Today, my book fair co-chair and I went to the Scholastic Warehouse sale. We needed to purchase books for our school library. In years past, we were able to purchase paperback books and all was well. Central processing has now said that they will no longer bar code the paperbacks and all further purchases need to be hardback.
Drat it all.
Kay and I went knowing what we had brought in for the Birthday Book Club. We also knew that we had a fairly successful book fair this fall and are sitting with quite a sum to be used for book purchases. We had books to purchase for all 6 grades, and to keep with hardback, we knew it would be difficult. The warehouse sale was 25-80% off and most were 50% off. While she picked some ahead without me, we went to town today.
I have no idea of how long we were there, but we were able to score.
We purchased 65 hardback books for the bargain price of $315. For those of you not wanting to pull your calculator out, it was an average of $4.85 per book. Given that, we decided that 4th and 5th grade would each have a donated book in their name, where grades K-3rd would be buddied up a few kids on some books. In the end, it doesn't matter, as long as we purchase for the library what needs to be gotten. The folks, if they have a problem with it, will notice the retail price on the back is NOT the $5.00 that people donate. We had a coupon of $25. off each $100. spent, so we did 4 separate transactions to get the best price. We saved $100 that way! When we dropped the new books off to the librarian, she was thrilled to death. Those two boxes of books were like Christmas to her!
Kay and I were given a book a piece as a thank you for our recent book fair. Apparently, they were impressed by how well we did. They made sure to let us know that the books that we were given were for us for our use at our homes. I thought that was kind. Kay worked on set up yesterday and since Scholastic pays $10 in book trade per hour of labor, she is sitting with a tidy $40 in credit to use towards Christmas. I will be helping tomorrow as well. I have a few science project books set aside for K to go with her Christmas gift. To my understanding, they honor the 1/2 price with that, so for two hours worth of work, I may owe them just a few dollars. Hoorah!
I love books. K loves books. To be paid in books? That is just grand!
Have a great day!
Friday, November 30, 2012
Thursday, November 29, 2012
One more thing ticked off of the list.
The annual Christmas card is usually ordered and posted by now. I like to drop them off on the day before Thanksgiving so that they can hit mailboxes on Black Friday.
Not so this year.
We have a different computer configuration since the infamous crash of early fall, so I haven't been able to get tutoring on transferring photos. The photos are locked into the external hard drive, but tonight's e-mail had me motivated enough to do some investigation on my own. I figured that the worse I could do was to get a funky screen that would call for my neighbor to come bail me out.
Shutterfly was having a sale, y'all! There was an extension of Cyber Monday, I had a coupon code that came in K's photo package from school and I had free shipping since my order was over $30. I cashed in on a savings of $97.00!
You see, I plugged the camera in and touched the computer and told her how pretty she was. I wasn't brave enough to work with the external hard drive. I know nothing about it anyhow.
Then photos started popping up.
And it kept going.
It was a program that I wasn't familiar with, but I was lucky enough to have it be pretty easy to navigate. I was able to transfer all of the photos, they have arranged it in order of date and I transferred the photos that I needed over to Shutterfly. A photo that would work for our hodge lodge popped up lickety split and I was able to get all arranged and ordered in about an hour and 15 minutes. (I was being picky, so it wasn't any problem. I also wanted to check out card options.)
I'm so excited! I was having a tough time with my cards not being ordered or out. I'll be able to get them addressed quickly and out in the mail when they arrive.
Hooray!
Not so this year.
We have a different computer configuration since the infamous crash of early fall, so I haven't been able to get tutoring on transferring photos. The photos are locked into the external hard drive, but tonight's e-mail had me motivated enough to do some investigation on my own. I figured that the worse I could do was to get a funky screen that would call for my neighbor to come bail me out.
Shutterfly was having a sale, y'all! There was an extension of Cyber Monday, I had a coupon code that came in K's photo package from school and I had free shipping since my order was over $30. I cashed in on a savings of $97.00!
You see, I plugged the camera in and touched the computer and told her how pretty she was. I wasn't brave enough to work with the external hard drive. I know nothing about it anyhow.
Then photos started popping up.
And it kept going.
It was a program that I wasn't familiar with, but I was lucky enough to have it be pretty easy to navigate. I was able to transfer all of the photos, they have arranged it in order of date and I transferred the photos that I needed over to Shutterfly. A photo that would work for our hodge lodge popped up lickety split and I was able to get all arranged and ordered in about an hour and 15 minutes. (I was being picky, so it wasn't any problem. I also wanted to check out card options.)
I'm so excited! I was having a tough time with my cards not being ordered or out. I'll be able to get them addressed quickly and out in the mail when they arrive.
Hooray!
Tuesday, November 27, 2012
Tales from the Trenches: The dreaded school mornings.
Once school started back up, K has absolutely every excuse in the book to NOT get ready in the morning. (She was perfectly fine during break.)
"I feel like I'm going to throw up."
"No, for real this time."
"My foot hurts. Look at the bruise that I have."
"My head hurts."
"Real bad."
"My stomach hurts."
"Real bad."
"I can't stand up straight."
I understand that we're going through a bit of a thing this year. Getting her up and ready for school is more painful than a mouth full of root canals. This morning, she was running so late, that she had no time to brush her teeth.
"That is it. K, I'm telling you what I am going to do. We will NEVER have a morning where you can't brush again. I woke you up at 6:30 AM and now it is 7:40 AM. I'm letting you know that if you do this same thing tomorrow, I will wake you up at 6:00 AM on Wednesday. If you do the same thing Wednesday, I'll wake you up at 5:30 AM on Thursday."
"Okay, Mom. I promise. I won't do it again."
As it is, my alarm goes off at 6:09 AM so that I have two alarm clock smack-downs before getting K up. I snuggle in with her. We talk about stories and whatever it is that she wants to talk about. It is a school lunch day, so we had extra time since I didn't have to pack a lunch.
No, it isn't because she doesn't go to bed early enough. She goes to bed at 8:30 PM, but no later than 9 PM. Bedtime remains the same for non-school nights.
For the love that is all good and right in the world, mornings wear me out. K called me this afternoon to tell me about her social studies grade. "Mom, number 8, 9 and 10 were 5 points each." Gulp. "How'd you do, babe?" "I got 5, 5 and 5." "That's great! How did you do on your whole test? What grade did you get?" "22 out of 22! I got an A!" Turns out that K was sweating her social studies test grade. She said that she was convinced that she was getting a D when she actually scored perfectly. We discussed how that may have affected her behavior and about how she needn't sweat these things. She just needs to do her best.
She has decided that she wants to wake up at 5:30 AM tomorrow. I begged her to please wait until 6:20 AM. We have her alarm set, which is always set for 6:30 AM, but we've pushed it back a bit for her. She is looking forward (at least for tomorrow) of getting up and getting moving earlier.
Me thinks that she wasn't too fond of the idea of a cranky mom at 5:30 AM. We've discussed how nice the mornings are when she can take advantage of the extra time and chill with a little bit of cartoons before the bus.
Let's hope this plan sticks.
ETA: The morning went well. K got herself up at 6:30 AM. She was delightful. She had breakfast, made her bed, brushed her teeth and we even had extra time to tie a headband in (a two people job with this one.) She has city wide writing assessments this week, so I'm glad that she shuttled off happy, fed and well. No complaining of the typical morning ailments, either. I hope that this is a permanent situation, but something tells me that it probably isn't. I'll take it while I can get it.
"I feel like I'm going to throw up."
"No, for real this time."
"My foot hurts. Look at the bruise that I have."
"My head hurts."
"Real bad."
"My stomach hurts."
"Real bad."
"I can't stand up straight."
I understand that we're going through a bit of a thing this year. Getting her up and ready for school is more painful than a mouth full of root canals. This morning, she was running so late, that she had no time to brush her teeth.
"That is it. K, I'm telling you what I am going to do. We will NEVER have a morning where you can't brush again. I woke you up at 6:30 AM and now it is 7:40 AM. I'm letting you know that if you do this same thing tomorrow, I will wake you up at 6:00 AM on Wednesday. If you do the same thing Wednesday, I'll wake you up at 5:30 AM on Thursday."
"Okay, Mom. I promise. I won't do it again."
As it is, my alarm goes off at 6:09 AM so that I have two alarm clock smack-downs before getting K up. I snuggle in with her. We talk about stories and whatever it is that she wants to talk about. It is a school lunch day, so we had extra time since I didn't have to pack a lunch.
No, it isn't because she doesn't go to bed early enough. She goes to bed at 8:30 PM, but no later than 9 PM. Bedtime remains the same for non-school nights.
For the love that is all good and right in the world, mornings wear me out. K called me this afternoon to tell me about her social studies grade. "Mom, number 8, 9 and 10 were 5 points each." Gulp. "How'd you do, babe?" "I got 5, 5 and 5." "That's great! How did you do on your whole test? What grade did you get?" "22 out of 22! I got an A!" Turns out that K was sweating her social studies test grade. She said that she was convinced that she was getting a D when she actually scored perfectly. We discussed how that may have affected her behavior and about how she needn't sweat these things. She just needs to do her best.
She has decided that she wants to wake up at 5:30 AM tomorrow. I begged her to please wait until 6:20 AM. We have her alarm set, which is always set for 6:30 AM, but we've pushed it back a bit for her. She is looking forward (at least for tomorrow) of getting up and getting moving earlier.
Me thinks that she wasn't too fond of the idea of a cranky mom at 5:30 AM. We've discussed how nice the mornings are when she can take advantage of the extra time and chill with a little bit of cartoons before the bus.
Let's hope this plan sticks.
ETA: The morning went well. K got herself up at 6:30 AM. She was delightful. She had breakfast, made her bed, brushed her teeth and we even had extra time to tie a headband in (a two people job with this one.) She has city wide writing assessments this week, so I'm glad that she shuttled off happy, fed and well. No complaining of the typical morning ailments, either. I hope that this is a permanent situation, but something tells me that it probably isn't. I'll take it while I can get it.
Monday, November 26, 2012
Deck the halls with too much glitter . . .
Fa, la la la la, la la la la.
Know the tree took 8 good hours.
Fa, la la la la, la la la la.
The gifts are wrapped (mostly) and under the tree,
Fa, la la la la, la la la la.
The outside is lit and Hubs did do it.
Fa, la la la la, la la la la.
I would provide photos, but haven't quite figured that function out on the box. Soon enough. The photos are locked inside of the camera and on the external hard drive and are begging to be let out. :)
I can say that my shopping list is DONE. What little bits of whatnot I had to do yet were complete this weekend, including K and Hubs. I have a gift to make for K, but everything for it is purchased and awaiting assembly. It won't take me more than an hour.
I have yet to carve out when the two day baking extravaganza is to be done, but I can tell you that I have 10 ladies coming to my house on Saturday for Christmas Tea. Since I did it here last year, I know what I need to do and the bonus is the fact that I found table cloths on the clearance rack, so now I don't have to phone the boys across the street to ask about borrowing their linens. (Though, I might add that they were absolutely thrilled and dropped them off laundered and freshly pressed.)
The items that I have to send off to Chicago are wrapped, bagged and ready to drop off at my in-law's so that they can send the box all together. I have a few other boxes to mail out, but one is awaiting cookies.
The boxes for everything for the holidays are back up in the attic and the pile of games is returned back to the game closet. Now I can walk through my kitchen without the lamp and three Rubbermaid totes in the way.
K returns back to school tomorrow. Schedule as usual is back on for four more weeks. The kids go to school through December 21, then they are off from 12/22 - 1/7. It seems a bit excessive to me. It is what we have though, so we'll rock it out.
I have to laugh, we had a dusting of snow yesterday. The snow accumulated on the cars about an inch, but everywhere else was just a fluff coating. K played outside and hauled her sled around gathering snow from every cook and nannie that she could find. The child absolutely loves snow, so I hope that she has a ton of it to play with while she has two full weeks off.
With that, I do believe that the bath is calling me. I also have to put some black bean nacho burgers up. I made a double batch tonight while I was making dinner. They will carry us through some of the busy parts of the holiday, when Mama is just too tired to cook.
Have a great day!
Know the tree took 8 good hours.
Fa, la la la la, la la la la.
The gifts are wrapped (mostly) and under the tree,
Fa, la la la la, la la la la.
The outside is lit and Hubs did do it.
Fa, la la la la, la la la la.
I would provide photos, but haven't quite figured that function out on the box. Soon enough. The photos are locked inside of the camera and on the external hard drive and are begging to be let out. :)
I can say that my shopping list is DONE. What little bits of whatnot I had to do yet were complete this weekend, including K and Hubs. I have a gift to make for K, but everything for it is purchased and awaiting assembly. It won't take me more than an hour.
I have yet to carve out when the two day baking extravaganza is to be done, but I can tell you that I have 10 ladies coming to my house on Saturday for Christmas Tea. Since I did it here last year, I know what I need to do and the bonus is the fact that I found table cloths on the clearance rack, so now I don't have to phone the boys across the street to ask about borrowing their linens. (Though, I might add that they were absolutely thrilled and dropped them off laundered and freshly pressed.)
The items that I have to send off to Chicago are wrapped, bagged and ready to drop off at my in-law's so that they can send the box all together. I have a few other boxes to mail out, but one is awaiting cookies.
The boxes for everything for the holidays are back up in the attic and the pile of games is returned back to the game closet. Now I can walk through my kitchen without the lamp and three Rubbermaid totes in the way.
K returns back to school tomorrow. Schedule as usual is back on for four more weeks. The kids go to school through December 21, then they are off from 12/22 - 1/7. It seems a bit excessive to me. It is what we have though, so we'll rock it out.
I have to laugh, we had a dusting of snow yesterday. The snow accumulated on the cars about an inch, but everywhere else was just a fluff coating. K played outside and hauled her sled around gathering snow from every cook and nannie that she could find. The child absolutely loves snow, so I hope that she has a ton of it to play with while she has two full weeks off.
With that, I do believe that the bath is calling me. I also have to put some black bean nacho burgers up. I made a double batch tonight while I was making dinner. They will carry us through some of the busy parts of the holiday, when Mama is just too tired to cook.
Have a great day!
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