This has been an interesting past few days ... to say the least.

On Thursday I get a text from my brother asking me if I'd heard how mom was doing. I hadn't, so asked him what he meant. He told me he thought she'd gone into the hospital for an evaluation of her heart. I panicked because I knew she'd been having a lot of shoulder/neck/arm pain, and so thought maybe she'd had a heart attack. Called her and found out that she had been in the hospital for an MRI to find out what was going on with her neck/shoulder - nothing to do with her heart.

Results of MRI showed that she had three bulging discs which were on the verge of causing paralysis. More visits with doctors, etc., and she has a surgery scheduled for Tuesday morning to replace three discs with artificial ones.

Stepdad told me that if there was any way I could talk her into coming back here where we could care for her, to please do it. She'd told him she wasn't happy with her new "friend" but felt trapped. New friend lives on third floor of an apartment building, and with her neck/shoulder issues, she could not move out herself -- and he wasn't willing to help her move out.

Mom texts me on Friday and when I call her tells me that if stepdad is willing to not talk/ask about his and mom's relationship status for the next two-three weeks (so focus be totally on recovery) that she was ready to end the "friendship". I told her to name the time and he and I would be there to get her out.

Stepdad agreed to mom's conditions with no qualms. We got there a bit before 7 p.m. Mom texted me and told me that if stepdad came in, "friend" would call the police. So that meant that I got to carry everything out of the apartment, and then met stepdad on the second floor landing. I met my exercise quota for the day plus quite a bit. It took about 30 minutes of steady trips with oversized loads, but we got out of there with minimal drama.

Buddy is *estatic* to have mom back home. He follows her everywhere. Even though I've been the main one responsible for his care since he was brought home, he still somehow gets that she is his actual "owner".

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I was thinking that tomorrow I'd go get a haircut since I have some cashflow again. The last time I got one was in early December. I need to check and see what places are around here. I'm hoping to get away with spending $20 or preferably less.

Sabbath morning I woke up feeling yucko and my tooth really bugging me. All day Sunday it got progressively worse. Finally Monday morning came, and I called the dentist and changed my build-up/temp crown appt. from the 21st to today.

Dmontngrey - my tooth is/was cracked/cracking, so a crown should work well enough. If not, then in a couple years maybe I'll have dental insurance again and/or will be in a better financial position to afford a root canal and crown.

I started with a new Korean student today. A girl. She is really super sweet. So now I have Korean boy and Korean girl. They both are about the same age I think, although one is a Junior and the other is a Senior.

With the 3 students I now have, I can make up to $900 a month. A fourth student will probably start next week, and will give me another potential $100/ month.
Four students would be a total of about 12 1/2 hours a week actual tutoring, plus another 6+ hours commute. That is about perfect with my school load this semester.

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Any ideas on how to keep mats from forming in a Maltese's fur? Before Buddy was groomed, I brushed him 3 or 4 times a week and he never had a mat. Since he was professionally groomed, within three days he had at least two mats. I was able to work one out, but the other one was too set. He now has a total of four mats, one fairly good size. (I took care of him while mom was on her trip, and we're keeping him till after his vet appt. on Friday.)

I forgot to mention in my earlier post this week that I finally went to the dentist. I had X-rays, exam and cleaning done for $150. He (dentist) told me that I do need a crown on the one tooth, but he didn't see the need for any fillings. (previous dentist said I had two cavities ...). He also is not going to charge for the buildup - a savings of $150. I can pay for the crown in two installments. I was pretty impressed with him - previous dentist was a friend of family and was offering no breaks.

So today in the mail I got two checks from my dad. The one he sends every month for my phone bill, and another check to pay for the dentist. My brother, grandma and dad all agreed to go in together for the dentist.

If my income stays steady this year, I may have savings left over. I will then repay them. At least for the dentist - I doubt my dad will accept anything back for all the other help over the past year ++. Probably will need to set it aside to help mom out eventually.

Wow! I'm not complaining or anything, but why couldn't some of these people have showed up this summer when my income was completely dried up?

It looks as though I have a possibility of two more students. One would be directly before the 6th grade boy on Wednesdays, and the other would be directly before Korean boy on M, Tu, Th. Roughly an extra $90/ week.

If all of them come through, then I will just have to see if it is more than I can handle along with class work.

Classes started Thursday. Nothing is due until September 10, and the last assignment is December 9. One class looks like it will be a real doozie, but the other two look doable.

While my mom is on her trip, she's letting me drive her car. A 2010 Mazda 6. My car is a 1997 Honda Civic. I jokingly told her that she's going to have to fight me to get her car back. A working radio, windshield wipers that work at all speeds, cruise control, alerts when there's a car beside you when you want to change lanes .... luxury. The keyless entry and start up thing took me a while to get used to, but I'm really enjoying that aspect as well.

Too bad a Mazda 6 will probably never be in my budget category, even once I get a full-time job again. Too many other priorities.

This morning I told B that tomorrow would be my last day doing the Craigslist postings. What I told him was that with school starting up next week (for the high-school boy I tutor) I wanted to be sure to NOT be tired when working with him. (he's the one with narcolepsy - if he's falling asleep, and I'm nodding off ... not good!) But the really truly reason is that I just am not at all comfortable with what he was asking me to do. It wasn't anything illegal, just not very ethical. He really is a nice person, and I know that what he was having me do was just a way of trying to drum up business ... but money or no money, I couldn't keep doing it and feel right.

This afternoon I had my first appointment with a tutoring student who came about because of the flier's I left at the high-school last May. Really sweet kid. I'll be working with him mostly on writing process and some on grammar. Getting him better at doing timed essay writing's is really the main thing his mom wants me to focus on.

On arriving home, I checked my email and found out that I had made another sale at half.com. The last of the six textbooks I had posted on there in April. I was really somewhat surprised that it sold, because it was an older edition than the required textbook for the course. Nonetheless, I am quite pleased. Now the only textbooks I have are for my summer class and Fall classes. Which reminds me, I should list my summer class text.

I decided to bump up my Netflix subscription to the current basic plan. Previously, I had still been grandfathered in to the $4.99/mo plan 1 disc 2x month. What finally convinced me to go the few dollars extra a month, was the Starz Channel. Besides the normal streaming videos/tv programs, the Starz Channel has a number of fairly recent movies. Including "Letters to God" which I was number 89 on the wait list at the library for, and was not available as a DVD on Netflix itself. I could have purchased it for $15 at Mardel's ...

So, like I said, I upgraded to the very basic unlimited 1 at a time plan. That also meant I could get the Wii Disc to stream the movies onto the TV where the Wii is hooked up. I received that disc today (free) and have it set up. Very cool.

Last night I ate at Ci Ci's Pizza with my sign language class. Our instructor had invited two of the Deaf members. Wow! Was I ever rusty??!! I was trying to sign "My brother went skydiving this morning" and I couldn't remember the sign for brother! (And yes, my ever loving brother DID go skydiving on Tuesday ... in Las Vegas. He and a friend flew to Vegas Tuesday morning, skydived, then flew back to CA Wed. morning.)

Our instructor is having knee surgery on Monday, but is planning on starting an intermediate sign language class in late October or early November. That means I need to refresh my sign language knowledge quite a bit. I hope I'll have time to go by then ... will just have to make sure I do!

Buddy had his fourth set of shots on Tuesday. At first (before I left to go to the SL mtg) it wasn't affecting him too much. But then by the time I got home, he was a zombie. My mom had come by to sit with him while stepdad went to a meeting. She, and my stepdad, both tried to take him outside to do his business and he just sat there. Then he yipped when they tried to pick him up. When I got home I was able to pick him up (without yipping) and got him to do his business outside. Lovely little command word "Hurry Hurry!" He was pretty much zonked though till about 6 a.m. this morning. But when he woke up, he had all his usual vim and vigor back, plus a bit extra.

I ran through a full tank of gas in less than a week. The two extra trips to L**********e probably didn't help any. (One was helping the school's principal/teacher get ready for school, and the other was the sign language meeting.) I have another trip to L planned tomorrow to help the principal/teacher, and then hopefully my gas usage will go down to a more normal amount.

On Monday I was perusing the Craigslist job listings in what I thought was more futile effort. But I'm stubborn like that. So there's this ad for someone to write advertisements for merchandise and clean it up for pictures.

I called the number and found out it was a resale business. He was wanting someone in the morning so the ads would have a better showing. I went over and applied, and even did a sample posting. I chose this binder full of football player cards from 93.

Well I guess he must have liked my write up, cuz this morning (while I was out walking Buddy) he called. He wants me to start tomorrow! Next week forward it'll be mon to Th from 8 - 10. I think it pays 15/hr!!!

It may only be temporary - he wants to see if this will pick up sales or not. However long it lasts, it'll be more money than I have now! And if it does last, I think I'll be able to fit my tutoring student in afterwards. This way I'll be able to offer him a lower charge per session.

God is so good!

* I received another scholarship! This one is one that is possible to renew for the spring semester!

* We now have the Bitter Apple spray which seems to be helping Buddy stop chewing on his leash. Yay!

* Buddy has now learned: sit, down, shake, sit pretty, take it, drop it, and is getting there with spot (go to your spot) and leave it. I also think he hasn't had a potty accident since Friday (which was my fault for not taking him out in a timely manner).

* I have a number of clicker training books on hold at the library - two of them are already in transit. I also put all the DVDs of Patricia McConnell on Interlibrary Loan. No idea when they'll come in. (Of note - This is the first time I've ever actually used ILL for myself. Ever. I'd used it before for my boss at the oil and gas company, but not for me.)

* Saturday I had the wonderful pleasure of celebrating the baptism of my good friends son. I've known him since he was just a few days old. I cared for him during the first two "false labors" and the final real event of his little sister coming into the world. He is a quality young man who as of tomorrow will turn 10. His extremely high IQ was showing through the examples the pastor was using of analogies he (the 10 yo) had come up with regarding life as a Christian. For example, he likened the need for us to read the Bible, pray, etc. to practicing soccer. Both are ways to get ready for the "end" game. He had a couple other analogies too which were really spot on.

* I am finally getting faster at my barefoot running. For the longest time it was taking me 30 minutes+ to complete 1.5 miles -- although most of it was done walking. On Thursday I completed the 1.5 miles in 24 minutes! (Still not very fast, I know. But I'm regaining ground I lost from not running for a while.)

* Tuesday Buddy goes for his next round of shots. That'll have him protected enough for me to take him out on a "real" walk. I've been practicing loose leash walking in the house with him, but it will be a real test on Wednesday morning when we go out in the "world". I'll have the clicker and a bag of goodies with me.

* My mom and stepdad are leaving on Wednesday for ten days. They're going on an Alaskan cruise. A long held dream of my moms. I get the house to myself for ten whole days! Something that hasn't happened since I moved out of my apartment last August!

* Only a bit more than two weeks left of my summer class. Then only 4 classes to go! Hopefully I can hold on to my current GPA.

* Mom gained 3 new tutoring students, so she is completely full. If she gets any more, she's going to refer them on to me. She keeps telling me that the way to get them is to "get out there". But the way she "gets out there" is getting her hair done, or her nails done, or going clothes shopping ... all of which takes something I don't have any of -- $$$. So I keep perusing Craigslist and other places, and wait patiently for the new school year to start again.

Today we took Buddy for his first Vet visit (with us anyway) and he handled it with flair. He actually was wagging his tail in the waiting room! The vet and tech both commented on how well behaved he was and how cute. He was declared to be a healthy young pup. We'll be going back for his last round of shots on the 20th. Right now, he's pretty sleepy from the shots. It's weird to see him so calm for so long. I'll enjoy it while it lasts.

School Vent

Yesterday we had to turn in our preliminary Draft 2 of the big project for the summer class for peer review. We were told that it wasn't necessary to have it 100% finished, but that a substantial portion needed to be at least attempted. I completed everything, except for part of one section which I need to do a bit more reading on. Maybe half a paragraph's worth of material.

So, I finally got the draft of a peer which I was to review. Ugh! The person didn't include the draft 1 (which is basically the set up/introduction for the project) and then only completed one of three Appendices, and only two of the 6 narratives. I hated doing it, but I emailed the TA's and told them what I'd received (they don't look at the drafts, just randomly send them to different people after checking off that you sent one in). I seriously feel cheated. Not only do I not have a good paper to compare mine with (and thus see things I could do better), I also have a partner who hasn't done the work, so will not be able to make any substantive or helpful comments. (especially considering the quality of the little she did)

I'm still waiting to hear back. But I really hope that they'll either have one of them "peer" review my paper, or set me up with someone else.

Suduko!

I've seen people playing Suduko over the years, and have attempted to play it as well. Even with people trying to explain to me how it works, it never seemed to click. But I saw how much people loved it ...

Today I found a free app that says it will teach you Suduko. I figured why not, I won't lose any money.

And ... I finally got it!! I learned two tricks -- full house and naked something?? I played 5 puzzles in a row ... only reason I stopped was because it was time to go to the vet.

What great free entertainment!

I had decided to try to participate in the frugal fast which Patient Saver suggested this week. The only thing I thought might cause a problem would be if I suddenly had an interview and needed to get some appropriate/fitting clothes.

Well, I found out tonight there were other possible snags!

Tonight I went to go to my sign language class. After our last class in May we'd agreed to not meet again till tonight. The teacher sent me a message on facebook today reminding me about it.

I ate a good meal around 5 p.m. so I wouldn't be tempted to stop somewhere for a snack. Then I arrived at our meeting place around 6:30. When our teacher/leader got there, she asked me if I knew of a good sit down place to eat.

We'd talked about going out to eat as a group and signing our orders while she interpreted, but had never set a date. Apparently, tonight was it.

We all (7 of us) ended up going to IHOP. I could have just ordered water, but instead I had water and a grilled cheese sandwich. (Both the least expensive thing I could find on the menu, and the least amount of food.) It was $3.89 with tax, and I left $6.00 total.

I'll be marking it and moving on to complete the Frugal Fast this week.

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I got an email tonight from the current Primary/Junior SS leaders asking if I'd teach this Sabbath. Reluctantly I agreed. This will at least be a good way for me to introduce myself to my Primary students who will be starting with me on July 3rd.

Tonight I also found a person willing to let me have a pool party at their house. The kids will earn points for it by prompt attendance, knowing their memory verse, answering questions about the previous weeks lesson, bringing a guest and good behavior.

I have found two new authors which I *really* like. Both of them are in the adult mystery genre, and feature women. The first one is "The No 1 Ladies' Detective Agency by Alexander McCall Smith. It is set in Botswana, Africa. There are six books in this particular series (but lots more written by this author). The other book/author is "Curiosity Killed the Cat Sitter" by Blaize Clement. A former female policewoman is no longer on the force, but runs a pet sitting business. There are 4 books (so far) in this series.

The last few months my car has died on me twice - both times where I'd left the lights on for a few minutes after turning off the engine. Then this past week it had been starting more and more sluggishly. I *really* thought it was the starter or maybe the ignition.

In fact, I had an appointment lined up for tomorrow with a shop I've used before and a family friend to go with me "to talk shop" with the mechanic. My dad however convinced me that I should get the battery checked just to be 100% sure.

I'm glad I did! I took it to Firestone where I'd gotten the battery last summer (remember all my car woes of last summer???) and an hour! later I found out that it *was* a bad battery! They replaced it for $18, and another 40 minutes later! I was out of there.

So ... here's hoping that there is not anything more to it!

I'm back in my dorm room after the second day of my summer class. It's been two long days with lots of info being given, but I'm finding most of it interesting. Thankfully our professor doesn't seem like he's going to spend two hours going over how to use blackboard ( online class portal). I was dreading sitting through that (for a third time).

I brought some homemade oatmeal packets with me for breakfast, but the one microwave is in the lobby. It's a long walk there, and no tables to sit at. So I bought some pb and bread, plus a few bananas. The oatmeal will still be good when I go home.

I ate at Mcdonalds for lunch the last two days. I get some funny looks asking for a cheeseburger with the meat on the side. But it's the closest and cheapest place for lunch. Tomorrow night there's a get together, so I won't have to figure out anything for supper.

I just about had a heart attack at church on Saturday. I went to talk to the lady who'd agreed to be my assistant for teaching Primary SS. She told me that she was leaving to India on Wed. and wouldn't be back till sometime in August. My first Sabbath to teach is July 3. Thankfully someone else stepped up and agreed to fill in through August. We're going to meet after church to discuss plans. I need to find out for sure from my friend T when her son is being baptized in July. No way would I miss that!!

I found this on yahoo -an article/post about why people hate cooking (and how to remedy them). It looks like the blog itself has some other good information too.

http://summertomato.com/10-reasons-you-hate-to-cook-and-what-to-do-about-it/

Ever since I finished up with my Spring classes, I helped out on Tuesday afternoons at my local church school until it was time for my sign language class. Last week the teacher/principal asked me to come in two extra days. I off-handedly mentioned that I couldn't do it because of gas money. She asked me if I would come and help if she could get me some gas money. I said sure -- thinking maybe $10. Well on Monday after I was leaving I opened the envelope ... there was $60!!

I've been looking everywhere trying to find any kind of work. Babysitting gigs, etc. I've applied at a number of employment agencies. Nothing. Just a bit ago this morning I get a call from the person I worked with this past semester. She told me that the high-school boy I'd worked with had passed Biology (yay!) AND that he was having trouble finding a tutor to help him finish his courses in Korea this summer. SO he is looking at coming back here to the US for a month and would like me to help him!

I'd be giving him a really cheap rate - 24hrs a week for $200 for 4 weeks. It's not 100% positive that he'll be coming - details such as where he'll stay during that time and whether his parents can afford it as well as whether the college the courses are coming from will let him complete the courses in that short of a time...

But ... God is in control!

My summer class starts this Sunday, and I'll be on campus for 4 days. I'm really looking forward to being busy again!

ETA: Oh well. I just got a call letting me know the student found a tutor in Korea. Will keep the faith.

Yech. There was drama this weekend. I won't go into it all, but suffice it to say that there is no chance of mom and stepdad reconciling.

I've really, really tried to stay out of all of it. But today something happened which made me very annoyed. No, actually, REALLY annoyed.

Mom was over here picking up some of her belongings. She decided she wanted her case of CD's. Apparently before I moved in, this case was stored in one of the dresser drawers in my bedroom. Stepdad knocks on my door, and when I say come in, he walks right in and goes over to my closet (which was open) and starts looking at the top shelf. Some things there are his, some are mine. He then asks me if I've seen the CD case. I tell him that no, I don't recall having seen it since moving in here. He leaves.

My mom then comes in and asks me if I'd seen it. I told her that no, I hadn't. Then she opens one of the dresser drawers. I stood up to her and told her that I did not want her going through all the dresser drawers! The drawers had ALL been empty except for one which had sheets for the bed in it. She got all huffy and told me "Well, if you were missing something, you'd want to go through all the drawers!"

Then she left.

First of all, a big part of the reason I insist on paying rent is to have some expectation of privacy. Secondly, if I *was* missing something, and was told by someone that NO they had not seen it, NO I would not expect to be able to go through their dresser drawers or their closet!!!

And she seriously thinks I'd consider living with her on her own??? (She's under this delusion that she's going to be able to go out and buy a 3 bedroom house in the low 100's with part of the divorce settlement. She's offered to let me rent a room there "for just $300 a month - a real bargain since I'd charge a lot more to anyone else". Sweet, right? Let me move *again*. Let me move *further* away from my home church. Let me pay *more* in rent. And, top it off with being in a much smaller space than now with just my mom? Yep, I'll be taking her up on that real fast.

I'm sorry if I'm sounding really, really b-wordy here. I'm having LOTS of really ungracious thoughts. Wondering a lot of the time if it really was worth living like this to go back to school. Now I'm pretty much stuck. I've gone to far to not finish.

My brother is so smart. Living FAR away from Texas, and far enough away from all other relatives so he has a comfortable breathing space.

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One other piece of drama this morning. I dropped my prescription off to get refilled. I then got a phone call from my doctor's office manager telling me I had to come in for blood work and a doctor visit before they'd renew the scrip. When I explained that I have no income at the moment, and am in school, she snarkily asked, "So how do you plan on paying for the medicine?" At the time I didn't have this comeback on hand, although I wish I had -- $25 for medicine is a WHOLE LOT easier to come up with than $200+.

She wanted me to make an appointment right then. I told her I couldn't do that - I needed to see if I could figure something out. I called back later and asked if the figure of $190 they gave me *absolutely* included everything. i.e. I wasn't going to receive a surprise bill a month from now for lab work. They assured me it did. So, I went ahead and scheduled the appointment. I've been with this doctor since 2001, and really like her. (Her office manager, not so much.)

My stepdad when he heard about this, told me to not send him rent for May. That I can make it up once I have some income coming in again. That way I won't be dipping into savings for this.

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Enough of the meladrama already, right?

So, maybe good stuff.

I went ahead and registered for my fall classes so I could see exactly how much they'd cost. Then I also checked with my advisor about how many credits I'd be charged for for Spring semester.

I was told that there is *no charge* for Capstone (a one-week course where you write 3 1500-2500 word research papers on a pass/fail basis). So, I'd only have the one 3 credit course.

What that means is that right now I have about $1200 more than I need for Fall/Spring tuition. Of course, then there are the fees for the certification exam and graduation expenses ... but that right there makes me feel a whole lot better. (I was worried that it was going to cost a good bit more.)

Then I finally contacted the scholarship/financial aid office to find out when the decisions were being made. I was told that they'd already weeded out those who weren't eligible, and are working on giving out the rewards. Since I haven't received a letter saying I'm ineligible, and there's no notation of such on my record --- I may have a chance of some scholarship money! The final rewards will be given out by (sometime in) July. So, hopefully sometime in the next 4 -5 weeks I'll be getting on here gleefully exclaiming that I was awarded some scholarships.

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I checked into CareCredit. You have to financially qualify for it - just like a regular credit card. The only way I could qualify right now, would be to get a co-signer. I'd thought about (not too seriously) asking my mom to cosign, but her income is about as unsteady as mine is.

I also checked into the idea of getting work done at the local Dental school. I'm not too sure about it though. The screening visit is $54. Then *if* you are accepted as a patient, you have to come in once a week for appointments AND be willing to go for a "complete" treatment plan. That makes me very, very wary. The school is in Dallas - about an hour's drive from here. All I want is a crown and two fillings. What if they "suggest" a whole bunch of other work?

So .. I think I'm going to wait to make any decisions on the dental stuff until I find out if/how much I receive in scholarships.

Today I finally went to the dentist to have my teeth checked. The ones which have been bothering me for several months. But that really is just a small part of my day today.

It started with my tutoring student telling me he had not spent any time studying the study cards, and that the night before a test he had all of three days to prepare for, that he's going to a friends house for a few hours. I seriously don't get it. I care more about him passing than he does. Only one more week left working with him. If he passes, then I might work with him again next year. I'm not so sure though that I even want to.

After tutoring, I got my oil changed. Had a $5 coupon and got a raincheck for a free car wash ( since it was pouring rain). $26.84 total

Then I went to the library to pick up a bunch of books I had on hold. (the Alice books by Phyllis Naylor) books 1,2 and 4-9 were all there. Book number 3 hadn't even been put in transit. I'd ordered all of them on the same day, and none of them had other requests. The CSR released the hold on that copy, and put it on a different copy. Hopefully I'll have it before I finish the first two.

Finally, I head down the road for my dentist appt. He is located in a town I lived in several different places, and also attended a nearby university. So I knew a great Chinese place with the best Egg Foo Young. I parked, and before going in checked to see the showtimes for Shrek 4. The local movie place has first run movies for $3. I turned my car off, but not my lights.

A few minutes later I got out (the first showing wasn't till after my appt) to go eat. Soon I found out they didn't take cc or debit. So back to my car for another plan.

The problem was though, my battery was dead!!! Argh!! After about 15 minutes a lady helped me jump start my car. I didn't want to turn it off till I was sure it was recharged, so went through TB drive through and then just drove around looking at the places I'd lived before for about an hour.

I finally went into the dentist about 30 minutes early, and an hour later was seen. Final prognosis is that I have at least two cavaties on the left side (where they xrayed) and one tooth that most likely needs a crown soon.

Total cost of prognosis (2 fillings, right side xrays, and. crown) $1700!!!

Today's visit -$85.

I feel so frustrated. My car has now done this twice - where the battery dies if the lights are left on after the motor goes off. Plus all the problems I had with it last summer.

Then I have a sinking feeling that before my doctor will renew my synthroid (hypothyroid) prescription, she's going to insist on an office visit and bloodwork. $3-400.

Then of course all this dental work. I could let it go - but what if the tooth cracks? And the cavaties will only be worse later.

Right now I have enough savings to pay for fall semester tuition. IF I find some income for the summer.

I'm really tempted to use my Roth Ira contribuitions. There'd be just about enough to pay for the dental work, and I don't think there'd be any tax consequences.

Or, I could just not continue my degree right now, and try to find full time work and rebuild my savings. I'd really hate to do that though, with only 16 credits to go. Plus there's no guarantee I'd find anything.

My one remaining student still hasn't paid me for May. He'd asked me if I could wait until he found out for sure when his final was ... I agreed. Then the next day I pointed out to him that if he wanted me to help him with the English class, it didn't matter when the final was -- and that I needed him to pay me by Friday. He must have forgot, and I also forgot, because the entire session we were working on the (thankfully!!!) open book test.

I know for sure that I have A's in two of my classes. In my third class I am pretty much finished with the final test, but am just waiting for a reply from the instructor regarding a few questions I had.

I've been enjoying myself soaking up book after book -- ones I want to read, and can enjoy without having to worry about writing something about them later.

My mom and I have played 4 games of Words With Friends in the last week. She's won two, I've won one (and am probably going to win the current one).

I've not been doing very well with food or money lately. They kind of go hand in hand for me. The more my gut tightens about not having money, the easier it is for me to spend money --- not on good, healthy food -- but on junk food. I'd been doing so well on No-S, sticking to just the weekends for my sweet tooth -- but of the last two weeks especially ... not good. It's almost like I get this voice in my head that tells me --well the money's gonna run out sometime one way or the other, whether you're careful or not ... may as well enjoy some of it.

I'll get back on track, I always do. I just wish I was stronger and could tell that "voice" (for lack of better terminology) to shut the hey up!

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In good money news ...

I got my tax refund --- $62! Yay! I'd been planning on using some of it for a hair cut, but with what I'm bringing in for May, and nothing lined up at all for June yet ... guess I won't be getting a hair cut any time soon.

Also, after a bit of a mess with half.com (they had an old checking account on file for me -- and I had to verify my identity in order to update) I finally am getting paid for the two textbooks I sold. (Actually, I sold three. But before I mailed out the third one, the buyer asked for a refund. Supposedly had dropped the class.) So ... that's $59.62.

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I've been really considering what to do with my things in the storage building. That rent eats $79 a month. I'd say the unit is about half-full -- it was the smallest non-climate controlled one. The climate controlled ones start at $99/mo.

I have approximately another year before I could possibly get into a place of my own again. So, the 4 months it's already been in storage, plus 12 more would be a total of 16 x $79 = 1264.

What's in storage? 5 bookshelves of varying sizes, approximately 15 boxes of books, ~5 boxes of photos/games/DVD's/memorabilia, ~10 boxes of kitchen and bathroom stuff, 3 boxes of decorative items, elliptical, 2 dressers (1 is my childhood dresser the other is a normal dresser), 2 nightstands, futon/couch,computer desk/hutch,and some other miscellaneous items.

I could see selling the elliptical with no problem. The futon/couch I could sell, although I was thinking I could use that as my bed whenever I get into my new place. The childhood dresser ... mostly held on to for sentimental value, as well as the hope to use it for a child of my own someday -- very dim hope. It's not very big, but is sturdy. The books ... I suppose I could cull them down to only 5 boxes worth, if I absolutely had to.

The thing is, even if I did manage to cull the items down to even half of what I have right now ... the smaller units wouldn't be cheaper. Or, if I somehow found another place with cheaper smaller units, I'm not sure the savings would equal out the cost of renting a truck to move the items.

Ugh. I don't see a way to effectively cut this expense. Although, maybe I should go ahead and try to sell the elliptical. I probably couldn't get more than $50 for it though ... it would be more than nothing.

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Is anyone else having a problem getting notified about responses to blog posts? I've gone back and checked a number of blogs where I commented, and found that there'd been subsequent comments - but I'd not gotten any notice of it.

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Well, can't think of anything else halfway interesting right now. Hope everyone has a good weekend -- and Happy Mother's day to all the mom's!

Spring semester is almost finished. I have one test to take on Friday, and then I will be done! If I do well on the test, then I should have 3 A's. Then I can breathe easy (at least academically) until my summer class starts on June 6.

Financially ... my gut is twisting. This month -- May -- it looks like I won't even make $400.

TG, the academic dean at the school where I'm tutoring the high-school boy at talked to me today. She did say that she might have some (one at least) person for me to work with this summer. She also asked me if I'd be willing to work with SH again next year ... at a reduced rate and reduced time. But that she thought she could find others to make up for the reduced amount/time.

Next year SH will be taking pre-calculus. I'm not even sure what pre-calculus is. (yes, I know it's math - I've taken Algebra 2 and Statistics ... not pre-cal). The government and lit classes I feel comfortable helping him with ... the pre-cal ... not so much.

I'm really not sure what to do. I was hoping to find something part time where I could be more sure of how much I'd make each month. But there doesn't seem to be much of anything near enough that'd be worth the gas.

I was looking forward to my break between classes so I could go catch some movies at the dollar theater, but all the movies there are ones I don't want to see. The movies I'd like to see are at the full-cost theaters (or will be soon) Iron Man 2, Sex and the City 2, Shrek ... For now I'm going with the free movies from the library. This weekend I watched Miss Petigrew Lives for a Day (great movie!) and Revolutionary Road (Ugh!!! Don't recommend unless you want to be very, very, very depressed). I have Cold Mountain, Slumdog Millionaire and Dan in Real Life still to watch.

I'm going to try to do some cooking and putting together a lot of freezer meals over the next couple of weeks. So hopefully I can reduce my grocery bills for the next few months. There really isn't much I can cut.

My monthly bills look like this:
$200 - rent
$79 -- storage unit rent
$80 -- phone (paid for by my dad right now)
$90 -- gas (auto)
$90 -- groceries
$25 -- prescription
$35 -- savings towards 6 month car insurance
Total -- $599

Then of course, 10% of whatever comes in goes to tax savings, and another 10% goes to the giving category. Then you know, the incidentals like oil changes, hair cuts (still need one badly), etc.

I'm going to have to use some of my tuition savings for living expenses. Which means I'll have to borrow money for Spring 2011 tuition -- unless I get some killer scholarships.

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My stepdad has paid for tickets for my mom and I to go see the play version of Little House for Mother's Day. I had planned on doing it for her, but realized that it would be totally financially irresponsible -- even though the two tickets ended up being a bit less than $50. I'm going to cover parking, which will probably be $10.

My teeth are still bothering me. My mom and stepdad have said they'll cover the cost of getting my teeth checked out, and if something needs done, they'll help me out.

This is a lesson in humility for me. Learning to humbly accept other peoples generosity. Someday hopefully I'll be in the position to do the same for others again.

Thankfully my car seems to continue to hang on. I read a good article off of Yahoo today:

http://autos.yahoo.com/articles/autos_content_landing_pages/1428/How-To-Tell-When-It-s-Time-for-a-New-Car

Well, that's about it for now.

I'm in the final stretch of the semester. Lots of stuff due in the next 5 or 6 days, then I can take a breath.

A mixed blessing occured this morning. I was told by one of my two tutoring student's moms that she couldn't afford to keep going. So, instead of going into June with a possible $7-800, I'll be going in with about $400. I've resolved to not panic. God is in control.

I did not manage to cut my food budget this month like I'd hoped to do. Part of the problem I think was I didn't really plan very well. So, as soon as I have a chance, I plan on seeing how many meals I can make with stuff I already have, and then just fill in the edges. Maybe I'll be able to do some cooking on Sunday (and freezing).

I was asked to do a third job at church. I turned it down - with good reason. It was being the Sabbath School Secretary - essentially the person who goes around and collects the offering before SS is over. Can't quite do that if I'm teaching the Primaries.

Well, this has to be one of the shortest entries I've ever done I think.

Before I go -- For great Christian romance stories suitable for teens, check out the Christy Miller, etc. series by Robin Jones Gunn. Excellent.

Tonight my stepdad and I were taking our usual walk around the neighborhood. We do this just about everyday. Today was my barefoot day. Along our route there is a house which we've been watching progress, from the digging and planing, to the pouring of foundation, etc. By it is a dumpster where the workmen dump their trash.

Today I was talking a mile a minute about the book I'd read this afternoon (Graveyard Book - Wow!) when I took a pause to catch my breath. That's when I heard it. Meow! Meow! It was so pitiful, so plaintive, it completely arrested my attention.

So I stopped in my tracks to listen more closely to figure out where it was coming from. As I looked around, I saw peeping out over the edge of the dumpster the head of a cat. A beautiful, yet emaciated cat. Black with a white stripe down its belly, and half of it's mouth covered with white. It was skin and bones.

I walked over to the dumpster slowly. It allowed me to come right next to it and even to scratch its head. All the time continuing to meow.

As hard as it was, I continued on home with my stepdad. When we got there, he found some tuna and a paper bowl and got some bottled water. I started calling the local animal shelter. As much as I would love to have another cat, it just is impossible for me now. But I figured that taking it to the animal shelter where it would be fed and cared for, even if it ended up being euthanized, would be so much better than starving.

The local animal shelter was closed. I tried at a couple other places, but was told that only the local animal shelter could come get it. We couldn't take it to any place ourselves.

By the time we got back to the dumpster, the cat had dissapeared. I left the bowl of tuna, plus water in the bowl, in the dumpster, and then went back home.

There's a special place in hell for people who dump their animals.

Last night after my ASL class my teacher videoed me doing my story. She did it in about 12 segments so that we could make the signs as clear as possible. It turned out pretty well, although some of the transitions are *really* noticeable. I had to upload all 12 segments to youtube, and then redownload them two at a time (two per hour) and then convert them. Finally I put them in the Movie Maker and did some more messing and trimming, and came up with the final product:

Kitten' First Full Moon : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Blz7nD6uJiM

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I have three "vacation" mornings this week. My high-school student is having standardized testing Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday. I offered to meet with him Tuesday after school, and then do a double session on Sunday - seeing as though he'll still be expected to be ready for the next test on Monday. He wants a "break" from tutoring. So, instead of doing makeup sessions, "we can just take the $75 from May." UGH@@@!!!!! Gee thanks, I didn't need that $75 or anything.

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I found out last night that my local church's school is desperately seeking a first-third grade teacher for next year. It is somewhat tempting. Steady pay (REAL money - none of this business of "taking breaks") and probably a pretty small group of students (could be a curse or a blessing though ...) most likely no benefits though. But I'm focused on finishing my master's. If I went back into teaching, I'd probably not finish it ever. Because if I went back into teaching for the denomination, I'd have to take classes to renew my denominational certification. That would essentially curb any further classes in Library Science. Plus, I just really do not want to go back into the classroom.

Not to mention I have *absolutely* NO teaching materials anymore. So, I'd be starting from pure scratch.

Just not something I want to do.

*Of course, I'm starting to feel really panicky about my money situation. And kind of wonder if God is pushing me towards this to take care of that. But then again, it could be the panic speaking. I hope I hear about the scholarships for next year really soon.

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My mom and stepdad have offered to cover the cost of me getting my teeth x-rayed to make sure that the tooth pain isn't more than just sinus related. That might happen as soon as this coming Tuesday.

The past few weeks the internet has just stopped working for me at various times. It would start working again after I restarted my computer, but it was very annoying. This afternoon it stopped again, and the restart didn't work.

So, after exploring a bit, I realized that my USB receiver wasn't showing a light. Some more exploring and experimentation revealed that the front USB plug on my computer seems to no longer be working. So, I plugged in my USB hub to the back of the computer, and have internet again.

I have a funny feeling that my computer is not going to last much longer. If it can just survive till I'm out of school and making a real living again ...

Of course, with the way things are going, I'm going to have everything breaking down on me the moment I start getting a real paycheck again - my car, my computer, my health. It may be an expensive few months. Just so it waits till I can afford it!

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I did my book talk today at the library. (I mentioned some of the books already here - Hoggee, One-handed Catch, and Runt). It went really well.

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Okay, I have a question. I turned in my report on my Story time assignment on March 25. It was due March 28. Unfortunately, it didn't save properly as a Word document. On April 4 my professor returned it to me and told me that I needed to turn it in again saved as a Word document. I did that within minutes of receiving her email.

I have not received a grade for it yet -- but it is marked as Late on the submissions tab.

Am I wrong to be upset that she has marked it late? I don't feel that it is my fault that she waited so long to look at it. I do concede that it is my fault for not double checking that it was saved in the proper format - but should that make it be marked late?!

This same teacher marked off 5 points on a journal response because she said that I hadn't mentioned a speech. I wrote back to her and told her that I could see why she thought I hadn't done so, because it wasn't written "so and so said..." but more of a response. I then included a quote from my journal showing where I was talking about the speech. She never responded to me, except to put my grade up minus the 5 points.

I'm not very happy about this, because I have to have this same professor for at least 2 more classes.

I'm afraid I'm going to get a B in this class because of the Story time late grade (if she ever gets around to putting up a score!)

So funny. Tonight my stepdad and I were out doing our usual evening walk around the neighborhood (about 30 minutes or so) when I got a call from my mom. She was working with one of her tutoring students and couldn't figure out how to do the math. Luckily I had worked with my tutoring student (in the same class) on Monday on that exact assignment - so I knew what the page looked like. I tried walking her through it step by step as I was walking, but finally had to tell her I'd call her back when I had paper and pencil in front of me. We went straight back to the house and I called her back. Between stepdad and I, we were able to work both mom and student through the problems. (It was doing function tables from a graph and figuring out the rule.)

Sixth-grade math I can still figure out. Don't know that I want to mess with seventh-grade math.

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Not too much to report. Yesterday was my ASL class. I showed my teacher the progress I've made on putting together the video. She suggested some better/smoother ways to sign/transition some parts. Next Tuesday will be the final run through - then I'll need to make the official video.

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Mailed the textbook which sold Monday, today. From what I understand, I'll get paid for it on the 15th from half.com. Hopefully another textbook or two will sell before then.

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I looked into getting the disc to do streaming video through the Wii from Netflix. Unfortunately I can't do it on my $4.99/month plan. I'd only really have time to watch more than one or two movies a month when school isn't in full swing, so going to a higher plan just to stream videos to the Wii - ridiculous.

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A tooth in the area that the dentist who did my first root canal two-years ago, and was put on a "watch" list, has been really sensitive and hurting. Really, most of that side of my mouth hasn't been feeling so great. My allergies have been really acting up, so I keep praying that it's just my sinuses causing my teeth/jaw to hurt. There's no way in double h hockey stick that I can afford first of all going to a dentist and getting new x-rays, and then a root canal, and then a crown. Not if I want to actually finish my degree.

So, I'm taking my $70/bottle (30) generic allergy medicine and popping Aleve and hoping that when my allergies are gone, the tooth pain will be gone too.

I had a pretty uneventful weekend. One really good thing is that I think my tailbone is almost healed. I was able to sit through all of Sabbath School and church without my donut. I was a little sore, but not too uncomfortable.

I was disappointed that neither one of the usual sign language interpreters were there at church this weekend. I learn so much just from watching them, and trying to follow along during the songs. There was actually one song I think I could have signed most of, but without anyone else signing ... yeah, I'm chicken.

I worked with my high-school student on Biology Sunday afternoon. Then came home and my mom was there with Easter baskets for both me and my stepdad. She offered to hide them (i.e. do a treasure hunt) but both of us said that was okay. Then we went out to IHOP. While we were there, mom and stepdad played against me on the iPhone game Words With Friends (sort of like Scrabble -- Free). I still was beating them.

If any of you play Words With Friends, my handle is Librarian2be.

After we got back we all went for a walk/run. I was doing my barefoot thing using the couch to 5k program (that I've kind of altered to better suit my speed). Every time I was running, I had to do some circles because my stepdad was keeping step with my mom. So I'm not sure how accurate my distance log was.

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Today after working with my high-school student, I stopped at Wal-greens and picked up exactly $5.08 of Easter candy. Two of the items were for my tutoring students, the rest for me.

This afternoon I wasn't 100% sure that I'd be working with my 6th grade tutoring student, but I went over to the school anyway. My mentor librarian had one of the books I wanted to use for my book talk on Friday.

By the time I left the school, I had $140 in my pocket. Hopefully that will continue next week (well, not the $140, because $40 of that was from before Spring Break ...). Anyway, I'll be very happy to make a nice deposit in my checking account tomorrow. May's budget is looking brighter already.

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I stopped by the library also on my way home today to pick up some other books I needed for class. They weren't on the hold shelves, so I had to go to the information desk. I joked around with the lady that they probably were getting tired of seeing me around. She then said that she hoped the library wasn't out of my way. I told her it was on my way home from tutoring. This led to her asking me for my information to give to people who come in looking for a tutor!! Wouldn't that be awesome if I get a tutoring client from the library???

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Yesterday I listed all the textbooks from this past year on half.com. I'm starting them all out a bit on the high end. If they don't sell in a few weeks, I'll lower the prices a bit.

I also found the textbook I'll need this summer for $36 including shipping. Regularly priced around $70.

ETA: I made a sale! 1 textbook sold for $35. My stepdad just told me he probably has a padded envelope that my book will fit in. So, no money going out! Yahoo!

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Okay, some book reccs:

Ages 10 - 14/15:
Hoggee - Anna Myers:
A 14 year old boy and his older brother work as hoggee's along the Erie Canal. A hoggee is a person who leads mules along the path of the canal while the mules pull boats up and down. It is only a spring and summer job. Howard decides to spend the winter and send the money home - but it doesn't quite work out that way. He ends up meeting a very special girl - she's deaf. Can he help her be able to communicate with her family?

One-handed Catch - MJ Auch:

11 year old Norm loves to play baseball and to draw. Then one summer not long after the end of WWII his father asks him to grind some meat and he ends up losing his hand. Norm finds that some people try to baby him and have few expectations of him, while others hold him to a high standard. Will he ever be able to play ball again? What about tie his shoes?

15 - Adult

Little Brother - Cory Doctorov:

1984's Big Brother meets 2022 technology. Marcus and his friends have perfected the art of ditching school - even with the advanced "gait recognition" technology and all the other tracking mechanisms. Then one day he and his friends are in the midst of playing an Alternate Reality Game when a bridge in San Francisco (where they live) is blown up by terrorists. The group gets picked up by Department of Homeland Security, and then the real story begins. Can a 17 year old kid fight back and win against the government?

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Oh, I've now made two test videos of my ASL story time video. I'm still working out a few kinks, but I'm getting closer to the finished product. I should be ... it's due April 23. I really need to have it finished earlier than that though, so I can start focusing more on my research paper due on the 28th!

Today after my morning tutoring student, I stopped at Walmart and picked up enough groceries to hopefully last two weeks (other than bananas). I would have waited until tomorrow, but I won't be working with my student tomorrow, so figured I should do the groceries today.

I spent a total of $34.75. That is nearly half of my reduced food budget. I used one coupon for Totino's pizza, but hadn't found a coupon for mouthwash.

On Monday I want to see if I can get some Easter candy for reduced price - won't spend more than $5. Will have to see if it's at 75% or more yet then.

I also filled up with gas: $22.00. I still had some in the tank, but decided to go ahead and fill up before the weekend.
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I got a postcard in the mail a few days ago telling me that I was eligible to make a claim in a class action lawsuit against AT&T in regards to their DSL service not being as fast as they advertised. I will get up to $2.90 for every month I had service with them where the speed was off. I had DSL with AT&T for around 5 years, 6 if you count the landline less version. So ... that could net me around $100 or so.

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I read two more books for my children's lit class.

Flight by Sherman Alexie:
It's about a 15 year old kid who is part Native American and part Irish and has had a really rough time of it. Just as he's about to make a really, really terrible decision, he starts time traveling. He goes to 1975 Red River, Nevada as an FBI agent, 1876 at Custer's Last Stand, and a few other places. Finally, he ends up back where he'd started, and has to decide if he's going to follow through with his previous plan. Awesome book.

The White Darkness by Geraldine McCaughrean:
I could NOT put this book down. I stayed up till 1 a.m. last night to finish it.

It's about a 14 year-old girl (Sym) who's "uncle" has taught her from the time she was very small all about the Antarctica, and about Captain Oates from Scott's second failed expedition to reach the pole. She has created a companion out of Captain Oates "Titus" as kind of a sounding board and comforter. After her father dies, the "uncle" moves in with her and her mother (who finds out that they are completely broke after her husband dies). Then one day he tells them that they're going to take a trip to Paris. Only, not all of them make it to Paris. And that just not might be the true final destination. Sym will end up calling on everything she's learned and finding courage and strength she never knew she had.

Simply a fantastic book. (An award winner!)

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Today I got a call from one of the ladies at church who is on the nominating committee. Apparently my name ended up on a short list of people they wanted to ask to lead the Primary class.

I've been asked before at other churches, and have always turned it down. I prefer doing things like greeting at the door, or collecting the Sabbath School offering envelopes. Things that don't tie you down every week.

I tried to get out of it by saying that there was no way I could get there to do decorating, etc. She told me that we meet in one of the school classrooms, so I wouldn't be able to decorate anyway.

So I asked about if there was a budget for crafts/activities. She said there was.

Then she told me it was from July to June. So I told her I will hopefully have a job my May, so I wouldn't be able to fulfill the whole year. She told me that I would just work that out with the coordinator.

Oy vey! I accepted the position. :bug eyes:

I will have an assistant, so if I need a break from teaching once in a while I can get it. I'm planning on a mini-trip to Houston in August to visit a good friend of mine - so will need to get that weekend covered. And then of course Christmas if I go to CA again.

I really, really don't want to do this. But I guess I'm of the age where if I'm a member I really should contribute. And I'll probably end up enjoying it, for the most part. I just hate being tied down. Maybe I'll have my assistant do one week a month ... It'll probably be good for me to flex my working with little ones muscles again too, after being out of the classroom for so long.

Yesterday I went to my ASL class. The children who'd been there last week that I'd ordered two candy bars from (fundraiser) weren't there. So that meant I managed to squeak in *just* under budget (less than $.30 under - but still, under!)

For April, I'm going to try to cut $20 from my food budget, as well as not spend money on *anything* else that I absolutely can't avoid.

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On my way to class Tuesday night there is a section of road that has a work zone limit of 40 mph. Every time I go through that section I see at least two or three cops. So, I try to keep my speed right around that mark.

Some lumber truck got behind me last night and didn't like how fast I was going. So he tailgated me for at least five miles, maybe more. Then the road (two-lane, double yellow line) was "clear" and he passed me. As he was passing me, I was praying that there'd be a cop seeing this, and that there wouldn't be anyone coming up over the hill.

Well, no cop, but no head-on collision either. Passing me didn't do the guy much good, because for the next four miles I caught up to him at every stoplight until he turned off.

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I'm all registered for my summer class now. It requires that I spend 4 days on campus. The first day is a Sunday, so I'll just drive from home (about 25 minutes with light traffic.) Then Sunday, Monday and Tuesday night I'll be staying in the dorm so as to avoid morning traffic (a good hour or more on a weekday.) The room is single occupancy with a shared bathroom for $22.50/night. Plus, an extra $5 for internet access. I think it's worth it. I don't need a tv, and I can get by without a fridge - which is the only thing I could get better at a hotel. I may bring my own microwave though, so I can have my oatmeal in the morning. (They have a fridge/micro for rent - $39 a piece. Can buy a micro for that!)

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My allergies are really kicking my posterior. I finally gave in and started taking my allergy medicine. I hate taking it, because once it's gone, it'll cost at least $70 to replace it (generic Allegra.) But, it's either take it now, or get bronchitis or maybe pneumonia later. Ugh.

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Some book recommends from my latest reading frenzy (for school):
How to NOT be Popular by Jennifer Zeigler
**About a 16/17 year old girl who's parents have never stayed in one place longer than eight months. She at first loved the nomadic life, but as she got older she started hating leaving behind friends and boyfriends. So on this newest move to Austin, TX which will only be for four months, she resolves that she is not going to make any friends, because then it will hurt less when they move. Things don't quite go according to her plans though.

The Great Wide Sea by M.H. Herlong
**After the mother dies, the father decides to sell everything and take his three sons sailing in the Bahama's for a year. The three sons aren't exactly thrilled about this prospect - especially the oldest who is almost 16 and looking forward to his first car. The youngest also isn't too thrilled, who at 5 doesn't know how to swim. What does it take to forgive? What does it mean to be grown up?

Jellicoe Road by Melina Marchetta
**This is a book that takes a little bit to get into it. I wasn't sure if I liked it or not at first. After about 100 pages though, I couldn't put it down.

Two families lives are irrevocably intertwined and altered one day on the Jellicoe Road. The story of the survivors and the territory wars between Townies, Cadets, and Jellicoe School students show that in the end, there is always the possibility of hope and love.

Today I finally had the chance to stop by Aldis. We were out of bananas, so I figured I'd pick some up.

Overall, I wasn't really impressed. The carts were gigantic and the aisles narrow. The aisles didn't seem to have much rhyme or reason for what they had - which meant they couldn't mark them clearly. Some prices were better, but not remarkably so.
It just didn't seem like they'd thought through people flow when designing it. Then I got to checkout with my one bag of bananas. I got in line behind a lady with about 10 items who was behind someone else with 100+ items. While we were waiting another cashier came by and told us to get into a new lane. So we did. He left. 10 minutes later he returned with his cash box. We were basically stuck waiting because all the other lanes were packed. The lady in front of me remarked that she'd made two visits to that store - her first and her last.

As for me, I think I'll wait a few weeks and try again. Maybe by then they'll have gotten more organized.

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I'd seriously like to drop my sixth grade tutoring student. Not because of him, but because of his mother. She's so flakey!! Sunday I texted her to dblchk that we were on for Monday as normal (last week was spring break.) She finally replied Monday morning that she was in the process of moving - so could we just do Wed/Th instead? Sure, why not lose $40 of my April budget - just a tank of gas and some groceries. (could've met him at the school)

So today I really wasn't feeling good, but I needed the $30 plus the $40 she owed me from before spring break. So I head out to her new address. Just as I'm about there, I get a call from her saying she'd jet realized it was Wed and that her mom had picked son up from school. She then later had the gall to try and place the blame on me - for not texting her to double check about today!!

Tomorrow I'll meet him at the school and supposedly get the money owed previously, and "take care" of this week. I'm curious if she's planning on compensating me for today - I highly, highly doubt it.

(for reference - the drive is about 30 minutes if I leave at 3 pm. If I leave at 3:08 or later, it will take at least 45 minutes or more. So I either leave at 3 and wait in my car for 30 minutes, or leave 10 minutes later, and sit in traffic for 15 extra minutes.)

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Well since I didn't have tutoring, I stopped by the library to pick up the books for my next journal assignment. Oy vey!

I had the titles and the call numbers written down, so shouldve been easy right? HAH!

After the third time I had to ask a librarian (same one) where a book was, she told me I could just put the books on hold so I didn't have to hunt for them. I told her I thought you couldn't do that for books in your home branch - but she said I could!

I ended up finding all but three books I needed, and put the rest on hold! (these were all books showing as having multiple copies checked in at this branch)

Most of these books are *thick*! Ordinarily, I love thick books, but when I have 8 of them to read, plus the research project, plus the asl video project, etc. all due in less than a month ... Ai Ai Ai!!

The good thing though is that after May 2, other than the third cataloging test, I am done with school until June 6(or whatever date is Sunday that week.) So I'll have a few weeks to just breathe - and concentrate on ASL.

This week a number of Aldi's stores opened up in the Dallas/Fort Worth area. I think they are the first in Texas. Having heard so many people talk about Aldi's before, I am quite curious to check one out.

There is one that is on my way to my morning tutoring student (and on my homeward trek as well). So I will probably stop and check it out on Sunday (doing a Sunday session to make up for tutoring student taking Wednesday off to go to Six Flags).

In order to get to it on my homeward trek, I'll have to do a turn around, so it'll have to be well worth it. (I don't like u-turns - especially on busy roads.)

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Yesterday I kind of made a pointless trip. (i.e. wasted gas) I'm doing a research project on cataloging graphic novels. I've found enough journal articles to give me a good background for the paper, but only a blog post dealing with the MARC codes. The author of the blog post pointed me towards a particular book. After much searching, I found that the book was available in the central Fort Worth library, not for checkout.

So, I called and eventually ended up with an appointment to see the book. The person I made the appointment with ended up having been someone in one of my classes last semester - he'd recognized my name (distinctive last name). So, that was fun.

The book itself ended up not being much help after all, but my professor (whom I'd emailed about my problem) gave me the go ahead to use the blog post as a source.

So ... I met one of my classmates in person, got to see the central library, and realized the book didn't have what I needed. I guess not a *totally* wasted trip.

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I've completed two barefoot run/walks this week (more walking than running at this point.) I really need to replace my sandals - they both have quarter size holes in them. When I went walking in them on Tuesday I had bad enough blisters form that I had to delay my run/walk till yesterday.

I guess I keep hoping to find another $5 deal on sandals (how much my current ones cost 4 years ago) but I might have to give in and go for the $10 pair. My feet will thank me.

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Today I returned the iPhone data cable. No problem whatsoever. I even had taken the wrong receipt with me and the guy had no problem pulling up my info.

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Groceries today: $22.58

One of the items I bought seems to consistently be overcharged. Usually I catch it when it goes across, but today I was distracted and didn't think about it till I got out to the car. It was a difference of $.98. I debated about going back in and fighting it out, but in the end decided it wasn't worth my frozen items defrosting on me.

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Not terribly exciting weekend plans. Tomorrow is potluck at church. I have the corn pudding casserole I made last month (which I forgot) - need to take that out of the freezer tonight. Then Sunday I have the tutoring appt. Then of course work on school work.

Tuesday was a long, yet good day.

It started out with my working on Biology and English with my high-school tutoring student. He asked me if we could just work on English on Friday. I told him sure we could -- as long as he had ALL his Biology vocab cards memorized. He groaned. Oh well.

Then I headed off to meet my friend T and her two kids at Ci Ci's Pizza. We ate and chit chatted and goofed around a bit. We still had some time to kill before the movie, so we walked over to Mardel's. It was kind of windy and I didn't have my jacket with me. So T asked me if I was sure I was ok walking over. I reassured her I was fine. She then asked me if I was just being polite. Her 9 year old son then piped up, "I thought being polite meant saying please or thank you?" LOL! Love that kid.

At Mardel's (a Christian bookstore) I usually can go in and get out without any financial damage. But yesterday I bought 6 books. Yep, six books. I couldn't resist them .... $1 each!! Of course I probably won't have time to read them till this summer.

After Mardel's we went to the dollar theater and saw "Old Dogs". It was pretty cute and funny, although I have the feeling some of the humor went straight over all but one of the 5 kids heads that were with us (we met with another friend of T's and her 3 kids).

After the movie T, myself, and the kids stopped at the video arcade. The 9 year old boy played Guitar Hero, while the 7 year old girl sat on my lap (so I could push the gas pedal) and played the car racing game. What a blast!

Finally I headed over to my ASL class. Everyone else seemed to be running late. My instructor helped me to translate some more of the book I'm using for my video, and then we had class (half-hour late).

I got home after 10 p.m. and watched Lost, and finally shut out the lights around 11:30. Today I didn't have tutoring, so slept in. Yum.

What a great day.

Spent: $6 -books (movie and lunch were treated by my friend)

Mileage: An extra ... 60 miles or so I think. Well worth it.

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Now I need to get busy and make some progress on various schoolwork projects, plus probably ought to do some laundry.

Although this week is Spring Break, I'm still working with my high school student on Biology and English. Thankfully he was focused the entire time today - another session like Friday's session and I would have screamed!

Anyway... my phone had not been updated since the end of January. That means that there were quite a few new apps and other settings which I'd changed around since then that were not backed up. Also, I'd been looking at a couple apps which required the latest software update.

Why hadn't I updated my phone in so long? Because I had left my iPhone charger/data sync cable in my bag on the playground at the 6th grade tutoring student's school. Never to be seen again. That night (after realizing I'd left it there about 9 pm) I had run to Wal-mart and picked up a wall charger so I could at least charge my phone. But they didn't have the sync cable.

Then when my mom got an iPhone a few weeks ago, I thought that if she chose to keep it, I could borrow her sync cable once in awhile. But ... she of course isn't here anymore.

So today after tutoring, I stopped by the AT&T store and picked up a data sync cable for $21.97. (I also stopped at Staples and picked up more index cards for flashcards $3.99 pack of 500.)

When I got home I mentioned the data cable to my stepdad and he asked me if I'd ever heard of this website called Cell Phone Shop. I told him that I hadn't. So he showed me their website and how much the same cable cost there ... $4.99!!

I got on there and looked around, and ended up buying a data sync cable, a mini-microphone (for videos), a car holster/holder (so it doesn't slide around or fall on the floor), and a doohicky to wrap my headphones around (which are constantly getting twisted) all for $24.99 (+$4.99 shipping).

I'm of course going to take the data sync cable back that I bought today (probably on Wednesday because I won't have time tomorrow.)

So, for about $8 more I got 4 items instead of just 1. All of which are items I'd been thinking about, but hadn't wanted to spend the money on.

Yay! Right?

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Unfortunately, I decided that as long as I had the data sync cable here, I may as well get my phone updated.

I plugged it into my little 5 port usb hub and started the software update.

Error message. Software update couldn't be completed.

Weird??

I tried again. Nothing. Message comes up saying "iPhone in recovery mode. Must restore."

I called customer service and am told that yes, I have to restore my phone. Argh!!

So, I click restore. (with great copious amounts of tears and frustration)

Error message. Restore couldn't be completed.

WHAT???

Call customer service again. Got someone who had notes from my previous call (Yay! Didn't have to explain it twice!) Asked me where I had my usb plugged in. Then told me to plug it in to a port in the back and try again.

It worked!

Apparently what happened was the connection was too weak between the hub usb port and the phone for a software update. For normal syncing, it's okay.

Spent a good 3 1/2 hours re-syncing my music (didn't even bother with re setting up my play lists) and re downloading my apps.

Other than my music, everything is completely back to normal on my phone!!

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Tomorrow I'm meeting up with my friend T and her kids to see Old Dogs at the dollar theater and eat lunch together. I'm really looking forward to it. It's going to be a LONG day though, with ASL class after wards, but well worth it.

This coming week is Spring Break. At first I thought both of my tutoring students were not going to use me, so, a loss of $225. But, thankfully only the $100/wk student decided to take the week off.

I've not been doing any extra driving - to work and home, to ASL class and home, to church and home. Any grocery or gas stops have been en route. This coming week however I might do an extra trip to meet my friend T and kids for a movie, and perhaps meet with my mom somewhere, then perhaps a third trip to the dollar movies on my own. Kind of giving myself a little "vacation" too.

Last week my storytimes all went really well. I ended up doing 4! Two for my local church's school, and two at my mentor's library.

I'm working on translating a book and poem into ASL for my video blog with my ASL teacher. (found a free download thing that converts youtube videos into windows media files so I can edit the youtube video in movie maker which comes free on PC's.)

Today I bought ($4.99) a running app on my iPhone called "jog log". I'd been wanting to get back with my running, but didn't like most of the apps I saw for intervals (couch to 5k programs). With this app I was able to create my own program. I can progress as fast or as slow as I'm capable. I might try to go out for a run later today. Beautiful weather. (My phone's charging right now.)

This week I need to work on my research project for my cataloging class and my third journal for children's lit. So far I'm making A's in all my classes.

I applied for a bunch of scholarships for next year a few weeks ago. I don't know when they let you know one way or the other, but it would be so great if I could even get $1k in scholarships. It would greatly ease my mind.

I've been feeling really tired and run down lately. I'm hoping that when I get back to running/walking regularly it'll help.

Can't think of anything else right now.