Grad school

Well, I thought I would catch up, but alas- blogger has been having issues at my school, so instead of blogging while babysitting, I figured it wouldn't hurt to do some of my homework that I've been neglecting over the past week.... Ya, I'm really behind. 

So far, I've finished 2 lesson plans, a research article, a grant, and reviewed a few articles for an annotated bibliography project in one of my online classes.  I still have a few more things to catch up on, but a few more days and I should have it!

I'm a teacher, and I know that I have no excuse...

I told my professors that I understand if they don't give me credit, and I take complete responsibility, but I would still like their comments if they wouldn't mind looking over my assignments...

I've gotten lucky- every single one has given me most of the credit I deserved (just a few points off for being late). 

I'll have to remember that when one of my students doesn't turn something in and comes clean about the reasons why!

wow

It's been a while, but its been fun! I've had spring break this past week, and I'm in a bunch of trouble.. because not only did I ignore this blog- I ignored my grad classes (even skipped them!) this week (the college and public school's spring break are two weeks apart). 

Tomorrow it's back to my 'baby-sitting' teaching job (literally, like ISS), so I'll take my memory card and slowly update pictures of the past few weeks of my life.

But, as for now, I'm going to finish off this spring break the best way I know how... Human Target and a bubble bath.

Slap in the Face

I have two blogs, some of you know that, some of you don't... this one is 95% infertility, and 5% military, the other one is vice versa... I usually keep things seperate, but this one I need to duplicate.

Being an Air Force recruiters wife has helped me to forget about the very true reality. Knowing my husband is non-deployable for this 4 year tour makes all the 14 hour days worth it. I've been able to forget, or at least block out last summer when he was gone. Him coming home with orders is not something I have to worry about for another few years.


But that all changed today. Today, and my tears flowed, and my heart sank, I remembered the harsh reality of our life. That this is the life we signed up for.

Please go over and give Rachel some love, and prayers. A Little Pink in a World Full of Camo.

Tomorrow she will be traveling to Florida to say good bye to her amazing husband one last time.


Though I'm an Air Force wife, nothing else quite seems right tonight- Semper Fi

Today one of my students was talking about his girlfriend.  They will find out the sex of their baby next week.  I couldn't help myself, I asked if they were planning on keeping it or putting it up for adoption.  He said no, ' that would suck'.  I asked if it would suck for him as the father or for the baby, and he said the baby.  I was impressed that I didn't mention or hint that we were headed down that road (totally not appropriate), but I did say that I was adopted, and I thought it was pretty great.  I have amazing parents, and I'm so grateful of the decision my birthmom made. 

I wonder if that's why more people don't place for adoption?  I just am pondering that... don't really know the answer, nor am I expecting one, but I just wonder if that is a thought most people have?

Source of my Madness

A few people have asked how I do it... I am by NO MEANS an expert- just getting my feet wet, but this is how I do it... as I refine my process, I will surly let you all know!

I do my coupon shopping at Dillons (our local Kroger) store, and use the 'frequent shopper card' they have. They are more expensive for overall 'grocery' shopping, so I buy my coupon stuff there, and usually go to Wal Mart/Sams Club for everything else.


Dillons does 'coupon matching', up to $1.00 on paper coupons. We don't get the paper, so I get my coupons from redplumb.com, coupons.com and smartsource.com These websites have the printable ones- coupons.com you have to download their 'coupon printer' on whatever computer you are on, but its not that big of a deal.


Also, there are electronic coupons you can 'store' on your frequent shopper card. The two sites that I use for these are shortcuts.com and cellfire.com. Check to see if your store takes the deals from P&G eSaver, ours doesn't but your's might!

The store I use (check your local stores rules) will let me use the loaded and paper coupons on the same item to double up my savings. Example: The GreenGiant Steamers frozen vegetables were on sale this week for $1.89. I had a paper coupon for $.50, which doubled to $1.00, and an electronic coupon for $.50, so my total discount was $1.50, bring my price to $.39. Often shortcuts and cellfire will have similar coupons, so I was able to buy 2 packages, taking advantage of that electronic coupon for each site.

Of course everyone wants you to register for their site, and I've now figured out you should come up with a 'coupon' email address. That way everything goes to that one address, and if you ever sign up for freebies (Kraft, Betty Crocker, etc) you can give them that address too.

These are some blogs that I enjoy following up with every few days or so. They give some great 'scenarios' to help you save the most money.

http://happyhomemakercindy.com/
http://thekrazycouponlady.com/
http://www.livingrichwithcoupons.com/
http://www.savingcentswithsense.net/

There are a ton more out there, these are just a few I've found... if you have one you love, please let me know, I'm always looking out for new ones!!!

High Schoolers

I love teaching.  I think.  On most days.

But then you have hard days like today.

 I'm on a long term sub position at an alternative high school. 

One of my students wasn't on his meds.
There were several that were dismissed (6) for some infractions.
I found out the 'real' reason that some of my students are there...some was quite shocking!

But all of those I'm used to, those I can deal with.


It was finding out that two (of my four) students had pregnant girlfriends... one was about 3 months, and one about 5 months.  They were talking about how they didn't know if it was theirs, and that the whole situation was pretty shitty.  I had to turn around and make myself busy to wipe away the tears. 

So ya, it hasn't been a great day.

Coupon Rockstar

So, in the effort to save money any way we can- I have started 'couponing'.  I've only done a few shopping trips, but it's become addicting!  This most recent trip took me a long time... an hour and a half.  BUT, I had a 49% savings... I'll probably have to go grocery shopping for milk and vegetables and other perishable things, but still, holy cow! 

I also got some BE-U-TE-FUL strawberries- manager special, $1.49 a pound!  (I bought three!)

They were h-u-g-e, and surprisingly, very yummy!

That's a quarter sitting next to them....

Project

Here are better pictures of my weekend project.  This is the headboard (please ignore my messy garage... when my parents come to town for spring break, my Dad and I are building a workbench, and my mom and I are going to organize it!)

This is the foot board

Closeup of the headboard

Tonight we destress and stain!

This was the 'inspiration' for the plans... I think I've gotten pretty close!

Bed-making

I found a blog "Knock Off Wood", and have been wanting to attempt to build something from it.  I really liked the Farmhouse Bed, but that was going to be a big 'first project'.  I discovered that a girlfriend of mine got her degree in design and construction- BOUNUS!   So, this weekend, we tacked the project. 

So first we bought a bunch of wood...

I had bought my husband a saw for Christmas (and his parents got him the other one).  When he unwrapped it, he laughed and said that I was going to be the first one that would use it.... turns out he was right! 

We did take pictures of us unpacking it though....

The dogs REALLY wanted to help us...

Putting the headboard together

There are several OSHA violations here.... do you love how in the background the miter saw is setting on top of a cooler, that is on top of the box?!?

Don't worry to much, we didn't start drinking until after all the cutting was done... then it was on!

Using the belt sander before we attached the top part of the headboard.

Good Friends, Good Music, Good Time!

At some point these two stopped working, and Baxter took full advantage of Auntie Manda's lap...

We were so close to finishing, I couldn't stop, so I pushed on and completed the foot board too.

My back aches, my hands are sore, and I can't park my car in the garage... but the head board and foot board are done.  I will sand them tonight, and we will stain and assemble them tomorrow (I think). 

Travis has NO idea that I did this.  I used the money that was budgeted for home improvement, because I figured this qualified!  He often is overwhelmed with the process of any particular project, so its better to just say "look what I DID" not "look what I'm DOING".  Even his Mom said, "You're not telling him right, don't stress him out, just show him when it's all done!"

I'll post pictures once it gets stained and assembled in my bedroom. 

This Weekend

I think I'll call this weekend

Four Girls,
Three 6-packs of beer,
2 Saws (circular and miter),
and some wood.

Or maybe-


This is what happens when the Air Force takes my husband away and I'm board


Or even-

"Look honey, I made us a bed"....


Pictures to follow!

Oxymoron

Tonight I worked out for the first time this week.  I have been doing Slim in Six, and it has done well!  I've lost about 9 pounds so far (steady-sometime more depending on the time I weigh myself).  I also fit into a size 4 jeans (I think the line runs big though), which I haven't done since I got married 5 years ago. 

The end of the DVD has some yoga, which I have grown to love.  I always work out in my bedroom, because when its just me there is enough room (Trav sometimes does the ab part of the workout) and the fan is *right* above me.


I'm truly a country girl at heart, but I have a mix of everything on my play-list.  One of my favorite songs to listen to yoga is "You can have whatever you like" because there is a funny joke.  My husband (who is a tight wad- to say it nicely) re-wrote the song that includes lines like "you can pick whatever you want off the dollar menu"  and "pick something up, if I can fit it in the budget".  Tonight I listened to Lil' Wayne and Eminim's  "Drop the World".



For the first time, in a long time, I looked in the mirror while doing yoga (and listening to hard rap music - which makes it kinda an oxymoron) and almost started crying. I saw a strong, beautiful, successful woman.



I guess my emotions fit with about 90% of the song, I can't relate to being black (hello- I'm about as white as they come) and jumping in the spaceship, because thats just crazy.

Temptation

I have so much temptation in my life, and its not even for anything 'jucy'.  I want our baby to come home to us... like now...

This past weekend, I worked a home show (I'm a volunteer for American Cancer Society- more specific Relay For Life).  I was with two other friends at the booth, so we all took turns walking around.  The adoption agency that we are pretty sure we are going to go with was there, with their local case worker.  We talked for a while, and I told her about the last three miscarriages (she knew we were going to keep trying since it was so 'cheep' for us to do fertility treatments until we could save the chunk of change we would need to adopt).  I asked her what the economy had done to the agency (expecting that there would be even longer wait times).  I was surprised to find out that they have more birthmothers wanting to give their child up for adoption, but less people wanting to adopt.  Well, maybe not less waning, but less are able to take on the financial burden of an adoption. 


She said the average wait time right now is 4-6 months.  Four. to. Six. Months. 

Granted the fees haven't changed, (around $18k), but holy cow!  Four to six months!

It doesn't help that the federal tax credit is $12,170.00, and the military will reimburse us up to $2000.00, so in theory our $18,000 adoption suddenly begins to look like a $4,000 dollar adoption..... that will likely take four to six months. 

I have a bad case of 'I wanna'....
I 'wanna' go against our initial decision to pay off the truck first
I 'wanna' start the process now
I 'wanna' let my heart make the decision, instead of my brain
I 'wanna' hold our child, sooner rather then later


On a a more positive note- I just got off the phone with our bank to transfer $2000.00 to the truck.  Part of it was money we found in our budget, part of it was tax return.  But it was a big step to getting that sucker paid off... once this month's payment hits we will be in the $12,xxx.00 (I'm not sure what the exact amount will be, but we will have broken the $12k mark!).  Yea for coupon-ing

Shopping and dishes

With my husband gone for training, my meals go down hill.  Breakfast and lunch are usually yogurt, or something like that, and I usually make something big (like a pot of pasta) that is easily re-heated...  That being said, I'm not cooking much, so don't have many dishes, at least not enough to justify running the dishwasher.  But I hate hand washing dishes... so I go as.long.as.possiable.  Which results in in this....

The leaning tower of (clean) dishes!

I also had some 'retail therapy' with a girlfriend of mine yesterday.  Can I just say I L.O.V.E that Old Navy is carrying the vintage team shirts.  I got a Green Bay Packers one around Christmas last year for both my little brother and myself.  Yesterday I saw a Lakers one (which my brother is a HUGE fan).  I grabbed it for his birthday (which is in August), and he was bummed I wouldn't send it out to him sooner then that... I'm such a mean sister!

I also got this wicked cute purse.  It's a very bright 'spring-ey' color, which is what I need on all these 38 degree days!  The best part is that it holds a TON of stuff, like my folder and spiral I take to my grad classes, which means no more lugging a backpack and purse to class!  Woohoo! 

So, beyond that this week I have had to turn in a huge research analysis paper, had a mid term in another class, and found out tomorrow I begin a 'trial run' for a long term substituteing position.  Its at an alternative school, and I will be working with kids who have been suspended for 10+ days.  Wednesday through Friday I will see if I like the position, and they will decide if I'm a good fit.  If so, then it will turn into a long term subbing job (which ups the pay about 35 dollars a day!).  The kids know they are on the last step before 'juvie', so they usually are on their best behavior.... its going to be different but I'm looking forward to working in the building.  The principal and teachers are great.  And I'm not going to lie, the 5-days a week with the upped 'long-term' pay will do amazing things for our debt snowball.... because the quicker we pay the truck off the quicker we start saving for our adoption!

Ms. Anonymous

Dear Ms. Anonymous,

You don't have the whole picture... so let me clarify some things for you:

They were never married- my husbands beautiful daughter was a fling from high school, so there was no divorce.

No, I'm not taking this out on her because I can't have a baby... this behavior from her started LONG before we decided that we were going to stop trying and move onto adoption- which if you have read my blog for any amount of time you understand that adoption was something I ALWAYS wanted to do... because I'm adopted, weather we had our own children or not.

I understand that children act out (I was one of them... my Mom can testify!)  However, our biggest point in all of this is that there are consequences for your actions....

When we ask her what is the matter, she will tell us one thing, and 2 hours later go home and tell her mother another thing, and the next day tell the school counselor something completely different!  That is a major part of the issues. The flip-flopping.

It's not just ME who thinks that this behavior is unacceptable, her father (who doesn't think there is a need for her to come over at all while he is gone with all the issues), and HER MOTHER and I are on the same page... we all agree, there is no fighting amongst us parents.  Most people have a love hate relationship with their ex- however, ours is pleasantly mellow.  We (me, her dad, her mom, and her step dad) are a united front (or we try very very hard to be). 

And lastly, if you haven't noticed, that's what a blog is... Filled with issues... I can promise you, my neighbor doesn't know when we have sex, but everyone on here knows about 'date night'that is timed to the half hour because of a trigger shot. Some of my husbands extended family didn't know about our pregnancies and losses except for this blog.  And that's ok.  I don't really have anything to hid, like I said, I'd happily share this with those around me. 

I allowed Anonymous comments so that my friends and family that weren't bloggers could post comments.  However, if you are friends and family posting these- freaking man up and send them to me in an e-mail or call me!  If you have issues, or any advice you'd like to share, then share it, but share it with me in conversation, not hiding behind anonymous comments...   or if you so choose, email me at lovemarriagecarriage (at) gmail (dot) com.

And, since this is my blog and I can do what I want... if you are anonymous, 'No comments for you!"  (said int he 'no soup for you' tone off Seinfeld!).