Someone on my FB feed posted this article, and as I read it I first thought of BA and then thought of the others here who are working on decluttering.

http://lifehacker.com/eight-things-you-can-discard-to-downsi...

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I've been doing a lot of writing, etc. on bubblews the last few days (procrastinating on what I really should be doing ... packing!) But anyway, here is my latest article if you're interested.

http://www.bubblews.com/news/3416468-cat-anxiety

I've made a bit over $11 in the last two weeks. This weekend it picked up a good bit since I spent more time reading/liking/commenting on posts. If you leave good comments, you will get noticed by the more quality posters - that helps a lot.

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Now I'm off to eat supper and hopefully get some more boxes packed. (and maybe fill some bags with stuff for the thrift store based on the above article!)

First off, I just have to say how much I love Bing's customer service. I had an ongoing issue with not being able to do my mobile searches. CS and I went back and forth for four or five emails. I think I kept getting sent to the next level, because I had a different person each time. Finally, I got an email telling me a workaround. At first I felt frustrated because I thought they'd misunderstood and thought I was talking about the computer searches. But then I actually tried the workaround.

Yesterday I cashed out for 500 SBs from Bing. I had them by the time I got home from work. So this afternoon I was doing my bing searches (didn't do them this morning because I was working on Bubblews) and suddenly noticed I had 567 points. Huh? Then I realized that I must have had a referral reach silver status! Woot Woot!

This is my second referral to reach Silver. The first one I think was Sicily. That makes me sad when I see her name on my referral list. Of course, I cashed out for another 500 SBs code. (These points will eventually become either Amazon cards or PayPal cash. I'm hoarding points right now to make sure I have enough SBs to get my 5 $5 AGCs for June and July in case I can't swag as much as usual.)

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I've been throwing lots of darts out there on the job front. Most of those darts have missed their target. But it looks like possibly two have landed, or at least have a liklihood of landing!

One is for tutoring English online to people in South Korea. It would be about 15 hours a week. I might be having a phone interview for it today. The recruiter emailed me this morning asking if I would be available, and I said after 3:30 CST (which is 4:30 my time.) I had a missed call today at 2:55. I think that might have been her. Oy.

The second one is for a virtual assistant type position. Full time with benefits. She's going to email me to set up a phone interview on Sunday.

With the second position I'll need to change my minutes plan to unlimited. I'll have to do some research to figure out the most economical way to do that (while keeping my phone!)

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I had a few frustrations this week. I wrote about one of them today in a bubble:

http://www.bubblews.com/news/3391581-inspection-frustrations

It does have a happy ending. The mobile home manager came by about 30 minutes ago and did the inspection. I'm only going to be charged the $250 pet deposit which I was supposed to have paid when I got Kari. This was a deposit I'd offered to pay back then, but was told to not say anything about it by the then mobile home park manager. $250 is very reasonable for the damages Kari inflicted here.

On Good Friday I had gone into big G and gotten my car title and registration taken care of. The process took 3+ hours (waiting time) and in the meantime I got into a lively conversation with a Native American women. I never thought I would see her again, but it was a good conversation.

So this afternoon I was standing outside our gym waiting for the IT person (I give her a ride home most days - she has epilepsy and doesn't drive.) Suddenly there is this women standing next to me. I'm looking at her and thinking that she looks familiar, but I just couldn't place her. Then she reminds me of who she is -- the woman from the DMV! She was apparently dropping off some kind of election information. Small world!

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A few days ago while using Yahoo Mail, it stopped functioning and I restarted my browser (my whole browser froze.) When I logged back in, I realized that YM had "upgraded." I have to say I absolutely hate the "upgrade." One reason is that it is much more difficult to differentiate between new and old mail. I even played around with the color themes to try and find one that made it clearer. Ugh! But the other reason I *REALLY* don't like it, is because I can no longer right click!! I use the right click functionality a LOT -- at least I used to.

I'm wondering if anyone else has had their YM "upgraded" without being asked, and what you think?

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Only 1 more day of classes left for me! (then two weeks left of the school year!) I only had 3 classes today, and spent the majority of the day printing out the mother's day cards/posters the students have been making the past month. We don't have school on Friday (teacher inservice) so I need to get them to them by tomorrow afternoon. Most of them turned out to be really cute - it is so neat to see their creativity.

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I cashed out for GymPact this morning - and have already received my $10! yay!
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I wrote another bubble post - about a conversation I had this afternoon with a teacher assistant about finances and also a bit of my letting go of something.

http://www.bubblews.com/news/3286239-a-sad-conversation

Well, not too much really happening on the financial front. I sold another item on eBay on Monday just before leaving work. This gave me enough time to print out a shipping label and walk to the post office to mail it the same day (although it didn't go out until today.)

Bing is having a special deal where you earn double search points on Tuesdays in May. I was happy to see that as I have been spending a lot of points on the Hulu+ 300 point offer - in fact I have my Hulu+ account paid for through the end of August!

I just have to say here how much I love Bing's customer service. This morning I was doing my Bing searches when I noticed the double deal. I usually get 30 points in searches a day. On my page it had the correct wording saying that I could get up to 60 points, but it only gave me 30 credits. I wrote to customer service about the issue around 7:15 a.m. By 1:30 p.m. I had a human response, and this afternoon around 4 p.m. when I checked the Bing Dashboard, it was fixed!

I also mentioned that my mobile search wasn't working right. That hasn't been fixed yet, but I feel sure they will make it right.

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If you are a Swagbuckker make sure you check out the new offer on the Discover tab called Read. You can earn 60 SBs just signing up for newsletters - instant credit!

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I mentioned the bubble news website I signed up for a few days ago. I posted a new article that may interest you about my dad and thinking about the two-year mark coming up.

http://www.bubblews.com/news/3274570-my-father039s-watch

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I should be able to cash out GymPact tonight - another $10! Love making money doing what I'd do anyway!

So I found this website that pays you for views/comments/likes/shares, etc. You write about whatever you want to write about and then supposedly they pay you. Who knows how profitable this might be, but it is another possible avenue.

At any rate, I wrote my first "bubble." It's about a recent book donation to the library. If you'd like to read it (and give me a few views ) here is the link:

http://www.bubblews.com/news/3248639-frozen-and-the-school-l...

If you decide that you would like to try it out for yourself, I'd appreciate you using my referral link. I get a varying amount for anyone who signs up and writes a post. Here is the referral link: "http://www.bubblews.com/?referral=5366e5ace9afd2.04799990" *I made a clickable link on my sidebar. I make links here so rarely that I can never remember how to do them for this blog.

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I applied for a couple more actual jobs today. One for a social work type position (working for the city) and the other for a 6th - 12th grade librarian at a Lutheran school. I kind of figure that if I went out of my comfort zone and worked at a Catholic school for 3 years, I can deal with a Lutheran school. The librarian job is only part time ... if they're interested in me, it'll be interesting to see what exactly that means. It's difficult to imagine dealing with that many grades as a part time job.

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I sold 4 items on eBay this weekend. 3 movies and 1 book.

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Yesterday I was invited out to a church member's house for lunch. That was a nice afternoon - too bad it didn't happen til I was almost leaving. I really like the mom and the little boy. The little boy (a first grader homeschooled) was just so adorable in how excited he was to have me there. )

It sounds like the church here is going to have a going away party for me. I think it'll be combined with another couple who are also moving towards the end of May. I guess this means I'll have to actually go into big G on a Saturday night - not a prospect I'm excited about.

With the end of another week, it means that the countdown continues -- 3 weeks til school is over -- only 1 week of media classes left. Today I started telling kids in my Friday classes that I was leaving. Most of them seemed dissapointed, and a couple of them even made me a quick card during their choice time. (They had a typing final today, then the remainder of the period for choice time on the computer.)

We also had the talent show today. It was pretty awesome.

My back is not doing any better. In fact today it is worse than it has ever been. I had found the names of several chiropractors to call on Thursday, but my back didn't feel too bad on Thursday and I got super busy ... Ugh. I haven't gone for a real walk in nearly 3 weeks - due to weather (wind/cold) and my back. Today the weather was absolutely gorgeous and I was jonesing for some fresh air ... so I told myself I was going for a walk no matter what! Last period I was walking by the coat hooks and jarred my back as I was going by -- pain! Then just as I was about to head out the door on my walk, I knocked over my walking stick and nearly tripped on it - major jarring. In the end, a route that normally takes me 32-34 minutes took me 42 minutes - and that was with shortening it a bit!

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Yesterday I got my oil changed (third day in a row stopping at place for oil change ...) They also changed my air filter. $56! Ouch!

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I checked my BofA cash rewards balance and saw that I have my $100 bonus pending. Once it's there, I'll transfer it to my checking for the 10% bonus.

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I've made arrangements with our two maintenance guys at the school to pack my truck for me after school is over. $50 for both of them. I figure it'll take less than two hours. I think hiring them will be a good idea - both to save my back and to make sure NE isn't too tired for the drive the next day.

I'm also considering hiring one of the teacher assistants to do a final cleaning of my place for $50. I was told that this is a standard rate. It sure would save me a lot of headache on that last day.

I'll be having my place inspected sometime in the next two weeks - to see how much I owe in damages. Thanks to my darling cat, I'll be owing a good bit. Blinds broken (better for checking out what's going on outside of course!) - check. Edge of couch (mission owned) shredded - check. Edges of door frames shredded - check. Bulge in linoleum (two summers ago when the air hadn't been turned on yet and I was in CA) torn to pieces - check. Etc. At least there is no toilet accidents.

I told AL, who was Kari's original owner -- Thanks AL for giving me a cat that is going to cost me a pretty penny! (I was joking with her.)

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I started watching a new show on Amazon Prime yesterday - Suits. I am hooked! Best of all, in episode 3 (which I watched today) a Tesla was featured!! (Oh.. I did sell 13 of my Tsla stocks when it hit back to 216 last week. This was from my 27 shares I consider touchable - shares not from inheritance or rollover IRA.)

It's been a little bit since I last posted. Five weeks left of the school year, and 5 1/2 weeks til moving day!

NE was here visiting a week ago during Spring Break. One of the days we visited Bluewater Lake and Canyon de Shelly (de shay.) We got ourselves royally lost within in Bluewater Lake park - lots of dirt roads that all looked alike. What took us five minutes to go from the gate to the lake, took us nearly 40 minutes to find the gate again! While there though we found a flock of 16 Pelicans. At one point they flew up out of the water and preceded to entertain us for at least 15 minutes flying different formations. So cool!

We only took in the South Rim at Canyon de Shelly - but that by itself took a good two hours, and was well worth it. NE was really tired out by the last lookover stop, so I did that one by myself ... and ended up getting royally lost on the way back to the car. Heading out to the overlook took me maybe 5 minutes, but heading back took me over 25 minutes. I was SO thankful to see NE and the car!!

Here's some photos NE and I took (NE is a lizard hunter - hunts them for photos only.)



This is the lizard NE caught - I think he said it was a side winder??



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I cashed out again on GymPact last week - $10 - and was paid within a day. It seems as though they've got their act together again. I'll be able to cash out again by Tuesday or Wednesday of this coming week.

On Thursday I got another book review assignment - which I turned in Friday afternoon, and already received a $25 payment.

I made the $500 spending requirement for the BofA Cash Card, and have reserved my rental truck/car dolly with the Cap One Quicksilver card - which also easily meets the $500 spending requirement. So within the next month or two, I'll be receiving $200 in cash awards from those two cards. I'll probably cancel the Quicksilver card because between my Pen Fed card (gas 5%), BofA card (2% groceries +10% bonus when direct deposit cash awards into BofA account) and my Swagbucks card (1.5 % on everything) - the Quicksilver would be superfluous. I also really need to cancel my Discover and Amazon cards. I need to keep my Chase one though, as it is my oldest. Can you say - FT you have too many credit cards for one person!!

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Yesterday I had Good Friday off, so I decided to get my title transfer taken care of. Yikes. I got to the MVD (DMV) around 12:30 p.m. and was finally called around 3:37 p.m. While I was waiting I did two things - read the book for my book review and talked with a Native American woman who had been waiting longer than I had to do the same thing! I had unfortunately let my registration lapse (it expired in December ... ooops) so I had to pay a fine for that to renew it, plus the cost of the title transfer -- so a total of $78. I put it on my BofA card, which finished up the $500 spending.

So now my car is totally in my name, and is totally legal to be on the road.

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I've sold a few more items on eBay, although that's kind of been slow going the last few weeks.

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I have Monday off as well, so plan to make Sunday and Monday packing and decluttering days. I am getting down to the wire!!

On Monday I also want to check with the PO about getting a PO box in NE - see if it's possible to do without being there in person. That way I can have my mail forwarded there starting the week I move.

Last Friday I had either a filling fall out, or a tooth chip - not sure which. I have insurance coverage through the end of June, so will probably wait to do anything about it til I'm in NE. It's a nuisance, but not painful.

Speaking of insurance, I need to look into how I can get onto Obamacare. I'm assuming that I'd qualify for the "life change" qualification to apply/start outside of the initial signup process. (going from having insurance w/job to not having insurance)

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I finished season 3 of Dowton Abbey yesterday. OMW!! I am SO tempted to pay for season 4 to find out what happens next. Poor Mary. I have another show my aunt recommended to me though - Mr. Selfridge. The first season is on Amazon Prime, so I'll watch that before I decide whether or not to give in to temptation.

I am now into my second month Netflix'less. I am more than getting by with Amazon Prime and my "free" Hulu Plus subscription (free through Bing rewards! -- in fact, right now they are running a promotion where you can get a free month of Hulu for only 300 points!!! I've already cashed in on one, and will be cashing in for another one probably Monday.)

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Not much else I can think of right now.

I'll have to post before and after pics later, but today after 2 1/2 hours of shredding documents, plus another 1 1/2 of cleaning and organizing, the office was pretty much as clean and organized as it will get. Now, let's see how long I can keep it like that.

I also cleaned the rest of my place. Only thing left to do is wash the sheets/pillowcases, and I'll be ready for NE's arrival in the morning.

In between all this cleaning and organizing, I discovered a new show ...well, new to me. I'd been told about it before, but had not seen an episode yet. Last night I saw the first episode - I was looking for something about an hour long, and Amazon Prime had .... Downton Abbey - fit the bill perfectly.

I am totally hooked!! I watched 4 more episodes today.

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I got my 3 eBay packages mailed out today. I also got a call from a staffing agency in NE who told me to give them a call once I'm actually there and available for an interview. So, that's promising.

I didn't make the Round 5 of the 6 month diet bet, so I was given my winnings from the one round I did manage to win -- $18.02. The money is already in my PayPal.

So far, I am really enjoying my spring break (and in a not too long, it'll be even better )

I started on my office today - probably the worst room in my house because I spend the most time in here. I took some before photos, but will save those until I've got some good after photos to share. I spent about 3 1/2 hours going through papers, drawers, bookshelves, etc.

As a result of my decluttering so far today, I have a huge pile of papers to shred, two full trashcans, a large box of items to donate, two Pinecone checks ($3) found and deposited, five educational books and a digital thermometer listed on eBay. There's still a lot more to do, but I do feel as though I made some good progress.

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Snowflakes - Two Pinecone checks - $6 ; 3 items on eBay sold ($4.99, $7.00 and $7.99) which I'll mail out on Monday ; two $5 AGCs from Swagbucks posted.

Oh - on Friday I sold another $7.99 item on eBay and mailed it out that afternoon. I'm down to my last two of that particular item and am really tempted to order 5 or 6 more ... but I really need to not be adding to what I have in my house right now.

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I found out a little bit more about the job I seem to have been hired on for - it's up to 25 hours a week. So, I'm thinking that perhaps I'll try to find some tutoring students in the afternoons 3 or 4 days a week, and do whatever I need to in the mornings. Then on Fridays I can do garage sales or book sales (looking for items to resell on eBay.)

I did find a full time job I also applied for - virtual assistant for a dog care company. M - F 8 hrs/day 14/hr. They wanted you to send them a letter introducing yourself and telling a funny animal story.

So, I told them the story of how one weekend I came home from college to find that my family had adopted a 1 year old Chocolate Lab, and named him Brutus. Barely 24 hours after meeting him, I found myself alone in the house with him. The doorbell rang, and when I answered it, Brutus ran out the door. I had no shoes on, but my only thought was that my brother would never forgive me if something happened to that dog! So, off I ran after him. 45 minutes of chasing him around the gated community and outside of it (where I even had two strangers give me a bit of a ride ...) we were back inside near our house. I felt completely defeated, so sat on a curb and put my head in my hands. Next thing I know, my hands are being licked by Brutus. One of my top two favorite dogs ever.

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Can I say how happy I am to be on Spring Break right now?

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Almost forgot! I came across a smartphone app called Field Agent where you assign yourself different jobs and get paid for it. (for example, take a picture of an item in a store to show how it's displayed) There aren't many opportunities in my neck of the woods right now, but in CA or some other more populated areas, I bet you'd get tons!

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Also, Friday night I spent at least 30 minutes doing a Live Chat with a Walgreen's representative because my fitbit steps weren't posting points (Balance Rewards.) She fixed that for me, and merged an old account with the current one. I'm close to the 20k point mark! When I get to 40k, I can redeem it for $50 in savings.

I just wanted to give a quick update on my problems with getting paid from GymPact this month. I received an email from their CS (Jen) telling me that their records showed a payment sent on March 5. I was sorely tempted to throw my phone across the room .... Instead, I wrote back and said that I was pretty sure that I had cashed out on the 12th, and that was the missing payment. Then I checked my blog here and saw that indeed, I had cashed out on the 12th! I added a link to my blog post to the email.

Less than an hour later I not only had payment for the most recent cashout, but also for the March 12 cashout! Thanks Jen!!

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I heard back from the job I applied for on flex jobs last week (I think?) a few days ago asking me to fill out a form. I had some problems filling out the form in FF, so finally had to use IE to complete it. Yesterday I got an email telling me that I'd be getting another email within the next week with instructions on where to login, and what my tasks will be. So ... it looks like I've got at least one job. Not sure exactly what I'll be doing, or how it pays, but it's something!!

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Two days til Spring Break!!!!!!

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I cashed out for 4 $5 AGCs from Swagbucks yesterday and today. A couple weeks ago I cashed out for a $25 Paypal ... I don't have enough SBs for my 5th AGC yet .. but will tomorrow. I decided to cash out for 500 SBs from Bing, even though it won't help me with my daily goal, it also won't hurt it (i.e. raise it) - and I can cash out for Paypal cash once I have my 5 $5 AGCs each month.

I cashed out for $5 AGC from irazoo yesterday (takes forever to get - 3000 points!) Then today I made the 50k points on acheivemint . com to cash out for a $50 Visa card - but decided to go for the next level of 100k with a 2k bonus. I think I should be able to get there by late October. That'd be a good time of year to have a $100 coming my way.

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I am a bit frustrated with GymPact right now. In the month of March I have cashed out twice for my $10 rewards. Usually, the cash payment is in my paypal account within two days or less. It's now been three weeks for the first one, and four days for the second one. They do now have a message saying that it could take up to 7 business days ... but for the first one it's been WAY more than 7 business days.

I've cashed out in the last 15 months or so with them multiple times with no problem. Until now. I really am hoping that this doesn't become par for course, because this is a great way to make a little extra money with just a little bit of effort beyond what I'd do anyway (taking pictures of fruit/veggies I eat for my veggie pact.)

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I started on the way to big G yesterday after school, and had just gotten on the highway, when I realized I didn't have any money with me. Ooops. So I turned around and went home. I decided to just not go grocery shopping.

I thought I would go today after church, but ended up not going to church (overslept!) Instead, I started cleaning out my cupboard - something I've needed to do badly for a long time, as well as something that will be good before I move.

I put pretty much everything on my kitchen table (and some on my chairs in boxes.) So, now my goal is to eat from the table/boxes. The only groceries I'll buy are perishables such as bananas. I'd like to get my pantry items down to one box worth before I move.

I may post a list of everything I have in my pantry to see if y'all can help me come up with the best ways to use the stuff up quickly.

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I had to get up on a chair to reach to the back of my top cupboard. As I was doing that, you'll never guess what I found! The scanner that I turned house and car over looking for the past few months! It was in the little groove on the top of the cupboards (where I have several empty appliance boxes stored.) So I can now send it back to them. (I just knew that I wouldn't have missed it being in the throw out pile when my mom was here!)

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A little over a week and NE will be here!!!

About 7 1/2 weeks til I move to NE!!!! :big eyes:

Time is flying!

I cashed out for a $15 AGC from Swagbucks a few days ago. Also cashed out Bing points for a free month of Hulu+ (more on that later.) Yesterday I got another book to read and review - should have the $25 for it tomorrow (did reviews tonight.) I sold 3 items on eBay this weekend and 1 today.

*Bing and Swagbucks - UGH! So my plan to have a full month bonus in April is vamooshed. I was all set to have 3 SB codes by the time NE arrived, so all I'd have to do is redeem the codes. Thanks to SBs deciding not to have codes count towards the daily goal, that's not going to happen. So now my plan is to redeem Bing points for Hulu+ once a month, and then for AGCs otherwise. Seriously annoyed, although I do kind of understand SBs reasoning.

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I found out about a new jobsite - flexjob . com. You do have to pay to access the site, but if you google for coupon codes you should find one. I found one that made my first month $5. Flexjobs has lots of flexible schedule/telecommute type jobs. I've already applied for one that I could easily do in the evenings even now, and later could do more. There are a bunch more that I'm looking at applying to closer to May.

I also applied at Leapforce at Home. It's essentially surfing the net and evaluating websites.

Neither job will pay much, but it'd be something for sure!

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I had an email yesterday about a librarian job in NE. Unfortunately 421 miles from where I want to be. The amazing thing about it was that this particular school district pays an annual bonus of $11k (divided by 12 months.) So ... with a Masters and 11 years experience (in classroom) I'd make around $54k!! It's hard for me to even fathom making that much - the most I've ever made before was around $41k - my last year of teaching.

I didn't apply for it, because it would defeat the whole purpose for me moving. I'd be 600 miles closer, but still too far away to really be in good proximity for NEs and I's relationship to grow. If I could only find something like that within 60 miles of NE!

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My final car payment was mailed off today. I know I said I'd pay it in April, but I'd already gotten the paycheck that the money would've come out of anyway. So, I decided, why wait? So, as of March 25, 2014 I am officially debt free once again. I can hardly wait to get my title.

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The yearbook was submitted yesterday. Here's hoping that that is the LAST yearbook I ever have the *pleasure* of putting together.

Today I helped out with the annual spelling bee for 4th - 8th grade. A 6th grader won first place, a 4th grader won second place and a fifth grader won third place. It was pretty interesting.

I cashed out my GymPact for the second time this month - $10 (total of $20 for March.)

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3 items sold on eBay - total of $16.xx - net maybe 0.50 (after fees and shipping) At least I'm getting rid of the items.

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Will cash out on bing tomorrow for another 500 SBs code.

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I kind of feel like I'm hitting a brick wall when it comes to job hunting in a locale 1000+ miles away. I have found some opportunities which I've applied for, but most of what I've found are not ones that are going to be willing to wait til June.

I'm wondering if there is a point for me to go out there over Spring Break, since it'd still be 7 weeks out before I move there. Until I know what kind of job I have, I'm not sure if I should secure a place to live. I'd hate to put down a deposit and everything, and then find a job 30 minutes or more away!

What I'm thinking of doing is putting in my application at whatever local employment agencies there are in the city (with a June start date) and then once I'm out there I'll take whatever they find for me, and continue to job hunt. I have a paycheck through the end of June, as well as savings if I have to use them. That way I'll also have a chance to find a church home and then pick the brains of people there for job opportunities.

I'll need to put most of my stuff in storage until I find a place (and a job.) So that means renting a moving vehicle twice (at least the second time will be easier loading - no stairs to contend with!)

I have put in applications to two school districts (one in the city I actually want to go to, and one in a district 70 miles away - not ideal, but if it's where the jobs are...) I've also done tons of searches on various job sites - craigslist, indeed, hotjob, career builder, etc. I put in an application for a city clerk/typist job (actually pays more than what I get here!)

My brother suggested finding a recruiter or headhunter. I've done some searching trying to see if I come up with anything like that for the area. All I came up with were employment agencies that didn't have any offices in the state, let alone the city!

NE is on a long distance trip buying speakers right now (he was actually in NYC this a.m.! Thankfully nowhere near where the buildings collapsed.) When he gets back on Friday I really need to see if we can lay out some more firm ideas (see if I should go out there for Spring Break, or him come here, home hunting, etc.) May 25 is coming really, really quickly! (this is good, however it is also anxiety inducing not knowing what's going to happen)

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I stayed home sick today (really nauseous, etc.) One thing I did (besides sleep!) was watch the Klondike (Discovery Channel) mini-series. I'd watched 3 of the episodes before, and today finished it. I was glad I decided to purchase the season - really enjoyed it.

I still have my Person of Interest Season 2 to watch, and in a few days I think I'll be able to watch the newest episode of OUAT on Hulu for free.

I sold another item on ebay (well, it has a bid on it - won't actually sell til Wednesday.) I also have a number of watchers on my other items - now if they'll just bid (or bin!)

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I received $25 for the review I did on Friday of a cookbook. I let them know that I'd be happy to do more as they came available.

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I signed up for a Virtual Assistant job type thing. You have to take three types of typing tests, and then every few weeks they let in anyone who meets a certain percentile (varies.) I ranked 73rd percentile. You can take the tests every day if you're not happy -- I'll be taking them again!

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We've had some possibly really big/bad news at our school. One of our pre-school teachers (a man) has not been heard from since Wednesday night by his family or us. An APB has been put out for him, as well as many flyers and FB posts. Please keep him and his family in your thoughts/prayers. He's a really neat person and not one that I'd think would do a dissapearing act willingly.

I guess my Feb 28th entry was a victim of the sites problems ... will try to recap some of what I said.

I've now cashed out for $50 so far this year with the GymPact app. Not too shabby for just recording what I would do anyway. (exercise, food logging, and eating fruits/veggies)
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I've cashed out for 6 rewards from Bing since starting it in mid-January - 5 of them were 500 SB codes which have definitely come in handy!
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I found a small money making opportunity on Craigslist a few days ago. Essentially it is writing reviews of non-fiction ebooks (I am to give my honest opinion.) I did my first book on Friday. If I remember correctly, I'll get paid $25. (I already received the money for the ebook itself.) It only took me about an hour to read/skim the ebook and write 3 reviews (it was a cookbook.) I'm hoping that I can do a lot of these!
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I've made 4 eBay sales this past week. Only one of them is making me any profit. I'd bought a supply of an item from a wholesaler for an okay price, but then once postage is added and eBay/PP fees ... I'm losing money on most of them. Live and learn. My main goal is to get all those items sold before I move - then make my next purchases from the wholesaler much more wisely! (If anyone is interested in seeing what I'm selling - my ebay name is the same as my email address - if you know that. )
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Only 10 weeks left of the school year! Most of my classes I'll see another 6 - 7 times. Crazy!

Two weeks til the yearbook deadline. Gulp. There is so much still left to do. I will say though, that this year's group of kids is getting more done. Hopefully there won't be much left for me to finish on my own. I've told them that whatever is left to do will be MY decisions as to how its done. Heh heh heh.
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Last Sunday I went to see Pompeii at the theater. I really enjoyed it. My dad had a wonderful children's story that he'd tell every place he was a pastor - at least once - about Pompeii. It made me have a great fascination with the story.
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The six-month dietbet ... well, I think I'll probably only end up winning the $18 from Round 1. I got down to 8% and then regained 4lbs, lost two and seem to be doing a great job of maintaining. To win Round 5 I'd need to lose ten pounds by April 5. Um ... yeah. *Maybe* by May 5 I can do it, but I'm not going to put too much pressure on myself.
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I'm almost to the 50k point mark with Achievemint (about 3k away.) Once I hit it, that'll mean a $50 Visa card. Again, points earned just for doing what I would do anyway (connecting various apps to the website - fitbit, GymPact, MyFitnessPal, etc.)
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I made my next to last car payment a few days ago. Just a bit over $400 in April, and I'll have my title! Woot woot!
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Friday, Feb 28 I went to a wonderful Judy Freeman seminar all about children's books in ABQ. I got to stay at a nice hotel, eat out dinner and lunch (free wonderful breakfast at hotel) and have a day off work -- all reimbursed! (Well, I just turned in the paperwork on Thursday. So it will be reimbursed in the next few weeks -- about $465!)

For lunch I ate at a place called Little Anita's which was right next to the hotel. I had the vegetarian enchilada. So yummy! Only $8.25 (included side of beans and a sopapilla - all vege friendly!)The dish I think will be pretty easy to replicated (other than the sopapilla!) All I need are 3 corn tortillas, steamed veggies (they used mushrooms, zucchini, onions and tomatoes), and some cheese to melt on top. Such a simple idea, but one I'd never considered.

Oh, I also earned 8x Swagbucks for my hotel stay. I booked it on the Crazy 8's day. That shop and earn came through on a high goal day - sweet!!

Speaking of SBs though - I am NOT happy about the SBmobile and Enow apps having a variable earning limit. Those two apps are how I make my daily goal most days! I guess I'll just have to give it time and see how much it affects me.
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I had a nice time in NE the weekend of the 21st. For my next visit though, I need to remember to reserve my spot on the car lot ahead of time on their website to save money on parking! I don't know why I never thought about looking for coupons/deals on parking!

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I have not sold any of my stock that I was thinking about. Every time I start thinking about selling it, it seems to go up in value (sometimes skyrocketing!) So I think anyway I've decided to hold on to it for now.

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I've applied to a few jobs in NE, but just haven't found much to apply for yet. Hopefully if I haven't found a job before I get there, I'll find one quickly once I'm actually in the area. (There's several office jobs that look very intriguing, but they're not going to want to wait til June 1!)

A few months ago I talked about how I really, really wanted to see Season two of Person of Interest, but I didn't want to spend the $40+ to buy it on DVD, and I was iffy about paying about the same for it on Amazon Instant. I thought maybe I'd use some fun money for it ... but I procrastinated and procrastinated.

So a few days ago I found out that another program I was really interested in was on AmInstant - Klondike (Discovery) -- All episode for $9! Sold! I looked up Person of Interest again just to see if it had gone down in price. It hadn't, but I got a big itch to get it. So, I checked Second Spin. They had it for $25 + $4 shipping + tax = ~$31. That was less than AmInstant, so I thought about it. Especially since I could sell it back for $7, so it would make the actual cost about $24.

Thankfully though before I hit the purchase button, I checked Ebay! I found it (a used copy) for $14 with free shipping! Score! So now after I watch it, I will first try selling it on eBay, and if that doesn't work, I'll sell it to Second Spin. The most the final cost will be is $7.

I'm thinking I may put my Netflix account on hold for March, and then just watch the PoI discs and the Klondike episodes instead. So, if you subtract the $8.23 of Netflix, then my total cost will be around $8. (For both PoI and Klondike.) I'll also have new episodes of Once Upon a Time towards the middle of March on Hulu free (next episode airs March 9!!) So I can add that to my viewing pleasure for March.

NE says I'm a tv addict... he should've seen me when I had cable AND Tivo!!

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I spent some money today getting my nails done. I can do everything myself for a manicure except the cuticles - I seem to have this phobia of cutting my own cuticles... If I could get over that, I'd save some money.

Why was I getting my nails done? Because tomorrow night I'll be heading to NE for the weekend.

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Tonight as I was doing my Bing searches, I was checking to see how many more I needed and all of a sudden noticed my number was over 600. I was befuddled because I knew I needed about 40 more to get to my next redemption (500 Swagbucks for 475.) So I checked my dashboard and saw that I'd just gotten a referral!! Woo hoo! Thanks to whoever used my link. I hope you got your 200 already as well.

I redeemed for my 5th (I think) Bing prize, and my 4th time getting the 500 Swagbucks award. That code sure came in handy when they were having a big code day not long ago - all I had to do was apply my 500 code, and didn't have to worry about it. Tomorrow I'll be applying another 500 code to be sure I get my 21 day award (for making the daily goal.)

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When I got home tonight I did a load of laundry, and am now doing a load of dishes. Once they're done I'm going to pack - that should give enough time for more hot water - for my shower.

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Wowsa! The stock I was talking about a few days ago? I thought 200 was sweet ... Today it went as high as 214! but settled at 209. Still pretty sweet.

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I got a pretty tempting email from GymPact today (cashed out for my third $10 payment so far in 2014 yesterday!) They'll give me $50 and some Pact swag (t-shirt? I think) if I upload my health info from my insurance site. They assure me that the info will be annonymously used once uploaded... And there's a Hippa document you have to sign electronically. I'm sorely tempted .. but not really sure I want to do it. They say it is for a study they're conducting with people who've used GymPact aka Pact for a year or more - to see if they can convince insurers that using a system like Pact will lower health care costs (thereby I guess giving Pact users insurance discounts??)

anyway - was curious what y'all would do?

I'd forgotten about my summer school money - got the form for that this last week. So I decided that today was the day I'd finish up my taxes. I started out in Turbo Tax, but when it got to where it said I'd need to upgrade to Premium to be able to get the form for capital gains (sold some stock) I was like forget it! So I went over to TaxAct - $17 for Federal and State. Somehow I assumed (erroneously of course)that this was the *total* cost to file.

I get through everything (end up owing NM $14, and getting a refund of $380 from Feds) and am on the next to last screen before filing. Then up comes the fees page. $17 for the state and federal, and then a $17.95 charge from Republic Bank!!! Say what? Where did that come from? The best I could tell is that the fee came from the fact that I was paying my NM fee electronically, or it could've been that I paid for the Taxact fees out of my refund. (Actually, now that I think about it, I think that is the case. Too late now to change that.)

At any rate, it still cost less than it would've with TurboTax. Ugh and double ugh!

So, less fees and tax owed to NM (first time I think I've ever actually OWED in a long time) I have approximately $325 coming my way. Not a lot, but considering that I upped my deductions this year (thereby receiving more in each paycheck) and actually made a little bit more than last year (summer school) - it's not too bad.

The refund money will be going directly to my NE-MOVE/TRAVEL fund.

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I own this one stock that I bought into at around $27-28, which this past week as at =/- $200. The majority of what I own in it was inherited - and I promised my brother that I wouldn't sell any of it for at least 5 years. I also have some of that stock that I purchased after rolling over a Roth 401k from my gas and oil company job into a Brokerage IRA. So, that also can't be touched. However, I have 27 shares that I purchased in a taxable account which is from my own personal money. (Actually, I sold enough shares in it earlier this year that recouped my initial investment, plus a bit more.) So anyway, I am looking at the future and worried/anxious about how long it'll take me to get a job when I get to NE. I see I have approximately $5500 that I could have access to right now, which would nearly double my reserves.

I'm tempted to sell it and have the assured amount in my pocket. I'd put it away in my no touch account (unless job isn't found by July.) So it wouldn't just be spent willy nilly. But my argument with myself on this is, what if I DO find a job and end up not needing this, and the stock continues to rise? Wouldn't I kick myself for selling it needlessly? Not to mention that if I get a teaching/librarian job that pays non mission school wages, then I'd be bumped into a category where I might have to pay cap gains taxes.

What would you do? Say you were moving to a new state without a job lined up. You have enough in reserves + June pay to last til maybe September or October without a job (if you're *very* careful.) You have approximately $5500 in stock which you could sell, which would give you another 3-4 months of leeway -- if you sell it now. Or, you could keep that stock and wait and see how the job situation works out - then if it's not good, you can sell some then. Of course you aren't assured of how much it might be worth at that point - more or less.

Well I finally called the company that is not named today and ... was told that I need to keep looking for the box with the scanner for the next two weeks, and if I don't find it, call back on the 17th and they'll mark it as a "lost asset." I will not be held liable for it!Here I've been stressing about it for *months* and it was as simple as this. Ugh!

Thanks everyone for your advice/suggestions/commiseration.

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I got my January Internet bill on Thursday. It was almost double the normal bill - so that means that whatever promotion I was under is over again. I was going to call them today, but they're only open M-F, so will have to call them on Monday. Hopefully I can get it lowered by quite a bit. (Especially considering how slow/spotty the service can be sometimes!!)

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NE was here visiting this past week. I used the third of my four personal days to be able to spend a whole day with him. I'll be using the last personal day near the end of this month to go out there to NE. Feb 10 will make 9 months! We went out to eat Thursday night, and I managed to forget to bring my purse! Luckily he had his wallet, so he paid (and luckily I didn't get pulled over - no driver's license!) We have the agreement that whoever is "hosting" the other generally drives and pays for meals/entertainment. (I paid him back when we got back home.) He drove home through the Denver area so he could purchase some stereo equipment (he resells on Ebay) - as he was walking out the guys door, he missed a step and fell. Luckily, his pride was the most damaged in the fall.

I can hardly wait til the end of May when we will no longer have to make a huge trip to see each other!!

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Speaking of the move .. NE accessed the stuff that I plan on moving with me (I'm planning on donating my elliptical and probably my computer desk/hutch .. and debating about my stereo system.) He thinks that I should be able to fit everything in to one of the larger rental trailers along with our two vehicles. I *think* that even with adding in gas costs for two vehicles, this would work out somewhat cheaper than renting the small truck and car dolly.

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I was going to fax my cover letter and resume on Friday for that tech job in NE - but got way busy during the day, and then after school I helped the 3rd grade teacher select photos for the Americ@orps conference she and the first grade teacher are going to in a few weeks (the same one I went to last year.) By the time we were finished, the office was locked up (where the fax machine is.) So .. will do it on Monday - have everything printed out and ready to go (including a cover sheet.)

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Getting gas on Friday evening in big G was a nightmare! My tank was on the last flashing button so I HAD to get some, otherwise I would've driven off and done it later. I pull up and there is a sign on all the pumps saying that they were out of regular fuel, but that the mid-level fuel was the same price. So just as I'm about to swipe my card, someone comes out and takes off the sign and says they have regular fuel again. Okay... I swipe my card and am about to remove the pump, when I get the message the transaction was cancelled. Huh? I hadn't even typed in my zipcode - and I knew the card was good - had just used it at Walmart. So, I tried it a second time. It was canceled again, and given the message to see cashier. I went inside, and there was a line of 20+ people! Finally I get up there and ask for $35 on my pump. Go pump, and it comes out to $32.01 - am told to go inside for refund. UGH! 20+ people again in line. Finally get my refund.

A transaction that should have taken maybe 5 minutes tops, ended up taking over 20 minutes -- all with frozen groceries in the car. At least I wont' have to fill up again for awhile.

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I recently downloaded a new app (new to me at least) called Receipt Hog. You take a picture of your receipt and earn coins which eventually you can redeem for gift cards or Paypal cash. So far it seems to work pretty well, and an added bonus is that you have a digital record of your receipts. You get bonuses for referrals, but I think the only way to get referrals is via FB/Twitter or email. Too bad they don't just have a link I could place on my sidebar.

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Another new app I *just* downloaded last night is Achievemint! I've been using the website for the past year, but they just recently came out with an app. I've earned almost $40 from it just from connecting GymPact, Fitbit, Monitor Your Weight and My Fitness Pal. Now with the app, I am able to set up "habits" which correspond with the apps I already have connected and earn even more points! I'll be cashing out when I get to $50 (which shouldn't be too much longer at the rate I'm earning points now!)

About GymPact - I can't remember if I mentioned it or not - but they have expanded the ways you can earn money. It's made it so I've been able to cash out for $10 TWICE since December. They added connectivity to My Fitness Pal - you can bet how many days you'll log your calories and then get paid for it (if you make your bet.) You also can bet how many servings of fruit/veggies you'll eat in the week (up to 35) - take a picture of what you eat, and the community votes on whether it's acceptable or not. (They have renamed themselves just Pact, but I think you still can find it searching gympact.) New users might still be able to get a $5 starting code (was MFP, but I'm not sure when that one expires.)

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I have three months left to be able to do ten regular pushups -- or pay NE $100. Um .... I still can't do one regular pushup. Part of the problem is that I haven't been terribly consistent doing my pushup workout routine .. really need to get on that.

As for diet@bet -- I have a *small* possibility that I may be able to win Round 3. I'm within 1 - 2 lbs of my round 3 goal weight - Feb 5 or 6 is weigh in day. I think I'll definitely make it for the Round 4 weigh in (March 5/6) and 100% sure I'll get the final weigh in (May 5/6.) I've had several people who did not know I was working on losing weight recently comment that I looked like I'd been losing weight. (About 23 lbs lost since September.) My Lane Bryant corduroys that I got on clearance for $5 years ago are getting to the point where I need a belt to hold them up (well, they stay up fine, just kind of ride down to where if I don't have a long top on and raise my arms .... belly button assault.)

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I cashed out about a week ago for 500 SBs from Bing - I'm going to use the code probably on Monday so I don't have to worry about making the goals that day. Although it might be better to save it for the birthday bash day, since the goal that day will probably be pretty high and be time consuming to reach. Hmmm..

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I think I've got most of the tax documents I need now. I plan on finishing my taxes this weekend. I'd forgotten about the money from summer school - so I'm not sure how that will affect my refund - I *think* I'll still be under the tax saver's credit limit (so I'll still get a credit for putting money in my ROTH.) I'll also be able to do my state taxes, so I can find out what kind of refund I'll get from that. Whatever refund I get will be going to the Moving/NE fund. If I get that tech job, it'll make the move SO much simpler - (i.e. renting an apartment with a contract in hand is much easier than trying to rent an apartment without a job already ... plus since it's a Catholic school, they hopefully would be on the same salary schedule - so I might only have to go for July without a paycheck. Oh, I also checked out the salary schedule in that town for Catholic school teachers ... the *starting* salary is a good $10k more than I make right now - assuming that's for people with only a degree and no experience.)

The first week back was hard to get back into the swing of things, but somehow I managed to get through it.

I did end up losing Round 2 of the diet*bet I'm participating in - a $40 loss! I'll get it for Round 3!! (need 5.2 lbs by Feb 5)
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After getting my final paycheck for 2013 I logged into Tax@ct and did my preliminary taxes. In 2013 I upped my allowances so I got more money in each paycheck. Before inputting info for American Ed credit and tax savers credit, that gave me a refund of $52. After inputting the info, it gave me a credit of about $400. The state info wasn't ready, so I don't know what that'll be like yet. Whatever money I get back from taxes will be going straight to the moving fund!

In doing my taxes I was glad to find out that I was correct in figuring out that I would not owe any capital gains on the stocks I sold earlier in 2013.

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I wrote to Bings customer service about my first reward email that I think I'd deleted (hadn't realized what it'd look like.) They resent me the info! So I had the $5 AGC from the first reward, and then 500 SBs from the second reward. That gave me enough SBs to redeem for a $15 AGC (with enough left over for my February 5 $5 AGC's.)

I also took a Pinecone survey yesterday, so that'll be another $3 soon.

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I've now added to my list of apps/websites that are paying me to exercise / eat right.

Previous list:
GymPact (now just Pact) - pays you to workout, to log calories through My Fitness Pal, and to eat fruits/veggies

Achievemint.com - pays you for steps, RunKeeper activities, MFP food logging, monitoring your weight, etc.

Walgreen's Balance Rewards - Pays for fitbit steps, and monitoring weight

NEW

earndit.com - earn points for steps and turn into prizes and/or giftcards

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Some excitement with my car this week ...

I'd noticed the low tire pressure light on for a couple weeks (before vacation) but figured it was just from the cold weather. Thursday after school I noticed that my tire was completely flat. My purse was at home (.7/10 mile) so I drove home to get it. I'd helped NE change his tire this Christmas so thought I'd try my hand at it on mine ... couldn't get the spare tire out of the trunk. Decided that if my tire was ruined, it was already ruined, and if it wasn't, that a mile or so wasn't going to make that much of a difference.

At the mechanics he took my tire off and showed me the nail in my tire. He also emptied out several cups worth of black dust, and showed me the side of the tire. Yep. Ruined. So I tell him I'll go ahead and get a new tire. It's $88 -gulp. This mechanic doesn't take plastic ... all I had on me was $10. So I went across the street to the local mom and pop store and got $100.

When I went to pay, the lady at first was like -- "It's $88." I told her, yes, I gave you $100. Oh (she recounts it.) Then she gives me a $10 bill. I'm puzzled and tell her that I think my change is closer to $12 - she says the mechanic told her not to worry about change. Huh?! She then gives me $2 and apologizes saying she wasn't feeling very well. Um ... okay.

So the tire was supposed to be there on Friday. I left work as soon as the last bus was gone and got over there. Apparently the tire delivery guy was sick, so no tire. The mechanic had fixed my old tire so I could drive on it - but had also warned me that with it being so thin on one side that there was danger of a blowout. My tire should be here by Tuesday. So that made for a staying at home kind of weekend.

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I looked on Craigslist for a few hours yesterday at housing options in NE. I know it's WAY early but still it's good to have some ideas. I found a studio apartment (404sf)for $300/month that allows cats! I hope that option is still available in June.

I also found this really cool option that is about 30 minutes from NEs place out in the country. It is a very rustic cabin - no running water, but has electricity - you have to park about 1500 feet away from the front door. It has a wood stove for backup heat. It's not really practical, but it sure was fun to think about.

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I found out that my car loan isn't quite at the $1000 mark yet. After my December payment it was at a balance of ~$1300. So after the January payment it is now at a balance of ~$1000. That means that my last $300 payment will be in April instead of March. That's a bit frustrating, but at least it will still be paid off before I move.

First semester is over. Yay! We barely managed to get the first issue of the school newspaper out yesterday.

Had two nice surprises yesterday - the mission gave all of us $50 Walmart gift cards! This is the first bonus I've received since I started working here - I had just figured they didn't do bonuses. The second nice surprise was that my assistant gave me a gift - totally wasn't expecting one. She gave me a beautiful necklace with a tiny turtle charm, a cross necklace/earring set (which I can't wear because my ears aren't pierces, but I can give it to my mom), and a bunch of Hershey's miniatures. I rarely ever wear jewelry - mainly because I forget I have any ... so it's amusing whenever someone gives me a piece. (Amusing in the way of wondering if they'd noticed I 99.99% of the time don't wear any.)

My junior year of college I had a glamor shot photo done. NE saw it years ago when we first met, and the image stuck with him I guess. (probably because I look so different from normal everyday in it ... i.e. I was wearing a lot of makeup and my hair was gussied up.) This last summer we were talking about a lot of different things, and the picture / makeup thing came up. He told me that he'd really like to see me in makeup once in awhile.

So ... last night when I was at Walmart I decided to use some of the giftcard bonus to buy foundation, eye shadow and an eye liner. I already had lipstick and mascara. I was also thinking about buying blush, but just couldn't figure out a good color. Figuring out the color for the foundation was difficult enough - I ended up buying one of the more expensive brands that had one of those testing sheets that you put your hand under to see skin tone. I really don't remember the last time I bought foundation. I plan on putting it on before leaving to NE on Christmas Day - hopefully most of it will still be on by the time I get there. A small Christmas gift to NE. (I really probably need to go to somewhere like Macy's and get my colors figured out again - when I was in high-school a friend of mine who was really good with makeup helped me figure out colors - hence brownish eyeshadow/liner - but skin tone can change as you get older.)

I don't mind wearing makeup, especially on special occasions. I just don't usually think about it or want to take the time to do it. If I remember to put on lipstick and mascara that's a major miracle most of the time...

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I bought some semi-healthy snack type foods at Walmart that I can take with me for my trip. NE and I have different eating schedules - I can't go more than 4 or 5 awake hours without something, whereas he can go much longer. So, it'll make life much easier to just have some foods I can snack on until he's ready to actually eat a meal.

(Dietbet) I have two pounds to lose by January 5. I was really hoping to be at Round 2 goal weight *before* leaving on my trip so all I'd have to do was maintain. I've decided to not stress out about it and focus on maintaining. I still can meet Round 3's goal (8% total of starting weight - which would be about 5 lbs from where I am right now) by February 5. I'm not going to go overboard on eating, but I'm also not going to obsess (too much) about calories, etc. I will however try to get in as much activity as possible. If I lose, great. If I maintain, fine. If I gain a little ... well, that's life.

I am looking into gyms in NEs town - especially hoping to find some kind of trial membership pass or something. Too bad there aren't any Planet Fitness in NE - then I could just pay $10 and use it while I was there and cancel.

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I've made a total of 14 soaps now (2 with the messed up bug oil drops.) I bought some more soap cases at Walmart last night, but forgot to get the washcloths or ribbon! Doh! When I get to ABQ this afternoon, I'll get those things to add. I'll take pictures of everything and will eventually do them in a blog post here. Just not sure when. I'm going to give one of the soap/soap case to my co-worker who is looking in on Kari for me while I'm gone. I may also send one to my mom (along with the earrings) and maybe give one to my IT friend/coworker (she's having lung cancer surgery on Tuesday - please keep her in your prayers. )

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Looking at 2013:

Financially speaking, this was not a banner year. I spent a lot of money and saved very little. I did not meet any of my financial goals - though I came close on two of them.

1. Pay off car loan - Nope. Have roughly $1000 left.
2. $5k in EF - Not even close. I didn't really even add anything to my EF this year. I have money in savings, but I haven't earmarked it for anything specific yet because I just don't know how much all my traveling and eventual move is going to cost. So, in effect, the money that might have gone to the EF is in my liquid savings.

I'm not really sure how much I added to that this year, because it keeps getting spent. Right now I have approximately $3k in liquid savings.

3. $3k to ROTH - I put $2400 in this year. When I do my taxes I'll see if squeezing another $600 will make that much of a difference in taxes or not. If not, then I'm not going to worry about it.

4. $1k to FIRE fund - Nope. Zilch.

Even though I didn't meet my financial goals, my networth did increase substantially. It actually broke the 6 figure mark.

Personally:
2013 was a banner year for me. I managed to get the courage/gumption/nerve whathaveyou up to jump in and see if a real relationship was possible with NE. It was.

This year I have also managed to actually stop my soda habit. Other than a few sips of NEs soda, I haven't had any since mid-September. Stopping my soda habit has been a yearly goal for a long time, but other than a few times, I've never managed to stick with it very long.

Also, in October a switch seemed to go off that has finally made it possible for me to lose weight. I still have slip-ups (like .. my birthday and yesterday with the Hershey's miniatures ...)but more often than not, I'm doing pretty well.

Health (other than weight):
This has not been a good health year for me at all. I really suspect that I had mono starting sometime in late February/early March and have pretty much been recovering since then. I am however starting to have more good energy level/ feeling level days than low energy/yuck feeling days, so hopefully I'm getting close to the end of it.

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2014 - Looking ahead

Financial:

Goals for first six-seven months - will have to re-access after moving at end of May.

1. Pay off car loan (by March)
2. Increase monthly ROTH contribution to $300 starting in April
3. In April and May - $200 to Moving Fund, as well as any tax return money
4. Move to NE at the end of May
5. Find a new job in NE (preferably one with benefits and better pay)
6. Find an inexpensive and relatively safe place to live in NE.

Personal:
1. Continue healthier lifestyle
2. Continue to grow in relationship with NE
3. After moving to NE, find a church family that fits me and get active in it

So I was going through my emails in my hotmail account where I have all my MyPoints mail sent. In amoungst the MP emails there were about 7 emails from various restaurants for free food - a number of years ago I'd joined a bunch of birthday clubs. Of course they were all places located in the DFW metroplex area, none of which are less than 90 miles from where I am now (the closest one is Schlotsky's (sp?) ) I really would love to go to Blue Mesa again, or to Cheesecake Factory or .... Oh well, that's the choice I made by coming here.

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My fitbit was giving me fits yesterday - not counting correctly at all. So today I sent an email to customer service. They replied promptly and told me that my fitbit is defective and I could either return it to Walgreen's, or send them my receipt and they'd replace it. So I headed off to Walgreen's after work today and they exchanged it with no hassle! So I now have a beautifully working fitbit.

I currently have it connected to Walgreen's Balance Rewards, My Fitness Pal, GymPact, Achievemint and something else too I think.

I got in almost 5k steps today ... and that was *after* getting the new one.

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I got approved for the Judy Freeman seminar in February!! This will be my third year going. It makes for a nice little mini-vacation. I stay in this fancy hotel the night before, eat breakfast for free at their buffet with a made to order omlette, go to the seminar and eat lunch out (reimbursed) and then head on home again. I wish the per diem was a flat rate and you didn't have to prove you spent however much on food ... but still, it makes a great paid for mini-vacation. (plus getting to see all the great new books for kids!)

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I made $6 with Pinecone this week, and am within a few days of cashing out for a $5 AGC from irazoo again (thanks to their coupon deal - 60 pts a day!)

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I had to fill up with gas today - $30.59 for 10.xx gallons ($2.595/gallon)

I also spent $60 at Albertson's. Not all of it was food (I bought a bottle that will be good for shaking protein drinks in.) I found these individual vegetarian split pea soup bowls - 220 calories, 24gr protein!! $1.29 each. I bought all 5 they had on the shelf ... That's one thing I'm trying to up - my protein intake. So that is almost pure protein calories! (a vegetarian source of it too!)

Only two weeks of school left til I fly out to CA to spend a few days with my brother, Grandma and Aunt/Uncle! Then fly off again to NE to spend the remainder of Christmas break. If the plane isn't delayed, then I'll actually get to spend Christmas Day with both my family AND my bf.

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This last week was a busy one. Thursday and Friday at school we worked on getting everything setup for the Community Christmas Dinner which we had on Saturday. It wasn't as much work as in the past two years (if you remember, I played Mrs. Clause the first year), but there also wasn't as much stuff donated to give away. It was a little sad on Friday afternoon around 1:30 ... everything was pretty much done and there were loads of people just standing around wondering what to do. That never was a problem the last two years!!

The dinner went pretty well overall, although we did have some people kind of complaining about the lack of stuff. They'd take the bag of food or the bucket of food and then come by the Santa's Workshop line and ask me, "Is this it?" With a big smile on my face I would respond, "Yes, it is! Merry Christmas!"

I really didn't think we'd have enough toys for all the kids - but amazingly we did! They were getting pretty scarce towards the end (especially the girl toys) but every kid got a stuffed animal and a toy!

There were a total of 1,063 people who came through and were served a turkey/ham dinner, received a bucket or bag of food, a blanket, a jacket and toys for the kids. (although towards the end we did run out of blankets and jackets - probably the last 70 or so people didn't get those)

All I can say is that I'm glad it's over!!

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In Round 1 of the 6 month long Dietbet I'm participating in, I won $18.10!

It's kind of a sad commentary on people's reading comprehension though .. on the db site there have been a lot of people complaining about how the winnings are stacking up. I really want to smack a few of them upside the head and ask .. did you read the rules and FAQ's before signing up?? It's explained pretty darn clearly. If you didn't like it, why did you sign up?!

I'd like to suggest to the db team before the next one they do like this that before you pay for your bet, that you have to pass a ten question quiz to ensure that you actually READ the material!!

Ugh!

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So on Friday I was at Walmart (what a zoo! NE tells me I should shop on Tuesday or Thursday instead to avoid the masses ... thinking about it.) I hadn't found a battery for my fitbit here in little T, so decided to get one at Walmart. What a racket! The same battery I could have gotten 5 of for $1.29 + free shipping from Ebay (which I did actually, but unfortunately my Paypal address is from three addresses ago ....) was $6.51!! I bit the bullet though because I really wanted to get started using my fitbit.

I think I like it so far. Yesterday with standing/bouncing (to try to keep warm) it only recorded 1,300 steps in 4 hours. But today with doing my weight routine and then a 35 minute walk (back and forth through my house) I managed a bit over 4k steps. Tomorrow will be very interesting to see how many steps I do on one of my 3 busiest work days.

I've linked the fitbit to My Fitness Pal, GymPact, Achievemint and to Walgreen's Balance Rewards.

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We had a two-hour delay on Thursday due to the snow/ice. One of our staff (title 1 teacher) rolled her car on the way in - she was unhurt thankfully. Saturday night another snowstorm rolled in. I wouldn't be shocked if we didn't have a two hour delay again tomorrow. (would love a snow day, but really doubt that'll happen)

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Groupon had a deal for a Journey concert in ABQ on May 20. I ran it by NE (he loves Journey too) but he didn't think it'd be a good idea since that'll be my last week here and it'll be busy finishing up packing, etc. Boo. He's right, just hate that he's right.

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I have all the stuff I need to make the soaps for Christmas ... just haven't gotten around to doing it yet. MUST get it done by a week from Monday!!

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My birthday is next Sunday. I usually take myself out to eat and sometimes to a movie as well. This year though I'm thinking that I'll just get a slice of cheesecake from Walmart on Friday and rent a newer movie I haven't seen yet (maybe Tiger Eyes) and stay at home. Be much cheaper monetarily and calorie wise than going out to eat/to a theater .. plus I'm going to have two weeks away from home where I won't have a lot of control over food ... so I need to be careful if I'm going to make the Round 2 weigh in on January 5/6!

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Just got the call - 2 hour delay tomorrow! Woo hoo! I can sleep in again.

So my week off is quickly coming to a close. Overall, it was a very good week. The only downside to it was that what started out as a head cold/bad allergies, became a sinus infection and deep chest cough.

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While I was at the doctor yesterday to get antibiotics for my sinus infection, I was of course weighed in. It was a nice confirmation of the accuracy of the new scale I got a few months ago (my other one was getting really unreliable.) I did gain a lb over the week, but considering how some of the food I was eating was much higher sodium than usual, I'm not too surprised. I'm still well under where I need to be to win round 1.

The doctor visit was $25.31, and the antibiotics was $10. (Of course, while I was at Walgreen's I picked up some more Nyquil, a pair of leggings (something I'd been thinking about so I can wear a skirt/dress even when it's cold), and ... a Fitbit Zip ... again, something I'd been thinking about for awhile.) So the total cost of my Walgreen's trip was $90.xx.

I also dropped off a couple bags of stuff to Goodwill - things that a former teacher had given me before she moved last summer but I just had never gotten around to getting rid of (used a few items from it, but mostly not useful to me.)

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Having NE here was really great. He is such a sweet, sweet man. He *really* does not like social situations much at all, but he willingly agreed to go to the faculty Thanksgiving meal so that my coworkers would know that he was real and not something I had imagined. At the dinner he went and got me a drink ... I know that might not be a big deal to some people, but other than my brother/dad, I've never had a boyfriend do something like that for me. It just made me feel really special.

The tater tot casserole NE made was scrumptious! He doesn't have a working oven in his apartment, so I'm going to attempt to make banana pudding while I'm there over Christmas break. (I made cornbread casserole for the Tdinner - lots of compliments, including NE who isn't shy about saying what he really thinks about food.)

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These next three weeks will be busy ones. Christmas dinner coming up this coming Saturday, preparing for the Christmas program, my birthday, and then the final push for the end of the semester. I will be SO ready to get on the plane on the 21st!!

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There were some financial things I'd planned on accomplishing on Friday, but between being sick and trying to get into the doctor at the last minute, they did not get accomplished. At some point though I really do need to get them done.

I did receive a $6 payment from PineCone in my paypal account - which I've already transferred. I have around $28 in PineCone checks that need to get deposited ... I wonder how many checks I can photo deposit at a time to CapOne? I guess I'll just have to experiment and find out.

Just a few more hours til NE gets here.

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I had an interesting morning. I knew my car was giving me fits starting, and so planned to take it to the mechanic this morning. But when I went out there and scraped the snow off, it wouldn't start. So, I called the mechanic and asked them to send their tow truck over - wasn't sure if the problem was the battery or the alternator. They couldn't right then, and told me they'd call me back. Three hours later they hadn't called (during that time I got a lot of housework done!) So I called them again - the guy who took my message had lost the paper with my number.

Twenty minutes later the tow truck driver came and jump started my battery and I got over to the mechanics. $40 for the service call (am going to see if I can get reimbursed by my car insurance roadside plan) and then $110 for the battery.

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I got some snowflakes today - $10 from GymPact and $6 from Pinecone. I've decided to put all Pinecone and GymPact money into my Health category. I think I want to get a suspension trainer - maybe a Jungle Gym. It's $80. I bought the book Body By You, and it should be here by Wednesday (I used reward points to pay for half of it, and gift cards for the rest.)

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Oh!! This morning I met and surpassed my 3% weight loss goal for round 1 of my diet*bet!!! Now I just have to maintain or lose more in the next 9 days. (Round 1 weigh out is Dec 5/6.)

I'm now down a total of nearly 13 lbs from my highest weight.

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I bought an inflatable couch/sleeper because my aero bed was deflating on me last time every night. I opened it up today to get it set up, and for the life of me I could not find a cord to plug it in to pump it up. Maybe NE will be able to find it. It was $70 - I was kind of thinking that it would be good for when I have company here, but also once I move to NE, I'm going to need something to sleep on. So if it proved to be comfy and not deflate too quickly, it might make a good solution. If we can't find a way to pump it up, I'll have to take it back. (I have a full size bed, which barely fit my mom and I when she was here visiting - and my mom is skinny.)

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When I was at the mechanics today I was looking at their soda cooler. I had a strong temptation to get one .... but resisted. I'd much rather have a candy bar as a treat than a soda - especially since I know that I tend to go back down that road pretty quickly if I let myself have "just one."

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I had bought a restaurant com voucher for a place in NE, but we hadn't had a chance to use it yet. Yesterday I got an email telling me that the place is no longer participating in rest . com so I needed to use the money for something else. So I looked to see if there was anything in the big G ... and to my utter delight, one of my favorite places here is participating. So tomorrow NE and I will be using one of the two certificates I "bought." (I bought it a LONG time ago - maybe 5 years? and the places keep stopping participating before I use it .. I think this is the third time I've exchanged for something else.)
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Well, I better get going. I probably won't be on much this next few days.

Happy Thanksgiving!!

Well for the most part I've been doing pretty well with the 6 month diet**bet. It's mostly kept me away from junky foods and got me out exercising more. I'll be doing my first official mid-bet weigh in on Tuesday morning - that will qualify me to be in a drawing for what they call "consistency" prizes.

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I received $20 in AGC from Swagbucks, and am now just waiting for the last $5 card.

I also got my credit for the last bill cycle - only two days after the payment posted. I guess they heard enough complaints about how long the last one took to credit? Either way, I'll take it. I now have more than enough SBs for my December $25 AGCs and am now working on extras.

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After work on Friday I stopped at the public library to pick up a book for one of my 6th graders - she asked me if we had The Great Gatsby. We (being an elementary library) of course didn't have it. I didn't tell her it wasn't really a book most 6th graders would want to read/be able to understand -- remembering that when I was 13 I read both War and Peace and Ana Karenina - and did book reports on them! It was a lot smaller than I remembered.

I also picked up groceries - somehow I managed to spend $80!! All but $5 of it was for healthy foods. And here I was planning on trying to eat down my pantry and freezer before buying more stuff ... Ooops. Next week I'll definitely just stick to bananas and maybe orange juice.

I did buy a strawberry/bannana smoothie from McDonald's that is in Walmart. I was pretty hungry and thirsty, and figure that a smoothie was better than a soda!

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So .. about the sigh... I had my doctor appointment Friday morning. I had already eliminated the possibility I was *really* hoping for before going. So after explaining to her how I've been feeling and my other health concerns, she told me that it could just be chronic fatigue syndrome and/or peri-menopause. Ugh. I'm 37. Not the words I wanted to hear coming out of my doctor's mouth, even though my Internet research told me that was one possibility. She's testing various hormones to see if this might be the direction I'm headed. I wanted to go home and curl up in a ball for the rest of the day, but I had to get to work. Work was a good distraction.

What really frustrated me though was that she told me that about the only thing I could do that would help my energy/health would be to do 20 minutes a day of activity/exercise. When I told her that I'd been pretty consistent for over 4 months of 5+ days a week of 40+ minutes of exercise (summer)and it had done NOTHING for how I was feeling, all she said was "it takes time." Arghh!

This is when I really wished I lived in a bigger city and had more choices of doctors - or wish I could be back in Dallas and back with my doctor there. I really liked that doctor - she was my doctor for ten years!

Oh yeah, on Monday night I had a sweet potato and asparagus about 6:30 p.m. Tuesday morning when I woke up and rolled to my back, I had my very first experience with acid reflux. When I told my doctor about this, all she said was "make sure you eat 3 hours before you go to bed." Ummmm....thanks.

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My mom keeps asking me if I'm depressed, and I keep telling her that no, I'm not. I'm just so frustrated with my health. 10 months ago I did not feel like I do now. I felt good/healthy much more often than I didn't. Now I feel lucky on days where most of the day I feel half-way decent.

My former principal as we were walking out of Mass on Thursday said to me, "You've been sick a lot this year." I was a bit taken aback, and told her, "Well, I *have* been sick a lot this year, but I have only taken two sick days." She seemed kind of surprised to hear that and later on said something about me being too young to have health issues. I wish.

Her statement to me does make me wonder about what is being said about me around the school. If most of them knew what a struggle it is for me some mornings to NOT call in sick ... and how I spend most of my weekends trying to make sure I rest enough in order to make it through the work week ...

On Friday I printed off 5 coupons from Swagbucks - 2 for $2 off Lindt chocolate, 2 for $1 off Rice Dream and a $.50 Crest coupon. I didn't get into town until Saturday.

So after church I stopped by the library to pick up some additional books on spiders (2nd and 3rd are doing spider research.) Then I stopped at Albertson's (usually shop at Walmart, but Albertson's is right next to Walgreen's, which was my final stop.) Albertson's had Rice Dream on sale 2 for $5, and Lindt bars 2 for $5. Crest was also on sale. Sweet! Going in I had no idea of the sales - I just lucked out. The $1 (after coupons) isn't really saved money, because I didn't *need* Lindt ... but it sure was nice. The other coupons though were for things I needed/use, so are a definite savings.

Oh, I did stop at Taco Bell, so broke my streak of no fast food. I think it's my last time stopping there though. So frustrating. First, they raised the price of the 7 layer burrito to $2.99. Second, what happens too many times happened again -- I asked for NO guacomole or tomatoes. Guess what my burrito had? Ugh.

I spent $16 at the grocery store, $6.37 at Taco Bell, and $24.xx at Walgreen's (prescription.)

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I was down to my last bar of gas on Friday, so I filled up in T for $3.23. ($32.47). I was really annoyed when I got into G on Saturday because I saw gas as low as $2.94!! I really should have just gotten a gallon in T - enough to get me into G and around. Will do that if it happens again.

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So if you remember, I started a diet **bet about a month ago - betting that I'd lose 4% of my starting weight. Well, that didn't happen, but I did lose about 3%. I also saved a bunch of money on not buying as much junk as I had been starting to do, AND am almost ready to cashout again on GymPact, and am *really* close to cashing out on Achievemint. So, even though I'm out the $20 of the bet, I think I more than made up for it in other savings.

Well, I'm about to start another diet***bet - this one though lasts for six months. The goal is to lose 10% of your starting weight by month five, and then maintain it for a month. You can either do $25/month * 6, or pay $125 up front and get one month free. I went ahead and did the $125 up front, plus paid $20 for "weigh-in tokens" which makes it so you can compete for weekly/monthly prizes. I think I'm much more likely to be successful at a more long-term bet than trying to lose 4% in one month.

As of now, I'm back on NOT eating at fast food places, and limiting junk food purchases to one item a week. This will both save me money, and save me calories. I downloaded two apps which I think will also be helpful - My Fitness Pal (free), and a Couch to 5k program ($.99.) I'm probably going to repeat each week of the the 5k program 3 times to really take it slowly.

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We are supposed to get a snowstorm here on Tuesday - no idea if it's going to be enough to cause a snow day. That would be nice if it did though. Then we'd have two 4 day weeks in a row. (Veteran's Day)

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I signed up for Bing Rewards - mainly because I wanted to earn free months of Hulu+ so I could watch Once Upon a Time. But then I've since figured out that you can already watch OUAT for free on Hulu. Then today I discovered that you can redeem your Bing points for Amazon cards! If you're not already a Bing Rewards member and would like to do it, please consider letting using my referral link (check sidebar links) - I get 50 credits once you reach Silver level. I use the AGCs to buy books and other supplies for the school library I work at. (In fact, I am probably going to need to purchase some headphones for the computer lab very soon - ours are breaking rapidly or going missing - am thinking of getting the kind like you have for iPhones so they'll have a built in microphone.)

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Ugh. I was going to cancel Amazon Prime and Netflix. Unfortunately I didn't set reminders to do that, and just remembered I was going to do that ... Checked - and they both already renewed. $79 for Amazon and $8.53 for Netflix. I haven't really been using Netflix much lately, so thought I'd cancel it for awhile. Amazon Prime is nice, but too much at $79 (I had a Student Prime account the past 4 years, but since I'm not taking classes this year ...)

I was extremely happy yesterday morning to get a FB message from the owner of the dog I was dogsitting telling me that they'd cut their trip short and had arrived home Tuesday evening. When would be a good time to come pick up their dog?

They arrived Wednesday afternoon shortly after 4 - the dog seemed to be completely overjoyed at having her family back. Almost as happy as me to have my house back to normal. They gave me a $50 Wal-mart gift card as a thank you, which I gladly accepted.

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I also had a babysitting job on Sunday evening with the two girls I watch every so often. That was another $35.

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I saw an offer discussed on My Money Blog which I was really interested in, but unfortunately would not meet the requirements. It is for a bank offering $20/month if you open a checking account and a savings account - then have two direct deposits a month totaling $1500 AND make two bill payments a month. If it wasn't for the amount of the direct deposits, I would totally go for it. (I'd come up short by $75.) I guess this is an example of how people who make good incomes are able to take advantage of things to earn more money. Oh well, I'm happy with my banking setup right now anyway.

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I got an email from Pinecone telling me how to setup my account for PayPal payments. I'd looked all over the site to do it previously, but somehow had missed it. So now I'm set up for Paypal payments. Which is very good since I have about $18 in Pinecone checks that are sitting in my "to do" box ....

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I stayed home tonight rather than going to the annual teacher/staff gathering to hand out candy to the neighborhood /surrounding area kids. I just didn't feel like being in a group/socializing, nor did I feel like being out in the cold. So staying home and getting to bed at a decent hour .. that sounded wonderful.

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I am having a health issue right now that is concerning me. From what I've gleaned from the Internet, it could be caused by three or four possibilities. One would be a happy possibility, one would be an okay possibility, and the other two I don't want to even entertain the thought. I have a doctor appointment a week from tomorrow to do a recheck of my TSH (thyroid) level, so I plan on bringing up my concerns then. This, on top of not having gotten back to my normal self since March when I had bronchitis, is extremely frustrating.

Despite my despair over having at least 30% less product than the previous two years, we still managed to make a similar amount to last year's profits! Of course, Schl is I guess trying to cut corners - which I found out when filling out the financial forms. The past two years I received Schl dollars for Principal Involvement, having a Middle School Crew, attending a Webinar, and having a Parent Event. This totaled around $150. This year I didn't read through the promotional materials because I thought I knew what I was doing (and was kind of distracted ...) so assumed I'd be able to earn for those things again. Nope. I only got $25 for attending a Webinar.

Since I used $35 Schl$ to pay my student crew (7 kids who helped me out on Tuesday - P/T Conference day), as well as spending $200 Schl$ on books from the fair ... this meant that I had to take some of our profits as Schl$. Thankfully it only reduced our cash profit by about $100. One of our teachers has said that he plans on using the Online link to purchase some items as well, so if that really happens, then we'll see a little bit more from that too.

It was an exhausting and stressful week (and Friday morning was the busiest four hours of the whole week for the third year in a row,) but in the end it was a successful run. One of my 8th graders who helped me with the clean up commented, "I miss the book fair already."

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A few weeks ago NE told me about this website he stumbled across called go*fund*me * org. I didn't really have a chance to look into it until today. I had been thinking about maybe setting up a page to get donations to fund 20 new computers for our lab, but thought that might be overly ambitious. So what I did do today was set up a donation page to fund the purchase of 5 new digital cameras/cards. I found out yesterday that instead of my usual 5 or 6 Journalism kids, I'm going to have 8. We have 5 digital cameras right now (actually 4 ... one seems to have gone missing, but I just purchased one mostly using funds earned through Swagbucks, to replace it,) however, it can get kind of tricky when I need the cameras for my students to use AND teachers are asking to borrow a camera for taking pictures of various activities. If we had ten cameras, then there'd be enough for all 8 students, as well as two extra for teacher/staff use.

(I'd post a link to my page here, but it required me to use my real name/location and link to my FB account. It also seems to post the full name/location of donors - although I don't know if there is an anonymous option.) Tonight I might post a link to it on my FB page.

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I don't know why, but I seem to really enjoy time travel stories set in medevil(sp?) times. I remember this one book I read maybe 12 years ago that was like that, then a few years later when my car was broken into and I needed a distraction - lo and behold there was a movie based on that book in the dollar theater! (wish I could remember the name of it!!)

So anyway, a few weeks ago I came across a free ebook with the same idea - time travel/medevil(sp?) time period. It's called "Daughter of Time." I really, really enjoyed. So much so, that I spent $7 to buy the next two books in the series. (ebooks) That's the first time I've spent money on books for myself in I don't know how long.

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The dog I'm watching seems to have finally settled down. I've been letting her roam free both at night and during the day, and for the most part that has been without problems. (although yesterday I found out she'd had a #2 accident in my living room - yuck!) Her owners should be picking her up either Thursday or Friday. This has shown me that maybe it would be possible to have a dog - even with my schedule. I'd just have to get it in the summertime when I could make sure it was well trained before my school schedule started. Something to ponder for two summers from now (this coming summer will be too crazy with moving and job hunting to even think about adding dog training!)

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On Thursday I had a visit from a representative of a book donation organization I found out about a few years ago. I was able to show him where many of the books they've donated to us have been put, and let him know how much use they've gotten. (lots!) He told me that there should be another shipment coming for us in a few weeks. Cool! Hopefully there'll be lots of non-fiction titles!!

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I have gone almost three weeks now without soda or fast food visits! Yesterday I was in big G doing my grocery shopping and almost stopped at TB, but resisted. As NE says - I could live for several months off of what I have in my cupboards ...

Last night NE actually brought up how much he could save if he cooked more at home. He spends a lot at fast food places, and a considerable amount at restaurants. I've never said anything to him about it, but it certainly was something I'd thought. So I'm glad he's thinking about it at least. -- I mentioned that cooking at home could also be more healthy - that kind of got NE off on a tangent though about healthy food not being less expensive .. which wasn't really what I was talking about. If he and I end up getting married eventually, it'll be really interesting figuring out how to merge our two eating lifestyles. I'm a hoarder when it comes to food (grew up with a dad who believed that having a full pantry/fridge/freezer was of upmost importance) and NE is someone who only buys enough for one days meals (if he's going to eat at home..) For him though, it isn't because he doesn't believe in having food supplies, its more that he has a bit of a food addiction - if it's there, he'll eat it. I have that problem with chocolate, but not really anything else. His is more encompassing.

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Question -- About five weeks ago I impulse purchased a toaster oven from Walmart. I have since misplaced the receipt. Is there any chance they'd take it back and refund my money? I've not even taken it in from the car ...

So yesterday was our preview day. Overall it went pretty well, especially considering how tired and yucky I was feeling - and the first part of the morning, very hungry as well. (explain later)

The kids all seemed to be pretty excited about what we had - although they kept asking me about books they'd seen in the flyer or in the video ... which we did not have.

About mid-morning I had 20 minutes between groups, so I called my representative and expressed to her my frustration and disapointment. She listened, and figured out that I had been sent a "Standard" book fair instead of a "Premium" book fair. This is based on sales - I told her that I didn't understand, since for the past two years we'd made close to $3k and that was way more than the previous librarian. She wasn't totally sure of the reason, but told me to call the restock number right away for any of the books that I knew the kids would want. She also told me that she'd let the branch director know of the missing items (sales bags/signage).

Next I called the restock number with a large list of books the kids had been asking about (or exclaiming about.) They should all (except for one book which I guess is totally out of stock) be here by Tuesday.

In talking with various teachers/staff and a parent, I heavily promoted the online bookfair. Most of them acted like it was news to them - one even said "Why didn't you tell us about this?" Ugh. But .. it does sound like some of them might actually use that option. So, if that happens, then we might just have a chance of making the $2k mark.

I did make my first sale yesterday - one of our students is going to be out all next week. So he got his dad to come by and buy a book for him before leaving. Luckily I'd gotten my change money earlier that day from our principal.

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This dog I'm dogsitting for is ... interesting. She certainly has added an element to my life. Such as yesterday morning ... I hadn't had a good nights sleep at all, so when my alarm went off I snoozed it a couple times. Until ... I remembered I had to take the dog for a morning "walk" before heading to school. So I rushed around throwing clothes on and took her out. When I got back in I put my breakfast together and sat down at the table - then looked at the time. 7:43!! Yikes! So, I threw my cereal back in the fridge, ate a piece of string cheese and drank my orange juice - brushed my teeth and threw my hair in a ponytail and rushed to school. 8 minutes late and hungry.

Last night after my Skype date with NE, I took her out for a walk. She seemed to be pretty full of energy, so we ended up being out there for a good 20 minutes - there were a few times where she was going fast enough I had to jog a bit to keep up. Thursday night she slept in her kennel all night with no problem. Last night though about 1:30 a.m. she started whining and whimpering and sounding like she was having a panic attack. Ugh.
This morning I took her on a walk, and she was slower than molasses the whole time.

I need to find out what/if any commands she actually knows.

Kari isn't hissing at her anymore, so that is some progress.

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Thursday night I woke up around 1:30 a.m. with one side of my nose/sinus totally plugged up which caused one of my teeth to throb in pain. So I eventually got up and took an Oregano capsule AND a mucus relief pill. Yikes was that bad thinking ... not 5 minutes later my stomach felt like it was on fire. Once that calmed down, then I spent the next 40 minutes feeling like I was going to lose my supper. Finally by about 3 a.m. I was able to go back to sleep. Ugh. Ugh. Ugh.

So, at any rate I'm pretty much taking this weekend off to get as much rest as I can before the crazy week that will be coming.

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Oh, I got a call last night from the head elder of my church. Apparently the nominating committee wants me to be a deaconess and the asst. communication director. I told him I couldn't be a deaconess (thankfully!!) due to my membership still being in TX! I did however accept the assistant position with the caveat that I'll be moving by June! All I can say is they must be feeling pretty hard up for deaconesses to ask me ... considering how sporadic my church attendance has been. Or maybe they were doing it to get me to come more often?

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I took a survey for a bank - part of it was where you download a study on your iPhone and complete tasks. It was super easy and I'll be getting a $20 Amazon gift card for it in about a month. Sweet.

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I did grocery shopping yesterday afternoon. I spent $63 on groceries/clothing/household items, and another $23 on snack food for my helpers on Tuesday. I'm going to see if I can get the $23 reimbursed from the library fund though.

I stayed home today from work - just haven't been feeling all that well and today was the best day of any to stay home (least classes.)

I had a great time in NE, although I did end up staying at a hotel Thursday night due to the weather here. It was really wet and cold here in T, and I was worried about it being icy at 4 a.m. Turns out it was a good thing I did that - because it was very icy here even at 7a.m.

So other than my airfare, I spent $67 on the hotel, $33 on a mani/pedi (in ABQ), $16 on snack foods at Walmart, and $7 at the airport. On the way back home I stopped at Walmart again and spent $49 on groceries ($6 of it was candy for the Halloween party.)

Our book fair starts on Friday, and the first day of sales will be on Tuesday. I'll need to pick up some snack foods for my helpers (6th and 7th graders)

I have arranged my first ever author visit! It'll happen on November 20. We had at first set it for the 13th, but the group of teachers putting together the family literacy evening had to change to the 20th. That made me a bit annoyed because my church is having a cooking class with a semi-famous tv chef on the 20th that I was thinking about going to. Oh well.

I finally received my SBs for my credit card today. I promptly cashed out for $40 in AGCs - leaving me with enough for my November 5 $5 AGCs plus some. I also received the email from AASL (school librarian org.) with my code for $100 in books from Capstone. I need to figure out what I'm going to use that money for - last year I bought a set of super hero comics which have gotten pretty good use.

Tomorrow one of my church members is bringing over their family dog. I'm going to be dogsitting it through the end of October. She mentioned something about paying me for it, but I'm okay with not getting anything for it. I have people look in on Kari all the time when I'm gone, and they never ask for/accept any kind of payment. The dog is pretty old and apparently isn't one for walks and sleeps most of the time. Will be interesting to see how he and Kari get along.