Before I left for church this morning I decided to go through the mail I'd picked up yesterday. One of the items was from the Loma Linda Uni Hospital talking about how to handle the holidays after a loved one dying. They've sent a number of things in the past 5 months.

Then after church today our head elder came up to me and asked me, "How'd it go car shopping with your dad last week?" In my head a ton of answers surfaced, but I calmed myself by reminding myself that 1. the fact my dad died in June is most important to me - so people on the periphery are less likely to remember that fact, and 2. I'd told him that my family had vetoed my plan to buy a cheap car, so he may have interpreted "family" as "dad" (which definitely would've been the case if he'd still been alive.

I didn't want to embarrass him because there were other people around, but I also wasn't sure if I should clear it up. In the end the only answer I could come up with was, "No, a co-worker came with me last week to car shop." Then he asked what kind of car I got, etc.

I got out of there as soon as I could.

Then I turned my car stereo on. The first song that came on (the Christian radio station) was "One Last Christmas." I had never heard it before and don't know who the artist was, but the combination of all the above ... and I just lost it.

I've already been dreading my birthday coming up here knowing there'll not be any silly cards with my dad's messy scrawl or his phone call with his signature "singing". Last week when I was car shopping I felt like my dad was with me in a sense - I wore his train watch. I know if he'd been alive that he would've made every effort to have come help me with it. That's just who he was. Monday I went to put on the train watch and realized the battery was dead. Then the whole thing with my brother getting sick this week ...

You think you're dealing with things ok and it's not hurting as badly. Then stuff like this happens. I'm ok really, just feeling sad right now.

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On a different note ...

I took my wallet out of my purse this past week to help me avoid spending temptations. It worked quite well - no spending the whole week (Saturday - Friday.) Today I had to pick up my prescription from Walgreens and planned to pick up a few groceries. When I got to Walgreen's I realized that I'd forgotten to put my wallet back in my purse! I had my debit card from BofA with me that I'd never used, so thought I'd try that. When I went to the counter, I found out that I had somehow or another signed up fro something called "express pay" and they had my CC info on file. I'm not really sure I like that, but it worked out for today.

I'll go to the mom and pop store tonight and pick up bananas and maybe some brownie mix. That'll be enough to make it through the next week and *really* force me to use my food stock.

Next weekend is our Christmas Dinner here. So I probably won't be able to make it to town at all next weekend. I have the feeling my grocery spending is going to be really low this month.

Thursday morning I woke up for some reason around 3 am. For some reason I decided to take a look at my phone - I guess to see what time it was. What I saw was that I had two text messages from my brother. I opened them up to see what he had to say.

They weren't actually from my brother, but from his landlord/good friend. He was telling me that he'd taken my brother into the emergency room for food poisoning. I texted him back asking if there was any news (the text was about 20 minutes old) and an interminible 30 minutes later got the text telling me he was ok - htat he'd gotten fluids and meds to stop the vomiting and was being made to walk around.

About an hour later I got a text from my brother telling me he was out and had orders to stay home from owrk for 3 days and NO WORKING OUT for 3 days. He was really bummed about that.

So I checked on him throughout the day Thursday, and he sounded like he was doing okay. I checked on him a couple times today, and he sounded like he was doing okay .. until the last time I checked on him. He said he was feeling worse - worse than yesterday and that he was talking to his landlord. I texted back if he was thinking he needed to see the doctor again .. and have not received a reply yet.

I'd tried calling our Aunt yesterday morning to let her know what was going on, but got her voicemail. I didn't realize that she doesn't check her voicemail. So I called her again a little bit ago, and then called her landline and finally got in touch with her. She's going to try to get in touch with him (or his landlord) and then decide what to do. So I bet she's going to go up there to stay with him, or maybe bring him to her house.

Ugh! I wish I wasn't so far away! I'm just SO very thankful for his landlord/friend. An ambulance had been called for him, but when they got there he told him he was fine. His landlord stayed - and that's when he got much worse and so took him to the ER.

Update (while I was finishing the above section)- Aunt got in touch with him. Said he sounded okay and for us to not worry. She told him if he got sick like that again, to call her and she'd meet him at the ER. Hopefully he'd actually do that. (she's an R.N.)

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Wednesday night I talked to my mom. She wants me to be an usherette in her wedding. I really, really don't want to - mostly because I don't like the idea of being an usherette. But I guess I'll do it - it sounds like it is really important to her.

She also asked me to make a list of 6 things I'd like for birthday/Christmas - even though I'd told her that the ticket there and back was more than enough and that I'd not have much money to do gifts. So am trying to think of things to put on there ... gift cards, haircut/highlights, warm socks... ummm...??? Money towards a remote car starter?? Money for car floor mats?? Auxiliary cable (to plug my phone into car stereo)?

She's having a lot of medical problems right now - stemming from the gastric bypass she had in 95? I think. She had a colonoscopy today to see if they could figure out what is going on. I don't know if staying obese for that amount of time would have had the same effect on her health or not. All I know is that I'd rather do it naturally - even if it takes forever.

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I got my first earnings from GymPact - $2.30 for 5 days.

I also found out that the My Weight app ties into another pay for success/tracking app called Acheive Mint. And that app ties into RunKeeper (which ties into GymPact.)

So I now have my walks recorded with RunKeeper earning me points/money in two different places.

Not bad if I do say so myself.

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I am looking at a $50/month plan with Tmobile where I'll be able to keep my phone - just switch sim cards. Unlimited data/voice/text. That would save me around $24/month. I looked at the $30/month plan as well, but that only has 100 voice minutes which wouldn't be enough.

I need to go in to Walmart and check more into the plan(s). (That's where they're offered.)

This would at least be a way to save a little on my cell phone until Ting can do iPhones.

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I signed up with PenFed for an account and their CC. The one I signed up for has no annual fee and 5% back on gas purchases. So this is the one I'll use when Chase and Discover don't have their gas deals.

I thought about signing up for Southwest Airlines card. But I just don't know if I could do $1000 in 3 months (to get the $800 in airfare.) If I'd known that I was about to buy a car, I could have gotten it early enough, and then easily done it. Oh well, such is life.

Thursday morning I woke up for some reason around 3 am. For some reason I decided to take a look at my phone - I guess to see what time it was. What I saw was that I had two text messages from my brother. I opened them up to see what he had to say.

They weren't actually from my brother, but from his landlord/good friend. He was telling me that he'd taken my brother into the emergency room for food poisoning. I texted him back asking if there was any news (the text was about 20 minutes old) and an interminable 30 minutes later got the text telling me he was ok - that he'd gotten fluids and meds to stop the vomiting and was being made to walk around.

About an hour later I got a text from my brother telling me he was out and had orders to stay home from work for 3 days and NO WORKING OUT for 3 days. He was really bummed about that.

So I checked on him throughout the day Thursday, and he sounded like he was doing okay. I checked on him a couple times today, and he sounded like he was doing okay .. until the last time I checked on him. He said he was feeling worse - worse than yesterday and that he was talking to his landlord. I texted back if he was thinking he needed to see the doctor again .. and have not received a reply yet.

I'd tried calling our Aunt yesterday morning to let her know what was going on, but got her voicemail. I didn't realize that she doesn't check her voicemail. So I called her again a little bit ago, and then called her landline and finally got in touch with her. She's going to try to get in touch with him (or his landlord) and then decide what to do. So I bet she's going to go up there to stay with him, or maybe bring him to her house.

Ugh! I wish I wasn't so far away! I'm just SO very thankful for his landlord/friend. An ambulance had been called for him, but when they got there he told him he was fine. His landlord stayed - and that's when he got much worse and so took him to the ER.

Update (while I was finishing the above section)- Aunt got in touch with him. Said he sounded okay and for us to not worry. She told him if he got sick like that again, to call her and she'd meet him at the ER. Hopefully he'd actually do that. (she's an R.N.)

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Wednesday night I talked to my mom. She wants me to be an usherette in her wedding. I really, really don't want to - mostly because I don't like the idea of being an usherette. But I guess I'll do it - it sounds like it is really important to her.

She also asked me to make a list of 6 things I'd like for birthday/Christmas - even though I'd told her that the ticket there and back was more than enough and that I'd not have much money to do gifts. So am trying to think of things to put on there ... gift cards, haircut/highlights, warm socks... ummm...??? Money towards a remote car starter?? Money for car floor mats?? Auxiliary cable (to plug my phone into car stereo)?

She's having a lot of medical problems right now - stemming from the gastric bypass she had in 95? I think. She had a colonoscopy today to see if they could figure out what is going on. I don't know if staying obese for that amount of time would have had the same effect on her health or not. All I know is that I'd rather do it naturally - even if it takes forever.

---
I got my first earnings from GymPact - $2.30 for 5 days.

I also found out that the My Weight app ties into another pay for success/tracking app called Acheive Mint. And that app ties into RunKeeper (which ties into GymPact.)

So I now have my walks recorded with RunKeeper earning me points/money in two different places.

Not bad if I do say so myself.

---
I am looking at a $50/month plan with Tmobile where I'll be able to keep my phone - just switch sim cards. Unlimited data/voice/text. That would save me around $24/month. I looked at the $30/month plan as well, but that only has 100 voice minutes which wouldn't be enough.

I need to go in to Walmart and check more into the plan(s). (That's where they're offered.)

This would at least be a way to save a little on my cell phone until Ting can do iPhones.

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I signed up with PenFed for an account and their CC. The one I signed up for has no annual fee and 5% back on gas purchases. So this is the one I'll use when Chase and Discover don't have their gas deals.

I thought about signing up for Southwest Airlines card. But I just don't know if I could do $1000 in 3 months (to get the $800 in airfare.) If I'd known that I was about to buy a car, I could have gotten it early enough, and then easily done it. Oh well, such is life.

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

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

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

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

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


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

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

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

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

I've come to the realization that I may have been losing out on cash back rewards by using my MyPoints credit card. For some reason the "2 pts per dollar" translated into my head into "2%." But ... it's not. The least expensive $50 gift card is 6,250 points. So at 2 pts per dollar (assuming that you only earned points through the CC) it would take $3,125 in gas and grocery purchases. 1% of that would be $31.25. 2% would be $62.50. So for the least expensive card, it is about 1.5%. But for the card I get, which is 7,600 points it works out to this: You'd need to spend $3,800.00 on groceries and gas. 1% of that would be $38.00. 2% would be $76.00. So the 2 pts per dollar works out to be about 1.3%.

Hmm... ok. If I'm doing the math right, it isn't actually too bad. Especially since they count Super Walmart as a grocery store, and most other cards don't.

Probably the smartest thing to do is try to spend pretty low during the times that none of the credit cards have the 5% cash back on groceries, and then during the months they have it, use that time to stock up on staples. (Now if I could just get myself to spend UNDER my grocery budget until a 5% promotion period happens ...) But then you also have to figure out if the extra 3.7% cash back is more than the extra you're spending in a normal non-Walmart grocery store. Need a price book for that.

I'm wondering though if I could find a better credit card for gas purchases though? (with no annual fee - I just don't spend enough on either gas or groceries to ever make an annual fee work out to my advantage.)

Well, anyway, just thinking here.

So last night I was taking a look at all my CCs and bank balances as I updated YNAB 4 when I noticed a pending charge on my Discover Card ...

I was expecting a $2k pending charge for the car, but it showed $3k!! What?

I looked through my purse and found my receipt from the auto dealership, and sure enough, it was for $3k, not 2k. After realizing this, I checked the numbers and realized that neither I nor the co-owner/salesman had noticed this during the transaction. The car loan is for the correct amount (I double checked!)

I'd been told that they could only take up to $2k on a credit card, so I based my check amount + cash amount off of a total down payment of $6k - 2k on the card.

Now though, it appears my total down payment was $7k! It's okay, I can manage to scrounge up that extra $1k before the CC bill hits, I'm just having to do a bit of whack a mole (emptying out various rainy day funds) to do so.

So my gift fund is zeroed out. I took 50% of my medical fund (enough left for my monthly prescription next month.) I hit up Kari's fund (her shots can wait til January ..) I reduced my next Roth contribution to the minimum, and eliminated my EF contribution for December. I also decided to reduce my first payment from $200 to $160, and took money from a couple other rainy funds.. All that plus cleaning out the last little bit of money in the source I didn't want to touch, will pay off the entire $3k on the CC. Whooh! I still have a small EF so if anything were to happen, I'd still be ok.

(I was thinking I might have to dip a bit into my ROTH to do this, but thankfully was able to do it without dipping into anything already put in to it!)

I guess I should have double checked the numbers!!

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In an effort to rebuild my cash reserves as fast as possible ... anyone think that I could get $75 for my Asus EE PC netbook? I bought it for $300 in 2008 I think. It still works perfectly, just the software is kind of out of date. (It would include a carrying case, mini mouse, and protective sleeve.) Or would that be way more than what it's worth now? (There isn't a Craigslist for our area .. not unless the person was willing to drive 50+ miles to meet me halfway somewhere ...)

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Btw - drove my car to church yesterday. LOVE IT!

Yep, although my preference on a Black Friday is to be snug and warm at home, today I braved the shopping frenzy and headed out to the big ABQ.

My co-worker NC and I left shortly after 8 and arrived at our destination a bit after 10.


What was our destination?


A car dealership!

Yep, I bought a car today. Gulp.

I test drove and looked at two - a 2011 Nissan Versa ($10,900, 35k miles) and a 2010 Toyota Yaris (47k miles, same price.)

When it came down to it, I managed to force myself to ask - 10,500 including tax, license, etc? When told nope - not even 10,900 including those ... my friend and I actually walked off the property. Nobody followed us or tried to stop us.

We went to a Jack in the Box a few streets down and had a drink. 30 minutes later we went back, and I bought the .... Yaris!

The big differences between it and the Versa: power windows, power locks, keyless entry, nicer radio/stereo, more get up and go, and THE most important of all ... it is Blue!

I put down $6,000. $2k on my credit card (offering 2% cash back for Black Friday spending), $285 cash (from sale of Honda, babysitting money, etc.), and the rest in a check.

The remainder is being financed at 1.99% for 36 months with no early payment penalties. After signing the paperwork, the co-owner/salesman said that it was the lowest finance charge he'd ever seen ($170 something.) I told him that I don't plan on paying most of it (the finance charge.)

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So now that I have replaced my car, I need to do three things:

1. Pay back the loan
2. Save money for car repairs/next car
3. Get aggressive with saving for EF

My monthly payment is $154 something. I plan to pay $200/month on normal months. Months where I have a big boost in income (3 paychecks, tax refund) half that big boost will go towards the loan. I think I should have it paid off in 18 months or less.

I plan on putting the next $100/mo in the car repair/replace fund. This is a 3 year old car. I have to be ready and prepared for any maintenance items that might come along sooner than later.

The remainder of my savings quotient will go towards the EF, as well as 1/2 of any big income boost months.

This is the plan until I have the loan paid off. After that, I have an idea of what my plan will be.

A few days ago my pastor asked me if I'd watch their dogs and cat again while they go on their trip to see family. I reluctantly said yes - reluctantly not because I didn't want to help them out, but because it is a 20 minute one-way drive.

So today I went out there to get the house key and to make sure the animals remembered me. On my way though I had several cars honking at me. Then I noticed in my side view mirror that smoke was pouring out from behind my car. I pulled into a different lane to see if it was really smoke, or if it was dirt. I also adjusted my side mirror to see if I could see anything. Nope, it was smoke.

I got to my exit and pulled off. While crossing over the bridge, my engine started billowing smoke. Huge plumes of smoke. I immediately pulled over and stopped the car, grabbed my purse and keys and jumped out. (I was slightly afraid the engine was going to explode or burst into flames or something.

When nothing happened after a few minutes I called my brother and told him what happened. He told me he thought it sounded like a cracked radiator and/or blown head gasket. He ran it by our Uncle who knows a thing or two about cars, and he agreed.

Some of you know the saga I've had with my car over the time I've blogged here. You know how many times I have resisted the idea of saying goodbye to it and getting something else. I've kept saying - just a little while longer. It's still a good car. But today ... was the final straw. I thought about putting in another $1k worth of work into a car that probably isn't even worth that much. I thought about having my dragged to the nearest Honda dealer (near Albuquerque) and then having to deal with it from far away. I decided enough.

I decided to send my car to car heaven. The junkyard. Maybe I could have sold it to some young kid who could have rebuilt the engine and shined it up for a little more than the junkyard gave me ($200) but I really don't have the energy for that. I need to keep my focus on school and finding my "new" car.



The head elder of my church was out on his copier run (he fixes copiers) and did a little leg work to find out a junkyard that would take my car. He also is going to work on finding a car in the area for my price range ($5k or less.) My pastor picked me up from the junkyard and helped me get everything out of it. He and his wife then let me borrow their second car until Sunday so I don't have to rent a car yet. (I've also been asked if I'd be interested in being an assistant treasurer for the church ... I said yes, as long as it wasn't *every* Sabbath.)

I bought this car brand new - less than 50 miles on it in June, 1997 in California. It's final mileage was 146,497. So many memories - especially memories involving my dad.

So now the search is on for a good condition, good gas mileage, small 4-door car in the $5k range or under. Wish me luck.

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In other news ... A few weeks ago I applied to be a reviewer for the American Association of School Librarians 16th program. Today I got an email telling me I'd been accepted! What it involves is looking at proposals for programs / breakout sessions for the 16th program and deciding whether they are a good fit or not. It isn't a paid job, but it sure will look good on my resume - especially if they think I do a good job and reinvite me the next time!

This afternoon my two colleagues and I set off on our mostly daily walk. One colleague brings along her dog Zoie (a huge dog, maybe a bull mastif?? but super super super docile and sweet.) We also had another neighborhood dog named Sky tagging along with us.

Sky is what caused our walk to be eventful. She is a good, sweet dog who had puppies in Septmeber. Her puppies are now all gone - either died, given away or humane society. She's gotten really friendly with us because JB who has the dog Zoie feeds her sometimes.

Usually she doesn't follow us out of the trailer park, but today she did. While we were walking along on the road that is just outside of the park, another stray dog came along the road - it looked like a German Shepherd. It was pretty harmless by itself - rubbed noses with Zoie. But then another dog came along - and Sky got separated from us. I was having a BAD feeling in the pit of my stomach ... with good reason apparently because soon we heard the high pitched whine of a dog in trouble.

NC and I both picked up sticks and ran toward the 3 dogs. Both of our sticks broke quickly - so I started stomping and yelling like a banshee. It worked. The two strange dogs ran off, and Sky came slinking back to us. I was glad she realized that I wasn't yelling at her.

We continued on our walk, and came across some more stray dogs. All of us yelled and shooed them away. One kept following us from a distance, but finally gave up (after I gave another banshee performance.)

I really like Sky - she is a sweet dog and I feel bad for her - even though she has a home of sorts, she's not really taken care of that well. But we really can't have her following us like this - who knows if our scare tactics will continue to work.

Ugh.

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I spent the majority of the day today working on a new website for our media center. This was after watching a ton of profesional dev webinars, including a couple on making websites with google sites. I hadn't realized that I could get Google sites to do the kind of navigation I wanted, otherwise I would've started with it a couple years ago. Oh well. I have the basics up, and now just need to slowly add the content.

*This was of course done instead of the housework, working on coursework, or working on electives ... I did get my dishes washed though. So that was something.

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I did also make brownies and bake up my sweet potatoes tonight. This necessitated a run into the local mom and pop store for eggs. I was going to get cottage cheese too for my CC Roast, but not at $2.51 for 8 oz!!! (when I needed 32 oz.)

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I saw this posted on FB the other night and thought some of you might be interested:

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Today as I was going into the computer lab, I for some reason or another looked down at my shoes. When I did this, I noticed that the sole on one shoe was cracked. I was really hoping to make this pair of shoes last two seasons (winter) but I'm not sure if I'll be able to do that or not. I have another pair of shoes for work which I got from the Christmas Dinner thing last year which I haven't worn yet, so at least I won't have to go through the hassle of shoe shopping. That is something I truly dislike - almost as much as swimsuit shopping.

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On the advice of one of my co-workers, I bought some Rain-x de-icer last week. I've now used it twice. It works *great* at quickly melting the ice. However, both days it almost immediately refroze ... while I was on the road to work. The first day I had sprayed some windshield wiper fluid to clean the windshield, which I thought was maybe what made it freeze over. But it did it again today, albeit not so badly. I ended up driving about 3/4 mile with my window rolled down and my head stuck out trying to see. Not fun (nor very safe, I know!)

Tomorrow I need to make sure I get out early enough to do the deicing several times and see if that works better. (Or just scrape it normally!)

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This afternoon I stopped by the doctor's clinic and paid my balance. I had put it off for a while for no real reason, just hadn't gotten it done. $38.xx

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Yesterday a box of books came from one of the companies which lets librarians "preview" them, then send back any you don't want. I was expecting this box. My heart sank as I looked through the books, because I found *many* that would thrill my kids AND fit into my goal of upgrading the non-fiction. Of course the cost of the many would be upwards of $1k due to library binding.

Then this afternoon just as I was about to head out to the busses, EM brought by another box. This one also was from a preview company, but not one I was expecting. I also looked through it, and found many books I'd really like for our library.

Since I have nowhere near the approximately $2k to get all the books in the two boxes (plus it would leave me with NOTHING for anything else, except my pocketbook) I have decided to give myself a budget of $300 between the two boxes - concentrating on books which fit in the sections that desperately need updating.

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Today was our 2nd of 3 paydays for this month. It's hard to believe that half the month is already over. I know I lamented in an earlier post that I didn't think I was going to make the $100 grocery budget and so upped it a good bit. I still don't think I will make the $100 limit, but I don't think I'll go over it by too much. Especially if I can talk myself out of making stops for "just" a sandwich like I did today. Other than paying for my doctor ofice balance and a $5 donation at a bake sale last week, I have not spent anything since my last grocery shopping trip.

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Next week I'll have the whole week off. I want to do some casseroles that I can freeze into individual servings, do some cleaning and decluttering in my office, get a lot done on my elective classes, spend a day in the library and take in a movie (probably Alex Cross - love the book series!)

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Kari (my cat) is sitting in front of my monitor right now and refusing to be moved. So I guess that is my signal to finish up at the computer.

Before I go though, can anyone explain to me how to set a programmable thermostat? Thanks

This morning I woke up to the first snow of the season. It is still snowing right now - I expect we'll have 4 inches or so by the time it's done.

I went to big G yesterday afternoon to do my grocery shopping. The store (Walmart) was really crowded - I expect partly due to the impending storm, as well as possibly getting ready for Thanksgiving. One thing I don't mind about stores putting out holiday stuff early ... Terry's Chocolate Oranges! Yahoo! I treated myself to one.

After spending nearly $60 on grocery only stuff yesterday, I think I've decided that a budget of $100/month just is not going to cut it. It is just stressing me out to have that budget and then not meet it. So, I think I'm going to make it $175/mo and then try to keep it well below that. If I do, then it'll go to savings. If not, then no big deal.

I bought some de-icer yesterday at Walmart. If I wanted to go anywhere today, I could test it out and see if it really works. One of my co-workers swears by it. I'll wait til I really *have* to go somewhere though.

The storm hitting the West Coast is called Brutus. I texted my brother about it, and he laughed. Why? Our family had two dogs named Brutus - Brutus 1 and Brutus 2. Both of them were really great dogs.

I am glad for this long weekend. This past week at work wasn't a bad one, it just felt *really* long. I had a surprise visit by my principal on Tuesday morning when I had my 7th grade boys. Thankfully they were on good behavior! This was the initial observation visit. The next official one will be arranged. I plan on asking for her to come observe me with the 4th grade girls. She'll see plenty of interaction with that group.

We had several different groups of donors come by the school this week, dropping off boxes of donated books. It kept my assistant busy going through the boxes and seeing which ones were worth keeping. One of the donors asked me what books I would really like, and I told him *current* non-fiction. In the boxes of books there were two non-fiction books - one from 1958! and one from 1988. Ummmmm....

I want to let you know about a great tv show I ran across this past week on Netflix streaming. Warning - it is very saccharine and heartfelt - may be nauseating to some. 18 to Life - about two 18 year old next door neighbor kids who get married. There are only 24 episodes (2 seasons) but every 24 minute episode left me with a smile at the end.

So tonight after getting back from my evening walk with a couple of my co-workers, I go out to my car heading out to Family Dollar to pick up some more cold medicine.

When I get to my car, guess what I see? There is a flattened piece of metal with a bit of a strip hanging off of it, stuck inside my driver's side keyhole. At first I'm flabbergasted, and then I try to pull it out. It was stuck in there pretty good, although I did managed to get it out.

The only conclusion I can draw is that some kid was trying to break in to my car. Why, I cannot even begin to fathom. They could easily see I have NO radio (the space is completely empty with cords hanging out..) The only things visible are some books, an umbrella and some miscellaneous papers/trash. In other words, absolutely nothing of any value.

Maybe they wanted my car. HA HA HA HA!!! (It's in really bad shape cosmetically. Rust, some kind of white substance on the paint, crunched up hood ... etc, etc.)

I do have some stuff in the trunk I wouldn't want to lose if someone decided to drive my car off - not really valuable perse, but would be a pain to replace.

I think though it had to be a fairly young, inexperienced kid attempting this. Because it isn't as though my car would be at all difficult to break in to - anyone with a coat hanger and a small bit of skill could do it. Plus they had to have done this during broad daylight - unless they did it last night after I got home from my babysitting job.

Bizarre.

I wonder how much longer I'll have my car.

My big bad spending categories - groceries and "Fun Money" i.e. eating out. Can't believe I spent this much on food this month. Maybe $30 of it was for the book fair treats, cupcakes for Halloween Festival, and candy for trick or treating .. the rest .. no justification. It's like I see that I'm trying to keep under $100 in groceries and my inner self goes NO WAY.

I have about $60 in cash right now, and will be getting another $30 or so tonight from a babysitting job. I'm going to use that money this month for cash. 2% back on my card isn't worth spending 2x my budget. Maybe I can actually keep in budget this month. (I will say that most of the groceries from my last shopping trip will keep me for a good week or more from now. Still though~!)

(Professional spending was also up there - that included books I bought at the bookfair, the iPad cover, and some books I bought on Amazon for the library.)

The bright side is that even with the overspending in some categories, I was still able to send $286 to my car savings account (about 22% of my net income.)

I would have made it with just one fill up if I hadn't had to run into big G on Tuesday to return some videos to the G-M District Library. They HAD to have them back to send out Wednesday morning. When I got to big G, I was running on fumes, so had to get gas and decided to just fill up ($3.45/gall) because it was a pretty good price comparatively.



In November I will get 3 paychecks. I budgeted the one I got on Thursday for November, and the other two will be for December. I was thinking about making a trip to ABQ during Thanksgiving break, but I think I won't do that. I will probably do a movie and go out to eat during that week though, but I do have fun money available for it.

I need to buy textbooks for my 3 electives, so I will have to take that out of the $1000 I have budgeted towards my car replacement category. Hopefully they won't cost too much, and hopefully I'll eventually be able to sell them again for close to the amount I pay. Then those funds would go back into the car category.

**I know I said I didn't want to talk about October's spending ... but I decided I needed to post it publicly. Otherwise I haven't really acknowledged the problem.

*I can't remember if I mentioned it or not. But I decided to cancel Ting for now. I just could not deal with the Android after having an iPhone for over 3 years. If they ever support the iPhone, then I'll be more than happy to switch over. Until then, I guess I'll pay the premium to keep my same plan. (I have looked and looked to see if there is anything else out there that would be cheaper AND assure me of not getting cut off if one month I use more data than usual. I've not seen anything in my area which gives me enough assurance to quit my grandfathered unlimited plan.)

First of all, I'm not going to even attempt to figure out my October spending figures. Let's just say I overspent in several categories. Sometime this weekend I'll work on catching up my October data, and decide my November budget.

Halloween was fun. I dressed up as a black-eyed P, and only had two mid-school boys be able to figure it out without me doing a lot of prompting. I saw a post on FB for another costume idea - plain white tshirt with the 404 Error Not Found message written on it.

Halloween night I went to the annual faculty get together. We all pool our candy together and take turns handing it out. Our trick or treater turnout was lower than usual - only about 450 this year compared to 540 last year. We were thinking it might have been due to it being a Wednesday night - church night for many.

Okay, now to tell you about Thursday.

Thursday was my first technology club meetings with the 5th/6th and 7th/8th groups after school. My 5th/6th group had 13 kids, and my other group had 6 kids. I introduced Scratch to them - a simple computer programming language. I had planned on showing them four different projects made by other people to help them see the possibilities - but the site just would not come up. I was getting very frustrated, because not an hour earlier, the site had worked perfectly fine.

So, I finish with the second group (both groups really took to the program and came up with some cool programs in just 25 minutes or so of fiddling) and go over to the gym. When I get there I find out that the phone service (including cell) is out - which explained why the site wouldn't pull up. At first we thought it was just our area, but then several parents coming from big G to pick up their kids let us know that it was more widespread. Cell, internet, and cable all were completely out.

I got home and was at a loss as what to do. My usual routine involves the internet, and sometimes texting. Neither of which I could do. I also had received an email earlier that day telling me that a new module had been opened on our class site. I couldn't do anything like that.

So ... I played around in Scratch for an hour or so. Then I decided to try and see if the Smartboard software I'd downloaded on Sunday would let me do anything with it. It would - so I explored it, and created a lesson with 4 different activities.

It was only a bit after 9 at this point. So .. I turned on the radio to one of the only stations here - Navajo nation country radio - and scared poor Kari to death with my umm.... dancing...

I waited to see if there'd be any news reports telling what had happened, and didn't hear any (unless they said it in Navajo...) Finally, around 9:30 I noticed that I had bars on my phone, and about ten minutes later, internet was back. Whoooh!

I can be very thankful that I at least had electricity and water!

-- Today I found out that some punks decided to dig up the fiber optic cable coming out of ABQ towards the AZ border to see if there was any copper in it to steal. There wasn't any of course, but thanks to their efforts, two entire counties in NM were without cell/internet/cable service for nearly 7 hours!

(I do realize that going without these service for just 7 hours is *nothing* compared to what people have been dealing with after Sandy. It's just that this brought home to me just HOW reliant I/we are on these technologies - and how easily they can be thrown off.)

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I was going to go into town today and do some grocery shopping, but then I realized that it wasn't really necessary after my last shopping run + I was thinking that it might be a bit crazy with it being the beginning of the month AND no shopping possible yesterday afternoon.

Well the school site finally started working again late this afternoon. I was thankful to see that the one assignment I thought was due this coming Tuesday is actually not due til NEXT Tuesday. I may actually be able to go to the faculty Halloween get together on Wednesday after all.

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I didn't get too much really accomplished today - between trying to download Smartboard software to my computer, playing with Scratch, and trying to work on school stuff ...

I did get a load of dishes done though. That's good.

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I got an email this evening from ING. It's subject line was "Earn $350 when you Rollover your Old 401K" When I saw that, I went, "Woo Hoo!" This is a good reason as ever to roll over that 403(b) from my previous life as a parochial teacher. ( But then I opened the email and saw it was only for 401's or other IRA's of $50k or more. I wish!!

Maybe they'll have some kind of deal for a 403(b) of less than half that value? I should check and see.

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I really don't feel ready for tomorrow. I hope it goes well ... (And I hope that everyone in the path of Sandy fares well .. no matter how tomorrow goes, my day will probably be better than some in her path -- all a matter of perspective, right?)

The final total for our bookfair was just under $2700. I spent about $100 of my own money (a 1/3rd of what I spent last year ...)plus another $112 in Schl Dollars. I am glad to have it done for another year.

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Yesterday I stayed for potluck after church. I also stayed for the women's ministry meeting - both mainly to make it so I was out of T town while the Halloween Festival was going on at the school. I had the opportunity to babysit the 1+ yr old daughter of one of our members while she did the tithes/offerings. What fun.

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After I was done at church, I stopped by Walgreen's to pick up my prescription. They had it ready, but of course it was the generic!! Even though I've had them double check numerous times that it it is written in bold letters NO GENERIC for this prescription (Synthroid.) So I had to wait for them to fill it with the non-generic. Oy.

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After sunset I started working on my video. I decided to make a PP show detailing how to multiply 2 digit by 3 digit numbers, and then record a video with me talking through the steps. I *thought* I knew of a site where you could put a video side by side a PP presentation and make it as one. However, for the life of me, I couldn't remember the name. Googling didn't help any. So, I ended up having to put my video into my class blog in two parts. Ugh.

To make matters more interesting, I had two other assignments I was supposed to finish last night. My reflective blog and my article response blog. Well, I could not do my article response blog because I could NOT sign into the site. Every time I tried, a blank screen would pop up with the message, "It works!" I tried clearing out all my cache, etc., and that didn't help.

It is still doing that this morning. I emailed the teacher with links to the two assignments I was able to complete. We're supposed to talk and troubleshoot this afternoon.

Ugh.

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While doing some reading on another frugal forum yesterday afternoon, I came across this link: http://shialabeowulf.tumblr.com/post/33670447154/99-life-hacks-to-make-your-life-easier

I was very impressed by it because I haven't seen/heard of most of the ideas before. That doesn't happen very often. I like how many uses they came up for empty toilet paper rolls.

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Well today I am going to try and get started on my Interactive Whiteboard assignment, as much as I can at least. I think it is due Tuesday?? I really hate having due dates fall in the weekdays, but I guess I have to just deal with it.

I also *must* get over to the library today and make sure I'm ready for classes tomorrow. Plus need to do some dishes, and maybe a load or two of laundry.

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I hope everyone in the path of Suzy stays safe!

Today was my long day with the book fair - open from 8:30 a.m. to 5:10 p.m. (had someone come in at 4:50.) We're at about $1900 now, so I don't think we are going to make our $3k goal - just so we hit the 2k mark (otherwise have to take all profit as Schol Dollars. ugh.)

I had my journalism class again today. We went over the digital camera agreement and picked out the yearbook cover. I liked all the 4 designs which were picked after the first vote, and the one which was ultimately agreed upon is different (and definitely shows that the majority of my class is male ...)

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When I got home tonight I had an email from Amer Corp telling me my Award payment status had changed. Once I finally managed to login (forgot password) I found out that my payment request had been denied by the university. Reason? I am not enrolled as a student there. I really hope this doesn't mess up my enrollment in the course I'm in. Seriously annoyed.

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Tonight I helped a coworker set up and activate her new iPhone (4S.) Her son had bought it for her so they could FaceTime each other.

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Tomorrow is the 2% cash back for Discover. I'm probably going to buy some stuff from the bookfair (beyond the Schl Dollars) - but not *too* much!!!! Groceries are already 2% on my Mypoints card ..

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I have to make a video for my class by Saturday night. It has to be teaching some concept or another. I've been drawing a blank as to what to do. It needs to be something I could easily do in 3 to 4 minutes or less - and be interesting. It has to somehow incorporate learning theories ..(multiple intelligence, behaviorism, cognitivism, constructivism) I asked some of the teachers here if they had any concepts they were working on next week - not much in the way of ideas, although one did mention they were teaching 3 by 2 multiplication - not sure how to do an interesting video on that though. I keep hoping the perfect idea will hit me.

I wonder .. Inexpensive Halloween outfits - a How-To .. would that work? I could show how I made my static cling outfit, and then maybe show black-eyed P, and the one using binoculars (can't remember right now what one that was.) Not really sure if that fits the criteria though.

Today was day 3 of our bookfair. Monday was preview day, Tuesday was our p/t conferences and first day of sales, and then today. So far we've sold almost $1500, which is half of our $3000 goal. I had great student helpers yesterday - one in particular amazed me with how on the ball he was.

Today I had my first journalism class - I wasn't really planning on having them ... but since there is no study hall yet, they were sent to me. So ... I winged it. Luckily I had already thought through most of what I wanted to say to them for the first class, but still wasn't totally prepared. Oh well. They all do seem excited and ready to go. I emphasized to them that it really was up to them how many newspaper issues we put out (i.e. how well they do at getting articles done on time for the paper!)

I had some time on my hands today waiting for people to come by and buy things, so I decided to list some books on ebay. I made 3 listings, and ... 1 item already sold!! It's a book for $2.50 + shipping. So I need to find a good envelope to ship it in, and then get it in the mail on Friday (or I might be able to do it tomorrow.) The other two items are actually multiple copies of two books I'd bought for summer school which never got used.

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Funny - tonight I finally got my webcam to work with my computer and was all set ready to go for my weekly online class session ... and there was no class tonight! Oy vey.

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I spent some money the last few days. Food, small items to make change for the bookfair, books (only $25 worth so far .. controlling myself sort of ...), and today ordered a protective cover for my iPad. I still need to order my textbooks for my electives - just haven't had the stomach to price them out yet.

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I need to get my # rolled over to my Ting phone soon, or else I'll be into a new billing period. That would be annoying. (I meant ported .. the word just was escaping me.)

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Hard to believe it is almost the end of October already. This year is just flying by.

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

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

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

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

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

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

My allergies have really been kicking my behind the last few days. Today especially - took generic Nyquil last night and then this morning took a 24 hr generic Allegra .. but still was *miserable* all day.

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Yesterday I had something come in the mail which made me smile really, really big. My iPad!! (I am getting it as part of my tuition cost for the 6 month/18 credit course I'm taking.) I had some fun setting it up and downloading all my education related apps (plus Netflix - had to watch some tv on it of course!!)

I haven't had a chance to try out Face Time on it yet - maybe this weekend with my grandma or my brother.

I wasn't expecting it so soon due to some comments made by our instructor last week, so now I need to get moving on buying a protective case for it.

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Speaking of my class .. yesterday I was *really* getting frustrated. I seriously was wondering if I should see if there was any way to back out of the course. I had a flurry of an email conversation with one of the instructors, and while she didn't exactly answer all my questions, the big ones were answered.

After delving more into some of the online documents + the clarifications, I think I may be able to handle it all after all.

We had our weekly synchronous meeting tonight - I actually talked at one point! Shockers! What I do for a grade ...

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This whole week I have been showing our book fair video. Yesterday afternoon I had the 3rd graders. When I told them that we were going to watch a movie, the girls asked me if we were going to have any popcorn, candy or drinks. I told them that there wouldn't be any.

So I started the movie. As soon as it began, almost in unison all four girls started pretending like they were eating popcorn, taking a drink, or eating candy. This lasted for a good six minutes or more. I was just barely not laughing out loud, and managed to get the attention of our IT person - she thought it was pretty funny too. Even more funnily - the boys didn't even notice what was going on!!

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I think I will be keeping Kari's 3 tier cat castle. She actually has found a way to use it. I will have to take a picture and post it here so you all can see how I have it "strapped" to the door. It's a sight to see.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Thanks to someone mentioning Google's Navigation app for the Android phone, I looked into it. It does have the voiced turn by turn directions - which is a big plus for this directionally challenged human.

Also, something which didn't occur to me until tonight - the Android OS allows me to view Swagbucks TV on my phone. I'd only do it over a WiFi connection because it would be pointless to do so over a data connection (since I pay for the data!)

Now I just need to figure out how to get Google Voice set up on my phone, and Groove IP, and my phone bill starting in November will be extremely less.

Even less if I can convince 1 person a month to convert over ...

(Unfortunately, most of the people closest to me are iPhone'rs and that would probably be a huge deal breaker for them. I totally understand, and wait with great anticipation for Ting to add the iPhone to their line up - especially a BYOD lineup!!)

About 7:30 this morning it was 30 degrees - outside. The temperature in the house I think was less - sure felt like it!

I found some double A batteries and took out the old ones from the temperature control doohicky. Unfortunately, the new batteries must not be so new or something, because nothing happened. Then when I put the original batteries back in, nothing still happened. So I have the feeling that I'm going to have to ask the maintenance guys to come figure out what is going on.

I am cold!! (And yes, I am very bundled up right now. Still WAY cold!) I am tempted to get my electric heater thing out and see if it still works - just not sure if Kari would leave it alone or not.

Today as I was leaving school, I stopped by the office and saw that I had a package in my box. The books I ordered last Friday from Capstone had already arrived!! (I used a $100 credit I had just for being a member of AASL, plus another $100 of library budget.) I think the kids will be excited for the books - D.C. Superheroes (6) and Scary Stories (4).

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After work I headed off to big G to do grocery shopping. I bought approximately $43 in groceries, plus got cat food (~$7) and a cat tower $40.) I debated on getting the hanging tower again, or trying for something a bit more stable/permanent, and obviously decided on the more stable/permanent. I will definitely keep track of the receipt this time so I can return it if I find it isn't what I really want for Kari.

I'm thinking that I may not be able to keep my groceries within $100 per month. I'm still going to try, but it may be difficult.

I have to buy cupcakes next week for the Halloween Festival, which will probably be at least $12. (Yes, I *could* make them for less ... but I really don't have time.)

My groceries should probably last through most of the month, so hopefully other than the cupcakes, I won't have to buy much more than fruit next time.

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I played the book fair video for my first class today - 4th grade girls. They were almost as fun to watch/listen to as the video. One book which looks really interesting to me is 9th Ward - a story about a girl from New Orleans during Katrina. Most of these kids were barely 3 or 4 when Katrina happened, so I'm not sure how much they were aware of at the time.

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I really need to find some batteries to put in my temperature control thing so I can turn the heat on. It is getting downright chilly in here. I'm wearing 3 pairs of socks, my dads insulated jogging pants, and a fleece lined hoodie .. and am cold!

UPDATE:

I put together the cat tower. UGH! It is SO not sturdy. Kari jumped up on it before I had it even close to stabilized. I used my jump rope and a long electrical cord of some kind or another to tie it to the door - but it still isn't very stable.

She got up on it for a bit, but then chose my lap as her sleeping place.

I have the feeling I will be taking this thing back on my next trip to town.

Despite my promising myself that I wouldn't start any new series on Netflix once my cohort class started, I clicked on the first episode of H20:Just Add Water. And ... I was hooked. Finally finished the last episode tonight. Whew.

This last weekend I was really not feeling great, and ended up taking the day off on Monday as well.

I stopped by Family Dollar Tuesday night and picked up some more generic Nyquil along with some other things I needed - $14 worth. The generic Nyquil was $.25 more than it was 6 months ago. Still better than the name brand stuff!

I haven't made a trip to big G in almost two weeks now. My gas tank is still half full from my last fill up in September. I really need to take Kari in to the vet to get her nails trimmed again - Ye-ouch!

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I've been playing with the Android phone that came with my Ting plan, and really trying to like it. It's okay, I guess. One thing which may end up to be a deal breaker is that the TeleNav app on the android phone costs $10/mo, whereas the one on my iPhone costs me $10/yr. For something that I only use once in awhile, I much prefer the $10/yr rate!!

So .. I am thinking that I may go with Straight Talk instead. That way I'm still on the same Network coverage AND I still get to use my iPhone - I just have to get a different sim card. It'd be $45/month for unlimited everything. That would still be a savings of about $30/month. Not as great of a savings as with Ting, but at least this way I can stay with a phone I like and know well. Maybe someday Ting will have the iPhone available, and then I'll switch to it. For now though, I just don't think the Android will be any good for me.

Anyone want a refurbished LG Optima S Android? I paid $54 for it after the discount - would have to use with Ting plan.

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Last week I sold 103 shares of my stock and opened up a new ROTH account. This morning the funds had completed their transfer, and so I rebought those same 103 shares - for about $.15 less per share than when I sold them. It leaves me with a bit of a cash balance that I'm not sure what to do with right now.

I'm really curious to see what my taxes are going to be like this year ...

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I like my cohort class pretty much so far. We're almost nearing the end of week 2. Some of the assignments seem like a lot of busywork so far, but I'm hoping it'll get better. I think once I start the electives I'll get a lot more out of it.

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Book fair is in about 10 days! I really hope it goes well. I haven't done as much advertising for it this year as I did last year - I'm not really sure why, it's just worked out like that.

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We had some donors visit today. One of them was a lady who said she'd spent some time and money at a number of Native American school libraries helping to spice them up, and that she wanted to do the same for ours. I told her that the one big area I'm focusing on this year is bringing our non-fiction average age from 1995 to much higher - 2000 would be good, 2005 would be better. She told me they had 7 boxes of books to donate ... erggghh Positive thinking says they'll actually be useful books and I'll find some gems worth looking through the boxes ... AFTER the book fair!!

To be fair, what she's doing is kind of like what I'd like to do if I ever came into real money. Only I'd approach it much differently -- i.e. I'd say to the librarian(s) - give me a wish list of books or other items that would most meet your collection's needs - prioritized. Then I'd go off of their list.

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Some exciting news! The mission office approved the purchase of digital cameras up to a $500 value!! I just have to submit what cameras I want, and they'll get them. (This way they'll be on the missions insurance policy.)

Sometimes you really do receive when you ask! (that was our homily today - talking about how you have to ask for what you need/want in order to receive it)

I thought PatientSAver's post about her work history was pretty interesting, so I thought I might have a go at it.

Junior High -

Babysitter - The little sister of my brother's best friend. I babysat her off and on for 3 years. I remember before we moved to our next state, she and her family took me with them to an amusement park as kind of a thank you. Years later I received a high-school graduation announcement from her.

Administrative Assistant - My mom started an adoption agency type service company when I was in 8th grade. I was allowed to leave school early two days a week to do a work/study program. I answered phones, did filing and did some typing also. (This only lasted about one semester, because my mom's business partner turned out to be a shyster and the business failed.)

High School -

Summer before freshman year - babysitting

1st sm. freshman year - Cafeteria worker - mainly washed the big dishes on the afternoon/evening shift. Hated it - probably why I have such a dislike for washing dishes now. (I was at a boarding school.)

2nd sm. freshman year - babysitting. 2nd semester I started a home-school program. Part of the day I would do my school work, and part of the day I would take care of a 2 and 4 year old boy. That lasted about two months, when the mother abruptly let me go. I never did find out the real reason. However, I think the reasons may have been; 1. Several times when I would arrive I found these sharp stick type things all over the place. I'd pick them up out of reach of the boys. I'm not sure if the mom thought I was getting them out or something??, and 2. While the boys would be taking their naps, I would read. There were a couple times where I left the book on the couch after the boys woke up. I can only guess the mom thought I was reading instead of paying attention to the boys (which ISN't what I was doing.)

Summer - More babysitting

1st Sm Sophmore Year - Daycare Asst. A church member who ran a home daycare had to have surgery which would make it hard for her to lift kids. So she hired me for a two-month time period. I loved working with her and with the kids - she was an angel of a person (and where I learned how to cross stitch!)

Later 1st Sm Sophmore Year and 2nd Sm - Teacher Assistant at elementary school. My parents didn't want me to stay at home all day, so they made arrangements for me to do my school work in an adjoining room to the school room (one room school with 6 grades.) To "pay" for my being there I would help the teacher by tutoring different students or grading papers for a few hours a day.

During the 2nd Semester I put together a physical education program for the entire school (12 kids) which ended in a Mini-Olympics. Some of the kids that were there at the time still remember that.

Summer - Some babysitting, but moved to yet another new state.

Junior Year - Attended boarding academy.
Worked as Music Teacher's assistant. Did grading, and created an inventory (on paper) of all sheet music. LOVED the music teacher.

Summer - Spent about a month putting the music inventory on the computer (Access I think.)

Also, worked for two weeks at the conference office filling in for the main secretary.

Also, worked in the cafeteria for two weeks during campmeeting (not washing dishes!!!)

Senior Year - Newspaper Editor (unpaid position, but did earn me a scholarship.)

Music Teacher Asst.

Girls Dorm RA - 5 days a week I was in charge of the front desk from 5 a.m. to 7 a.m. Then I'd rush to my first class. I wanted this job because my best friend the year before had had it - only she hadn't had to be there at 5 a.m.!! I also took as many weekend shift as I was allowed to take.

In the end, between my two jobs, I made enough money to completely pay my tuition, plus had a surplus of several hundred dollars when I graduated.

Summer before college -

Probably did some more babysitting.

Freshman Year of College:
1st Semester - Teacher Assistant - I worked in the first grade classroom with my Aunt.

Campus Kitchen relief worker - Any Sunday where someone wanted the day off, I was called in. I did everything from dish washing, sandwich making, fries making, to waitressing. I loved it.

Sunday Church relief teacher - I don't remember how I came across this job, but someone got me it. On Sundays when I wasn't called in to the CK, I would go here and essentially babysit a group of kids during church service. That was fun, and I got paid for it too.

Summer before Sophomore --
One week at a daycare - that job ended quickly after I fell and dislocated my thumb.

Two weeks - selling jewelry door to door at businesses. That ended quickly because I somehow kept losing pieces, so by the end of the two weeks, I had just broken even. (Very funny job for me to have if you understood how *very* little I know about jewelry!)

I think I did more babysitting too.

Sophomore Year -
Teacher Asst. in the second grade classroom this time. I *adored* the teacher.

2nd Sm - Tutoring two boys 4 days a week after their school (2nd and 4th I think.)

Summer before Junior Year -
Worked at mom's elementary school the last few weeks of school plotting test data and filling in for receptionist. Also taught a unit study on "Where the Red Fern Grows" to 5th/6th grade class.

Daycare Asst - LOVED!!! This job started as soon as the regular school year was over, and ended a few days before we moved to yet our next state.

Junior Year -
Teacher Assistant - at a two-room school (K - 8.)

Computer Teacher - at same above school (6 - 8)

Summer -

I can't remember if I did anything during the summer or not. This was when my mom had a brain tumor, so I think that was the big part of the summer.

Senior Year -
First Semester - Girl's Dorm Resident Assistant

Teacher Asst - same school as above

Second Semester - Student Teaching (was paid as a teacher asst though!!)

Summer - Moved out to first job in CA

First and Second Grade Teacher (2 years)

Moved back to TX

Fifth Grade Teacher (5 months - long story)

Selling fire safety equipment - moved up from sales person to management in 4 months. Opened up my own office, and as suggested by parent company, hired my own receptionist. Was completely out of money within two months.

Temporary Work - 6 days at a garbage company doing filing, etc. Several days worth of other various clerical work.

Moved for:
First Grade Teacher - 2 years

Moved again:
First grade teacher - 2 years
First and Second grade teacher - 1 year

Family Emergency - quit teaching to help out. (This is about the time I started this blog .. so those of you around then may remember how hellacious the second semester was.)

Sold Rainbow Vacuums - lasted about three weeks. Sold 2. Yuck.

4 months of diligent job searching to be constantly told that I should go back to teaching.

Bus Survey Assistant supervisor - lasted one week
Bus Survey Supervisor - lasted 4 or 5 months? I was in charge of giving out bus route assignments to people using GPS Palm devices who tracked how many passengers got on and off at different stops. This was mostly enjoyable, but it also was frustrating in some ways since not everyone has my same work ethic.

Admin Asst. at Trucking Company - Lasted about 3 weeks. I learned a lot of new swear words. I was also trying to finish up the last bits of the bus survey job while here, which I think ended up annoying the trucking company.

Various one and two day clerical jobs.

Admin Asst at an oil and gas company - Started off as a receptionist (3 months) and then was pulled into the back to assist the Engineering Tech. I was there for a total of 3 years, when I was laid off.

Gym Customer Service - I started here about 6 months before being laid off from the oil and gas company - working 4 or 5 hours a week. When I was laid off, my hours went up to 25 - 30/week. I was here a total of about 16 months I think.

Tutoring - I started with a 5th grade boy and a Korean Jr in high-school. After developing a reputation, I ended up having students all the way from pre-school through seniors in high-school. This is how I supported myself through graduate school.

And now, present day.

School Librarian -

I guess you could say I've had a few jobs.

Today was pet day at our school. It went very well - two chickens, an iguana, a rabbit, and numerous fish, cats and dogs. A few little squabbles between dogs, but nothing major.

Why, you might be asking, am I sick to my stomach? Well, here's why! This morning after breakfast I decided to go get one of the good digital cameras that I'd personally purchased last summer. I wanted to take good pictures of the kids/pets to use in the yearbook. I'd taken quite a few in the morning at the cafeteria with my phone, but those aren't really yearbook quality photos.

Guess what I found when I went to where I had stored the 4 brand new and unopened digital cameras along with their storage cards? Nothing. I also realized that the one camera which I'd put into use at the beginning of the school year, and which had pictures on it from Johnny Appleseed Day, as well as the motivational speaker ... was also vanished.

These 5 digital cameras plus their cards cost approximately $350. 2 cameras were pretty good ones ($100 on sale) and the other 3 were $25 ones I'd gotten from Big Lots of so-so quality.

I looked everywhere I could think to look for them. My assistant also looked everywhere she could think to look.

Nowhere. Gone. Vanished.

These were the cameras I planned on using with my journalism kids, as well as using for a digital photography unit 2nd semester.

This whole day all I've wanted to do was to kick something or scream or cry or do what I'm doing now (venting and eating junkfood.)

I'm not really upset about the money aspect of it. Although, that IS upsetting. I'm more upset that I'd bought these cameras FOR the kids/for the school. Whomever stole them didn't just hurt me, they have hurt all the kids at our school.

I considered reporting the loss to my renter's insurance, but my deductible is around $1000 I think. It isn't reportable to the school insurance because I hadn't officially donated the items so they have no record of them.

So my otipns are to not replace them - which really isn't an option because I HAVE to have some cameras for the yearbook, and the point and shoot cameras cost as much to develop 5 rolls of film as a low-end good digital camera.

Or, I could spend more of my own money to replace them, which I think I'd probably feel resentful about doing.

Or, which is what I'll probably end up doing, I'll replace one of them with $100 of the library budget, and use my older digital camera I got five or six years ago (not a great camera, but I think it still would be good enough for yearbook photos.)I really hate this option though because it means that I'll have less money to work with on books and other library supplies.

The other thing that is so horrible about this is the speculation about who did it. There are only really three people who knew exactly where they were AND had easy access - me, my assistant, and the IT person. The janitors also both have easy access, but more than likely didn't even know they were there.

I *had* mentioned to several groups of students that we now had digital cameras available to be used for the yearbook and for a digital photography course ... so it could be that one of them told a friend/older brother/sister ....

I just can't let myself speculate about who it might have been.

One thing I am doing is making sure I have a locked cabinet to put things in from now on. I also am going to be fanatical about locking the whole building up *every* time I leave it.

I just don't get how anyone connected with the school could do something like this ... knowing that they weren't stealing from ME, but they were stealing from the kids!!

Today was an interesting day. It was school picture day - they guy taking pictures was really slowwww - someone said this was his first time on his own. Two of my classes were cut in half due to their class having pictures taken ..

Oh well.

Then a 3rd class was cut in half due to a welcome home gathering for the son of our art teacher - he'd just completed a tour of duty in Afghanistan. The whole school gathered outside along the fence to greet him, waving student made flags and red/white/blue streamers. That was pretty awesome. (There was a guy on a motorcycle who'd just happened to drive through town to gas up. He saw the banners and decoration along our fence, and stuck around taking pictures. He apparently is a photo journalist who is traveling around the states. It was interesting seeing the hackles go up on various teachers seeing him taking photos of the kids before being told that he'd been given permission.)

So .. my brother visited TX this past weekend for the funeral of a good friends mother. This mother/family were former church members of my dads. I strongly suggested to him that he should tell our mom that he was going to be there - because the likelihood of her finding out either by being at the funeral itself, or finding out some other way, was way too high.

I found out today that he ignored my advice. So of course mom found out when one of the people at the funeral tagged him in a photo with her - with location info. She understandably was quite upset.

I understand why my brother was so upset with mom, and looking for space, but at the same time, I feel he is just plain being stubborn.

I talked to my mom on the phone this afternoon. I pretty much told her that I couldn't tell her what might make this all better - because honestly, I'm not really sure my brother even really knows what needs to happen. She told me that the wedding planned has gone from a small ceremony to a church wedding including 50 people - and bridesmaids, etc. She wanted to know if I would prefer to just attend, or to participate. Arghh!

I also found out that the church corporation has given her surviving spouse benefits - health insurance and a small stipend. Supposedly the paperwork wasn't filled out quite right - in one spot it said one thing, and in another it said another thing. So, they gave her the benefit of the doubt. She told me that the way the church corp dealt with her on this issue has almost made her willing to go back into the church. I don't plan on telling my brother about this, because I have a pretty good feeling about what his reaction would be.

I'd forgotten that I'd signed my mom up to receive emails whenever I posted a new blog on my Living Frugal and Simple blog ... I made a new post a few days ago talking about my dad and changes. She read the part about how I'd decided I didn't want to work until I was 65 as me saying that I'm not happy with my job ...when just a few sentences earlier I stated that I loved my job. :roll eyes:

I'm not terribly looking forward to Christmas - especially because I highly doubt that my brother will come to the wedding. And if in the likely scenario that he doesn't, then I'll be the lucky one to answer the question of why. Ugh.

This morning I was able to sleep in a little bit for a Monday morning workday. When I got up, I called ST and the person there walked me through how to sell my stock (102 shares.) My brother had warned me that I'd be playing a dangerous game (selling stock, moving to IRA and rebuying,) but I hadn't realized exactly what he meant until today. I found out that my stock would sell "sometime" today, and not be final til Thursday. Depending on when my stock sold today, I could either have a small cap gain or loss. What the stock price will be by Thursday, who knows?

I headed up to big G for the meeting (I went in place of our school counselor who feels she is computer illiterate.) I arrived about 30 minutes early because I wasn't sure if I'd be able to find it or not easily. The meeting took about an hour, and was kind of interesting. Of course, they used a bunch of terms and acronyms I was unfamiliar with since I don't deal with special ed.

After the meeting I headed to Walmart. I had taken Kari's cat castle with me to see if I could exchange it for a new one. They would NOT exchange it without a receipt (yes, I know... I really should have kept track of that receipt, esp. knowing that the last castle fell apart.) Then I quickly gathered a few groceries - $23.98 - and headed to Sonic for lunch.

It took ten minutes to make the left turn to Sonic, and about 3 minutes to get my food and leave. Oy!

I made it back in the middle of my least favorite class.

After school when I got home I was finally able to login to my cohort class website. While I was doing that, Kari jumped up on the music chair, and then the keyboard, and then was about to leap to the door ...when she realized her castle was no longer there. She gave me the most confused and disappointed look. It made me almost decide to drive back and buy another one ... almost. She did that two more times tonight.

**If anyone has any ideas of types of fabric that are really claw/weight/jumping resistant ... I'm thinking of trying to make a cat castle (only the top two layers which is all Kari ever used.) I figure there has to be a way to make something much more strong/quality that would last!

I got a notice today that my phone from Ting has shipped. I should have it by next Wednesday at the very latest. Yay.

My walking partner and I both agreed that we aren't going to do the Zumba class until the weather gets too bad for walking ..or perhaps just not do it at all. Even at $4.20/class, it is a lot of money.

I'm glad the blogs seem to be working right again. It was weird not being able to re-read and edit my post last night after submitting it. (Which from the numerous typos/mistakes in it, you can guess how much post-posting editing I do sometimes ...)