Sorry, I just can't think of a title.

Yesterday I put in another full day at the library. I stopped at 5 p.m., went home and grabbed a bite, then headed up to big G to attend a small group meeting (my pastor/his wife, another couple and myself were the only ones in attendance.)

I spoke with the newbie teachers during lunch. I really should've made an outline of what I wanted to cover - I felt like I was all over the place. But today one of the other teachers who also was intro'ing herself told me that she thought I'd done really well. So, who knows.

My principal did something really thoughtful for me. At the lunch she had bought Blimpie subs for everyone, and she bought a veggie sub especially with me in mind. At the oil and gas company where I was for 3 years, we had free lunches many, many times, and very very rarely did they ever do anything to acknowledge that my eating preferences were different.

After my small group meeting, I went grocery shopping. I was nearly 9 p.m. when I started and I was already SO sleepy.

I made it out for $24.99:
bananas, oranges, diced butternut squash, carrot shreds, Kashi ceral, Kashi frozen spinach/pasta meal, etc.

I also filled up with gas ($32.xx). My tank of gas lasted for 2 1/2 trips to big G, at an average of 30.2 mpg.

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Today I had my assistant work with me for the first time!! She got a lot accomplished.

I also had the chance to talk with the person who took over lead mid-school teacher for summer school. He told me that the kids really had a blast, and that there were way more ideas than there was time to do them in. He also told me that one of the books I'd bought for them to read had some questionable language/scene description about two chapters into it - so they scrapped that book and went with the two others. He showed me the section ... oops. The reviews I read didn't mention anything about this - and it was recommended by middle school librarians and the school library journal!! It doesn't sound like there was any backlash from parents about it, so that is good. All the books still look brand new, so I hope that I can sell them for most of what I paid.

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This morning after I finished my 45 minute run I went into the office and saw the maintenance man. When I'd come in I'd found the lights and swamp cooler already on, so I wanted to tell him about that. When I said, "Good Morning!", he nearly jumped out of his skin. I apologized profusely. I really thought that he knew I was in the building since he'd seen my car parked out there before and found me in the gym ... Later I found out from AL that our maintenance guys had supposedly been "seeing" someone/something in the gym/chapel, so that may have contributed to his edginess.

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I am so glad that I can take the next 24 hours off without any guilt. My throat was feeling scratchy today and I really just wanted to go home, but had so much to do. Tomorrow I'll be sleeping in, going to church, staying for potluck, and then probably go sing at the nursing home. Then I will probably come home and take a good long nap!

Sunday I plan to do a 90 minute run/walk. I think I can do it. Next Sunday my brother is doing his tri-athalon and I want to do a 2-hr run/walk around the same time he's doing his event - so to kind of be in tandem.

I've been watching an episode of EH: Weight Loss edition most nights this week. Today I watched an episode where a man that weighed 493lbs got down to 313lbs in 6 months and completed a tri-athalon in 4:20. Seriously, if these people can do some of the things they show, then I sure can push my body to do more as well! Chris (the trainer on the show) constantly talks about how it is all about mind over body. If your mind believes you can do something, your body will comply no matter how difficult.

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August NSDs: 5/10

Cashed in for $5 AGC from SBs.

If you're like me, you didn't get the email telling you that Beezag is shutting down. : If you have at least 1,000 points you can cash out (in increments of 1,000) until November 1.

In about 18 months I earned slightly over $74. Sad to see them go.

One thing I've noticed while out here in CA this summer is that most of my tops have a number of claw shaped holes in them, as well as some staining. I've seen Kari (my cat) in my closet before, but hadn't really realized how much damage she was inflicting on my clothing.

I decided that while I was in an area with an abundance of places to buy clothes, that I should try to replace a number of tops. So today my grandma and I went clothes shopping. I ended up buying 7 tops total - 3 from Walmart, 1 from Macy's, and 3 from Sears. The least expensive top was $5, and the most was $25. I'm very happy with all of them, and think they will help to upgrade my professional image. I was really hoping I could find a replica of this one particular top I bought at Lane Bryant 4 years ago which I absolutely love, but I didn't find anything close. (I've been looking ever since I realized how much I loved the top ...) It's at home (NM) so if I think about it I'll take a picture of it - maybe one of you have seen it somewhere ...

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***Please be advised, the following is a spewing of my thinking/thoughts arguing back and forth with myself ...

So in thinking about cars I took heed of the advice to look at certified cars. In my area (within 200 miles) there are 0 certified cars that are 2010 or newer AND less than $15k. There are 14 cars that are 2009 and newer AND less than $20k. So ... if I'm going to pay $14k+ for a car ... I'd rather get a brand new (last year model) with full warranty, etc., than a 2 - 4 year old car for the same $ or more.

When I get my next car, I want to be able to run it for a minimum of ten years. (My current car I've had since 1997 - bought new with 37 miles on it.) Since I live out in the boondocks (30+ miles to nearest town with more than two gas stations) I really cannot take many chances with the reliability of a vehcicle.

It would be great if I could find a car like my first one - a Hundayi Sonata that had sat in a grandma's garage and had 33k miles on it and was 4 years old .. in perfect condition. I paid $5k for it (in 1994) and drove it for 3 years, then sold it to my parents in 1997. My dad drove it for two more years (he put more miles on it in two years than it had on it when he bought it from me.)

I'm really looking at the Nissan Versa - mainly because it seems to get similar gas mileage to my Civic, it is a similar size/handling, and from my experiences riding in my co-workers Versa - seemed like a good car for the price range. I'd be open to other cars. Mostly what I'm lusting after is the ability to charge my phone via cig lighter and play my phone over the radio. Everything else I don't care about too much. (ok, I care a lot about gas mileage and size/handling - large part of why I ended up not taking on the Rogue.)

I could put $2 - 4k into my current car - change the timing belt, do whatever needs to be done to make sure the engine doesn't fall out, figure out how to get my cig lighter working again (was told $3-400), and install a radio (and just hope that it doesn't fry like my last radio fried ...), oh yeah, the shocks probably will need replacing soon and possibly the brakes within the next year or two .. Maybe I could get a new hood too ... My car might last another 4 years after all that, or .. the electrical system will go out or the a/c will fail and then my car'd be a goner or need a few thousand more dollars work ... Meanwhile my family would be getting more and more worked up about how unsafe my car is, and I'd be getting further and further behind on having the ability to get a new car with cash.

Or ... I could do all that and my car could keep going fine for another 4 or 5 years, and then I'd have more than enough time to save the funds needed to replace it.

Or .. I could buy a new car (last years model) for around $13-15k. Put down $4k in cash for it up front, and then use dealer financing for the other 8-11k. Depending on the dealer finance rate, either stick with it or borrow 10k from my grandma (5% finance rate) to pay it off. (I read in several places that you can work a better deal on the overall price if you go with dealer financing.) Then either way I went ... aggressively pay the car off within two years (any money left from dads estate after medical bills, using tax refunds and extra paychecks, plus whatever I can sell my Honda for.) Then have 7 - 8 years to save towards the next replacement car (while also having the ability to work on other financial goals.)

Whenever my family starts to chime in on how unsafe they think my car is, I tend to defend my car. But the reality is that every time I take a trip to ABQ (about a two-hour one-way) I do worry. I've kept up with the general maintenance and oil changes - but I've also had multiple minor accidents and mishaps over the years in it. The hood that is currently crumpled (due to me rear ending somoenone in Dec.) is actually the 4th hood my cars had (hail damage, running into a pipe sticking out the back of a truck and something else I can't remember ..) I was told before moving to NM that one of the things holding my engine in was completely corroded and that the other two were just a matter of time. My timing belt was last changed in 2003 or 4?? so it's probably on borrowed time. The computer in my car appears to be working fine right now - although it is the same one that was in my car when my radio fried... (it's the 4th computer in my car - 1st one died, replacement was stolen, 3rd one from junk yard was for a standard car and not automatic ..)

When I get back to NM in a week, I'm not really going to have time to do anything about this one way or the other. School starts on the 15th and I'm WAY behind in everything I feel like I need to have done. So ... maybe I'll wait till November when we have a week off for Thanksgiving. I'd have a lot more to put down by then, and my timing belt should *hopefully* hold out til then ...

(In doing further research about the best time to buy a car, it seems that there really is no consensus. So November might just be as good of a time as any other..)

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I finally made enough Swagbucks to redeem for a $5 AGC today. 1st one this summer!

One thing I've noticed while out here in CA this summer is that most of my tops have a number of claw shaped holes in them, as well as some staining. I've seen Kari (my cat) in my closet before, but hadn't really realized how much damage she was inflicting on my clothing.

I decided that while I was in an area with an abundance of places to buy clothes, that I should try to replace a number of tops. So today my grandma and I went clothes shopping. I ended up buying 7 tops total - 3 from Walmart, 1 from Macy's, and 3 from Sears. The least expensive top was $5, and the most was $25. I'm very happy with all of them, and think they will help to upgrade my professional image. I was really hoping I could find a replica of this one particular top I bought at Lane Bryant 4 years ago which I absolutely love, but I didn't find anything close. (I've been looking ever since I realized how much I loved the top ...) It's at home (NM) so if I think about it I'll take a picture of it - maybe one of you have seen it somewhere ...

---
***Please be advised, the following is a spewing of my thinking/thoughts arguing back and forth with myself ...

So in thinking about cars I took heed of the advice to look at certified cars. In my area (within 200 miles) there are 0 certified cars that are 2010 or newer AND less than $15k. There are 14 cars that are 2009 and newer AND less than $20k. So ... if I'm going to pay $14k+ for a car ... I'd rather get a brand new (last year model) with full warranty, etc., than a 2 - 4 year old car for the same $ or more.

When I get my next car, I want to be able to run it for a minimum of ten years. (My current car I've had since 1997 - bought new with 37 miles on it.) Since I live out in the boondocks (30+ miles to nearest town with more than two gas stations) I really cannot take many chances with the reliability of a vehcicle.

It would be great if I could find a car like my first one - a Hundayi Sonata that had sat in a grandma's garage and had 33k miles on it and was 4 years old .. in perfect condition. I paid $5k for it (in 1994) and drove it for 3 years, then sold it to my parents in 1997. My dad drove it for two more years (he put more miles on it in two years than it had on it when he bought it from me.)

I'm really looking at the Nissan Versa - mainly because it seems to get similar gas mileage to my Civic, it is a similar size/handling, and from my experiences riding in my co-workers Versa - seemed like a good car for the price range. I'd be open to other cars. Mostly what I'm lusting after is the ability to charge my phone via cig lighter and play my phone over the radio. Everything else I don't care about too much. (ok, I care a lot about gas mileage and size/handling - large part of why I ended up not taking on the Rogue.)

I could put $2 - 4k into my current car - change the timing belt, do whatever needs to be done to make sure the engine doesn't fall out, figure out how to get my cig lighter working again (was told $3-400), and install a radio (and just hope that it doesn't fry like my last radio fried ...), oh yeah, the shocks probably will need replacing soon and possibly the brakes within the next year or two .. Maybe I could get a new hood too ... My car might last another 4 years after all that, or .. the electrical system will go out or the a/c will fail and then my car'd be a goner or need a few thousand more dollars work ... Meanwhile my family would be getting more and more worked up about how unsafe my car is, and I'd be getting further and further behind on having the ability to get a new car with cash.

Or ... I could do all that and my car could keep going fine for another 4 or 5 years, and then I'd have more than enough time to save the funds needed to replace it.

Or .. I could buy a new car (last years model) for around $13-15k. Put down $4k in cash for it up front, and then use dealer financing for the other 8-11k. Depending on the dealer finance rate, either stick with it or borrow 10k from my grandma (5% finance rate) to pay it off. (I read in several places that you can work a better deal on the overall price if you go with dealer financing.) Then either way I went ... aggressively pay the car off within two years (any money left from dads estate after medical bills, using tax refunds and extra paychecks, plus whatever I can sell my Honda for.) Then have 7 - 8 years to save towards the next replacement car (while also having the ability to work on other financial goals.)

Whenever my family starts to chime in on how unsafe they think my car is, I tend to defend my car. But the reality is that every time I take a trip to ABQ (about a two-hour one-way) I do worry. I've kept up with the general maintenance and oil changes - but I've also had multiple minor accidents and mishaps over the years in it. The hood that is currently crumpled (due to me rear ending somoenone in Dec.) is actually the 4th hood my cars had (hail damage, running into a pipe sticking out the back of a truck and something else I can't remember ..) I was told before moving to NM that one of the things holding my engine in was completely corroded and that the other two were just a matter of time. My timing belt was last changed in 2003 or 4?? so it's probably on borrowed time. The computer in my car appears to be working fine right now - although it is the same one that was in my car when my radio fried... (it's the 4th computer in my car - 1st one died, replacement was stolen, 3rd one from junk yard was for a standard car and not automatic ..)

When I get back to NM in a week, I'm not really going to have time to do anything about this one way or the other. School starts on the 15th and I'm WAY behind in everything I feel like I need to have done. So ... maybe I'll wait till November when we have a week off for Thanksgiving. I'd have a lot more to put down by then, and my timing belt should *hopefully* hold out til then ...

(In doing further research about the best time to buy a car, it seems that there really is no consensus. So November might just be as good of a time as any other..)

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I finally made enough Swagbucks to redeem for a $5 AGC today. 1st one this summer!

This afternoon I had a Bart Simpson moment. DOH! Remember how I was thinking about going for my Graduate Academic Certificate at my alma mater, and I was wondering how I was going to afford it AND a new car? Err... if my alma mater accepts Americorp scholarship money, then I already have enough money for the first two courses!!

Now the thing is that the Americorp scholarship money counts as income (I believe only once you use it) so if I want to keep the savers credit for my taxes this year, I will need to wait til Spring 2013 (i.e. January) to take my first class. (Although they usually have you pay ahead of time ... so not sure how I can make sure that it isn't counted in 2012 income.)

My summer school pay + the scholarship would put me over the limit for the savers credit, and that would be a loss of about $700 (not to mention the higher tax bracket.) But anyway, I need to check with my school tomorrow to see if they accept Americorp funds - if they do - then problem solved! Woo hoo!

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This morning I stopped by our thrift store in town. I picked up a green bedsheet which I plan to use as a green backdrop in videos the kids make. I also picked up a plastic tablecloth which I need to find someone to now draw an oversized computer keyboard on. (The younger students will learn the location of the letters on the keyboard by standing and jumping on the keyboard.)

Then I went into G to return library books (gulp! $13 late fine!!!) and stopped at Goodwill. Major score there - 7 different baskets good for books, and an adorable wooden giraffe /basket.

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I decided to not take my trip to ABQ this week since I still have a lot to do to get the library in order for the first summer hours checkout (next Wednesday.)
My mom may be coming in on the 14th, so I'm thinking I'll go up on the 13th and do my thing, then pick her up the next day. She'll be on her own most of the 15th since that is our official planning day for summer school, and then I'd take her back on Sunday the 17th. I'll just have to make sure that I have *everything* ready for that Monday before I leave.

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Today I did a big grocery shop - mainly to finish out the $300 deal on Discover for groceries. I went to Albertson's this time - they were overpriced in some things, but okay on others. I found my Amy's Brown Rice and Veggies ($5.99!!! Arghh!!) and veggie hot dogs ($4.99!!) I didn't have a lot of groceries to get (and my freezer was already pretty full) so I decided to get $50 in Amazon gift cards and 2 $15 gift cards (Starbucks and McDonalds) which I'll use as good behavior prizes for the students. (We'll have an "auction" the last day of the three weeks - I have the 25 posters from the book fair, plus these two cards for auction items. They "earn" Star"bucks" by good behavior, etc.) I was hoping to get 2 or 3 $5 gift cards, but they only had $15, 25, and 50.

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My $8 from Beezag posted today in my Paypal account. Yay!

What a busy week this has been so far, and the next two days will be equally busy, if not more so.

I had a lot of help in the library this week - a few 3rd graders on Monday, then 6th graders on Tuesday and today. While not all of my helpers were exactly helpful, the vast majority of them were - what would have taken me two - three weeks to do on my own, is now mostly done. (Namely, inventory - but also we are removing all the grade level labels from the books. I attempted using my label blade on a couple of books - ended up slicing my hand and tearing the spine of several books. So am using the circle sticky dots instead to cover the grade label.)

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Monday night we had a social for one of the interviewees. Before going to the social, I took Kari over to the Title 1 teachers home where we ate supper. The purpose was to see if her cat and Kari would get along. We left them alone together while we were at the social. Big mistake. When we got back we found Kari still in her kennel, having soiled herself (both.) Title 1 teacher gave me a wet rag to wipe her off with - Kari escaped from my arms and hid under the couch. Therein ensued 30 - 35 minutes of me trying every trick in the book to get her out - and Title 1 teacher getting badly scratched/bitten by her cat. (She got an tetnus shot and is on antibiotics.)

So ... needless to say, I won't be watching her cat this summer.

Tuesday night we had a farewell dinner at Applebee's for the teacher's who are leaving. :sob: We were quite a motley crew - only 2 of us had anything alcoholic to drink, but I imagine people around us thought we were all sipping toddy's.

This afternoon I had to sit through a training on child sex abuse. Ugh and double ugh. There was nothing new in the training - but at least I have it done now so I fulfilled that requirement for another two years. What I really was annoyed by was the evaluation form that asked "What did you find useful today?" My honest answer would be - Absolutely nothing. However my name was on it, so I made something up. Then another question asked about what we thought of our presenter ... the nicest thing I could think of to say was "he's friendly." Boring, repetitive, monotonous, etc., didn't seem like good things to put down!

Tomorrow we have our field day in the morning. I'm in charge of leading the Kinders around to the different stations. It's going to be fun, but HOT!

After school I'm going to ABQ with AL so I can take advantage of the book sale at the Sch olas tic ware house. We might make a couple other stops too, but I'm hoping to not make too long of a day of it.

Friday is essentially mass and goodbyes. Then I might try to finish the inventory. I essentially only have the older kids non-fiction left now.

Depending on how long that takes me, I may try to take in MIB3 (Mr. Smith!!) Although I'll probably wait til Sunday.

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I've gotten some interest in the summer library hours - not a whole lot, but some. So I'm hopeful that I won't end up sitting in the library for 4 hours with no one showing up.

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Ooo boy - we sure are having some wind here today! I hope my water heater doesn't blow out!

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I cashed in my Beezag points yesterday. Now I'm back to just over 100 points.

Today for SrN's mass the reporter from the local paper showed up. After everyone went outside and heard the announcement from SrN of who the new principal is, I got pulled from the crowd. The reporter asked me a few questions - I told her I'd only been there a year and there were several people who probably could give her a better perspective. So I introduced her to those people, then she asked me for a couple of students. I pulled over our 8th grade student of the year (who happens to be SrN's neighbor) and another 8th grader (who'd been at the school since she was 3.) They both handled themselves pretty well for being interviewed.

The story will come out on Monday - I can hardly wait to see what got used and what didn't. She told me that she had way more material than she could use, so I may or may not be quoted. If I am, then it'll be my first time quoted in a real paper. My brother beat me to it though by a few weeks. (He's quoted in an article on some media convention or something ... can't remember exactly what.)

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Exactly 15 days left of school. 3 of the days are half-days. Tomorrow I should be getting a bunch of new books in from Amazon - all of them will only have the opportunity to be checked out once at most this year - but at least they'll have that chance.

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The newspaper lady told me about this group that does book donations to needy organizations/schools. They donate publisher's seconds. I looked them up and was impressed to see that they actually check your library's catalog *before* sending books to make sure there is no duplication. Yes!!

I also found out that they do donations of e-readers!! So ... I wrote an email to them telling them a little about our school and that our non-fiction section is sorely outdated (especially in light of Common Core coming up here fast) and that I'd love to get e-readers into the kids hands that didn't require wi-fi. We'll see what happens ...

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I cashed out for my 5th AGC from Swagbucks today. I have enough left for the first 1 1/2 cards in June. I need to find some good high SB offers that are inexpensive/free.

I'm up to 6,300+ points in Beezag. So probably will be able to cash out in another few weeks.

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Several of us teachers are going to see the Avengers this weekend. I can hardly wait!!

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Today was payday. This is a month of 3 paychecks. The first two paychecks go to June, and the 3rd paycheck goes directly to my EF. After last month's piddly savings, that is something I can really cheer about!

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I read a really interesting article in the latest Smithsonian magazine (one of many subscriptions donors send our school ...) about how the education system works in Finland. It almost made me want to move to Finland ... but then I realized I'd have to learn and become fluent in both Finnish and Swedish .... so, nope, that's not going to happen.

Expenses:

Offering: 20
Tithe: 150
Groceries: 256.65
Restaurants: 14.42
Phone/Internet: 128.93
Hulu+ - 7.99
Household: 19.95
Prescriptions: 24.63
Miscellaneous: 83.85
Kari: 32.96
Library: 49.40
Entertainment: 1.38
Summer Travel: 186.00
Gas: 118.25
Auto Repairs/Maint: 331.01

Savings/Goals:
ROTH: 100.00
EF: 121.30 ... 1900/5000 goal
Replace Car: 190 ... 690/5000 goal
iPhone: 15 ... 90 / 200 goal

Expenses:

Groceries --- Am I ever going to manage to get this back under control? Part of the expense was the trip into Albuqurque, but most of it was extra trips to the nearby mom and pop store. I'm planning on not doing any grocery trips until I use up everything in my freezer - except maybe to get fruit. Then I'll get Walmart cards with a monthly allotment on them ...
see if that helps any....

Restaurants - within budget limits

Phone/Internet -- w/i limits

Hulu +: I decided to try it this month and put Netflix on hold. I'm debating whether I want to keep it or not along with Netflix - or if I'll just keep it during the regular seasons of shows, then have only Netflix during the summer...

Household - bought a fan, old one stopped working

Prescriptions: keeps going up every time I refill it. Ugh.

Miscelaneous: fingerprinting fee, website domain renewals, etc.

Kari: - food and toys

Library: books, what else? :roll eyes:

Entertainment: a song download

Summer Travel: Bought train tickets!!

Gas: Spent more than usual on gas this month, mostly due to Albuquerque trip. Starting May with almost a full tank.

Auto Repairs - replaced all 4 tires

Savings:

When I look at the amount I put into my EF this month, I want to cringe. However, a good portion of what might have otherwise gone into it, went to replacing the tires on my car. So ... it's not
really too bad overall. (My main focus right now is my EF. Money I'm gifted by my dad is going directly towards my car fund. That's why I didn't use money from that for the tires.)

Extra Money:
$25 in AGC from Swagbucks (spent on books for Library)
$50 AGC from Mypoints (spent on books for library)

On a whim tonight I decided to log in to all my credit card accounts. I made an interesting discovery (ha ha) when looking at my Discover account. Apparantally they pull surprise categories for the 5% cash back thing. Groceries had not been included previously for April - June, but has been added as a category for May - up to $300. So ... I guess I'll be buying $300 of Walmart gift cards in May - Or I'll see how much I spend in grocery categories in May, then get the remainder of the $300 in grocery gift cards. Seeing as though I was already thinking of doing it this way to try to help curb my grocery bill....

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The other night I dropped my wireless keyboard and the batteries fell out. They needed replacing anyway, so I replaced them. As I was working on replacing them I apparently was depressing the enter key -- and was on a SB search page. When I looked up from working on the batteries I found a Searching Too Fast warning. So I wrote to SB support immediately to explain what happened.

Tonight I get an email back from them all but accusing me of cheating - i.e. using a bot or auto refresher. To my knowledge I've never missed one of those stupid captchas, and I definitely know I don't have a bot or auto refresher. I would do nothing to jeopardize my best source of free books for the library!!

My inclination was to write back a bit of a nasty note ... but I resisted. I'm not sure that any kind of a response would be a good idea. Just roll my eyes at their idiocy and make sure that the enter key doesn't get depressed like that again on a search page. Argh!

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I'm just about through with S4 of Pretender - at least the episodes that Hulu + has available. That's part of why I haven't been too active here lately.

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We've interviewed three people here in the last few weeks. One of them has definitely been given a contract, one definitely not, and the last one I'm not sure of yet. Next year sure is going to be interesting ... To put it one way .. the teachers who are leaving are in their mid-20's/30's. All 3 who've interviewed so far are in their mid 50's to early 60's. The one that was hired - I didn't get a chance to really get a feel for her comfort level with technology - though she did state that she thought FB was a big waste of time and she doesn't have an account. While I agree that it can be a waste of time, here it has been a great way for those teachers who are connected on it to communicate outside of school hours.

Anyway ... I better head off to the haystacks ... tomorrow I have no classes (because my normal classes are all off to a Bishop's Mass in little G for the majority of the day) however, I have a lot to do in the library and computer lab.

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I received my AGC from Mypoints today. $50 in books will be ordered soon.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

What do ya'll think?

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

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

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

--

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

I might just do a braid more often.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Last night I had a blast with several of my coworkers. We had "game night." We played two games from start to finish (Redneck Life and Quelf) and partially played Pop Culture Trivia DVD (it was getting really late.) One of my coworkers made homemade burnt brownie ice cream (something she discovered last year when she attempted making brownies here for the first time) and I brought soda.

I hope we do this again soon. (Kari wasn't very happy with me - gone pretty much all day, breeze in for five minutes, then gone again for 3 hours ..)

---
I filled up my car yesterday - $3.48/gallon. I'd only made 234 miles on the last tank, nearly 80 miles less than normal. I asked one of my coworkers if she thought it was possible someone was siphoning gas. She told me that she'd been getting less gas mileage too - most likely due to driving against the wind.

I also stopped by the library and dropped off the two latest Evanovich books and picked up a new Kinsella book (author of Confessions of a Shopaholic series - LOVE!)

Then made a ~$30 stop at Walgreens (prescription+), and a $44 stop at Wal-mart.

While I was waiting for sunset in the Wal-mart parking lot, I had a chance to talk to the lady I'd stayed with the last few months I lived in Texas. She and her daughter had moved into a new home over Christmas, and are really loving it. They've had a spate of bad luck though with cars - two cars wrecked by drivers running red lights - but thankfully no one injured!! It was really good to talk with her.

---
I went to take a shower Saturday morning and found out that the pilot light on the water heater was out -- so no hot water. Then found out that the mobile home park manager quit last week ... doh! Still trying to get in touch with someone to relight it. I have several places to go to take a shower, so am not worried about that - just can't do my dishes.

---
One of my co-workers and I were talking about Spring Break plans and ended up deciding to take a bit of a road trip. It'll be her last year here, so I let her pretty much decide. We're going to go to Santa Fe and Taos. I found a hotel room in Santa Fe for only $38 which allows dogs (she has two dogs.) I'll have my Discover card by then which will give me 5% cash back on gas purchases. I've been to Santa Fe before (when I was in elementary) but I don't remember ever being in Taos, so that should be fun. Even with gas, I don't think the trip should cost me more than $130 or so, since we'll be splitting the costs.
---
I looked into Amtrak tickets and airplane tickets for my summer trip to CA. Going to where my dad/grandma are, then up to where my brother is, and then back here on Amtrak would cost $265. Doing the same route/dates via flying would cost $370 + driving to/from Albuquerque and a hotel stay (so getting pretty close to $500). So ... I think I'll be doing Amtrak this summer. I just need to find out for sure when summer school ends to finalize my dates. I'm hoping to be able to be there for my dad's birthday (July 5.)

I checked what the amenities are on Amtrak nowadays (last time I was on it was in 1988?) It looks like the seats have electric plugs, so I'll be able to plug my phone in and enjoy myself reading or watching movies. That'll be good, because I'll be having a lot of travel time. (The one thing I'm wondering is how you secure your luggage if you're traveling alone and need to use the restroom or go to the lounge car, etc? No checked baggage on most of the trip.)

--
I've now redeemed 5 $5 AGCs from Swagbucks for March. I have enough left for 5 in April and almost enough for the first one in May. (I applied for a Discover card - 3600 SBs and then actually *completed* two surveys and did an offer that cost $.99 which netted 408 SBs. Nice!)

---
I've had a tooth that's been bothering me for the past few days. I'm really hoping that it'll pass soon. I have no desire to find a dentist in the area just yet.

---
Just talked with one of the teachers who does summer school. The last day will be June 29 - will only be two weeks long. The pay is $30/hr, so somewhere around $1800 - $2100 for those two weeks (before taxes of course.) Sweet! If I go to CA for two weeks, then that will give me a month or so here to work on various projects in the library before school starts again, plus the boost to my EF/car fund. (So in two weeks I'll be making almost as much as I make in a normal month at the mission school - summer school is paid by the county.)

With the rising cost of gas, I'm thinking that the sooner I book my summer travel, the better. I'd also maybe even book my Christmas tickets, but without knowing exactly what my mom's situation will be then ... (she's broken up with person she was with at Thanksgiving ... again.)

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

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

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

---

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

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

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

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

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

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

And .... She did!!

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

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

---

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

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

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

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

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

Inflow:

2 paychecks, Tax Refund, Gift Money, Swagbucks AGCs

Expenses:

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

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

*EF savings represents roughly 39% of total inflow.


Expenses:

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

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

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

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

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

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

Kari (pet): dry and wet food

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

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

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

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

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

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

Savings:

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

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

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

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

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

Someone (I think Retire#50) was asking about Amazon Prime streaming videos. I mentioned I hadn't used that feature before, although I have a student prime account. So tonight while looking for things to do, I mosied over there just to see what movies they might have. They had "The Bodyguard!" I'd wanted to watch that when Whitney Houston died, but Netflix didn't have it and of course I was pretty much out of Entertainment budget so I couldn't rent it from iTunes. Sweet!

--
While I was watching the movie I decided to check Facebook on my phone and my email. When I opened up FB, it totally froze on me. I attempted to get back to the home screen and nothing happened. Finally the black screen with the apple appeared. It took several tries to restart the whole thing. Finally, it appears to be working again.

I'm not sure what is going on with it, but I'm worried I may need to end up replacing it sooner rather than later. I was *really* wanting to hold out for the 5 in September, but if it does this again, I may have no choice. I have to have a working phone.

---
I checked my ING account today and saw that the $771 from the IRS (federal return) had been deposited into my savings account. Yay! Now I'm just waiting on NM to send me my money.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

So today I went to the doctor. It was only supposed to be for a blood draw to check my thyroid level. Well when I got there, I found out that they'd set it up as a new doctor/patient visit! That would've been fine if I hadn't gone there expecting to be in and out in 20 minutes!! It took nearly an hour (between the wait and the "visit w/new doctor.") Not to mention the fact that they added an $85 dollar charge for the doctor seeing me. Ugh. In a way it was a good thing though, because I got some antibiotics for what I think is a sinus infection. But still!!

--
The past few days have been really, really long. Our science fair is on Friday and the parents are invited to view tomorrow night. With all our snow days and printer/ink problems, the kids didn't get as much done as needed. So ... the Mid-school science teacher and her assistant have been spending long evenings and most of their long weekend trying to get everyone's boards finished. I spent most of Sunday afternoon and evening helping, and then stayed late yesterday and today to help. As well as pretty much every minute I haven't had class. *Two other teachers have also been giving of their time to help get everything done. Oh, and the assistant isn't getting paid for all the overtime he's doing (they're paid on an hourly basis. He's the one I'd love to steal for next year.)

I am SO tired right now!

I also found out that we again are not going to have electives tomorrow. We didn't have any last week, and we didn't have them today due to having Mass (Ash Wednesday). So ... I have 4 class periods left before the yearbook deadline... We still have a lot to do. Ugh.

---
Kari managed to get into the upper cupboard where I'd put her new bag of food - and of course she tore into it. Luckily she didn't make too big of a hole. I've loosely tied a plastic bag through the cabinet handles to try to keep her out - we'll see how well that works. If you saw her around food, you'd think that I starve her or something!

--
I cashed out tonight for a $5 AGC from Irazoo, and almost have enough for another one from SB (need 25 more!) although I'll probably wait til after the birthday bash to see if any good cards go on sale (although I doubt the $25 would go on sale again so soon, though it doesn't really matter since I have nowhere near enough for one.)

---
I think I might go to bed early tonight - really not feeling all that great.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Now have 400 or so to go to another one.

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

Today was a teacher inservice day. The morning wasn't too bad, the general teacher meeting stuff and we watched a movie about a transgendered Navajo youth who was murdered (called Two Spirits). It was kind of interesting because just last week I was talking to AL (tech coordinator) about how the Navajo/natives view gay people due to one particular 4th grade boy who ... um.. shows some signs. (Funny enough today at lunch one of the teacher assistants brought up this same exact student - she'd worked with him in 2nd grade ..)

Lunch was good - pizza - the cafeteria people made a whole plain cheese one for me and TY (also vegetarian) which I thought was really sweet and thoughtful.

After lunch we were all to go to our classrooms/work spaces and work until 2 pm. then would be free to go. I was thinking that maybe I'd go in to G and do my grocery shopping since we'd be getting out so early. It wasn't meant to be however.

First, the pre-k director SrM came by asking me to help her set up labels to print for her binders. That wasn't too time consuming, and she was so appreciative of my help.

Then the 3rd grade teacher came over and wanted me to delete a couple of her students from the grading program who'd left in the first quarter. I hadn't done it before because, well, I knew it would be really time consuming and I had multiple other things to do. So anyway, I said sure, let's do it. UGH!! I wish now I'd told her I would do it, and not to worry about it.

Long story short, the spreadsheet (and the grading program) is completely messed up now. She had to leave for a doctor's appointment at 3:15, and I continued to work on trying to fix it until 4:30.

On Sunday I'm just going to completely redo the spreadsheet, because the more she (and later I by myself) tried to fix the errors, the more messed up it got. So starting from fresh, while annoying, will probably end up being much quicker.

And like my title states ... chocolate (and soda and a cheese sub from Blimpie!)

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I got an email from SB letting me know I got another $5 AGC. I'm about 200 away from redeeming my next one. Lots of videos out right now thanks to the Superbowl, and soon I'm sure the V-day ones will be out too.

I'm about 2000 away from cashout on Beezag, and about the same on MyPoints.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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Sunday and Monday - No spend days.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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January No spenders: 6

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!

This afternoon I received an email from the account where my scholarship money was kept. I get one from them monthly reminding me to "check in" on my account. I've ignored them for quite awhile because I thought I had spent all the money in that account. Today though the email was different. It said that I was about to be charged an account abandonment fee ... so I decided to check.

I'm glad I did!!! There was $96.xx in it! Straight away I went to one of my credit cards (the only way to get money out of that account without using an ATM) and made a payment for that exact amount.

So that means now that I have $96 that I didn't previously know I had. Where should that money go? Well, that's easy. My Emergency Fund of course!!

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Today went pretty well for not having anything really pre-planned. I introduced the new books to the 5th grade boys and the 6th graders - by the time the 3rd section was done checking out, 60% of the new books were gone.

I resorted back to my Nyquil equivalent last night ... I just *had* to get some sleep. I slept almost right up to my alarm ... so it worked. I just really don't want to make a habit of it. Not good.

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Today was another no spend day.

Tomorrow after church I plan on staying for potluck and then going over to the "local" library and getting a card. I may use them to rent movies from (they charge $1 for movies and $.50 for audiobooks - I guess they have a high rate of theft???) Then once it is sunset, I'm going to get some dishwashing soap so I can use my dishwasher!!! Then when I get back here, I'll stop at Family Dollar where they have 9 Lives on sale for $.33/can (normally is $.40).

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I found a neat website to help you memorize bible verses - free. memverse.com

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I'm getting *really* annoyed. Over a year ago I requested some auto insurance quotes. About 8 or so people called me, and I decided to stay with Geico. For the next six months every month near the beginning of the month I'd get multiple calls from about 10 or so different numbers. I asked multiple times to have my name and number removed. Finally it seemed to die off. On Tuesday it started back up in full force. Only this time one company is taking it even further -- they're texting me!!!! Each text has the message that if I want them to stop, then text STOP. I have now done that 4 times. It has used up 12 of my 200 text messages for the month. (They text me, I text them STOP, they text back to let me know they got my message.) If this makes me go over my limit, I will be *TICKED*!!!

I probably need to call and see if I can get the number blocked.

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.