Ahh.. today I received my federal refund - $1936. That plus the state refund plus what was already in there ... wish I could just leave it all in there and keep seeing those numbers. But, alas, I'd rather pay as little interest on my car loan as possible, so a payment of $2300 will be heading off to the CU as soon as it's March. (I'm holding part of it back to put into my Vanguard Traditional IRA to bring it up to $3k.)

Speaking of the CU and the car loan. I received a statement from them with my latest numbers. It said I have a balance of ~$4200 (don't have paper in front of me) and that I don't have a payment due until July. Wonder what they're going to think when they get my next check?

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I'm at close to 4,600 Swagbucks now. Today when I saw the daily goal, I almost said forget about it! But I'm glad I didn't. Somehow I've now managed to get 9 of the codes, even though I didn't start trying til after 4:30 p.m. MST. I think there is one or maybe two codes still left. I need 4,750 to be able to get my March 5 $5 AGCs AND a $25 AGC (or maybe Paypal cash). I'll more than likely be able to do that by Wednesday. Nice.

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Work was pretty busy today. I found out some sad news. Like Monkey Mama says, cancer s*cks!! My friend and co-worker who is the IT person at our school has stage 1 lung cancer. She's taking chemo pills right now, and is scheduled for surgery the last week of March. I asked her if she wanted others to know - so they wouldn't nag her/complain about how much work she's getting/not getting done - but she didn't want anyone's pity. I understood, I just hope that people don't go hard on her.

She's had lots of offers already of people willing to help her out, and stay with her when she has to do the regular intravenous chemo. Right now she thinks she wants to do it alone ...

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Friday is Dr. Suesss' birthday, so I'm celebrating it with my K - 3rd students this week. Today I read Green Eggs and Ham to both K and 3rd. My K's repeated every line after I read it, and my 3rd's read every line with me. Both groups loved the book. I also read part of Cat in the Hat to my K's - I hadn't read it in a long time, and didn't realize how LONG it really is. Wow.

Well, I'm back from Baltimore and the Americ@orps conference. Overall, I'm mostly glad I went, although I think maybe some of the younger, less experienced teachers here may have gotten more out of it.

We had three main speakers - Mark Shriver (brother to Maria Shriver, ex wife of Arnie "I'll be Back.") Sister Sissy (can't remember her real name, Sissy is her nickname) and Father Boyle (Homeboy Industries.) Of the three I got the most out of the second and third ones. Shriver was ... well, I felt at least, a bit pompous. Lots of name dropping, and during the Q&A he seemed really offended that some of the kids had Googled him to find out more about who he was .. some of the kids (most of the attendees were 27 or younger) didn't know who the Uncle Jack was that he kept referring to (JFK.)

In addition to the speakers, on Sunday and Monday we had our choice of 4 workshops to attend. I attended 3 because the fourth session the ones I wanted were already full by the time I had a chance to sign up. Two of the three I attended were okay, the third one I didn't really care for too much. Oh well.

The hotel tried to meet the needs of vegetarians, but like many non-vegetarians, they had the idea that vegetarians survive mostly on salads. Ugh. So ... I ate a lot of Subway, a few smoothies from the uber expensive Coffee shop in the hotel, and once at Jimmy Johns (my first time eating at one!)

On Wednesday last week I started to have really bad tooth pain. By Thursday when I went to ABQ to stay at the hotel before flying out, it had gotten much worse. So much worse that I left the hotel after dark to go to Walmart a few miles away. I decided to attack it from the angle of allergies, so I got some sinus meds OTC, but did not get any asprin. Which turned out to be a big mistake $$

The next day by the time we got to our layover in DFW, I had a headache that felt like it was going to split my head in half. So, I paid $7 for a soda and 3 2-capsule packets of aspirin. Those packets lasted til Saturday morning when I was again desperate ... so I paid $8 at the hotel coffee shop for ... a soda, and two packets of ONE-capsule aspirin!

Thankfully that afternoon my co-worker and I found a CVS a fw blocks away where I was able to get a 24 capsule bottle for $5.

I haven't totalled up how much I spent on food and medicine this trip, but I have a bad feeling about it. Much more than the amount I had generously allocated ...

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Of course it gets even better ...

Tuesday morning we arrive at the airport a few minutes before 8 a.m. thinking we were cutting it close for our 8:45 flight. Not even close. We had missed our 8:15!!! flight!!! Both of us for whatever reason had 8:45 stuck in our head, and had not bothered to double check the itinerary email. I've *never* missed a flight in my life, until now.

It cost $75 to book the next flight out ...at 1:45 p.m. My co-worker didn't have a credit card with him, nor did he have enough cash to cover the fee. So I paid for his fee. (He already paid me back this morning.) He was thoroughly embarrassed having me do this, although I really tried to be very non-nonchalant about it.

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By the time we got back to ABQ it was WAY past dark. I called the hotel I'd left my car at to come pick me up. The guy told me to take a taxi and they'd pay for it. Huh? Never been told that before ... so I went outside and found a taxi. The taxi driver knew what I was talking about, and took me to the hotel. I gave him my last $5 bill (the other $5 I'd left as a tip for the hotel maid in Baltimore.)

I needed to get a few groceries, but did NOT want to stop at little G on the way home after dark. So decided to go back to the same Walmart I'd been at on Thursday. Unfortunately, my GPS app had been updated with a HORRIBLE update, and it got me lost. Thankfully though I found a KMART. Well ... sort of thankfully.

While in KMART I ended up picking up a new purse (to replace the one whose strap broke this last summer in San Francisco), a set of full bed sheets, two HUGE stuffed animals on 75% discount, and a few groceries. No bananas though (which was one of the main things I wanted.) About $65 altogether.

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I finally made it into my town a bit before 10 p.m. Kari was SO glad to see me. I was actually glad to see her as well.

Today at work I felt a bit like a zombie. When my kinders were in class, I had to keep reminding myself they were babies and to keep my patience. Even my 3 year olds didn't help revitalize me like they tend to do.

Thankfully today wasn't one of my busier days, otherwise I don't know that I would've made it through. We might possibly have a snow day tomorrow - already have a minimum of a two-hour delay. I'd be so happy for a snow day right now ....

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I have nearly 4k Swagbucks now. I'm considering getting the $25 AGC, although I think I may wait til March, or at least until I have enough to get the $25 AND the March $25. Will see.

I would have made my 14 day streak for February, but the hotel in ABQ's WiFi was TERRIBLE - couldn't even do normal surfing using it. Oh well.

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So sleepy. Probably ought to hit the shower and then maybe watch an episode of Eureka (my latest Netflix addiction.) Speaking of tv ... I received my Person of Interest Season 1 DVDs. I might watch them tomorrow if we have a snow day.

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Oh, the co-worker who I barely tolerate .. this morning she sits across from me and says, "So, I hear you missed your flight. HA HA. I've NEVER (said in a haughty tone) missed a flight. I always get there at least two hours ahead of time." I felt like punching her in the face, but I thankfully restrained myself, and only said, "good for you."

So I attempted to finish my taxes with Turbo Tax last night, but it wasn't letting me go back and fix one particular item. My only option was to start over ... so I started over in Tax Act. Tax Act cost $45 less .. just the $15 state filing fee. I'm getting $1946 Federal and $525 State.

$1800 of it I'm going to send straight to my car loan. The rest I'm going to hold onto until I can roll over the IRA I have at a bank in a CD in April. Then I'll put the $2400 or so from that, plus $600 from my refund into the Vanguard fund you have to start with $3k. (At least I think I can do that.)

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I qualified for and completed two surveys today on Swagbucks, although only one credited. I'm glad the one did credit, because the daily goal was pretty high (110).

I also received my last $5 AGC for February, so can go ahead and buy Person of Interest.

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A while ago I bought new shoes to replace my winter school shoes which were falling apart, but didn't start wearing them til about a week ago. My feet have been really hurting. I'm really hoping that will stop soon.

I took pictures today of the Mardi Gras "parade" put on by PK-2. There was one picture which was especially adorable. I wish I could share it with you all, but if this blog was ever discovered and linked to me and I'd shared that pic ... I'd be out of a job. Suffice it to say .. it's a female kinder with her two front teeth missing dressed up in Mardi Gras finery with a big toothy (toothless?) grin. Totally candid.

We had a two-hour delay this morning, so I used my time wisely and called the IRS helpline. I explained about how Turbo Tax was insisting that I have to count my award money from Ameri C*rps as self-employment income even though on the 1099 it is listed as other income. I also told him (it was man) that the place my university deals with to send out 1098ts had told me that I won't get one since my tuition was paid for via the education award.

All in all, after spending nearly an hour on the phone with him, the end result was he assured me that I should not count it as self-employment income and that whether or not I receive a 1098 from my school, I can still count the tuition cost towards the Lifetime Learning Credit - I just need to be sure to have some kind of proof of bill showing there was tuition charged and paid. I haven't made the changes yet in TT, but I'm glad I was able to make the call today!

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I also called the place I worked at in TX as a teacher for my service record. The lady there emailed me a copy of my record. So that's now one less thing on my list towards reciprocrating my TX license to NM.

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Today I had the 4th grade boys. I showed them how to make a Voki and then cut and paste their paragraphs about their important person to make their Voki speak. They were pretty impressed - one of their better behaved class periods.

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No money spent yet today, although I may start downloading a couple iTune movies for my upcoming plane trips. A couple of LONG plane rides and one 3 hr layover ...

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My phone is working fine still - it was so sweet though - had two offers of replacement phones. My brother offered me his phone (and he'd just upgrade), and my mom offered me her old phone (she got a new one at Christmas from new dh.)

Of course, Mz. Klutz here had a glass of orange juice on the computer desk Sunday morning. Guess what she forgot to do? Drink the OJ. Guess what happened Sunday night as she was heading to bed? Yep, knocked the OJ over. Spilled on my wireless keyboard and all over the floor. Luckily it didn't get too much of the keyboard, but enough where some keys are really sticky (like the 1,2 and shift keys.) Ergh! I have my old wireless keyboard that just needs batteries I think, so if this gets too annoying, I'll just change them out. (The keyboard with the OJ was my dads.)

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Finally got my $5 AGC from Irazoo - ordered on Jan 13. Also got the 4th AGC from SBs for February. So just need one more then I can order Person of Interest.

While we didn't get the snowstorm like the Northeast did, we did get a couple inches overnight, with more to come over the next few days.

This afternoon I needed to go and do my 30 minute walk towards my weekly gympact, so met up with my coworker. When we started out it was clear and windy. Within a few minutes though, snow started coming down - softly at first, but then a lot more. At one point when we were walking straight into the wind, I turned around and walked backwards because my forehead was freezing!

When I got home I waited until I was inside my house to take my phone out to stop the time. My phone was wet, as was my hoodie. Just as my activity was saved on my phone, it went completely dead.

I tried drying it off and playing around with the controls, but nothing was happening. I was supposed to give my grandma her weekly call, so I texted my brother and asked him to call her and let her know that my phone may be dead. He sweetly offered to upgrade his phone and let me have his.

About 15 minutes after shutting off, I tried the controls again ... and it turned back on! Yay! I kind of was looking forward to having a good excuse to upgrade to the 4S, but am even more glad to not needing to spend the money for a new phone.

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I found out today that there is a second season of Touch - the show about the autistic boy who communicates with his dad through numbers (sci-fi'ish). Sweet! Of course it isn't on Netflix yet, but is on Hulu+. Will wait. Must wait.

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I completed a deal on SBs today that earned 470sbs. So I now have nearly 1700. 500 more and I'll have enough for my March AGCs, then I guess I'll start working on the April ones!

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I'm glad I went into town Friday and did my grocery shopping, because I don't think I'd be able to get into town today or tomorrow (and possibly Monday either!) I spent just under $50. Some of it was probably stuff I should have left at the store ... at least I'm still under budget for February right now.

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I'm half hoping that we'll have a snow day on Monday. That way I can have a chance to make some phone calls regarding my taxes and my certification. I talked to my principal on Friday about how she added the award money to her taxes, and she said she hadn't claimed it ... not sure she understood what I was talking about. I'd really like to get my taxes done so I can make a huge payment on my car.

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Also on Friday I reached the upper levels of frustration with our servers and documents being lost. When I had my 5th grade group in, I had one set of partners that tried 5 different computers to see if they could find the contents of their folder so they could do their blog. Then I had at least 6 mid-schoolers find out that their science fair documents which were 95% finished had vanished into thin air. One of them had their unfinished documents printed out - so I retyped it for him. It was too funny though - I had him and another student standing around the computer as I typed in total awe - "She's not even looking at the keyboard!" "Wow, how fast is she typing??" I told them - years of practice. (I don't type all that fast, maybe 60 - 65 wpm. My mom can do 100+wpm .. that is a sight to see.)

Ooops, forgot where I was going with this. My frustration level being breached, I finally talked to my principal about our school signing on with google apps for education. That way kids could save their documents/work in "the cloud" and the likelihood of things being lost or somehow deleted by accident or by malice would be virtually eliminated. It will mean a bit of a loss of functionality, as google docs aren't as functional or splashy as MS Office, but at this point I think it is well worth it. Thankfully she agreed.

So this coming week the IT person and I are going to work on getting our school started on GAFE. I hope it goes over well with everyone ...

I'd been wondering why I hadn't received a 1098 form for the course I am taking. So today I called the university's financial department and was directed to another company that handles their 1098's. When I called them (after being on hold for 28 minutes) I found out that I won't be getting a 1098. Even though the award money counts as income, I can't claim that I paid tuition! Simply put, that bites!!

The other really frustrating thing is that Turbo Tax is telling me that I have to claim the Award money as self-employment income*. If that is true, that seriously reduces my refund.

*When I claim it as "other" it then asks me if I expect to get money from this same source again in upcoming tax years. Which I do ... I could conceivably use this money spread out over 5 - 7 tax years (if it lasted that long.) But I just don't see how it can be counted as SE income. It is an award given up to two years in a row, and paid out as it is used for qualified expenses (or student loans if you have them.) I'm not exactly being paid for *work* -- I'm being awarded for being willing to work for low pay in an underprivileged area. (Like the priest said today during mass - we could probably earn 2 or 3x as much anywhere else.)

It seems to me like this award benefits those with student loans the most. They can at least take a deduction for the interest paid on the loans. (or maybe not... who knows.)

If both of the above hold true, then I have serious doubts about my using the remainder of the "award" money anytime soon!

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I talked with my principal about my evaluation from last week. It was very positive. Of course I had one of my best groups, so that didn't hurt any. We were a bit rushed so I didn't get a chance to ask her if she had anything she'd like to add to the single evaluation.

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I'm still working on gathering my documentation for my NM license. I called the school district I worked for in TX today to get a copy of my service record. (I was going to copy mine from my personnel folder here, but they didn't have it!! Oops.) When the lady first called back she told me she hadn't found anything for me ... um... but that she was going to keep looking. She called me back while I was out at the buses so I missed her call. Will have to try her again tomorrow.

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I cashed in for 5 $5 AGCs from Swagbucks, and now have 800+ towards March's cards.

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I'm leaving one week from today to go to Baltimore! I'm getting a little bit more excited - although I do wonder if they're in the path of this major blizzard that's predicted for this weekend. Will have to bring my warm clothes for sure. (speaking of which, am doing massive amounts of laundry right now due to not having done any for awhile and being down to the last of my clean work-worthy tops.)

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Today I got the approval for my one-day book seminar on March 7. So I went ahead and registered for it and booked the hotel. I have a 2 1/2 hour cohort (class) session the night of March 6 ... I was told I could use their business center computer. I'm looking forward to a made to order omelet (part of the hotel price is a HOT breakfast.) I think I'm more excited about this short 1 1/2 day trip than the Baltimore one.

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I finished Jericho a couple days ago. I really liked it - especially when I found out why the fans had inundated the studio that produced it with peanuts when it was canceled. I'd heard about it, but hadn't know why they chose that.

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We may be getting some snow this weekend, perhaps even a snow day on Monday. I would prefer not to have a snow day, but if it happens, I won't complain too much. Just I have so few Mondays and Fridays with those classes as it is ... Oh well.

Okay, trying yet again. It's what I get for not following my own advice of copying before submitting ...

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January spending:

Despite the stock ups in late December, I still managed to overspend the grocery category by nearly $50. This was due mainly to multiple trips to the mom and pop store for egg salad sandwiches or bananas +++. Bottom line -- I need to leave my wallet at home, and if I need bananas, take only enough cash for 5 (around $2.) Also, stop buying egg salad sandwiches.

Tithe, etc. --
I didn't have a pen with me the one time I actually made it to church in January. I now have two checks already filled out - one for Jan, and one for Feb. So, no excuses.

Overall, not too bad. Just need to reign in the groceries (namely, the junk food.)

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February Budget--

Fun Money-
I padded my fun money category due to the upcoming Baltimore trip. I'm hoping that I won't actually spend that much (I've been told the hotel we're staying at has vegie/vegan options) but I want to give myself the room/permission if something comes up.

Car Loan -
I will be making a large payment to my car loan this month, which should put it close to $4k left. Depending on when I get my final tax documents and file, March should have a large payment as well.

Car Insurance --
My 6 month premium is due on the 9th. So that will be a good chunk going out.

FIRE (Financially Independent Retire Early) -
This will be my first installment into this category. Until my car loan is paid off, it will remain a small amount. (Like MMM says ... debt emergency!)

Professional -
If I can get all the documentation together, I will be sending in a check for $125 to get my NM certification. Must get this done so I can be rehired for next year!!

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Other --

Swagbucks/Amazon/Discover/TV stuff =

I managed to meet goal 31/31 days for January. It enabled me to trade in for $25 of AGCs in January, and I have enough for my first 4 in February (and after the 5th when I get the 300+daily bonuses bonus, I'll have enough for the 5th card.)

I spent about $60 on books for the library this month - used my AGC credits and the remaining balance of rewards from Discover. (You can only cash out at the $50 mark. I had $26 in rewards and no big purchases I could think of ... so decided to use them.) I'm considering canceling it (Discover) to trim down my card collection.

Normally I spend all of my AGCs on books for the library. However, I have decided to use February's for something for myself. The first season of Person of Interest. It is around $25 on Amazon. Once I finish the last 12 or so episodes I missed thanks to ABC stopping putting the full episodes on their website after getting me hooked .. then I can sell it to Second Spin for a possible $12.

I found out that Hulu+ has the second season of Once Upon a Time. I was SORELY tempted to renew my account for a month so I could watch that second season. I resisted, and instead started watching Jericho on Netflix for free. Eventually (hopefully!) Netflix will have OUAT's second season and I can watch it for no extra cost.

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Health/Food stuff

So, as I mentioned in my grocery section, I've been buying junk food. Way more of it than I should. And, unfortunately, it shows - both in my weight (gained back nearly ten of the twenty pounds I'd lost), and in my general overall health. I was doing so good there for a while. I'm really not sure what derailed me. It'd be even worse if I wasn't doing my nearly daily walks (although they're not THAT much in the good exercise department .. they are at least getting out and moving.)

I am really frustrated with myself. I am trying to get back to where I was with my eating .. Yesterday I did a grocery shop (which I counted for February) and bought some apples along with the bananas. I think where I lost ground is I was eating more sandwiches and less fruit/fiber. Not to mention soda and junkfood. Yeah - the soda I was going to give up. :arghh!:

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School -

I had my first formal teacher evaluation since 2005 on Wednesday. I think it went well overall. The kids participated and behaved well, and I was a little hyperactive due mostly to nerves I think. I was supposed to meet with my principal today to go over her observations, but due to feeling like carp warmed over this morning (thanks to my oh so healthy eating), I stayed home sick.

In other interesting (to me at least) news .. I'm teaching the second graders keyboarding. The maintenance guys managed to find ten defunct keyboards for me, which I had my assistant cut the cords off of. I'm using those for the kids to practice on so that I can have them all within easy eyesight as they are learning. I'm using the whole keyboard method - as in they are learning all the letters for the pinky finger, then the ring finger, then the middle finger, etc. They also are learning about home row and posture. So far they seem to be having fun with it especially when I ask them to practice -- Dog Chews Queen, or Queen Eats Zebra ... etc. (The word/letter/finger association seems to work really well.) They've learned the pinky, middle and pointer fingers so far - next week I'm going to have them work in Word so they can see what they're typing.

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Baltimore trip -

I found out that I'm going to have a roommate. A young thing in her mid-20s. Hope she doesn't think I'm too old fogiesh. (and I hope she's not a partier who stays up all hours of the night being loud ...)

They're having some kind of 3 hour walking historical tour that I can sign up for. I have to decide if I want to do this by the 5th. On one hand, the exercise probably would be good for me. On the other hand, I think I'd rather get my exercise in the hotel's fitness room where it is WARM! and I can listen to music. Hmmm... I probably really should do the tour. Embrace the experience ... (It's free - part of the whole trip. So that's not a factor.)

Today at our staff meeting it was confirmed by our principal that we *will* have summer school, although only for two weeks and possibly only half-days. I'll take it!!

Of course it isn't guaranteed that I'll get a spot as one of the teachers (she wasn't sure how many teachers/assistants would be needed.) But I'm hoping I'll have a little better chance of it since I was supposed to do it last summer, but didn't get to (due to circumstances not under my control.)

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I'm on the BofA advisory panel and a while back they sent out a survey that said you'd get a $5 AGC as a thank you. Today I received the AGC, and put it in my account.

I also received my 5th AGC from Swagbucks today for January. I currently have over 1100 SBs, so will easily have enough for at least the first 3 in February. I've actually qualified for a couple surveys recently (shock!!) which has definitely helped.

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We might have a snow day tomorrow. That'd be nice in a way, but in another way I really hate to miss out on all my Tuesday classes. I have some new books I cataloged today with several specefic 7th graders in mind... Plus I have a set of 10 defunct keyboards for my second graders who are starting to learn keyboarding and am excited to see how well they do using the keyboards rather than the paper "computers." Oh well, it is what it is.

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ETA --

Thanks to the stock market in general, and specifically one particular stock I own 350 shares of .. my Net Worth is almost back to where it was in November before making my car purchase! If only it will continue!

After the first payday in January when I saw that the 2% increase in SS was going to take approximately $35/mo from my net income, I decided that it was finally time to go ahead and change my W-4 withholding. So I changed it to 2.

Today was the first payday since I changed it, and changing the withholding added $60, or $120/mo. Nice. For February I think I will probably just put it towards Vacation/eating out/Baltimore trip expenses. But after that, then I'll put it all towards my car repayment. Then once my car is paid off, it all will go towards my ROTH, except maybe $25 - 30 of it which I'll add to my Fun Money or Groceries category, or perhaps my Vacation category.

In reality, it is about $85 extra a month than what I was getting in 2012. Still, it is a nice little boost which I prefer to get monthly rather than having to wait to file taxes in 2014.

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I received a 1099R for my rollover IRA. The form didn't show any taxes withheld or anything, so I'm assuming that I did it correctly and it isn't going to bite me in the shorts. I might try to add it into my Turbo Tax file tonight and make sure about it.

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I have received 4 of the 5 AGCs from Swagbucks for January. So far, I have managed to meet the daily goal every day. So I'll probably start February off with enough SBs to buy my first 3 cards. It'll be nice to be ahead of the game for awhile at least.

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I've been watching Life on Mars on Netflix instead of doing my classwork like I should be .. It is *really* good. I don't know how I missed it before.

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Both of my walking partners this week agreed to start doing the 4 mile walk again! The 2 miler we were doing most of this winter so far was barely keeping me maintained (weight wise), so I'm hoping the longer distance will help to get me moving in the right direction again. Of course it probably would help if I actually cut out soda and cut down on junk food like I keep saying I'm going to do....

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Since that one night of terrible sleep, I have been sleeping better. The occasional stabs and tingles, but nothing like that one night. I'm hoping the increased level of exercise will keep any re occurrences at bay.

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I made some progress today on getting a reciprocal NM teaching license. I need to go by the district office and pick up my fingerprint/background check from last summer. Then once I have all the other documentation together, write a check for $125 and send it all in. Guess it's worth it to make sure I get rehired for next year!

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Today I worked with my second group of second graders introducing keyboarding. The first group on Tuesday I only used the file folder computers (which they get to take with them to practice on.) Today I had five old keyboards which I let them use, along with the file folder keyboards. That went much better! AL our IT person told me that I should be able to find 3 - 4 more defunct keyboards around campus to use (so nobody has to share.)

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I have my formal evaluation scheduled for next Wednesday with my 5th grade group. We'll be doing the blogs for the first time and learning a little bit more about composition (photography.) I told my principal that we'd be learning a totally new concept (the blogs) so I had no idea how it'll go. But that the kids are easy to work with - I'm not too worried. She told me that she feels like she already has a good idea of how I do my classes from dropping in time to time, so not to worry.

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I received a new statement from the credit union that has my car loan. So far I have paid $14 in interest and $386 in principal (two payments.) I have my next check set to go on Feb 11 ($850). I'd send it right now, but I want to make sure I only send one payment a month so there's no room for confusion on their part.

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In the annals of bizzarity .. last night while I was watching an episode of Life on Mars, I heard an ambulance siren outside my house, and then the sounds of a vehicle backing up and parking. I wondered where it was going, so opened my door and poked my head out. It had stopped right in front of my house!! The EMT on the passenger side got out and asked me if we'd called for an ambulance. I told her that noone at my house had called for one. She just kind of shook her head and got back in.

This morning at breakfast I had several co-workers ask me about the ambulance. When I told them what happened, one of them told me I should have asked the lady what address they were looking for. Oops. At the time I wasn't thinking like that. Oh well. I hope they did find the actual person who called for them.

**This goes along with when I had the local sheriff pull up in my driveway and tell me that there'd been a noise complaint filed on my address. ?? I'd been sitting inside at my computer for the past few hours working on the computer - no music or anything. I have the feeling that it was also the case of not having the right address.

I realized today that I missed mentioning my blogaversery! 8 years! Time sure does fly, one way or the other ...

Recently I was reminded of how blessed I have been to have found this site, and how much a part of my life it has become - when the site wasn't functioning for a few days. I feel like I've come to know many of you almost like next door neighbors, and having the opportunity to meet some of you in person has made it even better!

Here's looking to the next 8 years

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I cashed in for my 5th $5 SB AGC today. I also did some housework ...shock! Kari was getting anxious as I was sweeping, because that generally portends an extended absence. Not today though for a change.

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I think I've figured out what I'm going to do for my final project (it keeps changing ..) AND something I might be able to sell on teachers pay teachers! I had a difficult time coming up with good material to teach the digital photography / blogging unit I'm doing with my fifth graders. So I'm going to make a website with example photos, resource links, AND a link to lesson plans and student guide in the TPT store. My professor has already approved the idea, so now most of the work will be done anyway.

Speaking of the digital photo unit, I started it with the fifth graders last week. They were pretty enthusiastic about the whole thing, although somewhat disappointed that they couldn't take the cameras home with them. Looking through the books we have in our library on taking good photos, I noticed that they are badly in need of updating. Only one of them even mentioned digital cameras, and that was in bare passing.

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I also started the 6th graders on their research project on Friday - they picked an important event from the last 50 years. At first they weren't too sure about the whole thing, but once they got started, they were pretty into it. Several picked JFKs assassination, 5 picked 9/11, one picked Cheronoybl, and then there were a variety of other events chosen which I can't remember right now.

My 4th grade girls (on Friday) delved into the pile of biography books I selected and chose their famous person to study. Pocahontas, Christopher Columbus, Amelia Earhart and a few others were chosen. Much better variety than the boys ... who mostly chose Justin Bieber.

**I hadn't had media class on Friday for five weeks! Half-day before vacation, vacation, and then last week a snow day!

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I had a really bad nights sleep. I just could not get comfortable - I'd be in one position for awhile and then it'd become almost painful, so would switch. I also from time to time get tingly sensations or almost barb sensations in my legs - especially the front. That was happening a lot last night. I am thinking that I might need to make an appointment with the doctor and get a check up.

I've always had problems with my feet falling asleep on me, but the tingly/barb sensations have only started in the last 6 months or so - but never as bad as they were last night. I'm hoping it's just stress related, and not blood sugar or something else .. I do think I'm about ready to give up sugar, or at least to reduce it greatly. I ate a lot of junky food yesterday.

Today on the way into town for church, my gas indicator reached the final little cell and started blinking about 12 miles from the first exit with a good gas station. I got there, and filled up for $2.95/gallon (much better than the $3.09/gallon in my mini town, but NOT better than the $2.82/gallon I saw on the road to church later!!) ~$31.xx -- first fill up in January

After church I debated whether I should hold off on my grocery shopping til Sunday, or go ahead with it. I figured all I was going to pick up was some OJ and a few treats, so not worth making a second trip.

Umm.... $90 later .... Admittedly, $34 of that figure was replacement shoes for my good dress winter shoes which were falling apart .. but still ... that's a lot of OJ and treats. (OJ, bread, bananas, granola bars, junk food, sweet potatoes, etc...) This will of course be my only grocery trip for January, other than visiting the small mom and pop place in mini town for bananas (and egg salad sandwiches when they're in stock!)

Next up was Walgreen's to get my prescription. I contemplated going inside so I could pick up a jar of Nutella (something I wanted at Walmart, but the only small jar they had had a cracked lid - nope!) However, I decided I'd got enough junky food and did not need to spend any more money on food. So ... $24 for the prescription.

Then tonight I got an email from Choice Privileges which reminded me that I needed to decide whether I was going to stay in a hotel on the 14th before heading out to Baltimore, or hoof it out the morning of the 15th. Looking at the time of my morning flight -- 10:45, and thinking about leaving the house around 6 a.m. .... and then paying $24 to park my car.. I decided to see what I could come up with for a hotel.

I found a hotel with airport shuttle service, free Wi-Fi, a very good comp. breakfast, and Park & Fly service for a total of approximately $60. I think it's the same place I've stayed at before, but it has changed its name for whatever reason. This way I'll have a good nights sleep, a good breakfast, and not have to worry about parking in a tight space in one of those shuttle lots. (Parking was a nightmare last time - I had to have someone guide me into the space .. and I have a tiny car.)

If I leave right after my last class on Thursday, I can be in ABQ by 5 at the latest, and maybe enjoy a nice dinner somewhere (esp. somewhere that can't be found in big G!)

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I almost have enough SBs for my 5th $5 AGC this month. I have met the goal now 19/19 days. My plan is to hit the goal 31/31. This will give me ample SBs to go into Feb with, esp. since for 5 days the most I'll be able to get is with the mobile SBTV app and a few search wins.

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My $10 from GymPact hit my Paypal account. I've emailed them to ask for a way to add a referral link into blog posts rather than have to post it on a person's FB wall. So far, I haven't heard back.

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All of us teachers were given notice - get our NM certification transfers started or completed ... or no new contract. Gulp. I keep procrastinating on doing this .. but must stop! I doubt the NM ed dept. will be open on Monday. I've tried to figure out if I'll still have my TX licenses in addition, or if those will be gone? I don't see why I'd lose the TX licensees ... but stranger things do happen - esp. in education.

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I am GLAD for this 3 day weekend. I know we've only been back in school for two weeks (and not even that, with a snow day and two two-hour delays ...) but I am READY for the extra time off. (Of course, I *really* need to use that time wisely - i.e. working on my electives assignments and my final project ... time is moving fast!)

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Almost forgot!

I signed up with this presentation site a month or so ago thinking I might be able to use it as part of my final project. Tonight I got an email from them saying that if I create a presentation with certain details, that I will be given a $50 AGC!!!! It has to be made by 1/23rd. It is only for new users who receive the email, so I don't know if anyone else could get the same email, but if your interested in trying ... here's the website: presentation tube net

I really must be addicted to this site ... I kept checking ALL DAY LONG, cleared cookies, checked on my computer at work, at home, my iPhone, my iPad ... considered emailing Jeffrey ...


** Yesterday I managed to pull up the recent blogs, but was only able to make comments go through on two of them.

So glad it is back up!!

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My GymPact payment went through PayPal today! Also received the 2nd $5 AGC from Swagbucks, and am about 100 away from my next one. Redeemed for a $5 AGC from Irazoo yesterday.

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We had a two-hour delay today, and are having another one tomorrow -- both due to the temperature. It was something like -5 when I arrived at school today at ..9:30!! Tonight/early am is supposed to be as cold. Yikes!

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I just barely finished doing the evaluations of proposals for the next AASL convention (School librarians.) I had something like 25 of them. It was really pretty cool to get to see some of the possible programs. There was one I was especially excited about because the presenters are two bloggers that I've followed for a while.

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I showed my 7th and 8th graders a cool presentation site this week - meograph.com. It turns a boring presentation into something very fun and interesting. A number of them are trying it out for their final presentations.

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I've had some interesting conversations the past few days with our 5th grade teacher. He's wet under the ears (maybe 22 or 23??) He was first really upset about the idea that next school year his pay will be divided by 26 instead of 22. Then he was upset about the 2% "raise" in SS tax. Today we were talking in the cafeteria (before morning prayers) about good places to do your taxes yourself, and about how many deductions are good to take, and why you want to NOT get a lot of money back in a refund. I also made sure he knew about the educator credit - he was worried about taking it since he didn't have receipts ... somehow I don't think the IRS is NOT going to believe that a teacher spent $250 on classroom supplies within a year's time ... I spent more than twice that my last year in the classroom when I VOWED to NOT spend so much ... Isn't he lucky to be around all these ol' fogies who know a thing or two about handling money?

On Thursday along with our paycheck stubs we also got our W-2's! All of us were pretty impressed to get it so quickly.

Friday turned out to be a snow day, so I decided to get on Turbo Tax and do a test run of my taxes for this year. The only thing I couldn't figure out how to account for was the sale of stock (and resultant Capital loss of about $35) and my 401k rollover into a Traditional IRA. I'm assuming I'll get whatever documents I'll need for those in the next month or so - but neither one will have much affect on my taxes (I don't think at least ..)

So, in the end, it looks like I'll be getting a tax refund in the realm of $2,100! Sweet! About half of that is from W-2 overpayment, and the other half is a combination of Lifetime Learning Credit and my contribution to the Traditional IRA (not related to the Rollover.)

On Monday I do plan to get the form in to the main office to make my deductions to 2. This will amply cover the approximately $20/mo from the 2% SS tax and give me a little more to work with for other goals throughout the year. I thought about raising it to 3, but there is a possibility of some good income this summer, so I don't want to press my luck too much.

What is that good income possibility, you might ask? Well, it appears that we might be able to have summer school again this year!! (We had thought that it wasn't going to happen due to funding cuts, but it might just happen!) If it does, then that *could* mean an approximate $3k boost. Yes!

Now you may be wondering why I mentioned car pay off? Well, I was working the figures out and I realized that I could have the car paid off by:

August - by putting all tax refund and the next 2 3rd paychecks towards it...

OR

by June - by putting all tax refund, next 2 3rd paychecks AND using part of the Summer School money to finish it off.

Either way, from my calculations I *will* be able to meet ALL of my financial goals for 2013, and possibly exceed them! With the summer school money, I am thinking that after paying off the car loan, I would put 1/3 to my EF, 1/3 to my FIRE fund, and 1/3 to my Vacation fund.

It made me extremely happy to see that it is a STRONG possibility to have this car paid off in much less than a year.

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I have now met the SB daily goal for 12 days, and cashed in for my 2nd $5 AGC today for January. I figured out that if I meet the goal every day for January, and then get the 300 SB bonus, that it is worth 8 $5 AGC, which of course puts me into February. I can handle that.

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A thought just occurred to me. When I did the rollover of my 401k from my old company, I received a check. It was made out to the company I had opened an account with AND me. When I'd checked the balance a short time earlier, it was around $5500.00. When I received the check, it was for just over $5k. I chalked it up to maybe a big dip in what it was invested in, but now I'm wondering if it was a 10% penalty?? If it was somehow counted as an indirect rollover? At the time this happened, I was not in a good head space dealing with my dad's death, etc., but only had less than a week from the time I received the letter telling me I HAD to do something with it ... so I'm worried that I might be getting hit with a big tax hit. What I've read online is confusing - one place I read said that if you received a check at all, then it is considered an indirect rollover (if you don't add the withheld money to it.) Another place I read that for either indirect or direct you get a check - just have to get it deposited within 60 days.

Should I be worried???

I know I shouldn't let this get to me, but this particular person is annoying in general, and this just took the cake after an especially busy day.

Me, the 3rd grade teacher and the Title 1 teacher were all standing outside waiting for the busses to leave this afternoon. 3rd grade teacher asked me if I was planning to walk this p.m. I told her no, that I needed to get too much done tonight to make up for what I didn't get done last night (feeling really yucky again last night.) Title 1 teacher butts in and says, "Oh, you weren't feeling good?" I tell her that no, I wasn't - and that I hadn't all of last week, and still wasn't. But that I figured if I still wasn't feeling 100% after a week of laying pretty low, that taking one or two days off from work wasn't going to help.

She then says to me, "Well, that depends on what the work is. If all you're doing is shelving books ..Shelving books seems like it would be such a relaxing activity." Seriously?!!! The only reason the books get shelved most days is because of my awesome assistant! Last year I'd only get them shelved if I stayed after school - the kids were very used to looking on the book cart for books that hadn't been put away yet ..

Most days - but especially Monday, Tuesday and Friday, I am running from the time I arrive until the time I leave. No, I don't have classes scheduled throughout the entire day - with very good reason! I just need to remember *who* the comment came from (she's not very well regarded by most of the staff here ...) Still, it was very annoying.

End of vent.

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Today something kind of funny/cool happened. I had the 7th grade girls working on their research project (they got to choose their own topic.) After they'd worked hard for 30 minutes, I told them they could have the last ten minutes for free choice time. Of the 7 girls, only two of them stopped working on their project. I was duly impressed. One of the girls said as she was leaving later that her fingers sure were cramped up after doing so much typing (nearly 40 minutes of it!) I told her that was pretty normal and to shake her fingers out.

Another funny .. My second graders had started a PowerPoint project where they were making a slideshow telling about what they wanted for Christmas. Due to a variety of circumstances, we hadn't gotten very far on it. I figured after two weeks out that they'd forgotten about it .. and of course it wasn't really relevant anymore .. so had something else planned entirely. Their teacher (as she dropped them off) asked me if I could have them do a short research project next week. Then I saw that they had all brought their sticky note list (of what they wanted) with them ... So I improvised, and we worked on our project! (I was impressed with how much they'd retained from nearly 3 weeks ago - especially since this was their first introduction to PP.)

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Oh, remember those cut away books I got at Costco in TX? (dinosaur and shark) They were HUGE hits. I had to come up with some creative measures to decide who got to check them out first.

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I just cashed out for another $5 AGC from SB. (to make this a little bit financial related...)

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I am actually feeling a bit better tonight, so hopefully I'm on the mend. And hopefully I'll get more sleep tonight than I have the past two nights. It's not affecting me adversely yet, but if I don't get a better night's sleep soon, it probably will. I just have to get my mind to shut off ...

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Oh! I almost forgot another funny! This morning when I went to open the library door, I found that it was frozen shut! I was able to unlock it, but it wouldn't budge. I ended up going in through the computer lab, and then later the maintenance man came by and pulled it open with one nice big pull. When it warmed up later we figured out why it had frozen over like that -- had lots of water dripping off the roof right over the door.

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I got my last paystub for 2012 yesterday. When looking at it, the total YTD would be right for 27 payments, but not for 26. I was paid every other Thursday .. so that would only be 26 paydays, right?? I plan on calling our payroll person tomorrow to clarify - want to have that fixed before they submit my W-2!!

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My January car payment was mailed out yesterday. Another $200 down. It got sent out before I remembered to cancel it so I could add the additional $600. I'll probably just wait til the February payment to do the big payment.

Well today went pretty well overall. A good number of our staff was sick over the break. I'm still not feeling well, but if a week of pretty much laying low hasn't helped, then one more day won't do much.

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I had the Kinders record their sentences about snow today. After the Wednesday group records theirs as well, I'll post a link to it. So cute. their teacher told me that the group I had came back SO excited about getting to be recorded. Just wait till they get to hear themselves (I'm trying to slowly convince the kinder teacher that K can do tech too...)

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I felt really bad for our 5th grade teacher. He got back midnight on Thursday to find that his pilot light had gone out, thereby freezing his pipes - which caused his bathroom faucet to break and start spraying water. His bathroom was flooded, and his wall opposite with lots of kid notes/drawings was soaked, and the carpet in his bedroom too. What a mess to come home to.

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YNAB is looking for an online teacher. The hours could be anywhere from 2 - 12 week. I have the link on my other computer, but you probably could find it in the blog too.

(I'd go for it, but just don't have the time for it right now. If only it had opened up in April!)

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I've met the daily goal on SB now for 6 days in a row. I was really hoping today's goal would be a small one - but nope, 110. Ugh. So I'm doing SBTV On both my phone and my computer and doing my web surfing on the iPad. When what I'd really like to do right now is go to bed..

Tomorrow we have an at home game (basketball). I really try to go to them when they aren't on a Friday or Saturday. I don't know if I'm going to be able to make this one though - if I'm still feeling so sick to my stomach tomorrow. Ugh.

Does anyone know of a prescription allergy medicine with decongestant that is still available? Allegra-D is what worked for me for YEARS, but now that its over the counter only, I can only get 10 days at a time AND its way more expensive - ten days is more than I paid for 30 days of the generic version.

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The joke books I got at the Schol warehouse sale were a big hit, as I bet they'd be. I'd bought the next two books in a series we have that I thought one of my 8th grade girls really liked .... Glad I got them at a discount- because when I showed it to her today I got the " ugh, that series was so boring - I couldn't make it past the first few pages." Oops. Of course a different 8th grade girl was very happy about the new Bluford High book I got ... So you win some and you lose some.

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At our staff meeting today it was decided that we would have a Mardi Gras party instead of a Valentine's Day party due to Lent starting on Feb 13. The kids will still be allowed to exchange cards, just no party. I'm learning new nuances of Lent all the time. Before I came here I knew about it, and I knew about some of the stipulations of it, but had never seen anyone take part in it. Interesting..

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I changed my GymPact for this week to only 4. Right now I'm wishing I'd put it to two. Oh well, I'll manage. Once I have the ~$12 in my PayPal, ill probably be twice as motivated.

Ugh. I think my allergies have actually turned into a sinus infection. I could barely sleep last night even with dosing myself with generic Nyquil - kept coughing due to drainage. Erch. Thought about going to the doctor today .. but by the time I realized that it probably had become a sinus infection, it was really too late to try to get an appt. I think the doctor is only in on Fridays ... not sure though.
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Today I took Kari to the vet to get her nails clipped. $10.79

She's been chewing on the sides of my bedroom doors to get my attention in the morning ... I have the feeling I won't be getting any of my security deposit back when I move ... thanks Kari.

One of my co-workers suggested Bitter Apple Jelly (tried the spray and that didn't work.) Will see.

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Managed to snag another $5 AGC today. So far have hit the goal amount 4/4 days (mostly due to the SB mobile app - 50 SBs a day from that! As long as they don't put any ridiculous amounts like 120, I think I might be able to do the 7 day in a row bonus.

It was kind of funny tonight -- I had Drop 3 going on my main computer (SB game that you just basically start and forget til it finishes ... then start the next game), the SBTV app going on my phone, and was reading the SA blogs on my iPad. Multi-tasking at it's finest.

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I'm almost ready to cash out for another $5 AGC from Irazoo. That site takes *forever* to reach payout level, but still is another way to find snowflakes right?

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I received a gift from my Aunt and Uncle (Egypt) today (currently staying with Grandma in CA.) A beautiful blue embroidered Egyptian style top. I'm not sure when I'll wear it -- maybe for church??

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I'm now up to just shy of $10 with GymPact. A lot of people must not have made their pacts last week because I averaged $.56/day versus the more normal $.35 - .44/day. After this week I'll be over the $10 mark and can make my first withdrawal. I'm planning on only doing the first withdrawal so that I can have statement proof to put on my other blog .. then I'm going to just let it build until November or so. I guess you could call this a snowflake.

**Those of you who have an Android phone - their Android app is now live! If you're interested and would like to help me out, I'd be happy to give you my referral code. (We'd both get $5 after you complete your first pact.)

The other app I've been using AcheiveMint has changed the point value for the daily weigh in from 40 to 10. Oh well, it still is free money for doing something easy and fast - just will take longer to get to it. (I'd figured it would take 90 days with just weigh-in points to get the first $25 card, but now it will probably take closer to 150 days - unless I manage to get some longer walks in.)

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I actually made some progress on my electives today - completed three assignments. Just had to sit down and do it mostly. Still have a LONG way to go on them.

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It has been WAY cold here. The lowest temp I've seen (when awake) was -11 at around 7am - so you know it was lower than that previously!

Today I went over to teh PO to pick up my mail since I'll be heading out as soon as I can get packed and awake in the morning.

In the mail I had a birthday card from my aunt with a nice check in it, and a birthday gift from my mom/soon to be stepdad (book from Amazon.)

Tonight we had our Christmas program, an dit went pretty well I think. I made a video of it at the request of one of our staff members - although I don't know how good it is - there were multiple times where people walked in front of me, as well as just STOOD directly in the line of sight ... plus a portion where the people standing next to me started talking loudly about homework ... Should be an interesting video.

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Yesterday we had a snow day, which was really nice. I didn't get even half of the things done that I should've (like packing ...) but I did get some schoolwork done which was good.

I also received an interesting phone call (which actually relates to a piece of mail I received today which I didn't mention earlier.) The person who sold me my car called and asked me if I remembered how much I'd written my check for and how much I'd paid on my credit card. I told him the numbers, and he told me that they matched their accounting. However, the number I was given a loan for was $1k off! (This is because both the car salesman and I thought I was only charging $2k on my credit card, but the finance lady actually made a $3k charge.)

What this means is that instead of my loan being for $4,497 like I thought, it is actually for $5,497. I hadn't actually seen the full numbers/set up *until today* when I received my first loan statement from my credit union! I'm glad I got the call first, otherwise I might have freaked out a bit.

Car guy is going to send me a check for the overage amount.

I will put $650 of it straight towards the loan, and keep the remainder to pay Bofa if I have to (dad's estate stuff ... I used some of the money I inherited from his estate for the car down payment, so I'm not really using my own money to pay for the Bofa thing if I end up really having to do so.)If I end up not having to pay Bofa, then that money will also go directly to the car loan without hitting Go.


So, that is around 3 1/2 months of payments. Which will be quite helpful in my goal of paying off the loan in 12 months or less. (36 months term total) (My tax refund as well as 3 extra paycheck months will also be quite helpful.)

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I was buying some books for the library today on Amazon (using gift card money only!!) when I found out that my cash back rewards from my car purchase had posted. It showed I have a reward of over $75 available. Sweet. Guess what I'm going to do with that money? (No, it won't be spent on books for the library ... though I admit I was severely tempted ...)

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I am not really looking forward to either the drive to ABQ tomorrow, or to the flight tomorrow night. However, I am looking forward to eating at IHOP (only in ABQ not in either G town) and doing some shopping at the Schol Warehouse. I will *not* go over $125 in books (~$50 Schol Dollars, $50 approved purchase order + $25 coupon on $100 purchase.)

I'm also thinking that I might spend a little bit of my birthday money at Wal-mart and pick up floor mats for my car, and maybe one of those chair back massager units before they're stored away for another year. Something practical and something luxurious. Perfect combo I think.

Today I received two pieces of mail - the first one I was very happy for that was from my grandma and it was a birthday card with the best thing in it - cash. The other piece of mail was also from my grandma but not such a great thing. It was a forwarded letter from my Dad's former bank. Essentially,, it said that the Social Security administration had sent two checks to dad's account post humously. And they want us to pay the money back NOW or they'll report us to CHEX systems. Since all his accounts were frozen as soon as we notified them he'd died and from what I recall his June SS check hadn't posted yet ... Well, I guess I have some phone calls to make before heading to ABQ on Friday.

Otherwise the day was pretty good ( if I forget about the 190 wasted minutes on google maps and google earth...) We had a two hour delay this morning which was nice. I had several of my third grade girls come ask if they could give me a hug which was unusual for them, and I think related to this weekends events.

I managed to find out my account number for my car loan thanks to the delay, and sent my first payment.

One thing I did during my google seminar tonight was use my Swagbucks app on my phone , so I was able to cash out for another gift card. Now that the app is working right, I'll have to use it much more often. It doesn't require too much babysitting.

Hey, anyone who's already id'd me want to collaborate on a google document? I need someone to just basically make a few comments, etc. I think.

Thanks again everyone for all your support and suggestions on my last post. It was greatly appreciated.

So Wednesday I chose the books I wanted out of the two boxes of librarian candy that came shortly before Thanksgiving break and added them to our collection. 28 books for approximately $500. Gulp.

I showed my 5th graders the stack of books and told them that they cost about $500 and that the money for them came from the book fair. They were duly impressed. The main books that were competed for (had to choose numbers between 1 and 25) were the two cookbooks, the origami books, and the drawing books.

I think I've done my duty adding to our non-fiction collection and updating the average age for this year. With the bit of money left I'm going to work on adding more graphic novels (which the kids *really* go for) and other good fiction. I still will add more non-fiction as kids or teachers express interest - just won't be so focused on it.

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Yesterday I was showing my second grade group how to do various things in PowerPoint. I was using the Smartboard (touchscreen) to show them how to do different things. At one point as I was looking around the room to see if the kids were following/understanding, I noticed one of the new boys touching his screen in the same spot he was supposed to click. I quietly went over and told him that they didn't have touchscreens, but that he had to use the mouse. It was just so cute and sweet.

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Yesterday and today most of the staff at our school worked on setting up for the Christmas Dinner. Today we had teacher inservice in the morning (which included a presentation on suicide prevention - white youth led in % of attempted/completed suicide per year, while Native American youth came in a close second! Sad.) The afternoon was working on setup. In Santa's workshop we have 3 huge boxes full of beanie babies. It was really cute/funny - one of the beanie babies had a sign "Prom of 1988" or something like that. The 5th grade teacher assistant jokingly asked the 5th grade teacher when his prom was - and then when he saw the year, he said that he hadn't even been born then! Yikes, that sure made me feel old! (It was funny how into beanie babies two of the teachers seemed to be - they were making a game out of seeing how many of them they could correctly name - and were getting LOTS right.)

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So, it looks like I might be making a trip out to the D.C. area President's Day weekend. All expenses paid. It is for the Ameri Corp program. Since this is my second year in the program, it is also my last chance to go. I wasn't planning on going due to my class I'm taking, but my principal talked to me today and sounded like she *really* wanted me to go. She told me that she thought I'd "be a really good representative for our school." So, I guess I'm going - will just have to make sure to find time to work on my class work while I'm there!

I also will have to see if a good friend of mine from high-school who lives near there can come see me. I haven't seen her since ... 1994? Yikes.

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I'll also have an overnight trip into ABQ in March for that same seminar on good children's books I went to last year (only for 2013 books.) That will also be all expenses paid.

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I talked to my mom tonight and it sounds like I'm going to have some crazy days when I get to TX. For the wedding I'll be getting a mani/pedi, haircut/highlights and my makeup done. (I don't even own hardly any makeup anymore since I rarely wear lipstick and even more rarely mascara ... so for formal pics, I guess I should go for having my makeup done.) Then Saturday late afternoon my soon to be stepdad is taking me and the other out of town guests out to Olive Garden. (Yum!!!) Sunday will be the whirlwind of getting ready for the wedding. Then Monday I'll be taking one of the guests to the airport and returning a bunch of rentals ... and hopefully have time to work on classwork (if I can get an extended deadline for the previous week's work.)

I'm thinking of going to ABQ as soon as the Christmas program is over and staying in a hotel -- that would get me in to ABQ around 9:30 p.m. Then the next morning I would need to find my dress and if time, stop at the Schol Book Warehouse (Winter Sale - have about $60 in Schol dollars to spend.) That way I'd also be able to park my car at the hotel while I'm in TX for just $15. If I can't find a suitable dress here in big G next weekend, then I'll probably have to go this route. If I can, then I'll just go in the morning and hit the warehouse sale before my flight. (and then also need to check to see if I could still park my car at that hotel ...)

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I stopped by the local mom and pop store this afternoon to pick up bananas and bread. If it was just bananas I needed, I would have made myself wait. But I needed bread to make my lunches for the next week ... I managed to get out for less than $15! I bought bananas, bread, two brownie mixes, 3 orange juice bottles (the 15oz kind - biggest they have), and a few other junky food stuff which will count towards my fun money. They didn't have egg salad sandwiches, otherwise I would have spent a good bit more.

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I finally got the paperwork from the place that owns my car loan today. In it, it says that you can have a deductible of $1k on comprehensive/collision. So I called my car insurance and changed my deductibles, thus saving me $30/6 months. I have to wait for the letter with my customer number before I can set up my online account with the credit union. I understand why they do it that way, but it is annoying. (I wanted to get it done and setup!!)

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It's supposed to get really chilly here the next couple nights ... lows of 5 degrees or less. Brrr!!! But no snow in the forecast for the near future.

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I finally watched my training video for the evaluating breakout session proposals this afternoon. It isn't too hard, and I'm looking forward to seeing what topics might possibly be included at the 2013 librarian conference.

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I received a $5 AGC from Swagbucks yesterday. So right now have about $60. I'm really going to try not to spend it for awhile. We have lots of new books in the library, so the money can just rest for awhile.

I got several loads of laundry washed, hung/dried AND put away (that doesn't always happen right away.) I also did several loads of dishes. Then I went and swept most of the house (still need to do some pre-work in the office before I can sweep in there.) Kari was getting anxious because most of the times I've gotten on a sweeping kick, it's been right before I leave her for a few days (or months...)
I don't remember if I mentioned this or not, but I got "paid" for my first week of the GymPact app. $2.30 for 5 workouts. Not bad. I also found out that the My Weight app can connect with the Achieve Mint app and the Achieve Mint app connects to RunKeeper. (All free!) The long and short of it -- every day I enter my weight, I earn 40 points on Achieve Mint. Every time I do an activity tracked by RunKeeper, I also earn a varying amount of points. These points can eventually be traded in for Visa gift cards. So I'm kind of double dipping with RunKeeper. (Plus it will motivate me to do more than my 4x a week pact I have with GymPact. I can and should do more - but wanted to give myself some flexibility.)

So far 1 non-spending day in December (today.) I'm debating on getting the bananas. It is hard for me to go in there and *just* get bananas. It probably wouldn't kill me to go without bananas for a couple weeks (til the 15th when I'll next go into town.) I have apples and oranges I need to eat .. so I could still have fruit ... just not bananas. It probably would end up saving me $20 to not step foot in there between now and my next grocery store run. Yep. I think I'll do without the bananas.

I have a bit of a dilemma with my 6 month course vs work. We have our Christmas program on Wednesday, December 19. I have a 2 1/2 hour synchronous session scheduled for Wednesday, December 19. If I miss the synchronous session, I will have my grade docked. If I miss the performance ... well, I'll be missing the performance of my kids and I more than likely will be assigned some kind of job to do since I don't have one particular class I'm in charge of. In other words, it would probably be bad mojo with my principal and co-workers. I'm going to talk with my principal as soon as she gets back (her dad died on Monday.) Maybe there's a way to change the date - I'd thought it was going to be on the 20th until I saw the calendar from the mission office.
Always something.

I was debating about what I was going to do with my Kinders this week - then I got an email from a librarian blog I'm subscribed to. I'm going to read them a non-fiction book about weather (which they're studying in Kinder class), have them draw a picture of something they found interesting, and then write their interesting fact on a sticky note. They'll then copy it onto their drawing. I'll then scan the pictures and upload them into this digital story website, and next week have them record themselves "reading" their writing. Woot! Woot! That takes care of two weeks, and then it can be Christmas theme all the way! (Kinder is the hardest to plan for sometimes.)

I need to call the dealership where I bought my car tomorrow. I haven't received any information about my loan or the CU that took it yet. I'd really like to have that all set up - the sooner the better.

So ... November was a spendy month. The largest expense of course was the purchase of my new to me car + associated expenses. (Car, extra gas expenses, Carfax purchases, and $8 of Fun Money towards treating friend to drink during road trip)

Although the groceries did end up going over the $100 goal mark, it was definitely MUCH better. I think in December I will be able to stay well *under* the goal mark.

Tithe and Offering were higher this month due to a 3rd paycheck, although I did take a portion of that back towards gas money due to taking care of the pastor's dogs. (Although considering that they lent me their car during that time period ... I'm not sure whether I should give that back or not. I did overfill their gas before returning their car (had just at 1/2 gallon when I got it - returned it with a bit more than 1/2 gallon.)

This month due to the car purchase, I had a negative savings rate. But that will change in December.

I had several sources of extra income this month. Sold my Honda - $200, 2 $5 AGCs from Swagbucks, 1 $5 AGC from Irazoo, $50 AGC from MyPoints, $30 babysitting money, $44.46 from Credit Card Rewards. Probably a few things I'm forgetting too.


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I upped my Fun Money spending amount for December due to my birthday coming up and not knowing what I'll need while back in TX over the holidays. (What with my mom getting married and all.)

You might notice that some categories have red balances in them. For all but one of them I just had the amount withdrawn from the available to budget amount for December, and one (Fun Money) I had subtracted from that category balance.

I did some major playing around with the numbers to find the extra $1000 I ended up putting down on my car that I hadn't meant to do. But, I was able to make it work AND still pay a $200 first payment (whenever I get the payment info set up!)

I've agreed to be an usherette at my mom's wedding which means I have to buy a new dress in the color of the bridesmaids dresses. Luckily it's a color I like, but I'm really not sure when or where I'll be able to find one!! (She has said she'll pay for it for me - but it's still a matter of finding one!)

Friday afternoon my 4th grade girls were speedy woodpeckers in getting their books checked out, so we had about 10 minutes left before time to go home. So I decided to let the girls look through one of my librarian candy boxes and see which books they thought were good choices. They picked out around 10 - some of them were ones I had planned on choosing, and some weren't. So it was interesting to say the least. (I did explain to them that I wouldn't be able to get ALL of them. One of them asked me how much the books cost, and I told them - anywhere between $17 and $30. They gasped. )

Yesterday I made it to church on time (almost didn't because Kari fell asleep on my lap and I hated to wake her...) I actually stayed for potluck - mostly because I needed directions to the church members house I'm going to on Thanksgiving. We had a yummy sweet potatoes dish AND stuffing AND green cabbage ... some of my favorite foods.

I was thinking about going to a movie in town either today or tomorrow, but neither of the ones I was interested in are playing here (Lincoln and Alex Cross.) So I'm going to content myself with Netflix (currently watching My Boys ... 3 episodes in and not too sure if I like it or not.)

Today I also worked on my long term project for my class (6 month cohort) where I'm going to make videos showing how to create different Scratch projects and then put them all on a website which I'll then have to promote to various educators. (I wonder ... could I propose it as a webinar on Simple K 12 too? That might be kind of fun. )

I also downloaded the apps GymPact and RunKeeper. GymPact is an app where you make a commitment for how often you're going to work out during a weeks time period, and then you make a bet/stake for each workout (from $5 to $50.) If you fulfill your commitment, you get PAID (up to $3.50/week.) However, if you don't fulfill your commitment/pact, YOU pay whatever stake you made.

It is only available for the iPhone currently, and you have to use RunKeeper for tracking your workouts. Workouts must either be in a verifiable gym (not home gym) or be outside trackable by GPS and last at least 30 minutes/2 mph. If anyone decides they want to try this out, you can get a beginning $5 (and I'll get $5 too) by using my referral code: pecdelaura

I used it for the first time today, and it seemed really easy to use.

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Since I realized that I won't be doing a movie this week, I decided to use some of my fun money for eating out -- i.e a sub from Blimpies tonight. Sunday and Monday they have my sub for $5 / foot long. It makes two meals for me.

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I'm making microwave peanut butter fudge for Thanksgiving. It is a recipe that our first grade teacher here made for our Halloween get together and then shared with all of us. I'm thinking that I'll make half the batch just plain peanut butter, and then the other half I'll add chocolate syrup to and maybe some pecans or walnuts. (the second half won't go to the dinner ...)

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I cashed out my My Points today - I debated for over an hour between a $50 AGC or a Walmart card. The Walmart card would have been 100 points more than the AGC, but it also would have ended up not being spent on books for the library - and that's kind of what I have committed my My Points and Swagbucks AGCs to ... to help reduce my real dollars being spent on library books.

This afternoon I had the 8th graders, the 7th grade teacher and her assistant, and my assistant all help me get the book fair set up. I was a bit on the frazzled side (at one point I was told to take a breath by the 7th grade teacher ), but it all worked out nicely. In fact, it is completely ready for Monday morning. Last year I had to still come back and spend a couple hours finishing up. Maybe every year it'll get just that much better.

There are some really good books, and some repeats from last year. I know quite a few of my younger kids are excited about Doom, and I had a few snickers from my older girls about Between Shades of Gray (Omw that they even know about that *other* book ..yikes!)

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I found out the kids in my journalism class. 3 of them picked me as their first choice, and the other two picked me as their third choice. One of the ones who picked me as a first choice ... I was totally shocked on. This kid gives me such attitude in class. I plan on making it clear to the entire group that giving me attitude AND being part of the journalism group WILL NOT mix!! Two strikes and they are out. At least 4 of the 5 I think are good to very good writers, so I think our newspaper will do better this year. 1 of the kids came up to me with an idea for a comic strip - Yay! I told him to work on it and bring it with him to our first meeting. I was hoping last year to include a comic strip, but none of the kids took me up on it.

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Payday was yesterday. My total amount is finally starting to look like a nice number - consistently getting higher in ING. Now if only my stocks would do the same ... ugh.

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I got my $5 AGC from Swagbucks last night, and then promptly spent it plus some. I really want to do this fiction/non-fiction lesson based on the naked mole rat (this year I'll do it with 1-3, then will have to figure something else out for 2nd/3rd next year.) After the gift card, the *two* books I bought were $25!! OUCH! I rarely ever spend that much on two books - but the one non-fiction book alone was $19 something and there was nothing else less. I justified it by reminding myself that I'll use it for a total of 6 lessons (3 grades times 2 class periods ..) plus of course I can use it in later years for other first grade classes... Plus, I didn't buy the stuffed naked mole rat for $9 which I *really, really* wanted to get to go along with the lesson ... so I wasn't *totally* bad.

I really need to figure out how to use purchase orders with Amazon so I can get stuff for the library with library money!! (I kind of know how to do this, but am not totally sure. So for the last order my principal paid with the school credit card, which is linked to her name/account. She does not like this fact, so does not want to use the card anymore. So I'm kind of in between a rock and a hard place ...)

Monday at school went relatively well for a Monday. Even the group I have to pump myself up about (PMA PMA PMA!) was pretty manageable.

Then I got home and found out that the new module for my online course had opened up. Oy vey! There are probably a good 5 hours worth of articles we have to read and respond/reflect on, plus the ever so dreaded group project. The group project requires FOUR members - there is a total of SIX students. Yeah, um... how's that gonna work??

Not to mention that the completed project is due by Saturday night, and we are just now forming groups... This IS NOT how I like to work. Not at all.

Give me all my assignments for the class and the due dates. Then I can work on them at my own pace when I have the most junkets of time. Not like this!

Yesterday I had tons of time in which I could've completed all the readings and the reflections. But since I had no access to them nor any idea what they were, I instead spent a lot of time watching "Make It or Break It" on Hulu (free version.)

The really "good" news is that from what I can tell, there are a lot of group projects throughout the course. Oh joy.

I have all the articles open in another window, but just getting through the "interactive text" put my brain to mush after a long day. So, I'll read the articles tomorrow. I really hope this isn't going to be as bad as I think it is....

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I stopped and got a sub tonight. My first one since August. The lady there remembered me and my sandwich. $5.33 (footlong - two meals)

Saturday night I managed to snag another AGC from Swagbucks - by using my Android phone to "watch" videos while reading MMM blogs.

I talked with AL yesterday and found out that there IS service from Sprint here. So I think what I'm going to do is buy a $79 phone from Ting and use whatever number they give me with it. Then I'll test it out for a couple weeks to see what reception is like in the places I'm at most often. If it seems to work well, then I'll find out if I can port my current phone number to my new phone, and be done with AT&T!!

I figure that my bill with Ting would be around $40/mo or less - especially if I'm careful to use FaceTime or Skype to talk to those who have that capability (once I get my iPad of course!)

This way I'll still be able to use GPS when I need it, but otherwise I'll pretty much only use the phone for calls and texting.

So ... I'd like to help out whoever is the first person to send/post their referral link for Ting. It'll help me out too.

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Last night I did my first babysitting gig in many years. It was a blast! The two little girls have a wonderland to play in (all nature!) and fantastic imaginations. I was there roughly 4 hours and was paid $30 - not great money, but still more than what I would've gotten sitting at home.

Before they went to bed we ended up playing with one of the apps on my phone called Puppet Pals. Oh boy, did they ever love that! I almost couldn't make them go to bed because they kept wanting to do another story video.

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Tomorrow I am going to a meeting in big G to learn how to access a computer program for the district. It has nothing to do with me, but our counselor feels computer illiterate and asked me to go and learn it and then teach her when I come back. I was more than happy to do it - especially since it means that I'll more than likely miss the majority of Monday (especially that one particular class!)

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I only need to do lesson plans for two days this week really (plus the late afternoon Monday class.) On Thursday we are having Pet Day (St. Francis) and a half-day, and then Friday we're having a teacher in-service day.

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Only three more weeks til our Book Fair! Having it in the fall sure makes it come quite a bit more quickly. It kind of snuck up on me. I was hoping to have it in the gym this year, but the last two days of it is when the gym will be going into "prepare for Halloween Festival" mode. So ... I guess I'll just have to figure out how to make better use of the space in the library.

I'd thought that doing it in the fall would be better timing, but I'm beginning to think that there really isn't a best/great time for it. It just has to be done when it is done!

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Almost forgot! On my way to the babysitting gig last night, I passed by a sign advertising a riding stable! So ... I may just know what my treat will be whenever I manage to get into the 220's and stay there for a month!!

Yes! I just got an email from the parent who'd I'd been in contact with since last June about watching her daughters for a weekend .. but with everything that happened this summer, it never happened. We'd also talked about maybe doing this right before school started, but again, it didn't work out.

So this weekend some friends are coming from out of town and they want to take them out on the town so to speak ... hence, 4 hours of babysitting needed. Sweet addition to Car fund! (Plus 4 hours of spending time with two of the sweetest girls on the planet. )

So ... I ended up not going anywhere at all yesterday and spent most of the day reading Mr. Money Mustache. I barely got through two months worth of blog entries/comments. Yikes.

I've mentioned previously that some of what I've read there has gotten me to do some hard thinking. My reading yesterday just increased the hard thinking triply.

I've been pondering the possibility of riding my bike to big G for grocery/errand trips. It's 35+ miles one-way, and the majority of that distance is a major freeway with very few exits and little population - but LOTS of semi-trucks. It is definitely not something I'm physically capable of doing right now - it is something I would need to work up to doing.

So ... what can I do in the meantime? Try to limit my car trips into town. I've already been trying to do that, but I think I may be able to do even better. I think I will start going to church purposefully only 3 x a month. That would eliminate 1 - 2 trips. Then I think I will also talk to the other staff here and see if any of them are interested in doing a rotating carpool to town for grocery shopping 2x a month. I would then limit my grocery shopping to those trips. Depending on how many people I can get to do this - it would mean that I might only drive my car 1x every other month for a shopping trip.

Also, I need to check into getting my monthly prescription through mail-order. That would eliminate my Wal-greens stop, and possibly save a few dollars on the prescription.

All of the above I think would make it possible for me to only fill up my gas 1x a month. Some months I'm already able to come pretty close to that - but if I reduce my driving, I definitely will.

Also, I think I'm going to ask the 8th grade homeroom teacher who is really into biking to teach me the basic maintenance/care of my bike and how to shift gears properly. Then I may start riding my bike to school and back each day. The school is less than a mile from my house, so I could technically walk it easily - but there are a lot of stray/loose dogs - I'd feel safer (somewhat) on a bike.

*I'm really debating on the above though - I don't have a raincoat or rain pants, so if it was raining I'd be a mess by the time I got to school. I could just do it on days when it is not raining or wet/muddy out. Of course that eliminates a lot of days ..

My grocery category .. although I have managed to reduce it from where it was most of last year, it is still way too high. Part of the problem is that I'm still buying convenience type items, as well as buying things that I think I should buy, but end up going to rot. By reducing my grocery budget to $100/mo (from it's current $160) as well as reducing my Fun Money budget to $20 (from $40), and then putting that money directly into my Car Replacement fund, it grows exponentially faster.

My first step towards reducing the grocery budget is that I'm going to eat ONLY what I already have in the house for the remainder of September. No stops for Blimpies or for egg salad sandwiches at the local grocers/gas station. No more soda. I have lots of food in my pantry and freezer - it's just not food that is easy peasy heat and eat - which is why it has sat in the freezer/pantry.

My second step will be getting my slow cooker cleaned up and making sure it is still in good working condition. (If you remember, it was on the floor of my storage unit in TX which got partially flooded.)
If I'm able to get that working, then I will be able to use it to cook up a big batch of pinto beans - and make up a bunch of burritos to freeze, and also make refried beans - which I could use on my salads/lunch.
If I can't get it to work, then I do have a pressure cooker you can use in the microwave - so I would need to figure out how to use that.

I think sticking with canned or frozen veggies for the most part is most cost effective for me. The salad bar at school has started to have spinach as well as lettuce - so as long as that holds true, I have no need to purchase my own salad greens.

I need to make sure I take a copy of the breakfast/lunch menu for each month home with me so I can see what free foods from there I can make work for me.
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I'm reducing my fun money to an amount where I can still go to a movie/out to eat once a month, if I really want to. Or I can use it for something else I might really want.
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By reducing my grocery, auto fuel, and fun money categories, I will have an approximate 55% net savings of my income. In the savings categories of course is Car Replacement, ROTH, Vacation, and EF. The largest percentage going to Car Replacement right now.

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Taxes

The stock fund which I have a sizable amount of in a non-tax sheltered account has again swung near the point it was on June 6. I am thinking that I would like to set a sell option if it reaches $.50 less than that price point - enough to get $3,000. Then I would put that money in my brokerage IRA account, and when the price point reached $.25 less than my selling point, I would purchase as much as I could. (With the way this stock has been going up and down within a few dollars, I think it is highly likely this could happen.)

If I understand how this all works correctly ...
a. I would be able to claim a capital gains loss of $.50/per stock from my initial sale.

b. Then, because I place $3,000 into a brokerage/traditional IRA account, I would get a portion of that back in taxes.

c. Plus, since my income is well below the level for receiving a tax savers credit for contributing to any IRA fund, I would get a portion of the money contributed to both my ROTH and Traditional back as a refund.

Or, would b and c be essentially the same thing? I'm just remembering what happened in 1998 when I put $2k in a Traditional IRA (a bank CD really, but I didn't know what I was doing back then ...) I got a refund of $500 *just* from that. My income that year was quite a bit higher as well.

I don't plan on *really* selling any of the stocks I own right now anytime soon, but I'm just thinking that I should take advantage of selling some at a small loss and moving them into a tax-sheltered vehicle - which will at the same time help me to actually have my IRA fully funded this year.

Does this all make sense, or am I missing something really big? (The taxable stock account is an inherited account if that makes any difference. This is also why I want to repurchase the same stock with the funds - to keep the money invested the same way, but just moved into a place that is more tax advantaged.)

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I earned another $5 AGC from SBs yesterday. That makes 2 for September.

Today we had our dioceasan (sp?) teacher inservice. It started with a Bishop's Mass, and then we had 5 hours of whole group lectures and lunch. Ugh. I liked it much better the way they did it last year - gave everyone the chance to choose from 5 different topics.

One of the presenters was in dire need of someone to teach him how to create a PP presentation ... It started out really good with humor, etc., but the quality of the slides lost most of the audience (at least the crowd from our school!)

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After the in-service the two teachers I rode up with dropped me off at Walmart while they went to get a manicure and pedicure. Walmart was out of bananas!!! Arghh! I got all my shopping done and then preceded to stand in line for 15 minutes. While in line I was greeted (from another line) by one of my students (pre-k I think) and saw another family that I think I recognized from the school. Then a boy behind me pointed out that there was a live grasshopper on my bag of frozen blueberries!! I tried to get it off with my CC, but only succeeded in putting it on the conveyer belt. The boy who'd pointed it out saved the day by picking it up with his hands.

After I was done ($55!! I bought more frozen goods than normal - will have to watch my next two grocery trips!!) I sat down on a bench in the lobby to wait.
While waiting, 7 of our staff at different times either exited or entered. During that time I happened to glance up and meet the eyes of an African American man. He apparently took this as some kind of invitation to come talk ... He said to me, "Girl! Your legs are so white they're bright! You must not get outside at all." I at first just kind of sat there with my mouth hanging open, then told him that I do get outside plenty, thanks. Thankfully he left right after that.

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I talked to my brother tonight. He's planning on doing a half-ironman on July 5. That is/was dad's birthday, so I think that's pretty cool he can do it on that same day. I think I'll try to plan my time out in CA at that same time - maybe see if there is a *much* less intense race I could participate in that same day.

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I've decided that I'm going to upgrade to the 4S instead of the 5. This way I'll have a major upgrade to my current phone, but only be out $100. The 4S will be able to utilize all the most interesting new features of ios6. Then I can use the remainder of the money for accessories for the new phone and my iPad (when I get it.) Whatever is left can be put toward whatever the next technology item is I want later.
(This way I also won't have to buy a new car charger to accommodate the iPhone5 charge port.)

One way or the other, I'll probably wait til October to do the upgrade.

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I finally heard back from the AmCorp lady at the 6 month program. She gave me the info I needed - I'll probably work on it on Sunday. So it looks like this may be a go after all.

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One of the things I bought today were these frozen stuffed shells. By the time I got them home, they were not even close to frozen anymore (15 minutes in line to pay, 40 minutes waiting for my ride, 45 minutes before we finally got back ...) So I decided to go ahead and cook them. You had to cook them in sauce of course ... they didn't mention that sauce *wasn't included.* So the package was already open. I remembered I had a can of diced tomatoes in my cupboard - got out my fantastic wonderful loveable Ninja blender (can you tell how much I *love* this??) and poured the can of tomatoes and a little milk and garlic salt in. Blended and poured on top of the shells. Microwaved for 15 minutes at half power, and Va-voom! Supper. MMMMMM!!!

These shells weren't very expensive, and were quite good. I'm thinking that the next time I have to take something to a potluck meal, that this might be a darn easy and fairly inexpensive way to go.

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I received the AGC I cashed out for less than a week ago today. SBs is getting pretty good turnaround time with the gift cards!

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Almost forgot --- my latest obsession on Netflix --- Ocean Girl. I'm a bit more than half-way through Season 3 (of 4 seasons.) It's good, very family friendly, light Sci-Fi. (With Aussie accents )

This past week went pretty well. Mainly I think because I decided to make all my lesson plans NOT internet focused. I am also finally starting to feel better - I think it was allergies that felled me, because they are still bothering me, just not so bad.

The past 4 nights I've gone on a walk with several+ teachers/staff from our school. My moderate walking pace is much faster than theirs ... Tonight I did a GPS of it to see how long it actually was - 2 miles. Not bad really.

I'm planning on starting back with my regular routine at the school gym on Monday. Although I'll probably limit it to very fast walking for the first week.

Oh ... I am less than 1 lb away from the 20's. I'm trying to decide what I'd like to do to reward myself for losing 20lbs .. at least after I get into the 20's and stay there for at least two weeks... I'd been thinking of doing a pedi/mani, but I have the feeling that sandal season is going to be over sooner than later here. So, maybe just a manicure. Or maybe go see a movie. I feel like I should do *something* nice, because the last time I saw the 20's was ... ummmm 2007??

But ... I've also been reading a lot of Mr. Money Mustache this weekend. His posts got me thinking ... Is it frivolous to spend $9 - 15 on a treat just for losing (and keeping off) 20 lbs? Would it be better to add that same amount to my Roth account or perhaps to my car replacement savings???

I'm also reconsidering getting the iPhone5 when it comes out. I have the money already saved and set aside for it (since last year!!) But... would I be just as well off going with the 4 which will likely be free (only 8gb, but if I only put the apps I *really* use on it ...) That way I'd still be upgrading to a newer phone (and maybe my brother would give me his phone's case with the stand, since he's planning on getting the 5) but not be out any money.

I'm also rethinking my position on wanting a brand new car to replace my Honda. I did some forecasting, and by December, 2013 I *might* have around $9k saved, not including EF or Dads money (and not counting whatever I get in tax refund for '12.) I'd really rather not use Dads money if I don't absolutely have to, and my other big goal is to get my EF up to snuff. (Especially considering the fact that if the sewer system here fails, I will not only be out of a job due to the school closing, but I will also be out of a home. This is thanks to the hail storm / flood we had here about a month ago. It is a *very* old and fragile lift/sewer system being kept together by Macguyveristic tactics.)

So.. I'm thinking of when it gets closer to the time I want to definitely replace my car, I'll start looking to see what I can find within 200 miles for $8k or less. Then pick the best of the lot (newest, least miles, most amenities.) That would leave me with money to add into the EF, and my insurance wouldn't go up so much as with a brand new car.

The car thing is still far away, so I may change my mind a dozen times between now and then.

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I wasn't planning on going anywhere until summer time - both to refund my vacation budget and because of the 6 month course I'm (hopefully) going to be taking. However, when I told my mom that she spoke to her bf, and he offered to pay for my ticket to TX. Mom also said she'd make sure I had a computer/time/space to do whatever school work I needed to while there. So ... I agreed and told her dates/times I could come. .... Then I got a text from her bf asking if he could call me. When he did, he told me he's planning on asking her the big question on her birthday (18th) and wants to do the deed on the afternoon of the day I planned to fly in. Could I please come earlier? So, I'll be getting in Friday night instead of Saturday afternoon.

All I'll say is I hope it lasts. One more thing... he wants to have the ceremony in my very favorite place in the DFW metroplex - the same place I had always had in mind for if I ever got married. Kind of bittersweet. (The Botanical Gardens - many, many good memories there.)

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My yard had gotten really, really, really, really bad. There were so many weeds you almost could not see any empty space - anywhere. I'd been trying to find someone to do something with it since last spring. Finally someone suggested to me that I ask one of our maintenance guys at the school -- I did. He and his children came over this afternoon and did a MAJOR cleanup job. I had told him $40 for the job, but when I realized that the job was much bigger than I'd figured, I decided to give him $60. (I would have done $50, but I only had 20s.) Now that I have someone I know can do a good job, I'll have it done more often (2 - 3x a year should suffice) and can pay less (since the job won't be so huge.) He's also fixing my screen door which has been broken (the screen part) since I moved in here.

I would do this myself (take care of the yard) but I have NO equipment and my allergies are atrocious (allergic to tumbleweeds, etc. big time - would probably be out sick for a week if I attempted it.)

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I went to the dentist on Thursday and had a filling done. $85 instead of the $98 first quoted me. It turned out that it wasn't a cavity, but a filling that had fallen out. So that made it a pretty fast drill and fill.

I'll be going back for the other tooth on the 20th. (Directly opposite the tooth I just had filled!)

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I've been watching Elephant Princess on Netflix this past week (partly why I haven't blogged this week ) The first season was really good, and I got addicted a little bit. The second season I don't like so much, but in my usual way, I have a hard time stopping once I'm into a show. I love the Aussie accents of the actors.

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I'm waiting to hear back from the person in charge of registration for the 6 month cohort on how to register and how to pay with my Education credit money. She had told me to send her my award certificate and the name of the person to contact ... but they didn't send me an award certificate - only a link to my account showing my Ed credit (and a link on that page to request funds payment.) I really hope this all works out. If the sewer goes bust, I may really need the extra certification this program offers (to secure a new job somewhere ...)

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I ordered a bunch of books for the library (using library budget money - not mine!!) on Friday. Most of them will arrive by Tuesday. I'm excited to catalog them and get them out to the kids. (greek mythology books, Lizzie McGuire (had a kid asking for those), gymnastics (many girls requested), several new graphic novels, etc.)

On Wednesday I had my first meeting of First Reads Group with 7th/8th. It was a bit of a circus. In the end, I had 1 7th and 1 8th grader attend. They both chose two books. (First Reads Group is where the kids meet with me at lunch time and get the chance to be the first person at school to read new library books. If they give the book(s) their seal of approval, then they will have a name label saying "First Read by.....") This coming Wednesday I'm going to have the 6th graders meet with me (up to 5 of them.)

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Last night I was on Swagbucks and got the popup for the 2 SB videos. I started on them around 9:30 p.m., and it kept going until 12:37 p.m.!! I caught up on the SA blogs while playing the videos ... Overall I think I earned around 120 SBs from them!!

I have enough to cash out for a $5 AGC.

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Eating Out Challenge:

7/8 days I did great. The day I went to the dentist, I did stop and get a milkshake at McDonald's because I was really hungry (hadn't had a great lunch) and my mouth was numb.

I'm going to plan better for my next appointment so I won't be so hungry.

This was a long week for me. Tuesday and Thursday night we had parent meetings starting at 6 and not finishing til 8. Then I also was driving 20 miles one way to take care of my pastor's dog/cat. It was also my first week back with a full load of classes. Other than Monday's classes, most of the rest of the week's groups were fine ... just kept me on my toes!

I *loved* seeing my baskets of new/newish books nearly completely decimated by Friday, although I kind of felt bad for the 4th graders who were my very last group Friday afternoon. There were slim pickings in the new book baskets. I also *loved* how excited my 5th graders were at being able to checkout 3 books. Both groups had their 3 books picked out and checked out in record breaking time.

The internet was being all wonky this week, so when I had my first intensive keyboarding class on Wednesday with the 3rd graders, I had to use Word and dictation. That was ... interesting. On Thursday I did the same with my 4th graders, but the internet was working - so we used Typing Club. Unfortunately all the web browsing history on all the computers had been cleared over the summer, so the teacher assistant and I ran around the room helping 21 4th graders get to the media center website, and then to the TC site. About 15 of them managed to actually get logged on, and one completed the first lesson, before it was time to run to lunch. Chaos!

Today I spent a few hours at school, and managed to figure out a way to save a shortcut to both the media center website and the TC website in a way that it won't be lost as soon as a person logs off the computer. Hallelujah! I also figured out that I could download/save an internet safety game for my 7th/8th graders in that same server/folder, and not have to download it on 15 different computers.

When I got home from school/taking care of the animals, I made my breakfast and lunch for the whole school week. Go me! All I'll have to do for my breakfasts is to add the Rice Dream the night before - hopefully I can manage to remember to do that!

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I got a call from the pastor today telling me they'd be home tomorrow!!!! Yay!!! It's funny, I was talking to my grandma yesterday and mentioned about taking care of the animals. She asked me if they were paying me anything, and I told her that I didn't think so or expect anything. I also told her how far their place was from me ... she told me that I should take the extra gas money out of my tithe for next month!! What was so funny about that was that I'd been thinking along the same lines, and wishing that I could ask my dad for his opinion on it. I'm taking my grandma suggesting it out of the blue like that, as kind of a backwards nod from my dad. (maybe I'm rationalizing a bit here, but I like to think of it that way ...)

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I've overspent my grocery budget a bit this month. Once I manage to remember to take back the car charger to WM and get the money back, I can move that money into the grocery budget, and it will balance out fine. Actually, I have a few dollars left, but there is still one more grocery shopping day this month ... will just need spinach and bananas probably though.

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I had $35.xx in Discover rewards after this last statement posted. So ... I spent it on Amazon. :shrug: I bought the new Dork Diary 4, another book (can't remember right now) and pre-ordered DD5 and Wimpy Kid 7. I bought two of each. We have 2-3 each of the others, and they are currently ALL checked out.

I moved all the books that were similar to Wimpy Kid on a shelf under the Dear America journals. Two or three of the Dear America journals got checked out this week too!! (last year we had some Royal Diaries get checked out - but that was by a teacher.) I also had quite a few more of the Juvenile fiction books get checked out than normal - so I think moving all the Wimpy Kid like books where I did was a great move.

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I got a notice on Friday that my Hulu Plus subscription would be going off hold today (Sunday.) So since I hadn't included it in my August budget, and didn't have any Fun Money left for August, I went to go cancel it. Guess what? They offered me a free month!!! Seeeee-weeeet!! So I'll probably cancel it before they charge me at the end of September, then start it up again in October. (Anyone know when DWTS starts?? That's mainly what I'll use Hulu+ for.)

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Like I made my breakfast/lunches ahead of time for the week, I'd like to see if I could make the most time consuming portion of my dinners ahead of time ...
baked sweet potatoes! Prep time isn't long of course, but baking time is 2 hours!!

What I'd like to be able to do is bake 5 of them at one time, and then put 4 in the fridge. Then I would microwave them each day to warm up. Anyone know what the best way would be to do this? Should I take them out the foil wrap when in the fridge? i.e. What is the best way to avoid growing bacteria??

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My car is troubling me. I don't know if it is my imagination or not, but ever since I had the timing belt/driveshaft changed out, it doesn't seem to have as much get up and go. I especially notice this on hills ... I do most of my long distance driving on the freeway where the limit is 75 and the real speed is 80 - 85. There've been a number of times this week where I entered the freeway going 55 with my RPMs passing 4 ... and it took me a good two or more minutes to get up to speed (75+). I don't remember it doing this before .. it never has been great on hills, but I just don't remember having to rev it so hard to get up to speed.

Any ideas?

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I cashed out for a $5 AGC on SBs last night. I'm also getting pretty close to cashing out on irazoo.