concern, but not major.) I am however putting away the scissors when I get in tomorrow!

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All the teachers rode busses again today. The bus I rode on today ... well... it put me in mind of an extended version of a wooden roller coaster ride minus the hills and valleys. The housing conditions were amongst the worst I've seen since coming here. The driver told me of one place we didn't go today due to the student being absent - the student doesn't have running water at her home, so she showers at the thrift store (near the school) every day before school. The area around her home is also akin to a junkyard. They do have electricity, but apparently the ground is too rocky to dig water lines or a well.

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I cashed in my Beezag points this weekend and should have the $8 cash by Friday or so. I also received 2 $5 AGC's from Swagbucks, and redeemed points for 2 more (making 5 total for February.) I also redeemed points on Irazoo for a $5 AGC. I didn't get in on any of the birthday codes today ... oh well.

I'm within a few 100 points of redeeming MyPoints for a $50 Walgreens gift card.

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I watched all of FlashForward this weekend on Netflix. I'd watched the first couple episodes when it was on network tv, but then got too busy with schoolwork and tutoring to keep up with it. It was good - too bad it didn't get a second season.

This weekend I also got all of my color laundry done and my towels. I still need to do my whites/sheets. I was going to do them tonight ... oh well.

The next couple of days will be long ones. Tomorrow and probably Thursday I'll be staying til 5:30 to keep the computer lab open for kids wanting to finish their media projects (due Monday and Tuesday of next week.) Wednesday is our last home basketball game of the season, so I'll probably volunteer at the concession stand. Whatever is happening on Friday, I'm going to be home by 4.

This weekend I missed church due to oversleeping. Kari woke me around 8 a.m. demanding I feed her. So after feeding her I went back to bed. My alarm should've gone off at 8:30, but for whatever reason it didn't. The next thing I knew it was 2:00 p.m. Ooops. I don't want that to happen again this coming Saturday, so I need to make sure I get to bed early on Friday night.

Ok, I'm rambling now, so this is a good time to sign off!

Today was our teacher in-service. I got up and talked a bit about the upcoming book fair, as well as the yearbook. One of the things I mentioned is that I'd like to make a goal to sell $200 more than we did last year, but wasn't sure what wild or crazy thing I could offer to do (or teachers would be willing to do) if the kids made the goal. Someone spoke up that they had a clown costume, and then our principal offered to wear it for a day!! Way cool! Too bad it will happen after the yearbook is put to bed - but the newspaper can still cover it.

In the afternoon I had a couple hours to just work in the media center. I got all my grades caught up and did my written Feb lesson plans (and March) that I have to turn in on Tuesday. I decided to keep the other stuff I need to do for Sunday (mainly reshelving books.)

Then I went to the PO where to my *very ecstatic* joy, I found that my voice mail had not gone unheard from a week ago. My final W-2 from my summer job had arrived!! Woo Hoo! I was thinking of going straight home and doing my taxes , but then I saw one of my coworkers pull in. She told me she was WAY stressed (she's the science teacher, science fair is next week) and needed desperately to go into G to relax and rewind.

So she and I went into G and ate at Sizzler (I used my giftcard) and then I helped her have her first experience of depositing a check at an ATM, and then we went to Walmart. I got my groceries for the rest of February, as well as cat food (wet, dry and treats). I haven't calculated it all out yet, but I think I may have gone over my grocery budget a little bit.

(I spent a total of $41.xx, but about $9 of it was cat stuff - so that comes out of Kari's budget and not the grocery budget.)

My friend and I are going to go into to ABQ on Monday. She wants to do some computer shopping and do some other stores as well. I'm more than happy to salivate over computers plus we'll stop at a party store to see if they have leis cheaper than Oriental Trading (they have 100 leis for $11.99.) Going there on Monday just means I'll have to get everything done for Tuesday on Sunday. I think I'll either offer to fill her car up, or just give her $10 for gas money. It'll be nice to be out and about in a big town.

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I have enough SBs to buy another AGC now, and am getting closer and closer to cashing out on the other places.

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One thing my coworker told me that seriously shocked me -- the PE teacher/coach has decided to stay another year. He's been moaning and groaning *a lot* the *WHOLE* year on FB about how much he hates it here and wishes he was somewhere with real clubs, etc. He apparently has really high child support payments and doesn't have another job to go to .. so he's staying here. Real good reason to stay somewhere you hate.

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I'll probably do my taxes tomorrow night, and then finish my audible book. It will feel so good to have them done and know for sure how much I'm getting back!

Today we actually had school even though there still was quite a bit of snow still on the ground. I only had my 4 year olds and first graders in the library. Mass was canceled so that teachers could use the time to get caught up on two days worth of missed classes (and I think the priest was sick.)

At breakfast the 6th grade teacher/science teacher asked me if I could I could help her out by finding print resources for about 20 kids' science fair projects. She'd gotten an email from the head person of the organization telling her that their resources (amongst other things) needed to be corrected by the end of today.) I said I'd be happy to help. I was able to find sources for most of the projects, but there were a few that I could not find anything at all on. I worked on it right up to 4:45 when I had to stop to get ready for the webinar.

The webinar was for Scho lastic in regards to the upcoming book fair. I earned $25 in Scho $ for participating. It lasted 95+ minutes. Ergh. I just kept reminding myself of the two or three books I'll be able to get ...

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I ended up signing up for audible yesterday. I looked at all the various deals, and ended up going through SBs and doing the $7.49/mo for 3 months deal. I bought the newest Nevada Barr book (Anna Pigeon series) for my first month, and will buy #17 and #18 of Stephanie Plum with the next two months. Then the cost goes up to $14.95 and I won't be willing to spend that much of my entertainment money on an audio book, so will probably cancel. I'm about 3/4 through with the Nevada Barr book - loving it.

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My mom called me yesterday shortly after I wrote about being so bored. That kind of helped to break the boredom (sort of - that + listening to my new book.) I told my mom about my idea of visiting dad this summer and her over Christmas - she *really* liked that idea ... I haven't brought it up to my dad yet because every time I talk to him he either has Grandma with him or his good friend Sweetie Petey.

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I was so tired and hungry tonight that I gave in and stopped at the sandwich shop/gas station tonight. I bought a foot long sub and two cookies (will be supper tomorrow night too.) $8.10 I need to record what I've spent on food between today and Tuesday so I have an accurate amount for this weekend when I do my final February grocery trip. I'll probably use my Sizzler gift card to eat before or after the movie (which I'll be using the Valentine's money from my mom for - partly anyway.)

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I'm *very* close to cashout on Beezag, Irazoo, MyPoints and Swagbucks.

Can't believe I'm saying this, but I am really and truly bored. I went to bed around 8 last night not feeling very well. I came *this* close to buying the audiobook of Evanovich's 17 because I didn't want to read with my eyes open, but thought I could stand to listen to a book - the $23.95 price tag stopped me in my tracks though. I ended up going to sleep pretty quickly anyway.

I've read a book already today, and earned around 100 Swagbucks via the dailys and SBtv (while reading.) The snow seems to be melting and it seems like cars are going out and about. I'm really tempted to go into G and play a bit. I have a gift card for a restaurant there, and the $20 my mom sent me ... so I could do dinner and a movie ... I'd rather wait til Monday though in a way (when I'd kind of planned on doing something like that anyways ..)

Man, if I'm this bored right now, I wonder how I'm going to do over Spring Break ... especially since I've already decided to not do the trip I'd thought about doing until next year. There's lots of things I *could* be doing, and probably *should* be doing, just no motivation to do them. lol!

What a strange week this is turning out to be. We're going to end up having only two days of school this week because Friday is a teacher inservice day. Tomorrow won't be much of a real school day either between Mass and President's Day assembly. I'll only have two of my four Thursday classes. That'll be good in a way so I can prepare for my presentation on Friday - will be talking about the seminar I went to in January and also talking about the Book fair coming up. As the 6th grade teacher noted astutely on last Friday after I got in front of mid-school to make a couple of announcements - I don't like talking in front of people very much.(Which is partly why she and I laughed really hard a few weeks ago when I was in her classroom and she asked me to make some comments about the 6th graders presentations, and I just said - you said it well enough. She responded - there's a shy one (or something like that) and one of the 6th graders was like, "Miss N? Shy?!" Later we laughed so hard about how incredulous they were about the possibility of me being shy. If they only knew.)

I probably should shovel off my porch. There's probably a good 6 inches of snow on it right now. Though most of it probably will be melted before night fall (hopefully.) I had fun getting my door opened yesterday around 4:15 - already a good couple of inches at that time. I could also use this time to do some cleaning, or to do some cooking, or, or, or, or .... Yech.

When I stopped at the PO yesterday (for 5 minutes and had to scrape my windows when I came out) I got a couple Valentines cards from family (including the $20 from my mom) and the latest book I ordered from Amazon (with SB gift cards!) It was one of the books that I learned about at the seminar, and that I think will be perfect for one of my 8th grade boys - Hidden. It's a novel told in two styles of free verse. I'm thinking maybe I could read that this afternoon ... hmm...

Ok, enough rambling (can you tell how bored I am yet???) I wish I could do my taxes today, but I'm STILL waiting on the w-2 from my summer job processing insurance forms. I've emailed and called trying to get across that my address changed, and I received a phone call back on Friday (which I returned promptly to voicemail.) I guess I could call that person again and see if anything is happening. Next year's taxes will be so much easier - no tutoring income, no two states to worry about, and much easier places to get W-2's from (one, possibly two places if I get to do summer school here - the county pays for that instead of the mission.)

Ok, for spring break I really need to make some concrete plans of what I'm going to do otherwise all the money I'm supposedly saving from not taking the trip I wanted to do isn't going to happen.

STOP!!! Enough rambling!~!

We had a snow day today! Even though the forecast said there'd be no snow accumulation and that the snow'd stop by 8 a.m., they were wrong! The snow didn't stop til nearly 11 a.m. and there was maybe 2+ inches. It of course was mostly melted by 3 p.m. I had a nice day so far - read two books, did some Swagbucks (got one $5 AGC, bought another one, and have nearly 200 SBs towards my next one) and am going to watch a movie in a bit - maybe two.

Yesterday I made the decision to purchase a couple of all in one technology programs to finish out the year. TechnoKids programs are something I've looked at since last summer, but hadn't bought any. I'm planning on having my 7th/8th graders do website creation once we're finished with our current project - so one of the programs I bought has a unit all laid out about creating a website with HTML. I could have designed it myself, but that would have been a good 20 hours or more of work, which I really don't have. (although if I'd known we were going to have a snow day today, I might have gotten quite a bit done on a unit of my own ...) At any rate, I do feel it is worth it. I may ask SrN if there are any funds in the technology fund to reimburse me, but I'm not holding my breath. ($100 for 3 programs, 3rd/4th, 5th/6th, 7th/8th)

Otherwise this whole weekend I pretty much took it easy. Friday at school I was starting to feel like I might be coming down with the flu, so decided to take it real easy just in case. I'm feeling much better than I did on Friday, so I guess the extra sleep worked.

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I have also been trying this whole weekend to get Kari relaxed enough to clip her nails. I set the nail clippers (cat nail clippers) on the computer desk. I don't know how, but she seemed to have a sense of what they were, because she did not like the look of them at all! Every time she's on my lap, even when totally relaxed, she makes sure that her front paws are out of my reach. The few times they aren't, the moment I go for them, she hides them away. Ugh. I really, really need to clip her claws. My hands and arms look like battlefields.

Today I received a reimbursement of $497.27 for the seminar expenses from the county. I thought that was pretty darn fast! It has been added to my Emergency Fund. I also received money from my dad (I've told him to stop sending it to me, that I have a job and am not in school anymore ... this money is going to a new fund ... take care of the parents someday fund ...)


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I checked my Paypal account today to see if the check I took a picture of a few weeks ago had been deposited yet. It was in my account on Feb. 3, and I have now made a transfer to my ING account. Oh, and now that I know how to take good pictures of checks, it only took me one try to "deposit" my reimbursement check.

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I looked online about how to fix a corrupt itunes file (the movie I attempted to download yesterday) and it looks like this is a common thing. I tried all the suggested fixes, but nothing has worked so far. So I'm going to see if I can get a refund. Very annoying because I actually really wanted to see the movie!

Oh well.

When I got home today from working at the school (fixing the grading program that was messed up Friday) I looked under the driver's seat for whatever reason. Guess what was there! My $20 bill that I thought was gone forever. Yahoo! I will be so happy to be rid of the cash in my purse so I have no more chances of losing it.

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It took me about 2 hours today to recreate the spreadsheet that was totally messed up on Friday afternoon. All I can say is .. nobody but me from now on is messing with those spreadsheets!

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Saturday I made the mistake of venturing to Walmart - not only the night before Superbowl, but the first weekend of the month when everyone's gotten paid. Yikes!

I spent a bit under $50, but feel pretty stocked up for the next two weeks. I will have absolutely NO more visits to Family Dollar or the mom and pop grocer here - one exception - may need another can of wet cat food (though maybe I can have Kari go without the wet stuff for a few days, or just give her smaller portions ...)

I also filled up with gas - $3.09 - a bit over $28 in all.

Then I went to Walgreens to pick up the photos a friend dropped off for me yesterday. The photos were from 4 of the 6 cameras that I'd given the journalism kids. $60!!! later I had the photos. I'd say of the 4 sets, maybe 15 photos are usable. Next year I am going to insist on getting a couple inexpensive digital cameras for the journalism class. It would be a whole lot less expensive!!!

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I finally watched the two DVDs I've rented twice - they were due back today. Post Grad and 500 Days of Summer - I liked both of them. I stopped by the video store to return them, but it was locked up tight. I'll have to be sure to get by there tomorrow.

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I rented a cute movie (All About Steve) from iTunes (I saw previews of it on one of the movies - Sandra Bullock). I've tried downloading it several times now, but it keeps saying the file is corrupted so won't download. I'm not sure if I should try from my phone, or see if I can get a refund. (Netflix doesn't have it except on DVD.)

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I redeemed points for a $5 AGC on SBs yesterday. The last 30 points were earned via SBTV while reading a book.

Now have 400 or so to go to another one.

On irazoo (similar to SB) I'm about 600 points away from a card (need 3000 for them) I mainly just go there when they have treasure codes and then check for videos, etc.

I sure ended up with a character for a cat. Last night I was eating one of those individual pizzas - I'd eaten 3/4's of it and was about to go for the last slice. Kari grabs it off the plate and runs off. I run after her and grab it - but not before she takes a good size chunk!!

Then after I was in bed almost asleep, Kari decides to climb the curtain next to my bed. She loses her grip and falls off - onto me. One of her claws swipes my nose, instantly making me wide awake. It bled for awhile, so I put a bandaid on it. I took the bandaid off this morning and it had stopped bleeding.

This is my nose:


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Yesterday I stayed after school and helped out at the concession stand - we had a home game basketball session. I actually kind of had fun. One of the refs recognized me from church ???? (I didn't recognize him...)

Today I stayed late so some of the mid-schoolers could use the computer lab after school to work on projects which are coming due soon. I had a pretty healthy response - though I think most of them just wanted to listen to music. I let them, as long as they are working productively.

I was supposed to return my two DVDs yesterday ... but it didn't happen. Since I hadn't watched them yet, I decided to re rent them today. I also ended up buying a pretzel . $9! About the same price as a Netflix sub. It'll come out of my entertainment budget, so I'll have to choose between doing Netflix this month or watching "One for the Money" in the theater (I'd been thinking of going to see it over the long weekend.)

I also was really jonesing for some chocolate, so stopped at Family Dollar and picked up some chocolate and some sparkling water (better for me than soda, sorta.) Another $5 ... though this was also partly to break a $20 bill so I'd have change for the game tomorrow (not a home game, but played at the public elementary next door to us.) Excuses, excuses...

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Normally I never use cash, but I had $70 in my purse since Christmas. On Saturday I found a Bofa ATM, but my ATM card was a temporary, so it had expired. Thus I couldn't deposit my cash. So I decided to spend the cash just to get rid of it.

And the reason I hate using cash .... somehow $20 is gone.

I spent just under $30 on Saturday for meds, etc., so that should have left me with $40. All I had in my purse as of Tuesday was a $20. I've searched everywhere I can think of. This stinks donkey balls!

Although it isn't quite the end of January, I don't plan on spending any more money this coming week, so I decided to go ahead and post my accounting. One of my goals this year was to be much more consistent with recording my spending/saving in YNAB, and to facilitate that I plan on posting my monthly spending/savings summary.

Some of the money I spent was from Christmas gifts and was spent for stocking up - also some of the money was spent on a reimbursable seminar trip - I should be getting reimbursed by March (hopefully.)

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January Spending/Savings

Tithe - 150.00
Offering - 10.00
Groceries - 218.57
Restaurants - 39.10
Phone & Internet - 142.41
Household - 66.04
Office - 14.50
Prescription/Medicine - 52.21
Miscelaneous - 360.66
Kari (Pet) - 32.88
Library - 10.90
Entertainment - 11.72
Gas - 32.29
Car Repairs/Maint - 9.51

Savings
ROTH IRA - 100.00
Emergency Fund - 652.93
iPhone 5 Fund - 45.00

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Groceries - I ended up getting a bit lazy with my grocery spending after coming back from the seminar trip - probably accounts for an additional $20. Also included in this amount is my Costco trip, where I used part of a gift card to stock up on food supplies. Next month I hope to keep this category to $100 or less.

Restaurants - This is all reimbursable from my seminar trip.

Phone and Internet - I somehow did not pay December's internet bill, so this represents my normal cell phone bill and two months of internet. (I now have the internet being paid automatically so I won't miss any more deadlines.)

Household - Mostly this is stuff for my dishwasher (soap, etc), stocking up on things at Costco (laundry soap, shampoo, etc.) I won't need any of this again for a long while.

Office - Ran out of black ink for my printer.

Prescriptions/Medicine - This includes my normal monthly medicine (Synthroid) which increased by $2, as well as the generics of Nyquil and Dayquil, a 5 pack of Alavert and a 10 pk of Allegra D. Ugh. I really need to find a cheaper way to handle my allergies.

Miscellaneous - This includes my dishwasher (I was given the money to purchase it), my reimbursable hotel stay, and the watch/face wash which I actually took back to the store (and added to the EF.)

Kari (pet) - This includes stocking up on cat litter (Costco) and also stocking up on wet food (Family Dollar).

Library - Two books I bought in CA on sale.

Entertainment - 4 DVDs I rented, plus $2 in fees for using a CC, and a slurpee. (Have decided to go back to Netflix.)

Gas - I don't remember the last time I spent this little on gas in a month. This represents 1 1/2 fill ups. One was here in my small town, and the half fill up was at Costco. I have about 1/4 tank left right now.

Car Repairs - Lost gas cap at fill up.

Savings

Roth - This is the minimum I can send each month. Until other savings goals are reached, I can't increase this.

Emergency Fund - I lucked out this month on "finding" various amounts of money which hadn't been accounted for previously - which all went to the EF. I also redeemed some credit card rewards points for a statement credit, which I put in the EF. December was a 3 check month, so that helped also.

My goal is to have this funded to $5000 by June, and then move on to working on my car savings.

iPhone 5 - I want to eventually replace my current phone. I hope to have the $200 saved by June.

Rainy Day Funds

Car Insurance, Clothing, Doctor, etc - also all received some funds

Other Income:
Christmas money - (including dishwasher) ~$450.00
Swagbucks - $10 AGCs received

My EF and Roth savings total approximately 40% of my December income. I go by the YNAB philosophy of using last months income to generate this months spending plan. (January is the first month I've been able to allocate BOTH paychecks completely to February's budget plan since I was laid off from my oil and gas job in February 2009. What a great feeling!)

Yesterday I took the day off from work - I hadn't been feeling that great since this past Thursday and had been sleeping as much as possible to try to fight it off. Finally I decided to take a day off - seemed to have helped a bit.

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One of our wonderful SA family messaged me on FB a few weeks ago to ask me if I could use any of the books she was cleaning out. I received the package today (it may have come yesterday ... but I didn't get out of the house then.) Thank you!!

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I called my doctor on Tuesday to see if she'd write me a prescription for generic Allegra D because buying it 10 tablets at a time OTC is extremely expensive and extremely annoying. (I can't get more than 10 tablets at a time because I get the 24 hr kind ... the kind which messed up people think are great for making meth out of - ugh!!)

So I found out today that even the generic of it is not available through prescription anymore. So ... it's ten tablets at a time until the generic comes out OTC. I have been using Nyquil (generic brand) and Alavert 24 hr to try to keep my allergies at bay - but it really isn't healthy to constantly use Nyquil, and Alavert doesn't work all that well for me. I'd tried most of the other allergy meds out there, and the generic of Allegra D is the one that worked best for me. (letting my allergies get ahold of me is the main way I get sick ...)

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I took my two DVDs back to the store today - two days late. I apologized to the store owner -- the nice thing about living in such a small town (and being the librarian where I am) - he forgave me the late fines. (His son goes to my school.) I won't make a habit of it, that's for sure.

However, I am thinking that I am going to reinstate Netflix. Between the two movies I rented earlier, plus the two I rented tonight, I spent nearly $10 (due to a $1 charge for using a credit card.) If I do reinstate Netflix, I'll wait until I really want to watch something. Not having to worry about late fees in itself almost makes it worth it. I still do need to check and see what the library has - although they charge too, so not really that much of a deal over the video store or Netflix.

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I received my W-2 today from the school. I'm still waiting for my W-2 from my summer job. I emailed one of the people I worked with there to find out how to make sure they have my new address. Maybe they'd be willing to email me a PDF.

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I gave all my paperwork for my travel reimbursement to SrN on Tuesday. Today she came by the library while I was just starting class with my second graders and told me it was missing a paper! I looked through my papers, and didn't see it. Thankfully, she called me later and apologized - she'd found it! So she's going to turn it in again to the right people.

I wonder how long it will take to get it?

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I had the opportunity to go to Baltimore, MD next month for 5 days for an Americorp convention -- all expenses paid. I declined and deferred to next year ... mainly because of one of the people going. I was very glad I had declined, because not even a few hours later on FB I saw this person stating that he was going to introduce the other two ladies going to the club scene there. If I'd have gone, I'd have been seen as a wet blanket - having NO desire whatsoever to take part in any kind of club scene. Next year I will go though, and hopefully get to see a good friend of mine who lives in D.C. who I haven't seen since 1994 or so.

We had a bit of a snow/ice storm on Saturday evening. When I went into the school on Sunday afternoon, it was a bit slushy and there was a couple inches by the library steps.

This morning as I was following the mid-schoolers to the chapel, I watched as one of the 8th grade girls slipped and fell on the ice. Silly me took her same exact path - guess I thought if I took it slowly enough ...

Nope. Slipped and did the splits bow legged. Thankfully I wasn't wearing a skirt! Also, thankfully only teachers/adults witnessed my fall! I had several people come up and help me up. Lots of people heard about it and asked me throughout the day if I was ok. Other than my hip and lower back being a bit sore, I am/was fine.

I'm just glad I didn't re-injure my tailbone. (Wincing even at the thought!)

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We are supposed to get more snow/rain/ice tonight and possibly in the morning. If we do, I wouldn't be shocked to get a two-hour delay, or possibly even a snow day (ok, I'd actually be shocked for that - because we're only supposed to get a couple inches.)

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Today I finally introduced my 8th graders to the remainder of the books I'd bought over Thanksgiving. I found out as I was cataloging them yesterday that we already owned two copies. Oy! Before I do my next book shopping extravaganza away from a computer, I must get our cataloging system upgraded -- then I'll be able to have a searchable book app on my phone and can avoid purchasing books we already own.

Anyway, most of the new books I intro'd went right away. One of my students did a book talk on "13 Reasons Why" by Asher. He was the second student to read it (maybe third?) but after he finished I had two girls clamoring to read it next. They actually were trying to take it away from the student who had just renewed it that day.

I was really surprised that some of the boys took out titles which I'd kind of thought only the girls would go for... Sara Dessen/Rebecca Friend/Meg Cabot. Books about relationships and high-school ... maybe that was the draw, high-school. These are definitely books that I won't let anyone under 14 check out. So, some of my 7th graders would qualify, and all of my 8th graders.

I've had several requests for the one Sonya Sones book we don't have - I'd almost purchased it before, but some of the reviews made me question the wisdom. However, as I've been seeing some of the other books in our library, and if I kept it limited to 8th grade ... I'm also looking at the book series that starts with "Crank" -- School Library Journal says 8th grade and up. It was requested by several students today.

Of course, I am all out of gift card money right now, so unless we get another monetary donation ... the kids will have to wait. I just love seeing teenagers (especially boys!) so into books.

One other book I intro'd to the 8th graders a few weeks ago - The Scoripo Races - was checked out for the second time today. (It helps that a fairly popular boy read it and liked it .. he's also the one who did the book talk today) -- It won the Printz Honor today. Printz is an award for outstanding literature for young adults.

The majority of the books which won the various awards and honors today, I have not read. However, as I have Scholastic Dollars or gift card money, I will be changing that.

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Oh! Today at the teacher's meeting SrN said that a donor called and was very upset at hearing about the pre-school being broken into and wanted to know what she could do to help. So SrN pulled out our wish lists and gave the donor some ideas. I'm curious to find out what (if any) items from my list will come. I'd be most estatic about a second slanted book cart - although if I really do end up having an assigned assistant next year, it won't be such a big deal.

Truly though, I'd be ecstatic with anything off the list.

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So ... I've had several spendy days in a row this weekend. Saturday, Sunday and today. Not a whole lot in the grand scheme (maybe $30 worth total) but probably at least $12 of it was completely unnecessary.

I didn't go into the big town for church this weekend - ended up sleeping/resting most of Saturday and part of Sunday. I guess I was really tired (Friday morning I was 5 minutes late for work because I kept pushing Snooze.)

I really need to call my doctor about getting a prescription allergy medicine. One of the things I bought this weekend was a 5 day dosage of Alavert --- $6!! Ugh and double ugh! I don't know if it will work or not for me yet, because I had one dose left of the OTC Allegra D. Will find out tomorrow.

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I also need to contact the company I worked for this summer to make sure they have my current address. Just waiting on their W-2 to do my taxes.

I have all my paperwork put together for my seminar reimbursement -- should be about $468 if they accept all my per diem receipts.

Between the tax refund and my seminar reimbursement, my EF will have a nice boost in February.

Today SrC came back to school. She's been out most of the second semester sick. She was my Secret Santa, so she brought my gift today. It was a $20 gift card to Sizzler and a bag of Reese's Peanut Christmas trees. Yum. Well worth waiting for.

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This afternoon I talked with SrN (principal) about the possibility of having a full time assistant assigned to me. She told me that she'd been considering resplitting the position into computer and library, and letting me have my pick. I told her that I enjoy doing both, but I just don't have enough time to do my best at both. If I had someone assigned to just me that I could train and *count on* and would be accountable to me ... that right there would save me hours of work. Which would make it possible for me to get much more done! It sounded to me like she was agreeable to the idea.

So ... next year I *really* may have an assistant!! (I'd love to steal the 6th grade assistant away - cuz I know he is a hard worker, very computer literate, intelligent, and we get along really well ... but I don't think that will happen.)

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Yesterday I stopped at the local video store to see their prices. I ended up renting two videos - older ones - $1.99/5 days. New releases are $3.99/3 days. I don't see myself getting videos there all that often, but maybe once in a while.

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I sent home overdue notices on Tuesday (well, I gave them to the teachers to send home Wednesday.) Out of about 8 books which I marked "Lost" and added the cost of replacement, as of today, 5 of them have been returned. Amazing what seeing the figure $19.99 next to a book your child checked out and hasn't returned in over two months will do! On Monday we had over 100 books overdue, and as of this afternoon, only 49 are still out. Only one person paid their fines though ... but at least most of the books are back!!

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I showed the 5th and 6th graders a number of book trailers today. It got several kids interested in a book (Because of Mr. Terrupt) that I'd previously book-talked unsuccessfully.
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Don't remember if I mentioned this or not, but on Tuesday night when I filled up my car, I left my gas cap at the station. I didn't realize what I'd done til I got to the hotel. So last night I stopped by the station in the off chance that someone had turned it in. Nope. So I stopped at the auto parts store to see if they had one. The lady there told me that she was getting one in Friday -- of course I remembered this about 15 minutes ago ... after they were closed!
So I guess I'll have to get it on Monday. Hopefully another 60 miles or so of driving without the cap won't hurt my car too much.

And ouch! The replacement cap will be $8.19!!

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I'm going to have to get some more Allegra D OTC tomorrow. My allergies have just been awful lately. I meant to call my doctor today (and yesterday too) to see if she'd prescribe the generic non OTC version (so I could actually get a months supply for less than ten days of OTC Allegra D!) Unfortunately I got way too busy both days to do it.

I'll have to see if she's open in the morning ...

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Oh, I spent my Amazon money, plus $7. One of the books actually came from the donation order, but the original seller couldn't locate a copy. The other two (yes, only two!) were ones recc'd by Judy Freeman -- Press Here and 10 Experiments that Failed. There were a ton of really good books I was tempted by, but these two looked to be most immediately beneficial. (And now I have to wait for my next giftcards .. Could be awhile because Swagbucks has been kind of stingy with search wins the past week or so - both few in number and low in amount. )

Today makes 7 years of blogging here at SA. Who knew when I started way back then that I'd still be doing it now. I've seen so many people come and go - and a few return again. Some who've gone I've really missed their insights - I won't name names because I'm sure to leave out someone! The best thing though is that the general feeling of SA blogs hasn't changed. We are a family, and even when we might not agree with each other, we support each other and defend against those who attempt to be rude or mean.

Love ya guys

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What a great day today was. School went pretty well. Then I was off on my approximately two hour drive with my music blasting. ( Combination of my iPhone and the portable speaker mom gave me for my birthday.) I'm sure I got some interesting comments from truckers as I zipped by singing loudly with Whitney "I will always love you" or with Bette "Under the Boardwalk" or pounding the steering wheel to "walk 500 miles". But who cares, I was having a blast. : D

I got here and checked in. NICE room. Not only do they have a fitness center, but they have an indoor pool. If I would've gone, I could've had two complimentary drinks (I wonder if they would've made me a Roy Rogers?) . Instead though I ate at a CA Pizza Kitchen that was directly across from an Apple store. I also saw that there was a Nestlé Toll House Cafe, but resisted temptation. I did however go to the Trader Joes that was across the street. I got a pkg of choclate crisps and 4 containers of soup. Cheaper than Walmart . I told my dad and brother that I almost felt like I was in CA (except for freezing - wouldn't have hot choclate in CA!!)

Tomorrow I think I'll go to Village Inn across the street for lunch ( although I wonder how hungry I'll be after a made to order omelette for breakfast - complimentary.) I kind of wish I could be here for a couple days just to enjoy the hotel ammenities. At $90 night though, it's way out of my personal budget.

I'm really looking forward to tomorrow and learning about all the great books. I just hope it won't make me salivate to much ...

Non reimbursable money spent - $11.xx TJs

Sheepish smile After searching all over tarnation for a faucet adapter and coming close to ordering one off of Amazon, I decided to check *everything* one more time. Guess what? I found the adapter!

I hooked up the hose to the faucet. It leaked for a while till I finally figured out how it needed to be positioned. The long cycle took about two hours. Most of the dishes came out pretty clean. It doesn't do well with peanut butter, so I'll have to be sure to pre-rinse any spoons/knives with pb on it.

I didn't do too much today other than laundry and a load of dishes. I really should have gone into school for a few hours, but still am not feeling 100%.

Tomorrow straight after school I head off to Albuquerque where I'll spend the night. Then Wednesday I'll be attending a seminar given by Judy Miller about the best books of 2011 for children. I'm hoping to come away with some free samples.

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I put Netflix on hold last night. I do use it and enjoy it, however I'm not sure if I really get $9/month use out of it. I'll probably just use iTunes or maybe Voodo (sp?) for a few months whenver the urge hits to get a movie. If it starts looking like I'm running up against the $9/month average, then I'll turn Netflix back on. Otherwise, I think it may be cheaper for now at least, to go this route. Summer may be a different story.

(I would have waited til I got back from my trip to put it on hold, but my next charge date is the 16th, so I would've ended up paying for another month.)

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I'll be doing a Costco run on Wednesday after my seminar. Although really other than cat litter, I'm not too sure what all I'm going to get there.

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I'm getting reimbursed per Diem for my trip ... so I plan on eating out tomorrow night and after the seminar too. I get up to $35 per day.

All the money I'm spending on this trip I have budgeted from funds I already have. When they are reimbursed, they will be going straight to the emergency fund. Altogether will be around $700. So that will be a nice bit of a boost.

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I need to contact the company I worked for this past summer to make sure they send me my W-2 form here. I'm so ready to get my taxes done and over with this year. I expect a nice bit of a refund I think (all of which will go to the EF, except maybe 10% or so for some treat or another.)

I've been debating about whether or not I should continue putting my retirement savings in a ROTH or a traditional IRA. If I stay here, my salary is likely to never go up, or if it does, it would be very incremental.

The advantages of continuing to put money in a ROTH is that in cases of dire and extreme emergency, I *could* take money out. (And I do mean *dire* emergency ... I came close to it where I was just about completely out of money ... then I got this job!) However, it seems like tax wise later on, ROTHs are better for people who think they'll be making a large amount in retirement. ...Considering how much I have saved right now in retirement and stocks (roughly $30k for a 36 year old) and that for at least the next three - four years I'll be able to add *maybe* up to $1500/yr to that (until I have my EF and CarFund savings up to par) ... I don't think my income at retirement is going to be much to write home about.

So ... if I put my retirement money into a traditional IRA instead, I would get a small portion of it back each year. That money could then be either put towards cash savings, or right back into the IRA, helping to beef it up a bit.

But then if something happens where I get a job in the future that pays twice what I get here (which would be laughably easy - at least in the public schools, not necessarily getting a job, but being paid 2x++ what I make here), and I have a 401k again plus maybe be able to make larger contributions to an IRA, therefore creating a larger retirement income ... using a Traditional IRA wouldn't make much tax sense. I think.

I'd almost go with splitting my IRA funds between two types, but my ROTH fund now requires a minimum of $100/mo (it used to be $50/mo), and if a Traditional one required the same ... well, it is not feasible. Plus it would greatly reduce any immediate tax refund benefits.

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I got another AGC from Swagbucks today. So far I have $20 in Amazon credit. It's nice to see it build back up again. I've been doing really well resisting the temptation to buy books for the library. Of course, the generous donations helped to get a lot of that out of my system.

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Sunday and Monday - No spend days.

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Oh, on the Per Diem, they only reimburse what you actually *spend,* otherwise I would be spending the bare minimum. But I figure if they'll reimburse me, I may as well enjoy a couple nights of nice restaurant meals.

So tonight I stopped at Home Depot to get the faucet adapter so I could actually run my dishwasher. .... They don't carry them! The guy I spoke with suggested I try Ace on Monday. I will call them before going, because that would mean an extra trip which I'd really rather not make!!

I'm also going to write Amazon's customer service and shake some cages about why this part was not included as advertised.

Ugh!

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I decided to skip Sabbath School today - the extra rest was really needed. I stayed after for potluck, and then went to the nursing home and sang with three other people. We all had about the same level of singing skill (namely, not much) but the people still seemed to appreciate it.

After the nursing home our group went to the hospital to visit the pastor's wife who'd just had a baby girl this morning (1:02 a.m. by c-section after 17 hrs hard labor - her tail bone was twisted??) What a sweet little thing.

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After Home Depot I went to Walmart where I returned the watch and the skin moisturizer/spf. The watch I returned because I found my other one, and the moisturizer because I used it once and it got in my eyes and burned (plus I was having a really hard time stomaching paying almost $11 for something like that.)

Since my dishwasher will still be out of commission for who knows how long, I bought a good bit of canned soups and microwavable meals, as well as some plasticware. If I end up actually getting dishes washed by hand tomorrow and don't need the plasticware, I'll just take it back.

I got a refund of $17.08, and spent $47.xx on grocery type items. That pretty much wipes out my grocery budget for January (except for my $100 Costco card). I think though that I have enough food in the house to last til February, with or without the convenience of the dishwasher.

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Oh! The organist who was in a car accident last week was in church today. He had a neck brace on and seemed to still be in a bit of pain. He has a daughter in town who is helping him out with meals and such not.

I also found out today that most people here had assumed I was in my early to mid-twenties. :roll eyes: The head elder told me, "Whatever you're washing you're face with, keep doing it!" lol! Ummm, I don't really wash my face with anything ... I also hardly ever wear makeup.. if I do, I might use Cetaphil. I also sometimes use ponds cold cream (I think Ima mentioned once that she uses it ...) But more often than not I do *nothing* in regards to skin care. Which probably is why I was having such a hard time paying nearly $11 for a moisturizer/spf cream.

My two other blogs (Living Frugal and Children's Books) have a paid advertisement thing on them. I cashed out about a year ago for $10 in earnings, but then kind of fell off on the posting (and didn't keep a paid ad up ..) So I got an email telling me that they'd sent me $.30. I'm not sure if they are closing shop, or if they are dropping me since I haven't logged in to the site in forever and ever. Oh well, that's $.30 to my EF. Every bit counts!

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Last night as I was watching the yearbook stuff, I realized that I had totally missed a deadline!! It was the one for choosing the yearbook cover art. Somehow I had the idea that the only deadline I had was in March. Oops! I called our account manager this morning and he walked me through finding the covers on the website (I hadn't received the hardbound catalog I was supposed to.) He also told me to not worry about having missed the deadline, since we weren't doing an original cover.

The journalism kids took the entire 40 minutes of class to pick the cover out today - but at least it is done now. It was funny to me how the ones they disliked, they were all in total and quick agreement on. The two (of 35 choices) that they semi-liked they were also in agreement on.

AL, our tech coordinator, twisted her knee today. She ended up walking out on crutches. She's seeing a doctor in big town tomorrow morning (her brother is driving her) -- really hope it isn't anything a few days of rest won't take care of.

It just goes to show how fast someone can get hurt -- she was just on her way to answer her phone.

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The temperature here must have dropped 20 degrees today. At noon I was comfortable enough to go to lunch without my jacket. By 2:30 when the 5th grade girls came in, the wind had picked up and it was bone chilling chilly. Then by 3:30 when the busses were leaving, I was freezing *with* my jacket on.

So far there is no snow in the forecast for the next ten days ... which I'm quite happy about. I leave for my seminar on Tuesday after school and come back Wednesday after my Costco run. I'd really hate to have to fight snow on either route.

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January No spenders: 6

Today I ended up not eating lunch at the cafeteria an so only had some trail mix. By the time 3:30 rolled around, I was *hungry*. I was *sorely* tempted to stop at Blimpies and get a cheese sandwich. But I reminded myself that I had plenty to eat at home, and that most of it wouldn't take too long. So, I persevered and headed home.

When I arrived home I had my dishwasher staring me in the face. It's been here a week now and I hadn't attempted to set it up yet for a variety of reasons. Tonight I decided that I would set it up - so I ate a granola bar to give me a little energy and set to work.

Problem ... there is supposed to be a faucet adapter included inside the dishwasher. It is nowhere to be found. So ... I got everything else set up, but am unable to hook it up. I *briefly* thought about running into big town (30+ miles one way) but decided that since I'd waited this long, I could wait a few more days. Sigh....

I know I have another box of plasticware around here somewhere ...

Tonight I had a can of Amy's Lentil soup + a pkg of macaroni. I should have cooked it one minute longer so the macaroni would've been soft. Otherwise it was really good and filling on a cold evening.

Tomorrow I have my journalism kids and must really watch the yearbook set up videos tonight ... ugh. What I really want to do is go to bed early. (I already took a bit of a nap this afternoon.)

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Question --

How long can eggs stay good in the refrigerator? I have some eggs that are over 6 weeks old ... (can you say procrastination???)

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January No spenders - 5