We have the next four days off of school! As one of the teachers put it - one perk of working at a Catholic school.

Today I participated in a Passover Seder meal with the mid-school students. It was really nicely done, and the kids did a pretty good job behavior wise. I was telling AL (our IT person) about how the 3 mid-school teachers washed the feet (1 foot really) of 3 mid-schoolers -- and that in my church we have a foot washing service every 13 weeks where all the women wash each other's feet, and all the men wash each other's feet, and then follow that with a communion service. She'd never heard of the practice of foot-washing. (She's not Catholic, but a fairly traditional Apache.)

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So tomorrow myself and several teachers are headed into ABQ to go to the Sch Book Warehouse and spend some money. I *should* have $175 to spend there, but since we didn't get our final book fair check in yet, I only have $91. I hope that the remainder of the dollars can be set to NOT expire before I have another chance to get down there. (All the dollars are bonus dollars for doing different things during and before the book fair.) Otherwise I'll lose half of them in shipping and handling.

Because of our trip coming up tomorrow (and that I'm taking my car) I took my car to the local auto shop to get the oil changed and a general checkup. The oil + balance/rotation was $49. Unfortunately the mechanic found that 3 of my tires have one or more bulges and need to replaced soon. They are all pretty old, so I'm not shocked at the prognosis.

I'll be having all 4 replaced on Monday for about $269 (the 4th one is okay, but is fairly old too - and I decided that it would be better to have all 4 tires the same age/make, etc.) These will hopefully be the last tires I personally put on this car (only reason I'd be putting on another tire would be if one got an un-fixable hole.)

When I got home today I also cleaned out my car -- well... at least the inside of it. The trunk still is about half-full ... but I at least have room for passengers now.

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A few days ago I signed up for Hulu Plus. What I think I'll probably do is do HP 1 month and then Netflix one month - just go back and forth. Part of what made me do this is that I really wanted to watch The Pretender again and only HP had that. Of course the first couple episodes of S1 aren't working right now (on my computer at least) so instead I started watching the program "Awake." Interesting (2 eps in.)

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I checked my BOFA account yesterday, and saw that they'd taken out a monthly fee again! So I contacted the online CS person. They reversed the fee, and assured me it wouldn't reoccur. If it does, I will be closing that account faster than Superman can fly around the world.

This morning I woke up feeling like death warmed over, but had to get up so I could meet the truck picking up the book fair stuff. They were estimated to arrive at 10, but I figured I should be there no later than 9:30 just in case they got there early. They got there at a bit after 12!!!

Oh well, I used the time wisely and got a good bit done in picking the library up and got most of our new books cataloged (ones bought from the book fair for our library.)

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When I got home I got several loads of laundry done, and a load of dishes. I also took out a couple bags of trash from around the house, swept the whole place, and scrubbed the bathroom.

My pastor and his family are coming for a visit on Friday .... Motivation!!

Kari wasn't quite sure what to make of all my activity, not a usual occurrence here.

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Well, in the midst of all this activity, I found an envelope on the floor and was about to toss it in the trash bag. Thankfully I decided to look inside of it first ... there was a $10 bill!! It was money someone had given me back in September to pay me back for covering their meal - I'd totally forgotten about it.

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On Sunday a co-worker and I went to G and saw Hunger Games and ate at Golden Corral. I wasn't too enthused about seeing it, but in the end I actually did like the movie and am now probably going to read the books.

I also saw a preview for Men In Black 3 coming out Memorial weekend -- now that, that I AM majorly enthused about! (So May will have two hotties out in movies - Will Smith and Robert Downey Jr (Avengers) -- May will be my happy movie month.

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Tomorrow my coworker and I are heading off to Taos and Santa Fe. We are probably going to drive straight to Taos and do sightseeing, then head back to Santa Fe where our hotel is reserved. We may stop at a hot springs and go for a dip on our way too.

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It looks like I will not be needed to make the trip Friday night for the school kids in the state science fair. Whew! I wasn't looking forward to that (the driving nor the gas money.)

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I was going to go into G today to return the unused food from the book fair, but my coworker pointed out that I could return it at the other Walmart on our way to Santa Fe ... so that saved me a trip.

It looks like I'll be going into April with a mostly full gas tank (after 2nd fill up.) That's good since I'll need that money to help pay for gas on our two-day road trip!

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It sure is going to be hard for me to get up at a regular time again next week!

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I cashed in 7500 Mypoints today for a $50 Amazon gift card.

I also got my internet payment switched over to my Discover card. It gives me 2% cash back for paying my internet bill on it.

Well ... the good news is that we met AND exceeded our $2700 goal for the book fair! The total is just a bit over $2800. So that means that SrN will be dressing up in a clown suit -- we did not make the higher goal of $3000 which would have meant two teachers dressing in tutu's and me dying my hair temporarily purple.

I did spend my own money to help bump us up over the goal, however the majority of the books are ones I would have bought anyway. They were priced right (even when compared to Amazon) and if I waited to purchase them through the resource catalog, I would have had to pay shipping.

We will be taking the cash option, which gives us about $640! I already have ideas on how that money will be used - $60 or so of it will be used to purchase some books for this year (from a box of books we already have at the school - 6 books.) The remainder of it will go to purchase 3 or 4 Junior Library Guild subscriptions for next school year. That will basically give us 3 or 4 new books each month.

I have also spoken with the person who will be principal next year (it's official! I'm very happy with who it is) and she's ok'd a Fall book fair instead of a spring one. I think we might have done even better with having a day for previewing by all classes (which we lost due to the snow day this year.) Also, having it in the fall instead of the spring will help it to not be *right* on the heels of the yearbook deadline - AND people will be thinking of Christmas gifts about that time ...

$$I bought $258 worth of books. Graphic novels, novels, picture books, sports books, etc. I think they'll all be great additions to our library. Of course this wasn't really planned spending ... so I guess my state tax refund could cover it.

Oh - I wanted to let the person know who sent Crank (novel in verse) to me that I got it this week! Thank you!!

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At our teacher meeting on Wednesday I found out that summer school (our portion at least) will be from June 18 - July 6. That was good and bad news. Good, because it means an extra week of pay (at $30/hr from the county), but bad because I'd already gotten my dad excited thinking I'd make it out to CA for his birthday.

Thankfully he was understanding and not too disappointed. I decided that I'll go to my brother's first, and then after the SA meet up, will head down to my dad's. I was going to take the train, but my dad and grandma insisted on covering the cost of a flight (from my brother's to my dad's). Can't say that I'm fighting them too hard on that -- I'll treat them to a meal at Cheesecake factory or something.

TR, our principal to be, told me yesterday that she'd like me to do some classroom teaching for summer school - more specifically math!! I just about choked on my own tongue ... she clarified that it would be remedial math ... I swallowed really hard and in my most cheerful voice said I'd be willing to help wherever and however was most needed. Oy vey! There's a reason I taught first and second grade most of my teaching career ... and that the highest grade I taught where I was responsible for math was 5th grade ... Deep breath .. I can do this ... just have to take the book home and try to stay ahead of the lessons!!

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What sold the most at our fair (besides the junky items and posters ...) were Star Wars related books and of course Hunger Games related books. We didn't have ANY basketball related books/posters, which of course is what a lot of the boys were asking for. We actually sold out of one of the cookbooks (for adults) and I had many adults comment on Nicholas Sparks book Lucky One (coming out as a movie soon - never had heard of it previously though I love Sparks!) I had many comments on how much more selection we had, and how nice it looked. That was a relief to me, because I was so afraid that it was too crowded to be workable -- but it did work!

My 8th graders helped to set up the whole thing in 2 hours (and then I spent a few hours by myself doing finishing touches), and then it took us only 20 minutes to break everything down and put it away for the truck to pick up on Tuesday. One of the girls said when we were done - "it looks like a library again!"

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It looks pretty positive that I'll have an assistant next year. More than likely it will be our current Technology Coordinator. She's been having some bad seizures, etc and has been told that she MUST limit her screen time to no more than an hour or so per day. We get along really well, and I know she is intelligent and works hard -- so I can definitely give her plenty to do that will have nothing to do with computers! I really really hope that this is approved!!!

Today was to have been the book fair preview as well as the day the mid-schoolers brought back their permission slips to help me out tomorrow during the p/t conferences (our first day of sales.) Of course it snowed something like 5 inches during the night, and the forecast showed another few inches of accumulation today (although that hasn't seemed to pan out.)

Oh well ... the bright side of it is I'm getting to have a Crossing Jordan marathon. I also might be able to return some of the food I bought for the teacher preview (that was to be this morning.)

Last night when I was thinking about what I would do if it was a snow day, I had these grandiose plans of watching an episode of CJ and then doing something productive for 30 minutes, and then repeat. Hah.

Oh well .. at least I'm not spending any money today, right?

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I tried out my humidifier for the first time last night. I think it actually did help me sleep better - even with the darn light. Someone on FB suggested I cover the clear/light section with duct tape. Sounds good to me! (I like a room to be as dark as possible when I'm sleeping -- and as quiet as possible. Always was a problem when traveling with my family and staying at a hotel - both my parents could only fall asleep with a tv on.)

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Today when I got home I checked ING just in case.... and found that my state tax refund had come in finally!! Yay!

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Today at school I was talking with one of the Navajo teacher assistants and she told me that the 8th grade teacher had a Roset@t@a St@ne program that teaches the Navajo language!! I had no idea that such a thing was available. I Googled it, and after much searching around I finally found it.

There are two options - Online subscription for $75/yr with no included headphones/microphone; or a one-time purchase of the software w/included headphones/microphone for $200 +$45 shipping.

I am very interested in this. If I really do end up staying here for a good number of years, I think it would be very good for me to know the language very well. This way I can learn it on my own, and then see if I can find people to practice it with in person. I'm kind of leaning towards the online subscription, because I think I could find a good pair of headphones/microphone for $50 or less. So I could subscribe online for 3 years and still come out ahead of buying the package deal.

I'm going to think about this some more, and perhaps talk to the 8th grade teacher and see if she's found it to truly be valuable or not.

Any suggestions as to a good pair of headphones/microphone for a computer? Really, I think I would only need the microphone aspect since I don't have to worry about anyone else being disturbed by it. I could use the cheap microphones I got from Walmart a few months back, but their quality isn't that great (hence the $8 price.)

What do ya'll think?

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I submitted the yearbook Monday night at 6:41 PM!! Yahoo! I'm glad I decided to go over it ONE more time before submitting, because I realized that one of the staff members had been left off the staff page!! I had his picture, but had just forgotten to check the box saying "use this picture." Oy vey!!

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All the materials for the book fair came this morning - thankfully about ten minutes before my first class came in. 7 carts full, plus boxes on top. Wow. We aren't setting up until Friday afternoon.

I really hope that we don't get snow Monday night (4" are predicted!!!) Our first sale day is Tuesday - it also is parent/teacher conferences.

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Today I wore my hair in a side braid. I like to braid my hair sometimes, but had not done it here so far (at least not where I wore it to work.) I had SO many adults and kids compliment me. I even had one of my 6th graders tell me that it made me look younger (not that that is exactly something I care to hear ... but I thought that was funny.)

I might just do a braid more often.

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I've been showing my classes the Book Fair video this week for class. Most of them seem to have been pretty interested in it. Some have had more reactions than others. Both my 7th and 8th grade classes got free time on the computers after checking out books - something neither grade had gotten at all this year. I hadn't realized that til yesterday - so I figured it wouldn't hurt.

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My Spring Break seems to be filling up little by little. At first I'd been planning on it being rather low-key and home bound. But now I have a two day road trip with a co-worker, and then I have agreed to go with our students who qualified for State (Science) the second weekend of break. It'll probably just be that Friday night to make sure that any papers that need to be signed are, but it'll still make for a late night.

I normally wouldn't agree to do something like this on the Sabbath, but there are several reasons I decided to: 1. It's the first time our school has had students qualify for State, and they need someone from our school there supporting them; 2. The mid-school science teacher, not knowing that kids would qualify for State nor when it would be, had already made plans with friends in Phoenix for that weekend - two of whom are flying in *just* to see her -- so co-worker was majorly stressed about choosing to not go to the planned for weekend (6 months in the works) or not going to be there for the kids, and 3. I'm pretty much the only teacher who'll be around that weekend.

I'm hoping that most of it can be taken care of before sunset (especially now that the sun sets after 7 p.m.) but if not, I'm not going to stress about it. I feel like I'll be doing a good deed.

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I ordered the Hawaiian leis for the book fair today. I'll be giving one to each person that buys something on Tuesday. I tried calling our local party store this morning to find out if they had any or not, but I never could get an answer. I'd been planning on ordering from Oriental, but the cost of the leis ($16.99) + the cost of 3-5 day shipping ($15) was more than I could get them for on Amazon. So, I ordered them from Amazon for $24, with guaranteed delivery by this Thursday. I also ordered the book "Bad News for Outlaws" which a student has been asking me about over and over ...

My giftcard balance was down to $13.xx, but then I had my AGC come in from irazoo and from Swag, so I am back up to $23.

I also got my payment from Beezag a few days ago - so I have $8 in Paypal that I need to transfer over to put in my EF.
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We have a bit of a scary situation here. Last night some gunmen shot and killed a number of people. It's not on the news - but people say they (the gunmen) started near our town, then went up to G, and are now out and about on the reservation. There's a rumor that they might do more shootings tonight. Schools in G had a two-hour delay and then were on lock down all day. We had quite a few students absent - quite possibly due to the shootings. Hopefully these people will be caught soon so everyone can breathe a bit easier.

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I never did get a call in to a dentist - but my tooth/teeth are feeling better. Who knows what is going on - just glad it's gone for now.

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I've been watching season one of Crossing Jordan on Netflix the past few days. Jill Hennesey is so awesome. I didn't remember Woody being so ... different when he was first introduced.

My tooth is really bothering me. I'm not stuffed up, so I'm thinking it may be a real toothache. I SO don't need this right now/don't have the time for it! The yearbook deadline is in 6 days!! I'm still scrambling to get all the photos I need. Then of course as soon as the yearbook is done, I've got to get on the ball for the bookfair. Ugh! I'm hoping that SrN will let me out of one of the two teacher in-service sessions this coming Friday so I can work on the yearbook. Otherwise I see a *very* long Friday afternoon, Sunday and Monday.

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Speaking of the book fair ... a school in Chicago which made blankets for all the students/staff at Christmas time has offered to donate to the library their profit from their own upcoming book fair!!! That's really huge because they are a large school (maybe 500+) so they probably have double or triple our sales. So today I went through the catalog (where you can spend the non-cash dollars) and made a wishlist of 50 items/sets. I told SrN that it is a good thing I wasn't making a wishlist from books *outside* of the catalog. This will make it a lot easier for me to take the minimal amount in Sch$ and the rest in cash.

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I also received today in the mail the brand new 2012 caldecott and newberry posters. I'd asked how to get ahold of those kinds of posters to update ours on my librarian listserve about a month or so ago. I had a Follett rep contact me for my address .. and now I have two of the posters I wanted for free! It is surprising to me how often the kids actually look at the posters and then actually ask me to help them find books off of them.

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I baked a sweet potato in my oven last night and tonight. Last night it took 75 minutes at 400 degrees, and tonight I had it in there for 70 minutes plus another 10 minutes in the microwave. I poked it thoroughly and wrapped in aluminum (took out of course for microwave!)It was delicious, but I was kind of annoyed with how long it took. Kari of course was going nuts - she heard the microwave go off and sprang off my lap. I took my time getting there, and found her sitting on the counter next to the microwave watching for me. Guess what? She likes sweet potatoes too.

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Only 9 weeks of school left after this week (not including Spring Break). Wow! Today my 8th graders did their presentations - they'd created a chart and graph which they then put into a one - two page newsletter and wrote a paragraph+ explaining their graph(s). SrN came by and got to see most of them - she said she was impressed with their work. Most of them did either sports figures or musicians/bands, while a few did candy (which color Skittle is your favorite, which candy bar is your favorite, etc.) The 8th grade TA and I figured out that I'll probably only have them in class maybe 6 more times this year. We're not going to be able to get very far with the website unit. Oh well, at least I'll get them started, and if they're interested I can show them where to learn more.

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Last night I read "I've Got Your Number" by Sophie Kinsella. LOVED!!! I could not put it down til I finished it (past midnight).

I also had a very welcome visitor about 8 pm. One of the maintenance guys from the mission - he got my pilot light on my water heater working again AND showed me how to do it myself. It was sweet relief to have hot water again! (It went out probably on Friday due to the high winds we were having. It'll more than likely go out again.)

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

If only the snow day would've happened yesterday .. then I could have participated in the SBs birthday bash .. oh well.

I got an email from Credit Karma today and decided to go ahead and update it and see what my score was. The last time I did it was maybe 7 months ago?? My score then was 726, and today when I checked it, it was 776! Even if that isn't reflective of my real credit score, still that is pretty darn cool I think.

One of the cash back cards they suggested was a Chase premium card where I could get $500 cash back if I spent $3000 in 3 months. I looked really hard to see if it was possible to spend that much in 3 months (only on my credit card) and realized that even if I paid for my summer trip AND for my Christmas trip, that I wouldn't come close.

So I looked at the $200 cash back card - for that I'd only have to spend $500 in 3 months. Easily doable (with moving some automatic payments to it..) However, I think I already have the card (thanks to Chase buying out the previous owner of the card) so wasn't sure if they'd let me get a second one.

So ... I decided to look at SBs and see what offers they had. I found a 3600 SBs offer on TrialPay for Discover. That equals to $40 in AGC (spread over 2 months.) They also are offering 5% on gas for March. I went ahead and applied for it, and after calling to confirm my physical address, was approved. (Now have to wait for the SBs to credit.) With this additional card, I now have almost an equal amount of credit to annual income. Scary isn't?

I'll have to look at the way they do rewards and see if it would be worth closing my Chase card and then a few months from now opening a new one for a cash back reward. If I opened an account requiring $3k in 3 months in say ... June?? I might be able to manage that - summer travel, Christmas travel, buying new iPhone, renewing car insurance ... might come close.

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I shocked myself by qualifying for a survey on SBs - 65 SBs which credited immediately. With that, I'm up over 100SBs from where I started this morning.

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Maybe this snow day isn't too bad of a thing ... I'm kind of debating on whether I should give the $50 I was thinking about to the grandmother of the girl who got her hair cut by another student. It really isn't in the budget ... but then again, I spent $12 at the mom and pop store Monday night getting stuff for the bake sale (to donate) that was supposed to happen today, and that sure wasn't in the budget!

I'll keep thinking on it tonight. I do think that if I do give it to her, I'm going to do it anonymously - just drop an envelope in her mail box. Might make it less weird/uncomfortable?

I can't remember now if I mentioned an incident that happened on Friday in the library or not (brain dead right now a bit ...) but it has caused me to learn something about the Navajo culture - or at least the traditional Navajo culture.

On Friday I usually have the 6th graders from 11:15 - 12:15 and then from 12:40 - 1:40. However, due to the Science Fair, I was not going to have them in the afternoon. So I had each group for 30 minutes - just to check out books.

Towards the end of the second groups checkout time the majority of students were seated at the table reading or looking at yearbooks (one of their favorite things to do - look at old yearbooks.) A few were still up and browsing. One 6th grade boy spied a pair of safety scissors on top of the bookshelf and for whatever reason decided it would be a great idea to snip off a small piece of a girls hair.

When he realized that he'd done something *really* stupid by the reactions of those around him (and the girl), he decided to compound his poor decision making skills by cutting a bit of his own hair. I checked the girls hair, as did the TA and neither of us could tell that any hair was cut (nor did I see any hair on the floor.) The girl involved did not appear to be visibly upset, especially after the TA and I both told her that we couldn't see anything actually cut. I had the boy sit down at the table (he was acting quite contrite.)

Later at lunch I noticed the girl crying in the bathroom with several other girls surrounding her, and SrD talking with the boy involved. I explained to SrD what I'd seen happen and that I really didn't think the girl had lost any hair, but the boy did cut a small piece of his own.

I didn't hear anything more about it due to the Science Fair (I was a judge.) Then tonight I learned on FB through a post of one of the mid-school teachers that in strongly traditional Navajo culture (which this girls family is), having your hair cut is akin to losing power and being in danger (no matter how little is cut - a cut is a cut). The only way to restore this power/safety is through an expensive ceremony (at least $150+). The boy (also Navajo) does not come from a strongly traditional home and so did not realize the seriousness of what he'd done til after the fact.

The grandmother/guardian of the girl is one of our TA's. I'm thinking of giving her $50 towards the cost of the ceremony. Partly because I feel bad that this happened on my watch, but also partly because I know she can hardly begin to afford the ceremony. (She's taking care of at least 3, maybe 4 grandchildren as their sole support and guardian. She makes quite a bit less than I do.)

I've been reassured that this is not reflecting badly on me, although that was not a major concern (somewhat of a concern, but not major.) I am however putting away the scissors when I get in tomorrow!

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All the teachers rode busses again today. The bus I rode on today ... well... it put me in mind of an extended version of a wooden roller coaster ride minus the hills and valleys. The housing conditions were amongst the worst I've seen since coming here. The driver told me of one place we didn't go today due to the student being absent - the student doesn't have running water at her home, so she showers at the thrift store (near the school) every day before school. The area around her home is also akin to a junkyard. They do have electricity, but apparently the ground is too rocky to dig water lines or a well.

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I cashed in my Beezag points this weekend and should have the $8 cash by Friday or so. I also received 2 $5 AGC's from Swagbucks, and redeemed points for 2 more (making 5 total for February.) I also redeemed points on Irazoo for a $5 AGC. I didn't get in on any of the birthday codes today ... oh well.

I'm within a few 100 points of redeeming MyPoints for a $50 Walgreens gift card.

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I watched all of FlashForward this weekend on Netflix. I'd watched the first couple episodes when it was on network tv, but then got too busy with schoolwork and tutoring to keep up with it. It was good - too bad it didn't get a second season.

This weekend I also got all of my color laundry done and my towels. I still need to do my whites/sheets. I was going to do them tonight ... oh well.

The next couple of days will be long ones. Tomorrow and probably Thursday I'll be staying til 5:30 to keep the computer lab open for kids wanting to finish their media projects (due Monday and Tuesday of next week.) Wednesday is our last home basketball game of the season, so I'll probably volunteer at the concession stand. Whatever is happening on Friday, I'm going to be home by 4.

This weekend I missed church due to oversleeping. Kari woke me around 8 a.m. demanding I feed her. So after feeding her I went back to bed. My alarm should've gone off at 8:30, but for whatever reason it didn't. The next thing I knew it was 2:00 p.m. Ooops. I don't want that to happen again this coming Saturday, so I need to make sure I get to bed early on Friday night.

Ok, I'm rambling now, so this is a good time to sign off!

Like I mentioned in my post yesterday, I've been spending *a lot* of time helping the mid-school science teacher both in and out of school lately. Well today it looked like she was pretty well on track, so I told her that I needed to take care of some things (like make phone calls and try to make a small dent in the unshelved books) so I'd not be available in the a.m., but would help her after lunch. She was fine with that - just happy for any help I could give her.

So ... my last morning class left at 10:55. I went into the lab and was talking to AL for a few minutes when SrN came in and asked me to help upload some pictures she'd taken for the yearbook. While I was doing that, an 8th grader came in needing to print a color picture. No problem. After Sr N left, the 8th grader asked me to help her a bit, so I did.

While I was in the midst of helping the student, several 7th grade students trooped in (ones I knew were finished with their science fair stuff.) I assumed that their Teacher Assistant or Teacher would be right along. The teacher did come a few minutes later with a couple more kids. She asked if it was ok for them to be there ... again, I assumed she was sending her TA shortly and was distracted by helping the one student .. so I said fine.

More students arrived for a total of at least 8. Only 3 of them were actually working on Science Fair stuff, the others were working on their media project (for me.) When I realized that she'd just left them with me, I felt really used. But it wasn't the kids fault, and I was glad they could have more time to work on their projects ... but still!

I should have told the kids to go back to their room, or maybe have called her and told her that I couldn't supervise them. I didn't - mainly I think because I don't like confrontaion, but also due to thinking that maybe she felt like if I was so willing to give so much of my time to help the science teacher, I must of course be more than happy to take kids off her hands too and that she'd be offended or something if I said no I didn't want them right then.

So ... the kids go to lunch and I go to lunch. I'm feeling like carp warmed over plus very tired and frustrated from what just happened. The science teacher is there and what happened came out in the conversation. She offered to talk to the head mid-school teacher, and after some hesitation, I agreed.

Then ... this afternoon my last class left at 2:30 and I went over to the gym to help with setting up. The 5th graders were in there with their teacher and teacher assistant - it was so cute watching how eager they were to help.

About 3:10 we were all finished and lining everyone up to go home. Suddenly there was an influx of 7th graders. The science teacher had no idea why they were there - she'd not asked for them to come help. No teacher or teacher assistant with them.

The fifth grade teacher called them all to line up while the science teacher went back to her classroom to dismiss her group (her TA was teaching a Navajo class while she was in the gym.) One of the 7th grade boys was *extremely* disrespectful to the 5th grade teacher.

So ... after the busses left, the science teacher and I both talked to the head mid-school teacher about the two incidents. I felt very .... unsure? about handling it that way - without first going to the 7th grade teacher ... like we were almost being first graders who whine to their teacher about a class mate.

The 7th grade teacher is a long timer (i.e. someone who's been here more than the usual 2 years) and so probably is going to be around a few+ more years. I really hate to ruin whatever relationship we may have by creating bad blood. But I also don't want to get taken advantage of ...

The biggest problem here probably is that of assumption I think ... I assumed that she wasn't just dumping the kids on me, and she assumed that it was perfectly ok since I'd been helping out the other teacher all week ..

No good deed goes unpunished??

* Oh, and I think I may have lost my phone .. in all my distractedness today I put it in my coat pocket, but it wasn't there when I got home... Sigh.

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Update: I found my phone in the library! Yay! I also talked with the head mid-school teacher and the science teacher. We realized that it was the TA who sent the 7th graders into the gym and not the teacher (she was on a bus.) So I told TG (head mid teacher) that I would talk to the 7th grade teacher myself. I think that would come across much better than having TG talk to her. If it continued to happen, then I think that would be a different story. I feel somewhat better about it now.

I just got back from the parent viewing of the projects. A fair number of families showed up. I'm going to be one of 17 judges tomorrow. It should be interesting! (I will be one of 5 people who will be SO glad when 3:30 comes tomorrow!!)

So today I went to the doctor. It was only supposed to be for a blood draw to check my thyroid level. Well when I got there, I found out that they'd set it up as a new doctor/patient visit! That would've been fine if I hadn't gone there expecting to be in and out in 20 minutes!! It took nearly an hour (between the wait and the "visit w/new doctor.") Not to mention the fact that they added an $85 dollar charge for the doctor seeing me. Ugh. In a way it was a good thing though, because I got some antibiotics for what I think is a sinus infection. But still!!

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The past few days have been really, really long. Our science fair is on Friday and the parents are invited to view tomorrow night. With all our snow days and printer/ink problems, the kids didn't get as much done as needed. So ... the Mid-school science teacher and her assistant have been spending long evenings and most of their long weekend trying to get everyone's boards finished. I spent most of Sunday afternoon and evening helping, and then stayed late yesterday and today to help. As well as pretty much every minute I haven't had class. *Two other teachers have also been giving of their time to help get everything done. Oh, and the assistant isn't getting paid for all the overtime he's doing (they're paid on an hourly basis. He's the one I'd love to steal for next year.)

I am SO tired right now!

I also found out that we again are not going to have electives tomorrow. We didn't have any last week, and we didn't have them today due to having Mass (Ash Wednesday). So ... I have 4 class periods left before the yearbook deadline... We still have a lot to do. Ugh.

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Kari managed to get into the upper cupboard where I'd put her new bag of food - and of course she tore into it. Luckily she didn't make too big of a hole. I've loosely tied a plastic bag through the cabinet handles to try to keep her out - we'll see how well that works. If you saw her around food, you'd think that I starve her or something!

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I cashed out tonight for a $5 AGC from Irazoo, and almost have enough for another one from SB (need 25 more!) although I'll probably wait til after the birthday bash to see if any good cards go on sale (although I doubt the $25 would go on sale again so soon, though it doesn't really matter since I have nowhere near enough for one.)

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I think I might go to bed early tonight - really not feeling all that great.

Tonight I filed my taxes thanks to finally receiving the W-2's from my summer job. I'm getting a refund of $423 Federal and $293 State. (New Mexico lets you deduct medical expenses that you can't deduct on Federal!! If I'd known that!!! I will be keeping really good track of them this year for sure!)

I thought I was getting more back, but I guess I calculated wrong before. Oh well. I qualified for the saver's credit - I contributed $200 to my ROTH in 2011, so got a credit of $100. If I'd put another $700 in my ROTH I would have gotten a $476 credit instead. I thought about it, but decided against it since my EF is so shallow right now.

I'm considering putting the whole refund in my ROTH for 2012, because that plus my $100/mo contribution would put me close to $1800 which I think would be a $900 credit next year?? Although I probably should see how much I earn for summer school, just in case I won't qualify for the credit. (I can't remember now what the upper limit was for a single person.)

I'll probably just put it in my Emergency Fund, and then in December see how my various goals are going and see how much I can siphon to the IRA.

Most of what I got back I think is due to moving expenses and the teacher expenses. For 2012 I'm going to keep my deductions at 0 and see how I come out. If I'm still getting a refund of $100 or more, then I'll consider changing it to 1. Of course as my savings grow, my interest income will also grow ... so will have to take that into consideration.

One thing that really hurt me is that my scholarship money that I received in 2011 was counted as income. I'd paid all my tuition expenses in 2010 and 2011. So the scholarship money was hardly in excess of expenses, but because it came *after* I already paid the tuition expenses it counted against me. Ugh! If I'd realized that, I wouldn't have been so quick to pay!!

2012 is going to be such a nice easy tax year. One, maybe two W-2's and interest income - nothing else.

--- I also tonight calculated what my bi-weekly paycheck is going to be for next school year when it's divided into 26 payments instead of 22. It'll be $70 less per pay period. Ergh. Starts in June.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Can't believe I'm saying this, but I am really and truly bored. I went to bed around 8 last night not feeling very well. I came *this* close to buying the audiobook of Evanovich's 17 because I didn't want to read with my eyes open, but thought I could stand to listen to a book - the $23.95 price tag stopped me in my tracks though. I ended up going to sleep pretty quickly anyway.

I've read a book already today, and earned around 100 Swagbucks via the dailys and SBtv (while reading.) The snow seems to be melting and it seems like cars are going out and about. I'm really tempted to go into G and play a bit. I have a gift card for a restaurant there, and the $20 my mom sent me ... so I could do dinner and a movie ... I'd rather wait til Monday though in a way (when I'd kind of planned on doing something like that anyways ..)

Man, if I'm this bored right now, I wonder how I'm going to do over Spring Break ... especially since I've already decided to not do the trip I'd thought about doing until next year. There's lots of things I *could* be doing, and probably *should* be doing, just no motivation to do them. lol!

What a strange week this is turning out to be. We're going to end up having only two days of school this week because Friday is a teacher inservice day. Tomorrow won't be much of a real school day either between Mass and President's Day assembly. I'll only have two of my four Thursday classes. That'll be good in a way so I can prepare for my presentation on Friday - will be talking about the seminar I went to in January and also talking about the Book fair coming up. As the 6th grade teacher noted astutely on last Friday after I got in front of mid-school to make a couple of announcements - I don't like talking in front of people very much.(Which is partly why she and I laughed really hard a few weeks ago when I was in her classroom and she asked me to make some comments about the 6th graders presentations, and I just said - you said it well enough. She responded - there's a shy one (or something like that) and one of the 6th graders was like, "Miss N? Shy?!" Later we laughed so hard about how incredulous they were about the possibility of me being shy. If they only knew.)

I probably should shovel off my porch. There's probably a good 6 inches of snow on it right now. Though most of it probably will be melted before night fall (hopefully.) I had fun getting my door opened yesterday around 4:15 - already a good couple of inches at that time. I could also use this time to do some cleaning, or to do some cooking, or, or, or, or .... Yech.

When I stopped at the PO yesterday (for 5 minutes and had to scrape my windows when I came out) I got a couple Valentines cards from family (including the $20 from my mom) and the latest book I ordered from Amazon (with SB gift cards!) It was one of the books that I learned about at the seminar, and that I think will be perfect for one of my 8th grade boys - Hidden. It's a novel told in two styles of free verse. I'm thinking maybe I could read that this afternoon ... hmm...

Ok, enough rambling (can you tell how bored I am yet???) I wish I could do my taxes today, but I'm STILL waiting on the w-2 from my summer job processing insurance forms. I've emailed and called trying to get across that my address changed, and I received a phone call back on Friday (which I returned promptly to voicemail.) I guess I could call that person again and see if anything is happening. Next year's taxes will be so much easier - no tutoring income, no two states to worry about, and much easier places to get W-2's from (one, possibly two places if I get to do summer school here - the county pays for that instead of the mission.)

Ok, for spring break I really need to make some concrete plans of what I'm going to do otherwise all the money I'm supposedly saving from not taking the trip I wanted to do isn't going to happen.

STOP!!! Enough rambling!~!

We had a snow day today! Even though the forecast said there'd be no snow accumulation and that the snow'd stop by 8 a.m., they were wrong! The snow didn't stop til nearly 11 a.m. and there was maybe 2+ inches. It of course was mostly melted by 3 p.m. I had a nice day so far - read two books, did some Swagbucks (got one $5 AGC, bought another one, and have nearly 200 SBs towards my next one) and am going to watch a movie in a bit - maybe two.

Yesterday I made the decision to purchase a couple of all in one technology programs to finish out the year. TechnoKids programs are something I've looked at since last summer, but hadn't bought any. I'm planning on having my 7th/8th graders do website creation once we're finished with our current project - so one of the programs I bought has a unit all laid out about creating a website with HTML. I could have designed it myself, but that would have been a good 20 hours or more of work, which I really don't have. (although if I'd known we were going to have a snow day today, I might have gotten quite a bit done on a unit of my own ...) At any rate, I do feel it is worth it. I may ask SrN if there are any funds in the technology fund to reimburse me, but I'm not holding my breath. ($100 for 3 programs, 3rd/4th, 5th/6th, 7th/8th)

Otherwise this whole weekend I pretty much took it easy. Friday at school I was starting to feel like I might be coming down with the flu, so decided to take it real easy just in case. I'm feeling much better than I did on Friday, so I guess the extra sleep worked.

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I have also been trying this whole weekend to get Kari relaxed enough to clip her nails. I set the nail clippers (cat nail clippers) on the computer desk. I don't know how, but she seemed to have a sense of what they were, because she did not like the look of them at all! Every time she's on my lap, even when totally relaxed, she makes sure that her front paws are out of my reach. The few times they aren't, the moment I go for them, she hides them away. Ugh. I really, really need to clip her claws. My hands and arms look like battlefields.

This morning I woke up at 4 with my brain twirlling. I could NOT get back to sleep. What was going through my brain? Thoughts of the upcoming book fair and the upcoming yearbook deadline. The yearbook deadline is March 13, and the book fair materials come March 16.

When I got to work and had a break between classes, I posted a note pleading for help (tips) on how to keep the book fair simple, yet successful, to the main librarian list serve I'm part of. Within less than an hour I had at least 50 replies, two of them from former librarians of my school!!

After reading through the replies, I felt 110% more relaxed about the whole thing. It also helped that I talked to SrN and she reassured me that I wasn't expected to have the library decked out in a big theme - that just the boxes and displays would be more than enough clutter.

In my anxiety this morning I totally forgot to call the place I worked at this summer about my W-2. I must do that tomorrow because I'd really like to get my taxes done so I can get my refund!! My EF needs boosting.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Now have 400 or so to go to another one.

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

Today was a teacher inservice day. The morning wasn't too bad, the general teacher meeting stuff and we watched a movie about a transgendered Navajo youth who was murdered (called Two Spirits). It was kind of interesting because just last week I was talking to AL (tech coordinator) about how the Navajo/natives view gay people due to one particular 4th grade boy who ... um.. shows some signs. (Funny enough today at lunch one of the teacher assistants brought up this same exact student - she'd worked with him in 2nd grade ..)

Lunch was good - pizza - the cafeteria people made a whole plain cheese one for me and TY (also vegetarian) which I thought was really sweet and thoughtful.

After lunch we were all to go to our classrooms/work spaces and work until 2 pm. then would be free to go. I was thinking that maybe I'd go in to G and do my grocery shopping since we'd be getting out so early. It wasn't meant to be however.

First, the pre-k director SrM came by asking me to help her set up labels to print for her binders. That wasn't too time consuming, and she was so appreciative of my help.

Then the 3rd grade teacher came over and wanted me to delete a couple of her students from the grading program who'd left in the first quarter. I hadn't done it before because, well, I knew it would be really time consuming and I had multiple other things to do. So anyway, I said sure, let's do it. UGH!! I wish now I'd told her I would do it, and not to worry about it.

Long story short, the spreadsheet (and the grading program) is completely messed up now. She had to leave for a doctor's appointment at 3:15, and I continued to work on trying to fix it until 4:30.

On Sunday I'm just going to completely redo the spreadsheet, because the more she (and later I by myself) tried to fix the errors, the more messed up it got. So starting from fresh, while annoying, will probably end up being much quicker.

And like my title states ... chocolate (and soda and a cheese sub from Blimpie!)

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I got an email from SB letting me know I got another $5 AGC. I'm about 200 away from redeeming my next one. Lots of videos out right now thanks to the Superbowl, and soon I'm sure the V-day ones will be out too.

I'm about 2000 away from cashout on Beezag, and about the same on MyPoints.

I sure ended up with a character for a cat. Last night I was eating one of those individual pizzas - I'd eaten 3/4's of it and was about to go for the last slice. Kari grabs it off the plate and runs off. I run after her and grab it - but not before she takes a good size chunk!!

Then after I was in bed almost asleep, Kari decides to climb the curtain next to my bed. She loses her grip and falls off - onto me. One of her claws swipes my nose, instantly making me wide awake. It bled for awhile, so I put a bandaid on it. I took the bandaid off this morning and it had stopped bleeding.

This is my nose:


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Yesterday I stayed after school and helped out at the concession stand - we had a home game basketball session. I actually kind of had fun. One of the refs recognized me from church ???? (I didn't recognize him...)

Today I stayed late so some of the mid-schoolers could use the computer lab after school to work on projects which are coming due soon. I had a pretty healthy response - though I think most of them just wanted to listen to music. I let them, as long as they are working productively.

I was supposed to return my two DVDs yesterday ... but it didn't happen. Since I hadn't watched them yet, I decided to re rent them today. I also ended up buying a pretzel . $9! About the same price as a Netflix sub. It'll come out of my entertainment budget, so I'll have to choose between doing Netflix this month or watching "One for the Money" in the theater (I'd been thinking of going to see it over the long weekend.)

I also was really jonesing for some chocolate, so stopped at Family Dollar and picked up some chocolate and some sparkling water (better for me than soda, sorta.) Another $5 ... though this was also partly to break a $20 bill so I'd have change for the game tomorrow (not a home game, but played at the public elementary next door to us.) Excuses, excuses...

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Normally I never use cash, but I had $70 in my purse since Christmas. On Saturday I found a Bofa ATM, but my ATM card was a temporary, so it had expired. Thus I couldn't deposit my cash. So I decided to spend the cash just to get rid of it.

And the reason I hate using cash .... somehow $20 is gone.

I spent just under $30 on Saturday for meds, etc., so that should have left me with $40. All I had in my purse as of Tuesday was a $20. I've searched everywhere I can think of. This stinks donkey balls!

Yesterday I took the day off from work - I hadn't been feeling that great since this past Thursday and had been sleeping as much as possible to try to fight it off. Finally I decided to take a day off - seemed to have helped a bit.

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One of our wonderful SA family messaged me on FB a few weeks ago to ask me if I could use any of the books she was cleaning out. I received the package today (it may have come yesterday ... but I didn't get out of the house then.) Thank you!!

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I called my doctor on Tuesday to see if she'd write me a prescription for generic Allegra D because buying it 10 tablets at a time OTC is extremely expensive and extremely annoying. (I can't get more than 10 tablets at a time because I get the 24 hr kind ... the kind which messed up people think are great for making meth out of - ugh!!)

So I found out today that even the generic of it is not available through prescription anymore. So ... it's ten tablets at a time until the generic comes out OTC. I have been using Nyquil (generic brand) and Alavert 24 hr to try to keep my allergies at bay - but it really isn't healthy to constantly use Nyquil, and Alavert doesn't work all that well for me. I'd tried most of the other allergy meds out there, and the generic of Allegra D is the one that worked best for me. (letting my allergies get ahold of me is the main way I get sick ...)

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I took my two DVDs back to the store today - two days late. I apologized to the store owner -- the nice thing about living in such a small town (and being the librarian where I am) - he forgave me the late fines. (His son goes to my school.) I won't make a habit of it, that's for sure.

However, I am thinking that I am going to reinstate Netflix. Between the two movies I rented earlier, plus the two I rented tonight, I spent nearly $10 (due to a $1 charge for using a credit card.) If I do reinstate Netflix, I'll wait until I really want to watch something. Not having to worry about late fees in itself almost makes it worth it. I still do need to check and see what the library has - although they charge too, so not really that much of a deal over the video store or Netflix.

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I received my W-2 today from the school. I'm still waiting for my W-2 from my summer job. I emailed one of the people I worked with there to find out how to make sure they have my new address. Maybe they'd be willing to email me a PDF.

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I gave all my paperwork for my travel reimbursement to SrN on Tuesday. Today she came by the library while I was just starting class with my second graders and told me it was missing a paper! I looked through my papers, and didn't see it. Thankfully, she called me later and apologized - she'd found it! So she's going to turn it in again to the right people.

I wonder how long it will take to get it?

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I had the opportunity to go to Baltimore, MD next month for 5 days for an Americorp convention -- all expenses paid. I declined and deferred to next year ... mainly because of one of the people going. I was very glad I had declined, because not even a few hours later on FB I saw this person stating that he was going to introduce the other two ladies going to the club scene there. If I'd have gone, I'd have been seen as a wet blanket - having NO desire whatsoever to take part in any kind of club scene. Next year I will go though, and hopefully get to see a good friend of mine who lives in D.C. who I haven't seen since 1994 or so.

We had a bit of a snow/ice storm on Saturday evening. When I went into the school on Sunday afternoon, it was a bit slushy and there was a couple inches by the library steps.

This morning as I was following the mid-schoolers to the chapel, I watched as one of the 8th grade girls slipped and fell on the ice. Silly me took her same exact path - guess I thought if I took it slowly enough ...

Nope. Slipped and did the splits bow legged. Thankfully I wasn't wearing a skirt! Also, thankfully only teachers/adults witnessed my fall! I had several people come up and help me up. Lots of people heard about it and asked me throughout the day if I was ok. Other than my hip and lower back being a bit sore, I am/was fine.

I'm just glad I didn't re-injure my tailbone. (Wincing even at the thought!)

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We are supposed to get more snow/rain/ice tonight and possibly in the morning. If we do, I wouldn't be shocked to get a two-hour delay, or possibly even a snow day (ok, I'd actually be shocked for that - because we're only supposed to get a couple inches.)

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Today I finally introduced my 8th graders to the remainder of the books I'd bought over Thanksgiving. I found out as I was cataloging them yesterday that we already owned two copies. Oy! Before I do my next book shopping extravaganza away from a computer, I must get our cataloging system upgraded -- then I'll be able to have a searchable book app on my phone and can avoid purchasing books we already own.

Anyway, most of the new books I intro'd went right away. One of my students did a book talk on "13 Reasons Why" by Asher. He was the second student to read it (maybe third?) but after he finished I had two girls clamoring to read it next. They actually were trying to take it away from the student who had just renewed it that day.

I was really surprised that some of the boys took out titles which I'd kind of thought only the girls would go for... Sara Dessen/Rebecca Friend/Meg Cabot. Books about relationships and high-school ... maybe that was the draw, high-school. These are definitely books that I won't let anyone under 14 check out. So, some of my 7th graders would qualify, and all of my 8th graders.

I've had several requests for the one Sonya Sones book we don't have - I'd almost purchased it before, but some of the reviews made me question the wisdom. However, as I've been seeing some of the other books in our library, and if I kept it limited to 8th grade ... I'm also looking at the book series that starts with "Crank" -- School Library Journal says 8th grade and up. It was requested by several students today.

Of course, I am all out of gift card money right now, so unless we get another monetary donation ... the kids will have to wait. I just love seeing teenagers (especially boys!) so into books.

One other book I intro'd to the 8th graders a few weeks ago - The Scoripo Races - was checked out for the second time today. (It helps that a fairly popular boy read it and liked it .. he's also the one who did the book talk today) -- It won the Printz Honor today. Printz is an award for outstanding literature for young adults.

The majority of the books which won the various awards and honors today, I have not read. However, as I have Scholastic Dollars or gift card money, I will be changing that.

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Oh! Today at the teacher's meeting SrN said that a donor called and was very upset at hearing about the pre-school being broken into and wanted to know what she could do to help. So SrN pulled out our wish lists and gave the donor some ideas. I'm curious to find out what (if any) items from my list will come. I'd be most estatic about a second slanted book cart - although if I really do end up having an assigned assistant next year, it won't be such a big deal.

Truly though, I'd be ecstatic with anything off the list.

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So ... I've had several spendy days in a row this weekend. Saturday, Sunday and today. Not a whole lot in the grand scheme (maybe $30 worth total) but probably at least $12 of it was completely unnecessary.

I didn't go into the big town for church this weekend - ended up sleeping/resting most of Saturday and part of Sunday. I guess I was really tired (Friday morning I was 5 minutes late for work because I kept pushing Snooze.)

I really need to call my doctor about getting a prescription allergy medicine. One of the things I bought this weekend was a 5 day dosage of Alavert --- $6!! Ugh and double ugh! I don't know if it will work or not for me yet, because I had one dose left of the OTC Allegra D. Will find out tomorrow.

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I also need to contact the company I worked for this summer to make sure they have my current address. Just waiting on their W-2 to do my taxes.

I have all my paperwork put together for my seminar reimbursement -- should be about $468 if they accept all my per diem receipts.

Between the tax refund and my seminar reimbursement, my EF will have a nice boost in February.

Today SrC came back to school. She's been out most of the second semester sick. She was my Secret Santa, so she brought my gift today. It was a $20 gift card to Sizzler and a bag of Reese's Peanut Christmas trees. Yum. Well worth waiting for.

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This afternoon I talked with SrN (principal) about the possibility of having a full time assistant assigned to me. She told me that she'd been considering resplitting the position into computer and library, and letting me have my pick. I told her that I enjoy doing both, but I just don't have enough time to do my best at both. If I had someone assigned to just me that I could train and *count on* and would be accountable to me ... that right there would save me hours of work. Which would make it possible for me to get much more done! It sounded to me like she was agreeable to the idea.

So ... next year I *really* may have an assistant!! (I'd love to steal the 6th grade assistant away - cuz I know he is a hard worker, very computer literate, intelligent, and we get along really well ... but I don't think that will happen.)

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Yesterday I stopped at the local video store to see their prices. I ended up renting two videos - older ones - $1.99/5 days. New releases are $3.99/3 days. I don't see myself getting videos there all that often, but maybe once in a while.

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I sent home overdue notices on Tuesday (well, I gave them to the teachers to send home Wednesday.) Out of about 8 books which I marked "Lost" and added the cost of replacement, as of today, 5 of them have been returned. Amazing what seeing the figure $19.99 next to a book your child checked out and hasn't returned in over two months will do! On Monday we had over 100 books overdue, and as of this afternoon, only 49 are still out. Only one person paid their fines though ... but at least most of the books are back!!

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I showed the 5th and 6th graders a number of book trailers today. It got several kids interested in a book (Because of Mr. Terrupt) that I'd previously book-talked unsuccessfully.
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Don't remember if I mentioned this or not, but on Tuesday night when I filled up my car, I left my gas cap at the station. I didn't realize what I'd done til I got to the hotel. So last night I stopped by the station in the off chance that someone had turned it in. Nope. So I stopped at the auto parts store to see if they had one. The lady there told me that she was getting one in Friday -- of course I remembered this about 15 minutes ago ... after they were closed!
So I guess I'll have to get it on Monday. Hopefully another 60 miles or so of driving without the cap won't hurt my car too much.

And ouch! The replacement cap will be $8.19!!

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I'm going to have to get some more Allegra D OTC tomorrow. My allergies have just been awful lately. I meant to call my doctor today (and yesterday too) to see if she'd prescribe the generic non OTC version (so I could actually get a months supply for less than ten days of OTC Allegra D!) Unfortunately I got way too busy both days to do it.

I'll have to see if she's open in the morning ...

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Oh, I spent my Amazon money, plus $7. One of the books actually came from the donation order, but the original seller couldn't locate a copy. The other two (yes, only two!) were ones recc'd by Judy Freeman -- Press Here and 10 Experiments that Failed. There were a ton of really good books I was tempted by, but these two looked to be most immediately beneficial. (And now I have to wait for my next giftcards .. Could be awhile because Swagbucks has been kind of stingy with search wins the past week or so - both few in number and low in amount. )

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

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

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

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

Total -- $129.xx

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

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

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

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

Sweet.

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

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

EF addition -- $23.63

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

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

Love ya guys

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

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

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

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

Non reimbursable money spent - $11.xx TJs

Sheepish smile After searching all over tarnation for a faucet adapter and coming close to ordering one off of Amazon, I decided to check *everything* one more time. Guess what? I found the adapter!

I hooked up the hose to the faucet. It leaked for a while till I finally figured out how it needed to be positioned. The long cycle took about two hours. Most of the dishes came out pretty clean. It doesn't do well with peanut butter, so I'll have to be sure to pre-rinse any spoons/knives with pb on it.

I didn't do too much today other than laundry and a load of dishes. I really should have gone into school for a few hours, but still am not feeling 100%.

Tomorrow straight after school I head off to Albuquerque where I'll spend the night. Then Wednesday I'll be attending a seminar given by Judy Miller about the best books of 2011 for children. I'm hoping to come away with some free samples.

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I put Netflix on hold last night. I do use it and enjoy it, however I'm not sure if I really get $9/month use out of it. I'll probably just use iTunes or maybe Voodo (sp?) for a few months whenver the urge hits to get a movie. If it starts looking like I'm running up against the $9/month average, then I'll turn Netflix back on. Otherwise, I think it may be cheaper for now at least, to go this route. Summer may be a different story.

(I would have waited til I got back from my trip to put it on hold, but my next charge date is the 16th, so I would've ended up paying for another month.)

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I'll be doing a Costco run on Wednesday after my seminar. Although really other than cat litter, I'm not too sure what all I'm going to get there.

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I'm getting reimbursed per Diem for my trip ... so I plan on eating out tomorrow night and after the seminar too. I get up to $35 per day.

All the money I'm spending on this trip I have budgeted from funds I already have. When they are reimbursed, they will be going straight to the emergency fund. Altogether will be around $700. So that will be a nice bit of a boost.

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I need to contact the company I worked for this past summer to make sure they send me my W-2 form here. I'm so ready to get my taxes done and over with this year. I expect a nice bit of a refund I think (all of which will go to the EF, except maybe 10% or so for some treat or another.)

I've been debating about whether or not I should continue putting my retirement savings in a ROTH or a traditional IRA. If I stay here, my salary is likely to never go up, or if it does, it would be very incremental.

The advantages of continuing to put money in a ROTH is that in cases of dire and extreme emergency, I *could* take money out. (And I do mean *dire* emergency ... I came close to it where I was just about completely out of money ... then I got this job!) However, it seems like tax wise later on, ROTHs are better for people who think they'll be making a large amount in retirement. ...Considering how much I have saved right now in retirement and stocks (roughly $30k for a 36 year old) and that for at least the next three - four years I'll be able to add *maybe* up to $1500/yr to that (until I have my EF and CarFund savings up to par) ... I don't think my income at retirement is going to be much to write home about.

So ... if I put my retirement money into a traditional IRA instead, I would get a small portion of it back each year. That money could then be either put towards cash savings, or right back into the IRA, helping to beef it up a bit.

But then if something happens where I get a job in the future that pays twice what I get here (which would be laughably easy - at least in the public schools, not necessarily getting a job, but being paid 2x++ what I make here), and I have a 401k again plus maybe be able to make larger contributions to an IRA, therefore creating a larger retirement income ... using a Traditional IRA wouldn't make much tax sense. I think.

I'd almost go with splitting my IRA funds between two types, but my ROTH fund now requires a minimum of $100/mo (it used to be $50/mo), and if a Traditional one required the same ... well, it is not feasible. Plus it would greatly reduce any immediate tax refund benefits.

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I got another AGC from Swagbucks today. So far I have $20 in Amazon credit. It's nice to see it build back up again. I've been doing really well resisting the temptation to buy books for the library. Of course, the generous donations helped to get a lot of that out of my system.

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Sunday and Monday - No spend days.

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Oh, on the Per Diem, they only reimburse what you actually *spend,* otherwise I would be spending the bare minimum. But I figure if they'll reimburse me, I may as well enjoy a couple nights of nice restaurant meals.

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

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

Ugh!

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

I was feeling okay this morning, but by the afternoon I was really starting to wear out. By the time 3:30 came, it was all I could do to walk to my car. One of my 6th grade students was walking my way and said hi. I said hi back to him and he was like "you don't sound too good Miss ..." Must be bad if a kid can tell ..

Ugh. Just have to make it through tomorrow and then have a 3 day weekend.

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Darn cat. I really thought Kari had finally gotten the message not to mess with my food when I'm eating. This morning I'm halfway through my oatmeal when out of nowhere her paw swipes my spoon. Without thinking I put the contaminated oatmeal/spoon back in the bowl. Ugh. I ended up eating a granola bar instead.

It feels really really cold here right now. My computer says its 23 degrees so that it is warmer than it has been at times - just feels colder for whatever reason.

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I could've gone to Baltimore, MD next month for an Americorp meeting -- all expenses paid. I do have a good friend in that area I've not seen in many, many years, so that would've been nice. However, next year I'll be the only 2nd year Americorps member here ... so I'd feel better about asking to go. Plus maybe it'll be in a warmer place!!

K, heading off to the showers and then to bed. Hope I can actually *get* to sleep and *stay* asleep till the alarm goes off.

--_

January No Spenders - +1

My two other blogs (Living Frugal and Children's Books) have a paid advertisement thing on them. I cashed out about a year ago for $10 in earnings, but then kind of fell off on the posting (and didn't keep a paid ad up ..) So I got an email telling me that they'd sent me $.30. I'm not sure if they are closing shop, or if they are dropping me since I haven't logged in to the site in forever and ever. Oh well, that's $.30 to my EF. Every bit counts!

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Last night as I was watching the yearbook stuff, I realized that I had totally missed a deadline!! It was the one for choosing the yearbook cover art. Somehow I had the idea that the only deadline I had was in March. Oops! I called our account manager this morning and he walked me through finding the covers on the website (I hadn't received the hardbound catalog I was supposed to.) He also told me to not worry about having missed the deadline, since we weren't doing an original cover.

The journalism kids took the entire 40 minutes of class to pick the cover out today - but at least it is done now. It was funny to me how the ones they disliked, they were all in total and quick agreement on. The two (of 35 choices) that they semi-liked they were also in agreement on.

AL, our tech coordinator, twisted her knee today. She ended up walking out on crutches. She's seeing a doctor in big town tomorrow morning (her brother is driving her) -- really hope it isn't anything a few days of rest won't take care of.

It just goes to show how fast someone can get hurt -- she was just on her way to answer her phone.

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The temperature here must have dropped 20 degrees today. At noon I was comfortable enough to go to lunch without my jacket. By 2:30 when the 5th grade girls came in, the wind had picked up and it was bone chilling chilly. Then by 3:30 when the busses were leaving, I was freezing *with* my jacket on.

So far there is no snow in the forecast for the next ten days ... which I'm quite happy about. I leave for my seminar on Tuesday after school and come back Wednesday after my Costco run. I'd really hate to have to fight snow on either route.

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January No spenders: 6