Contracts Are In

Contracts came today. When I walked into the faculty room the long sheaves of paper poked out of the teacher boxes like pale yellow jonquils in the red Georgia clay. I pulled mine from my box and stared at the Notary Stamp. It’s now official I will be back for yet another year.

Last year I was biting at the bit to leave so I could find some place closer to home. Home being Acworth, my Barbie Dreamhouse home. I had been so frustrated that I couldn’t seem to get a position in another school despite the fact that they seemed to be throwing new schools up like concert flyers on telephone poles. One school seemed larger and grander than the next and certainly they needed more teachers.

Now of course I’m lucky I didn’t get a job at one of those schools. I’ve lost that home. I would have lost my seniority. It was truly a blessing in disguise but I didn’t realize it then.

Now that Darryl’s lost his job I find a certain peace knowing that for at least this next year I have a job. It will be my eighth year at RHS, the longest I have ever stayed at one job before. When I was younger I changed jobs sometimes twice a year. I would work at this restaurant or that retail store chasing nickel an hour raises. Even when I became a secretary I might stay at a location for two years before I was ready to move on to greener pastures.

Now I’m looking at my eighth year in a single school. This means that at the end of that year I will have seen two sets of students who started out with me in the ninth grade. It’s an interesting perspective. You watch them shuffle in uncertainly that first day of their Freshman year. By the time their Senior year rolls around you’ve watched them get their license, attend their prom, and then finally you wonder if that’s really the same kid you knew for years ago as they walk across the stage to receive their diploma.

There’s another wrinkle in the phone call story from earlier this week. One of my students had walked in just as the phone was ringing and said, “I just have this feeling that phone call is for me.” Yes I’m certain he did. The student at the other end of the phone told me that another teacher was busy right that second and asked him to call me to send my student down to his classroom. Since that teacher was the swimming coach, I thought it might make sense that he might ask a student to call because he was supervising kids in the pool. I sent the young man down to the teacher’s classroom.

Two days later I ran into the coach. “How long did you keep G because he never returned to class?” “What? I didn’t send for him.” The teacher replied. “REALLY?”

The trap slammed shut. I wrote the student up but the difficult question was, who was the student who called? Wouldn’t you know his classmates had heard I had figured out the deception and asked me if I had written up P also. P is not my student. I didn’t even know that P had called me. “Yes. Of course I wrote him up. That was crazy that he would call and think I wouldn’t check on it.” Two of my students laughed and said “Yeah that really was stupid that P would do that.” SCORE!!!!!!!!!!! So I wrote him up also delivering the referral to the Assistant principal personally. I’m certain P feels that his friend G snitched. I don't think I will go out of my way to correct this perception.

Today is also candy day. Every week until the end of September, Mars is giving away a candy bar. I won one last week. I hope I win one again this week. I posted it on ThriftyMaven but I wonder how much traffic it will get.

Here are the blog contests I entered today:

Prize: $50 Red Lobster gift card.

Prize: Pair of eyeglasses from EyeBuyDirect.com [excludes designer frames and sunglasses].

Prize: $25 Build-a-Bear Workshop Bear Bucks gift card.

Prize: HomeFree Treats Organic Cookies sampler pack.

Prize: One-year supply of all small & mighty detergent, The Apprentice Complete Season 1 DVD, autographed photograph of Donald Trump and You're Fired! promotional items (ARV $160).

Prize: 8-day/7-night trip for two to a JetBlue Getaways destination city of winner's choice (ARV $3,296).

Prize: Flip Ultra Series II Camcorder (ARV $149.99).

When You're Not Working,

Every day is the weekend so Friday isn't such a big deal. I worked a bit more on ThriftyMaven. I have a big post tomorrow. It's the big "What To Do On Father's Day" post. I did a lot of research. I think it will be a great post. So far about 120 people have entered my $100 Home Depot Gift Card contest on ThriftyMaven. That's good but most of them are not from OLS. More of them are from Refund Cents than anything else.

Now here's a couple of those behind the blog stories. When I started getting all these entries for the giveaway I got a spammer. They tried to post something about "watching a B$&!# taking it up the ARSE." The ARSE????? Uh I know what that means but who says that exactly? No one over here that I know probably someone from Europe. They have a few ARSES over there. Not that we don't have our own share here but we call them something else.

The CRAZY Pizza lady wrote four more times!!!!!!!!! Four more times. First she starts out accusing me of "Ripping her off" because she didn't get FREE Pizza. I'm not giving away free pizza. I didn't charge her for the pizza, so how in the HELL did I rip her off exactly? I just don't know. For two days now it's been back and forth with me requesting that she gets a pizza coupon from the original offer. I went to all the trouble of spelling out just exactly how her screen should look. I did everything except for driving over to her house, holding her hand and clicking the damn link.

Each time I responded to her I said "This is the last time." Wouldn't you know the teacher in me refused to say just give up. I just couldn't get it in my head that she just would never catch on. So I requested the coupon, sent it to my email and forwarded that email to her. I knew the coupon was embedded in the email so this time I knew she would get it because she responded back to all my other emails. She wrote me back. Finally she said she didn't see it in her email. This was different than all her other emails when she insisted over and over again that she never received the email. So I had to go into a step by step on how to use the SHOW IMAGE link on her email.

When Darryl interviewed on Monday the company seemed very interested. The Head Hunter told Darryl that they really wanted to have a second interview with him. Now as each second drags on we wait to hear when they will be calling him. For all I know they have decided not to fill the position. So then we are backed to square one then.

What's going on here, the email, the contest, Darryl's interview, is nothing compared with what's going on in Iran. In Iran an uprising that I haven't seen since 1979 has erupted. The election is disputed and people are risking their lives to protest the outcome. All day clips show guards that swoop down on protesters and protesters who have been shot. These videos are taken by cell phones and when they are sent out the person who transmits the image puts themselves at risk.

Amateur video showed dozens of Iranians running down a street after police fired tear gas at them. Shouts of "Allahu Akbar!" — "God is Great" — could be heard on the video, which could not be independently verified.

Helicopters hovered, ambulances raced through the streets and black smoke rose over the city.

The witnesses told The Associated Press that between 50 and 60 protesters were hospitalized after beatings by police and pro-government militia. People could be seen dragging away comrades bloodied by baton strikes.

I ask myself, would we Americans put our lives at risk? Would we turn off "American Idol, stop playing video games, and could we turn off the rap music, if that's what we needed to do to save our country?" Are we so much the "sheeple" that we will stand blindly by while our country is turning a blind eye to its people?

Do I want a revolution? Do I want to see bloodshed? No I absolutely remember the protests of the sixties. My Dad was a cop in DC during the DC riots neighborhoods burned and some people died. I would never want to see such a thing again. It was a tragic time for our country. Who knew a peace movement could be surrounded with so much violence.

On the flip side, has there ever been a lasting revolution that came about in peace? I pray for these people. I hope our President will come out in support of these Iranians who are struggling to free themselves of the shackles that keep them bound to an oppressive past. 

Darryl Made It To Second Base

We found out today at 4:00 that Darryl will have a second interview!!!!!!!!! Keep us in your prayers.

I also got a bit of good news. As I mentioned in a previous post I have google set up to do vanity searches for me. It searches for ThriftyMaven, teechbiz, and Catherine copeland + contest. Well I saw this interesting google alert:

It is from the USS Freedom. How's that? People on a Navy Boat talking about the ThriftyMaven!

The Thrifty Maven points out another thing aside from that:
While certainly not a complete list of activities or events , I hope the events I havee listed below will helpful for you this Memorial Day Weekend.

One very important thing that should be mentioned here. Be very careful what you put up on the web because you don't know who will have access to it. Today without even trying I found out someone's personal home address, phone number, birthday, and their kids names. I was shocked and I'm certain that they would be too. They should thank their lucky stars I'm not some nut job or swindler out to steal their identity. As they used to say on Hill Street Blues, "Be careful out there."

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.

Contracts Are In

Contracts came today. When I walked into the faculty room the long sheaves of paper poked out of the teacher boxes like pale yellow jonquils in the red Georgia clay. I pulled mine from my box and stared at the Notary Stamp. It’s now official I will be back for yet another year.

Last year I was biting at the bit to leave so I could find some place closer to home. Home being Acworth, my Barbie Dreamhouse home. I had been so frustrated that I couldn’t seem to get a position in another school despite the fact that they seemed to be throwing new schools up like concert flyers on telephone poles. One school seemed larger and grander than the next and certainly they needed more teachers.

Now of course I’m lucky I didn’t get a job at one of those schools. I’ve lost that home. I would have lost my seniority. It was truly a blessing in disguise but I didn’t realize it then.

Now that Darryl’s lost his job I find a certain peace knowing that for at least this next year I have a job. It will be my eighth year at RHS, the longest I have ever stayed at one job before. When I was younger I changed jobs sometimes twice a year. I would work at this restaurant or that retail store chasing nickel an hour raises. Even when I became a secretary I might stay at a location for two years before I was ready to move on to greener pastures.

Now I’m looking at my eighth year in a single school. This means that at the end of that year I will have seen two sets of students who started out with me in the ninth grade. It’s an interesting perspective. You watch them shuffle in uncertainly that first day of their Freshman year. By the time their Senior year rolls around you’ve watched them get their license, attend their prom, and then finally you wonder if that’s really the same kid you knew for years ago as they walk across the stage to receive their diploma.

There’s another wrinkle in the phone call story from earlier this week. One of my students had walked in just as the phone was ringing and said, “I just have this feeling that phone call is for me.” Yes I’m certain he did. The student at the other end of the phone told me that another teacher was busy right that second and asked him to call me to send my student down to his classroom. Since that teacher was the swimming coach, I thought it might make sense that he might ask a student to call because he was supervising kids in the pool. I sent the young man down to the teacher’s classroom.

Two days later I ran into the coach. “How long did you keep G because he never returned to class?” “What? I didn’t send for him.” The teacher replied. “REALLY?”

The trap slammed shut. I wrote the student up but the difficult question was, who was the student who called? Wouldn’t you know his classmates had heard I had figured out the deception and asked me if I had written up P also. P is not my student. I didn’t even know that P had called me. “Yes. Of course I wrote him up. That was crazy that he would call and think I wouldn’t check on it.” Two of my students laughed and said “Yeah that really was stupid that P would do that.” SCORE!!!!!!!!!!! So I wrote him up also delivering the referral to the Assistant principal personally. I’m certain P feels that his friend G snitched. I don't think I will go out of my way to correct this perception.

Today is also candy day. Every week until the end of September, Mars is giving away a candy bar. I won one last week. I hope I win one again this week. I posted it on ThriftyMaven but I wonder how much traffic it will get.

Here are the blog contests I entered today:

Prize: $50 Red Lobster gift card.

Prize: Pair of eyeglasses from EyeBuyDirect.com [excludes designer frames and sunglasses].

Prize: $25 Build-a-Bear Workshop Bear Bucks gift card.

Prize: HomeFree Treats Organic Cookies sampler pack.

Prize: One-year supply of all small & mighty detergent, The Apprentice Complete Season 1 DVD, autographed photograph of Donald Trump and You're Fired! promotional items (ARV $160).

Prize: 8-day/7-night trip for two to a JetBlue Getaways destination city of winner's choice (ARV $3,296).

Prize: Flip Ultra Series II Camcorder (ARV $149.99).

Money Like Water

One day I will look this and laugh, well maybe not laugh, maybe cry so hard that I will laugh that crazy laugh that TV villains do. You know like that Vincent Price laugh that you hear at the end of Michael Jackson’s thriller album. I’m certain I will be sitting in my padded cell, maybe even with a caterpillar, rocking back and forth reciting. “Yes Big Brother. I worship you. I honor you. You are the greatest.”

As last Friday’s monthly employment report showed, job losses are showing no signs of reversing anytime soon – a point the President’s chief economic advisor, Dr. Christina Romer, acknowledged over the weekend. And while our job market is hemorrhaging, so too are the federal government’s books, with the Associated Press reporting this morning that the budget deficit this year will climb to $1.8 trillion – nearly four times the record set just last year. Perhaps the most startling aspect of the White House’s budget admission: the government is borrowing 50 cents for every dollar it spends this year

Can you imagine if you tried to run your household budget like this? In other words, what if you had to borrow half of your budget on your credit card? Any financial consultant worth a salt would say “ARE YOU CRAZY?” Essentially that’s what we are doing you know. We are borrowing from our children and what is our return on investment? We are spending hundreds of thousands of dollars to create a job that pays maybe $30,000. Just send me my check it would be cheaper and I promise to spend it in a way that will stimulate more jobs.


OBAMA said that his Recover Act has already saved or created over 150,000 jobs. Sadly the Us has lost more than 1.2 million jobs since Obama took office, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Not quite certain when all this job loss stops being Bush’s and begins being his.

Also Obama has not really explained to me under his transparent administration just what the job-counting formula is for counting jobs created by the stimulus bill.
While I’m on the “It’s All Bush’s Fault” rant, how about this Obama quote. Number one, we inherited a $1.3 trillion deficit….That wasn’t me.”

In fact, the congress was under Democratic control in 2007 and 2008. For those who didn’t pay attention in high school history it is the Congress who holds the purse strings. George Bush does hold some responsibility because he signed the legislation. Don’t think I haven’t forgotten or excused that.

In Bush’s final months he said we had to hurry to sign the emergency financial bail-out package. Much was made about McCain rushing to sign on but Obama also supported it. Don’t forget the Dems wanted to make it even bigger. I, like many other Americans were all for these companies to go under but instead, our money, the money that Congress treats as their own went to prop up the same institutions that spent like drunken sailors. (My apologies to drunken sailors everywhere.) Oh and Obama did vote in support of Iraq war spending even though he voted against the war.

I try not to get too political on my blog but our history is being written right now and I'm doing my best to document what is happening.

Something funny happened today in my seventh period class today. One of my students, G just walked in the door after having gone to the bathroom. In that very instant the phone rang. G looked at the phone and as I was walking over to answer it he said, “I just felt a charge go right through me and into that phone. It’s like I know that phone call is about me.”

I picked up the receiver and the voice at the other end was a student calling for one of the coaches. “Coach so and so wants you to send G down here.” It was just plain odd. I sent G down there and he was gone all period. He thought I was joking at first but I just thought it was funny how sometimes people just know things.

These are the blog contests I entered:

Prizes (3): Romano's Macaroni Grill gift basket.

Prize: Pink Vado HD pocket video camera.

Prize: Creative Vado HD pocket video camera (ARV $229.99).

Prize: $50 Visa gift card and Kleenex Anti-Viral Tissues.

Prize: Two canisters of Wet Ones Antibacterial Wipes for every classroom in your child's school.

Prize: Pair of eyeglasses from EyeBuyDirect.com [excludes designer frames and sunglasses].

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.

A Life Unfinished

A Life Unfinished

 

Yesterday I couldn’t find Andrea’s obituary. Today there was an article about her funeral which is to be this Saturday. The article included quotes from various teachers who all agreed that she was a very wonderful girl who worked hard to maintain an A average while working outside the home to help support her family. She really was a sweet young lady who was taken from us way too soon.

Here is some of what the Rome Paper said today about Andrea.

Andrea Garcia will be laid to rest this weekend, dressed in her red graduation cap and gown.

The Rome High senior died Sunday after a car wreck late Saturday night. She was 18 and would have graduated May 24.

Andrea was a bright, loving girl, Guzman recalled. She was Rome High’s Student of the Month for April and was planning to start classes at Georgia Highlands College in the fall to pursue a degree in accounting.

“She loved to sing, and she was always with her friends. She had a lot of friends,” Guzman said. “I think that’s because she just liked helping people. She loved music and the color yellow.”

Teachers at Rome High School remembered Andrea’s work ethic and her smile.
Andrea’s family is now appealing to the community for assistance with funeral expenses. Guzman said donations are appreciated and can be made to the “Andrea Garcia Fund,” account number 061101375 at Regions Bank. Collection boxes have also been placed at area restaurants.

Funeral services have been arranged by McGuire, Jennings & Miller Funeral Home, 2542 Shorter Ave. A visitation is scheduled Friday from 7 to 9 p.m. and the funeral service will be at 2 p.m. Saturday in the Oaknoll Chapel.
Today started out very rainy with thunder and lightning. At times I would unexpectedly hydroplane.

As one of my students would say, “It’s chicken day.” It’s almost a running joke. On Wednesday he comes to class all smiles and say, “You know what today is?” Then without missing a beat he declares “It’s chicken dayyyyyyyyyyyyy!” Sometime I think of teasing him and telling him that they didn’t order enough chicken so because of that, third lunch will have to eat peanut butter and jelly sandwiches. I never do say it though. Well today is the day that Oprah gave out FREE two piece chicken dinners from KFC. That would be their new grilled chicken dinners with two pieces of chicken, two sides and a biscuit.

I blogged about it on ThriftyMaven, twittered about it , and I told all my students about it. I hope I get some web traffic because of it today. I googled it a few minutes ago and noticed that on Digg it shows:

The Oprah Winfrey Show Kentucky Grilled Chicken Deal
thriftymaven.com — Have you tried the new Kentucky Grilled Chicken yet? Now's the time to do it. Free offer good for 2 pieces of Kentucky Grilled Chicken™ (manager’s choice) and two individual sides and a biscuit at participating KFC restaurants located in the U.S. There is a number one in front of it so I don’t know if that means that there was only one person who looked at it or if was the number one post for that on Digg.

I still don’t understand Digg too much. I have heard that some people spend a great deal of time trying to be number on the front page of Digg. Mine’s not there so I guess that means. I do know that at 2:45 I checked Alexa and my traffic rank was 4,710,404!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I can’t wait to see how many people viewed my site.

I saw that I had over 1,000 visitors on ThriftyMaven today and I registered 32 NEW people on my site. It's kind of like that Three Stooges Routine. "Slowly I turn. Inch by inch. Step by Step." I'm keeping my fingers crossed that things will keep growing.

Here are the blog contests I entered:

Prize: Pepsi Throwback prize pack with trucker cap, retro Pepsi tin lunch box, retro clock radio/CD player, USB lava lamp, Pepsi Throwback and Mountain Dew Throwback (ARV $150).

Prize: Bride Wars DVD and a $25 Gift Certifcate to PaperShouts.com.

Prize: One semester/six months of online courses from Computer Savvy Seniors.

On Any Given Day - Part Two

So over to Online-Sweepstakes I go. Being a creature of habit I glance at the forums. Some headlines catch my eye but there’s no time for that now. I want to click on each link and read what people have to say but I just know that the sands of the hour glass are slipping through faster than usual.

Even the way I enter contests has certain sameness about it. I always enter the contests that are going to end that day. Well not every one of them. I don’t end the single entry ones. I usually enter those when they are first posted. Then I enter the daily sweeps that end tomorrow. The daily sweeps that enter the day after tomorrow are the last ones I enter that are getting ready to end.

The next round of entries is from my mysweeps part of Online-Sweepstakes. I enter the dailies, well daily. I believe I have about twenty five of them. Some people get really in to making all the dailies with any kind of good prize part of their mysweeps dailies. I just put the ones I’m truly interested in. Things that are life changing to me, like a trip to France, $500,000, or a trip to Sandals. I do have one 24 Hour Sweep under Mysweeps but I enter it when I think of it throughout the week or I just enter it on the weekends. I only enter my weekly Mysweeps on Sundays. I enter my monthly Mysweeps on the first day of the month or at least by the first Sunday of the month.

Most mornings I try to get these done before I shower and if not by then definitely by the time I leave for school. Lately, with all the twittering and digging I am lucky to get the sweeps that are ending that day.

I shower, dress, apply a scant bit of make-up, and then rush downstairs to make sure the dogs go out to do their business. Sometimes the little dog needs coaching. Translate this to mean, holding a small treat just beyond his snout as I walk out backwards with him in hot pursuit of the treat. After receiving his treat he seeks out a piece of ground worth of receiving his excrement. Now mind you this can be a mind-numbing feet of patience meets persistence. It does eventually happen though and then it’s back into the house we go.

Once back in the house, I maybe have ten minutes to enter a couple of more sweeps before I have to dash out the door. That is I might have it if the dogs go right upstairs so I can keep them in the room with Darryl before I leave.

Now here's some amazing news. I have been working so hard on thriftymaven.com and today I got some great news. I've had 1,320 viewers to my site over the past 24 hours. AMAZING!!!!!!!!!!

I won another blog contest. I received an email that says: Congratulations! You won the Sesame Street Being Green DVD from The Full Mommy.

And now here are the blog contests I've won:

Prizes (4): Sun & Earth cleaning products basket (ARV $150).

Win a copy of Chicken Soup for the Soul: Teens Talk High School.

Prize: Sterling silver heart pendant.

Prizes (2): BeautyName necklace.

Prizes (5): Beverly Hills 90210: The Seventh Season DVD.

Prize: Eglan diaper bag (ARV $130).

Prize: Pink sapphire and diamond bracelet.

Prize: $25 Plum Island Cookie Company gift certificate good towards 1-cookie Sand Dollar party favors.