This weekend I...

This weekend I...

*Finished week 3 of  Couch to 5K. We took a week break from running, so we decided we will redo week 3. We have a 5K in April we are looking at doing, so we have plenty of time.

*Babysat for the first time in at least 15 years. We had a good time reading books, playing with the kitty and crawling around the floor. However, the little guy broke our agreement and pooped. He wasn't going to do that. If you can't trust a 10 month old to hold up their end of a bargain, who can you trust??

*I also invited my husband  a boy over while I was babysitting. I had never done that when I was in my babysitting prime in middle/high school, so I decided it was time.

*Had yummy pizza for lunch with my husband. We get slices at the local pizza place in town. It's newish to the area, but it has a pretty good following so hopefully it sticks around.

*Finally watched Argo. So good. Seriously, go see it. And Ben Affleck had this salt and pepper thing going on in his beard/hair that my husband has going on and I find yummy.

*Sunday I worked for 7+ hours at my mom's house. My best friend helped and so did my two nieces (and one of their boyfriends).  I now know how to drain a waterbed. Someday I will have a weekend update post that doesn't include working at the house. 

How was your weekend??

Campus Book Rentals

The other day my friend and I were talking about what things we missed from college. I actually think that conversation started because of this post. Anyway.. things I miss include: scheduling my day so that I wouldn't miss Days of Our Lives, the salad bar in the dining hall, and the fact that there was always something going on. I also kind of miss learning. I really did enjoy going to class and hearing my professors talk. However, I don't miss writing papers, midterms/final, and spending hundreds of dollars on textbooks that I wouldn't use after the 12 week term was up.

Last week I was contacted by Campus Book Rentals to write a blog post about their company. Before I said yes, I wanted to check it out myself. I looked up a class at my college's bookstore (a class I took 2 summers ago when I was working on my masters degree): Sports Nutrition.

Campus Book Rentals

The required book for the class was $153 new or $114.75 used. Through Amazon the same book was $96.78 used (they also had a rental option for $65.75.) Campus Book Rentals had it for $45.35! Plus, there is free shipping and you can even highlight in the book. There is even a 30 day risk free return policy if you end up not needing the book or you drop the class (Business Writing I am looking at you.)

They also have a RentBack program where you can rent out your text books to other students. This allows you to get more money back for your books than if you were to just sell them back to the bookstore. (I did take $20 for a $100+ general science book freshman year).

Campus Book Rentals is also a partner with Operation Smile, a non-profit group that helps get cleft lip surgeries to children that cannot afford them on their own.  With every book rented through their site, they donate money to Operation Smile.

If I were still in college, scheduling my days around Days (ha!) I would for sure be looking into Campus Book Rentals (especially for those general ed classes I had to take during my first couple of years as an undergrad... music lit, US history and of course that dumb general science class.)

I was compensated for this post, but all of the opinions are mine!

Mostly happies with a couple crappies

Friday. I love you. Let's look back at the week, shall we??

First the Crappies:
Wednesday I took the day off work to go work on my mom's estate and work on getting the sale ready. Several of you commented the other day on what a big task this is... trust me I know. It's not my first choice. We had a couple companies come in, and one said that after their commission, we really wouldn't make much money. After talking it over with the family, we decided to try to do it ourselves. I guess this is a good idea...Any ways, mom's house is a little over an hour away, so when I go up there, I hope to spend a good amount of time working. As I put the key in the door, I heard an alarm going off. I found the fire alarm ringing and I smelled gas. I freaked out and called the gas company. After the guy came, ran his tests etc. he told me there wasn't a gas leak and the fire alarm was probably just shorting out. That really took all the wind out of my sails, so I just drove back home. A waste of a day.

Writing sub plans is awful business. I couldn't even imagine how an elementary teacher does it. At least my one lesson that I write gets used over and over again.

Do you know whats worse than writing sub plans? Coming back and realizing they really didn't get followed. Ugh. #shouldhavejustshownavideo

My students turned in a paper before winter break. I still haven't finished grading them. I have even brought them home twice. Which didn't mean anything, since I didn't touch them. #teacherfail

Now the happies:

I am rocking on my 13 in '13. I don't want to jinx it, but I haven't forgotten them (always a plus) and I am making progress. I am hoping to post an update at the end of the month.

I love getting paid to workout! I am teaching Zumba twice a week as an after school program at my school, and it is awesome!

I just finished Notorious Nineteen

Good Reads

Yes it is the same plot as the other ones, but it is a fun distraction and still makes me laugh. My favorite review from Good Reads said this: "They are cupcakes for the brain; we know it, Janet knows it, so stop expecting a gourmet meal." 

Someone posted this on Facebook and I laughed at it. As a fur mom of both cats and a dog, this is 100% true!



How was your week?

Garage update!

Just a quick update on my 6 week resolution

I mentioned yesterday that we are running my mom's estate sale ourselves. When I drove up this weekend to work on it, I also put quite a few things from my garage into the car to put into the sale. Some of the stuff has been in our garage since we moved in. Hopefully someone will see it and be able to use it in their home. As a bonus, all the money earned from the sale goes into the estate account to help pay the bills. I see this as a three sided win. I would post pictures, but honestly, the garage still looks pretty full.

I also took 3 cases of spiral notebooks to work and donated them. I bought them my first year teaching on clearance at Target. It has been a few years since I have used spirals in my classroom and there is no need for me to keep them in my garage when students at my school could be using them. (Another win-win)

Thank you all for your encouraging words when I posted the pictures two weeks ago. My favorite comments reminded me that I, in fact, do not belong on Hoarders. Thanks all!

How are you doing with your goals??