Summer Vacation?

Well, I've officially had my first week of summer vacation and I am not amused. I am working at my summer job, which is really a great place to work. I can do my job and leave when I finish--even if it's earlier than I'm scheduled. Unfortunately, since I'm part-time, I tend to get the crummy parts of the job to help out the people who work full-time since they don't want to do them either. Needless to say, I am not looking forward to a summer of working. I originally thought I'd work a couple days a week and have plenty of time to get my apartment set up and get some scrapbooking and reading done. However, I am working 5 days a week with some Saturdays thrown in as well. YUCK!

I know I should be grateful to have a job while so many people are out looking, but I am really willing to share the work load. I work this second job to keep me out of trouble, not because I really want to work. I think I'll have to ask my supervisor if we can reduce my hours during the month of July. I think she gave them to me because she thinks I actually want to work nine million hours. I'm hoping it's just miscommunication because I don't mind filling in every now and then, but I would like to have some semblance of a summer or I'm going to implode. Truly--I think my blood pressure is going crazy--which means I need to get to the doctor....just one more thing to add to my already overflowing to-do list.

In addition to working, I've been trying to get my apartment set-up so that I can officially stay over there. (I'm still staying at my parents' house with the cat until I can get things set-up.) I had hoped to stay over there starting this week, but VBS is this week, which means my niece will be staying with me and neither one of us are morning people if you catch my drift, so my Mom thought it would be better for us to stay with them so she can help me get my niece ready in the morning. Also, my air conditioner is out in the apartment. It hadn't been working very well for the past couple of days, but I thought it was because I had been moving furniture around. Nope. It was leaking like a river in the utility closet. Thankfully we had put the painting supplies in there and the paint tray was catching the water. (Thank you Lord for watching out for me.) The air conditioning guy didn't want to come out yesterday because it was getting too late and he wouldn't be able to see what he was doing, so he was supposed to go over today to fix it. I decided that I'll wait until after VBS tomorrow to look and see if he actually showed up. Here are some pictures of the apartment so far...

The Kitchen:

The Living Room/Dining Room (They shrunk):

The Craft Room: (Painted "Happy Camper" Green--doesn't the name just make you grin?)

My Bedroom: (Yes, I know it's missing a valuable piece of furniture--it's over there now)

I would show you the laundry closet--unfortunately, I shorted out the dryer cord when I tried to plug it in. Here's a tip for you--when checking cord, make sure the metal end pieces are not touching or they will blow apart and try to start a fire. Needless to say, I had to get a new cord from Home Depot. When my Dad came over last night to hang the ceiling fan in the craft room, he said he'd help with the dryer too. I had to laugh because he did the exact same thing mine did--only it didn't blow apart like my cord did. It just arced--whatever that means. Laundry will definitely be an adventure for the first time. I'll have the fire extinguisher ready--just in case....

After work this week, I finally went to IKEA with my friend Kim to see what the fuss is all about. This store opened a few weeks ago and is supposed to be one of the largest showrooms available. I've heard wonderful things about IKEA, but this was the first time I have actually been in one. I wasn't really impressed. The lighting was horrible and the walkways were cluttered. Finding a salesperson was like trying to find a needle in a haystack, and when you did finally come across a person, they weren't too thrilled to be helping you. They did have some great vignettes with their furniture and I found a really comfortable chair that may end up in my apartment one day, but over all--the best deals that I found were on extension cords--2 for $5.99. I may go back by myself one day just to browse and see if it was just the mood I was in, or if the store is always like that, but I'm not holding my breath.

VBS starts tomorrow. We have over 2000 kids attending and about 700 workers. Please pray for me. I really hate doing VBS because I'm horrible with little kids, but I volunteer because my niece attends and I feel like I have to. Last year I started out with a bad attitude also, but it was through your prayers that I was able to last and not kill a child by the end of our Family Night on Friday. I have 4th graders again this year and I'm trying to adjust my attitude so that they have fun and enjoy themselves despite me and my bad attitude. I was going to have the same girl working with me as last year, but they moved her to someone else's group so I have another teenager to try to get to know. I'll keep you posted and hopefully my attitude will improve. I think I actually liked my kids by the end of the week last year, so I'm going to go in with the attitude that I love my kids and hope that it actually works. Pray for all of us--it's supposed to rain this week. Pray that it waits until after 1 pm. Thanks!

Cool Date!

Did anyone else notice that the date today is 8-8-08? Yes, I am that big of a dork! Happy day of 8!

Congratulations (again) to Rebekah and Jessie!

May you have a wonderful life together!

Also, Happy Birthday Kathy!

(You're catching up girl!)

Today is our first "official" day back at work. Yippee. I feel like I haven't had a break, so I'm not exactly excited--yet. I will be--especially since I plan on doing nothing this weekend but read--my TBR pile is WAY too high! (That, and I'm afraid I'll find out what happens in Breaking Dawn by Stephenie Meyer before I have a chance to read it!) :)

Today is also my first "official" day working auditions for HOS. (The people last night at Orientation were FREAKS! And I do not use that term loosely.) Some people were really nice and just needed a job--they were dressed relatively normal. The rest, well, let's just say I REALLY hope I will not be in the dark with them--I will take them out by their knee-caps if they try anything though. (Fair-warning!)

Well, I actually have to get to work now. No more coming in when I feel like it. :(

Say It Isn't So!

I'm looking at the calendar and hoping that the date is absolutely WRONG! It has to be!!! (Right?) Vacation can't possibly be coming to a close?! I'm just getting in the swing of this whole relaxation thing and starting to plan a few projects that I want to undertake, but this whole work thing is most definitely going to get in the way of those plans.

Normally I don't think I'd be quite so sad (Yeah, who am I kidding...) but I have to tough it out a week and a half before I can go to my new school. Tomorrow wouldn't be so bad, but the kids don't come back until Tuesday, so I have to deal with my co-worker who has decided that I am an "evil being" and "can't be trusted." (Talk about a hostile work environment.) I'm hoping that I'll be able to catch up on my work email and then get the questions written for the two books I was assigned for our little "battle." Then, I'll be able to spend my remaining time helping the kids and the teachers until it's time for me to say a final farewell. (I can't wait!!! I'm so excited about going to this new POSITIVE environment that I almost can't stand it.) Hmmm....I wonder if I would get into trouble for reading on the job?

On to "funner" things...

I had a wonderful time at Disney with my aunt! We spent our first two days at Animal Kingdom and MGM Studios--unfortunately, I somehow erased our 280 pictures from the digital camera. (AACKK! If you know how to pull "ghost images" off of a digital card--please let me know!) So, those two days will not really be represented in our scrapbooks. :( We were both sad about this because we actually rode the Tower of Terror and documented our ride so we could prove to people that we actually went on it! We also ate at this really cool Sci-Fi Diner which looked like you were at a drive-in!

Then, we went to the Magic Kingdom and watched the castle light up--quite cool if you haven't seen it--and then hightailed it out of there because the crazies were coming out (ok, so they were really crying babies, but it was close).

For New Year's we went to Epcot. They were expecting so many people that we ended up parking on a grassy area 100 feet from the entrance! It was a marvelous day--despite the mass of people and the rain. (Which was actually quite funny.) My aunt and I wore our tiaras (which you can only get at MGM) and drew the attention of one camera guy (our paparazzi) so we have lots of pictures around France and England. Thankfully we went to France and bought an umbrella, so when the bottom of the sky fell out, all of the people ran to find cover under the buildings, etc. and we bopped along the paths on our merry ways. (Before the rain it was shoulder to shoulder people.)

Since the rain was so hard, the workers weren't sure if they were going to have to fireworks that evening, so we decided to leave and order pizza in the hotel room. Our running joke was..we traveled all around the world to meet a guy and we find the pizza guy at "home." (I don't think he thought it was funny, but he didn't mind the extra big tip we gave him.)

Well, I guess I should get things ready for tomorrow--after all, I DO have to get up early. :)

Garage Sale and Other Updates

Whew! Yesterday was the date of the infamous garage sale at my parent's house. I must admit, I wasn't quite sure what to expect--with the advertising side not being as prominent as I would have liked, and the "help" that was volunteered withdrawn--however, things did work out for the best and I'm REALLY glad that it's finally over.

The last of my stuff was transferred from my third story shoebox to my parent's house on Thursday, before the sale. A couple of my neighbors actually asked if I was moving because there were so many boxes of stuff and furniture being moved down the stairs. (Hey! I've been accumulating for three decades! I finally decided it was time for it all to go!)

Friday night, I made posters to hang up in the neighborhood so that people could find their house--especially since it's at the end of a road along the side of an access road for the Interstate. Their cat, Tabitha "Mooch" aka Tabby, really LOVED the posters. Or, maybe it was the fumes from the posters. She rolled around on them for most of the evening. Then, as my Mom was blowing up balloons the next morning to hang with the signs, she did it again...




The next morning, I finally crawled out of bed, after a less than restful night, around 5 am. You see, for some crazy reason, my dad said that we should hold the sale from 7 am-1 pm. That way we wouldn't be out in the heat of the day. Unfortunately, the first person showed up at 6:15 am--(what part of 7am did she NOT understand?) and was upset because we weren't set up yet. However, some of the things she was searching for we did not have, so she left without buying anything. Oh well, now we know.

My mom of course, was in a tizzy and kept flinging things about just to try to get it set up. (She's pretty methodical and wanted to clean surfaces before setting out my dusty items. Obviously she hadn't had any caffeine yet.) Her craziness didn't help much when my aunt arrived a few minutes later and started unloading my grandmother's things on the table I had just set up for my breakables. (Yep, this is how the whole morning went...) In any case, I kept my tongue under wraps (go me!) and tried to consider their points of view. After all, none of us have really had a garage sale here in Florida. The last garage sale I had was in Texas, right before I moved back here to Florida. So, none of us really knew the rules of garage sales--like people showing up WAY early and so forth.

Once things were pretty much set up, I grabbed my niece (who was supposed to sell cookies and lemonade during the sale, but opted to watch cartoons inside the air-conditioned house instead) and my dad's friend Dean (the guy who helped transport stuff from my shoebox) to go hang signs for the sale. My niece was in charge of pictures...







Obviously her priorities are not exactly mine, but her perspective is interesting for an almost seven-year old. :) Once we hung the signs, we arrived back at the house to find an SUV leaving. My first thought was that they bought everything and we could close up shop and go into the air-conditioning, but rounding the driveway showed me that I was completely wrong on that hope. (My dad was WAY wrong--it was 91 degrees in the shade and since it decided to rain later in the day, it was extremely muggy and humid.)

I met a lot of interesting people yesterday. Some of which showed up by just following the signs. The most memorable of which was a Hispanic gentleman who came on his bicycle. (Thank goodness I took some Spanish in high school, because most of our customers spoke only Spanish or a mixture I call Spanglish.) He explained that he was riding home from work and saw the signs and followed them. He ended up buying a box full of things, including straps for a sleeping bag, which he used to tie the box to his bike. He also mentioned that he was going to ride up to the next major street and then take the bus home. He was pretty ingenious and was extremely polite--even if we didn't understand each other very well.

I met another woman-Lenora-who attends a church downtown. As I was carrying an item to her car, she invited me to her church. (Why didn't I think of that?) It just shows--you never know who's watching and the opportunities that may arise.

Overall, it was not a very profitable day (I made enough to order pizza for us), but I did get to meet some very nice people. Remember the SUV that drove away as I was coming back from the signs--they actually came back! It was towards the end of the sale and the rain was headed in our direction, so we were starting to pack things up to go to the local Thrift Store. As it turns out, the girl and her husband are building a new house and she wants to do her kitchen in Winnie the Pooh. (I used to collect Pooh stuff and had my entire kitchen done in Pooh as well.) So, I gave her a box and told her to fill it up. She said that she only had $18 dollars, so I gave her a bigger box and told her to fill it up. She didn't believe me at first until I started loading all of my Pooh stuff in her box. Her niece was ecstatic when she saw that I had a lot of journals for sale. She writes country music and needed a place to write her songs. I gave her the lot of them for 50 cents.

My mom and aunt told me later that I shouldn't have "given" things away. However, most of the items that were left went to the thrift store anyways, so I figure at least this way, they would get some use out of them. Yes, I could have sold all of the collectible things--Winnie the Pooh cookie jars and tons of PartyLite candle holders--on eBay, but I don't really care about the money factor. To me, giving the items to the Catholic Thrift Store guarantees that the money will be used for good causes. It was just stuff that was bogging me down. I feel much lighter after getting rid of all of those things, and I'm sure the movers will appreciate it the next time I decide to move--although I do have a ton of books they'll have to carry down the stairs. :)

What's even better, is that today's sermon was about how we can't take all of our "stuff" with us when we die. That it's not about how much we have, but it's what we do with what we do have. :) God is pretty funny--and his timing is impeccable. (Even if it's not the same as mine.)


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In even more exciting news--I won a copy of Kristin Billerbeck's NEW novel The Trophy Wives Club! I received an email from Marilynn Griffith (can you believe it?) telling me that I won the book! I'm really excited because I've read almost all of Kristin's other work and I can completely identify with her characters. You should really check out her other books--they're hilarious! I promise!

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I'm going to Texas for Thanksgiving to see my real dad and his wife. He offered to buy the ticket, so I'm hopping on a plane and getting there the day before turkey day. I'll be flying back EARLY Saturday (who decided that I was a morning person--boy are they WRONG!) morning--like 6:30 AM EARLY! YUCK! However, Madison is going to be alone for four days. Please pray for her because she was literally sick by my being gone for just one day--the Lord only knows what will be waiting when I return after being gone for four days! (Don't fear--I've already done a trial run on food and water, so she'll have plenty of food and water while I'm gone. Now the litter box--that's another story!)

I'm excited about going out there for a visit. I haven't seen them since I moved back here over a year ago, and I hope to see some of my friends. I just hope that it's not too cold over there because I have no idea how to drive on ice, and I'd really rather not have that experience while I'm there. (It was incredibly warm while I lived there--it didn't even snow! Thank goodness!) I'll keep you posted.


Well, I have to go back to that place they call work, tomorrow. Thursday is conference night, which I have to miss, so I have to make up the hours during some other time. I'm planning on doing a little bit each day, so I'd better get everything ready for tomorrow. Yippee.

What I Did Over My Summer Vacation

Yes, I'm back at my "real" job now and have been sitting in meetings discussing how we're going to improve our school's grade, (The real screaming begins tomorrow.) and how we're going to reach our kids who don't want to succeed. (Um, how can we make kids do something they don't want to do?) In any case, I've been meeting with our English teachers, and invariably the topic came up about having the students write about what they did over their summer vacation...(I always hated that assignment)
As a tribute to teachers and our students everywhere, here's my attempt at that oh so cliched essay....


As usual, I try to set goals during my summer vacation so that I feel like I've accomplished something other than sitting on my rear becoming one with the television. My goals for this summer were:

1) Read the 60-plus books I checked out of our school's library so that I could read them BEFORE the kids stole them this coming year.

2) Clean out my storage area/shoebox apartment of items that have never seen the light of day--despite the fact that I just had to have them when I brought them home with me.

3) Have a garage sale to get rid of said items so that I could actually have a little spending cash to use for playtime this summer.

4) Read all of the new books being released this summer.

5) Scrapbook all of the "little projects" that I have waiting in bags around the shoebox apartment to clear off some room in the bookcases, corners, and closet.

6) RELAX! (Meaning--no alarm clock and sitting by the pool since the beaches are insane during the summer months.)

Needless to say, I did not accomplish one goal of mine this summer. For those of you that know me, this is a complete and utter failure, and I've been battling with considering myself a failure for not accomplishing this goal. In order to do this, I've had to look back and consider the reasons why I did not complete what I set out to complete.

Here's a brief (Ha!) listing of the things I did accomplish or had to work through this summer:

1. Teaching my mother scrapbooking techniques so that she can start working on her mounds of pictures.

2. Going the see Pirates of the Caribbean III with my friend April and her parents.

3. Going to the dentist for the initial exam--especially since I haven't been to the dentist in two years. (Hey--I've been moving a lot!)

4. Read Maximum Ride 3 by James Patterson.

5. Getting my teeth cleaned at the dentist. (Good news: He said my teeth were perfect! He also argued with me that I had to have had braces when I was younger in order for my teeth to be straight--I've never had braces and always felt left out when my friends had them when I was younger because I wanted the cool wax stuff and the mini rubber bands too. My dentist thinks I'm lying.)

6. Working at pH-Farms setting up another 10 acres for trees. I think we only worked about 22 days, but they were grueling 8-14 hour days in the extreme heat of Florida--with NO shade!

7. Creating the website for pH-Farms. (I REALLY need to update it and make it more presentable....I'm working on it.)

8. Started a mini scrapbook of all of the cats I've owned in my life and watched Disney movies on the computer while working.

9. Worked at the local Scrapbooking store as they were setting up for a huge trade show.

10. Watched my older niece's Final School Program and Awards Night in which she was presented with the award for A Servant's Heart. We proceeded to have a Slumber Party with just the two of us and Madison.

11. My niece and I then visited my parents as hey were at Innisbrook for a tree convention. We went swimming, had a BBQ at Sunset Park, and then crashed on the fold-out bed before I took her home the next day.

12. My friend April took me on a shopping spree at Westshore Mall to get ready for a job interview with a local college. We were at the mall for over 5 HOURS! I HATE SHOPPING!

13. Interviewed with the local college, found out they wanted to hire me for more than evening classes and had to turn them down since I need insurance and would have had to take more classes while teaching at the college level. I also had lunch with one of my friends that works at the college at a great little tea house in Dade City. I also visited my grandma on the way home from the interview to see how she's doing and to see how the renovations were going on my Aunt's garage apartment.

14. My carpets were cleaned in the shoebox since, for the first time in my life I am not moving, and resigned my lease!

15. Had lunch with April at M.J. Barley Hoppers so she could de-brief me about her interview with another school in the district. I also saw several gorgeous guys--one of which my mouth dropped open when I saw him. (Yep--it was an attractive look for me.)

16. Planned a surprise birthday party for my Mom with my dad and my aunt.

17. Took my family out for lunch at Outback for Father's Day. (My grandfather threatened to chase me around the restaurant if I didn't give him the bill, but I run faster than he does!)

18. Blogged about some of my adventures. (See the highlighted numbers in this post for links.)

19. Met with the other HASLMS (Hillsborough Association of School Library Media Specialists) Board members at Barnes and Noble to discuss this coming year's events. (I was voted in as the Treasurer this year--more on that later.)

20. Rushed from pH-Farms with my dad to see my Mom who was admitted into the hospital while we were working. (My mom does NOT go to the hospital for anything, so we knew it was serious if she went.) She was diagnosed with Vertigo--although we later found out that her blood pressure rising caused the vertigo to kick in. She was out from work several days because she was still so dizzy and drugged up from the hospital.

21. Brought my Mom food to check on her after being in the hospital. I also introduced her to my friend April, since April and I were going to hang out at the movies. (I think Mom was so drugged that she doesn't really remember meeting her--oh well.)

22. Watched the new Nancy Drew movie with April at our local theatre. (If you're a Nancy Drew fan--you'll be disappointed.)

23. Converged with family to hear about my cousins and their antics when they went to Europe. (I'm STILL jealous!)

24. Met with last year's HASLMS Treasurer at Borders to go over monthly reports and books.

25. Tried to calm my parents down after their house was broken in to during broad daylight!

26. Spent the 4th of July at my grandma's house having lunch with my grandparents and my aunt, as well as helping plan logistics of garage apartment and planning for the craft room area.

27. Called the car insurance company about a discount they were offering for people who have graduated from college. (It's not offered for residents in the state of Florida and was accidentally mailed to me---GRRRRR......)

28. Helped my aunt go shopping for a brand new computer system and an all-in-one printer. She found one within 3 hours AND it's better than mine! (Her old system was built over 13 years ago...)

29. Met with HASLMS Committees to plan out our Professional Day on August 14. (Somehow I was nominated to plan everything and other people will just help. GRRRRR...)

30. Went to cell phone carrier and complained about being charged overage minutes when I've NEVER gone over before. Changed my cell phone plan to include more minutes.

31. Took my computer back to Computer Corner since the CD/DVD drive as not being read by the computer--again. The really tall guy checked it out and saw that I have a loose wire strip in my tower. He also showed me how to "fix" it next time. (This happens every time I move my computer around.)

32. Brought my oldest niece to my shoebox to spend the night and go swimming the next day! When even watched some great movies and cooked lunch and breakfast!

33. Went to the midnight release Of Harry Potter #7 at Borders.

34. Read Harry Potter #7 within 24 hours! (A new record for me.)

35. Watched Harry Potter #5 at the theatre with April and her parents. (I actually like this movie better than the book....hmmmmm....great director!)

36. Met with one of my former students from TEXAS and her parents to go over schooling choices in this county. They just moved over here and are overwhelmed by the choices of schools. (Abilene only had 2 high schools...we have over 20!)

37. Joined a Weight-Loss program and went over the kit information for diet and exercise. It's a complete lifestyle change and is supposed to really work. (Where have we heard that before?)

38. Helped my Aunt move into her garage apartment. (She actually hired a moving company, but she was really worried about this move and so I went over to keep her from freaking out over all of the little details.)

39. Waited in anticipation of having a double recliner "couch" being delivered from my grandma's house to my shoebox by the same moving company that moved my aunt. I have a couch now! (I haven't had one in over 5 years--it's always been the floor. Madison's excited over her new scratching post too.)

40. Hooked up my aunt's computer system so that she could get Verizon's FIOS Internet. (It's SO much faster than Bright House's Broadband--I'm jealous!)

41. Got a haircut--finally!

42. Got a pedicure! I LOVE Nadine! She even gave me a foot massage. I had VERY happy feet (until I went to work at pH-Farms the next day--bye-bye pedicure)!

43. Met with my friend Adrienne for breakfast at First Watch. We try to get together More often since she moved back from Illinois and I moved back from Texas, but it seems to work out where we only see each other about every 6 months. (Great food at First Watch!)

44. Went to dinner with my sister and my youngest niece from Washington!

45. Celebrated my youngest niece's birthday at The Florida Aquarium--she's three now and VERY mature for her age! (I think she's going into acting because she has lines from movies memorized verbatim--even obscure lines and she just turned 3!)

46. Read Eclipse by Stephenie Meyer. I tried to listen to the soundtrack on her website as I read, but I guess everyone else in the world did the same thing so it was down. Oh well--it was kind of a bittersweet book. I know she plans to write Edward's story next, but I don't really care about his life. Maybe because I'm still trying to come to terms with this book...I don't know.

47. Went to a workshop on How to Teach within 50 minutes instead of 90. Okay, so I really went because I was getting paid for it, but I did get to meet some of the new teachers and I was able to catch up on all of the latest gossip from my friends.

48. Gave a brief library orientation to the new teachers at our school. I was supposed to be giving tours around campus and my counter-part giving the orientation, but she wasn't available so I had to do it. (Nothing like finding these things out at the last minute....oh well, I'll get to hand them things later.)

49. Checking in with Panera and trying to collect orders from ALL of the Media Specialists in our county. The deadline was this past Friday, although I found out Thursday afternoon that the Tech Specialists were invited too, so I had to rush invite them on Friday and I've been collecting orders for what seems like hours! AHAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHH! (At least it will be over on Tuesday!)

50. Putting out the fire that my dryer decided to try and cause LATE one Friday evening. Great--now I have to figure out how to do laundry without the dryer because I need clean underwear! Grrrrrrrrrr......anyone know any dryer repair people in this area? (Would it be cheaper to just buy a new one?)

As you can see from my list, I've been a little busy this summer. While I didn't accomplish the things on my original list, I did do something that was even more important--cultivated relationships. I also read most of the newly released books, so I guess I almost finished one goal. Cest la vie!