Hi all,

I had written a long post last night with lots of updates, but in the middle of it we had company (who ended up helping me weed dads garden) and so when I got back to the blog and finished it, copying it before hand slipped my mind completely.

The memorial service went very well. I really think it was something my dad would have been very proud of and would have enjoyed if he'd been there. My brother and other relatives all left Sunday to their respective jobs/homes, so now it is just my grandma and I.

This last week my brother pushed me to get back into jogging ... which I did 5 days in a row with him (at a pace that was barely a warmup for him, but pushing it for me ... for a mile or so.) Today after I texted him my mileage and time, he emailed me and told me that he'd decided that he was going to give up smoking!! Yay!!!!!

Today grandma and I visited the bank where we had found a key for a safe deposit box in my dads things. It had both my dads name and my grandmas, so we were able to get into it without a death certificate. It turned out that everything in it was grandmas. Gold and silver coins, and a lot of $100 bills. I understood the gold and silver, but was perplexd aboute the $100 bills. She told me that it was so she'd have cash for when the banking system failed ... Um ... if the banks fail, somehow I doubt you could get to your safe deposit box ... but maybe I'm wrong. She's almost 91, so she can think whatever she wants to think.

We got a bit of a late start today because we had to wait for my dad's long time friend to come over and figure out what was going on with the sprinklers. Due to that, I ended up not going over to the local gym. I checked out the class offerings and cost on their website. It's $50 for one-month, but there are classes I'm interested in every day of the week. Plus, my grandma has a free membership (80+), so I can get her to come over with me and maybe walk the track (indoor) or relax in the jacuzi. When we were out on our evening walk tonight, she told me I was as bad as my dad (pushing her to be active.) I told her that I resemble that remark.

I got an email from my principal today telling me that Kari is doing fine. Maybe she'd be okay with someone just looking in on her a couple times a day til the end of July????

My poor brother. He got back up to San Jose and found out that our uncle had taken his car to a mechanic friend. They found out a load of problems which need to be fixed for the safety of the car. So he had to take another vacation day advance from his job. So far his boss has been very very understanding (she actually was here for the memorial!) but I'm not sure how far the understanding will go. Unfortunately, a business is a business.

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I got a phone call this evening letting me know that my dad will be cremated tomorrow morning. His death certificates won't be ready til Wednesday or maybe Thursday. The sooner the better to my mind, then I can get a lot of business completed (accounts closed out, etc.) I don't think I'll feel completely settled until all of that is done.

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My brother is contemplating moving here and staying with my grandma for a year. (Moving permenantly, but taking care of her for only a year.) If he does that, then I am contemplating moving here and taking care of her until our aunt is able to retire and move here as well (she has about two years to go.)

I love my job, and I love the people, and the people in my local church have been really supportive ... but I don't really feel at home there (at the church.) Here, in LL, there are at least 7 different churches within a 5 mile radius. Not to mention that the local grocery stores have a large variety of vegetarian foods - just about anything you could ever dream of finding.

My biggest concern is what I would do for a living. However, I have at least 8 to 9 months to figure that out and make a decision. (I'd have to say whether I'm coming back or not by January or perhaps February.) My grandma could end up moving to San Jose to live with her daughter, or something else could come up. Only God knows the future.

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Alright, I'm going to attempt to catch up on the blogs. I'm at least 8 days behind in my reading, so I don't know how many comments I'll be making.

Hi all. Been really busy with family and preparing for the memorial service this week. My brother and I started to gO through dads shed in the backyard yesterday. He had to have 300 or mo more VHS tapes! We also found his old record collection - I'm going to take those, although I'll need to find a record player.

We got one of those scammer calls today where this guy asks for grandma, then when I told them I was her granddaughter, he asked me to guess who he was. I guessed a name ( only young male relative) and he was like " you got it!" then my aunt got on the phone and knew it wasn't that persons voice. He also mentioned something about a surprise trip to S America.

That really steamed me that someone would attempt to prey on my grandma - especially right now.

I have a question - when your ex- husband dies, and it is barely 5 days later, is that an appropriate time to bring up the topic of retirement money owed to you or that you may need to consult a lawyer, but want to make sure it won't throw things in probate? This is after she's been told that it probably is best that she not come due to very hard feelings towards her from her ex's family.

It's so strange how I can be in a roomful of people who loved my dad feeling ok, then someone says something and all I want to do is cry.


In financial news I now have a car payment of $245/mo. I loathe having a car payment and wish I had more saved up. But I know this would've made my dad very very happy, and the rest of my family are very happy about it as well. That makes it a little easier to do. ..plus I plan to pay extra when possible to get rid of it ASAP!!

Thanks again everyone for your thoughts and prayers.

Hi all, thank you again for all your kind words. I got in this AM and was picked up by my brother. After breakfast our aunt, my brother and I went to the funeral home to fill out the paperwork for cremation. Dads ashes (mostly) are going to be put in his fathers grave.

We all talked it over and agreed to a public memorial service most likely on the 16th. Mom is not going to be invited - Ryan didn't want a big argument and mom understood ... So I acquisessed.

I wish I hadn't gone to the viewing at the hospital - dad was not anywhere near normal looking. We're supposed to have another viewing before he's cremated where he'll be cleaned up.

So ... It looks like I might have a new to me car. My brother wants me to have dads car (and he'll take the motorcycle). It's a 2009 Nissan Rogue with a balance owed (to grandma) of about 14k. I'd so much rather have my dad back.

I made the offer to stay with grandma for the summer, and it was accepted. Meanwhile our aunt is going to try to get my uncle and his wife to move back here from Egypt to take care of grandma for awhile. Be surprised if they do it.

Thank you everyone for your prayers and condolences. I found out a bit more about what happened. His balloon failed and so they had to rush him into emergency surgery even though they knew that he wasn't really stable enough. About 2:30 a.m. CA time his heart completely failed.

My principal is taking me into G in about 90 minutes so I can pick up some snacks for the train, then leave about 7:30.

It's been hitting really hard off and on today, every time it hits the reality sinks in more. My brother is in the really angry stage right now. I hope I can help him through this.

It sure doesn't help that grandma and aunt don't want our mom anywhere near whatever services we end up having. They blame her for most of his problems the past 9+ years (really long sad involved story.)

I plan on fighting that. No matter what her problems, or their problems, they did love each other. She was his one and only wife for a total of 26 years. Not to mention that she's our mom!!!

They also want to have a private ceremony because they're afraid that some horrible person is going to bring up a lapse of good judgement my dad had about 9 years ago (large part of the hell he's been through since then.) I feel strongly that that would be really dishonoring the good, loving, Christian man he was 99.9% of his life. I don't know how much I can fight this though, because they hold the power (i.e. money strings.) I just don't think that anyone would be so hard hearted or incredulously callous to inflict that kind of pain on the family of a dead man.

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We have already made one decision which I'm satisfied with - cremating dad and adding his ashes with his father's. He loved his dad very much, and has always said that when he died that he wanted the same song that was played at his father's funeral "Precious Lord, take my hand."

Another song I know he'd want - "I don't need to understand, I just need to hold his hand." He loved the musical group Ponder, Harp and Jennings and that was one of his most cherished songs of theirs.

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I guess when I get there tomorrow we'll have to start going through his things and divvying them up. That just feels like a horrible prospect to me, but I know it has to be done.

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I've told mom to please make sure her will is updated and that she has a list or general notes of what she'd want for her funeral. This having to fight it out with other family members and having to guess at it, is for the birds.

So the news from my aunt wasn't too good. I was considering renting a car and heading there in the morning, but rental cars in G can't go one way out of state. So I debated going in my car. Thankfully someone remIndex me of Amtrak - so I'll be leaving tomorrow night and arriving Thursday morning. I just hope I'm in time. As of tonigh the doctors are giving a 50/50 chance. He had his stent fail and had to have it fixed.

I got the library situated today so it looks presentable again. I also went over all my ideas and info I'd gathered for summer school w the person who probably is going to take lead teacher.

I've been really out of it today. This morning I started to turn on red at a signal I know you can't do that. I caught myself before finishing the turn, but I don't know if I'll get a ticket eventually.

I went to Big Lots and bought 3 digital cameras for $25 each - 12 MP! They'll be used for a summer school project and also for journalism class. I also might do a digital photography class now that I have 5 cameras (bought two from amazon before finding out about this deal)

If I do end up missing summer school, I've been promised that they'll video the final program. I was so excited when I found that material ... I really hope the kids have fun with it. All of their projects will be uploaded to the wiki, so i can see them too.

TY, person taking over, owns a graphic design business. When he saw I made the space website on wix, he told me that his company has made many of the templates for it. Pretty cool.

When I got over to the school today I found out that someone (or some group) had broken in to the various buildings on our campus last night. The main thing we could see that they stole were the tools from the maintenance shed, and a backpack from AL's office (in the media center/computer lab) which they used to carry the tools. AL's desk had been gone through, but other than her bag, nothing else was missing in the library or computer lab that we could tell.

In the 5th grade room's bathroom they'd taken a fire extingquisher and sprayed it, tagged the walls, and left the water running.

One of our maintenance men was able to track the path of the vandals/theives to an abandoned building and actually recovered the tools and a few other items.

The doors which had been forced open (media center door, nurses office, guidance counselor, admin office) locks have all been fixed.

Now we are all a bit worried that the vandals/thieves may come back tonight to get back what they stole and maybe make a mess besides in retaliation.

Sigh ...

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I spent a good portion of this afternoon inventorying and weeding duplicate copies. I think I pulled roughly 150 duplicates, possibly more - just in the E Fiction/Picture book section. There were quite a few books I wasn't familiar with, so one of my goals this summer is to read all the books in that section (roughly 1100) and decide if they are keep worthy or not AND what subjects/topics they'd work well for. (I won't be reading ALL of them, just the ones I'm unfamiliar with - each book shouldn't take more than 8 - 10 minutes to read.)

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The 3rd grade teacher suggested making a transparency of a computer keyboard, and then using an overhead projector to shine it on the tablecloth. Then I could use permanent markers to trace/draw the keyboard. Eventually we'd add iron on appliques for the different letters/symbols to make it more long lasting - but the marker should work for this year to start.

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I spent a lot of time last night working on a wiki for the students to upload their technology projects from summer school to. I'm making it generic (no identifying info) so I can share it here with y'all when it's over and you can see some of their projects.

I'm going to make another wiki for them to put their school year projects up on later.

I also found out about a neat web app called fotobabble. Essentially you upload a photo and then you can say something about that photo. They have a new feature where you can link several photos together to create a presentation, or kind of a movie. I was thinking that it would've been great to have had this when I did my biology botany project back in high-school!

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Tomorrow I want to finish up inventory (38% to go!), get my house cleaned (trash, sweep, scrub counters) and then have company for supper! So ... this means I'll probably have to start my day at school before noon ...

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More grad school news ... I found out that part of the classes do involve on campus time. The person responding was a bit of nincompoop if I do say so! He told me that I could "learn more about what kind of campus time was involved once I start taking the classes." Really?? Maybe I need to have that information *ahead* of time so I can make an informed decision of whether or not I'm able to take the classes! I haven't responded yet because I'm waiting for me to come up with a pointed, yet polite reply. The pointed part I have no trouble with, it's keeping it polite that is more troublesome (i.e. probably saying "you numbskull" wouldn't be very beneficial.)

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

My Alma Mater (for Master's) is now offering a Graduate Academic Certificate in Technology for School Librarians. It consists of 4 courses for a total of 12 credits.

Since I'm no longer a resident of TX, I'd have to pay out of state tuition. So, for one 3 hour course it would cost $2,300. I may or may not be able to get scholarships (if I can get the departmental one, that was around $200 if I remember correctly.)

The GAC would not do anything for me salary wise. The courses do sound interesting and applicable to my current job. I also need to earn so many CEUs to retain my librarian certification.

I'm not sure if I could count this on my taxes since it would not be coursework towards a degree ...

Maybe I could take one course per year?? That would give me 12 credits towards recertification, plus the certification. However, I'm not sure how I could afford this PLUS get a car.

One other wrench in this ... the courses may require some on campus time. I'm not sure if it is like some of the core courses where you were on campus for two or three days, and the remainder of the time online only, or if it is more than that. If it is the latter, than there is no question of whether I can/should do this, if the former ... well ... maybe I could correspond my class time with my vacations to see my mom ...

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The last two days I've finished most of my laundry, and did one load of dishes. Otherwise I've been doing mega research on solar system/space learning activities for summer school. I have found a wealth of resources dealing with science/math/technology but very very few music/art/kinesthetic activities. (This is for mid-school - lower grades have plenty!) I've got to keep these kids *really* busy for 14 full days (4th of July is during the last week of summer school.) The busier they are, the less chance they will be trouble. I also want to make sure they have a lot of fun, while learning of course.

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I haven't called the horse place yet, because I forgot today was a holiday. Oops. The PO is closed as well, so I can't pick up the packages that are there. I ended up not going into school at all today or yesterday (though I spent the majority of these two days ON school stuff!)

OH! I did also spend some of my time yesterday and today practicing the piano. I really need to learn the notes in the bass clef again (without using mnemonics to figure them out!!) I ordered some note flashcards and am practicing saying the note name as I play it. Kari's not sure what to make of the noise coming from the piano - she'd never heard it on before yesterday.

Yesterday was the last day of school. Yay! Wah! I am happy for the break, and the chance to get a lot of projects done in the library on my relaxed schedule (i.e. not at crack of morning), but I am going to miss the teachers who have left for other pastures. They mostly are the ones I hung around with and did things with this past year.

One of the new hires seems like she might be someone I could get along with, so I am somewhat hopeful. (Although she won't be here til August.)

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Today at church we had a guest speaker. He was really good. One quote I especially liked was, "God does not push or pull people, he draws them in." I need to remember that when it comes to various people in my life.

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So ... I have decided to do my budget a little differently. I divided my categories into two sections - The MUSTS and The Fluctuators. Included in the MUSTS is a Car Payment category an EF category and a Roth category. I then created a "loan" of $10,000 for my car. Using my total savings, I "paid" off $2000 of the loan, then subtracted another $2000 (from summer school) and then finally divided the remaining $6000 into 14 payments. This way I will have my car (mostly) funded by September, 2013. (My goal is to purchase my next car in October - end of month/fiscal year - purchase last year's model.)

Then I changed my EF goal to $2500, subtracted the amount I have right now in my BOFA account, and divided the remainder by 6.

Next I figured out how much I'd need to send to my ROTH each month to have $1800 sent by December, and divided that by 6.

After allocating money to the other MUSTS, the remainder goes into an unbudgeted slush fund which will be used to fund the Fluctuators. At the end of each month (by the 2nd) half of anything left in the slush fund will go to the car payment category.

I am going to treat the car "loan" as a real loan (minus interest). If I *really* had a loan, I'd be throwing everything I had at it till it was paid off ... so I'm hoping that same strategy will work here.

Will see.

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I've bought two Groupons recently - one for a 2 hour horseback ride and one for a Trolley tour of ABQ. In total, they cost $26. My grandma when she learned of these purchases and that I was planning on doing it in one day, insisted on sending me money to make it an overnight stay and a relaxing trip.

So ... I need to call the horse ranch to make sure, but I am thinking of going out Thursday morning for the horseback ride, maybe take in a museum or see if I can find the ABC (Adventist Book Center which sells vege meat products), spend the night at a hotel, do the trolley ride Friday morning (late!) do a Costco run and come back home. My Grandma gave me enough money for a nice hotel AND a meal out, so I might do California Pizza Kitchen again. While there I'll also probably stop at the Apple store and pick up a second battery charger for my phone (I have one, but think I better get a second one for the train trip.)

I think it'll make for a nice short vacation.

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I saw Men in Black 3 on Friday with several of the outgoing teachers. It was awesome! Love me some Will Smith. I paid for one of the teachers tickets (we bought them online just in case of it being sold out like Hunger Games and Avengers were.) Discover is paying 5% on movies ... so I was more than happy to help her out. (She paid me back in cash later.)

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Tomorrow I am going to have a day of major house cleaning. Laundry, dishes, sweeping, scrubbing, etc. My house needs it badly, plus I invited a couple from church to dinner on Friday night!! (They had me over for lunch a couple Sabbaths ago.)

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Oh! I filled up on gas yesterday for only $3.52 gallon!! That was nearly $.20 cheaper than in T! Sweet!

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Thursday night was our 8th grade graduation. I had to sit up front on the side because as a specials teacher who works with the 8th graders, I had to give a medal. I didn't realize that I would not only be up front, but would be stepping up on a stage. Note to self: wear a long skirt or dress next year!

Today was my last day of media center classes for this school year. In a way it feels really weird/sad, but in another way it is kind of a relief. I'll have a break of a month (from teaching classes at least) before summer school starts.

I was showing the kids today the abcya site with the animation app (3rd) and one of my 4th grade boys made an Angry Birds animation! I've been showing the app to all my classes this week, as a kind of fun end of year tech project, and have been simply amazed at how quickly they figured it out and how creative their projects were.

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Today our new principal talked to me about next year and brought me my contract. I'm getting a raise of 1 %!! Totally unexpected. Apparently they give everyone a 1% raise every year - had no idea.

I'm definitely getting an aide next year, although probably only for 20 hours a week. Better than nothing.

I also talked to the principal about having summer library hours/checkout one evening a week. She liked that idea (after making sure I knew it would be volunteer hours.)

Some other points I raised with her:

Having a technology club/book club on after school activities days. (Again, was reminded that it would be volunteer hours.)

Having a library focus group - have students from several different grades to discuss new book purchases, make recommendations, etc. She suggested I do it at lunch time once a month. Sounds good to me!

Scrapping K - 12 power and replacing with online databases. She was good with this idea as long as K12Power hadn't already been renewed. (She agreed with my assesment that it was useless - said previous computer teacher wanted something to have the kids login and be kept busy for 30 minutes while she texted. --well, principal didn't quite say the texting part, but I know that from other sources ...--)

Having a keyboarding specific class 20 minutes 2-3x week for 3rd, 4th and 5th during the first quarter. (Common Core standards expect a 4th grader to be able to comfortably type a one page document in one sitting. Typing class once a week for 7 or 8 weeks isn't going to cut it.) Principal thought it was a good idea, but will need to check with teacher's schedules.

Making 1st and 2nd grade 1 hour classes, and extending 3rd - 8th to 1hr 15 min. Principal was okay with this, but again needed to check scheduling.

Discussed need for major overhaul of non-fiction. Principal suggested that we have the fundraising efforts for one month go towards the renovation of our non-fiction section. Woo hoo! (She hadn't realized there was no library budget and didn't seem too surprised when I casually mentioned my "pocket" budget.)

Discussed the many blind spots in the library. Principal had the idea of installing something like a video baby monitor in the worst area.

Discussed me taking teachers on a tour of library/website during pre-school week. I've tried to make teachers aware of the resources we have, but it's kind of like pulling teeth with some of them ...

Discussed computer lab arrangement. Told principal that I didn't like the way it was arranged either, but I'd been told that the configuration was the only possible way to fit 25 computers in that space. Then I also told her that my big dream was to get some kind of grant to totally renovate and redesign the entire media center (to make better use of the space and get rid of the blind spots!)

--Forgot to talk about playaways ... probably best I forgot, because I think I kind of overwhelmed her. I just had been saving up all of these ideas/thoughts ...

I also asked her how she felt I was doing. She told me that she thought I had a pretty good start and was going in the right direction. That made me feel pretty good.

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OH! Before I forget! I had visitors today from a program called Reader to Reader. They donate publisher's seconds to needy schools. I was told about them by the reporter who was here a few weeks ago. They brought a suitcase full of books! I showed them around our library and we talked about what books we already had, and what books/topics were very popular, as well as our majorly outdated non-fiction. They said they'd be sending some more books our way sometime in July! Woo hoo! Later on I was talking to SrN (our current principal) and she told someone who was there that I was great at finding free book resources.

*related to the above --- We had this donor couple visiting our campus this week. The wife couldn't get over how much I smile (get really tired of hearing that, but sometimes it works in my favor.) She and her husband are avid readers. They both fell in love with the kids and our school - I let her do the final storytime with my K class :*(. She absolutely loved it (and I think they enjoyed it too.) Before she left she told me that she and her husband want to make a donation to the library, and then she handed me a $20 bill as a start. Seeeweet! I don't know how much they plan on donating, but if it is a goodly amount, then I'd like to use some of it to get a second magazine rack to put my small graphic novels in. I just haven't been able to bring myself to spend nearly $200 on one when that money could bring more books ... but if I don't have a good way to display the books, what good does it do, right?

Last night I was figuring out the dollar amount of books that I added to our library this year. Combining my contributions, the money gifts from mom's friend, and book fair proceeds (from 2 book fairs), it came out to around $4,000. In all, I think that totaled around 450 books + another 200 or so books that were donated last year and have been slowly added, and then another 40 books that were donated to us from a school in Chicago (they did a one for one promotion at their bookfair and used the money to buy us books off the wishlist I sent.)

This afternoon we had our annual volleyball game - teachers vs. mid-school girls. The last time I played volleyball ... at least 20+ years ago.

5 of the mid-school boys wore tutus and acted as cheerleaders (for us) - they also were allowed to play on our side if one of wanted a break.

I played for almost two full rotations. Which means I served the volleyball. Hence my title. On my very first serve, I not only hit it over the net (very close to the left edge), but it sailed out to where the busses were parked. My next two serves were much more accurate..

Oh yeah, the teachers won. 30 to 26.

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A few weeks ago I bought this climbing castle thing that hangs from a door. It was $20, and I thought it might be a good alternative to some of those cat climbers that start at $20 for maybe two levels. I hung it on the door to my office (since that is where I spend my most time.) Kari has taken to it more and more. Right now she is sound asleep in the top layer. This is a picture of her earlier this afternoon - she stayed like that for a good 20 minutes or more.


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No spending today (though I got the first book from my weekend spending.)

So ... as I look at my spending and at where I'm spending, I've come to the realization that I'm stressing myself out trying to make sure I don't overspend in any one particular category. Namely, groceries, but there are other places too. It may be going down a dangerous road here, but I've decided to change up my budget strategy. From this point forward I'm going to put into certain categories the amount that I'd like to shoot for (i.e. groceries), and then of course the fixed categories would have the exact amount. Most other categories will be left empty. Money not allocated to fixed categories or categories such as groceries will go into a general savings fund. I've decided to stop distinguishing my savings categories, and lump them all into one pile. So, that means all my rainy day savings as well as other savings will go into the same pot. At the end of the month if there's anything left in the categories that I put in a "target" amount of funds, that money will be swept into the general savings fund.

I'll still record what I actually spend in multiple categories, I just won't have a specific amount of funds allocated to all of them.

This weekend I spent nearly $500 on books for school/library. I bought 6 sets of 6 books for the summer school kids to use in novel studies, a bunch of space related books/activity guides, some professional resources to help with Common Core, and 36 Hi/Lo books. The Hi/Lo books probably could have (should have) waited, but the others I felt I needed to go ahead with ordering. The average cost of the books is about $8 (mainly thanks to one $26 book, otherwise the average would've been closer to $7 per book.) Oh, this was after the $25 in AGC's. The Hi/Lo books all were part of the 4-3 promotion, so I actually got 6 of them for free (I thought I was going to get 8 free ... not sure why I didn't.) So, generally speaking I got around $650 worth of books for less than $500 (after 4-3 promotion, AGC's, buying good condition used copies ..)

I sometimes wonder if my overarching need to buy books for the library is partly a backlash from the years and years and years where I bought only one or two books a year for myself. Now I have a good excuse to buy books - right?

Part of these thoughts stem from my dad asking me yesterday how much I had saved for my car - and I had to tell him "~$500" and he laughed at me. So I amended what I said to say that altogether in savings I have a good bit more - just not called car savings. Truth be told though, if I needed to replace my car next week, I'd be scraping money together from every piggy hole and couch cushion that wasn't allocated for mandatory expenses ...

So between how much I've been stressing out about my spending, and my realization that no matter what I may call my various savings categories, they all would be spent for one thing if necessary ... I came up with this idea. I figure I'll try it for a few months and see if it helps me to curb my spending better, or if it makes it worse. I can always go back to my other way of doing it if it makes it worse.

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Today I wasn't quite dressed for outside viewing when someone knocked on my door. It was my neighbors - they'd found a medium sized white dog wandering the neighborhood and thought they recognized it - they just weren't sure who's it was. I knew it immediately - our nurse's dog. So after identifying it (I was in bare feet and holey shorts) I went inside and put some jeans on and called our nurse. No answer. I tried a couple other numbers and couldn't get in touch with her. So finally I decided to chance taking the dog inside with Kari. At first Kari was all bushy tailed and hackles, but then she realized that the dog wasn't going to hurt her and became somewhat comfortable and curious. Finally our nurse saw she had missed calls from a TX number and figured it was me, then came and got her dog.

This gives me hope that Kari will do okay, and possibly even do well, with our Title 1 teachers cat this summer. We'll see I guess.

This morning while talking to AL, I became quite worried about her. She'd posted something on FB on Friday that had me wondering what was going on, and then speaking with her this morning I got a clearer picture of what it was. So ... I told her I had to go into G again this afternoon to drop off some paperwork I'd forgotten to complete, and was she interested in maybe going bowling and get something to eat? She told me she'd think about it...

So after school was out today I asked her if she wanted to go with me .. and she agreed! We dropped off my paperwork (for summer school) and then made it over to the bowling place in time to bowl one game before they closed. (I got a 74, she got a 56. Pro Bowlers we are not. ) Then we ate at a local eatery that has great veggie burgers.

We had a *long* talk. To put it simply, I am *still* very worried about her. What she is going through I have no real experience in. I felt all I could do was be there to listen. Those of you who praying folk, I would greatly appreciate it if you could keep AL in your prayers. Specifically she needs to know that she is worth the fight, and that not everyone is going to break her trust.

I spent around $9 at the bowling alley for her and I, and she treated me for supper. I'm really glad that I made the offer, and that she accepted it, even though it made me blow through the remainder of my entertainment budget for the month. However, I have a feeling that I'll be doing some more of that this month ... goodbye dinners for teachers leaving, etc. This is a time to say I think that people are worth more than financial goals.

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I've gotta share! Today I read "Press Here" to my K, 3rd and 4th grade classes. K and 4th both seemed to LOVE it. 3rd was a bit meh on it. I can hardly wait to see the reactions of my 1st and 2nd graders tomorrow. It truly is a FUN book.

I got an email today from the Title 1 teacher. She's going to be gone for 2 months this summer and has decided she doesn't want to take her cat with her. So she knows I'll be here most of the summer. She asked me if I'd let her cat live with me while she is gone, and in the meantime she'd let me have use of her car. Her car is maybe 4 years old??

Hmmm.... I *really* like the idea of having the use of a newer car for two months. It would give my car another two months of leeway/life. I'd have a working radio and cigarette lighter (for charging my phone). I wouldn't have to worry about breaking down on the road ...

The other side of course is liability issues ... If I got into a fender bender in my car (like in Dec.) I could let the non-safety issues go. However, if it happened in her car, I'd have to pay to get it fixed. I'm also not quite sure how the insurance issue would work. Would I need a certified letter from her stating I have permission to drive her car???

The other issue is the cats ... it might be a good test to see if Kari could get along with another cat. It also could show me if some of her behavior issues could be alleviated by another cat ... without me having taken on the lifetime responsibility of a second cat. One issue though is that Title 1 teacher's cat is an indoor/outdoor cat. I would not care for Kari to get that idea in her head .. at all. I also just don't like the idea of an indoor/outdoor cat ... dirt, bugs, etc.

What do y'all think?

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Today I went to see Avengers with RDJ. Love, love, love Mr. Downey. It was an ensemble movie, but he kicked butt the most. Several of the people with our group were not the most ... savvy movie goers. The husband of one of our teachers seems like he may have some hearing loss - no concept of a whisper. Then ... not one, not two, but THREE of our groups cell phones went off during the movie --- AND they were answered!!! ARGHH!!!

I saw this in 3D. Wow! I hated paying the extra $2 for it, but in the end, it was well worth it. I'll probably go the extra dollars for MIB 3 too. I have just enough left in my entertainment budget for one more 3D movie this month.

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After the movie I went to Walmart. I bought color ink (having 2nd - 6th grade make Mother's Day cards - need lots of color ink.) I also bought this hanging climbing tower for Kari - will see how that goes. I bought a second pair of the sandals I bought last time, as well as another pair of a different more fancier type sandal. Then I bought a few groceries too. (I was going to get more sweet potatoes, but the selection was abysmal.)

In all, I spent $99 (groceries, shoes, Kari, etc.) and $45 on ink. I *think* everything will count towards the $300 in May for Discover groceries (Walmart.) If it does, then I'm well on my way.

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

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

--

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Last night the school kids had their spring performance/tribute to SrN. SrN has been principal here for 19 years and is now retiring. It went really, really well. AL videoed it (she had to borrow a 4gb card from me to put in the video camera - the video camera was one that was donated to the Media center last semester.)

SrN is from the order of Sisters of Notre Dame - so each class performed a skit, song, dance from a country SND is located in. The gym was standing room only (and that was with the kids in areas outside the main seating area.)

Tomorrow we're having a special mass for SrN. We may even have a newspaper journalist there! There will definitely be a story in Monday's paper.

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Last night at the performance one of the mission staff talked to me and asked me what I wanted them to do with the book fair money. It was still sitting in the safe. Ooops. I thought when they paid the Sch invoice that they'd deposited it ...

So this afternoon I went over and helped count the money and got the receipt for it.

I've pretty much spent all of our profit. I bought 9 books from LBE (a company that sends you preview boxes of books, then you send back whatever you're not going to buy) and 15 books from PB (a high-interest/ low reading level series I was told was really popular and NOT obvious), and then today SrN used the school cc to purchase 53 books from Amazon. I've had that list ready to go for several weeks - it looks a good bit different than it did the first time I put it together.

I really wanted to get another magazine rack like we have for displaying the small graphic novels. But all the ones I've found are in the $150 - $200 range. I can buy way too many books for that amount ... I wish there was a Craigslist for our area ...

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I've seen the posts about 5 year plans/goals ... for me, it's easier to formulate financial/professional goals than personal goals. I seem to be able to achieve the first two much better than the last. Sigh.(Most of my personal goals I'd like to make I have no control over whatsoever ... and so see no point to putting them down.)

So ...

Financial:
1. Have a new completely paid off car. (2012 model+)
2. Have an EF of 15k+
3. Have 2k+ in car replacement fund (add 1k per year)
3. Have gone on, or be in the process of making plans for a fully paid for European cruise/land tour.
4. Max out ROTH contributions.

Professional:
1. Renew my librarian license
2. Have an article published in a librarian publication
3. Obtain a grant to completely renovate and redesign the media center

Expenses:

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

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

Expenses:

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

Restaurants - within budget limits

Phone/Internet -- w/i limits

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

Household - bought a fan, old one stopped working

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

Miscelaneous: fingerprinting fee, website domain renewals, etc.

Kari: - food and toys

Library: books, what else? :roll eyes:

Entertainment: a song download

Summer Travel: Bought train tickets!!

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

Auto Repairs - replaced all 4 tires

Savings:

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

I've been a member of ING since around 2003. The *only* thing about it that wasn't wonderful was that the only way to put money into your account was via transfer from another bank or mailing your check.

Today, that all changed!! They now have the service available to upload images of your check via scanner/camera to deposit, or to use your ING app on a smartphone to deposit checks!! It'll take 5 days to process the check.

I am so excited! I had been depositing checks via PayPal and then transferring to ING. This now cuts the time in half (more really, because I'd often forget to check PP to see if the deposit cleared ...)

Yahoo!

If you don't have an ING account yet and are interested, I'd be more than happy to help you out with a referral link. You get $50, and I get $10. I just need an email address (be sure to post it in a goobly gok way so the spiders don't steal it!)

example: My email ***** 1234 *** kareem **** @ **** yahoo (not my email address )

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Arghh!! So last weekend I realized I was down to my last 4 Synthroid - so I called Walgreen's for a refil. Oops, I was out of refills so they had to get approval from my doctor. I didn't hear anything AT ALL from either Walgreen's or my doctor.

So today after potluck I stopped at Walgreen's hoping that it was just an oversight that I hadn't gotten a text saying my prescription was ready. Nope. Apparentally when they called my doctor's office, whoever answered told them that my refill request was denied. That the NP who'd prescribed the previous prescription had left (retired) and I needed to see the new person.

Um ... can we say incompetent? Perhaps disorganized? Perhaps some other words that aren't very nice??? I had blood work done in January - because I'd been low on them and rationing, my numbers were really off. So I had to come back and get more done. Which I did, on Ash Wednesday (I remember that because I ended up missing most of the Ash Wednesday Mass at school.) The appt. was only supposed to be for bloodwork, but I was surprised with .. are you ready for it?? .... the new doctor!

So of course they are closed until Monday. I'll be calling them on Monday and raising a fuss, but even if they immediately call in a new prescription for me I will either have to make an extra trip to G ((35 miles one way) or wait til Friday when I'm going to G anyway. I should ask them if they'll take $10 off my bill I just got from them for gas money to make the extra trip! Hah!

I've been out since Thursday (and that was with skipping a dose on Monday) so if I wait til Friday, it would be ten days off of it - which is really not good for keeping the levels stable.

I thought about asking a co-worker who also takes the same dosage if I could have 4 of hers and then when I get my next scrip replace them, but then I remembered that she takes the generic kind. I won't touch the generic kind with a ten foot pole.

I also thought about asking the clinic if they had any samples at that dosage ... but the likelihood of that is slim to none ...

Seriously though, if the clinic got a call alerting them to the fact that I was trying to get a refill and they denied it -WHY didn't they call me and tell me??? If I had any other place to go here for medical stuff, I would go there in a heartbeat. But they are my only option unless I go 30+ miles away.

It actually is probably good they were closed today - I might have bit somebody's head off.

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In other news ... we had a snowstorm today! About an inch stuck for a few hours - mostly gone already although it is still lightly snowing. Thursday we had a high of 68, and Monday the high is supposed to be in the high 60's/low 70's. Crazy weather.

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My stand fan quit working and our swamp coolers are still covered to prevent them freezing. So Friday when I went grocery shopping I bought a new stand fan. I also bought another $60 worth of groceries. I'm not sure why I bought so much at one time - mostly it was canned soups, veggie baked beans, canned sweet peas (had them at the school cafe last week and got a real hankering for more ...), etc.

No more grocery shopping for me this month, that's for sure!!

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I had 4 new tires put on my car Friday. It came out to $269.xx. Gulp. I can definitely tell a difference in the smoothness of the ride and even the noise level (much quieter.) I was going to only get 3 new tires since one of them was only maybe 2 years old, but my dad talked me into getting them all replaced (and sweetened the pot by insisting on paying for the 4th one even though I told him it wasn't necessary.) I suppose when it finally comes time to let go of my car it will be good to have newer tires on it.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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


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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Expenses:

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

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

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

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

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

*Must Not Stick Head in Sand!!*

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

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

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

Kari: food, toys

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

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

Gas - two fill ups

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

My coworker and I took a road trip to Taos, Santa Fe and Albuquerque. We left Tuesday morning and drove all the way to Taos, then stayed at a hotel in Santa Fe Tuesday night.

We ate at this neat French Bakery in Santa Fe where we both had crepes for lunch on Tuesday. My coworker also introduced me to Bubble Tea - it's the weirdest thing ... chewing on these little flavored bubbles while drinking ... We stopped at Pet Smart, Barnes & Nobles, Trader Joes, etc.

In Taos we visited Kit Carson's home/museum, a couple different churches, and this huge gorge. We drove up there one way, and took a different route on the way back. It was quite beautiful.

I spent more money than I was really planning on ... but overall I think it was worth it.

Here are some pictures I took:
A wooden bridge which was falling apart:



The bridge going over a huge gorge.

A hewed out log bridge with water running from one side to the other.

A sign in the park where the gorge was located.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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