Hello It's Me

Let me start by reminding everyone that all I am not one of these cellphonegluedtoyourhead kind of gals. I grew up in the age of phones that hung on the wall which you dialed to get in touch with anyone. I often forget to turn my phone call on for days and if I do I might be just as likely to leave the darn thing on forgetting that it's still on.

This morning I checked my phone to see if anyone had called. When I turned my phone on there was a new voicemail message. Being a sweeper, my fingers are always crossed hoping that it is a message about a win.

Even better than a win, I received the following message, "Hello Mom. This is your FAVORITE son. You would think you would answer the phone when your favorite son is standing in the airport in Atlanta." As I told you, my boys often identify themselves with the phrase, "your favorite son." I get a big kick out of it. they sound a little a like so it sometimes takes me a few minutes to identify which son is calling.

Then I realized, it's MIKE!!!!!!!!!!!!! Mike is on leave from Iraq for a couple of weeks. He called to let me know that he arrived safe and sound and that he was headed to Huntsville to see his girlfriend. I tried calling back but I got some guy on the phone that I didn't know. He wound up calling me later and I missed that call too because I was outside watering our vegetable garden and pulling some weeds.

This time I saw a different number and was able to speak with him. I'm so glad he's home and I can't wait to see him. I'd be lying if I didn't say I was a bit jealous that he rushed over to see his girl first but then I remember being young and crazy in love once so I guess I can forgive him.

Not much in the way of traffic for ThriftyMaven today. I had lots of stuff on there today. I also have a contest going on. We are giving away a poster. Yippeeee!!!!!! I get a free poster myself so we'll see how that goes.

Other than that Darryl and I watched Dallas Season 8 and then worked some more outside. I was still having some tummy trouble today but I finally felt better by the afternoon.

Yesterday Darryl and I used a coupon for buy one get one free at Ruby Tuesdays. I have always loved their salad bar. It is soooooo good. The problem was I couldn't eat my dinner after I ate so much of the salad bar. I took my lunch home and put it in the fridge for today. I ate it for lunch today.

Here are the blog contests I entered today:

Prize: $100 HP gift card.

Prize: JVC Everio GZ-MG 630 camcorder (ARV $429.95).

Prize: Casio Digital Camera (ARV $249.99).

Secrets Behind The Blog

As someone very wisely told me, "You can't please everybody." I like to add that you could hand someone $100 and they might complain that you handed them a big bill and they would rather have five $20 bills.

Having my own blog, ThriftyMaven is a complete learning experience. When I first started the site I panicked because I had no users. I might get 20 viewers in a 24 hour period and most of that was spiders. I just wanted to give up. What in the heck was I doing anyway?

Then little by little more people began coming. By now you know that if If there are bright skies all around me I will focus on the dark cloud in the distance that might signify rain. I will focus on the cloud. Analyze the cloud. Think about the cloud and the significance of the cloud. Worse of all I will wonder what I could have done to cause the cloud to have appeared.

At first the people who signed up for my MavenMoments were probably doing it because you were able to secure an extra entry in a contest I was running. Oh those were the days when I was personally buying the things I gave away and paying for the shipping. I still kept saying, why in the HECK am I spending money on something I'm not earning money doing? Then there's the time spent factor where I worried about the time I spent making posts.

Today I received the following email. It wasn't just a hey unsubscribe me email it was a long detailed email:

Unsubscribe ASAP.

Why don't you provide a link to unsubscribe?

Why do I have to click through to your website to read today's content? What's the
point of offering a newsletter if you don't provide content?

Your newsletter looks like spam. You need to polish it's appearance and provide an
unsubscribe link if you want more subscribers.

Now it starts out with a good suggestion. You don't want to be a subscriber you should be able to unsubscribe. Darryl told me there is a link right on ThriftyMaven that allows you to unsubscribe. So really she didn't have to write me to unsubscribe she could have gone to the site and done exactly that. I will suggest to Darryl to do just exactly that, make it easier to unsubscribe. Now I'm not being cavalier abut it. When someone unsubscribes I feel really bad. Almost a personal thing. Not quite like losing a friend kind of thing, but more of a "Wow what did I do wrong? What can I do to keep you?" kind of thing.

She is obviously upset about the MavenMoment format. To be honest I had signed up for other blogger's email as part of a contest and stayed on their mailing list. Generally they send me a brief summary of the deals and a link taking you to the rest of the article. It's an effective way for me to decide if I even want to visit their site. If I'm interested I can just click a link to that article. Essentially another way to drive traffic to your site, or not. So I'm not certain what kind of content she wants in my emails.

As far as spammy, some of these newsletters email me EVERYDAY. I don't have to open them if I don't want to. I do NOT email people EVERYDAY. If there is a really good deal and it's day specific then yes I will send out a MAVENMOMENT. Some weeks it might be one email and some it might be three emails. I also hate SPAM and I'm trying very hard to balance between the fact that some people have signed up for something and expect to get something. Some people will feel it's way too much and some will wonder why they don't get more.

I was feeling pretty down after her email. I wrote a nice email back asking her for advice and providing her with a free music download from Starbucks and iTunes. I wondered if she would write me back. Then I checked back about ten minutes later to see if she wrote back and I noticed that two more people signed up for alerts. Who knew? Guess you win some you lose some.

When Darryl helped me set up ThriftyMaven, he wisely made it necessary for me to accept comments before they are posted. Thank God! You would be surprised what people will say.

Earlier this year a woman posted a two paragraph post about how unhappy she was with blog contests. How she thought it was crazy to require people to post comments in order to win and on and on she went. Now first of all I was giving away a pair of head phones that were valued at $12. I wasn't giving away a car, a cruise, or $10,000 in cash. It seems odd to get so emotionally invested in a pair of headphones.

Second, some people don't like bog contests. I get that. I don't like brussel sprouts so I don't serve them, don't make them, don't buy them, and essentially AVOID them. It seems odd to me that someone who doesn't like blog contests, AVOID them. Even now that OLS has clearly LABELED Blog contests, people go on a tear about how they hate these kind so contests, wonder why they are posted, rather than spending their time avoiding them and entering the kind of contests they do like.

Third, as I said this person wasted two paragraphs worth of rage, accusations, and name calling, and could have just as easily written one sentence and been entered in the contest. Does that make sense?

This is certainly is not the worse thing anyone tried to post on my site. For example some MORON tried to post to the FREE KFC Grilled chicken. The person made this racist post basically talking about blacks and fried chicken and that's about all I can mention here. Is someone's life so devoid of activities that they have to come to a coupon site and make comments like that?

Another memorable post was by a guy who's email actually contains the "F" word. He then goes on to make not one but two posts filled with curse words and wanting to know why I posted something about Free ice cream. Gosh who doesn't like ice cream? You don't like ice cream? Fine, move on to another post. What's the point of all the cursing? This same gentleman (?) decided to reply to a post I made about who is providing free breast cancer screenings. He went off about gays, how gay my post was, how all gays should die with AIDs. What's the matter Mommy and Daddy want you to get a job and move out of their basement? What is up with this NUT? I actually went and googled his email and discovered that he is a Marketing Major. Maybe he needs to spend more time hitting the books and less time posting this trash on the internet.

I receive some unusual posts. For example I've had two posts about free cell phones for low income people. Every week I receive one or more people provide me their address, information about their personal circumstances, and asking ME to send them a cell phone. Gee if you read either post you will see that I clearly provide you with link to the company that provides this service. I've had one person complain to me asking me why she would only receive one free hour per month on the cell phone and then told me how quickly that could be used up. Well not to be mean but no one is giving me a free cell phone or any free minutes.

The latest weird potential post was from a woman who has PhD behind her name. She write to me as Dear Oprah. She goes on to say how she would appreciate having the opportunity to be a part of Oprah's show and share good things that can impact the quality of lives. She wants me to know that she is still going in a positive direction in spite what has happen in her life. By the way she loves Oprah's show and would like the opportunity to be a part of the show and meet her again since the 1970’s. She also provides me all kinds of contact information. What post did she try to comment on you might ask? The free chicken at KFC article.

So in all ThriftyMaven.com has been a real lesson in human behavior.

It Is What It Is

Lately the phrase, "It is what it is" seems to be our principals favorite rejoinder. He finds an excuse to toss this phrase out at any meeting. Sometimes it comes off as a sympathetic shrug as in "Whatchagonnado?" Other times this phrase comes off as being almost callous and without feeling. It comes off sounding more like a "Let them eat cake" remark.

Deep breaths, deep breaths, hold, now slowly exhale. Ok perhaps now I have calmed down enough to share the latest benefits of being a teacher at RHS. I knew we were going to have a faculty meeting today and I was pretty sure it was going to be about cell phones.

Hey I'm there for that. Having lived over half my life with a rotary dial phone attached to a wall, I will be the first to admit I just don't get it. I don't get kids sleeping with their cell phones. I don't understand adults having personal conversations using their blue tooth while standing on line at the grocery store. It's totally over my head why anyone feels it is necessary to have their cell phone on during a movie in a theater let alone why they MUST take the call while sitting next to you during the most important part of the film.

Mr. J and I have spoken a number of times about how crazy it is to hear that teachers are actually talking on their cell phone during class. Mr. J had said to me a few times that if it was up to him teachers would get written up for such infractions. FINE. JUST FINE. It doesn't affect me whatsoever. No problem.

Then it was on to covering more classes. I figured I would cover more classes next year anyway. Let's see, they had to para-pros who subbed for teachers but they will be laid off. I will not be working extended day next year so the writing was already on the wall. I would be covering more classes. Dr. E spoke about how the fact that when he first came to our school he'd done everything he could to help the teachers feel better about coverage. For the first two years he was at our school he rewarded teachers with $10 Kroger gift cards. They were nice. I never received one because I worked extended day and never covered any classes.

They stopped the gift cards but you did receive a coupon and you could save them up to either miss PTSO meetings or you could leave school grounds during your planning period. I never received those until this year when I finally had a planning period. Next year I will get two planning periods because of what they plan to do another program in the Vocational Department. So Ok! Alright already, I will be covering more classes. No problem. I will earn more coupons and that means I can use them if convenient.

I think what threw me was the next topic of the faculty meeting. Dr. E said that he tried to help the school spirit. He cracked a joke about how he can't make everyone happy. He smiled and mentioned how he couldn't even make his wife happy all the time. We laughed. I honestly thought He was going to say how much school spirit had improved since his arrival. For awhile, I was almost the only teacher who dressed up. Now more teachers than ever dress up.

Oh silly me, why would we get an "atta boy"? No we were told that we would institute a new way of improving school spirit. That's right!!!! We were going to increase school spirit and help teacher moral by REQUIRING teachers to attend ten mandatory events. Bear in mind this means attending an event for an hour and a half with pay.

For someone like me that used to be REQUIRED to attend the six PTSO meetings because I didn't have the ability to earn coupons this would a big increase. Oh but the hits just keep coming. Not only will I have to attend these extra events after school but my pay will be going down because I will lose my extended day pay. We haven't even been told if the six PTSO meetings will be included or if they are in addition. Oh and we can't buy our way out of it.

As an added bonus to pit us against them, coaches will not have to attend ten events because their games count towards those events. School events held during school hours like FBLA would not count because we are already being paid for them. Yet coaches who receive money for being coaches will have their games counted. Oh and have I mentioned how many teachers live in Alabama or closer into Atlanta.

So essentially the fact that I participate in every pep rally does not promote school spirit but me attending a school play does. The fact that I help kids with their homework for other classes, that's not school spirit, but forcing me to attend sporting events, which I have no interest in will make kids feel more school spirit.

My honest perception is that someone at the School Board said, "Times are tough and people are going to want to know what they are getting their money's worth. If you get the teachers to show up we will be able to legitimately claim that they are working more hours without a raise. Where as other teachers in other schools have to show up at planning and not be paid for that but we will just work later in the evening. Translated to mean, I will be driving in the dark.

Deep breath. Ok I guess I should crawl on hot broken glass thanking them that I have a job. I can't help but recall one of my favorite movie lines of all times. It comes from the movie Animal House. In the movie the pledges are grabbing their ankles and being wacked with a huge paddle. With each wack they say, "Thank You Sir. Can I have another?" So I will smile. I will suck it up. With each wack I will say, "Thank you sir can I have another." Do you wonder why so many teachers leave the profession?

Practicing using my new Vado Camcorder these last few days. There is a bird nest behind a light fixure at our home. When you walk outside the mother flies away. I climb up on a chair and hold the camera over the nest at a distance.

The camcoder doesn't really let you focus it but it is easy to use and very light and easy to carry.

Then & Now

Did you know kids now a-days sleep with their cell phones? I was shocked. It shows how totally out of touch with reality I am. Perhaps I should say I’m out of sync with an Ipod world.

I have students who feel as though their hand was created simply to cradle their cell phone during the day. Now it appears that the addiction is far worse than I first suspected.

Today I had a guest speaker come from Westwood college talking to my students about they should consider going to Westwood. He was very amusing and kept the kids focused and involved in his presentation. I was understood what he was talking about having been raised poor in a big family. I laughed when he talked about placing a nickel on my record player needle so my record wouldn't skip. My students couldn’t imagine it. He also talked about things that kids could understand like current music, sports, and hanging out at the mall.

Sadly many people don’t like teaching the kind of kids I teach. For people who are about my age, imagine “Sweat Hogs”. Teachers generally like teaching the upper echelon of student. The kind who are accepted to Yale, Princeton, and Harvard and wax poetically about the classical literature they read on their own time. They pat themselves on the back and say, “Look how I have inspired my student’s to greatness.”

People who teach Vocational students like I do, realize that these over-achievers will bloom wherever they are planted. These kids won the lottery at conception given their IQ and parentage. The whole Nature vs. Nurture argument comes into play. Is the kid with the IQ a victim of his own environment when born to parents who are in and out of jail, drug addicted, and the child is born into poverty? Our administrators tell us to ignore the scientific fact that innate IQ cannot discernibly be changed in any permanent sense and they ask us to make scholars out of kids who have less than a stellar IQ. When we seem to be able to fashion a silk purse from a sow’s ear we are looked down upon as failures and some administrators and teachers question our ability to teach.

For me, I feel blessed to have these students in my class. In the bell curve of life, I will statistically come in contact far more with people with average IQ’s than Genius. It is far more important that I get them ready to hit the ground running when they graduate and make a real effort to help them fashion a reality based on the skills and abilities that they do posses. My students may not go to Harvard but they can go to a community college to learn to manage an office for a lawyer. They may not have straight A’s and do calculus in their head but they can learn not just function in the real world but succeed there. We put so much effort on college and forget how many people went on to success lacking that paper. What someone lacks in book smarts they might posses in people smarts and you can’t teach that in a lecture hall in an Ivy League school.

My kids deserve to be encouraged and told of opportunities for post secondary training and scholarships but not every teacher makes sure that they are exposed to this. It is for this reason that I make sure that my students hear, “I want you to be successful.” “I believe in you.” “Here’s a different path to your success.”
It is for this reason that I bring someone from a branch of the military to my school as well as a Vocational School or Technical College to speak to my students about options. Some have gone their whole life and no one has ever even explained to them that there were options. One year I had someone from Le Cordon Blue and another year from Coosa Valley Technical College. I offer to look over college application essays and scholarship applications.

At the end of the day the speaker said to me, “You can tell you have a really good relationship with these kids. They really love you.” He told me that when he talked to one of the Guidance Counselors that the she told him that I was very involved with my kids. I am and they are my kids. Maybe one will go on to Yale or Harvard one day. Maybe not, but I will still be proud of them if they are working towards their own rainbow that doesn’t harm others.

A funny incident happened this morning before my speaker came. A student came to me and said, “Ms. Cope, I brought you something. I know you love coupons.” I answered that I did. What she did next took me by surprise. She handed me an Entertainment book. I have wanted one of them. I used to buy these when I lived in Richmond. Michael and I used them all the time to go to different venues like the Science Museum or the Children’s Museum at buy one get one prices.

When Darryl and I moved own here I asked him if we could get one. He said he didn’t think we’d use it because most of the coupons were for Atlanta and we were living in Rome. That made sense. Still I remembered that there were coupons that I could use at places like McDonalds and Burger King. I figured in the long run we’d still save money but Darryl wasn’t convinced that we’d save enough money.

When we moved to Cartersville I didn’t ask but I would often look at the book when I would go to CVS. I’d remember the places I used to visit and thought if only I had one I’d see more of Atlanta. I feel like Atlanta might as well be Los Angeles. I’ve seen very little of Atlanta. I’ve seen The Underground, Olympic park, and the Coke Museum. I saw a little of the High Museum of Art because I won tickets. I saw the Governor’s Mansion one year at Christmas. So much I want to see but I don’t want to spend full price to do it. If we had buy one get one free coupons I’d be more likely to go.

Our move to Acworth made me want the Entertainment book more. I’d touch the book like an old friend I’d skim through the pages asking Darryl, “Do you think we should buy it?” Which is code word for “Can I buy this?” It’s easier to hear the words “No” to that question. That’s because I haven’t asked directly for it so I haven’t been turned down for something I really want. The predictable answer happens each time. “What do you need that for? “ or “How much is that anyway? Why do you want it?” Translated to Cathy speak the simple answer is “NO”. Why explain. I will either hear that we can afford the attraction without the coupon (pre job loss) or I will hear that the gas we would use would mean that we wouldn't save anything. Which might as well be we can’t afford to go to that place so why are you asking. Oh the subtle language that men and women speak. Darryl thinks it’s only me that speaks this secret language but after all “Men are from Mars and Women are from Venus.”

These are the blog contests I entered today.

Prizes (10): Five Stouffer's free product coupons.
Here are the blog contests I entered today:

Prize: $25 Build A Bear workshop gift card.

Prize: $100 voucher for a pair of eyeglasses from EyeBuyDirect.com [excludes designer frames and sunglasses].

Prize: $100 EyeBuyDirect.com gift card [excludes designer frames or sunglasses].

Prizes (2): $25 Kroger gift card.