Keeping It Frugal

Last night my aunt and uncle, my grandma and I all went to a free concert put on by an oldies group called The Preps. (I had to Google them, did you?) The community next to LL has an outdoor arena type thing where during the summer they sponsor two concerts a week.

It was a lot of fun, and I actually knew about 60% of the songs they sang (lots of covers, but a few orignal hits from their own group.) I especially liked the song they ended with -- I'm not sure exactly what the title is ... but whenever I hear it I'm reminded of an especially tender/romantic scene in the movie Ghost ... "time goes by so slowly and time can change ... I need your touch..."

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I got a call this morning that the Rogue should be ready to be picked up around 4 today. They had to install a new part in the transmission - hopefully that'll take care of the problem.

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My grandma gave me a little money as a thank-you for taking care of her. It doesn't come close to making up for the loss of summer school ... but that wasn't my reason for staying here and helping out. Plus, if I look at it in terms of money I've saved by being here ... gas, food, impulse purchases, etc. I probably have saved around $600 (including what she gave me.) So ... it's something.

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It's really hard to know what to get my grandma for birthday's/Christmasses because she doesn't really have a need for *things*, so today when we were shopping at Walmart I saw she had slippers on her list. So I helped her pick out a pair, and then when we got to the checkout I informed her that *I* was getting them for her. She protested at first until I explained that it was an early birthday present (her birthday is in September.)

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I'm getting ready for my trip to Northern CA tomorrow. I have a long bus/train trip ahead of me, but I have plenty of reading material on my phone and may download a movie from iTunes to watch. Plus I'm sure I can sleep a bit.

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If you remember I had filled up the bird feeders when we got back from San Jose on Saturday. Well, the birds haven't been eating anything from the hanging bags. I thought maybe it was because we were using the larger bird feed instead of the finer grain (which we'd ran out of.) Today we stopped by this really cool store completely dedicated to birds (with a mini-zoo of a camel, goats, etc) and I found out that I was correct. So this evening when it gets cooler (110 degree high yesterday!!) I'm going to go change out the feed in the bags. (I'm also going to do some weeding in the garden. The section I didn't get to very well last time has really sprung up the weeds!)

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Tomorrow will be my first payday of the new fiscal year. Instead of it being my yearly salary divided by 24 like 2011/12, it will be divided by 26 plus the 1% raise. I'm a little nervous about how that final amount will work out ... but one way or the other, I'll be able to make it work. I'll just need to see what I can cut or minimize - probably Netflix .. and then maybe going to cash only for groceries to keep within a budgeted amount... Maybe I'll try calling my internet company and tell them I can't afford to keep them any longer and see what happens ... although I have no where else to go for internet if they call my bluff ...

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One thing I'm really really going to miss when I go back to NM is the extremely easily access to vegetarian and vegan food here. In the normal run of the mill grocery store they have most of one aisle dedicated to canned veggie foods. Then of course there is the university supermarket which *only* has vegan and vegetarian foods ... Then today grandma and I went to Clark's and they were 80% vegan/vegetarian with a HUGE selection of Amy's foods AND 4 or 5 varieties of vegan pizza.

The university market is having a campmeeting sale through the end of July ... so I am planning on making a large shopping trip there before heading back to NM. Half a case or more of Big Franks, 4 or 5 cans of Nuteena (Nutmeat or whatever they're calling it now) ...etc. It will probably take all of my food budget from June and July ... But it will be so nice to have those things on hand (and they keep for a long time.)

When we were on our San Jose trip last week the Rogue displayed a loud whining sound within the first 100 miles of going up hills and other steep terrain. We turned off the A/C and the radio to be able to hear it better. Once we got back to flat land the whine stopped. My uncle also experienced times where he lost acceleration power going through intersections.

So we got up bright and early (well... bright and early for me for summer time...) and headed to the Nissan dealer. My car was the 3rd in line. It was *just* under the 36k mark (so still under the general warranty), and well under the extended 100k transmission warranty (which my dad LOVED to brag about.) Around 3 this afternoon we got a call telling us that they had found something going on with it, but would need it for a few days to figure it out.

Luckily we have two vehicles here, so we can get by for a few days with just one.

I hope that they figure out whatever is going on with it before I head off to NM, because once I get there it's a minimum 2 hour one-way trip to the dealer!!

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My uncle dropped me off at the fitness center where I did 17 laps around the indoor walk/run track. Unfortunately my gps did not work in there, and I got conflicting reports on how many laps made a mile ... I *think* I did around 2 miles. Then when I was finished I walked home -- 0.9 miles. If I had actually gotten myself out bed this morning at 6:30 then I could have had accurate time/distanc/pacing info (because I would've done it outside..) but making myself get up that early on a summer day when I didn't *absolutely* have to... yeah, not going to happen!

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We had baked sweet potatoes, vege baked beans and salad for dinner tonight. Yum! One of my favorite meals. (not to mention easy peasy!)

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Now I'm waiting for it to get cool enough out to coerce my grandma for her daily walk. We did some walking while grocery shopping today, but I'm not letting her get by with just that.

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This is so cool! I just got off the phone with my brother and he told me it was okay to tell you guys. If you watched (or have read about .. and really, who hasn't at least heard or read) the Bacherlete (sp??) ... you may recognize the name Ali. She was the Bacheorlette from two seasons ago (before Emily.) Well my brother snagged a new travel show being syndicated nationally by NBC to be run after Saturday Night Live. It is hosted by Ali and some other people. One of their first stops is ... the Napa Wine Train!!! They were there today filming - my brother put *everything* together for them. He may even be included in some of the footage.

He doesn't know for sure when this episode will air, but as soon as I know, I'll let y'all in on it.

(He received lots of flirtation from both Ali and her friend who was with her ... no big surprise at all considering his charm and good looks. )

Those of you coming to the SA meetup will have to put up with me showing off my brother for a few minutes.

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I've gotten really tired of carrying my phone with me when I go walking or running. (Most of my workout clothes don't have pockets, and the eh em "extra" pocket isn't so good when you're sweating up a storm ..) So today I bit the bullet and bought a $15 arm band to hold my phone. The only thing I don't like is that I have to take my phone out of it's protective cover to fit it in ...

Ok, going to go drag grandma out for her walk. Then I'll come back and catch up on blogs and forum posts.

I am back at my grandma's house (for a few days at least.)

We (my uncle, grandma and I) traveled up to San Jose on the 3rd. We ended up arriving at my aunts house a little earlier than we thought, and were greeted by a very unhappy uncle. I can't say that I have ever felt less welcome. To give him some space, we went over to my aunt's best friends house (where my uncle and his wife were going to be staying.) A few hours later, after eating supper and relaxing, we went back to my aunts house to find my uncle in a much better mood. A while later my brother arrived.

The morning of the 4th my brother and I went for a "jog" together. (Warmup for him, dying for me ...) Then we put together a nice picnic feast in my aunt and uncles backyard - veggie franks and veggie baked beans, corn on the cob, potato salad, regular salad, watermelon, etc.

That night most people backed out of going to the fireworks, but my brother, uncle and I all went. It was a really awesome display - and both my brother and I felt a little like our dad was there. Neither of us believe in ghosts, etc., but it was more that we knew it was an activity he would've loved. He really loved fireworks - but especially on the 4th - a prelude to his birthday.

The next day my brother and I went on a grueling 3 mile walk/jog (with some tortorous hills!) Then we headed to Lodi where the cemetary is where my dad was to be interred. Our appointment to sign the paperwork, etc. was at 1, but we didn't get seen until nearly 2 - apparentally they were overbooked. Hmm...

While we were working on the paperwork, my uncle (the one who was very unwelcoming) and my aunt's best friend went out and got a flag and enough red roses for everyone in the group. I thought that was really sweet and thoughtful.

Finally the paperwork was done, and payment made and we headed out to where they had already dug the hole for the ashes. We all gathered around while the man put the ashes in the hole, and then we each took turns placing a rose on the ground near the hole. Somebody said a prayer, and then the man started filling up the hole with dirt, and finally covered it with grass sod. We took photos of various groups of people, and then headed to our cars. Before we got to them though, we stopped for a while at the graves of my aunt's (who lives in Egypt) grandparents.

We all went to a late lunch at an Italian restaurant. Their bread was simply out of this world (Strings, if you ever get to Lodi.) We stayed there for awhile talking and laughing and reminiscing. Then everyone took off on their various ways.

Friday we had a late brunch of leftovers from the 4th's lunch, and managed to take off shortly before 2 p.m.

When we got here to LL I was disheartened to see that some of the plants I'd been given from coworkers in NM had pretty much completely withered, even though I'd watered them well before I left. I'm hoping I can still revive them though.

I also realized that I didn't pay the car insurance for my/dad's car -- I'm so used to paying car insurance automatically once every six months that having a monthly due date doesn't register very well. I'll call them tomorrow and make a payment over the phone - once they get my dad's death certificate, I should get a good sized refund. My dad had had a number of tickets recently which caused his rate to go up.

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I'm REALLY looking forward to this coming Friday and meeting up with some of the SA Family. It will be a much needed break. Plus I'll also get to ride the wine train with my brother on Sunday, so that will be quite an experience as well.

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I got an email from my principal yesterday (she's taking care of my cat Kari.) She assured me that Kari was just fine ... then told me this story: She'd gone over to my place in the morning to feed/water Kari, and then had gone off to G to run errands. She'd only locked the doorknob lock on my front door. When she came back a few hours later, she noticed as she was walking up my steps that my screen door was swinging
AND that my front door was swinging! Her heart dropped thinking that Kari had escaped .. But when she walked through the front door, Kari was sitting there on the couch facing the door just looking at her! I can just imagine the look on Kari's face.

It's good to know that Kari won't attempt to escape the house even when she has such a golden opportunity. Truthfully, I think she has an unhealthy fear of the outdoors - seeing as how the only time she gets to see it is when she's in her carrier going between the house and the car.

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Ok, now I'm going to do some blog catching up.

So it looks like I won't be able to enroll in any classes at my alma mater until 2013 Fall semester. Why? 1. The Americorps Education credit is counted as taxable income *the year you use it.* and 2. I am being forced to close out my 401k with the oil and gas company I worked at *by* July 15.

If I use my Education Award *and* rollover my 401k into my ROTH (which really is my only choice since I don't have a 401k with my current employer) that will add over $10,000 in taxable income for 2012. That means I would lose my "savers credit" for putting money into my ROTH, and more than likely bump me into another tax category.

I can't enroll in the Spring 2013 semester because they want you to have it paid mostly by December. So that money would be considered taxable income in 2012, even though it was used to pay for education in 2013. (This is what I ran into for tax year 2011 - I'd paid for my Spring 2011 classes in December, 2010, so all my scholarship money received in 2011 became taxable!)

The savers tax credit is worth about $700 for me. So, I could lose that $700 PLUS have to pay more in overall taxes. Unless I delay taking the classes for one-year. That would mean I'd have 3 years to complete the requirements for renewing my certification. Doable, but much more difficult than spread out over 4 years.

Ugh!!! I do have to count my blessings though ... if my principal wasn't forwarding my mail to me, I would not have even KNOWN about this until long past the deadline (July 15.) Then I would've had no choice on how the matter was handled. (The letter says something about how if you miss the deadline to make a decision, that the account will be handled according to IRS rules - whatever that means.)

I do have to wonder why they are forcing this now. It hasn't even been a full 4 years since I was laid off. I wonder if maybe the company is closing its doors, and so they are having to close out all the 401k accounts??

In thinking about it more, this actually is a good thing to do this now - before I've committed to classes and asked for payment from my education award. At least this happened before the tax consequences would be set in stone. And... I guess not getting the summer school money this summer is turning out to be a blessing too ... sort of. That plus the rollover would have pushed me over the tax savers credit (but not into a different tax category.)

*Yes, I could just pay for the courses with my own money, but I'd only be able to afford one course and then my savings would be pretty much gone. With having car payments now and higher auto insurance, I really don't feel good at all about that idea.

**The deadline for applying for Fall 2012 classes is July 15. I was actually working on that application this weekend, and only needed a couple pieces of information before pushing submit and paying the $60 application fee. So, I'm glad I found this now rather than later.

***ETA - Question?? Rolling over my 401k into my ROTH - will that affect how much I can contribute to it for the 2012 tax year? I already have $700 for 2012 in it, and the 401K would put it into the $5500 range, plus the amount I would otherwise contribute throughout the year.

Most of today was spent working on calling the various accounts my dad had and finding out what was needed to close them. All but two credit cards did not ask me to send a death certificate. One card I "discover"ed is a real pain in the rear to deal with - when I asked what was needed to make sure the card was closed out, I was asked for my contact information and told that "we will contact you with further information." ARgh!! That dealing is making me reaccess if I want to keep my card with them or not.

For BofA, the DMV and one other place, we have to wait until after 40 days. At the 40 day mark we can claim "Small Estate Claim" and with the death certificate be able to work with those items (bank accounts, car/motorcycle title, etc.) So that's what I'll be doing once I get back from my San Francisco trip.

As hard as it was yesterday getting the ashes and death certificates, today calling all the places to close accounts was not very emotional. Although every place I talked to expressed condolences - which I hate to admit, but it was kind of annoying. I just wanted to get my task done and over with. (I know they were being kind, so I wasn't *really* annoyed, just it was kind of annoying. If that makes any sense.)

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My grandma came with me to the bank today. I wanted her there so she could hear *again* from someone else that there was only *one* safety deposit box and that there were not any bank accounts with her and my dad's name on them. I explained it to her a second time after the lady left to check on something ... but I wouldn't be surprised to hear her being confused about it again later. All in all though, she's doing remarkably well for an almost 91 year old who just lost her eldest son. (She got really discombobulated last night when her youngest son who hadn't called her in nearly 4 years, out of the blue called her. Not to offer condolences about dad of course, but to just chit chat. I had all I could do to keep my mouth shut. This supposed relative of mine did not reach out to either his remaining brother or sister on their loss, nor to my brother or I, not to mention his own mother.) I may be being skeptical or judgemental, but I think he thinks that now my dad is out of the picture and grandma is going to have to update her will/trust, that he better get himself on the radar/good graces. I hope I'm wrong, but his actions of the past sure don't do much to speak otherwise. (He and my dad had a falling out 25 some odd years ago over something stupid. My dad tried numerous times over the years to reach out to him and restore their relationship, to no avail.)

My grandma has 6 bird feeders in her backyard. I had filled them up on Monday evening. While filling them up, the birds made themselves completely scarce. Then as I was watering the garden, they slowly landed on the electric lines above the yard. It wasn't until I was out of the yard and out of sight that the first few came slowly to the feeders. Tonight the feed was all gone, so I filled them up again. I was barely finished and heading towards the hose when the first bird landed on one of the feeders. By the time I was half-way through watering, there were at least half a dozen birds eating merrily. I guess they've decided I'm not a threat.

I hope you all aren't too tired hearing me talk about all that's going on out here right now.

Today was a really, really hard day. About 4:20 p.m. this afternoon I got a call telling me that the death certificates were ready. Grandma and I hopped in the car and headed over (we hurried because they closed at 5.)

When we got there the funeral director person handed us the death certificates and the nuts and bolts from dads ankle (my brother wanted those - dad broke his ankle in several places 20 odd years ago body surfing in Hawaii.) I realized that neither my brother nor I had settled on what we were going to use for "keepsakes" for the portion of ashes we each wanted. So I asked the fd person if he could put aside a small portion for once we did have the keepsakes ready. He did so, but this took about 20 minutes.

The whole time grandma and I sat in the lobby waiting (and I filled out the acknowledgment form for the certificates) it was just ... hard. In a way it was worse than when we went there for seeing dads body. It was way worse than when we first went there to make the cremation arrangements.

Tomorrow I am going to start making the phone calls - making sure before I do any visits that ALL they need is the death certificate. I don't want to have to do more than one visit per place.

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The day wasn't totally hard. Earlier in the afternoon I took my grandma to the mall to get her walking done. On our second trip around the mall I realized that one of the food court shops had bubble tea (or boboa) which one of my co-workers in NM had introduced me to. I had looked forward to introducing it to my dad ... but instead today introduced it to my grandma. She liked the drink part, but didn't care too much for the "bubbles."

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I also went to the fitness center this morning in an attempt to make use of my membership. I used one of their elliptical machines. Yuck. I know how to change settings on a machine (I worked at a gym for nearly 16 months! I should know!) but these ellipticals were old and cheap. The angle the feet were at made my toes get all scrunched up. That was two times using that machine. (first and last!)

As much as it pains me to not use my membership, I think that unless I oversleep the cool part of the morning for jogging, that I'm going to just jog every day (except my rest days.) Boring, yes, but at least I know my toes won't get scrunched! If I do miss the cool part of the day, then I can use the fitness center's indoor jogging/walking track.

So the cemetary kept adding on more and more expenses ... estimated cost was reaching upwards of $7k!!!! My aunt basically told them thanks, but no thanks - we'll come up with another plan. Oh boy, did they ever start back pedaling!

In the end it looks like what we're going to do is use my grandma's plot for both my dad's ashes and when grandma dies, her ashes. We'll get a headstone with both her name and dads name on it (hers minus a death date of course.) Basically we'll all arrive just like we're coming for a visit, grandma will sign the necessary paperwork, and the cemetary people will dig the hole. No other fan fare (canopy, chairs, funeral direcotor, car to drive ashes to site, etc.)

That brings the cost down to approximately $1900 + $750 - 1450 for the headstone. Still a lot of money, but considerably less than the first quote ($3300) and WAY less than the recent quotes.

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I think I want to have my body donated to science (organs donated), you get cremated for free, and then have my ashes spread out somewhere ... So basically no cost at all.

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A friend of mine works at Kohl's and she posted today that the newest Kohl's cares books/animals were out. I'm usually two hours away from the nearest Kohl's when they put out their stock, so I decided to see if I could take advantadge of it. I bought 4 hardcover Skippyjon Jones books, a plush SJ toy, and a plush monkey -- $31.xx. My friend had said her store had penquins also .. but to my dissapointment, the Kohl's here did not have penquins. I really wanted two penquins - one for my non-ficiton penquin books, and one to go with my Tacky the Penquin books. They did have a stuffed bumblebee ... I was wracking my brain for any books that would go well with a bumblebee, but really couldn't think of any. My grandma suggested it could go with the song/poem, "Flight of the Bumblebee," but I was looking for a bit more to go on than that.

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I talked to my principal today. She told me that Kari (my cat) is still doing well. That everyday when she goes in to feed and interact with her, that all Kari wants is some loving - doesn't seem too interested in playing at all.

My principal told me that she was worried that I wouldn't be back in time for school to start. I assured her that I would be heading back the last weekend of July. I *have* to have some time to get ready for the next year!

Summer school seems to be going well. The person who took over for me is pretty much using the plans and ideas I left with him. I really hope that they do video the closing program .. I so was looking forward to seeing the kids put it together. I'm just glad to know things are going well...

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I had a major missing my dad moment today. When my grandma and I were at Kohl's, I went to lock the car using the remote. No matter what I did it wouldn't lock. I went around the car and made sure all the doors were shut tight. Still didn't work. My first thought was, "I need to call dad, he'll know what to try/do!" Then .. sigh...

It worked fine on all of our later stops. My brother thinks it probably is the battery. Dad *loved* to do the "lock" function multiple times - especially when around other people - just to get a reaction of some sort. So, that probably wore the battery down. My brother thinks he can change the battery easy peasy - there is a screw on the back of the key fob thingy. I just need to find the right battery for it.

I'm glad I still have my brother to call on.

Argh! My dad's ashes are going to be interred in the same cemtary/gravesite where his father is buried. In fact, there are many relations in the same area of the cemetary. So, we thought it would simply be a matter of digging a hole in the same gravesite as his father's, and redoing the headstone. Ha! Not quite.

This cemetary says that it is *mandatory*since there will be more than three people there to have: a canopy, a car to drive the remains to the gravesite, a funeral director, and ten chairs set up and something else I don't remember right now. It doesn't matter whether we want any of those things or not - we have no choice. (Well, our choice would be to not do it there ... but then it wouldn't be the same ...)

Oh well, I guess I just have to chalk it up to being what it is, and not worry about it.

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I'm still waiting on the death certificates in order to start closing out accounts. I found out about something called "small estates" claim here in CA, so you can avoid probate if the estate is under $150k. You just have to wait 40 days from death to claim it. So for some things I may have to just wait til I can make that claim.

Just a note to everyone ... please, if you haven't done so recently, update your will and your list of accounts and anything else that might possibly be relevant to those you leave behind. It also would be a wonderful gesture to leave information behind about what kind of service you might like, whether or not you want to be cremated, and if you have any wishes as to where you'll be interred. All of that would just make things so much easier.

Once I'm back home in NM, I plan on starting on that process and checking into what it would cost to do a living trust - even though I have few assets, I think that still might be a good easy way to go. (I already told my brother I want to donate my body to science, be cremated, and don't care what happens to my ashes - whatevers least expensive. Also if I happen to have a lot of money in my estate it's to go to caring for whatever animals I have, then to a school library, and finally to a no-kill animal shelter.)

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Anyway, enough with the morbidity.

I was able to get a library card yesterday. This way I will be able to read through some of the children's books which my library and their library share in common. I didn't bring a list of books with me yesterday, so will have to wait til Sunday to go back and get some.

I also signed up for the local fitness center. I went to my first class on Wednesday. A 1 hr torture... er ... Pilates class. When it was finished, I seriously was worried whether or not I'd be able to walk out of the building without triping over my own two feet. I was going to do another class last night, but decided to wait til next week to do another one.

Today was day 10 of being back into jogging. I did 2 miles at a 15:43min pace. Not great, but still pretty good considering how long it's been since I've done any real exercise. If I keep this up, I might just run a few 5ks when I get back to NM (if I can find any.) My brother right now would be all over my backside for using the word "if." He wants us to do a half-marathon in honor of our dad. I told him maybe in another year or two ... (he runs an average 9:40 - 10 minute mile ... on *hills* - the fastest time I got to when running regularly was a little over 12min/mi - and that was only doing one mile!)

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I'm not spending hardly any money while I am here, which is good since I .ah hem.. spent a goodly sum on books, etc. before leaving NM (under the notion that I'd be getting summer school pay ...)

I have one more paycheck at what I had gotten used to this past year, and then the first paycheck in July will be the new amount (spread over 26 payperiods instead of 24 + a 1% raise.) So I'm not going to even think about my budget until I get back home in August. Then I'll figure it out again. Too many variables to think about right now.

My dad always wore one of two watches - one he wore more often than the other, but he wore both. The one which my brother took for his own, has had the band replaced many multiple times over the years. I took the commemerative Lionel train watch with origional band.

This watch's band was so big on my wrist it was more like a bracelet. So today grandma and I went to the mall to a watch repair shop. Before getting there though we passed by a Things Remembered shop, and it gave me the idea of engraving the watch. So at the repair shop I asked if they could remove a link in the band, and if they could engrave the back with my dads first and last name, and birth/death. It cost $45 to do both, but I think it was well worth it.

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In going through my dads files, I have found several versions of a code list. This is a list of all the websites where he has a username and password, and their respective username/password. This is much better than what he had at one time - all that information posted all over his corkboard by his desk.

Anyway, I'm beginning to think that I might do something similar. It's been very frustrating trying to access some sites while away from home. One site in particular keeps telling me that it doesn't recognize my username or my email - yet in a previous password recovery email, it shows both exactly as I'm putting it. I don't know if I'd put the exact password for the sites, but perhaps a hint that would let me know what it is.

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Something else interesting I found as I went through my dads files is a file on N family history. His father was a minister in the church until his death in 71 (at 51 years old.) During that time he also was a treasurer in one of our conferences. The document I found shows that even back in the early 50's that there was greed, corruption and political misdealings in our church high hierarchy. My grandpa must have cleared his name from the accusations, because he went on to minister multiple churches until his death 20 years later.

I also found a letter from my grandma to her dad in which she speaks of her mother. Apparantally her mother was very similar to mine. This helped me a lot in understanding my grandmas attitude/feelings towards my mom.

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I signed up at the local fitness center today. $50 for one month. I also bought a pair of capri style workout pants. I've been using workout shorts/shirt of my dads when I've been jogging in the mornings. I didn't quite want to go to a public exercise class in a mans workout outfit. Tomorrow I'm going to go to a Pilates class. I've done Pilates many times in the privacy of my own home, but never in a public class setting. This should be interesting ... especially since it has been at least two years since the last time I practiced Pilates regularly (and I never did work up to the roll up!)

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I didn't get to the library today. Hopefully I can do that tomorrow.

Hi all,

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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


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

Thanks again everyone for your thoughts and prayers.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

My brother called a little bit ago. He had a good friend of his who is a doctor talk directly to my dad's nurse and get the nitty gritty. It doesn't sound good at all.

He had two arteries?? vena cava?? (sorry can't remember my biology right now) completely 100% blocked. They put a stint in his left one with a balloon to tide him over til he's strong enough for more surgery. He is more than likely going to have to have open heart surgery within the next few days and get a pacemaker.

There were some other numbers and stats my brother told me that weren't good, but I can't remember them right now. But essentially dad will no longer be able to mow lawns, lift furniture, do anything overexciting or overexerting.

The other numbers had something to do with fluid building up in his lungs - which has begun to happen already.

So .. it is extremely likely that I will be booking a plane ticket for Thursday, or perhaps even Wednesday. I'll need to find someone to take care of Kari, because although I'll schedule my return flight for Sunday ... I may need to stay longer.

In my head I knew my dad was turning 69 this year, but in reality I haven't seen him as a senior citizen (I won't say old, because I don't consider 69 old!) Even if he does make it through the surgery, I don't think he's going to care much for life after - he is a doer, a go getter, a type A personality who isn't happy sitting around.

The really hard thing is that he's going to need care ... and he is grandma's caretaker. So .. we're going to have to figure that out.

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Holy cow! The tickets I'm seeing are equal to two weeks (after tax) pay for me! It doesn't matter if it's Wednesday or Thursday I'm leaving ...

Today I went into school and had pretty much finished up with the inventory when I decided to check my phone. When I did, I saw that I had two missed calls and voicemails from my grandma. I thought that was pretty strange because I'd just spoken with her and my dad on Saturday night.

So, I called her back. She told me that my dad had had a heart attack this morning while mowing the lawn, had been taken to the hospital, and had had heart surgery. She told me that she hadn't gone with him, but that he'd called her from ICU after getting out.

I of course was going into panic mode wondering how I was going to get out there and back here for summer school. After talking to her, I got in touch with my brother who told me that our Aunt was on her way to LL to check out what was really going on.(Grandma's almost 91 and not always 100% on the ball.) She had spoken to my dad while he was in the ER waiting to be seen, and confirmed that he was currently in ICU. My brother thinks that the surgery may have been an angioplasty procedure.

After hearing all this, I calmed down quite a bit - especially recalling previous incidences where he thought he was having a heart attack and it turned out to just be a panic attack or something similar. Of course, he was never put in ICU for observation those times ..

I may very well end up making a quick trip out there. I've already alerted my principals (outgoing and incoming) ... I don't have everything planned out for summer school just yet, so I may concentrate on getting plans pretty well laid out for that tomorrow just in case.

I was thinking of doing my mini-vacation trip this Thursday and Friday since my mom probably won't be coming til near the end of July ... but I think now I'll postpone it til August.

One thing I'm glad of is that I never have to worry if something happens to one of my family ... at the end of every phone call we *always* say I love you to each other - even if we got annoyed with each other in the course of the call. I don't remember exactly how it got started, but we've done that since I was in at least high-school if not earlier.

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In other news ... someone on the librarian list serve told me that Big Lots has a 12 MP digital camera in stock right now for $25. It isn't a great brand name, but for $25 ... I'm going into town in the morning to see how many I can pick up from there. (I called today and they told me they had 4, but couldn't hold any for me.)

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Update - I talked to my dad. He did have a full fledged heart attack. They put a stint in his heart and some kind of balloon pump because the rhythm was off. They also told him that there were more problems to be dealt with later.

He somehow kept his cell phone through this whole process which is how he's made calls, and received calls. My aunt should be there tonight sometime.

I offered to come, but for right now he's told me to wait. So .. I'm waiting.

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

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

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

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

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

Sigh ...

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Will see.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Some other points I raised with her:

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Oh yeah, the teachers won. 30 to 26.

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


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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Today I got the sad news that the author of "Where the Wild Things Are" died. I hadn't planned on reading his book to the students today, but changed my plans in order to honor his memory. It was really interesting to me that as soon as I mentioned why we were reading his book, that the students became completely and totally silent. I don't know that I've heard any of the groups be quite that silent for any book I've read to them.

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It was also really interesting to me today working with my 7th graders. They are divided into a boys and a girls section. The boys section completed their assignment (editing a html website) with 10 - 15 minutes to spare - and did a good job. The girls section is going to have to keep working on it next week. None of them finished it. (This was our second week working on the assignment.) I'm not totally sure what this says, but I'm thinking it says something about the differences in the workings of the mind of a 7th grade boys/girls mind. Figuring out the code language and how to manipulate it just seemed to come more easily to the boys.

I hadn't noticed the same difference with the 8th graders.

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We are down to our last 7 or 8 yearbooks. (8 if I sell one of the 4 complementary ones.) I am SO ready for them to be completely sold.

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AL told me today that the father of one of our 7th graders who is currently in ISS for the remainder of the year asked her why the computer teacher (me) was teaching kids how to manipulate phones and get into the parents phone service websites. Whoa!! AL let him know that that was NOT being taught - that the kids weren't even allowed to have cell phones on campus and besides that - how'd we know how to get into the parent's phone websites??? Is it any wonder this kid is in ISS?? But seriously, any kid who gets their hands on a phone that can read relatively well (or even not) will figure out pretty much anything there is to figure out about it in a short time - no teaching required.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

What do y'all think?

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

So ...

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

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

Expenses:

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

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

Expenses:

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

Restaurants - within budget limits

Phone/Internet -- w/i limits

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

Household - bought a fan, old one stopped working

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

Miscelaneous: fingerprinting fee, website domain renewals, etc.

Kari: - food and toys

Library: books, what else? :roll eyes:

Entertainment: a song download

Summer Travel: Bought train tickets!!

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

Auto Repairs - replaced all 4 tires

Savings:

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

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