Wednesday, June 17, 2009

and just like that...

You know, it's strange.

For me, I think I needed to do it for myself.

Something inside of me just clicked. I felt like my old self again. My doubts just left and I looked at him and just knew. I blurted it out with a mouth full of quesdilla, and just like that, I swept MLL off his feet.

budget buster

I cringed the other day when my sister said, "I am so sick of listening to people talk about penny pinching!"

Really? Cause I am a penny pinching maniac!

Ok, granted, I do splurge and buy WAY too many clothes, but I really enjoy saving money! Check out some of the AWESUM ways I've saved lately:

  • Gift Cards! The end of the school year is a great time to teach. I racked in gift cards for Panera, McD's, Starbucks, and Carrabba's. Yesterday's lunch only cost me 68 cents!
  • Coupons! I subscribe to CouponMom.com (does being Pucker's mama count?) and get updates about great deals. For example, go to restaurant.com and enter the coupon code "Present" to save 80% on gift certficates. Kat and I dined like kings at Carribea Key for only $6 each!
  • Mail! The crappy economy seems to bring me even more junk mail, but I don't mind when it includes awesome coupons. I saved $5 on razor blades and MLL and I got awesome buy-one-get-one coupons for Tijuana Flats.
  • Free Money! I'm the queen of finding free money. For example, I used my $50 rebate visa card from T-Mobile to buy $50 worth of "health items" and then got my insurance company to reimburse me from my flex spending. Ok, yes, taking flex spending means I don't take that money in my paycheck, but it feels great to get that money back in my account.
I hope I can keep up these saving tactics when I go down under. This WG is still working hard to eliminate her credit card debt and wants to buy a new car soon!

Friday, June 12, 2009

g'day

I leave for Australia in one week.

One week!!!!!

This might be more exciting if I wasn't responsible for the lives of 30+ teenagers in the process.

Bah. One week!!!!!!!!

Wednesday, June 10, 2009

on the very first day of her summer break...

The working girl went back to work.

Can you believe they are making me move to the classroom right next door? They are giving my room to the PE Coaches who teach Sex Ed. My bright, cheery classroom will now be stuffed to the gills with adolescents who don't know enough or who already know too much about sex. I liked it better when it was just me and my kids, reading The Giver or writing haikus.

The coaches already invaded my space. Yesterday, my last official work day, as I tried to clean off my desk and organize my filing cabinet, they all sat around and made comments about everything. "You really gonna throw that away?" / "Aww, look at Layendecker, she gonna cry about losing her classroom." / "Yo, Linds, you gonna leave us this desk chair?" / "You know, if we were married, I'd be in here clearing off your desk for another reason."

Needless to say, I didn't get any work done. So it's back to school today for a sexual-harassment-free day of cleaning and organizing and missing my students.

Saturday, June 6, 2009

no silver lining for this maniac

Sure, summer is great. Woo, beach! Woo, no work! Woo, endless days of watching tv! Woo, lunch with friends! Woo, travel!!

However, all I can think about is how all the free time means nothing but more time for me to think and think and think and think some more.

Can't we go to school for just one more week?

:( wg

Tuesday, June 2, 2009

paging emily post

I didn't grow up in home where it was acceptable to:

a. say things about what others eat, such as"That doesn't look like a Weight Watchers lunch" ,
b. mistake someone for a thirteen-year-old, then laugh while I point it out to them,
c. make daily comments about other's clothing choices,
or
d. complain whenever anyone else is in remote earshot.

My co-workers, however, were obviously never been taught manners. The fact that I deal with this on a daily basis is either a glaring reminder of my sensitive nature or a gross display of my fellow teacher's poor etiquette. You know you were meant to be a teacher when the patience for your students outweighs that of the so-called adults around you.

WG