Keeping It Frugal

I went to the doctor today and got my blood work done - it was a $25 copay. Not too bad I guess.

I also got my mom's Christmas gift mailed off (late I know!!) - only $5 postage - should get there by Tuesday. Oops.

Yesterday afternoon one of my coworkers came by and asked if I wanted to go into town with her and another teacher for dinner. I couldn't resist. Dinner - $8.65, and then we went to Walmart. I needed to pickup a bat of cat food because I was nearly out, but ended up buying a couple of CDs from the $5 bin. One of them will make a good addition to my dad's Christmas gift ... but I really should've skipped the others -- $23.36 (I also got a Terry's Chocolate Orange).

Guess what started again while I was at the doctors? Snow!! We've had probably another inch fall this morning. I plan on taking it slow on the way in to ABQ because around here the roads were getting kind of slick.

I stopped over at the school library and picked up a few books to read. Although I have plenty of books on my phone, there are times where you can't use electronic devices on the planes, so I like to have a hard copy book -- the last few times I ended up buying a book in the airport -- highway robbery. So this time I am prepared!! Plus I'll be able to book talk these books when I get back.

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After I got back from dinner last night, I preceded to spend the $200 donation. I bought about $70 worth of graphic novels, $60 worth of mid-school specific books, and the rest were more primary level books. I actually ended up spending an extra $15. In all, I got 47 books - from Ebay and Amazon. Only 6 of them were full price (the newer, more popular ones.)

I used my Beezag money that was in Paypal for the books from Ebay.

They should mostly be here by Jan 7. The kids are going to be so excited.

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I'm 15 points away from redeeming my next AGC from Swagbucks. Yay!

I could redeem points for a $25 AGC from Mypoints right now, but I'm only 3,000 away from a $50 AGC. I'll wait - it'll save 400 points that way.

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Ok, I better go pack. It's gonna be hard getting up though cuz Kari is sound asleep on my lap.

This morning I received my 7th payment from Beezag. That makes $56 now for 2011. I was looking at my payment history from them and realized I'd really slacked off July - November. That doesn't surprise me, because I know how busy/exhausted,e tc. I was then.

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I updated both my Frugal Living blog and my Children's Books blog. It had been quite a while for both of them. One goal I'm adding for 2012 is to update at least the book blog 2x a month. It really should be easy to do considering how many books I read to my students each week.

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A few weeks ago I went to the local clinic here for a sinus infection, and I was hoping to get a new prescription for my thyroid medicine. However, I found out that I had to have my medical records before they'd do anything more than treat my sinus infection.

So today I called to find out whether they'd gotten them or not. They hadn't gotten all of them yet, but apparently enough to feel comfortable making an appointment for me to get blood work done. Unfortunately the time they wanted me to come in (so I could get on with the new doctor) was Friday, January 6. I told the person that Fridays were the worst possible day for me as a librarian - we have so many Fridays off that the kids already get shortchanged. She was just like ... well the teachers will understand if you give them enough notice.

In my head I'm thinking, yeah right lady.

So about 30 minutes later she calls me back. I now have an appointment for tomorrow morning with the current doctor! Starting in March I'll have to use the new doc and go on Fridays, but hopefully I can schedule those appointments for when we're off anyway.

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Just as I was in the middle of writing this post, I got a knock at my door. Fed Ex!!! It was a donation check from the same man my mom dated who pd for my Thanksgiving tickets and gave me $100 towards books. A donation of $200!!! His daughter asked that instead of him giving her her usual Christmas gift, that he donate it to my school's library. Isn't that just the most unselfish and sweetest thing you've heard??

Above and beyond the gift itself, I am most surprised that FedEx will deliver straight to my door. I know UPS won't, because I have to get all my packages at the post office. But this morning I got a call from a woman at FedEx asking me where a particular address was located. I told her that I think the address she was looking for was xxxxx instead, but that there'd be no one there. So she asked me for my home address -- I was very surprised and didn't believe it till the guy knocked on my door!

This is good to know - very good to know.

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What do you think would be a good way for me (or the students) to show appreciation for the gift?

MM - he wrote the check to me, but included a letter to the school stating what it was for. Will he be able to write that off on his taxes? Or should I have him rewrite the check to the school/mission???

I'm not sure that he is doing it for a write off, but included the letter to give me a little extra "props" with the mission (that I have people donating money to the school, hence keep me around.)

Now I'm going to have to figure out the best way to use this money. Believe me, I could spend it 4 or 5 x over quite easily. Maybe allocate $100 towards mid-school level books and $100 towards primary level books??

Last night I made new posts to both of my blogger blogs. One I hadn't made a new post to since ... March? and the other since September. I think that is going to be one of my goals for this coming year -- to post to at least the Children's books blog at least 2 x a month. I should've held off a bit longer on my frugal blog post --- this morning I got my December payment from Beezag. So that makes 7 payments this year (or $56.)

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This morning I called the local clinic to find out if they had received my medical records yet. They refused to see me for anything more than a cold until they had my records.

They must have gotten some of them in at least, because the person I spoke with was willing to make an appointment for me to meet with the new doc on Friday, January 6. I expressed to her that Fridays were the *worst* day for me to have an appointment (we get so many Fridays off that the kids I have on Friday don't have many classes.)

She called me back about half an hour later and told me that she could set me up with an appointment for tomorrow morning with the current doctor, but in March I'd have to switch over to the new doc. No problem with me!!

So tomorrow I'll be getting my bloodwork done and get set up probably for the other medical checkup stuff I need to take care of (seeing as though it's been 3 years since I've had anything more than a thyroid bloodwork done ...and I am now 36 ...)

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I was sitting here debating about whether or not to go into school when I got a phone call from someone in Fedex. They were trying to deliver a package to me from my mom's man friend (the one who paid for my Thanksgiving tickets and gave me $100 towards books.) He'd gotten the name of the street the school is on mixed up with the name of the tribe. I told the lady who called me that there probably wasn't anyone there to sign for it. So she asked me what my home address was. I asked her if she was sure they could deliver to the mobile home park, and she said that I'd be surprised at the places they deliver.

So ... two hours later I'm still waiting with great anticipation to see if Fedex will actually deliver here!!! I'm also really curious to see what is in the box ... J had asked me how many students we had and what the tribe was a few weeks ago .... Hmmm...

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Oh! I actually got on my elliptical today for ...drum roll please ... one minute! Kari ran out of the room like a bat out of he**. LOL! I'm going to have to work myself back up to doing the elliptical, and hopefully Kari will continue to stay out of its way.

This morning when I looked out my window, I saw that we'd gotten another two-three inches of snow overnight. But ... it has stopped snowing (for now at least - predicted to get more tomorrow/Thursday!)

I was still able to remove the snow off my car with my scraper, and pull out with no problems. There was a light wind blowing snow across the road which made visibility a bit limited, but otherwise the roads were fine.

I ended up driving a little bit past the mechanics due to the visibility, and so turned in to the drive next to his. In order to get to the mechanic, I had to drive through this open passageway.

I got stuck.

Thankfully I knew enough to stop revving my engine once I realized I was stuck. But apart from that, I wasn't sure what to do. Just as I was about to get out of my car to go get help, an older white woman came over. (I found out later that she is a speech pathologist at a school about 50 miles from here.) She told me to straighten my wheels out and gun it. So, I did that - and after a little help from her pushing down on my front end, I was able to get out.
Yay!

Once I got out I headed back to the mechanic. 20 minutes or so later the verdict was back --- only cosmetic damage!! I was practically jumping up and down in relief. The guy who looked at my car didn't charge me anything for his time either (which he really could have done quite fairly.)

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So .... if the freeway isn't closed on Thursday due to more snow ... I'll be able to drive to ABQ with no worries of my car breaking down.

I also don't have to raid my miniscule emergency fund to make car repairs!

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While I was out, I did pick up a $10 shovel at the local mini-grocer. That way I don't have to depend on others to shovel me out if I need it. (I probably ought to get a better quality one sometime - but this one will do in a pinch.)

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I was really bored last night, so did a preliminary look at my 2011 taxes. I didn't have all the confirmed numbers, so some were just guestimates. Even so ... it looks like I'll be getting back at least $7 or 800 (maybe more.) Whatever I do get back, 10% will go for fun/wants and the rest will go to my EF.

I also was playing with YNAB and doing some forecasting. If I'm really careful (and especially now that I don't have to take out money for car repairs!) by next December I *should* be able to meet all my financial goals -- and that is without counting any money from possibly working summer school!

Wow! What an interesting day. It started for me around 4 a.m. I woke up and just *could not* go back to sleep. So finally around 4:30 I got up and looked outside -- and took a picture. At that time I was still able to open my door all the way.

About 5:15 I got the call letting me know school was canceled. I went back to bed and managed to sleep off and on til about 7 when I just couldn't stay any longer.

Then I got up and started haunting the Swagbucks facebook page for the code extravaganza. That is pretty much all I did today. Between the codes, search wins, videos, sbtv, etc., I earned about 150 SBs - about what it would normally take me a few weeks to earn. I also read a couple of books.

It didn't stop snowing ALL DAY long. By about 1 pm this is what my front porch looked like --- I couldn't open it any wider!



I took a handful of snow and put it under Kari's nose -- she sniffed at it a bit, then turned and walked away. She didn't want anything to do with it!

Around 4, one of my co-workers came by with a shovel and shoveled off my front porch and around my car!! I thought that was so sweet -- since I don't have a shovel!! (or boots - both things I guess I'm going to need to rectify if I'm going to stay here very long.)

Around 6 I saw one of my coworkers post that school had been canceled for tomorrow too -- so I guess today started our Christmas vacation! I feel bad for the kids missing out on their parties/gifts (and I was looking forward to revealing myself to my giftee and finding out who my Secret Santa was ... oh well.)

We also missed out on the Christmas program tonight - the kids had worked so hard on it. I was told we'll probably do it when we get back in January - but it won't be quite the same.

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I haven't seen this much snow since I was a young teenager living in Minnesota! Even then, I don't remember getting this *much* snow all at once.

We had at least 5 instances of short power outages. I'm hoping and praying that that is all we'll have -- short bursts of power outage. I do have a gas stove I could *gasp* heat stuff on the old fashioned way if I absolutely *had* to. Just in case, I'm keeping my phone plugged in so it is charged 100% all the time. (not the smartest to do long term, but in the short term I don't think it will hurt it too much.)

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I was going over my posted goals in my head last night and realized that they (financially) are probably unrealistic. So I'm thinking I'll do them in steps... Step 1: Travel Funds and EF; Step 2: Car fund; Step 3: Extra ROTH money and then if I manage all those ... go back to Step 1 and add to EF money.

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I don't know how much my car repairs are going to cost. I was going to go to the mechanic today .. but well obviously that didn't work out. My dad is insisting that I get it looking new again - i.e. take care of the cosmetics even if it doesn't affect the function. I didn't bother wasting my breath trying to explain that on my income, cosmetics take a *really* low spot on the priority list. Esp. on an almost 15 year old car. If it was 5 years old or less ... than that might be different. I personally only care that my car can get me from A to B, and hopefully keep me warm or cool while doing it. Other than that ... phooey.

I got quite a bit done today which I'd been putting off for a long time due to tiredness and laziness. I swept my whole place, took out two loads of garbage, put things away, did all my laundry, and did most of my dishes. Kari wasn't quite sure what to make of my cleaning frenzy.

SrN called today and told me that they'd talked about me yesterday at the Christmas dinner (rear ending). She told me that since I don't have much in the way of classes tomorrow (due to dress rehearsals for Christmas program) that if I could make an appointment for my car at the mechanic, to do so.

I thought that was pretty sweet.

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Preliminary 2012 goals:

Physical Health:

* 2 x a week lift weights (10+ minutes)
* 2 x a week do 15 min+ elliptical
* Restart NoS program
* Eliminate soda
* Bought frozen foods used only on S days
* Meals on non-S days must be cooked by self - not bought frozen foods (i.e. use rice cooker, food steamer, etc.)

Spiritual Health:

* Daily 20 minutes focused prayer time
* Daily Bible w/Brian Hardin podcast
* Stay for potluck after church - try to connect with someone, anyone
* No more than 3 missed Sabbaths (unless out of town)
* Plan a focused Bible study/prayer time for Friday nights -- make Friday nights special - candles, special meal ... not just vegged out on net
* Contribute tithe/offerings consistently 2x a month (after payday)

Emotional Health:

* Call and/or write to a non-family member/non-coworker 1x a week
* Play piano 60 minutes per month
* Work on cross stitch project 60 minutes per month
* Read 1 book *not* for students per week
* Read minimum 1 book for students per week

Financial Health:

* Grocery budget
----Create a priority list. When shopping, buy from top down and keep running total. Stop when budget is reached.
-----Grocery shop no more than 2 x a month. (Exception - buying bananas at local small grocer in between big town grocery shops.)
--- Grocery budget --- $120/month -- including Kari's food/litter. So ... $50 per trip to allow for incidentals.

* ROTH - Send $1500 (Currently $100/mo)

* Emergency Fund - Save $5,000

* Car Repairs/Replace - Save to $5,000

* Vacation/Travel --- Save $1000 (Spring Break trip, plus summer travel)

* Moving Fund --- Save $1000

* Library spending -- limit to $30/month non-gift card funded spending

* Increase extra funds:

---- Check into being part of summer school program

---- Do Swagbucks daily points *daily*, at least once a week check for extra videos/offers
----- Do Beezag *daily*
----- Check Mypoints email at least once a week

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Edited -- My savings goals are roughly 60% of my gross yearly income ... But considering that my only expenses are food, gas and internet/phone ... I really *should* be able to do this. It's just keeping the food/gas, miscellaneous expenses in check.

This morning I got up at a decent hour (for a Sunday) and actually got going! I swept, picked up trash, dusted, put stuff away, cleaned mirrors, did laundry, and did most of my dishes!! My place is almost as clean as it was when my mom left back in August. Kari didn't quite know what to make of my cleaning frenzy - she's seen me do dishes before, and half-heartedly sweep ... but doing as much as I did today?? Never.

In the midst of my cleaning frenzy, SrN called me. Apparently I was being talked about yesterday at the Christmas dinner. (I'd called TC to let her know I wouldn't be coming, and why.) So SrN told me not to wait til Tuesday to get an appointment with the mechanic - that if I could get one tomorrow, to do it. The kids will basically be at dress rehearsal most of the day, so I won't really have any classes.

Sweet, isn't?

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We may have a snowstorm blowing in tonight (if the forecasts are accurate, we'll have "blizzard" conditions. Will believe it when I see it.)

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Preliminary 2012 Goals (will revise later ..)

Physical Health:

*Use weights 2x a week for 15 minutes
*Use elliptical 2x a week for 20 minutes

(Starting with small, manageable goals. If achieved with consistency, will increase later.)

*Eliminate soda

*Restart and DO the NoS plan (S's i.e. sweets/snacks/seconds only on S days)

* Cooked ahead meals - not prepared frozen meals - except on S days.

Emotional/Spiritual/Social Health:

* Revitalize prayer life - set aside 20 minutes a day to concentrate on praying for myself, family, friends, those around me, etc.

* Restart listening to Bible daily (daily Bible with Brian Harding podcast - an easy listen during breakfast!!)

* Call/write to one friend each week (non-family member!!)

* Play piano 60 minutes a week

* Sweep entire house 1x a week

* Do the dishes at least 1 x a week

* Read 1 book a week for *yourself*
* Read 1 book a week for *students* (minimum)

* Learn how to cut Kari's claws (or see if I can hire SE to do it for me cheaply ...)

Financial Health:

* Pay tithe and offering consistently (2 x a month)

* Limit non-gift card spending on Library to $30/month.

* Limit grocery spending to $100/month - go to Walmart only 2 x a month --- for any reason. Make a prioritized list and stick to it. Make do if you run out.

* Save $400 for Spring Break trip (have $160 saved so far.) (2 day camping/horseback trip into a canyon in AZ - a home of Navajo culture, etc.)

* Save $500 for summer travel expenses ($0 balance)

* Save $5,000 for car repairs/car replacement ($0 balance right now.)

* Save $4,000 towards EF ($500 bal right now, give or take (probably take depending on car repairs ...)

* Send $1500 to ROTH (Currently doing $100/month.)

* Save $1000 towards moving fund (good to be prepared)

* Increase Extra Funds by:
---- Visiting Swagbucks daily for the easy points, and at least weekly doing any videos/offers possible
------ Do Beezag daily
------ Check Mypoints email at least once a week

* Discuss doing summer school program

Overall/Big Goals:

* Declutter and organize home office
* Organize guest bedroom so if I actually *have* a guest, they have a place to stay!!
* Get main shower fixed so you can use it!!! (this will take lots of bugging of maintenance people)
*Get my yard weeded and cleaned ... maybe look into putting in a garden (would I really keep up with something like that though??? If I'm here long-term, a garden would really be a good thing... hmmm...)


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My monthly income will go down quite a bit in July - not because of a pay decrease, but because my yearly salary will be divided into 26 payments rather than 22 payments. (My pay year started in August, so that cut 4 payments.) I'm really hoping that I can do a summer computer program here as part of the summer school. It would both be a chance for me to teach the kids something I won't have time to do during the school year, and also give my income a bit of a boost.

First though I need to be asked back ...

I made it to church this morning, and was even planning on staying for potluck. Unfortunately the elder who preached didn't finish til nearly 2 p.m.!! I still needed to make the cottage cheese roast for the Christmas party at 5, so decided to not stay.

Before going on -- sad story. One of the ladies at church who has been very nice to me and is a teacher told me that the Title 1 funds to her school had been frozen, and that all the Title 1 teachers had been let go as of this coming Monday. Since her housing is provided by the BIA (Bureau of Indian Affairs or something like that) this means that she is going to have to move - most likely back with her parents. If this would have happened at the end of the year, I could possibly have gotten her on here - since most likely our mid-school science/social studies teacher will be leaving, and that position doesn't require you to be Catholic.

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So ... I made the decision to not stay for potluck. About 6 minutes into my drive, just before the entrance to the highway ... disaster struck. A yawn attacked me, and as I was coming out of the yawn attack and opened my eyes - I saw the back of a super sized pickup truck directly in front of me. I slammed on my brakes -- but it was too late. So I put my car in park and put on the hazzard lights. Got out to access the damage. The man (driver) and a woman both got out too. The man asked me if I was ok. The woman started yelling at me that I should pay more attention. The whole time I'm apologizing to both. The woman says "should we call the police?"

There was no damage to the truck, so I told the woman we could call them if she wanted to, but since the damage appeared to all be on my side ... there didn't seem to be any point. They both got back in and drove off, and I drove off.

My hood and front grill have a good sized hole in them now. Add to that my front windshield with the crack all along the bottom ... and my car looks like a royal mess.

My car drove home fine, no problems. So I am hoping and praying that the damage is all cosmetic. In other words, something that I can basically ignore.

Oh, and the Christmas dinner/party? I ended up not going to it because I was too upset by my accident. I wasn't really all that excited about going to it in the first place ... so not really a huge loss. But it would have been a good way to socialize outside of school. Oh well, my nap and watching POI here at home instead probably was better for me anyway.

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Tomorrow my goal is to clean my house, do dishes, and do laundry.

Also, my goal is to get the projects graded and the 6th graders tests graded (and entered in the gradebook.)

On Monday I most likely won't have many classes, so I'll use that time to do a lot of cataloging.

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I'll take my car to the mechanic on Tuesday after school is out (at 1 p.m.) to find out the damage assessment.

Thanks everyone for your birthday wishes. I had a good birthday yesterday - even with a bit of a getting lost episode.

I ate at a restaurant I'd eaten at before - mainly because I knew I could get cheesecake and a virgin daiquiri there - two things I like to have on my birthday. All in all, it was kind of disappointing. The cheesecake wasn't that great, the daiquiri wasn't iced (maybe I made a mistake and said margarita instead??) and the veggie burger ... wasn't anything to write home about. Overall a quite expensive meal for not much -- $20.38 plus tip. However, I did bring half of the meal home for tonight - so maybe it'll be better reheated.

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Today was interesting. I didn't have any students until about 10:50 because my one class I usually have at 9:45 was practicing for the Christmas program. I did have them come in for about ten minutes so they could check out books.

During this time I had no students, I worked on getting the newspaper ready to distribute. Early in the morning, three of my journalisim students came and folded the 210 copies I'd made on Wednesday. As I was counting copies to the different classes, I realized we needed another 15 just for the students. So I made 25 more copies and folded them. As I was just about to head over to the main office to put them in the teachers boxes, I noticed a typo. The lead story had been changed from present tense to past tense, and I had missed an "is." So ... I debated on fixing it and reprinting 235 copies and then folding them myself ... or just taking a pen and making an "ink splot" on 235 copies ... I chose to do the ink splot. With 5 minutes to go before my 6th grade AM group arrived, AL (the computer tech) agreed to finish the last few copies and take them to the office for me. Phew!

After school today I received several compliments on the paper - especially on how it was free of spelling errors and bad grammar, as well as how it definitely sounded like "kid writing." That was my goal - to be as hands off as possible - while still making sure it was good writing. (I had the Language arts teacher proofread it for me as a double check -- I have a tendency to use way to many commas, etc.)

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Now on to the fiasco ....

The 6th graders finishing their computer mid-term (on plagiarism.) Of 17 students, at least two (maybe three) tests had completely vanished. Two, possibly three tests corrupted and the students had to start from scratch. Although I assured each student that was having technical difficulties that it would not be held against them, I had one student who was *really* upset at having to start over. So much so that she ended up visiting the school counselor. I just felt sick at having upset a student so.

I do not plan on basing any more tests on the computer. What I had done was I made the test in Word, and then posted the original in each grades folder. Then the students opened the test, and saved it under their own name. For the majority of students this worked just fine .. however 6 6th graders and 1 7th grader (who's test also vanished) ... it didn't work out so well. The 8th graders finish on Monday ... I fervently hope that we won't experience the same problems!!!

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I am so glad for the Sabbath and the needed rest/break. I really hope our regular pastor is speaking tomorrow, and not one of the elders.

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One week from now I'll be in California!! It more than likely will be much warmer than here!! (Highs in the mid-30's versus highs in the mid to high 60's... )

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I cashed out for $8 on Beezag (I think on Tuesday??) and am already up to 1000 points. There were 7! videos tonight. I also have enough Mypoints for a $25 AGC, but will wait til I have enough for a $50 because that saves 400 points. I also cashed out for a $5 AGC from Swagbucks on either Tuesday or Wednesday (can't remember now.)

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We have snow predicted for Sunday night ... SrN is worried about our Christmas program Monday night. It'd have to be pretty bad to cancel ... considering how much snow we had for the Community Christmas Dinner!!

Well here I am less than 4 years away from having to say 4- something. Oh well, I'm not bothered by it.

Looking at where I was ten years ago - my fifth year of teaching down in the valley of Texas, barely making it financially and not really happy with my life. Now I'm in the deserts of New Mexico in my first year as a librarian. Still not making much money (less than I did in 2001!!) but so much more knowledgable about how to handle my finances. The best thing though is that I'm really happy with my chosen profession. The only link in the chain is not really having any sit down in real life chit chat heart to heart friends. I should be used to that by now though. Phone calls and email doesn't keep a friendship alive for too long.

Sorry for going meloncholy here. I just watched the movie New Years Eve and it got me thinking. I'm glad I didn't listen to the negative reviews.

My food just arrived, so I better go. Tell more later.

Well, I did go to church yesterday, then I came home wrote an email back to a friend, talked to my dad ... and then took a nap. I pretty much didn't get up again til this morning around 8!!

I watched POI this morning after I got up, and then I spent about five hours working on library stuff that I could do from the comfort of my home. (cleaning up late fines from previous years, putting together late fine notices for this year ...) Then I spent a couple hours dreaming (about books of course!)

I did manage to get a couple loads of laundry done, and I'm going to try to motivate myself to do some dishes here soon ...

Tomorrow after I take Kari to the vet, I'm going to eat breakfast at Burger King. Not exactly healthy I know, but not something I get the chance to do very often. (the vet is within a few blocks of a BK, and I'll be dropping Kari off at 7:30 ... so ...)

I did get my refill of Synthroid yesterday, and I hope it will start kicking back in here within a few days.

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Oh get this! On my way back from church yesterday, I noticed a 2 inch+ crack on the lower left hand side of my windshield. I must have had a rock hit my windshield within the past few days, or the freezing and unfreezing of the windshield cracked it ... I just hope I can put off doing anything about it til January. I've had enough car stuff this month already.

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With payday this Thursday, I'll have my December budget flush. So then the next two paychecks will go straight to January -- which means I'll *finally* be back on the YNAB method -- i.e. living a month behind (with a one-month buffer.) With that accomplished, and if I can keep control of myself in spending (keep away from Amazon til you have giftcards to spend ... keep away ...)then I can start thinking about my 2012 goals. I've been thinking some on them, and will post soon with some of my thoughts -- maybe a little closer to 2012 though.

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I am close to earning my next $5 AGC from Swagbucks (will definitely have it after getting my birthday Swag on Thursday.) I am also within 400 points of cashing out again on Beezag ($8 cash.) I haven't been as consistent with either of them as I'd like -- probably will make that one of my goals. Free, easy money -- right?

You know how you should never text or call people when you're drunk? Well... I wasn't drunk yesterday ... but I was exhausted and overwhelmed and feeling a bit kicked about. *Not by anyone here at SA* ... probably most of what I *was* feeling was overreaction/way overemotional/overtired.

I ended up sleeping nearly 15 hours yesterday. I got home around 4 p.m., and slept off and on til my alarm got me up at 7 a.m. this morning. This morning I was still feeling a bit weepy even ... then the school nurse scolded me for not wearing a hat in 14 degree weather. I had to laugh at the absolute absurdity -- here I was feeling almost like there wasn't anything that would get me back to work, and I get scolded by the school nurse!! (It's her personality - I know this - and don't take it personally.)

So anyway, today went much, much better - and I feel much more like myself. Amazing what some good solid sleep will do for a person.

So in a few words .. I apologize for yesterday's post. It was in the realm of "drunk" posts.

Thank you everyone who commented.

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I didn't get Kari spayed today, but will on Monday (have appointment.)

I did however get my car into the shop and have the radiator flushed, etc. I dropped my car off about 8:30 a.m. and one of the mechanics took me back to school. He was supposed to pick me up at 4. I called at 4:05 and got the answering machine. Knowing how they don't seem to check their machine I decided to walk. It was a little bit further than I was thinking, but took only about 20 minutes. Then they took *forever* creating the invoice and taking the payment ($193.xx). But at least that is done now so I don't have to hear about it again!!!

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Today I had the 4th and 5th grade sections do roundtable booktalks. I first demonstrated by doing two booktalks - one on a book I knew well, and one on a book I just perused for a few minutes. (I did Holes, Kristi's Great Idea (babysitter club), It's Like This, Cat, and Charlie Bone at Midnight). Then I had each student choose one book, either from the table (new books) or a book which they had read previously. They then each gave a booktalk. It went really well with both groups, and they both asked to do it again. So I think I'm going to make the last week of each month "Book Club" Day for each section. It'll be a great way for them to share the books they're reading, or to preview new books we get.

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I've been having the teacher assistants and a volunteer who's been coming the past few days match up all the donated books so all the duplicates are together. That was finished today, and so now they are checking them against the catalog. We are going to have a lot of books to give to the kids as gifts, and for me to put in the prize box. I may also have the teachers come over and take any books they'd like.

It feels much less overwhelming now than it did on Wednesday when those books came in. There are quite a few gems in the boxes, and I'm really happy for the abundance of pre-school level books. That is an age group I have a hard time finding good books to read for storytime.

I think my reaction stemmed from knowing that I still have a lot of books to go through from the summer donation of books and this just added more to my already overfull plate. I've decided that putting the teacher assistants to work culling out the duplicates amongst all the donated books (both recent and summer) will help reduce my workload greatly, and offer many more books for gifts/prizes. I am putting off weeding (finding duplicates/out of date/bad looking) the collection until I am caught up with the donated books. It isn't my first choice, but it is necessary to prioritize.

If I continue to have this volunteer who started on Wednesday for a while, I can see a lot more getting done. She is good. (She's actually one of the cafeteria workers who hasn't been getting a full 40 hours. She's needing to pay off a bill, so asked for more hours. They put her with me. Very happy!!)

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I stopped by the PO on the way home tonight and had a card from my grandma, and a package/card from my dad. I knew I shouldn't open them, but there was no warning on either of them to not open yet. The card from my dad had a chorus of cats meowing Happy Birthday (my birthday is the 15th). Kari went NUTS when I opened it!! It was hilarious. I played it a couple more times and her tail fluffed out bigger and bigger. By the 4th time she got brave enough to come up to the card and investigate what was making that awful racket. Then she meowed at the card.

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I was debating on whether to go to church or not tomorrow, but I think I will go as long as I'm feeling this much better/refreshed. I probably won't stay for potluck, but come home and take a nap. Then be nice and rested for a few hours of *very* needed cleaning - dishes, laundry, sweeping, etc. Then I can take a break and watch the newest episode of Person of Interest. That will be my reward for getting the much neglected house chores done.

I think I'm going to take a blogging break. Just til I feel more myself. I briefly considered deleting my blog, but considering how I can't seem to do anything right lately - probably the less irreversible decisions made the better.
An feeling overwhelmed and alone and that seems to come out where I offend or bore people.
So ... Taking a break.

So I pretty much was wiped out most of Saturday afternoon and Sunday. Monday morning I tried to get going, but just couldn't. So, I called in for my second sick day this year.

On Sunday I had talked to one of the teachers to find out about where this clinic was I'd heard of that was nearby. I found out it was right across from the Post Office - a place I visit frequently. So I called and got a walk in appointment. I didn't have strep (thankfully) but the doctor did give me an antibiotics prescription for my sinuses. I realized it had been a long time since I changed doctors ... they require you to have your medical records before they'll do anything more than treat a cold/sinus infection.

So, hopefully my medical records will get here soon so I can get caught up with my thyroid bloodwork (and other medical stuff that I've neglected since 2009.)

--
I had to drive to big town to get my prescription. First, I went to Walgreens because I thought that's where the doctor sent my prescription. They didn't have it. So I called the doctor and found out it had been sent to Walmart. So I got a little grocery shopping done as well as getting my prescription - so not too much of a wasted trip.

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I went back to work on Tuesday, although I think I could have really used another day. Today around noon I just about crashed .. but had three hours to go. 5th grade girls at the end of the day did not help .. at all.

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This morning was interesting. I had just finished with my 3 year old group (LOVE LOVE LOVE) when a man came in with a visitors badge. I asked him what I could do for him. Eventually he got around to his question - he wanted to know if I knew of a book which talked about what happened to the Jewish people after the curtain in the Holy of Holies split in two from top to bottom. Specifically, what happened to the priests? He was opining that if the people knew that the curtain was split (who told that that happened?? it wouldn't have been in the best interests of the priests??) that the sacrifices (priests livelihood) would be obliterated. He went on to mention that the Jewish people don't have sacrifices anymore ... so what happened to their religion.

This whole time he's talking I'm trying to switch my brain from dealing with 3 year olds to dealing with a complicated religious question I'd never even considered or heard of before and trying to not look stupid. So I finally told him that I had no idea, but that my dad might since he was a pastor. From that he figured out that I wasn't Catholic, and then started in on the whole body and blood thing ... thankfully my Kinders came in about that time!!

About this same time I also had our new maintenance guy bringing in two loads of boxes from Scholastic. He was asking me what I wanted to do with them. I had no clue what they were - so told him they probably belong to some of the classroom teachers. AL (our tech coordinator) told me that SrN said the books belong to the library, and she'd talk to me later.

So I had the K teacher assistant open all the boxes and figure out what they were while I worked with the K kids. They were book sets of "The best of Scholastic" for PK-K, 1st-2nd, 2nd-3rd, and 3rd - 5th. Three boxes were exact duplicates. Two boxes were a mixed bunch of duplicates and originals. I'd guess that 40-45% of the titles that weren't duplicates already, were duplicates of titles we already own.

These are all brand new books. Maybe 30% of the books will be usable / able to be added to the library. SrN told me that for Three Kings Day we can put out the duplicates and let kids take one or two each home - that way they won't be wasted.

I truly do appreciate the thought and generosity of the donor(s) who sent these. What I'd really like to know though, is do they realize we have a qualified librarian? A qualified librarian who just might be able to give you an idea of what books/topics the library really *needs*? So that the money (or bonus points) they spend/spent would be of the most benefit to our school?

I really hope I don't sound unappreciative. It's just that some of the things that donors send us ... really make me wonder. One donor sends us a subscription to Reader's Digest. I love it, but nobody else really gets any use for it. We also have a subscription to National Geographic ... What about, oh, I don't know ... Ranger Rick? Highlights? Weekly Reader subscriptions?? I think some of the subscriptions stem from when we were a high-school - some of the donated (new!!) books probably also stem from when we were a high-school.

Oy! I think I'm just feeling a bit overwhelmed with how much I need to be doing, and am not getting done - both at home and at school. I just have so little energy ... I am so looking forward to Dec. 21. I will of course be coming in and working a couple days (at least) but at least I'll be able to do it at my pace and with few interruptions. I do need to spend some of that time actually doing stuff at home too ... I'd really hate to have a visitor anytime soon.

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I'm probably taking Kari to get spayed on Friday (along with her third set of shots.) I'll try to make the most of that trip by going to get a couple groceries before picking her up.

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Hah! Cool Our 6th grade homeroom teacher just called me from WA where she's attending a conference. She is in a Half-Price bookstore and wanted to check with me what books the library had. I was able to save her some money because we had some of the books she was looking at.

I'm looking forward to Dec 19 when Destiny (our library catalog system) upgrades - because part of the upgrade is having a mobile app to search the catalog.

Today I played Mrs. Clause at our community Christmas dinner. I had quite a bit of fun overall. It was funny to see the reactions of both the kids and the adults. As one of my coworkers said, the kids are used to seeing Santa in various places, but not Mrs. Clause.



I had quite a few kids/parents want to get their picture taken with me, and I even had two little ones sat on my lap - one quite unexpectedly. Most of my students 4th grade and up recognized me right away - which actually surprised me. The younger students looked and looked at me with quizzacal expressions -- trying to figure out why I looked familiar to them. One K boy said "are you that nice lady who reads books to us?"

The costume is the full getup - petticoat, underdress (kind of like a nightgown), red overdress that laced up in front like a corset, grey styled wig, white night cap, and of course spectacles.

Overall it was pretty comfortable - the glasses got a bit uncomfortable about the 3rd hour or so - but they were too small to start. Santa rode inside the actual fire engine, and I rode in the a fire truck (chevy I think). That was quite interesting negotiating my skirts getting into and out of that!!

Most of the toys were dispersed - however, there was a crate of books that didn't get distribuited. Right at the top was a Waldo book. So ... I asked if the library could have dibs on that crate. Hope I do get that crate of books ... I overheard something about a couple more I Spy books too ... kids would go ga ga, and those books are at least $12+ each *anywhere*.

---
When I got home I pretty much slept for 2 hours - only to be woken up by my dad. We talked for maybe 30 minutes (where he *again* hounded me about my car -- I pretty much told him to shove it, politely of course. Actually, what I told him was that I had heard him and understood what he was saying, but that I did not want to be beat over the head with it. He of course tried to be funny by saying - what about the hoses? I said, "Next!") After that I slept for another couple hours. I probably could have just stayed in bed the whole day ... but knew I should eat something and wanted to get some Nyquil. So, I've been up for a few hours now.

If I hadn't committed to being Mrs. Clause today, I probably wouldn't have gotten out of the house at all. I hope the Tylenol cold and flu stuff I found will work as well as the Nyquil. I think the stuff affects me more since I don't drink - so the alchoal in it hits me harder. (I always feel slightly drugged out the next morning - which is why I only take it on nights when I don't *have* to be anywhere the next morning.)

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I should have done my laundry and dishes tonight - but ... didn't. Will have to do it tomorrow no ifs ands or buts about it. (If I want something clean to wear to work!)

I also need to make the plagiarism project tests for mid-school, create a grading rubric for the project and start grading them, write out lesson plans for December, and work on picking up the library a bit. Hopefully I'll have time somewhere in there to also do some cooking - I'd like to make a cottage cheese roast and corn pudding to eat during the week (and freeze.) Have to have clean dishes first though.

I am **this** close to having Kari declawed! I absolutely abhor the idea of it, but I am getting SO frustrated with having my body serve as a pincushion. This afternoon she startled me out of sleep by sinking one of her claws into my thumb, and I automatically reacted by swatting her away. Then this morning as I was leaving to go to the program, I reached over to get something on the couch, and she attacked my hand - leaving two large scratch marks on top. One of which was actually bleeding - and me about to put on a mostly white outfit!!! Ugh!

Maybe once she's spayed she'll get better -- one can always hope, right?

On a more positive Kari note -- when I came home Friday I found this:



Kari somehow managed to get her play cube directly under the table, and then managed to get a kneeling mat directly in front of the cube. It looks almost like she was making her own little house.

Well it was predicted that we'd get snow all last night, and high winds. We sure got the winds, but no snow ... until 7:45 this morning!

It snowed off and on all day, but did not start sticking until around 2 p.m. I'd guess that we already have at least 2 inches, perhaps more by now. It is supposed to snow all night long, and tomorrow as well. Should make for an interesting Community Christmas Dinner.

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This morning I arrived late at school, and just as I walked in the cafe, SrD our school counselor was telling the group of gathered teachers and assistants that the pre-school had been broken into and lots of random destruction occurred.

I was *really* not feeling well, and almost called in ... so when I heard "the prek will be in the library" I didn't react as well as I would have on any other day.

It turned out to not be too big of a deal. The 3 and 4 year old classes hung their backpacks in the library, then the 4 yr olds went to the K classroom, and the 3 yr olds stayed in the library with their teachers. I wasn't able to do everything I normally do during that time, but I wasn't expected to entertain them - which I think was part of my reaction (fearful of being expected to entertain.)

AL (computer tech person) told me that the pre-k had been broken into in previous years right around this same time of year. That is just so sad to me. AL also told me that the computer lab/library has been broken into before -- computers destroyed, and books ransacked. Ugh - don't even want to imagine that happening.

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Today we were given the opportunity to go "shopping" through the give-a-ways since we'll all be working the dinner/"store" tomorrow. I picked up some nice curtains for my kitchen windows, multiple tops/sweaters for mom, dad, grandma and maybe brother, a set of full size sheets for my bed (my current sheet with the elastic corners is *constantly* coming off - very annoying), some sweatpants and a warm nightgown top for me, a pair of nice wide width black shoes for me, and a bunch of miscellaneous items for the library. I would guestimate that what I picked up would go for close to $250 at most normal stores.

So I now have a second pair of shoes to wear to work, curtains for my kitchen window, and presents taken care of for at least my mom, dad and grandma - possibly my brother (I can't remember if I found something for him or not.) Plus I have a bunch of stuff to add to the library prize box.

---

It was funny today at lunch ... we were having cheeseburgers. So when I went through line I asked for just a bun, cheese and lettuce. Then I added ketchup and mustard. When I sat down, the 6th grade teacher looked at my tray and said, "I'm looking at your cheese, lettuce, mustard and ketchup sandwich ..." While saying this she had the funniest look on her face (which is what made it funny.) (It really was funny - probably had to be there though ...)

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I hope I have the energy to play Mrs Clause tomorrow ... This has been a LONNNGGG week and I'm feeling not so hot.

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My mom called me last night and told me that she and current bf she's living with have broken up -- however she's still working out the details of where she's going to. I predict she's going to end up moving in with the man who bought the plane tickets for me for Thanksgiving ... he's a nice guy, so it wouldn't be a bad thing really - just I hope it lasts ...

I called my dad last night after reading about the terrible winds in the LA area. He told me that when he'd taken grandma to the Credit Union Thursday morning, that she had narrowly avoided being knocked to the ground by the door flying open. She did end up with an ugly bruise and some cuts.

He also hounded me about doing something about my coolant fluids ... I just haven't had time -- seriously! I've either been sick and just barely making it through school days, and/or running ragged from 7:30 to 5 and dropping like a rock the moment I walk in the door - plus I was gone for 5 days where I actually *would* have had time! I was going to call the guy today to see if the parts were in, but with all the commotion with Pre-k, etc., I plumb forgot/didn't have a chance.

I know I may regret not somehow finding the time .. especially with fore-casted lows of *3* degrees next week ... but I'm really not sure how I *could* have gotten something done about it! It sure isn't like I have been sitting around doing nothing (except for when I get home... laundry and dishes are *seriously* piled up ...)

Oh well ..

This Saturday I'm going to be playing Mrs. Clause at our community dinner. I'll be handing the gifts to the multitudes of community children who come. It's supposed to snow Friday and Saturday ... but irregardless, we will have crowds of people show up.

Today one of the mission staff brought me my costume. It really goes all out -- down to even the little glasses (which really are a bit too small for my head ... I hope I don't break them!)I look ... interesting in it. I need to figure out how to wear the wig properly - didn't look quite right.

I think I may want to wear long johns under it - but all I have are pink. I'm not sure if they'd show through the white nightgowny dress and petticoat or not. Will have to ruminate on it.

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A Catholic school in Chicago who have sent groups of volunteers here previously, made 205 blankets for our school. We've lost around 20 students from the beginning of the year, so we had enough blankets for all the teachers, staff and students. I chose a pink one with hula dancing monkey's in honor of my late cat Monkey. I'd have preferred blue, but pink is good.

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I sure got a good workout in this afternoon! Today was our second day (of 4) of getting ready for the community dinner. We had two truckloads of boxes arrive (after the two that came yesterday, and another should arrive tonight or tomorrow.)The men had unloaded all the boxes into the foyer of the chapel where we needed to set up a shoe "store". So all those boxes needed to be moved out into the gym. Guess who moved 90% of the boxes? Much preferred to sorting out what was in the boxes and taking it to the proper tables. I got some big accolades from the K teacher - she told me she thought I was a very hard worker. Gotta do what it takes to get the job done, right?

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Remember how I said I wouldn't spend any more money on books ... unless it was paid for by gift cards? Well ... I spent my giftcard today (from mypoints.) One of my 7th grade girls told me she'd really like some anime books and also Maus. Well ... I'd considered getting Maus (as well as Persopolis) for the library before, but wasn't sure if anyone would be interested in it. As for the Manga/Anime, I wasn't sure if there were any appropriate titles. The majority of them have more mature themes than what the American society generally deems acceptable for young teens. --- So I sent the question out to my librarian listserve - most people who responded asked for a HIT, but a couple gave me some good ideas.

I ended up buying Maus, Persopolis, and the first three Legend of Zelda books (and something else too I think - Ranger's Apprentice bk 1). I told the student I had ordered them, and she seemed quite happy. I imagine they will be popular with more than just her - at least I hope so.

I have a bit less than $5 left of giftcard money.

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I was approved for the Judy Freeman seminar in Albuquerque in January!! If anyone is in the area then, let me know. I'm getting to stay at a pretty nice hotel the night before. When I put the request in, I thought the hotel cost $100/night, but I found out today when I made my reservation that with the group discount, it is only $79/night. More than I would spend on a hotel, but I don't mind it if someone else is covering!! (The money that covers this is Title 1 money. If it doesn't get spent (specifically on seminars and conferences) it is lost.)

I'll have to stop at Target on my way back again -- the only place I've found here that carries Morningstar corn dogs.

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Today I had my fifth grade girls do a book scavenger hunt. The fifth grade class as a whole is probably the worst offenders in creating havoc on the shelves. So I made up four lists of ten books that they had to find within fifteen minutes. One each list, three of the books were misplaced in one way or another. (shelved on the wrong shelf, shelved with the spine facing the wrong way, haphazardly laid across some books several shelves away, etc.) When the girls came back to the table at the end of the time, I asked them what they thought the point of the game was. One of them piped up right away, "So that we know we need to put the books back properly!" Don't you just love it when they get it? We'll have to wait and see if it has any kind of a lasting effect on them.

I had a nice time at my mom's for Thanksgiving. It was a little weird being around her and her current bf (especially after she told me she is trying to get the courage up to leave him ...)

I attended two different churches on Saturday - the one I attended the prior two years, and the one I attended when I taught at my last school. On Wednesday afternoon I'd called my friend T and found out that her daughter was being baptized -- there was NO WAY I could miss that with being in TX!! My mom went with me - she wasn't so sure she wanted to, but in the end she was really glad she did.

I talked to one of the mom's whose son I tutored right before moving to NM. I'd helped him on a big summer time essay about mythology/greek Gods based on the Percy Jackson books. A subject I knew about as much as you can fit on the tip of a pin head. He got a 95% on it. His teachers were really impressed, and now this year are expecting much more out of him -- and he's meeting their expectations. Good for the ol' ego.

Towards the end of the day my mom and I went to see her former bf who wanted to give me some money towards books for school. He also gave us both a red rose with one of those water things on the end of the stem. We couldn't take them home, so were discussing whether to throw them away or not. I suggested finding a couple of women in a parking lot or something, and giving them the roses. Pretty much that is what we did - we stopped at a gas station and gave one to the attendant and one to a customer. It seemed to brighten both their days.

I shopped at Half-Price Books on Friday afternoon -- $175!! Mom's friend gave me $100. So ... after taking the money given to me off, I came under budget. Umm... yeah.

I updated YNAB tonight. Absolutely NO more buying books - unless I have a gift card. (I got a $50 Amazon card in the mail today from Mypoints, and a $5 Amazon gc from Swagbucks yesterday.)

I added up how much I've spent *just* in October and November on books for the library ... roughly $1000!!! Seriously cannot continue this way - I need to keep in mind my numerous savings goals.

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I still had a Target gift card from graduation which I hadn't spent. While I was at mom's, I got to use her nifty blender/food chopper. The one I have has been leaking. So I stopped by Target (heh - was about 8 miles out of my way)on the way home Sunday. I picked up a Ninga blender/food chopper and a combination food steamer/rice cooker plus a bunch of groceries.

I'm really hoping that I can cut down on my food expenses as well. I've been spending *way* too much on food. Lots of junkfood - not good for belt or wallet.

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This Saturday we are having a community Christmas dinner. Anyone in the community can come for a free hot meal (turkey, stuffing, potatoes, etc), clothing, blankets, and toys. It starts at 10:30, but people usually start lining up around 8 a.m.

Snow is predicted for both Friday and Saturday - but one way or the other, the dinner will proceed.

I had signed up to be a server, but today was asked if I'd like to be Mrs. Clause instead. The person who asked me said they thought I'd make a good one because of how I smile all the time and am so friendly and good with the little ones. It was funny when he was asking me what size costume I would need - he sounded so uncomfortable asking.

I think this should be fun.

This last week I stayed late at school 3 days - Mon, Tue and Th -- though Wednesday was also a bit of a late day. Why? Monday was our staff meeting, but both Tuesday and Thursday I stayed late to give the 7th and 8th graders the opportunity to finalize their projects during after school study hall. Quite a few took advantage of it - though some I think saw it more as an opportunity to listen to youtube while "working." We are very lucky to not have youtube, etc., blocked at our school -- I let the older students listen to videos ... as long as they are working AND with the caveat that I *will* check the lyrics at any time. None of them have abused the privilege .. yet.

A very disconcerting thing happened on Thursday. One student who is in a group of 3 opened their groups presentation to work on it. It was completely blank. She and I searched for 30 minutes to see if we could find another copy of it with no luck. I felt so bad for her ... she's a new student and on the quite large side ... kids this age don't need a reason to pick on other kids... I alerted our school counselor so she can keep an eye out for any repercussions. I also spoke to all 3 girls and let them know that I'd grade their project on what I'd already seen completed plus whatever they are able to reconstruct before Tuesday (when it is due.)

Computer gremlins ... or a mean student with some technical know how ...

I had some great happenings with kids and books this week. It is so addicting when you see a kids eyes light up when you put a book into their hands that they're excited about. It's why my savings aren't quite growing at the rate I'd hoped ....

This week while I'm in Dallas for Thanksgiving, my mom and I are going to Half Price Books. I'm giving myself a limit of $150 --- cash. I can get quite a lot for that amount ... and then I'll force myself not to buy *any* in December. (although ... while I'm in CA I may check out SA or Goodwill ....) Ugh! I'm hopeless.

I realized that it probably is a good thing I'm going away for Thanksgiving ... otherwise I'd probably spend most of the break working in the library. There sure is plenty to do!!! I won't be getting back til late Sunday night, so I'll need to be prepared for my classes before I leave. I envision a long Sunday in the library, as well as a long Monday ... We have a staff "stuffing party" where we stuff bags of goodies which have been donated for the kids/community members on Monday ... then I'll probably have to spend some time finishing up lesson plans. I want to leave right away after school on Tuesday.

Some of my coworkers were wanting to go see the new vampire movie tonight. I counter suggested seeing Happy Feet. There were no takers. Just as well ... I'm enjoying staying in .. watching the latest Person of Interest, maybe watching a Netflix movie, catching up on my reading, etc.

Tomorrow I hope to be at school by ten. I have a good number of new books to catalog (roughly 25) and then of course working on the week after Thanksgiving plans. I also need to create the video/project evaluation forms for the plagiarism project. The 8th graders present on Monday - their homeroom teacher will be coming to check them out. I think her coming has motivated them more than any grade I may give.

Oh! Something really cool for Jeff Kinney fans! On the library list serve I'm part of, there was a notice a few weeks ago that Jeff Kinney was doing an author talk at a school in New York City. The School Library Journal partnered with them to make a live streaming video, which then was archived. I of course registered for it but due to time differences (and SrN wanting me to watch the presentation first ...) we didn't see it live. The archived version went up on Friday, and I've already watched it. It was pretty interesting, and even included an appearance from two of the main movie characters. There is a 3rd Wimpy Kid movie coming out on August 22(? I think that's what he said.) And of course, the newest book came out on Tuesday. (My copies arrived on Thursday - I rushed over to the PO on after my last class and was back in plenty of time to wave the buses off. I offered the teachers first dibs at the copies, and quickly had two takers.)

-- On my way back from church today I was running on fumes. I found a gas station and filled up for ....



$2.95/gallon!!! It's been a long time since I've seen gas under $3!!!

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Today we had school, even though major snow flurries fell intermittently throughout the day (though not much was sticking ...)

So ... I had my 8th graders. In the first section there was a boy who had at least three different times this year mentioned to me a series of books that the library has the first one of, but not the rest. Last year's librarian had told him she'd get the rest with bookfair money ... didn't happen.

So today I got the pleasure of telling him that I had the third and fourth book in the series here and ready to be checked out, and the second one should be here by Wednesday ready to be checked out. He got the biggest smile on his face. He went ahead and checked out 3 and 4, and asked me again if he could come by on Wednesday and check out 2. I told him of course.

I'd gotten books 3 and 4 from book closeouts and they came in last week. Book 2 I'd gotten from Amazon, but the first time I ordered it I sent it to my old address and was unable to cancel it even though I realized my mistake 20 seconds later. Ugh! So I got that refunded (after it was sent back to Amazon) and reordered.

Then in my afternoon section I had the distinct pleasure of informing an 8th grade girl that the second book in a series had come in and was waiting with her name on it. We both got big grins on our faces == another girl that was nearby asked "what're ya'll so happy about?" I told her, "Books, of course."

I found the book on Amazon for $3, along with a 4th book I hadn't know existed in the series. We had books 1 and 3.

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I also gave very quick booktalks on about a dozen books to each of the 8th grade sections today. The books that flew out of my hands (after talking about them) were "The Graveyard Book", "Among the Hidden", "How They Croaked (Stories of Famous People's Death's)", "Charlie ??? Guide to NOT Reading" (I had two copies of this one which both were taken) , Trickster Tales (graphic novel format), and another graphic novel -- The Magic Pickle.

I also had an 8th grade girl ask me if I had another copy of the book "Smile" which I'd put out with the sixth grade class last Friday. (It's about a girl who loses her two front teeth in a freak accident and all the orthodontia nightmares and personal angst that follows - in graphic novel format.)

So ... today left me with a pretty darn good smile, if I do say so.

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Oh something else cool. I'm starting a program where every week that a kid brings back *all* their library books they'll get a "ticket." Then every other week I'll draw 5 names from 2 - 5, and 5 names from 6 - 8 for prizes. The prizes include posters, bookmarks, stickers, books, and Dibs tickets. Dibs tickets are where a student can tell me the name of a school appropriate book they think we need, and when it comes in, they get first "dibs" on it.

When I was explaining this to the 4th grade Mon section today, one of the kids came up with a free prize --- a ticket for an extra checkout!!! I almost hugged her.

I told the kids that if any of the I-Spy books come back (with our stamp) that they'd be worth 3 tickets. Our catalog says we should have 7 of them ... and there are 0 anywhere to be found. They are a frequently requested item too.

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So all of this made my 6 plus hours of cataloging yesterday WAY worth it.

Although I didn't get my lesson plans turned in today ... oops. (Of course I heard from various sources that the computer teacher last year *rarely* turned hers in .. if she ever did. Not that I'm going to follow suit, but a day or two late is probably not going to get me in too much trouble.)

I took Kari to the vet on Thursday for her second round of shots. This time there were no escape artist stories because I used her new carrier (plastic kennel). The vet had her file marked as "will bite." I was annoyed at that, because she'd only snapped at the person, not actually bitten!

I asked if they would weigh her when I got there, but apparently the vet or vet tech forgot. I mentioned it after they gave her her shots - and she said it wouldn't be a good time now ... Isn't weighing a cat supposed to be part of a visit?? They didn't weigh her last time either ... I'm not really sure how much I like this particular vet clinic ... it is so different from the vet I took Monkey to when he was a kitten, and even different from the place we took Buddy to when he was getting his puppy shots ... I don't know - just not very customer/pet oriented?? Trying to get me in and out as quick as possible - do bare minimum?

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I don't know if it was me putting Kari in her kennel 3 days in a row when she got near my food, or if something else is going on ... but the past 3 days I've been able to eat my meals in peace without having to put her in the kennel.

However, today I noticed she didn't eat all her breakfast - not even the canned stuff (which I picked up before I left so it wouldn't spoil.) Maybe the dry food is too stale?? I hope she isn't getting sick - her appetite today is probably 35% of normal ... Her appetite yesterday was normal though.

Will just have to watch her and see if this continues.

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Friday night I got to experience a bit of the blustery wind that happens here quite often. The window in my back bathroom doesn't shut tightly because the crank handle is broken -- it needs to be duct taped shut or something. (need a ladder to reach it) Anyway ... the wind was whistling and howling through it, and then making the window rattle and bang most of the night. Then along about 4 am or so the rain/snow started. We got maybe an inch or so.



It was pretty much gone by noon.

We are predicted to get 3 to 5 inches on Monday. I kind of half hope for a snow day, but in reality I really really don't want one -- I need the class time with the 8th graders!!

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Today I spent over 6 hours cataloging books at school. I managed to get nearly 60 books done, other than taping. I didn't get anything else done that I was planning to do there - such as complete lesson plans (my week to turn them in), check out/test the video camera which was donated to us (for the kids plagiarism projects), and figure out book talks to go with a selection of books ... plus make sure I'm ready for my other classes. Cataloging took much more time than I was planning on. It was after dark when I finally left -- in fact, the tech lady texted me and told me to go home. (she saw my car at the school when she drove by)

I bought some more books today from Amazon ... I know, I know ... I said a moratorium on buying books ... but, but, but ... I'd bought the wrong book (one we already had) to complete a series I got a student into, so I had to get the right book ... and of course a few other books wound their way into the book cart... I'm so good about not buying books for myself, but so weak when it comes to buying books that I think will put a smile on my student's faces ..

I've realized that I'm not going to stop doing this ... so I've given myself a budget of $100/month. ONLY after buying 3 shares of stock and putting $100 in my ROTH.

Of course when I go home for Thanksgiving, I'll probably visit Half Price Book Store ... will probably ship a large box of books back - cheaper than a $25 charge for a suitcase -- maybe.

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I watched a good movie on Netflix last night. "I'm Reed Fish" It was a different movie - with a bit of a twist about 20 minutes in ... really enjoyed it though. Very minimal language - which I'm always happy to find.

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I'm debating on whether to look up some booktalks or watch another movie on Netflix tonight ... or maybe read a Jodi Picoult book someone lent me ..

If we have a snow day tomorrow, I brought home the bag of 60 books that need to be taped ... and I have Netflix of course ... and I have the JP book to read. I wouldn't be able to use my phone much because I left my charging cord at school (oops!)

I'm going to go check the thermostat - it's getting cold in here!

RIP Andy Rooney

Yesterday when I got home I laid down on my bed just "for a minute" and the next I knew it was nearly 6 p.m.! I'd been a bit cranky with a couple of my classes too - over tired I guess.

We had an All Saints presentation by all the various grades yesterday, whcih cut short one of my favorite classes. But I enjoyed it, and even was asked to read a bit from the Bible -- the Bible on my phone to be precise. Sr N came up to me an said "You know the Bible pretty well, right?" "Would you know where it talks about feeding the hungry/clothing the naked?" I had a good idea of where it was, and Google helped me find out for sure.

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Today was a really good day. First, I had an awesome parent volunteer who was whipping through the donated books finding out lexile and test info for me. Then, I finally!! got in touch with someone who told me how to take off the barcode filter ... and I then preceded to catalog 5!! books I can hardly wait to see my third graders on Monday so I can tell them all about these books - they're on their level.

Even better though, when I got home tonight I had a call from my brother! Not a 5 minute one, but nearly 45 minutes long. His birthday is on Friday - he'll be 31. He's loving his new job and proving his worth -- in fact, if any of you are in the Napa area and get the local winery magazines ... you may just see a picture of him and his girlfriend on a back cover. It's an advert for the new place he's working at - as Marketing/Advertising/All Trades ...

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Today was my 3rd day doing morning duty/prayer. It went much better than the past two mornings. (Monday I blanked on doing the sign of the cross before praying) and Tuesday I totally messed up on the attention signal. I was complimented on my choices of prayers by the Kinder teacher - even though they've had nothing to do with the actual feast/Saint days occurring this week. They are all prayers of being thankful/showing God appreciation.

Even though it went so much better today, I will not be sorry to see Friday and 8:15 a.m. come (end of duty.)

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Today I actually managed to impress my fifth grade girls - really almost shock and awe. They'd been working on a PowerPoint project about Fall. Today I showed them how to use a computer microphone to record themselves reading their paragraph. It was priceless seeing their faces as they heard their own voice being played back. The only caveat is that I only got through 3 girls because the front microphone line didn't work on any of the 4 computers I tried it on - so ended up using the circulation computer.

After school the tech coordinator and I figured out that the mic plug in the *back* of the computers worked. Whew! I'm glad I figured this out today, and not when I had my 8th graders on Monday getting ready to do final prep on their presentations!!!

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Speaking of the plagiarism project. I found out yesterday that one of my mid-school students was caught plagiarizing a classmates essay -- word for word. This was after having spent at least the past six weeks focusing on plagiarism and its consequences. She failed the essay assignment, and is now being watched with Eagle eyes by all her teachers. It makes me sad to not be able to trust her. But even worse, to know that all we've discussed and pounded in, has gone in one ear and out the other.

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I bought my ticket to CA for Christmas tonight - $285. Not too bad if I do say so. I won't be going to San Jose this year - just LL. I've also limited my time to 8 days. That way it'll give me time here to have actual "vacation" and maybe do some projects in the library ... My dad really wanted me out there the whole Christmas break ... I love him, but that is just a bit too much time to fill -- plus, I'd really hate to leave Kari that long. (I need to find someone to care for her while I'm gone at Thanksgiving and Christmas.)

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I found a flyer today for a Children's Librarian seminar in ABQ on Jan 18 with a pretty famous (to school librarians) facilitator/presenter. It would mean missing a day of school, and one nights stay at a hotel. I plan on talking to SrN about it tomorrow - I really hope she agrees that it is a good idea!! I may be able to have my way paid for/reimbursed from Title 1 funds (professional development.)

So Thursday and Friday I stayed after school -Thursday til 5:30, and Friday til 6:20 - helping with preparations for the Halloween Festival which was today. I could have left at 5 on Friday, but felt like I should stay til the last dog died due to not being there on Saturday (since I go to church on Saturday.)

My feet were SO tired! I had a good bit of fun though - especially on Thursday helping the mid-schoolers pick out costumes. There were a couple of boys -- man, did I ever wish I had my camera with me! They were a hoot! However, I ended up getting into major hot water because I let the mid-schoolers into the costume closet - and they made a royal mess. I had no idea they weren't allowed back there - all I was told was to help all the kids find a costume! I also realized they'd left a mess, and was planning on cleaning it up on Friday - which I told to one of the other staff. However, on Friday I didn't get back there till nearly 4:30 because I was put on other tasks ... I apologized to the people's toes I had stepped on, and helped finish the last bits of clean up. That was more than a bit frustrating to me - trying to be helpful and a part of the team, and getting into hot water. I know I should have probably just cleaned it up on Thursday, but my feet were *killing* me (though they were worse on Friday ...)

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Anyway, this was a LONG week.

Next week I have morning prayer duty. That means I have to lead out in prayer each morning. To me, praying is bowing my head and closing my eyes (out of respect) and just talking to God - whatever is on my mind/in my heart. From what I've seen so far here, prayer is making the sign of the cross and then reading a prepared prayer or singing a song - and then sometimes adding an Our Father or Hail Mary to it.

I really wish I wasn't having to lead out in prayer on Halloween day and All Saints Day. But, have to deal with what I have. I'd kind of been thinking of just doing songs all week - but was told that there are special prayers for some of the days coming up this week ... Will have to get that figured out tomorrow.

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Tonight after sunset I *finally* got busy and washed my dishes - I've been pretty much out of clean dishes for a week ... I soaked dishes in the sink and washed them, then dunked and rinsed them in a large pot of boiling water (well, water doesn't necessarily *boil* here ...) -- About a week ago I put a bunch of dishes in a sink full or hot soapy water with the full intention of washing them .... and there they still sat tonight. Now though, all dishes are clean, dry and (mostly) put away.

That is a good thing, because tomorrow after I do lesson plans and put in a few hours cataloging, I need to make a cottage cheese roast for the staff Halloween get together at our principal's home. The tradition here is for all the staff to gather at one place, and the kids all go there to get their candy from us.

I plan on putting Kari in her kennel while I'm cooking. I absolutely do not trust her around any food right now. The other morning I was making a sandwich, and before I'd put anything on the bread, she'd jumped up on the counter and taken a bite of one of the slices!!! Crazy cat!!

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Tonight I also have finished 3 loads of laundry, and need to go put in the last one. It's funny, even with a washer and dryer right in my own home, I still tend to go as long as possible between doing laundry ...

I think it's partly my laziness, and partly just being so tired from school .. mostly my laziness though.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Those of you who have Netflix streaming, I would highly recommend the movie Cyberbully. The acting isn't that great, but the storyline is really well done. It would be really good to watch with your young/older teens and discuss why it is so important to be careful with what you post online -- that there ARE consequences - real life consequences.

I had wanted to watch this when it came out back last April or May - but my ex-stepdad didn't have that channel. (He actually got married on Saturday!!) I'm glad Netflix has it. I'm thinking of suggesting our guidance counselor here watch it, and then maybe show it to the eighth graders. We did a couple lessons on online predators at the beginning of the year, but then got busy with other projects, so I didn't get to the cyber bullying lessons I'd planned on doing. They really need both.

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I put in about four hours of book inventory today. Have roughly 3,500 books to go ... It isn't hard, it is just *really* time consuming. And as I'm going along, I'm finding so many books totally miscataloged and my problem book pile grows steadily larger.

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I really hate not having a dishwasher. I've been procrastinating SO badly about washing dishes - finding anything to eat that doesn't require a dish ... because I'm completely out of clean ones. It's not so bad if I keep up with it, it's just when I let it go for a few days and it starts piling up ...

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Ugh! I *still* have not received my new driver's license. It was supposed to be here by Sept 22nd. I sent the DMV an email several weeks ago, and have had no response. On Tuesday we don't have to be at school til 12:30 - so I think I may go into GR to the DMV and see if I can get this straightened out. My temp license expired on 9/22, so considering I'll be flying in a few weeks (Thanksgiving) I really need to get an unexpired one!!! (My TX license isn't expired, but it is deactivated since I got the NM once ... almost wish I hadn't bothered ....) Ugh!

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I ordered a book on Amazon on Thursday, and as soon as I hit "proceed" I realized it had the wrong shipping address -- my ex-stepdad's! I tried to cancel right away, but it wouldn't let me cancel - not even 30 seconds after I placed the order!!! Luckily my ex-stepdad hasn't moved out of that house *yet* (it closes contract on the 27th) so he'll forward the package to me. I really must delete that address - it isn't the first time I did that, just the first time I couldn't cancel!

Like I said yesterday -- must put a moratorium on ordering books!!

I typed up a nice long post and forgot my typical advice to copy it to a clipboard before posting ... just in case. And of course I'd gotten logged out because in the middle of typing I got into a text convo, so it took awhile. So nice long post -- gone.

Short of it -- Long, busy week at school. End of first quarter, major hiccups with online grading program that computer tech person and I got to handle. Look to be worked out now. (cross fingers!) Parent teacher conferences on Tuesday - hope to finish book inventory and get started on processing new books. Must put a moratorium on my buying books for the library. MUST.

Co-worker who found out she was pregnant, miscarried last Thursday night. No support from family - taken to hospital by brother, then he left. I didn't find out til Monday morning.

Really missing my Texas church family. I do like my life here, my job, my home, etc. Just if we could transport my Lew****** church family to here ... then it would be perfect. If I wanted the stress of it ... I'd offer (make a strong suggestion) to be worship leader/coordinator. Today they mentioned Nov 5 is supposed to be "community church" day - where we invite coworkers/friends. HAH! I'd be seriously embarrassed right now to invite anyone. Not that they aren't good people - because they are good people. But they are seriously organizationally challenged. It makes it *really* difficult for me to talk myself into going to church each Sabbath - let alone invite someone who knows nothing about our church (other than what they might see in me.)

This past week was quite busy. Between teaching classes and trying to do inventory (still!) and then the end of the first quarter ... Yikes!

The computer tech and I are in charge of the online gradebook program. This is the program that at the beginning of the year I ended up spending a LONG day with classes canceled putting together the data files. Computer tech printed a sample report card on Wednesday and discovered that student name and teacher name did not show up. The tech help for the program convinced her to reupload roster files (which I'd been told could *not* coexist with the data files I'd uploaded at beginning of year ...) First grade teacher became the guinea pig and opened up her gradebook ... all her students were gone, along with all her grades. Panic ensues.

Spent most of Thursday on the phone and/or trying to figure out how to fix the problem. Finally convinced computer tech to tell gradebook company to delete roster files *again* and go with the data files and figure it out from there. That worked - got kids names back AND grades. But then had to write out instructions for teachers to fill out class info for *each* gradebook. (we could have done it for them .. but 15+ teachers times 6 - 10 gradebooks each ... much more efficient to have them do it, and then we troubleshoot.)

So Friday was teacher inservice day. At breakfast I realized that most of the teachers had completely misunderstood the instructions I hurriedly handed out at the bus waving (end of day everybody waves the busses home). So I had to stand up and reexplain exactly what they were supposed to do. Then while teachers were completing their grades, numerous problems kept cropping up, so both computer tech and I were kept on our toes til about 4 p.m.

What a week!

A funny though ... Friday afternoon a couple of the teacher assistants were assigned to help me in the library. Only one of the 6 assigned actually was there the entire time ... but that's another story. Anyway, the PE teacher is good friends with this one teacher assistant. She needed to leave early due to "babysitter problems." PE teacher was giving her a ride home. She offered to come in and help me with doing inventory on Sunday afternoon. PE teacher got this shocked expression on his face, and then said, "You come in on Sundays?!" LOL!!! I told him that yes, I come in on most Sundays.

Shoot - I could use another 30 hours a week, and still not even come close to getting to all the projects and things that need to be done.

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Tuesday is parent teacher conferences. It appears that I'll have that entire day to work in the library ... and do inventory and hopefully start on processing the new books (books I've personally bought, and those donated by others). Sister N posted a sign up sheet for teacher assistants who'd like to get a few hours in that day by helping in the library ... only one person signed up. Sigh. At least the person who signed up is a darn good worker (he actually owns his own computer business in Phoenix, which he goes to every other weekend ... he's here now only due to family, we so LUCKED out that he was willing to be a teacher assistant!!)

Err... speaking of books I personally bought ... I really need to get a moratorium on that spending ... I haven't really put much away in savings yet.

Between the books and Kari and food ... yeah, not saving much yet.

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On a sad note ... my single coworker who found out she was pregnant recently, miscarried about a week ago. She miscarried on last Thursday after work, and came back to work on Monday (even though she was told by doctors to take week off.) I've really tried to be supportive, though I don't know if what I've said has been helpful or not ... mostly just tried to listen when she needed to talk. The worst part of it is how utterly unsupportive her family has been. I know if it was me, as soon as family (mom, brother - dad if he could...) heard I was in the hospital, they'd be either driving or flying here to be with me - no matter what else was going on. She was *alone* in the hospital Thursday night and Friday. Her brother took her there -- and then LEFT!!! Totally inconceivable to me ... but then as nutty as my family is, the one thing we are is we are there for each other. (She has at least 4 family members in the area - mom, brother, two sisters, and a best friend.)

This afternoon I took Kari to the vet. What an adventure that was!

First of all, I had to borrow a cat carrier from a co-worker. The one I had for Monkey had seen better days towards the end of his life .. Well, the one I borrowed, was a soft sided carrier with zipper enclosures.

Yikes!

It took Kari all of one minute to figure out how to get out of it. At first I though maybe I had left a zipper open, but she repeated the performance. Next, I realized that there was a velcro tab thing to hold a handle type thing for the upper zippers. So I did that up. This time it took her ten minutes to escape - though the majority of that time was spent yowling and complaining.

I had to pull over to put her back in the carrier twice. Finally, I decided to try to see if she'd be a good lap traveler like Monkey had been. Not so much.

Finally made it to the vets office. They put us in a room right away - no wait. Upon the vets advice, I let Kari out of the bag so she could explore the room.

Such a strange cat. When she got both of her shots, she had no reaction ... at first. Then 20 - 30 seconds later it was like the Tazmanian Devil broke loose. Yeow!! I've got multiple scratches and claw marks to prove it.

Then the vet tech started clipping her nails. Yowie! You would think WW3 had started or something. She was going to show me how to do it - to make sure not to cut the quick -- but she ended up having to take her to another room to finish. The whole clinic could hear her vehement protestations.

When it was over, I asked the vet if they had any plastic ties so I could secure the zippers for the trip home. They had some, and put 3 on. Kari tried her darndest, but could not manage to get those loose!

The vet told me that we'd wait to clip her nails again until when she gets spayed ... in other words, when she is asleep.

I'll definitely be needing to get a real (plastic) cat carrier for future visits/car rides. I also can see that she'll probably need a tranquilizer if I take her with me on any road trips. The entire 35 minute drive to the vet she did not stop bellyaching once .. except for when she was out of the carrier. (When my previous cat Monkey was a baby and I was taking him home for the first time, he also cried pitifully in his carrier. I took him out and put him on my lap. He fell asleep. That is how he rode with me the majority of the time ... on my lap. Kari ... I don't see that is gonna happen - she couldn't settle down.)

Kari seems to have forgiven me for the torture I put her through today. She is fast asleep on my lap.

My morning had a lovely start. While I was cleaning out Kari's litter box, she decided to do #1 right next to my foot - outside the box. I'm not sure if she was expressing her frustration with me because I hadn't fed her yet, she saw me cleaning her box and realized she *really* needed to go, or if it may be some kind of an UTI. I cleaned out several clumps of #1, so I think this was a first (I hope!!!)

I realized this morning that my vet appointment was for today, and not tomorrow -- which was impossible for me to do. So I called the vet this morning to let them know I needed to reschedule. I got their voicemail. About 2:30 they called back and left a voicemail saying that the next available appointment would be Oct 26, and that I'd be charged a $15 holding fee.

Considering how old Kari is getting, I want to get her shots done ASAP so I can get her spayed. Waiting another two weeks isn't going to cut it. So I called another place, and can bring her by on Thursday afternoon before 4:30. They are quite a bit more expensive, but it is worth it so I can at least get in and see someone!!

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This afternoon I was in the middle of teaching one of my third grade sections when SrN came by. The 3rd grade teacher and I were working together on a Saints research project. The kids were working on researching their different Saints. SrN unfortunately came in while I was running around the room helping the kids put their Saints name in the search engine. She started telling me she thought it was way too hard for the kids and that they'd get overwhelmed. I told her that the Monday section had done it, and had done quite well with it. I probably was quite a bit more short with my response than I would have been if I hadn't been in the middle of class and on the third week of working on this project ... She also told the 3rd grade teacher the same thing - 3rd grade teacher had done the same project last year with her kids, and it was in her lesson plans she turned in a few weeks ago ...

Ugh!

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One thing I'm having to get used to here is never knowing when people will just waltz through your classroom. This week so far we've had at least three groups of donors tour through campus. Then today we also had one of our more major donors/fundraisers/volunteers make a presentation from pictures he and his group took during the Summer School program. Never a dull moment!

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I had been planning on getting an iPhone 5 when it came out. Of course, that didn't happen. So now I am thinking about getting an iPhone 4 -- if, as I've seen reported, it will sell for $100 (w/2 yr contract.) My current phone could then become my defacto iPod touch for a 50% less than getting a 4S.

Or ... I suppose I could wait til the 5 comes out, and possibly get the 4 for free ... (like the 3GS will now be ... only the 8GB one though)