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

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

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

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

What do y'all think?

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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


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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Expenses:

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

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

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

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

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

*Must Not Stick Head in Sand!!*

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

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

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

Kari: food, toys

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

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

Gas - two fill ups

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

Monkey Mama's blog about life insurance reminded me that this was about the time last year that I got some. Then I was looking at my various credit cards, and I saw that I'd been charged my yearly premium. --Something I'd forgotten to include in my budget. Oops.

Then today I went into town and did some grocery shopping - both for myself, and for the book fair. On Monday (if we don't have a snow day!!!) I'm having refreshments for the teachers during the teacher preview. Then on Tuesday (again, if we don't get the monster storm predicted ...) I've promised to provide snacks for my mid-school helpers.

I also stopped at the Party store, Big Lots and Family Dollar ... all in search of cheap plastic tablecloths to cover the various boxes so I can put them on the tables. The least expensive one I found was $3.25. Ugh! I think I'm going to try just cutting one of the tablecloths provided in half (I get to keep them) and then if that works ok, I'll do the same to the rest of them. Total budget buster today of about $95 between Walmart and the other stores.

At Party City I did see they had some luau themed table trimmers .... at $20 each. NOT!!!! My tables will go undecorated thank you very much!

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Today we did the set up for the book fair. I had 5 8th graders and two 6th graders helping me. They all worked hard for most of the two hours they were with me. On paper my plan for the setup seemed like it would work really well, but in reality ... it is really really crowded. I'm going to have to go in there on Sunday and spend a few hours++ to see if I can figure out how to get a better flow to the whole thing. Next year I hope to have the book fair in the fall (to potentially avoid snow days!!) and I hope to see if I can have it in someplace larger than the library.

I really hate to think how long it would've taken me to setup what we have done by myself ...

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I got my leis yesterday from amazon, which was relief. (Although at this moment I'm afraid they are buried somewhere in the library classroom ...)

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Today when I was in town, I decided to stop by Carl Jr's and get a shake (was really thirsty and out of water ... justify....) This white truck pulled up behind me with three people in it, and I was struck with the urge to do a PIF. So I told the lady at the window that I wanted to take care of the people behind me ... figuring it would be at least $20. After I got on the highway I looked at my receipts ... they'd gotten a small drink ... $1.50. LOL! (The only reason I share this is due to my expecting the bill to be so much more than it was. Too funny not to share.)

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I think that this month I'm going to be doing good to save 20% of my income ... I guess that is okay, as long as it doesn't become a recurring theme. I'm not going anywhere in April (well, at least I don't think I am ... we do have a 4 day weekend -i.e. Easter - so who knows what might happen then ..) and May also shouldn't be too spendy (I hope!!)

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I'm really looking forward to my July trip. It already was going to be good, getting to spend time with my brother and other family, but now with the SA get together, it'll be awesome!!!

Last night I had a blast with several of my coworkers. We had "game night." We played two games from start to finish (Redneck Life and Quelf) and partially played Pop Culture Trivia DVD (it was getting really late.) One of my coworkers made homemade burnt brownie ice cream (something she discovered last year when she attempted making brownies here for the first time) and I brought soda.

I hope we do this again soon. (Kari wasn't very happy with me - gone pretty much all day, breeze in for five minutes, then gone again for 3 hours ..)

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I filled up my car yesterday - $3.48/gallon. I'd only made 234 miles on the last tank, nearly 80 miles less than normal. I asked one of my coworkers if she thought it was possible someone was siphoning gas. She told me that she'd been getting less gas mileage too - most likely due to driving against the wind.

I also stopped by the library and dropped off the two latest Evanovich books and picked up a new Kinsella book (author of Confessions of a Shopaholic series - LOVE!)

Then made a ~$30 stop at Walgreens (prescription+), and a $44 stop at Wal-mart.

While I was waiting for sunset in the Wal-mart parking lot, I had a chance to talk to the lady I'd stayed with the last few months I lived in Texas. She and her daughter had moved into a new home over Christmas, and are really loving it. They've had a spate of bad luck though with cars - two cars wrecked by drivers running red lights - but thankfully no one injured!! It was really good to talk with her.

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I went to take a shower Saturday morning and found out that the pilot light on the water heater was out -- so no hot water. Then found out that the mobile home park manager quit last week ... doh! Still trying to get in touch with someone to relight it. I have several places to go to take a shower, so am not worried about that - just can't do my dishes.

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One of my co-workers and I were talking about Spring Break plans and ended up deciding to take a bit of a road trip. It'll be her last year here, so I let her pretty much decide. We're going to go to Santa Fe and Taos. I found a hotel room in Santa Fe for only $38 which allows dogs (she has two dogs.) I'll have my Discover card by then which will give me 5% cash back on gas purchases. I've been to Santa Fe before (when I was in elementary) but I don't remember ever being in Taos, so that should be fun. Even with gas, I don't think the trip should cost me more than $130 or so, since we'll be splitting the costs.
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I looked into Amtrak tickets and airplane tickets for my summer trip to CA. Going to where my dad/grandma are, then up to where my brother is, and then back here on Amtrak would cost $265. Doing the same route/dates via flying would cost $370 + driving to/from Albuquerque and a hotel stay (so getting pretty close to $500). So ... I think I'll be doing Amtrak this summer. I just need to find out for sure when summer school ends to finalize my dates. I'm hoping to be able to be there for my dad's birthday (July 5.)

I checked what the amenities are on Amtrak nowadays (last time I was on it was in 1988?) It looks like the seats have electric plugs, so I'll be able to plug my phone in and enjoy myself reading or watching movies. That'll be good, because I'll be having a lot of travel time. (The one thing I'm wondering is how you secure your luggage if you're traveling alone and need to use the restroom or go to the lounge car, etc? No checked baggage on most of the trip.)

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I've now redeemed 5 $5 AGCs from Swagbucks for March. I have enough left for 5 in April and almost enough for the first one in May. (I applied for a Discover card - 3600 SBs and then actually *completed* two surveys and did an offer that cost $.99 which netted 408 SBs. Nice!)

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I've had a tooth that's been bothering me for the past few days. I'm really hoping that it'll pass soon. I have no desire to find a dentist in the area just yet.

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Just talked with one of the teachers who does summer school. The last day will be June 29 - will only be two weeks long. The pay is $30/hr, so somewhere around $1800 - $2100 for those two weeks (before taxes of course.) Sweet! If I go to CA for two weeks, then that will give me a month or so here to work on various projects in the library before school starts again, plus the boost to my EF/car fund. (So in two weeks I'll be making almost as much as I make in a normal month at the mission school - summer school is paid by the county.)

With the rising cost of gas, I'm thinking that the sooner I book my summer travel, the better. I'd also maybe even book my Christmas tickets, but without knowing exactly what my mom's situation will be then ... (she's broken up with person she was with at Thanksgiving ... again.)

So I went to church this morning and after church needed to go to the library to return my books (two weeks overdue!) I had a very vague idea of how to get to the library after having been there once.

I opened up AT&T Navigator and did the search for library, picked the one I wanted, and then hit Drive To. As soon as I did that, instead of giving me the directions, a message popped up saying "Your account has expired. Call xxx0xxxx0xxx." I was very annoyed at this point. I'd used the app about two weeks ago and had not been given ANY indication that my subscription was about to expire, nor had I received any notification of any kind on my AT&T bill. (The subscription I had was charged to my phone bill annually - I assumed on auto renewal because the last time it renewed automatically.)

So I called the phone number. The first time I got disconnected. I called back again. I could barely hear the CS rep even with my volume on high. I explained to her that I had a yearly subscription and that I'd received a message that it was expired and wanted to know what was going on. She preceded to check my most recent bill and didn't see a charge for it. I explained to her at least three times that I had the annual subscription before she finally *got it*.

After putting me on hold for a good 10 - 15 minutes, she comes back on and tells me that the feature had been removed from my phone. When I asked her why, she could not explain it to me, but just kept repeating that it had been removed from my phone. Then she told me that I had to install the app and choose my subscription plan. I told her several times that the app was *already* on my phone and had worked just fine two weeks ago. She just kept repeating that I had to install the app!!!

I was getting *seriously* ticked at this point and realized that I wasn't being very nice, so apologized to her for shouting. Then I told her that I thought it was totally ridiculous for me to have to delete my current app (thus losing all my stored data) and reinstall it again just to resubscribe. I was also worried that I'd need WiFi to do it (that took several times and several rewordings for her to get what I was concerned about.)

Finally I pretty much hung up on her (not really ... I told her that it was apparent she couldn't help me and that I'd figure it out on my own. -- I just could not deal with talking to her a second longer.)

So I delete the AT&T Navigator app from my phone, and then go to the app store. The app has a two star rating! Hah! I left kind of a nasty review (no bad words, just let it be known that I was ticked and why.) Then I reinstalled it. When I opened it up it asked me for my phone number, and then asked for a six digit verification code which would be texted to me. I waited at least 20 minutes for the stupid code to be sent (it finally arrived about 20 minutes ago, nearly two hours after I requested it.)

I got tired of waiting so I went back to the app store and read some of the reviews. One reviewer mentioned that TeleNav which is what AT&T Navigator runs on, was available in the app store and cost 1/3rd of AT&T Navigator! So I checked it out. Happily I found out that not only was it less than AT&T Navigator, but that it was on sale! Instead of paying $70 a year for the voice turn by turn directions, I am now getting the *same exact service* for $10 a year!!!

I think what upset me the most about all this is that as a seriously directionally challenged person I have come to rely on the GPS app extensively. I *could* have easily found my way directly home from where I was, but what if it had happened at night in an unfamiliar area?? To unceremoniously lose access to an app I rely heavily upon without any kind of notice, is just inexcusable to me.

**I realize that I probably way overreacted to this. I'm not really sure why ... I usually can handle things like this much more calmly. I don't remember ever having gotten this upset on the phone talking to a CS rep.
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Unfortunately my upsetedness caused me to want soda and chocolate, and I ended up going to Walgreens where I got stuff. I bought some Allegra too, but ended up spending $16 on pure junk over and above my grocery budget. I wish I wouldn't do stuff like that and could figure out something else to do when I'm that upset. Ugh.

Today was our teacher in-service. I got up and talked a bit about the upcoming book fair, as well as the yearbook. One of the things I mentioned is that I'd like to make a goal to sell $200 more than we did last year, but wasn't sure what wild or crazy thing I could offer to do (or teachers would be willing to do) if the kids made the goal. Someone spoke up that they had a clown costume, and then our principal offered to wear it for a day!! Way cool! Too bad it will happen after the yearbook is put to bed - but the newspaper can still cover it.

In the afternoon I had a couple hours to just work in the media center. I got all my grades caught up and did my written Feb lesson plans (and March) that I have to turn in on Tuesday. I decided to keep the other stuff I need to do for Sunday (mainly reshelving books.)

Then I went to the PO where to my *very ecstatic* joy, I found that my voice mail had not gone unheard from a week ago. My final W-2 from my summer job had arrived!! Woo Hoo! I was thinking of going straight home and doing my taxes , but then I saw one of my coworkers pull in. She told me she was WAY stressed (she's the science teacher, science fair is next week) and needed desperately to go into G to relax and rewind.

So she and I went into G and ate at Sizzler (I used my giftcard) and then I helped her have her first experience of depositing a check at an ATM, and then we went to Walmart. I got my groceries for the rest of February, as well as cat food (wet, dry and treats). I haven't calculated it all out yet, but I think I may have gone over my grocery budget a little bit.

(I spent a total of $41.xx, but about $9 of it was cat stuff - so that comes out of Kari's budget and not the grocery budget.)

My friend and I are going to go into to ABQ on Monday. She wants to do some computer shopping and do some other stores as well. I'm more than happy to salivate over computers plus we'll stop at a party store to see if they have leis cheaper than Oriental Trading (they have 100 leis for $11.99.) Going there on Monday just means I'll have to get everything done for Tuesday on Sunday. I think I'll either offer to fill her car up, or just give her $10 for gas money. It'll be nice to be out and about in a big town.

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I have enough SBs to buy another AGC now, and am getting closer and closer to cashing out on the other places.

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One thing my coworker told me that seriously shocked me -- the PE teacher/coach has decided to stay another year. He's been moaning and groaning *a lot* the *WHOLE* year on FB about how much he hates it here and wishes he was somewhere with real clubs, etc. He apparently has really high child support payments and doesn't have another job to go to .. so he's staying here. Real good reason to stay somewhere you hate.

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I'll probably do my taxes tomorrow night, and then finish my audible book. It will feel so good to have them done and know for sure how much I'm getting back!

Today we actually had school even though there still was quite a bit of snow still on the ground. I only had my 4 year olds and first graders in the library. Mass was canceled so that teachers could use the time to get caught up on two days worth of missed classes (and I think the priest was sick.)

At breakfast the 6th grade teacher/science teacher asked me if I could I could help her out by finding print resources for about 20 kids' science fair projects. She'd gotten an email from the head person of the organization telling her that their resources (amongst other things) needed to be corrected by the end of today.) I said I'd be happy to help. I was able to find sources for most of the projects, but there were a few that I could not find anything at all on. I worked on it right up to 4:45 when I had to stop to get ready for the webinar.

The webinar was for Scho lastic in regards to the upcoming book fair. I earned $25 in Scho $ for participating. It lasted 95+ minutes. Ergh. I just kept reminding myself of the two or three books I'll be able to get ...

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I ended up signing up for audible yesterday. I looked at all the various deals, and ended up going through SBs and doing the $7.49/mo for 3 months deal. I bought the newest Nevada Barr book (Anna Pigeon series) for my first month, and will buy #17 and #18 of Stephanie Plum with the next two months. Then the cost goes up to $14.95 and I won't be willing to spend that much of my entertainment money on an audio book, so will probably cancel. I'm about 3/4 through with the Nevada Barr book - loving it.

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My mom called me yesterday shortly after I wrote about being so bored. That kind of helped to break the boredom (sort of - that + listening to my new book.) I told my mom about my idea of visiting dad this summer and her over Christmas - she *really* liked that idea ... I haven't brought it up to my dad yet because every time I talk to him he either has Grandma with him or his good friend Sweetie Petey.

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I was so tired and hungry tonight that I gave in and stopped at the sandwich shop/gas station tonight. I bought a foot long sub and two cookies (will be supper tomorrow night too.) $8.10 I need to record what I've spent on food between today and Tuesday so I have an accurate amount for this weekend when I do my final February grocery trip. I'll probably use my Sizzler gift card to eat before or after the movie (which I'll be using the Valentine's money from my mom for - partly anyway.)

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I'm *very* close to cashout on Beezag, Irazoo, MyPoints and Swagbucks.

When I got home today from working at the school (fixing the grading program that was messed up Friday) I looked under the driver's seat for whatever reason. Guess what was there! My $20 bill that I thought was gone forever. Yahoo! I will be so happy to be rid of the cash in my purse so I have no more chances of losing it.

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It took me about 2 hours today to recreate the spreadsheet that was totally messed up on Friday afternoon. All I can say is .. nobody but me from now on is messing with those spreadsheets!

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Saturday I made the mistake of venturing to Walmart - not only the night before Superbowl, but the first weekend of the month when everyone's gotten paid. Yikes!

I spent a bit under $50, but feel pretty stocked up for the next two weeks. I will have absolutely NO more visits to Family Dollar or the mom and pop grocer here - one exception - may need another can of wet cat food (though maybe I can have Kari go without the wet stuff for a few days, or just give her smaller portions ...)

I also filled up with gas - $3.09 - a bit over $28 in all.

Then I went to Walgreens to pick up the photos a friend dropped off for me yesterday. The photos were from 4 of the 6 cameras that I'd given the journalism kids. $60!!! later I had the photos. I'd say of the 4 sets, maybe 15 photos are usable. Next year I am going to insist on getting a couple inexpensive digital cameras for the journalism class. It would be a whole lot less expensive!!!

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I finally watched the two DVDs I've rented twice - they were due back today. Post Grad and 500 Days of Summer - I liked both of them. I stopped by the video store to return them, but it was locked up tight. I'll have to be sure to get by there tomorrow.

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I rented a cute movie (All About Steve) from iTunes (I saw previews of it on one of the movies - Sandra Bullock). I've tried downloading it several times now, but it keeps saying the file is corrupted so won't download. I'm not sure if I should try from my phone, or see if I can get a refund. (Netflix doesn't have it except on DVD.)

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I redeemed points for a $5 AGC on SBs yesterday. The last 30 points were earned via SBTV while reading a book.

Now have 400 or so to go to another one.

On irazoo (similar to SB) I'm about 600 points away from a card (need 3000 for them) I mainly just go there when they have treasure codes and then check for videos, etc.

This morning started out with a made to order omlette and a danish for breakfast. Yum. Then I was off to Judy Freeman's seminar about the best children's books of 2011. A few of them I'd purchased for the library (Okay for Now, Charlie Jackson's Guide to NOT Reading, and another one ..) but most I had not heard of before. There were two or three that I'm hoping Scholastic will have so I can use some of our funds to purchase - although I saw great possibilities in numerous books. She showcased 80 of her 110 best book picks.

I didn't get any free books, but the seminar guide has about a dozen Reader's Theater's which will be helpful.

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For lunch several of us ate at this Mexican resturaunt next door. I had the vegetarian enchaladia. It was good, but it was supposed to come with sopapillia's and honey - the waiter never brought them. As I was checking out, I mentioned it to the cashier and she gave me a to go bag. But of course I was full by then and several hours later after the program, they were cold. Yuck.

After the program I went to Costco. I filled up with $2.79/gallon gas (about $10 worth - I'd filled up in my town on Tuesday for $3.09/gallon!) Then I went into Costco. I bought 3 containers of kitty litter, laundry detergent, dishwasher detergent, shampoo, oatmeal, spinach & something patties (vegetarian), broccoli soup, rasins, bean/cheese burritos, cinnamon, diced onions, and garbage bags.

Total -- $129.xx

I had 90.12 left on my Costco gift card, and then paid the remaining balance with my ING debit card. I think I am pretty well set for most things for a good while.

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Seminar reimbursable expenses:
Seminar - $299
Hotel - 89.xx
Per Diem - ~~$30.xx (only get back what I spent)
Mileage - ~$150.xx

So I estimate that my EF will soon be about $568 higher. Just have to get all the receipts turned in.

I got a nice little vacation out of this - stayed at a NICE hotel, day off work, eat at nice places, shop at Trader Joe's and Costco PLUS got to put more than 600 rewards points on my credit cards (food and gas places are double points.)

Sweet.

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The only NON-Sweet thing about my trip ... When I did my first fill up on Tuesday, I somehow got distracted and forgot to put my gas cap back on. Ooops! So, that means I need to buy a new one. Ugh. Unless by some miracle the gas station still has it! I will have to go by and check tomorrow. *cross fingers*

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Just checked my Chase rewards points balance -- I had enough to redeem! So I chose a statement credit. Then I sent that money directly to my EF!

EF addition -- $23.63

I also signed up for the current points promotion - gas and Amazon. I wish I'd known gas was part of it -- already filled up (completely) twice this month, and probably won't again til Feb. Oh well - will make sure to use it in Feb and Mar, then back to MyPoints for gas. I wish now I'd waited to order my dishwasher til January too - that would've been a nice bit of extra rewards points. Really, other than gas in Feb and Mar, I don't see myself buying anything off of Amazon. Oh wait - I think there is a book I pre-ordered (5th in a series one of my 8th graders is way into) that comes out in March .. however I have enough gift card money for that already. Will have to see how the months go I guess.

Today makes 7 years of blogging here at SA. Who knew when I started way back then that I'd still be doing it now. I've seen so many people come and go - and a few return again. Some who've gone I've really missed their insights - I won't name names because I'm sure to leave out someone! The best thing though is that the general feeling of SA blogs hasn't changed. We are a family, and even when we might not agree with each other, we support each other and defend against those who attempt to be rude or mean.

Love ya guys

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What a great day today was. School went pretty well. Then I was off on my approximately two hour drive with my music blasting. ( Combination of my iPhone and the portable speaker mom gave me for my birthday.) I'm sure I got some interesting comments from truckers as I zipped by singing loudly with Whitney "I will always love you" or with Bette "Under the Boardwalk" or pounding the steering wheel to "walk 500 miles". But who cares, I was having a blast. : D

I got here and checked in. NICE room. Not only do they have a fitness center, but they have an indoor pool. If I would've gone, I could've had two complimentary drinks (I wonder if they would've made me a Roy Rogers?) . Instead though I ate at a CA Pizza Kitchen that was directly across from an Apple store. I also saw that there was a Nestlé Toll House Cafe, but resisted temptation. I did however go to the Trader Joes that was across the street. I got a pkg of choclate crisps and 4 containers of soup. Cheaper than Walmart . I told my dad and brother that I almost felt like I was in CA (except for freezing - wouldn't have hot choclate in CA!!)

Tomorrow I think I'll go to Village Inn across the street for lunch ( although I wonder how hungry I'll be after a made to order omelette for breakfast - complimentary.) I kind of wish I could be here for a couple days just to enjoy the hotel ammenities. At $90 night though, it's way out of my personal budget.

I'm really looking forward to tomorrow and learning about all the great books. I just hope it won't make me salivate to much ...

Non reimbursable money spent - $11.xx TJs

So tonight I stopped at Home Depot to get the faucet adapter so I could actually run my dishwasher. .... They don't carry them! The guy I spoke with suggested I try Ace on Monday. I will call them before going, because that would mean an extra trip which I'd really rather not make!!

I'm also going to write Amazon's customer service and shake some cages about why this part was not included as advertised.

Ugh!

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I decided to skip Sabbath School today - the extra rest was really needed. I stayed after for potluck, and then went to the nursing home and sang with three other people. We all had about the same level of singing skill (namely, not much) but the people still seemed to appreciate it.

After the nursing home our group went to the hospital to visit the pastor's wife who'd just had a baby girl this morning (1:02 a.m. by c-section after 17 hrs hard labor - her tail bone was twisted??) What a sweet little thing.

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After Home Depot I went to Walmart where I returned the watch and the skin moisturizer/spf. The watch I returned because I found my other one, and the moisturizer because I used it once and it got in my eyes and burned (plus I was having a really hard time stomaching paying almost $11 for something like that.)

Since my dishwasher will still be out of commission for who knows how long, I bought a good bit of canned soups and microwavable meals, as well as some plasticware. If I end up actually getting dishes washed by hand tomorrow and don't need the plasticware, I'll just take it back.

I got a refund of $17.08, and spent $47.xx on grocery type items. That pretty much wipes out my grocery budget for January (except for my $100 Costco card). I think though that I have enough food in the house to last til February, with or without the convenience of the dishwasher.

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Oh! The organist who was in a car accident last week was in church today. He had a neck brace on and seemed to still be in a bit of pain. He has a daughter in town who is helping him out with meals and such not.

I also found out today that most people here had assumed I was in my early to mid-twenties. :roll eyes: The head elder told me, "Whatever you're washing you're face with, keep doing it!" lol! Ummm, I don't really wash my face with anything ... I also hardly ever wear makeup.. if I do, I might use Cetaphil. I also sometimes use ponds cold cream (I think Ima mentioned once that she uses it ...) But more often than not I do *nothing* in regards to skin care. Which probably is why I was having such a hard time paying nearly $11 for a moisturizer/spf cream.

Tonight when I got home and was in the process of putting my purchases away, I went to scratch the back of my head. OUCH!! I put down what I had in my other hand and went to the bathroom to try to see what it was ... no luck (I have a hand mirror somewhere ...). It is either a tick, spider bite, or some other kind of bug bite. I didn't notice it this morning when I was washing my hair, so it must have happened today sometime. Weird.

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I've just about given up going to Sabbath School (like Sunday School, only on Saturday i.e. Sabbath.) I don't get anything out of it, and the main teacher frustrates me - he is SO opinionated and legalistic. Today we were discussing the lesson about the Trinity. He asked if anyone had any questions still ... one man raised his hand and asked, "What do they exist on?" Meaning, what do they eat, do they breathe air, etc. I'm not sure whether the question was a serious one or not, but R's reaction to it totally blew it out of proportion and wasted almost ten minutes of class time! If it had been me, I would have simply said, "You know, that is an interesting question and I really don't know the answer. Lets all take a look this week to see if we can find it and share next week what we find." R's response was essentially to call the guy stupid. No, he didn't use that word, but his 6 - 8 minute diatribe could be boiled down to it. His wife even at one point told him to just let it go and move on. (btw - R is a high-school history and shop teacher ...)

I did stay for potluck today and had a chance to talk with someone who's been pretty friendly to me, but we haven't had much time to talk. It was nice, though kind of stilted.

We found out today that the man who plays the organ was in a bad car accident last night. His car was totaled and he cracked one of his vertebrae. I seriously thought about going over to visit him ... but ... he is single (maybe late 40's??) ... so I was afraid it would look strange or something. He is a nice man, and we have talked some, but otherwise I have no interest -- but me going over to see him ... I also thought about asking if I could go with someone else who was going to see him .. but again, perceptions ... I don't know, maybe I overthink this. But as a single woman who still appears fairly young (and even though I am quite heavyset), I have quite often gotten the feeling from women married to men within a 5 - 15 year range of me, that they'd rather I stay 100 feet away from their husbands. So ... I try to be very, very, very careful. My friendliness/smile sometimes I think (in fact, I know for a fact it has at least twice) is misconstrued as flirting -- when in truth, all I'm doing is being myself and trying to make friends/have a conversation/be polite. (His injuries aren't serious enough to cause paralysis, etc. I'm not sure if he is at home or in the hospital.)

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In other events today...

I went to the library and got a card. I found a couple Lori Wick books I hadn't read, and a book on Psalms 23 which looks interesting. Then I went over to the children's library and found two books on a subject one of my 6th grade boys whispered in my ear on Friday. Our catalog said we had one on the subject, but when we went to the shelf to look, it was nowhere to be found. He's pretty good about getting books back, so I think I can trust him with a book on my card (I'm going to have him choose one of the books.) I just felt so honored that he trusted me enough to ask me for help finding it, that I felt I *had* to come through for him. He's one of those kids who is a 40 year old in a 12 year old's body, and doesn't get along well with the other kids at all.

After the library, I talked to my dad for a while, and then went to Walmart. I bought some of the generic brand 3 in one dishwashing tablets as well as Lemon Shine (highly recommended by my dad as well as one of the teachers here.) I plan on getting my dishwasher set up tonight and run my first load. Yay!

I also picked up a pair of sunglasses for $5 (my last pair were over ten years old and had finally fallen apart a few months ago), as well as yet another watch (somehow lost the last one) for $4.88 - le sigh. I also picked up some moisturizer with sunblock -- something else I did over Christmas was get my first facial ever (gift from an aunt). The technician told me I needed to use moisturizer with sunblock because my skin was really dry in spots and getting the beginnings of sun spots. The moisturizer she recommended cost $59 for 2 oz. The one I bought tonight cost $10.48 for 4 oz.

In all, I spent $51.xx at Wal-mart ... but I forgot to deposit my cash and checks at the ATM. I can do it next Saturday though - not in a rush.

When I got back to my town, I stopped at Family Dollar and picked up 8 cans of 9 Lives for $.33/can (regularly $.40/can), as well as flavored carbonated water (better than soda ... sorta), and a few other things. In all, I spent $6.50.

Oh, while I was at Family Dollar I ran into three of my students. They were so cute --- Hi!!! Miss N!!!!!
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Tonight I was able to cash out for another Swagbucks AGC! only 445 to go to the next one.

I'm almost to 4900 points in Beezag. Only 3100 to go to cash out!
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I have the feeling tomorrow is going to be a LONG work day. I need to finish grading the tests, grade the projects, get the grades recorded, and then most likely add all the electives to the grading program (and then of course enter grades for journalisim class) ... and then I have about 20 books that need to be cataloged .. then I need to do lesson plans ... and hopefully if I have time, I can work on getting the shelves straightened. Oh wait, I also need to find time somewhere in there to watch the intro video on the yearbook (how to use their program) and open the box which has been sitting unopened for a month or more from Lifetouch (yearbook company) ...then I need to figure out how to set up each of my journalism students with their own accounts so they can work on the yearbook. Oy!

I'm really glad next weekend is a long weekend. I'm gonna need the break!

Today we had the day off for Veteran's Day.

I couldn't sleep in, as much as I wanted to, due to both Kari and the sun streaming in my window. So I ended up getting to the car place by 9 a.m.

I had them change my oil and check my coolant. They also changed my license plate for me. (I'd only had it sitting in my car since August ...)

It cost a bit over $40 for the oil change!!! The guy was very apologetic about the cost. He said that the price of oil had gone up significantly in the past few weeks. That if I'd come in a month ago, it would've cost $25. Ugh - procrastination is a killer.

In other car news, I was told that I probably need to get my coolant flushed and new hoses. That my hoses look to be the original ones. And that I should get it done before it gets colder. I was like "colder than 14 degrees??" Yep, much colder than 14 degrees.

He said that it would probably cost around $200, and that they could pick up my car from the school, and drop it off there as well. Nice. They have to order the parts, but probably the Monday before I take off for Thanksgiving, I'll have them do it. Won't even have to wait around at the car place.

(This place comes highly recommended by many people at the school.)

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After I was done at the car place, I headed into the big town. On my way there, I stopped at a Denny's and ate breakfast. I really wanted an IHOP, but the closest IHOP is nearly 200 miles away ... The usual happened when I ordered French Toast ... I told the waitress emphatically to *please* make sure it is smothered with powdered sugar. When it came, there was a light dusting. Ugh! She brought me more.

When I got to the big town, I stopped first at Big Lots. One of the main things I was looking for there was some kind of black out curtain for my bedroom (re: morning light streaming in + window blinds not exactly perfectly closing {[i.e. privacy!} ]. I found some maroon colored ones for $10 - it fit perfectly on my bedroom window. I put it up with a couple of nails. Susie homemaker I'm not.

I also found some great items for the library prize box - including a Diary of a Wimpy Kid puzzle. I'm curious if the kids will go for puzzles ...

Then I went to Family Dollar (ostensibly to look for tickets ...) and found more good stuff for the prize boxes.

Between the two I spent around $50 (but no tickets ...)

Then I went to Walmart. I found some great small posters for $1 each, as well as some cool inexpensive sticker sets. I also bought 3 Dork Diaries (we didn't have them ... and I am hoping they'll be popular at our school.) I also got groceries. In all, about $88. The lines were atrocious.

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While at Walmart I also decided to pick up some more Allegra D. I'd gotten a ten pack over two weeks ago (24 hour variety) and was out. So I asked at the pharmacy for as many packs as they could give me. I could only get one. I asked why I could only get one ten pack!!!! The pharmacist told me it had nothing to do with the quantity of the capsules, but with the amount of milligrams?? of whatever the regulated ingredient is (the one to make meth). It is SO aggravating! I have to drive 30+_ miles to get to a place that sells the only allergy medicinethat works for me ... and I can only get a ten day supply. Oh, and she wouldn't answer me when I asked what the limit was every 30 days ...

I really need to get a doctor's appointment so I can get a prescription for allergy meds again -- cheaper (in many ways) and SO much more convenient.

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I got home and put my purchases away, then watched the Monday episode of DWTS. I was going to watch the latest Peson of Interest also, but it wasn't up on cbs.com yet. Then I relaxed with a good book ... using the Kindle Cloud Reader. Oh yeah, before all that, I catalogued (except for barcode labels, etc) the books that came in on Thursday (Percy Jackson Series plus some others) and the Dork Diaries.

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It was funny this morning before I left to go to the car place, Kari got into the mood to do 'fetch' again. She hadn't done that for awhile. It was almost as though she was trying to keep me here. I played with her for about ten minutes before she got tired.

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I went out with some of my co-workers Thursday night and saw "Tower Heist." It was okay - not one of my favorites, but it did keep me entertained most of the time. I didn't like the ending.

However, during the previews I got to see my birthday present (i.e. Tom Cruise in Mission Impossible 4 coming out in December) and I learned that in May I'll get to see yummy Robert Downy Jr on the screen again ( can't remember name of film, but he's playing Ironman in it. Yum!) I told my coworkers, "They're making us wait til May for this?" One of them thought I was talking about Taylor Long???? (from Twilight I guess). They guffawed when I asked who that was. Yeah, Twilight, etc. SO does not interest me.

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I rented Cars 2 from itunes, but will have to wait till tomorrow night to watch it due to watching DWTS this afternoon. (It was taking forever to download, so I decided to watch DWTS instead.) I decided to rent it because one of my coworkers was talking about getting Cars from Netflix and never having seen it ... so when I saw it for just $2.99 ... well ...

(some of the $1 posters I got today were of Speedy McQueen.)

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So today I did quite a bit of shopping, etc., but it was a good day.

*I read "After the Fire." It was very good - a little over the top romance novely in places, but it had a good story and plot that made up for the spots I skimmed over. It was a free Kindle download a month or so ago (Pixel of Ink for the World!!)

Yesterday was parent teacher conferences, so I spent a bit over 8 hours doing *just* inventory. I went from about 70% finished, to 88% finished! I also had two helpers - one who dusted and cleaned the shelves (badly needed), and one who put books back in correct order and started processing lexile levels for the new books.

Today I kept inventorying every spare moment. I even stayed at school til 5, even though I really had needed to stop by the PO and get into town earlier than I ended up doing -- I just couldn't stop when I was so close!!

There are 499 items missing (really more like 485, because some of them are at my house ). Most of them I think are either just plain lost, or were farmed out to various teachers classrooms by the previous librarian. I'm going to do some searching over the next few days, and then just mark them all LOST. If they end up coming in at a later point, it is easy to unmark it as Lost. But until I have the inventory at 100%, I can't get new barcodes!

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Tonight I spent just a bit over $100 at Walmart. Only $44 of it was for personal groceries. $32 of it was for a new pair of shoes which I hope will work well in the snow (predicted for tonight). The remainder consisted of 3 dozen Halloween cupcakes for the Halloween Festival the school is having on Saturday (which I won't be participating in since it is my Sabbath, but I am doing all I can to help out in other ways) and a bag of Smarties to hand out on Halloween. It is a tradition here for all the teachers to have dinner at SrN's house on Halloween, and pass out candy to the neighborhood kids. In fact, some of the Navajo families take a bus to come to our mobile home park!

I am really hoping that my next grocery trip will be kept under the $50 mark (I'm trying to go just every other Friday - save on gas and wear and tear.

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So tonight when I got home, my lovely cat Kari played a trick on me that my previous cat Monkey did way too many times. When I was coming in the door with my hands full of bags (and cupcakes I didn't want crushed) she pushed her way out the door! I was sorely dissapointed because I thought she wasn't going to get into that bad annoying habit.

I put all my stuff down on the floor, and ran out after her. I kept calling her, and she was ignoring me. I managed to get her before she got very far. Ugh!

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Today was my first elective class. I'm teaching journalism (i.e. newspaper and yearbook.) I have 6 6th and 7th graders total. I told them that we are going to do a couple issues of a newspaper, then concentrate on the yearbook, and then it would be up to them whether we do bookclubs or learn how to design a website (which we'd put a newspaper edition on.) Being middle schooler's, there was no visible reaction to any of it. Oh well, I think over all they enjoyed class today - I know the time flew for me!

What a LONG week this has been! I'll give you the highlights:

Sunday (July 31) - Guys I hired get to Uhaul place nearly 40 minutes late (lost.) Instead of taking a total of 3 - 4 hours, it ended up taking a total of over 6 hours (after driving the moving guys back to their car - only one of them felt comfortable driving the truck.) Between the rental truck, trailer, and moving guys = total ~$1150!

Monday night - Picked up brother from airport at midnight. Didn't get to bed till nearly 2:30 a.m.

Tuesday - Brother and I on the road about 9:30 - 0nly 30 minutes later than planned. As soon as we passed into the New Mexico state line, we had RAIN! Something I hadn't seen in way too long. Total cost of gas ~ $350

Arrive at destination a little after 10. Are met by the Mobile Home Park Manager - very nice. LOVE my home (with the slight caveat of NO DISHWASHER!!!)

Wednesday - MHPM comes by and lights the hot water heater. Brother and I want to get the internet set up (I know, priorities!) but in order to do that need my bag of cords - somewhere on the truck. We end up unloading the truck *completely* by ourselves!! (Even though I'd been reassured a couple times that there'd be people lined up ...) While I go sign the lease and get a PO box, my brother takes a nap and sets up the internet. We have WiFi!!

Head out to the big town 30 miles West and do some major damage at Walmart and Home Depot. I got a power drill!! One thing I needed but *still* have not located is a lockable trash can. We ate a late lunch at Sizzler (last time I ate at a Sizzler .... elementary school!) Damage ~ $220

When we got back, I worked on unpacking the kitchen boxes and my brother put together my office/exercise room and setting up my stereo. Fell exhausted into bed around midnight.

Thursday - Head to airport, and along the way stop and see the elementary school we attended (I graduated from in 1989!) and also one of the two houses we lived in.

Got to airport just in time to meet mom as she's coming off the plane. Eat a light lunch. See brother off. Mom and I head to the teacher's store -- light damage $62. Then we head to Costco ($238) and again to Wal-Mart ($111). Ouch, ouch, ouch!

Friday - Do tons of loads of laundry. SO thankful for a washer and dryer!! After second load realized that there is no hot water. MHPM comes by - says it is kaput. Will have to order a new hot water heater on Monday. Gives us the key to the empty home next door to use to shower (till Sunday afternoon.)

Manage to unpack all but two boxes before calling it a day.

Sunset - Sweet relief and rest! Guilt free no messing with the house!!

Saturday - After driving around for over an hour, finally manage to find the church. Sweet people, although they are in the middle of an evangelistic series which isn't my favorite thing. Eat potluck in the "hogan." Find out the new pastor's wife used to attend a church I taught school at in Texas. Found some visitors who used to be church members of a TX church my dad pastored.

Sweet sleep.

Evening - Hung almost all my pictures ( a few had frames that are falling apart.) Got the living room and kitchen looking picture perfect.

Sunday - Mom woke up feeling drugged - had to stop 3 times for a bathroom on a two-hour trip. Finally after drinking a lot of water, she started feeling better.

Stopped by the church/school. Then ventured to find a nail salon. Mom's "friend" was treating for both of us to get a mani/pedi. Over three hours later my simple mani/pedi was finished, and I was feeling yucky. Went to Walmart and picked up a thank you card. Got back to the nail salon. 30 minutes later my mom's nails were done ( a fill???) Rushed like speedy gonzoles to the airport and dropped mom off.

On the way home I stopped at a Denny's. They were *really* short staffed. At one point I had to go grab silverware off another table so I could eat.

When I got home I was feeling extremely lousy, and did something I hadn't done in years - lost whatever food I'd had that day. Went to bed, though didn't sleep very well.

Monday - Forced myself out of bed around 10. Called the various places I needed to change my address at. Then got my documentation together for registering my car and changing my drivers license. After driving around for over an hour, and finally stopping at a police department, I found the MVD. Nearly 90 minutes later, I had my car registered, and a dl. Damage = $73. Attempted to go to Walmart, but the GPS led me to some forlorn warehouse, so ended up just going home.

Tomorrow will have to go to Walmart to take back a couple items, and get a few groceries I forgot.

I forgot - on Sunday while I was at Denny's I got a call from one of the ladies at the church who is a school teacher. She told me that the librarian at her school is looking to retire in the next few years - so that might be an opportunity for me if I'm still here. She also offered to let me spend the night at her house on Saturdays so that I wouldn't have to make two trips (one for church, and one for groceries.) I thought that was really sweet of her.

I've pretty much wiped out what was left of my savings with this move. So I am looking very much forward to my first paycheck on the 17th. I don't forsee any more big expenses coming up, so will be able to restock savings pretty quickly -- and restart my ROTH again!!

Yesterday I was able to redeem more of my Mypoints for a $25 Amazon gift card. That makes $50 in AGC from Mypoints this month (once they arrive of course!) I'm now down to a measly 471 points. So, I think it will be awhile before I can redeem again.

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I'm within 600 points of being able to redeem for my next $8 cash in Beezag. This March Madness deal (where all the videos are worth 250 points) has been fantastic!

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I've donated 770 Swagbucks so far this month to the Japan donation thing. I'm at 21 Swagbucks now. I'll wait till I get back up to 100 to donate again, or March 30. Whichever comes first.

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So I was supposed to pick up Buddy yesterday afternoon on my way back from my friends house. But when I called to find out if my mom wanted me to pick him up, she wasn't home yet. So today she calls me while I'm in my tutoring session and asks me if I can come pick him up because she was going to be gone from 1 pm to after 11 pm, and couldn't take him with her. So of course I said I would. I got there about 4:30. His leash was nowhere to be found. UGH! I texted her to find out where it was - and she didn't know where it was either.

When I took him out to the car, I had to improvise a leash - because when I set him down on the grass, he ran after another dog .... I found one of those tie down straps. Worked perfectly. A normally 30 minute trip took 1 1/2 hours thanks to traffic. Not fun!

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Mom's lease is up at the end of April. So she also today was asking me if she should get a two-bedroom apartment so I'd have a room to stay in. I told her I really had no idea at this point - I may need a place to stay, and I may not. Of course, considering how many responses I've received from my school librarian job apps ... more than likely I will need it.

So, I think she decided to go with the two bedroom, with the understanding that I'd be renting the "guest bedroom" from her and that it most likely would be temporary. She at first was wanting $300/mo for it - but when I asked if I could bring all my stuff from storage so that I could save that expense ... she agreed to $200/mo. If we decide to make it a more permanent arrangement, then she wants me to pay half. Half of what we didn't discuss ...

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I sent inquiries about a couple more jobs. One of them is similar to what Whitestripe has been doing. If it works out, I could do it for 15 - 25 hours a week at $10/hr +gas allowance. It is putting out fliers for a window washing company in various neighborhoods. I'd be doing a lot of walking - which is something that would be *very* good.

I figure I could do that from 8 - 11/12 every day, get home and shower, and then start my tutoring appointments at 1 or 2. That would put my income in the range of $1400 - 1600! I don't know what I'd do with all that money! Save as much as possible of course

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I bought some groceries today: $8.61 (yogurt, bananas, cheese)

So I have $11.49 remaining for March.

And I had a GREAT time!

I left Thursday around noon after dropping Buddy off with my Mom, and then arrived at my friend's home just before 4 p.m. Immediately I had her two kids all over me ... and that didn't change throughout the whole weekend.

On Friday morning I made aebleskebers for everyone. The kids couldn't get enough of them - they ate them just about as fast as I could make them.

I let them play games on my iPhone. The biggest hit - for both the almost 5 year old girl and the 7 year old boy ... was the Barbie Memory game! It uses a lot of "outdated" words. I had to explain "Jeepers" and "Toodles" plus a few other words. It was quite funny actually.

My friend and I somehow managed to get in 5 games of Flinch - she won all of them!

Saturday after church we took the kids to the Lufkin Zoo and park where we had a picnic. Not even 5 feet from our blanket was a lake ... with warning signs about alligators!!! That was quite exciting.
The church's pastor and his two kids joined us to go into the zoo (his wife was in a meeting of some sort). I somehow ended up having not 2 kids all over me, but 4! I loved every minute of it of course.

It didn't cost me anything to get in to the zoo because my friend had an extra guest pass. Really, just a perfect way to spend a Sabbath afternoon.

I got lots of reading time in ... out loud to the kids! We read about Zacheus and Goliath and the little Maid who helped Naaman ... and we read an older book about how Goofy got his name (it was called something like "The Princess Who Never Laughed"), a book of Mother Goose rhymes, and LOTS more. We also played quite a bit of Wii. The little girl is quite skilled at the swordplay!

So ... anyway ... the trip was well worth the ~$60 in gas and $24 (treated for a meal at CiCi's Pizza) that it cost.

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I have heard diddly squat from any of the places I have applied to so far for jobs. It is frustrating - quite frustrating. Nevertheless, all I can do is keep on looking and trying. Eventually something will turn up (I hope).

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I should know the Capstone results by this Friday. Just slightly anticipating the end of the LOOONNNGGG wait.

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Now that my trip is over, I am stipulating that I will not spend more than $20 for the remainder of March (other than gas and one celebratory meal if good results from Capstone). I think I should be able to manage that.

Yesterday on my way home from working with my main tutoring student, I decided to stop at Walgreens to pick up a couple of things. I happened to pass by the freezer section, and saw that they had the pizza singles on sale for $.69 each. These make a nice quick lunch, and for $.69, I picked up two.

When I got to the cash register ... the pizzas rang up for $.25!! I of course went back and got 8 more! There were 6 or so left on the shelf for someone else.

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As of 11 a.m. this morning, Swagbuckers have made over $6,000.00 in comprable Swagbucks donations for Japan! That is a lot of Swagbucks in a little more than 24 hours to be donated!

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This morning I made it to my university campus and got my TSH (thyroid) bloodwork done. I had to see the doctor so she could order the test - I messed up on the dates of the lab specials - they were last week! Ugh!

Anyway, while the doctor was talking to me, she told me that I would need to find my own doctor to keep going with the meds. I told her that I *do* have my own doctor, but she charges nearly $300 for what costs me $15 at the university! So while I have this chance, I'm sure as hey going to use it!

All in all it cost me a total of $85 today - $30 for two doctor visit fees (they didn't charge me last time, even though I'd asked ...) and $50 for the TSH test. So when my current prescription runs out, I have it set up to get it renewed.

Phew. Hopefully by the next time I have to go through this song and dance, I will have actual insurance!!

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I'm looking forward to heading off to the Houston area tomorrow to see my friend and her family. She's got her kids excited about my making aebleskebers for them.

We had a pretty small group for Sabbath School this weekend, just six kids. Of course, church itself was pretty empty. I guess a lot of people out traveling.

Yesterday I got an email from Amazon telling me that they had money for me, but didn't know how to get it to me. (I'm an Amazon Associate on both of my blogs.) So I went to the site to find out what they were talking about. I had to search all the way back to August to find ... one person had bought two items (quinoa and something else)through one of my links! My advertising profit? $2.87. Of course, the minimum payout is $10, so I'm not sure why they were stressing about me setting up a payment method. I think its so funny that I made my first "sale" through my frugal blog on which I have *very* few Amazon links, rather than on my book blog in which I have links everywhere!

This weekend has been incredible with the wins on Swagbucks TV. From Thursday through today, I have had an average of ten wins per day. That's nearly half of a $5 Amazon gift card! (The normal average is two-three a day.)

Today my stepdad and I went over to my moms new apartment and helped her get more settled in. We brought Buddy with us - he was so happy to see mom. He followed her everywhere she went. On the way back home I asked SD to stop at a gas station because I wanted a Cherry Coke (challenge is over! thank you very much) Buddy went nutso in the car with SD while I was in the store. I think the little guy is getting a really bad complex.

Friday I went out grocery shopping pretty late. If I hadn't needed to fill up with gas for the weekend, I would have just skipped it.

I had about 15 items in my cart - all the lanes were packed (that were open.) So I chose the one with only one person who had two FULL carts. I figured that the one person had a better chance of getting through quickly than a line of 5 people with 15 - 20+ items (more chance of um... problem customers.) So anyway, while I was waiting, a cashier opened up the register just behind me. When I noticed it, she was about to start ringing a guy up behind me. He saw me notice it, then looked at my cart, and told me to go ahead. Really cute guy too. (Probably early to mid-twenties though. Too bad.)

I forgot to make an actual list, so didn't pick up spinach. SD picked that up today for me though.

So groceries -- $27.40 (fruit, cheese, Rice Dream, Orange Juice, hot chocolate, marshmallows, etc.)

Gas - $2.49/gallon $22.86

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November Spending:

Gas -- $74.78
Groceries -- $77.99
Auto Insurance -- 206.62
Subscriptions & Dues - $60 (
Prescriptions, etc. - $45.30
Gifts - $57.04
iTunes - $11.xx
Auto Repairs/Maintain - $127.65
Phone - $80.62

I did really well with my grocery spending this month. I think doing the challenge with my mom had a large part in it. Also, making crockpot beans and freezing them, as well as lentil soup, and eating lots of homemade burritos, cut down expenses.

Gas was okay. It would have been less if I hadn't gone down and volunteered at the local church school (I could have waited till December to fill up.) But .. I did get $20 in gas money from the principal/teacher (which I did try to refuse, but she insisted.) That isn't figured into the gas amount.

Auto Insurance - I chose to stay with Geico. The amount reflects the Defensive Driver's Discount, and adding back Roadside Assistance. I called AT&T on Friday and dropped their RA, which cost $3/month versus $1.xx/mo for Geico.

Subscriptions/Dues - After much thought I decided to renew my membership in the two professional organizations. Hopefully next year I'll be working in a library that will provide those dues for me, but for now, it will be good to have on my resume.

Prescriptions, etc. - My monthly scrip, plus a renewal of Walgreen's Prescription Club Discount card.

Gifts - Most come from an order with Lakeside Collection. VERY slow shipping. The order also earned some points through Mypoints. A few of the others are from two different photo deals I did through Swagbucks. My Christmas shopping is done. Oh yes, almost forgot - one gift was for Mother's Day (also a Swagbucks deal.)

iTunes - Got a bit carried away finding apps for my new tutoring student (pre-schooler)

Auto Repairs - Replaced three outside belts when the squealing got really bad in my car.

Phone - This should go down a little bit next month, now that I've canceled Roadside Assistance

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I did have some unexpected new sources of income this month, such as the two new tutoring students, and the reimbursed gas money. I also redeemed $25 worth of Amazon gift cards (through Swagbucks) which are currently sitting in my Amazon account. Not to mention the scholarship I found out about!

So, I definitely could do better next month. After the 21st, I doubt I'll be spending much of my own money (being out in CA.) I will offer - but will more than likely be turned down. (I am hoping one of those $3 Restaurant.com codes come out so I can get a gift certificate for this one restaurant out there and "treat" for at least one meal!)

I have truly been enjoying this weekend. I have next week to look forward to with only one tutoring session, and the end of the challenge with my mom (me = limited sugar; mom - limited soda).

Yesterday at church we again had 14 kids! I just can't say how much I loved it, even though it was quite crowded. Most of the reason we had so many was because the school was putting on a Thanksgiving program. So, in the middle of our lesson story, half of our class left to go practice. Hopefully those who don't normally come will be interested in coming again. Of course ... we don't really have space for more ... God will take care of that.

Other than church yesterday, I didn't really do much of anything.

Today I slept in a little bit. Oh luxury! (Can't sleep in too much, otherwise an anxious puppy will let me know how badly he needs to go!) I goofed on the net for awhile, checked out the coupons and advertisements for this weekend, and then goofed some more on the net.

This afternoon I was getting ravenous. So I decided to make a burrito. I used a tortilla which had been bought at Sam's club two years ago (frozen and moved several times - recently dethawed.) A 1/2 cup portion of the beans I made a few weeks ago (from the freezer), spinach, shredded cheese, and rice. It was so yummy and SO filling!

After I was done eating, I made my

Grandma's Corn Pudding Casserole. I was going to make it on Friday, but by the time I finished with an assignment that was due, it was after 5 p.m. I was tired, and just didn't feel like doing it. *The link goes to my Living Frugal blog with the recipe and pictures. (I'm freezing it for Thanksgiving.) I entered the recipe into the Swagbucks recipe contest. Crossing my fingers!

I have my first Swagbucks referral! Woo Hoo! Well ... it actually is my dad. I talked him through the process step by step over the phone.

The bananas I got on Thursday are already going bad. SD got some more today - they're much greener than the ones I'd found.

Tomorrow I'll be going to the church school and helping out the principal/teacher for the day. I can't donate much in the way of money, but I can donate time once in awhile. I do have two assignments I'll have to do this week, plus I may try to complete two of next week's assignments to get ahead a little bit.

I hope my mom decides quickly about whether or not she's moving out on Friday or not. If she isn't, then I'll make an appointment with the University Health center for my TSH (thyroid) test. (Discount days start on Friday.)Hopefully the traffic wouldn't be too crazy around the university.

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Spending:
iTunes - App store: 4 different apps for pre-schoolers. ~$6.00 (prepping for tutoring)

York Photo - $7.xx - two photo magnets (Christmas presents)

Tomorrow anticipated spending:

Either Acrylic Paint or Fabric Paint, Masking tape (Christmas presents), Spinach (my bag is going bad already)


**Any ideas on how to keep a bag of spinach from going slimy so fast? I eat it as fast as I can, but ...

Last night I worked with two new tutoring students, a 2nd grader and a 5th grader. They're both great kids and I think it is going to be lots of fun finding things for them. Their mom insists on them having homework between sessions. My mom had been working with the fifth-grade boy, as well as his two older brothers. But she wasn't able to work with the second grade boy.

Today as I was waiting for my high-school boy, I ran into the mom of two of my mom's former students. (She'd exchanged hair styling for tutoring.) She asked me if I'd be willing to work with her 4 year old daughter and help her get ready for kindergarten. One or two times a week for an hour each. Right up my alley! We'll possibly start in January.

Then near the end of my tutoring session with the high-school boy, his host mom came home. She's the same person who has essentially helped me get most of my students. She asked me if I thought I could tutor someone in Algebra 1. I gulped, and said that I thought I could. I'd have to get some books and such from the library to review, but I think I could do it. As long as I stayed ahead of the student.

Wow! if both of these new students pan out, I'm going to be quite busy! Yay!!

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Grocery Spending:

11/17 -- $8.01 supper, chocolate oranges (2)

I needed something to eat before tutoring my two new students. CVS had the chocolate oranges on sale 2 for $5. I *love* those oranges, and that is a good price. So ... they are put away until Thanksgiving when the challenge is over.

11/18 -- $7.06 bananas, shredded cheese, green onions, frozen veggies, cream corn,

I decided to make the corn pudding for potluck on Sabbath, so needed a few more ingredients.

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Wow! Yesterday I completed a special offer on Swagbucks for comparing insurance offers. (It gave me enough to get my 5th Amazon card, and have 300+ left.) This morning I was inundated with phone calls and emails. On Tuesday I had written a blog post on

how I've managed to stump car insurance agents. This morning to my utter shock, someone actually managed to beat my rate by $3 (per six-months.) I told them I didn't want to make a decision right away, but would need to think about it. Or, in other words, research the company.

Good thing I did! It has absolutely terrible ratings for customer service and claims handling. As I was talking to the five different people (the ones I actually answered the phone for) a reoccurring statement made was that I had only been insured for one-year. I thought that was really strange since I was pretty sure I'd been with Geico since at least 2001. I also found out that Texas passed a law raising the amount of the mandated minimums.

So I finally went ahead and gave Geico a call. I found out that most agents when making a quote will just automatically put one-year, and that I had been with Geico nearly 12 years. I also found out that I won't need to worry about the increased coverage rate until my May renewal. Then I asked the agent to add roadside service back to my plan. I couldn't remember why I had taken it off my plan in the first place ($6/term). He reminded me that it usually is only available for people with comprehensive, but that since I've been with them for so long, he'd make an exception. It just so happened that he was a supervisor!

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As I was typing this I got a call from the mom of the 4 year old. She and her husband have decided to have me work with their daughter twice a week! Yes! Apparently she has to pass a test to be admitted into the particular Kindergarten. The mom is going to talk to the pre-school teacher to find out what skills need to be worked on. I'm really running the gambit here - working with 4-year olds all the way through college!

Today was an interesting day weather wise. This morning it was rainy and windy, then by noon it was very warm and humid. Coming home from my tutoring student I had to put my a/c on high. Then by about 5 p.m. it was cold and windy again -- so much so I had to put a jacket on when I took Buddy out.

What can I say ... that's Texas for you!

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I did a bit of grocery shopping today. I had a total of $37.xx left ($17 from last week, plus this weeks $20.) I did a bit of a stockup, and got one little extra.

4 cans mushrooms, 2 cans refried beans, 1 bag shredded cheese, 2 half-gallons orange juice, 1 loaf of bread, 1/2 dozen eggs, bag of spinach, bag of cornbread mix, Rice Dream (milk), generic Ziploc quart bags, 1 pkg wet dog food, and 1 box of small dog treats.

I unfortunately did not have any coupons for any of the items.

The total came to $24.11. The only thing I can think of that I'll need to buy in the next two weeks are bananas. I didn't get them today because we have a few left, and I'm hoping SD will get more on Sunday. We go through bananas quickly in this house.

That leaves me with about $13 to go towards next weeks spending budget.
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I was thinking about making my cornbread casserole and entering the recipe and a picture of it in the Swagbucks recipe contest. That's why I got the cornbread mix at first. I wavered on doing it this week though. I may do it next week (deadline is next Friday) and make it for our Thanksgiving church potluck. Two birds with one stone. There's a few other ingredients I'd have to get, so I'll have to see where my grocery budget is at.

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Speaking of Swagbucks. I redeemed SBs today for my third $5 giftcard. Then I did a few easy peasy special offer deals, and am back up to 230. I just need 220 more for my next giftcard. I decided to link it to my Facebook account. It will only post 3 - 4 times a day, when I get search wins and when I get SBs for finding a code. So hopefully that won't be too annoying to others, and maybe I'll get a few referrals.

I just checked my email and found out that I was awarded a scholarship for the Spring semester! Yahoo! It didn't say how much it will be for, but I'm hoping it'll be at least $400 like for this semester. That'll definitely help put a little extra breathing room in my budget.

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Last night I was really, really bored and not feeling like doing school work. So I made the first video for my Living Frugal blog, and then I also made a second video for my Children's Books blog. It's a book review in an interview format.

Book Talk with Dan and Laura.

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Spending Report:

Filled up with gas: $23.57

Bought bananas: $1.43

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I'm about 70 Swagbucks away from redeeming my 3rd Amazon gift card -- and I haven't even been doing it for two full weeks yet! Of course, the proof will be when I am able to actually redeem the gift cards.

I did some Mypoints emails today, and looked at the rewards page. Recently, it had looked like 60% of their gift cards were gone. But it must have just been a glitch, or maybe they restocked. I have about 5600 points right now, so I could get a $25 gift card, or wait a few months more and get a $50. I'm debating on getting a Walmart card and use it for new clothes, or get an Amazon card to add to my SB winnings for something larger. I'll probably end up waiting to have enough for a $50 card.

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I feel really badly for my sixth grade tutoring student. Last week he had his finger slammed between 50lbs of weights when he was in weightlifting class. He actually broke the tip of it! So today I had him do his vocab quiz orally, and then I was his scribe for our essay writing work. (It was his writing hand.)

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My mom may have found the house she's going to move into. She's going to leave Buddy here for the most part so that he's not alone for 8 or 9 hours a day. He's going to be one confused little puppy.

For the past few months my car has been emitting a squealing noise from time to time. At the time of my mom's neck surgery, a tutoring student of my mom's was riding in my car with me and mentioned it. The Korean Boy student also has mentioned it (although he thinks my windshield wipers going on when we go over a bump is hilarious.)

I've been worried about it, but have pretty much ignored it. Hoping for nothing to happen. The last week or so, it has gotten progressively worse. To the point that today it was almost constantly squealing.

The people I've mentioned it to think it is probably my timing belt. I think that is very probable. It's probably been about 60,000 miles+ since it was last changed, and 7 or 8? years.

Tomorrow I'm taking it to a place across the street from the school I tutor at. I'm hoping that the guys there will look at it and confirm for me if the timing belt is the problem, or if it might be something else. If they think it is the belt, then I'll have to check and see if the *trusted* person our family has used many, many times is available. It is a 40 mile trip to him.

I've already called my Sabbath School assistant and told her that I probably won't be able to come on Sabbath. I'm scared to drive my car right now more than I *absolutely* have to.

If you recall, my funds are *very* *very* low. Replacing the timing belt will just about wipe them out.

So, I am back to considering the option of taking money out of my ROTH. I need to make sure I can do that without tax consequences or other penalties. There isn't much in there, but it would at least help relieve some of the pressure.

I feel so conflicted with all of this. I want to trust that God will work it all out in the end, but then I know that we're also supposed to do our part.

SD was suggesting that maybe I should check and see if my dad's side of the family's offer to help me buy a new car was still valid. With having no guarantee that I'll even find a job which pays enough to live on *and* repay a loan, I just can't stomach the thought.

Ugh!
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On a lighter note. I redeemed 449 Swagbucks last night for my first $5 Amazon gift card. It says that it'll take between 10 and 14 days to arrive. As of right now, I have 60 SB's towards the next one.

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Spending Log:

$1.39 - Bananas

Korean Boy finally paid me today. I'll be making a deposit tomorrow.

Walgreen's

Hairspray - $1.08

Wal-Mart

Bananas, OJ, Brown Sugar, Cheese, eggs - $7.83

Total Spent: $8.91

I used a $.55 coupon for the cheese. The brown sugar should last for six weeks (unless my mom uses it!). The OJ generally lasts for two weeks - I drink 1/2 cup for breakfast. Bananas - I tend to buy them twice a week - both my mom and stepdad eat them as well. When I get the really green ones, my mom might eat 3 in a day!

*My eye was caught by a bag of hard-boiled, peeled eggs. $2.12 for 6 of them. I passed them by of course, and picked up the 6 pack for $.77. I'll have to boil them myself, but it's worth it.


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I have two 2lb bags of pinto beans. I'm going to soak one of them tonight, and tomorrow put them in the crockpot.

I also have lots of quinoa and red lentils. So, I'm thinking I'll make some kind of a casserole with quinoa, lentils, spinach, beans and cheese.

That may have to wait til next weekend though, since my Sunday afternoon is already spoken for.

I also am going to go through all my food supplies and make a list of what I have. Other than fruit, juice and brown sugar, I want to see if I can use up everything in my stockpile. That will be a good thing anyway for when I move.

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I think instead of limiting myself to beans, rice and oatmeal, I'm going to give myself a weekly budget of $20. This is for groceries and anything else, other than gas or other required bills.

I think I'll track it here -- Sunday to Friday. Friday is usually my biggest grocery shopping day -- so whatever is left is what I can shop with that day.

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I'm also thinking about what things I might be able to sell. One of my current textbooks I'll be able to sell in January, but the other two I think I actually may want to keep. I bought a Wii game back in March (I think) that has only been used twice (fitness game.) I'm going to try again to sell the box of 10 Brita Filters (need to find where they are though.) Maybe I could sell my elliptical - though it might fetch a better price in January.

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Before my reality check, I bought some items from Lakeside Collection for Christmas. A total of $36.xx which took care of everyone. One of the items are these polyperene (sp?) bags. I want to put the individuals name on it to personalize, but I'm not sure about what the best/most economical way of doing that is. Would fabric pens work? Something else?

Btw - One of the main items I wanted, is of course back ordered. AND it took them 6 business days to send my billing information to the warehouse. These items were ordered on Oct. 16. I received them today.

First and Last order.

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.

It looks like my total income for March is $740. So my April budget is the same. I'd been thinking about getting a hair trim soon, but will put it off till at least May. I can use my tax refund to pay for it.

I sent my sixth grade tutorees mom an email on Thusday letting her know my new policy - pay up front - no refunds. If a sssion is missed - with advance notice, I'll add time to future sessions. I heard back from her today (after texting to ask if shed gotten my email) and she canceled for this week, but will start next week with paying in full. Not quite what I was going for - missing a third full week of tutoring money - but in a way it is good. I have a lot of reading and research to do right now. It just really cuts financially.

I had some brownie mix in my pantry, so made them this weekend. I shared some with my stepdad (a fellow chocolate lover) and put some in the freezer for next weekend. I would be under budget this month for groceries if I hadn't said I'd buy a candybar from two different kids this coming Tuesday. Still, it'll only be a few dollars over. MUCH better than the past few months. For April I need to see if I can go even lower - maybe under $70 would be doable. ( March will be about $93 I think. )

I highly reccomend one of the books I read for my class - teens and up. "how to NOT be popular" by Jennifer Zeigler. Really great book. I was cracking up laughing at some parts.

We've been having some really windy weather here lately. The temperature has been in the high 60's and mid70's, but the wind keeps it chilly. Today was the ten year anniversary of the big tornado in Downtown Fort Worth/Dallas area. I remember when that happened. My parents were almost in the thick of it that night. I think that's about the worst tornado in the DFW area, at least since I've been in Texas (1995).