It's funny what you find when you start going through papers and trying to organize a bit. I found a check from July for tutoring which somehow did not get cashed! It was for $35. I texted the person who wrote the check to make sure it was okay to cash. She texted me back and said it was fine. (I wanted to make sure because ... well, she'd asked me several times to hold checks before. That's probably what happened with this one - I was holding it, and forgot about it!)

So, that's another $35 to my EF! Yahoo!

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I had a really late start today. Didn't get out of bed til nearly ten. Then lollygagged around til one. Finally got off my duff and finished grading the tests and headed over to the school. Altogether I put in about 8 hours of school related work today. (mostly at home though)

I've enjoyed my S days, but I think I'll do just fine with 5 days of no sweets coming up. I still haven't set up my dishwasher or made my casseroles. Oops.

I need to see if I can find the name/email of the one lady at church that I kind of talk to. Then I can see if she would come with me to visit the organist after church next week. I'm not sure how I'd keep a casserole cold though (corn, sour cream, cheese, cornmeal, eggs - baked) would that be okay to get room temperature?

Today was a NSD. Hope to have 6 of them this week.

Ok, need to read the blogs and then head to bed. Can't laze in bed tomorrow!

Tonight when I got home and was in the process of putting my purchases away, I went to scratch the back of my head. OUCH!! I put down what I had in my other hand and went to the bathroom to try to see what it was ... no luck (I have a hand mirror somewhere ...). It is either a tick, spider bite, or some other kind of bug bite. I didn't notice it this morning when I was washing my hair, so it must have happened today sometime. Weird.

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I've just about given up going to Sabbath School (like Sunday School, only on Saturday i.e. Sabbath.) I don't get anything out of it, and the main teacher frustrates me - he is SO opinionated and legalistic. Today we were discussing the lesson about the Trinity. He asked if anyone had any questions still ... one man raised his hand and asked, "What do they exist on?" Meaning, what do they eat, do they breathe air, etc. I'm not sure whether the question was a serious one or not, but R's reaction to it totally blew it out of proportion and wasted almost ten minutes of class time! If it had been me, I would have simply said, "You know, that is an interesting question and I really don't know the answer. Lets all take a look this week to see if we can find it and share next week what we find." R's response was essentially to call the guy stupid. No, he didn't use that word, but his 6 - 8 minute diatribe could be boiled down to it. His wife even at one point told him to just let it go and move on. (btw - R is a high-school history and shop teacher ...)

I did stay for potluck today and had a chance to talk with someone who's been pretty friendly to me, but we haven't had much time to talk. It was nice, though kind of stilted.

We found out today that the man who plays the organ was in a bad car accident last night. His car was totaled and he cracked one of his vertebrae. I seriously thought about going over to visit him ... but ... he is single (maybe late 40's??) ... so I was afraid it would look strange or something. He is a nice man, and we have talked some, but otherwise I have no interest -- but me going over to see him ... I also thought about asking if I could go with someone else who was going to see him .. but again, perceptions ... I don't know, maybe I overthink this. But as a single woman who still appears fairly young (and even though I am quite heavyset), I have quite often gotten the feeling from women married to men within a 5 - 15 year range of me, that they'd rather I stay 100 feet away from their husbands. So ... I try to be very, very, very careful. My friendliness/smile sometimes I think (in fact, I know for a fact it has at least twice) is misconstrued as flirting -- when in truth, all I'm doing is being myself and trying to make friends/have a conversation/be polite. (His injuries aren't serious enough to cause paralysis, etc. I'm not sure if he is at home or in the hospital.)

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In other events today...

I went to the library and got a card. I found a couple Lori Wick books I hadn't read, and a book on Psalms 23 which looks interesting. Then I went over to the children's library and found two books on a subject one of my 6th grade boys whispered in my ear on Friday. Our catalog said we had one on the subject, but when we went to the shelf to look, it was nowhere to be found. He's pretty good about getting books back, so I think I can trust him with a book on my card (I'm going to have him choose one of the books.) I just felt so honored that he trusted me enough to ask me for help finding it, that I felt I *had* to come through for him. He's one of those kids who is a 40 year old in a 12 year old's body, and doesn't get along well with the other kids at all.

After the library, I talked to my dad for a while, and then went to Walmart. I bought some of the generic brand 3 in one dishwashing tablets as well as Lemon Shine (highly recommended by my dad as well as one of the teachers here.) I plan on getting my dishwasher set up tonight and run my first load. Yay!

I also picked up a pair of sunglasses for $5 (my last pair were over ten years old and had finally fallen apart a few months ago), as well as yet another watch (somehow lost the last one) for $4.88 - le sigh. I also picked up some moisturizer with sunblock -- something else I did over Christmas was get my first facial ever (gift from an aunt). The technician told me I needed to use moisturizer with sunblock because my skin was really dry in spots and getting the beginnings of sun spots. The moisturizer she recommended cost $59 for 2 oz. The one I bought tonight cost $10.48 for 4 oz.

In all, I spent $51.xx at Wal-mart ... but I forgot to deposit my cash and checks at the ATM. I can do it next Saturday though - not in a rush.

When I got back to my town, I stopped at Family Dollar and picked up 8 cans of 9 Lives for $.33/can (regularly $.40/can), as well as flavored carbonated water (better than soda ... sorta), and a few other things. In all, I spent $6.50.

Oh, while I was at Family Dollar I ran into three of my students. They were so cute --- Hi!!! Miss N!!!!!
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Tonight I was able to cash out for another Swagbucks AGC! only 445 to go to the next one.

I'm almost to 4900 points in Beezag. Only 3100 to go to cash out!
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I have the feeling tomorrow is going to be a LONG work day. I need to finish grading the tests, grade the projects, get the grades recorded, and then most likely add all the electives to the grading program (and then of course enter grades for journalisim class) ... and then I have about 20 books that need to be cataloged .. then I need to do lesson plans ... and hopefully if I have time, I can work on getting the shelves straightened. Oh wait, I also need to find time somewhere in there to watch the intro video on the yearbook (how to use their program) and open the box which has been sitting unopened for a month or more from Lifetouch (yearbook company) ...then I need to figure out how to set up each of my journalism students with their own accounts so they can work on the yearbook. Oy!

I'm really glad next weekend is a long weekend. I'm gonna need the break!

Today made two non spend days in a row. I picked up the last of the book packages from the PO. It was kind of funny - the guy remarked, "You order a lot of stuff." I told him that I'm the librarian at SB and that most of the books I order for the library I have sent there.

Today also made two days in a row that I kept to NoS (mainly in the realm of not eating chocolate.)

Now if I could just get myself to actually do the exercise I said I was going to do ....

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Today I got a call from Scholastic to confirm the dates of our book-fair (Mar 16 - 23 - books arrive on the 16th, so I have the weekend to set up. Oh joy.) While talking with the representative, I was ecstatic to find out that we have $475 in Scholastic dollars left from last year's book-fair. We made a total of over $2k, so I'm not sure where that went (maybe to pay for Destiny??? our cataloging system?) In looking at Scholastic's site, I'm not sure how I'm going to use the money.

*warning - librarian ramblings ahead -- financially related though *
I really think before I spend any more large sums, that I need to finish going through *all* the donated books and catalog them. Then I can upload our library catalog into this free program which will tell me what my weak areas are (I have a strong feeling it will be in non-fiction, but I'm not exactly sure in which areas.) Probably 75% of the books I have been getting this year are fiction. I'm not totally thrilled about Scholastic's selection of non-fiction titles -- I did some extensive searching via the Dewey numbers on topics which I thought *might* be weak in our library.

Maybe what I should do is give the students and teachers a survey of what types of books they'd most like to see added (as in topic areas.) I also think I may keep the money to use next year, and then divide up what we make at this years book fair +475 between the school year and the grade levels -- perhaps minus $200 to be used the next year ...

I'm also kind of leery about getting too many more books in the library this year. The kids are almost coming to expect hearing about new books. There's no way I'll be continuing the same volume of purchases next year ... I need to see if there is a way I can catalog all the donated books, but keep them unsearchable by the kids ... then just put them out a few at a time once a month ... stretch it out. Although I don't know if I could stand it.

I also need to find out who decided how the book fair proceeds would be spent/divided. If I can put half of it into cash and *not* have it absorbed into the general school funds, then I could possibly participate in the Junior Library Guild selections .. which I would seriously love. (They send out several selections each month - you can send them back for an exchange or no charge as long as they have not been processed -- you can also change out the selection they'll send you before they send it ... plus if you buy a certain amount of books, you then get a certain number free ... highly recommended by librarians on the listserve I participate on.)

*end librarian ramblings*

I forgot to tell you all about an interesting experience I had over Christmas. My dad, grandma and I were invited to eat at the Loma Linda mayor's house! (before you get too impressed - my dad was his minister when he was a young teenager ... they found each other again at the tree lighting ceremony this year) It was a really nice meal and a very friendly family. They are vegetarian, so the whole meal was vegetarian. Yum

I learned about a tradition I hadn't known about previously -- English Crackers. They are not something to eat. I think I may have seen them before in stores, but not known what they were for. Basically, they are rolled up papers tied on each end -- inside is a paper with a joke, a small toy and a paper crown. When you pull it apart it makes a cracking sound. Hence it's name.

When we were at the farmer's market in LA, we found a set of 8 crackers for $9 (50% sale) so we got them and then used 3 of them for New Year's Eve. Perhaps a new tradition for us.

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I'm seriously considering telling my parents that I will make one visit of 8 days to each of them once a year. I also am thinking that I am going to hold off on my Spring Break trip until 2013.

I have the feeling that I will be dealing with some intense pressure and hurt feelings from both of them. The reasons I think this is the way to go is because:

1. I don't know of very many mid-30-year-olds (single or married) that see their parents *every* year, let alone several times a year.

2. It seems to me that it is not very financially smart for someone on my income level to be taking 4 or more vacations a year -- whether or not part of the expenses are paid for by someone else. 2 vacations a year probably is excessive -- especially before getting my EF and car funds in place.

3. I'd like to take a vacation (a real one) sans family (or even with ....) to someplace other than CA or TX.

4. I'd really really like to go on a cruise for my 40th birthday (or at least sometime that year...) and in order to do that, I need to get my basic savings funded so I can work on that long term dream (less than 4 years now!!) Before I was laid off, I had just begun working on this dream fund ... (only it was supposed to be for my 35th birthday ...) I'd really like to do a European cruise ...

5. (won't mention this one to them) I appreciate being treated and everything ... however, if I had fewer vacations, then I'd have more time to save for them so that *I* could do more of the treating (I treated to a cheap $20 meal at a pizza restaurant.) I hate to think how much money my dad and grandma spent while I was there ... especially when I would have been just as happy with home cooked meals and not *going* somewhere everyday ... Really, just going for a visit is enough for me -- I don't need to be entertained. My brother put it really well - it's draining to be "entertained." *and yes, I have tried to tell my dad something along these lines, but he always comes back with "I want to treat you, etc..."

I don't know ... would it be totally selfish and cruel of me to say -- Mom/Dad, you can choose to have me for 8 days in the summer or 8 days during the Christmas break. Then the next year I'll switch - that way each of you will get me every other Christmas and every other summer. If you want to come visit me at my home in the meantime, I'm more than happy to have you -- just don't expect to be entertained constantly.

--- you see, this is one of the areas where it would be so much easier (for me at least) if I was married, or at least in a serious relationship .. then I could use that as a reason --i.e. we're starting our own traditions, or, this year we'll visit his family, then next year we'll visit you ... Whereas with me being single, they somehow have this idea that I'd be terribly bereft if I spent a holiday NOT around family. (for my mom right now I think its more a case of *her* being totally bereft ... )

*and yes, I do know that married people can have just as much problems wrt vacations and family ...***

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I have no idea what I'm doing with my classes tomorrow. Our internet was non-functioning until late this afternoon. We found out that one of the snow plows had somehow managed to break a cable ... Which is why we had no internet at the school the first 4 days of the week (Sun - today.)

I've been sleeping really poorly the last few weeks. I think maybe I got kind of used to using the Nyquil equivalent to sleep ... and so without it, I can barely get 4 hours (if that.) Makes for one tired librarian.

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I'm less than 50 points away from my next Swagbucks AGC. It sure helps when you are consistent about visiting the site for the easy daily points. Plus their adding the Beezag type videos has helped.

Ok, I think I better sign off here to try to get some sleep, plus this is *way* long ... sorry about that.

I think I'll start off telling about my awesome gift!!

Those of you who've read my blog the past few months may have noticed how often I mention how my dishes stack up ... and how I *really* need to get them washed. Well, on another frugal forum I visit I'd mentioned how the only thing my home really lacks is a dishwasher. Someone saw that and suggested that I get a portable dishwasher from Craigslist, etc.

I don't know how the idea had never crossed my mind before, but as soon as I saw it, I knew that was the answer I've been looking for.

My dad and grandma and I were going to go out to the local outlet mall and do clothes shopping - my dad and aunt's gift to me. Instead though I told them about the portable dishwasher, and how I really couldn't think of any clothes I *really* needed (other than some new bras ...) ... They thought it was a terrific idea.

Dad and I went to Home Depot and Lowes to see if we could see any in person - but they only had ones that you could special order. So I ended up looking on Amazon, and found this:

SPT.

I paid an extra $4 to get one-day shipping, and it should be delivered to the mission office tomorrow. RW our mobile park manager said that he'd get someone to bring it to my place and help me lift it on the counter.

Seriously ... if this was the *only* gift I got in all of 2011 and 2012, I would be an extremely happy camperette!!

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I had a pretty enjoyable time overall with my dad and grandma in CA. We went up to Oak Glen the first Saturday I was there - where we saw this person who has three llamas in his yard. We also went to Santa Monica where we walked along the boardwalk and the pier, and dad and I took our first rollercoaster ride in about six+ years!! Then of course we hit Farmer's Market in LA where we ate dinner at the Cheesecake Factory. Our waitress was really good - one of the few people who can keep up with my dad -- later found out that she'd graduated from college a few years earlier and had moved cross country to LA *after* paying off all her student loans, to pursue a career as a comedian. We all were pretty impressed.

On another night we all went out to eat at a nice hotel/fancy restaurant called Mission Inn. It was a gift from my aunt to the three of us. The food was ok, but definitely not worth the cost. If any of us had been meat eaters, it probably would have been more cost worthy. (We all got the buffet.)

Something else I did which made me quite happy ... I closed my Compass Bank account! I then opened an account with BofA - it is one with NO fees and NO stipulations, other than you have to do any and all transaction online or via an ATM. There is a BofA ATM right next to the Walmart I shop at here ... so that works perfectly. For some reason I thought BofA was the bank you could do the phone scan of checks, but that is actually Chase. Oh well, as long as I can put cash/checks into the ATM, that is all I really need. I'll still use ING as my main bank.

Oh something else that made me happy ... dad and I checked at Costco about whether or not someone without a Costco membership could use a gift card to purchase things. We found out that it was true! So my dad bought me a $100 gift card (I was going to pay him back for it, but he later told me he wanted to cover it for me. Sweet.) I didn't get a chance to use it when I got back Sunday night, but I plan on stopping there after my seminar on the 18th. My trunk will be filled with cat litter.

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Something kind of cool that happened on my trip back here on Sunday. I was at the gate in Phoenix waiting for my flight (which later turned out to be wrong because they changed gates on us ...) and the airline person who checks you in announced that the flight to Austin was way overbooked. They were offering to put people up in a hotel and a $325 voucher *no restrictions* to anyone who volunteered to be bumped. The lady sitting next to me (we both were using the electric plug) got up and volunteered. It turned out that the seat she gave up went to a young military man. Later as he got on the plane he came over to her and personally thanked her.

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Well, I was going to put in five hours at school today. However, when I went over there today I found out that the phone lines and internet were both down. So that put a big crimp on doing most of what I'd planned on doing. There were other things I *could* have done, but once I realized I couldn't do most of the other stuff ... I wimped out and went home.

Tomorrow I'll be picking up a bunch of deliveries from the post office (hopefully!!!) -- books I ordered thanks to the $200 donation to the library. Since our system will still probably be down tomorrow, I'll go ahead and catalog the books at home. I should've taken home barcode/spine labels today to print -- will pick those up tomorrow.

I talked to our principal today. We're going to have our Christmas parties on Friday afternoon, but will not be rescheduling the Christmas program. I also found out that *this* is my week for morning prayer/cafe duty. A three-day week? I'll take it!! Now just have to find three prayers.

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I was checking FB earlier this morning and saw that one of my coworkers had gotten food poisoning from an order of onion rings at BK. I also learned something disturbing (for a 20+ year vegetarian who loves onion rings from BK) and that is that BK makes their onion rings in grease that has meat particles. Intelligently, I think I probably already knew this ... but ignored it because of how much I love their onion rings. But now can no longer ignore the info. Sigh. Onion rings aren't all that good for me anyway.

I bought my coworker some baby wipes and went over and walked a dog that she's dog sitting (the dog only knows to go #2 on a walk ...). My coworker and I were discussing how many times we've gotten food poisoning here, as well as two restaurants in the area shut down due to health violations recently ... and both agreed that maybe just staying home and eating in was a better idea. (considering that that is my plan anyway ... good to have some extra reasoning power behind it, right?)

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I had both of my Swagbucks AGC's come in during December. So right now I have a $10 credit on Amazon .... Also my dad had enough Swagbucks by Thursday for him to redeem his first card (which he's going to give to me.)

I have almost 4500 Beezag points, so more than halfway to my next cash out.

I think it is funny how Beezag videos are infiltrating all the different rewards websites. Both Swagbucks and Mypoints now have them. So it is possible to watch the same video for a reward 3 x in one day on the three different sites. Just mute the volume and keep your eyes out for the numbers, and you're good to go!!

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Almost forgot -- New Year's Eve dad, grandma and I went to Pasadena and drove up and down Colorado Blvd. Unfortunately due to Sunday Blue laws, the parade wasn't til today -- so nobody was there. We now have two bags of marshmallows prepared and ready for next year though!! The trip wasn't a total bust - we went through Sierra Madre and checked out all the Christmas lights. Most of the neighborhoods in that area were decked out in different themes. Very nice - especially considering that *very* few people in my dad and grandmas town did any decorating with lights.

I went to the doctor today and got my blood work done - it was a $25 copay. Not too bad I guess.

I also got my mom's Christmas gift mailed off (late I know!!) - only $5 postage - should get there by Tuesday. Oops.

Yesterday afternoon one of my coworkers came by and asked if I wanted to go into town with her and another teacher for dinner. I couldn't resist. Dinner - $8.65, and then we went to Walmart. I needed to pickup a bat of cat food because I was nearly out, but ended up buying a couple of CDs from the $5 bin. One of them will make a good addition to my dad's Christmas gift ... but I really should've skipped the others -- $23.36 (I also got a Terry's Chocolate Orange).

Guess what started again while I was at the doctors? Snow!! We've had probably another inch fall this morning. I plan on taking it slow on the way in to ABQ because around here the roads were getting kind of slick.

I stopped over at the school library and picked up a few books to read. Although I have plenty of books on my phone, there are times where you can't use electronic devices on the planes, so I like to have a hard copy book -- the last few times I ended up buying a book in the airport -- highway robbery. So this time I am prepared!! Plus I'll be able to book talk these books when I get back.

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After I got back from dinner last night, I preceded to spend the $200 donation. I bought about $70 worth of graphic novels, $60 worth of mid-school specific books, and the rest were more primary level books. I actually ended up spending an extra $15. In all, I got 47 books - from Ebay and Amazon. Only 6 of them were full price (the newer, more popular ones.)

I used my Beezag money that was in Paypal for the books from Ebay.

They should mostly be here by Jan 7. The kids are going to be so excited.

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I'm 15 points away from redeeming my next AGC from Swagbucks. Yay!

I could redeem points for a $25 AGC from Mypoints right now, but I'm only 3,000 away from a $50 AGC. I'll wait - it'll save 400 points that way.

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Ok, I better go pack. It's gonna be hard getting up though cuz Kari is sound asleep on my lap.

This morning I received my 7th payment from Beezag. That makes $56 now for 2011. I was looking at my payment history from them and realized I'd really slacked off July - November. That doesn't surprise me, because I know how busy/exhausted,e tc. I was then.

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I updated both my Frugal Living blog and my Children's Books blog. It had been quite a while for both of them. One goal I'm adding for 2012 is to update at least the book blog 2x a month. It really should be easy to do considering how many books I read to my students each week.

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A few weeks ago I went to the local clinic here for a sinus infection, and I was hoping to get a new prescription for my thyroid medicine. However, I found out that I had to have my medical records before they'd do anything more than treat my sinus infection.

So today I called to find out whether they'd gotten them or not. They hadn't gotten all of them yet, but apparently enough to feel comfortable making an appointment for me to get blood work done. Unfortunately the time they wanted me to come in (so I could get on with the new doctor) was Friday, January 6. I told the person that Fridays were the worst possible day for me as a librarian - we have so many Fridays off that the kids already get shortchanged. She was just like ... well the teachers will understand if you give them enough notice.

In my head I'm thinking, yeah right lady.

So about 30 minutes later she calls me back. I now have an appointment for tomorrow morning with the current doctor! Starting in March I'll have to use the new doc and go on Fridays, but hopefully I can schedule those appointments for when we're off anyway.

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Just as I was in the middle of writing this post, I got a knock at my door. Fed Ex!!! It was a donation check from the same man my mom dated who pd for my Thanksgiving tickets and gave me $100 towards books. A donation of $200!!! His daughter asked that instead of him giving her her usual Christmas gift, that he donate it to my school's library. Isn't that just the most unselfish and sweetest thing you've heard??

Above and beyond the gift itself, I am most surprised that FedEx will deliver straight to my door. I know UPS won't, because I have to get all my packages at the post office. But this morning I got a call from a woman at FedEx asking me where a particular address was located. I told her that I think the address she was looking for was xxxxx instead, but that there'd be no one there. So she asked me for my home address -- I was very surprised and didn't believe it till the guy knocked on my door!

This is good to know - very good to know.

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What do you think would be a good way for me (or the students) to show appreciation for the gift?

MM - he wrote the check to me, but included a letter to the school stating what it was for. Will he be able to write that off on his taxes? Or should I have him rewrite the check to the school/mission???

I'm not sure that he is doing it for a write off, but included the letter to give me a little extra "props" with the mission (that I have people donating money to the school, hence keep me around.)

Now I'm going to have to figure out the best way to use this money. Believe me, I could spend it 4 or 5 x over quite easily. Maybe allocate $100 towards mid-school level books and $100 towards primary level books??

Last night I made new posts to both of my blogger blogs. One I hadn't made a new post to since ... March? and the other since September. I think that is going to be one of my goals for this coming year -- to post to at least the Children's books blog at least 2 x a month. I should've held off a bit longer on my frugal blog post --- this morning I got my December payment from Beezag. So that makes 7 payments this year (or $56.)

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This morning I called the local clinic to find out if they had received my medical records yet. They refused to see me for anything more than a cold until they had my records.

They must have gotten some of them in at least, because the person I spoke with was willing to make an appointment for me to meet with the new doc on Friday, January 6. I expressed to her that Fridays were the *worst* day for me to have an appointment (we get so many Fridays off that the kids I have on Friday don't have many classes.)

She called me back about half an hour later and told me that she could set me up with an appointment for tomorrow morning with the current doctor, but in March I'd have to switch over to the new doc. No problem with me!!

So tomorrow I'll be getting my bloodwork done and get set up probably for the other medical checkup stuff I need to take care of (seeing as though it's been 3 years since I've had anything more than a thyroid bloodwork done ...and I am now 36 ...)

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I was sitting here debating about whether or not to go into school when I got a phone call from someone in Fedex. They were trying to deliver a package to me from my mom's man friend (the one who paid for my Thanksgiving tickets and gave me $100 towards books.) He'd gotten the name of the street the school is on mixed up with the name of the tribe. I told the lady who called me that there probably wasn't anyone there to sign for it. So she asked me what my home address was. I asked her if she was sure they could deliver to the mobile home park, and she said that I'd be surprised at the places they deliver.

So ... two hours later I'm still waiting with great anticipation to see if Fedex will actually deliver here!!! I'm also really curious to see what is in the box ... J had asked me how many students we had and what the tribe was a few weeks ago .... Hmmm...

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Oh! I actually got on my elliptical today for ...drum roll please ... one minute! Kari ran out of the room like a bat out of he**. LOL! I'm going to have to work myself back up to doing the elliptical, and hopefully Kari will continue to stay out of its way.

I got quite a bit done today which I'd been putting off for a long time due to tiredness and laziness. I swept my whole place, took out two loads of garbage, put things away, did all my laundry, and did most of my dishes. Kari wasn't quite sure what to make of my cleaning frenzy.

SrN called today and told me that they'd talked about me yesterday at the Christmas dinner (rear ending). She told me that since I don't have much in the way of classes tomorrow (due to dress rehearsals for Christmas program) that if I could make an appointment for my car at the mechanic, to do so.

I thought that was pretty sweet.

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Preliminary 2012 goals:

Physical Health:

* 2 x a week lift weights (10+ minutes)
* 2 x a week do 15 min+ elliptical
* Restart NoS program
* Eliminate soda
* Bought frozen foods used only on S days
* Meals on non-S days must be cooked by self - not bought frozen foods (i.e. use rice cooker, food steamer, etc.)

Spiritual Health:

* Daily 20 minutes focused prayer time
* Daily Bible w/Brian Hardin podcast
* Stay for potluck after church - try to connect with someone, anyone
* No more than 3 missed Sabbaths (unless out of town)
* Plan a focused Bible study/prayer time for Friday nights -- make Friday nights special - candles, special meal ... not just vegged out on net
* Contribute tithe/offerings consistently 2x a month (after payday)

Emotional Health:

* Call and/or write to a non-family member/non-coworker 1x a week
* Play piano 60 minutes per month
* Work on cross stitch project 60 minutes per month
* Read 1 book *not* for students per week
* Read minimum 1 book for students per week

Financial Health:

* Grocery budget
----Create a priority list. When shopping, buy from top down and keep running total. Stop when budget is reached.
-----Grocery shop no more than 2 x a month. (Exception - buying bananas at local small grocer in between big town grocery shops.)
--- Grocery budget --- $120/month -- including Kari's food/litter. So ... $50 per trip to allow for incidentals.

* ROTH - Send $1500 (Currently $100/mo)

* Emergency Fund - Save $5,000

* Car Repairs/Replace - Save to $5,000

* Vacation/Travel --- Save $1000 (Spring Break trip, plus summer travel)

* Moving Fund --- Save $1000

* Library spending -- limit to $30/month non-gift card funded spending

* Increase extra funds:

---- Check into being part of summer school program

---- Do Swagbucks daily points *daily*, at least once a week check for extra videos/offers
----- Do Beezag *daily*
----- Check Mypoints email at least once a week

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Edited -- My savings goals are roughly 60% of my gross yearly income ... But considering that my only expenses are food, gas and internet/phone ... I really *should* be able to do this. It's just keeping the food/gas, miscellaneous expenses in check.

This morning I got up at a decent hour (for a Sunday) and actually got going! I swept, picked up trash, dusted, put stuff away, cleaned mirrors, did laundry, and did most of my dishes!! My place is almost as clean as it was when my mom left back in August. Kari didn't quite know what to make of my cleaning frenzy - she's seen me do dishes before, and half-heartedly sweep ... but doing as much as I did today?? Never.

In the midst of my cleaning frenzy, SrN called me. Apparently I was being talked about yesterday at the Christmas dinner. (I'd called TC to let her know I wouldn't be coming, and why.) So SrN told me not to wait til Tuesday to get an appointment with the mechanic - that if I could get one tomorrow, to do it. The kids will basically be at dress rehearsal most of the day, so I won't really have any classes.

Sweet, isn't?

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We may have a snowstorm blowing in tonight (if the forecasts are accurate, we'll have "blizzard" conditions. Will believe it when I see it.)

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Preliminary 2012 Goals (will revise later ..)

Physical Health:

*Use weights 2x a week for 15 minutes
*Use elliptical 2x a week for 20 minutes

(Starting with small, manageable goals. If achieved with consistency, will increase later.)

*Eliminate soda

*Restart and DO the NoS plan (S's i.e. sweets/snacks/seconds only on S days)

* Cooked ahead meals - not prepared frozen meals - except on S days.

Emotional/Spiritual/Social Health:

* Revitalize prayer life - set aside 20 minutes a day to concentrate on praying for myself, family, friends, those around me, etc.

* Restart listening to Bible daily (daily Bible with Brian Harding podcast - an easy listen during breakfast!!)

* Call/write to one friend each week (non-family member!!)

* Play piano 60 minutes a week

* Sweep entire house 1x a week

* Do the dishes at least 1 x a week

* Read 1 book a week for *yourself*
* Read 1 book a week for *students* (minimum)

* Learn how to cut Kari's claws (or see if I can hire SE to do it for me cheaply ...)

Financial Health:

* Pay tithe and offering consistently (2 x a month)

* Limit non-gift card spending on Library to $30/month.

* Limit grocery spending to $100/month - go to Walmart only 2 x a month --- for any reason. Make a prioritized list and stick to it. Make do if you run out.

* Save $400 for Spring Break trip (have $160 saved so far.) (2 day camping/horseback trip into a canyon in AZ - a home of Navajo culture, etc.)

* Save $500 for summer travel expenses ($0 balance)

* Save $5,000 for car repairs/car replacement ($0 balance right now.)

* Save $4,000 towards EF ($500 bal right now, give or take (probably take depending on car repairs ...)

* Send $1500 to ROTH (Currently doing $100/month.)

* Save $1000 towards moving fund (good to be prepared)

* Increase Extra Funds by:
---- Visiting Swagbucks daily for the easy points, and at least weekly doing any videos/offers possible
------ Do Beezag daily
------ Check Mypoints email at least once a week

* Discuss doing summer school program

Overall/Big Goals:

* Declutter and organize home office
* Organize guest bedroom so if I actually *have* a guest, they have a place to stay!!
* Get main shower fixed so you can use it!!! (this will take lots of bugging of maintenance people)
*Get my yard weeded and cleaned ... maybe look into putting in a garden (would I really keep up with something like that though??? If I'm here long-term, a garden would really be a good thing... hmmm...)


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My monthly income will go down quite a bit in July - not because of a pay decrease, but because my yearly salary will be divided into 26 payments rather than 22 payments. (My pay year started in August, so that cut 4 payments.) I'm really hoping that I can do a summer computer program here as part of the summer school. It would both be a chance for me to teach the kids something I won't have time to do during the school year, and also give my income a bit of a boost.

First though I need to be asked back ...

I had a nice time at my mom's for Thanksgiving. It was a little weird being around her and her current bf (especially after she told me she is trying to get the courage up to leave him ...)

I attended two different churches on Saturday - the one I attended the prior two years, and the one I attended when I taught at my last school. On Wednesday afternoon I'd called my friend T and found out that her daughter was being baptized -- there was NO WAY I could miss that with being in TX!! My mom went with me - she wasn't so sure she wanted to, but in the end she was really glad she did.

I talked to one of the mom's whose son I tutored right before moving to NM. I'd helped him on a big summer time essay about mythology/greek Gods based on the Percy Jackson books. A subject I knew about as much as you can fit on the tip of a pin head. He got a 95% on it. His teachers were really impressed, and now this year are expecting much more out of him -- and he's meeting their expectations. Good for the ol' ego.

Towards the end of the day my mom and I went to see her former bf who wanted to give me some money towards books for school. He also gave us both a red rose with one of those water things on the end of the stem. We couldn't take them home, so were discussing whether to throw them away or not. I suggested finding a couple of women in a parking lot or something, and giving them the roses. Pretty much that is what we did - we stopped at a gas station and gave one to the attendant and one to a customer. It seemed to brighten both their days.

I shopped at Half-Price Books on Friday afternoon -- $175!! Mom's friend gave me $100. So ... after taking the money given to me off, I came under budget. Umm... yeah.

I updated YNAB tonight. Absolutely NO more buying books - unless I have a gift card. (I got a $50 Amazon card in the mail today from Mypoints, and a $5 Amazon gc from Swagbucks yesterday.)

I added up how much I've spent *just* in October and November on books for the library ... roughly $1000!!! Seriously cannot continue this way - I need to keep in mind my numerous savings goals.

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I still had a Target gift card from graduation which I hadn't spent. While I was at mom's, I got to use her nifty blender/food chopper. The one I have has been leaking. So I stopped by Target (heh - was about 8 miles out of my way)on the way home Sunday. I picked up a Ninga blender/food chopper and a combination food steamer/rice cooker plus a bunch of groceries.

I'm really hoping that I can cut down on my food expenses as well. I've been spending *way* too much on food. Lots of junkfood - not good for belt or wallet.

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This Saturday we are having a community Christmas dinner. Anyone in the community can come for a free hot meal (turkey, stuffing, potatoes, etc), clothing, blankets, and toys. It starts at 10:30, but people usually start lining up around 8 a.m.

Snow is predicted for both Friday and Saturday - but one way or the other, the dinner will proceed.

I had signed up to be a server, but today was asked if I'd like to be Mrs. Clause instead. The person who asked me said they thought I'd make a good one because of how I smile all the time and am so friendly and good with the little ones. It was funny when he was asking me what size costume I would need - he sounded so uncomfortable asking.

I think this should be fun.

This last week I stayed late at school 3 days - Mon, Tue and Th -- though Wednesday was also a bit of a late day. Why? Monday was our staff meeting, but both Tuesday and Thursday I stayed late to give the 7th and 8th graders the opportunity to finalize their projects during after school study hall. Quite a few took advantage of it - though some I think saw it more as an opportunity to listen to youtube while "working." We are very lucky to not have youtube, etc., blocked at our school -- I let the older students listen to videos ... as long as they are working AND with the caveat that I *will* check the lyrics at any time. None of them have abused the privilege .. yet.

A very disconcerting thing happened on Thursday. One student who is in a group of 3 opened their groups presentation to work on it. It was completely blank. She and I searched for 30 minutes to see if we could find another copy of it with no luck. I felt so bad for her ... she's a new student and on the quite large side ... kids this age don't need a reason to pick on other kids... I alerted our school counselor so she can keep an eye out for any repercussions. I also spoke to all 3 girls and let them know that I'd grade their project on what I'd already seen completed plus whatever they are able to reconstruct before Tuesday (when it is due.)

Computer gremlins ... or a mean student with some technical know how ...

I had some great happenings with kids and books this week. It is so addicting when you see a kids eyes light up when you put a book into their hands that they're excited about. It's why my savings aren't quite growing at the rate I'd hoped ....

This week while I'm in Dallas for Thanksgiving, my mom and I are going to Half Price Books. I'm giving myself a limit of $150 --- cash. I can get quite a lot for that amount ... and then I'll force myself not to buy *any* in December. (although ... while I'm in CA I may check out SA or Goodwill ....) Ugh! I'm hopeless.

I realized that it probably is a good thing I'm going away for Thanksgiving ... otherwise I'd probably spend most of the break working in the library. There sure is plenty to do!!! I won't be getting back til late Sunday night, so I'll need to be prepared for my classes before I leave. I envision a long Sunday in the library, as well as a long Monday ... We have a staff "stuffing party" where we stuff bags of goodies which have been donated for the kids/community members on Monday ... then I'll probably have to spend some time finishing up lesson plans. I want to leave right away after school on Tuesday.

Some of my coworkers were wanting to go see the new vampire movie tonight. I counter suggested seeing Happy Feet. There were no takers. Just as well ... I'm enjoying staying in .. watching the latest Person of Interest, maybe watching a Netflix movie, catching up on my reading, etc.

Tomorrow I hope to be at school by ten. I have a good number of new books to catalog (roughly 25) and then of course working on the week after Thanksgiving plans. I also need to create the video/project evaluation forms for the plagiarism project. The 8th graders present on Monday - their homeroom teacher will be coming to check them out. I think her coming has motivated them more than any grade I may give.

Oh! Something really cool for Jeff Kinney fans! On the library list serve I'm part of, there was a notice a few weeks ago that Jeff Kinney was doing an author talk at a school in New York City. The School Library Journal partnered with them to make a live streaming video, which then was archived. I of course registered for it but due to time differences (and SrN wanting me to watch the presentation first ...) we didn't see it live. The archived version went up on Friday, and I've already watched it. It was pretty interesting, and even included an appearance from two of the main movie characters. There is a 3rd Wimpy Kid movie coming out on August 22(? I think that's what he said.) And of course, the newest book came out on Tuesday. (My copies arrived on Thursday - I rushed over to the PO on after my last class and was back in plenty of time to wave the buses off. I offered the teachers first dibs at the copies, and quickly had two takers.)

-- On my way back from church today I was running on fumes. I found a gas station and filled up for ....



$2.95/gallon!!! It's been a long time since I've seen gas under $3!!!

Today we had the day off for Veteran's Day.

I couldn't sleep in, as much as I wanted to, due to both Kari and the sun streaming in my window. So I ended up getting to the car place by 9 a.m.

I had them change my oil and check my coolant. They also changed my license plate for me. (I'd only had it sitting in my car since August ...)

It cost a bit over $40 for the oil change!!! The guy was very apologetic about the cost. He said that the price of oil had gone up significantly in the past few weeks. That if I'd come in a month ago, it would've cost $25. Ugh - procrastination is a killer.

In other car news, I was told that I probably need to get my coolant flushed and new hoses. That my hoses look to be the original ones. And that I should get it done before it gets colder. I was like "colder than 14 degrees??" Yep, much colder than 14 degrees.

He said that it would probably cost around $200, and that they could pick up my car from the school, and drop it off there as well. Nice. They have to order the parts, but probably the Monday before I take off for Thanksgiving, I'll have them do it. Won't even have to wait around at the car place.

(This place comes highly recommended by many people at the school.)

--
After I was done at the car place, I headed into the big town. On my way there, I stopped at a Denny's and ate breakfast. I really wanted an IHOP, but the closest IHOP is nearly 200 miles away ... The usual happened when I ordered French Toast ... I told the waitress emphatically to *please* make sure it is smothered with powdered sugar. When it came, there was a light dusting. Ugh! She brought me more.

When I got to the big town, I stopped first at Big Lots. One of the main things I was looking for there was some kind of black out curtain for my bedroom (re: morning light streaming in + window blinds not exactly perfectly closing {[i.e. privacy!} ]. I found some maroon colored ones for $10 - it fit perfectly on my bedroom window. I put it up with a couple of nails. Susie homemaker I'm not.

I also found some great items for the library prize box - including a Diary of a Wimpy Kid puzzle. I'm curious if the kids will go for puzzles ...

Then I went to Family Dollar (ostensibly to look for tickets ...) and found more good stuff for the prize boxes.

Between the two I spent around $50 (but no tickets ...)

Then I went to Walmart. I found some great small posters for $1 each, as well as some cool inexpensive sticker sets. I also bought 3 Dork Diaries (we didn't have them ... and I am hoping they'll be popular at our school.) I also got groceries. In all, about $88. The lines were atrocious.

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While at Walmart I also decided to pick up some more Allegra D. I'd gotten a ten pack over two weeks ago (24 hour variety) and was out. So I asked at the pharmacy for as many packs as they could give me. I could only get one. I asked why I could only get one ten pack!!!! The pharmacist told me it had nothing to do with the quantity of the capsules, but with the amount of milligrams?? of whatever the regulated ingredient is (the one to make meth). It is SO aggravating! I have to drive 30+_ miles to get to a place that sells the only allergy medicinethat works for me ... and I can only get a ten day supply. Oh, and she wouldn't answer me when I asked what the limit was every 30 days ...

I really need to get a doctor's appointment so I can get a prescription for allergy meds again -- cheaper (in many ways) and SO much more convenient.

---

I got home and put my purchases away, then watched the Monday episode of DWTS. I was going to watch the latest Peson of Interest also, but it wasn't up on cbs.com yet. Then I relaxed with a good book ... using the Kindle Cloud Reader. Oh yeah, before all that, I catalogued (except for barcode labels, etc) the books that came in on Thursday (Percy Jackson Series plus some others) and the Dork Diaries.

--
It was funny this morning before I left to go to the car place, Kari got into the mood to do 'fetch' again. She hadn't done that for awhile. It was almost as though she was trying to keep me here. I played with her for about ten minutes before she got tired.

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I went out with some of my co-workers Thursday night and saw "Tower Heist." It was okay - not one of my favorites, but it did keep me entertained most of the time. I didn't like the ending.

However, during the previews I got to see my birthday present (i.e. Tom Cruise in Mission Impossible 4 coming out in December) and I learned that in May I'll get to see yummy Robert Downy Jr on the screen again ( can't remember name of film, but he's playing Ironman in it. Yum!) I told my coworkers, "They're making us wait til May for this?" One of them thought I was talking about Taylor Long???? (from Twilight I guess). They guffawed when I asked who that was. Yeah, Twilight, etc. SO does not interest me.

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I rented Cars 2 from itunes, but will have to wait till tomorrow night to watch it due to watching DWTS this afternoon. (It was taking forever to download, so I decided to watch DWTS instead.) I decided to rent it because one of my coworkers was talking about getting Cars from Netflix and never having seen it ... so when I saw it for just $2.99 ... well ...

(some of the $1 posters I got today were of Speedy McQueen.)

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So today I did quite a bit of shopping, etc., but it was a good day.

*I read "After the Fire." It was very good - a little over the top romance novely in places, but it had a good story and plot that made up for the spots I skimmed over. It was a free Kindle download a month or so ago (Pixel of Ink for the World!!)

Yesterday when I got home I laid down on my bed just "for a minute" and the next I knew it was nearly 6 p.m.! I'd been a bit cranky with a couple of my classes too - over tired I guess.

We had an All Saints presentation by all the various grades yesterday, whcih cut short one of my favorite classes. But I enjoyed it, and even was asked to read a bit from the Bible -- the Bible on my phone to be precise. Sr N came up to me an said "You know the Bible pretty well, right?" "Would you know where it talks about feeding the hungry/clothing the naked?" I had a good idea of where it was, and Google helped me find out for sure.

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Today was a really good day. First, I had an awesome parent volunteer who was whipping through the donated books finding out lexile and test info for me. Then, I finally!! got in touch with someone who told me how to take off the barcode filter ... and I then preceded to catalog 5!! books I can hardly wait to see my third graders on Monday so I can tell them all about these books - they're on their level.

Even better though, when I got home tonight I had a call from my brother! Not a 5 minute one, but nearly 45 minutes long. His birthday is on Friday - he'll be 31. He's loving his new job and proving his worth -- in fact, if any of you are in the Napa area and get the local winery magazines ... you may just see a picture of him and his girlfriend on a back cover. It's an advert for the new place he's working at - as Marketing/Advertising/All Trades ...

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Today was my 3rd day doing morning duty/prayer. It went much better than the past two mornings. (Monday I blanked on doing the sign of the cross before praying) and Tuesday I totally messed up on the attention signal. I was complimented on my choices of prayers by the Kinder teacher - even though they've had nothing to do with the actual feast/Saint days occurring this week. They are all prayers of being thankful/showing God appreciation.

Even though it went so much better today, I will not be sorry to see Friday and 8:15 a.m. come (end of duty.)

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Today I actually managed to impress my fifth grade girls - really almost shock and awe. They'd been working on a PowerPoint project about Fall. Today I showed them how to use a computer microphone to record themselves reading their paragraph. It was priceless seeing their faces as they heard their own voice being played back. The only caveat is that I only got through 3 girls because the front microphone line didn't work on any of the 4 computers I tried it on - so ended up using the circulation computer.

After school the tech coordinator and I figured out that the mic plug in the *back* of the computers worked. Whew! I'm glad I figured this out today, and not when I had my 8th graders on Monday getting ready to do final prep on their presentations!!!

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Speaking of the plagiarism project. I found out yesterday that one of my mid-school students was caught plagiarizing a classmates essay -- word for word. This was after having spent at least the past six weeks focusing on plagiarism and its consequences. She failed the essay assignment, and is now being watched with Eagle eyes by all her teachers. It makes me sad to not be able to trust her. But even worse, to know that all we've discussed and pounded in, has gone in one ear and out the other.

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I bought my ticket to CA for Christmas tonight - $285. Not too bad if I do say so. I won't be going to San Jose this year - just LL. I've also limited my time to 8 days. That way it'll give me time here to have actual "vacation" and maybe do some projects in the library ... My dad really wanted me out there the whole Christmas break ... I love him, but that is just a bit too much time to fill -- plus, I'd really hate to leave Kari that long. (I need to find someone to care for her while I'm gone at Thanksgiving and Christmas.)

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I found a flyer today for a Children's Librarian seminar in ABQ on Jan 18 with a pretty famous (to school librarians) facilitator/presenter. It would mean missing a day of school, and one nights stay at a hotel. I plan on talking to SrN about it tomorrow - I really hope she agrees that it is a good idea!! I may be able to have my way paid for/reimbursed from Title 1 funds (professional development.)

So Thursday and Friday I stayed after school -Thursday til 5:30, and Friday til 6:20 - helping with preparations for the Halloween Festival which was today. I could have left at 5 on Friday, but felt like I should stay til the last dog died due to not being there on Saturday (since I go to church on Saturday.)

My feet were SO tired! I had a good bit of fun though - especially on Thursday helping the mid-schoolers pick out costumes. There were a couple of boys -- man, did I ever wish I had my camera with me! They were a hoot! However, I ended up getting into major hot water because I let the mid-schoolers into the costume closet - and they made a royal mess. I had no idea they weren't allowed back there - all I was told was to help all the kids find a costume! I also realized they'd left a mess, and was planning on cleaning it up on Friday - which I told to one of the other staff. However, on Friday I didn't get back there till nearly 4:30 because I was put on other tasks ... I apologized to the people's toes I had stepped on, and helped finish the last bits of clean up. That was more than a bit frustrating to me - trying to be helpful and a part of the team, and getting into hot water. I know I should have probably just cleaned it up on Thursday, but my feet were *killing* me (though they were worse on Friday ...)

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Anyway, this was a LONG week.

Next week I have morning prayer duty. That means I have to lead out in prayer each morning. To me, praying is bowing my head and closing my eyes (out of respect) and just talking to God - whatever is on my mind/in my heart. From what I've seen so far here, prayer is making the sign of the cross and then reading a prepared prayer or singing a song - and then sometimes adding an Our Father or Hail Mary to it.

I really wish I wasn't having to lead out in prayer on Halloween day and All Saints Day. But, have to deal with what I have. I'd kind of been thinking of just doing songs all week - but was told that there are special prayers for some of the days coming up this week ... Will have to get that figured out tomorrow.

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Tonight after sunset I *finally* got busy and washed my dishes - I've been pretty much out of clean dishes for a week ... I soaked dishes in the sink and washed them, then dunked and rinsed them in a large pot of boiling water (well, water doesn't necessarily *boil* here ...) -- About a week ago I put a bunch of dishes in a sink full or hot soapy water with the full intention of washing them .... and there they still sat tonight. Now though, all dishes are clean, dry and (mostly) put away.

That is a good thing, because tomorrow after I do lesson plans and put in a few hours cataloging, I need to make a cottage cheese roast for the staff Halloween get together at our principal's home. The tradition here is for all the staff to gather at one place, and the kids all go there to get their candy from us.

I plan on putting Kari in her kennel while I'm cooking. I absolutely do not trust her around any food right now. The other morning I was making a sandwich, and before I'd put anything on the bread, she'd jumped up on the counter and taken a bite of one of the slices!!! Crazy cat!!

__
Tonight I also have finished 3 loads of laundry, and need to go put in the last one. It's funny, even with a washer and dryer right in my own home, I still tend to go as long as possible between doing laundry ...

I think it's partly my laziness, and partly just being so tired from school .. mostly my laziness though.

A couple days ago I'd written a big long post, and then Kari (my cat) walked across my keyboard ... poof!

Today we had teacher in-service. It was okay as far as in-services go. We had a real Mass (versus the version we do each week at school.) That was interesting - especially the way the Bishop sing songed most things (other than the homily.)

After we were done, I stopped at Wal-mart and got groceries. When I got home, Kari had knocked down her food container, and her food was all over the floor. Her food container now has a new home.
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The last few nights I've been on an Ally McBeal kick. I'm almost through the first season. I asked some of my coworkers if they'd watched Ally - one said she liked the dancing baby. Later I realized that most (if not all) of the teachers at the table were under 27, so most likely had been in elementary school when Ally was on. (Thank you Netflix for letting me get my Ally fix.)

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Last weekend I was in San Jose, CA celebrating my grandma's 90th birthday. It was good mostly. The very best part of it was going up to Napa and seeing my brother for a few hours. He's recently gotten a job on the Napa Wine Train, and so is pretty much working 7 days a week. This new job is in his field (what he actually got his degree in), so we're all hoping that eventually he'll be able to get out of the restaurant business. (being a waiter is fine, but it is hard on the body + he's got a college degree - it would be good if he could use it!)
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I came up with this project for 6th, 7th and 8th where they are being put into pairs (or trios) and each given a topic related to plagiarism/citing sources. They have to research it, then create a storyboard and a script. Finally, they will make a video (3 to 5 minutes) sharing their information. The Title 1 teacher was in the lab when I was explaining the project to the 7th graders. She later asked me if I had a camera - I told her that I have a flip camera, plus my iPhone camera. The next day she told me she told her husband about my project, and he offered to give me (the school) an extra video camera!! So we'll have a real honest to goodness camera to use!! The Title 1 teacher also taught the 7th graders how to do a storyboard - they had no idea what I was talking about when I introduced it. That works for me - I was planning on explaining it in more detail when we got to it, but now I won't have to spend so much time on it.

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I just remembered something I was going to post about last time. Buddy (my mom's Maltese) apparentally bit a small child. I'm not sure of the whole story (and with my mom .... who knows what *really* happened) and I guess he also caused her to fall and scrape her leg when he lunged after a man who was running by (he seems to have something against males of a certain color - he goes nuts mostly only when he sees one ...). So the long and short of it is that she is looking to find a new home for him.

As soon as I heard she'd dumped J and gone back to M, I had a gut feeling that she was going to start looking for any excuse to get rid of Buddy. M and Buddy don't get along too well.

I would take him if I had the time to get him retrained, and wouldn't have to leave him alone from 7:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. (or later) 5 days a week. And of course there is the matter of Kari - I really don't know how he'd handle another animal taking my attention (or how Kari'd handle it.)

It just makes me sick. To me, when you take an animal into your home, you are making a lifetime commitment. That animal is yours to care for until it dies. I personally even have life insurance to make sure that if something were to happen to me, that whomever took over the care of my current pet, would be financially compensated.

My mom and I are alike in some ways, but in many other ways we are worlds apart.
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When my brother was here helping me move, he checked out my stereo to see what I would need to connect my iPhone to it (to play my iPod music, etc.) While I was visiting him in Napa, we stopped by a Radio Shack and got the needed cord. I now can play my music over my stereo!!

Possibly in November, or perhaps December, I'm going to upgrade to the iPhone 5. Then I'll keep my current iPhone(3gs) as a dedicated iPod/radio. (The regular radio here only gets maybe two or three stations - none of which I care for.)

What a LONG week this has been! I'll give you the highlights:

Sunday (July 31) - Guys I hired get to Uhaul place nearly 40 minutes late (lost.) Instead of taking a total of 3 - 4 hours, it ended up taking a total of over 6 hours (after driving the moving guys back to their car - only one of them felt comfortable driving the truck.) Between the rental truck, trailer, and moving guys = total ~$1150!

Monday night - Picked up brother from airport at midnight. Didn't get to bed till nearly 2:30 a.m.

Tuesday - Brother and I on the road about 9:30 - 0nly 30 minutes later than planned. As soon as we passed into the New Mexico state line, we had RAIN! Something I hadn't seen in way too long. Total cost of gas ~ $350

Arrive at destination a little after 10. Are met by the Mobile Home Park Manager - very nice. LOVE my home (with the slight caveat of NO DISHWASHER!!!)

Wednesday - MHPM comes by and lights the hot water heater. Brother and I want to get the internet set up (I know, priorities!) but in order to do that need my bag of cords - somewhere on the truck. We end up unloading the truck *completely* by ourselves!! (Even though I'd been reassured a couple times that there'd be people lined up ...) While I go sign the lease and get a PO box, my brother takes a nap and sets up the internet. We have WiFi!!

Head out to the big town 30 miles West and do some major damage at Walmart and Home Depot. I got a power drill!! One thing I needed but *still* have not located is a lockable trash can. We ate a late lunch at Sizzler (last time I ate at a Sizzler .... elementary school!) Damage ~ $220

When we got back, I worked on unpacking the kitchen boxes and my brother put together my office/exercise room and setting up my stereo. Fell exhausted into bed around midnight.

Thursday - Head to airport, and along the way stop and see the elementary school we attended (I graduated from in 1989!) and also one of the two houses we lived in.

Got to airport just in time to meet mom as she's coming off the plane. Eat a light lunch. See brother off. Mom and I head to the teacher's store -- light damage $62. Then we head to Costco ($238) and again to Wal-Mart ($111). Ouch, ouch, ouch!

Friday - Do tons of loads of laundry. SO thankful for a washer and dryer!! After second load realized that there is no hot water. MHPM comes by - says it is kaput. Will have to order a new hot water heater on Monday. Gives us the key to the empty home next door to use to shower (till Sunday afternoon.)

Manage to unpack all but two boxes before calling it a day.

Sunset - Sweet relief and rest! Guilt free no messing with the house!!

Saturday - After driving around for over an hour, finally manage to find the church. Sweet people, although they are in the middle of an evangelistic series which isn't my favorite thing. Eat potluck in the "hogan." Find out the new pastor's wife used to attend a church I taught school at in Texas. Found some visitors who used to be church members of a TX church my dad pastored.

Sweet sleep.

Evening - Hung almost all my pictures ( a few had frames that are falling apart.) Got the living room and kitchen looking picture perfect.

Sunday - Mom woke up feeling drugged - had to stop 3 times for a bathroom on a two-hour trip. Finally after drinking a lot of water, she started feeling better.

Stopped by the church/school. Then ventured to find a nail salon. Mom's "friend" was treating for both of us to get a mani/pedi. Over three hours later my simple mani/pedi was finished, and I was feeling yucky. Went to Walmart and picked up a thank you card. Got back to the nail salon. 30 minutes later my mom's nails were done ( a fill???) Rushed like speedy gonzoles to the airport and dropped mom off.

On the way home I stopped at a Denny's. They were *really* short staffed. At one point I had to go grab silverware off another table so I could eat.

When I got home I was feeling extremely lousy, and did something I hadn't done in years - lost whatever food I'd had that day. Went to bed, though didn't sleep very well.

Monday - Forced myself out of bed around 10. Called the various places I needed to change my address at. Then got my documentation together for registering my car and changing my drivers license. After driving around for over an hour, and finally stopping at a police department, I found the MVD. Nearly 90 minutes later, I had my car registered, and a dl. Damage = $73. Attempted to go to Walmart, but the GPS led me to some forlorn warehouse, so ended up just going home.

Tomorrow will have to go to Walmart to take back a couple items, and get a few groceries I forgot.

I forgot - on Sunday while I was at Denny's I got a call from one of the ladies at the church who is a school teacher. She told me that the librarian at her school is looking to retire in the next few years - so that might be an opportunity for me if I'm still here. She also offered to let me spend the night at her house on Saturdays so that I wouldn't have to make two trips (one for church, and one for groceries.) I thought that was really sweet of her.

I've pretty much wiped out what was left of my savings with this move. So I am looking very much forward to my first paycheck on the 17th. I don't forsee any more big expenses coming up, so will be able to restock savings pretty quickly -- and restart my ROTH again!!

I was supposed to work tonight and tomorrow (insurance processing) but all the jobs I could do were already finished, and no more will be indexed til Tuesday. Not totally bummed about that.

I have 3 guys from my church lined up to pack my truck for me on the 31st - my brother should arrive on the first, and then we're off!

I found out that I will be in charge of the newspaper and the yearbook - both starting in October. Yikes! I was the editor of our high-school paper my senior year and basically had no direction and did a lot of it myself. When I did my student teaching, I put together a very simple cut and paste type yearbook for the small school (25 kids and 2 teachers) I was at. I had no real training for either one. So ... this should be interesting.

I'll be having a partly fixed and partly flexible schedule. Really ... if I can run with this and make things fly ... I might just end up staying longer than two years ... I already have ideas for what I'd like to do for summer school in computers ...

I really need to get back in touch with my finances ... been way too loosey goosey with them lately. Even though I have this real job to look forward to, I don't have the first paycheck til Aug 17, and even then I really hope to SAVE more of it than SPEND!!

For example - I finally got my $20 Amazon gift card from Zoombucks which I ordered towards the beginning of June. I had it spent within five minutes - 4 books for classroom ideas ...

One awesome thing though showcasing how much better two heads can be than one. I was looking at these flipcard management system holders - green for "doing fine" yellow for "need help but can keep working" and red for "Help ASAP!" They wanted $10 each. Not!! So I showed them to JJ (my landlady) and we came up with the idea of tri-folding a piece of cardboard and three-hole punching laminated colored index cards with some kind of ring attached. We figured that we could make 20 of them for the price of one!

It's 12:01 on Sunday morning now, so I probably ought to catch some ZZzz's - will try to catch up with everyone later today.

Yikes! I'll be leaving to go to my interview in New Mexico on Monday around noon. I'm pretty much packed - found a few clothing items at Walmart on clearance. Now just need to get some nice sandals.

I hadn't heard from them since May 28!!! I'd sent a couple emails with some questions ... and was starting to get worried. Finally today I got an email that told me "don't worry about dressing fancy, jeans and capris are fine."

Well I have two pairs of capris, and a pair of jeans, and a nice broomstick style skirt (long) - all courtesy of Walmart's clearance. I was really needing something cooler than my black dress pants and dressier than my pink or blue track pants for wearing to my tutoring appointments.

I wish I had clue one about what all we are going to talk about. The Sr. and I will have a TWO HOUR drive from the airport to the school. Plus she said we'd stop to get something to eat (would it be appropriate to say Taco Bell if asked??)

Tuesday morning I get to go out on a Meals-on-Wheels run so I can see the reservation. Then I think my official interview is Tuesday afternoon. I'm not sure what I'm going to be doing Wednesday morning. I was hoping to be able to spend some time in the computer lab and library before my interview ...

JJ (my landlady) thinks I should keep my hair in an updo the whole time - it would be more professional looking. Maybe a French roll?? It sure would be cooler than having my hair down ... (and easier!)

Arghh!!! I'm nervous enough when it comes to interviews that are an hour or less worth of interaction. This is going to be nearly three days - including lots of time in cars ... I tend to clam up when I'm nervous or not comfortable .... or ... I become Miss Chatty Cathy and say lots of stuff to just fill the silence (half of which I wonder why I just said whatever it was I said)

I know I have a lot of people praying for me (although quite a few of them I think are praying halfheartedly - they want me to stay here, or at least not go to NM!) If this is where God wants me to be, I just have to trust that it'll all work out. If not, then I know I have a way of bringing in income one way or another.(insurance processing/tutoring)

I'd really love any suggestions from y'all regarding the in-reality Three Day Interview!

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I updated my Living Frugal blog with the story of how I managed to graduate debt free from grad school. Although with all the spending I've been doing this past while (plane ticket, fixed car a/c shredder??? and refilled freon, dental work ....etc.) my savings account is looking really slim.

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Today I finished my first full week doing the insurance processing. There are some things I really like about it (especially once I get my first paycheck!) and some I really don't care for. Overall, it is a good stopgap measure - definitely not something I'd want to do long term.

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JJ has no cartilage in her knees. And in order for her to have any kind of knee surgery, she needs to lose weight. The only exercise she can do without killing her knees is the reclined bike. She has had a membership with twenty 4 hr fitness for several years, but hasn't used it in 9 months. So ... on Monday morning we went in there and I told the sales guy that I was *only* going to be here till the end of July, and I would be moving someplace *nowhere* near one of their facilities. I ended up being signed on as a family member on a month-to-month plan for a total of $64 (good till Aug 15.) Ouch.

The good thing is that JJ and I have been there 4 times this week. Her granddaughter came with us twice. On Monday I could just do 20 minutes on the treadmill (intervals). Today I did 40 minutes. It is still hot in the gym, but WAY cooler than outside (100+ degrees!) It will be worth it if it gets JJ back into the habit of gym going (and it's pretty good for me too)

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My brother's taking flying lessons!! I'm not sure what brought this on, or what his plans are beyond getting certified to fly a small plane ... but how cool is that??

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I had a very scary experience while driving a few weeks ago. I was stopped at a light when a lady in a red car stopped behind me. I noticed two things pretty quickly - 1. Her hood was smashed in like she'd been in a head on crash, and 2. She had a cigarette hanging out of her mouth (drooping would be more apt). She had an overall look of someone not altogether with it. My defensive driving senses came to alert status.

While the light was still RED, all of a sudden I noticed the lady behind me coming closer and closer. She then preceded to BUMP my rear!! Finally the light turned green. We preceded to a narrow two-lane road surrounded by construction projects going on. She kept on going slow behind me, then speeding up. I was going the speed limit. Then suddenly, she is right on my bumper, and passes me - double yellow line with a cement truck coming the opposite direction - I had to slow down quite a bit so she wouldn't cause a crash!!

She got stopped at the next light, and I took a picture of her license plate. Then we were both turning left. Before the left turn signal turned green, she got out into the intersection, and came within centimeters of getting T-boned by yet another cement truck!! I noticed after turning left that she pulled over into a side lane - I think she was waiting to see if I was going to follow her.

My adrenaline was sure pumping - but I had to go to the bank and run some other errands.

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I have a new tutoring student!! The mom of the preschool girl I tutored last semester, and who's son I am now working with, is a hairdresser. She and her neighbor/friend/client were discussing their children and it came up that her n/f/c was looking for a tutor for her son. I had my first session with him on Tuesday. A really sweet kid. Oh, the funny thing about the other boy? My mom had worked with him and his older sister - said he was very difficult to work with. I've now worked with him three times, and have not found that to be the case at all!

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I can't remember if I mentioned this or not ... but ... I got a new computer!! I had to get a new monitor for my processing job (19") and I'd been saving all my Amazon gift cards, etc. that I'd been earning from the various sites for the goal of replacing my computer. Well, with the graduation money I received plus the AGC money, I decided to bite the bullet and get a new computer!

It's an Acer Slimline w/ Win 7, 1 tB memory, 9 usb ports, etc. I was worried about how I'd like Win 7 versus XP, but I actually do like it quite a bit. Plus now when my dad calls with technical questions about his computer (running Win7) I can actually SEE what it looks like, rather than trying to visualize from his descriptions.

The CPU unit is SO small! My screen is both wider and taller than it.

Now I just need to get my printer working again ... It is a wireless printer, and the Wi Fi here doesn't work - you have to be plugged in. I have my printer plugged in to the computer via USB, but after working two or three times, it has now just stopped responding. When I get back next week I'll have to spend some time on it.

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I'm so sad. My Sabbath School assistant is moving in a couple of weeks. She has been SO reliable - like my right hand. We are having a Primary SS Potluck and Charades next weekend. Unbeknownst to her, we also are having a thank you/goodbye party.

It looks like the nominating committee has found two possible people to be my assistants. (New year starts first Saturday of July). I hope they are even half as reliable as OB. Especially since I may have to be leaving my kids in their hands. (if I get the NM job)

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Did you hear that ING has been bought by Capital One? YUCK!! Even as the interst rates have dropped, I still have been a big fan of ING. They have such awesome customer service, and better yet they actively encourage people to SAVE!

I'll wait till CapOne starts charging fees for every little nit picking thing - but I will be moving my money sooner than later.

Someone on FB suggested Ally, and another person suggested USAA. Is USAA open to non-military, etc. personnel?

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Okay, I better close out this book. I need to make sure not to take so long between updates.

Now I'm going to attempt to go catch up on all the blogs!

Hi everyone. Sorry I've been missing in action for a bit here. I got busy doing a milion and one things... and then got sucked back into Netflix the past few days. Namely watching streaming episodes of The Secret Life of the Teenager - I'm up to number 20. I'd put my account on hold a few months back, and have to put it back off for a month so I don't lose my quee.

Anyway, one reason I wanted to check in here was to let any Beezaggers know that they seem to be running an Easter promotion starting today. When I logged on this a.m. there were two 250 point videos as well as several other ones.

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This morning I have an interview with a lady who may be able to direct a few more tutoring clients my way. I'd be getting paid less per hour than I am now, but it'd be worth it to not have to be the one looking for students! Especially this summer ...

Tomorrow I have an appointment with a life coach to work on interviewing skills. This is my moms graduation gift to me. Should be interesting, and I hope it turns out to be actually helpful - either in the short term or the long term.

No news yet on the oil and gas company my mom's friend works at. If anything happens, the wheels of a big company turn slowly.

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I am moving out on May 1. It isn't really what I want, but it is what it is. The lady's house I'm moving into is quite far from all my tutoring students - at least an hour in good traffic. So ... I'll be consolidating as much as possible, and getting the chance to listen to lots of audiobooks and maybe work on my Spanish a little.

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I hope to have time to catch up on everyone's blogs here soon. TTYL!

Yesterday I was able to redeem more of my Mypoints for a $25 Amazon gift card. That makes $50 in AGC from Mypoints this month (once they arrive of course!) I'm now down to a measly 471 points. So, I think it will be awhile before I can redeem again.

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I'm within 600 points of being able to redeem for my next $8 cash in Beezag. This March Madness deal (where all the videos are worth 250 points) has been fantastic!

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I've donated 770 Swagbucks so far this month to the Japan donation thing. I'm at 21 Swagbucks now. I'll wait till I get back up to 100 to donate again, or March 30. Whichever comes first.

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So I was supposed to pick up Buddy yesterday afternoon on my way back from my friends house. But when I called to find out if my mom wanted me to pick him up, she wasn't home yet. So today she calls me while I'm in my tutoring session and asks me if I can come pick him up because she was going to be gone from 1 pm to after 11 pm, and couldn't take him with her. So of course I said I would. I got there about 4:30. His leash was nowhere to be found. UGH! I texted her to find out where it was - and she didn't know where it was either.

When I took him out to the car, I had to improvise a leash - because when I set him down on the grass, he ran after another dog .... I found one of those tie down straps. Worked perfectly. A normally 30 minute trip took 1 1/2 hours thanks to traffic. Not fun!

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Mom's lease is up at the end of April. So she also today was asking me if she should get a two-bedroom apartment so I'd have a room to stay in. I told her I really had no idea at this point - I may need a place to stay, and I may not. Of course, considering how many responses I've received from my school librarian job apps ... more than likely I will need it.

So, I think she decided to go with the two bedroom, with the understanding that I'd be renting the "guest bedroom" from her and that it most likely would be temporary. She at first was wanting $300/mo for it - but when I asked if I could bring all my stuff from storage so that I could save that expense ... she agreed to $200/mo. If we decide to make it a more permanent arrangement, then she wants me to pay half. Half of what we didn't discuss ...

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I sent inquiries about a couple more jobs. One of them is similar to what Whitestripe has been doing. If it works out, I could do it for 15 - 25 hours a week at $10/hr +gas allowance. It is putting out fliers for a window washing company in various neighborhoods. I'd be doing a lot of walking - which is something that would be *very* good.

I figure I could do that from 8 - 11/12 every day, get home and shower, and then start my tutoring appointments at 1 or 2. That would put my income in the range of $1400 - 1600! I don't know what I'd do with all that money! Save as much as possible of course

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I bought some groceries today: $8.61 (yogurt, bananas, cheese)

So I have $11.49 remaining for March.

And I had a GREAT time!

I left Thursday around noon after dropping Buddy off with my Mom, and then arrived at my friend's home just before 4 p.m. Immediately I had her two kids all over me ... and that didn't change throughout the whole weekend.

On Friday morning I made aebleskebers for everyone. The kids couldn't get enough of them - they ate them just about as fast as I could make them.

I let them play games on my iPhone. The biggest hit - for both the almost 5 year old girl and the 7 year old boy ... was the Barbie Memory game! It uses a lot of "outdated" words. I had to explain "Jeepers" and "Toodles" plus a few other words. It was quite funny actually.

My friend and I somehow managed to get in 5 games of Flinch - she won all of them!

Saturday after church we took the kids to the Lufkin Zoo and park where we had a picnic. Not even 5 feet from our blanket was a lake ... with warning signs about alligators!!! That was quite exciting.
The church's pastor and his two kids joined us to go into the zoo (his wife was in a meeting of some sort). I somehow ended up having not 2 kids all over me, but 4! I loved every minute of it of course.

It didn't cost me anything to get in to the zoo because my friend had an extra guest pass. Really, just a perfect way to spend a Sabbath afternoon.

I got lots of reading time in ... out loud to the kids! We read about Zacheus and Goliath and the little Maid who helped Naaman ... and we read an older book about how Goofy got his name (it was called something like "The Princess Who Never Laughed"), a book of Mother Goose rhymes, and LOTS more. We also played quite a bit of Wii. The little girl is quite skilled at the swordplay!

So ... anyway ... the trip was well worth the ~$60 in gas and $24 (treated for a meal at CiCi's Pizza) that it cost.

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I have heard diddly squat from any of the places I have applied to so far for jobs. It is frustrating - quite frustrating. Nevertheless, all I can do is keep on looking and trying. Eventually something will turn up (I hope).

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I should know the Capstone results by this Friday. Just slightly anticipating the end of the LOOONNNGGG wait.

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Now that my trip is over, I am stipulating that I will not spend more than $20 for the remainder of March (other than gas and one celebratory meal if good results from Capstone). I think I should be able to manage that.

Beezag took less than a week to hit my Paypal account with $8! Sweet! My second cash out since December. Such an easy and fun way to earn money - watching videos.

I also *finally* received my $25.00 from sidetick. I requested payment over a month ago. I'm trying to decide if it is worth it or not to keep doing this site. All I have to do to earn .50/day is comment on a blog post. The problem is that sometimes the blogs aren't posted til after ten a.m. I try to get most of my paid to do stuff sites out of the way between 8 and 9 a.m. So this means I have to remember to go to this site later during the day. Still though, for something that takes maybe 5 minutes a day ... I'm leaning more towards going back and continuing to do it now that I *finally* got paid!

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I recently found the website pixelofink. So far I have downloaded ten free ebooks onto my iPhone. I don't think I'll ever run out of reading material (although most of them I wouldn't say are exactly ... quality).

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I like what SB's has done with their tv! It is now part of the toolbar, so you can surf the internet while the videos are playing. Such as right now, I have the videos playing off the toolbar. So instead of typing this on my iPhone and having numerous mistakes, I can type it on my full keyboard and have a few less mistakes.

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I'm trying to complete an application for a PA school library job. One thing they want is your fingerprints. There is no protocol for out of state applicants. I'm hoping I can just go somewhere here locally and they'll forward on my fingerprints. I wish BA was around, he'd be able to tell me (he was a police officer at one time, if I remember correctly.)

Filling out all these applications is so frustrating. There is a system called REAP which supposedly is the *one* application you fill out for numerous states. But after spending 3 1/2 hours filling it out (including writing 10 Professional Statements and an essay!) you see what jobs are available. I selected several ... only to find out that they want you to go to their districts website and ... fill out another application!!! Argh!!!

So far I have actually completed and submitted two applications - one for Missouri, and one for MA. I started one for PA and another one for South Carolina.

My dad is miffed that I haven't filled out any applications for CA, or nearby. Unfortunately, there are NO school library jobs IN California (unless you want a library clerk job ... expecting you to do the job of a certified librarian for half the pay.) Nor have I even seen any openings for WA, or OR, etc.

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So my confidence level right now is pretty low. All three of my "parents" (mom, dad, ex-stepdad) seem to have assumed that I'm not going to find a job by May.{sarcasm}
This is really helpful to me, seeing as how I myself am really worried about finding a school library job.{/end sarcasm}

My exstepdad seems to think that I should be applying for any and all jobs right now, and not focus on just school library jobs. I hate to give up on that ... but then again, what if there is a job right now that I can get, and I never can get a school library job (or at least not one for next year?)

How long do I wait to give up looking for what I really want (or at least focusing on it) and branch out to look for anything and everything?

My mom is talking with another tutor about having some kind of a summer school program, and including me as the technology person. This would be good for me, even if I *did* end up getting a librarian job, because I still would need some income before August. I also have several students who've already asked if I will keep working with them through the summer.

I really don't know what to do. One way or the other I will have to have another place to live by the middle or end of May. If ex-stepdads fiance had her way, I'd be OUT now. Considering my income (especially come summer, unless this summer school thing actually works) I will barely be able to afford the $200/month I'm paying now for rent. So my only option would be to bunk with my mom in her apt. That would not last very long very well. The other option would be to move out to CA and rent a room at my dad/grandma's. Of course, by doing that I would then have no way of knowing how I'd bring in any income, and it would be a lot of expense to move out there which may make it more difficult to move somewhere else where there is a job.

Please tell me if I'm being bull headed about this. It is a problem I know I have, being narrowly-minded focused on a goal and not seeing the big picture. The other thing I know is that I need to get more aggressive about looking for school library jobs and getting the applications filled out. It's just that every application (for each state) I fill out sends all my references an email ... I'd imagine that gets quite annoying to those references!

Also, I feel like I've committed to my current tutoring students through the end of May. Some of them would be fine if I wasn't working with them ... a couple of them need every bit of help I give them plus some. So, looking for just a job, any job, which may start before May, really doesn't appeal.

Sorry, I've been all over the place. That's kind of where my head is too -- all over the place. If you managed to follow all this and have any words of wisdom, I'd appreciate it!

Yesterday I received my $5 Amazon gift card from Irazoo that I ordered on 1/17. Took a little while ... I am 1,000 away from having enough to order two more, so am going to wait until then.

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I can't quite do a no spending month in March, but I would like to attempt a minimum spending month.

The two main spending times I foresee are a spring break trip to Houston - only cost gas and snacks most likely .. and a celebration dinner (hopefully!) when I get the Capstone results.

So ... these are my goals (with the above exceptions):

1. No more than $15/week on groceries (not including reimbursable type items for SS or tutoring materials)

2. No more than one fast food stop (plan ahead!)

3. No spending money to "make" money

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I need to call my friend in Houston and make sure the dates I can come down are good for her and her family. I haven't seen her since her 7 year old son was 8 months old. My SD is going to be gone the first half of SB, so I'll have to go the second half. I may see if my SS asst. will do class for me that Sabbath.

I finally did the deed of putting Netflix on hold yesterday. It would have charged me for another month today. I felt really conflicted about it because I do get so much use out of it - not just personal use, but use as a tutoring tool as well. (At least twice I used it with one tutoring student to watch television programs for an assignment.)

But I got to looking at my money situation again - especially considering that in February I'm going to be WAY short on tutoring income thanks to illness of students and weather - and my heart started pounding faster. Not that $10/month is really going to make that much difference ... but it is something.

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One of the things that had me worried is that my scholarship money had not credited yet - and the uni site was not showing account information. Thankfully late yesterday evening I got an email telling me that my scholarship had credited, and my account was paid in full.

I was seriously contemplating taking money out of my ROTH. I may still have to end up doing that ... but I'm going to wait till I'm down to my last $500. Gulp.

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I'm thinking that from now on I'm going to be getting paypal credits for Swagbucks instead of the Amazon cards. If my computer starts really getting finicky, I probably can give it more life with a reformat. I had to do that a few years ago, and it perked it up.

I can't do paypal for all the sites I work on, but for those I do, I think cash probably would be better than Amazon credits right now. Although I can use the AGC for quinoa/lentils, etc.

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School was canceled once again today. Mom called me and told me the roads were fine and she doesn't understand why the schools were closed. She talked me into doing my tutoring with the family we do together - just a few hours earlier than normal on a Wednesday. I hope she's right. I really could use that $50.

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I'm doing awful on the 100 day challenge - to put it mildly. Sigh.

Note - my Internet does not seem to be working right now, so I'm typing on my phone. Once I get past a few lines, I'll be typing blind. So, there may be typos.

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In thinking about my life and how I do best, I realized that I tend to rise to the occasion of challenges. Short challenges are good, but the changes don't seem to last. So in thinking about that, I decided on a term of 100 days. It's long enough to hopefully set in stone new good habits, but also short enough to see a deadline ahead.

I plan on beginning tracking as of tomorrow, and then posting a weekly update on Mondays. If anyone would like to join in, please feel free to do so.

Choose one - two goals. Each day the goal is met is worth .5 or 1 pt. At the end (around May 9) 90 and above is Gold, 80 and above is Silver, and 70+ is Bronze.

Okay, so here are my two goals.

Goal 1: buy no sweets or junk food except brown sugar (for oatmeal.)
Reason: this is both a financial and a health goal. Way too much of my grocery money goes towards sweets. If I limit myself to eating only sweets that are given to me, that will greatly reduce the amount of empty calories I consume.

Goal 2:
I was going to make this related to exercise, but my post yesterday on what changes I'd like to make, and the comments I received, has led me in a different direction.

So my goal is to write down every daysomething positive about myself. So if I feel stinkin thinking coming on, I will divert it by changing it to a positive This is kind of like what Thrifty Ray has been doing. It seems to be working well for her.
What goal or goals would you like to work on?

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On an unrelated note ...
I was at walmart on Friday waiting for a tutoring session. In the bike section I noticed a wide variety of bike seats ranging from 10 - 26 dollars. If I'm going to ride my bike, I need a very comfortable seat, but have no clue about how to choose one. Any ideas or suggestions?

So Tuesday afternoon I had my first session with the pre-school girl. It went fairly well, even though I was uber tired and not as prepared as I would have liked. Then I had my session with the senior girl. She has decided to drop back to two sessions a week - although this week we ended up only having one. (We'd mainly been working on college essays, and are pretty much done. I'm thinking that I may tell her that we can just get together on Sunday mornings when she has writing homework to do and drop our afternoon sessions. That way it will make that time slot available for me to put other people in it.)

As soon as I got home from working with the Junior boy, I literally crashed. Laid down on my bed, and the next thing I knew it was after 9 p.m. I got up and did some searching on the net in prep for my Wed. night students and the pre-school girl. Went to bed around 11:30 - couldn't sleep. Finally about 2:15 a.m. I went downstairs and fixed a cup of hot cocoa.

SD was awake talking on the phone (otherwise I wouldn't have banged around in the kitchen.) Turns out he was talking to my mom. She'd been making hot cocoa in her microwave, when the door of the microwave exploded!! It hit her on the forehead, knocking her into the fridge, and the water splashed all over her. Luckily, other than a bump on her forehead, she was unhurt.

Wednesday morning after finally getting some sleep, I woke up feeling much better. I spent a few hours doing more prep for my students, and managed to have less than 15 minutes to eat something before having to leave. After my morning appointment, I stopped at Walmart to pick up groceries and some organizational things for my new student. Then I stopped at the teacher store to get materials - I just wasn't finding what I needed online (i.e. free.)

By the time I got done at the teacher store, I was running really late. Thankfully, when I called my SD he was home and willing to put in the oatmeal I'd put together (other than the water) that morning, but hadn't had time to actually eat. Ate quickly, and did one more printout, then off to my Wednesday afternoon and evening appointments. Ended up getting home about 11:00 p.m.

Today I did the same thing - I still needed to do some prep for my pre-school girl (the things I'd bought yesterday) and ended up with 10 minutes to eat breakfast/lunch. By the time I was finished with my Junior boy, my belly was sticking to my backbone!

Whew! I don't need to do any prep for tomorrow, so I've been taking a bit of a breather tonight. Tomorrow though I need to prepare for Sabbath School, and I still need to unpack!

I need to work on my 2011 goals, but am just too tired to even contemplate them right now. Maybe on Saturday afternoon ...

Hi everyone! I have my first tutoring appointment today at 1:15 p.m. so I don't have a lot of time right now, but I just wanted to stop by and say hi!

My stepdad and I arrived back home at 2:40 a.m. this morning! Boy, was it good to get back to my own room again.

I had a great trip and did a lot of fun stuff. I'll try to post a bit more about that soon.

Today though I worked on updating my sidebar with one of my financial goals for this year -- tracking my earnings with the various rewards sites. My goal is to earn $800 by November 11. I'm including the $50 I earned from Swagbucks in 2010 towards that goal.

I made a financial leap of trust (or stupidity, depending on what happens ...) today. I took out some money from my Roth IRA and used it to purchase shares of one particular stock. I read a lot about this particular company over vacation, and all of my California family members have put money into this particular stock. This could turn out to be a fantastic decision, or one where I lose most of what I put into it. Either way, in the grand scheme of things, it isn't a lot of money. (There won't be tax consequences as the money I took out came from my own contributions.)

I am starving right now, so I probably ought to go get something to eat, and then get ready for my first session with my new student.

I cannot believe I did this. I cannot recall ONE time in my life where I have done this. I had one assignment left for one class this week. The assignments in this class were always due on Friday. I *assumed* that the due date for this assignment was also Friday.

I spent about four hours this afternoon finishing it. Then I went to turn it in. It was due yesterday....

I just needed 35 points to have an A in this class. The final assignment was worth 100.

I emailed the professor and asked for mercy.

If I miss out on getting into the Library Sciences Honor Society because of this ... oh, I could just cry!!

Thank you all again for your congratulations on receiving the huge scholarship. I'm still in a bit of shock over it.

On Monday I took a practice exam for the school librarianship certification. Previously I had taken it in the fall of 2009 near the beginning of my course. The first time I took it, I received a 79%. 80% is passing. Today I received my score for the second practice -- 81%. That is a passing score, but only a 2% improvement.

That worried me a good bit, so I started to do some research on study guides/programs. I came across this one

Flashcards. I looked up info on the company Mometrix Media LLC and saw that they've been in business since 2002, and have guides/flashcards for numerous tests. I also Googled them + complaints, and nothing came up.

So ... what I'm trying to decide is if it would be worth spending $43.00 to purchase their flashcard program. (I would then enter the data into a flashcard program for my iPhone, so I wouldn't have to lug around a bunch of cards.) There is a one-year money back guarantee -- and like I said, I didn't find any complaints about them.

They also have a study guide for the same price. So, I'm also wondering if it might be better to get the study guide and make my own flashcards from it. OR ... get both of them, and decide which one best meets my needs, and return the other one.

I can take another practice exam at the beginning of January. My test is scheduled for January 29. For obvious reasons, I want to pass it the first time. I wasn't really planning on worrying too much about it, since I generally do well enough on these types of things. However, passing the practice exam by such a slim margin makes me think that I might need to put a little more effort into it. (My mom still kids me about how I *studied* for the ExCet (Texas teacher's exam in 1997) -- during commercial breaks, a few days prior to taking the exams. Whereas she spent a month or more in deep study. We both passed, which is all that matters - although she did a little bit better than me.)

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I think I need to go back on that challenge with my mom. It really curbed my spending on food, and my junk food eating. I've already spent half my weekly budget this week on ... um ... junk. Good thing I don't need much in the way of groceries tomorrow.

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Today I ordered my 3rd and 4th Amazon gift cards for December from Swagbucks. Tomorrow I'll order the 5th (and last one.) Then I'll have enough left for the first one in January, plus a bit towards the second.

I really love Swagbucks, but I need to spend a little less time on it.

(Like right now, I really should be working on a school assignment so I have it done tonight - because tomorrow I'll have to put together the grant proposal information from my partner.) So .. I'm going to go stop procrastinating and get busy! Gotta keep that scholarship.

Tonight when I got home from my tutoring sessions, I had an envelope from my university. Inside of it was the information on how much my scholarship is for next semester -- $400! Yay! I was really hoping that it would be the same as the one I got for this semester, but now I know for sure. So, my last semester/class will cost just under $500 (although I don't know what the graduation fees, etc., will be.)

I really had meant to cancel Netflix, but I kept procrastinating on doing it. Tonight I was *really* glad I hadn't done it yet. My high-school boy tutoring student was supposed to watch a television drama from the 1970's or earlier, and then write an essay about it. Then he was also to watch a current drama, and then compare the two.

Well ... he didn't do it over break. The assignment is due tomorrow. I searched about a dozen different dramas on my Netflix app on the iPhone before I finally found one with streaming episodes. Bonanza! We watched it over the 3g network - the first 20 minutes or so were perfect, then for about ten minutes or so it stuttered and froze a good bit. But we finally managed to finish both the program, and his essay. (He'd watched Season 8 of 24 recently.) Our session lasted over an hour longer than regularly scheduled, so it will probably replace our normal tutoring session on the 17th (when he probably won't have anything to do anyway!)

So ... I guess I can now consider my Netflix subscription tax deductible? (I'm joking, really.)

Man, there were a ton of videos on the Swagbucks offer walls today - plus one on the rotating slider (homepage top.) Those videos, plus 6 Swagbucks TV wins, 3 codes, and 2 search wins (so far) put me up to 2,262 SB's.

I found out about this really cool Firefox browser add on which helps scout out deals for you on other websites when you do online shopping. I made a post about it on my

Living Frugal blog.

No spending today, and I don't plan on spending anything tomorrow. So, I think this pretty much wraps up November.