{T.I.L. #22}

I've been updating my computer for like, 10 full hours today after a month of dealing with software update & iPhone compatibility issues. I'm proud to say that I *think* I'm all set up with only a minor loss of data (that I knew I'd lost due to a previously failed back-up/sync debacle). Some stress has been lifted off my shoulders as I can now cross some of these ??s off my list. 

Because of this full day of technology upgrades, I was able to read a whole book while snuggling in my bed listening to the drizzly rain. 

The rain has now turned to sleet and the temperature has dropped low enough for it to freeze on the roads. And you know what that means for a teacher?



Snow days are awesome when they are timed just right and called in the night before. We teachers feel that it has to fall somewhere between 'far enough away from our Winter Break' and 'not too close to Spring Break'. Well, this snow (or should I say 'ice') day has come at a great time. The only thing that would make it even better is for us to miss 3 or more days to make it worth the days we have to make up later in the spring. 

But who needs to be that picky? I'll take what I can get!

Now all I need is a Netflix marathon so that I can burn the midnight oil on a Sunday night. Because on snow days, the only requirement is that you sleep in.

Let's just say 'Blue Mason Jars' from here on out

I'm Katie. I love Mason Jars. Especially blue-tinted vintage ones. Please don't make the mistake I did and use 'I love blue mason jars!' in a sentence while you are simultaneously replacing the word 'mason' with the brand name of the jar: 'Ball' and accidentally fading out on the word 'jars.' It makes for an awkward moment at Canton when you loudly exclaim to your bestie how much you can't get enough of them. oops.

{You can see the joke carried over to her blog post, as well as check out how we used the jars for my sister's darling wedding shower a while ago.} 

I mentioned before when I showed you the mini-mustachioed 'B' on the right side of my book shelf that I fully believe a classroom should teach academics as well as life skills and lessons. After many shopping trips turned sour by little hellions running about the store (Lately been to Ross, anyone? Yuk.), I decided it was important enough for me as a teacher to show children how to respect their surroundings. These are real life things that I purchased and they can see how much I enjoy old things juxtaposed with new. In fact, one of my students recently declared that I must really love this particular thing they were showing me because 'you KNOW how much you love old things, Miss Brown.' Thank you kids, for listening. So cute. {Still wishing that I could take a few of these little guys & gals antiquing.} Ok, I'm getting lost in happy-land discussing antiques. Where were we?

Oh, yes. I was hesitant to put my favorite blue mason jars in my classroom because of the aforementioned banshees, but I realized that this is the place where I spend most of my time and I should enjoy being there. The rest of my classroom reflects that sentiment as well, but it was far too messy to display for today's post. Laters, much laters.

I thought I'd show you the other side of my bookshelf from the B post:

A close friend and fellow teacher gave me a nekkid wooden crate that I whitewashed like the day before school started. I set the Ball Jars in there to help buffer them from attacks and I positioned our classroom owl, Roscoe, next to it just in case kids needed reminders to be careful.

It seems silly to go through all this to have nice things around kids, but I tell you, they have risen to the challenge. Only one thing has been broken all year *knock on wood* and that was a fluke-door-slammed-and-rattled-the-wall-so-an-owl-fell accident. I have seen them respect my things and work to keep their own things protected as well.

I even added LED flameless candles to them for looks. We've only turned them on once and it was a big pain. The kids sure did 'ooh' and 'ahh' though...they sounded like ladies at a bridal shower. I snapped a pic but it is a little blurry:

While I do believe these are ultimately just 'things', I think we are called to steward what we've been given. I keep my new books crisp, my car in shape, my clothes in good condition. I'm not such a stickler that people can't live around my stuff, but I think some people take advantage of their circumstantial abundance. Regardless of whether these kids will grow up as good personal stewards, it is definitely worth teaching them not to bust up someone ELSE'S property. I learned that lesson years ago by skateboarding into a neighbor's planter pot...only to lie about it and get in double-trouble.

What do you think...am I crazy for letting kids be around glass in a classroom (as some teachers have gasped about)? Or do you believe this is a lesson worth fighting for?

T.I.L. #5

Y'all remember when I mentioned I'd been payin' off debt aggressively? Well, I took 2 steps back in this area around Thanksgiving. Hear me out though. I think you'll find that it was probably needed(?)

This Toyota Camry has been an amazing ride. She's been with me for 12 years and I got this car right after I graduated from college. You see, I'd only had one car previously and its name was Doo-Doo Brown. Partly because my last name is Brown, partly because it was a brownish color, but mostly because it was a piece of poo. Many weekend nights my friends & I would drive by my lonely car chillin' in the school parking lot because it wouldn't start. It served me well my freshman year at A&M and I am grateful. Oh, I definitely abused ol' Doo-Doo Brown. I once parked it in 'Fish Lot' way across campus for 2 weeks and when I retrieved it, it was covered in bird poop (Doo-Doo White?) Seriously, A&M parking lots are like scenes from horror flicks involving crazed birds! In fact, there was so much bird poo that I ran into a pedestrian (thankfully he jumped out of the way just in time). He took one look at my car after cussing and started laughing.

On my way back down my sophomore year {with my sissy transferring in! yay!}, ol' Doo-Doo died on the side of I-35 near Waco. I called my dad to deal with it and I never saw it again. We high-tailed it in my sister's car the rest of the way and shared her car for a couple more years until graduation.

So, as you can see, the one-year old Camry was the fanciest thing I'd ever driven. And I drove her to the ground (kind of):

Once I hit that mark, I decided it was time to get another ride. I was losing hubcaps by the hour and maintenance costs started to add up. I didn't want to buy a new car because I am soooo close to being debt free (I would make an exception for a house though...doesn't count to me). But rather than hold on to this idea I'd had, I decided to start looking for something I'd love as a replacement. I had a list of things I liked, didn't like, and didn't care about. I searched some lots and found them to be just awful. Horrible deals, high pressure sales, and they treated me like Julia Roberts in Pretty Woman, only I was flaunting good credit, not a wad of hooker cash. It was ridiculous.

Thankfully, a friend's wife saw my plea on Facebook and directed me to her husband's new business: Sign It Drive It. He basically FINDS the car you are looking for and gives you a great deal on it. No pressure. No gimmicks. No shady business.

I know Jake's family and his business partner seems like a great guy. They are a local small dealership but waaayyyy better than any of the other guys. Please give Jake a call if you are in the market for a car. Here's what he found for me:

Haha, nope. That's what I traded in...here's the slightly pre-owned ride I'm sporting now:

It's a 2012 Nissan Rogue (note the spelling...the 'other' dealer before Jake kept writing Rouge. I couldn't help but call it that after seeing him write it so many times!) It ha(d) 6,700 miles on it until I got a hold of it.

And I absolutely enjoy driving it. And it has 4 hubcaps. And room to carry crap around. And it's fully loaded (which I didn't care to have before...but is it wrong that I now use my seat warmers as a heating pad after a long day?)

Before (oxidation and rust suit her well, don't ya think?):

 After:

I mean no disrespect to Camry-girl, but this car is Bad-A! I can officially say I like driving now. So boo to all you high school folks who didn't understand why I was nervous about highway driving. When your car shakes above 55 mph, you'd be scared too. Now I have to be careful that I don't go 90! Anyway, I waited to share the news in case Jake sold me a lemon. Which he didn't...and he wouldn't. But now it's official:

Life As It Is: Part Deux

If you have read this post, you will notice that I mentioned that I am trying to live 'life as it is' by taking risks and accepting life as it comes. I said I'd give you more info on that later. Well, now is later. Later is now?

Somewhere along the line I forgot how to take risks. I'm not really sure when it happened...apparently not before I decided to wear this to my middle school dance {the caption says it all}:

As you can see, my middle-school bestie and I shared a last name. Both of our older sisters were named Sara(h)...yes, it got confusing. I mean, not as confusing as the reasoning behind our wardrobe choices, but I'll blame that on the early 90's.

In 6th grade I poured my heart out to a boy only to be crushed {Want the juicy story? Read my old blog to find out.} But that didn't stop me from taking risks. In fact, I'd say I put myself out there even more. Later in 6th grade, I auditioned for a performing arts school with the audition song, "My Favorite Things." Yes, that really happened. And not well, I might add. Surprisingly, I got in. And once I was in, I continued to audition and get roles. I got out of regular school each day to finish my day at the acting and performing arts school. It was incredible...we even got to travel around the city to perform our stage productions for other elementary schools. I got rejected a few times as I auditioned for commercials and such, but that wasn't it. My risk taking continued as I was moved to Texas and away from my dream of acting. I moved on to other things and kept putting myself on the line.

Through heartache and disappointment, I wasn't fazed. Through friendships turning on me and parents going to rehab, I pressed on as a risk taker. As boys told me they'd rather be friends, my confidence only took a tiny dent.

So why do I consider myself someone who avoids risks now? I'm not sure exactly what happened but I can pinpoint it to the time I became a Christian. No longer supposed to rest on my skills, talents, or abilities, I struggled to relinquish the control in my life. If I had to give that up, I felt powerless over the outcome. Which makes me scared to even try.

Some might point me to the verse 'I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.' I hear ya. It makes sense. But my heart learns from experience. The more I want or try for something, the harder it becomes to attain. It's a bit frustrating really. But please hear me...this is not how I believe God intended us to feel or live. It's just how I (mis)interpreted 'walking' with Christ and took it to the extreme.

Today was supposed to be a big day in the risk taking department. I was all prepared to share the exciting news, but as risks go, there is always a possibility of losing. And so far in this area, I've lost. So while there is no exciting 'end' to this risk-taking venture, I believe taking the risk itself was huge for me. I'll probably share more on it later, but it still stings. For now, just know that I'm growing in this area and can't wait to keep taking risks, no matter how difficult it is for me.

To end on a happier note, I decided to share a couple pics of a project I did for my classroom. Frankly, you may never need to make one of these, but it just makes me happy to share it and it reminds me of gambling/risk-taking. Ok, so there's probably no real connection, but anyways...
 
I wanted a box to hold the sets of dice for my classroom and I found one at Hobby Lobby for $20. Um, no. I ended up buying a $3 wooden box and painting my own to match my classroom colors. 

Naked wooden box that I thought I could get away with spray painting: 

Nope. Craft paint it is:

I'm visual so I used dice patterns online and created my own tiny-sized dice template. When I brought it to school, it was all wrong. Is there a standard way to 'number' dice? Too late now, I guess. 

Tiny die pattern:

Burning the midnight oil to git 'er done before school starts. I get by with a little help from my friends. And by friends, I mean baristas at Starbucks:

The final resting place above my math stations and next to the real-but-the-kids-swore-it-was-fake plant:

I lightly sanded the edges and surfaces to 'matte' it out a bit. It's ready for its closeup:

See that little twirly note holder in the background? That came from my family's deli and means a lot to me. I love that the kids love it as much as I do. I swear, I'm gonna create a bunch of antiques dealers...maybe we should take a field trip to Canton? Yes please.

More Mustache Love

I finally got around to taking a picture of my mustache B in its perma-home. This is the reading area in my classroom (obviously. And wow, I need to organize this sucka!) I apologize for the lighting...it was taken with that ol' dinosaur iPhone 3GS. And by dinosaur, I mean 2 years old.

 

My classroom theme is non-cartoony vintage owls. Specific, I know. {And she wonders why she's single.} Not really sure how mustaches come in to play, but who cares?! Look how perfectly random it fits in there. I found a black metal tray on sale at Hobby Lobby and spray painted it glossy white. I used to have the most darling burnt orange ceramic owl from Dollar Tree in place of the plush owl puppet from IKEA, but it got broken when I had a sub. boo. Some would say that you shouldn't put glass or breakables around children. I would say, children need to learn that the world is full of breakable and beautiful things. So if my $1 loss is this child's gain, then it was worth it. He (and the other witnesses) will be better off seeing me react with disappointment and grace; and this sheltered lesson on taking good care of things may help them think twice about running around stores or museums like bafoons.

If the thought of having glass around children bothers you, then you are gonna poop when you see the left side of this shelf. eek.

The Before & After & After Again

Remember the time my school workroom was all messy? 

And then, after one very long Saturday before school started, it wasn't?

Yeah, me too. And then this happened the week before school started (and had things added to the pile over the first semester):

My Poor shelf! It's CRAM-packed!

 It has stayed this way for a while because as you know, when life happens, who has time to clean out a random workroom you barely use (or would you if it was clean and organized?)

This past weekend, I went up to the school with the express purpose of making it 'eat-off-the-floor-or-do-a-ballet-recital-in-it' clean. I wasn't sure how long it would take, but after 4 hours and LOTS of heavy lifting, it now looks like this:

My trick with any de-cluttering {because, let's be honest, it is loathsome} is to start on one side and work left to right around the room. So basically, control my ADD urge to bounce all over the place. If I go from one side to the other, moving items to their rightful place or getting rid of things, I have a starting/stopping point where I pick back up each time. For some reason, this works for me psychologically. Oh, and a Venti Starbucks no-water chai helps with the motivation. 

Let's hope it stays this way for a while. Which, in teacher land, means for the next week or so.

I liked the cleanliness so much I decided to set up a (rough) Keurig station:

I wasn't kidding when I said I want to be able to relax in there. Maybe I should add a yoga mat or a napping couch?

Got any genius de-cluttering tricks that you use?

Princess & the Pile: Holy Hoarding!

I've been a teacher going on 13 years this fall. I have accrued a TON of stuff...some by my own pocketbook, some from retired teachers, plenty o' stuff from trash bins or giveaway piles, etc. Well, I realized that I am in desperate need of reducing the clutter in my life--not just at home, but at my school as well. I honestly can't find some of the things I need because of it and that frustration has finally hit enough nerves for me to do something about it.

Just a glimpse into my team workroom--mostly my stuff crammed in there!! {minus the recycling bins}

Sometimes hoarding is emotional (as in most of the reason I keep things), but a lot of pack rat mentality is simply due to accumulating stuff faster than the rate of donating. Or in my case, the non-existent rate of donating. I always say 'I'll go through it later' but 'later' is a time period that exists in the world of fairies for me. This past month, however, I helped my sister reach her 'later' in her guest room and the transformation was AMAZING. And surprisingly, she did all of it in like 4 hours {with me as her cheerleader...look, I helped, okay?!} We laughed at how long she put it off and how quickly we saw results.

I went home from this event with excitement and anticipation. Yes! I was going to tackle all the clutter in my house {piles from moving, teaching, crafting, etc.} and it was going to be awesome...until I got home. The wall of crap won and I skeetered away with my tail between my legs.

That is, until my principal said she was opening the building yesterday. I decided once and for all that I would clean up SOME kind of clutter in my life and the school stuff seemed less daunting. Mind you, I've been wanting to do this for YEARS. Years, people. And sadly, this was just my team workroom. I have so much more than this to go through, but it seemed like a bite-sized challenge. Thankfully, two of my teamies helped me and 4 hours later...here are the results (I love a good before and after side-by-side, don't you?):

So, if THIS monstrosity of crap is less daunting, can you imagine how much clutter is in the rest of my life?? I will keep you updated on those projects when I muster up enough energy to tackle them. Although this accumulation is embarrassing, I wanted to post it because I feel that there a lot of people out there like me. It's not that I WANT to have a bunch of stuff, it's just that I'm too tired to keep up with the swarm of materialism in life. I mean, look at all the stuff we had to unpack from the workroom:

(this is just for ONE year, one grade level. And we wonder where all the money goes in education...textbooks & workbooks are the devil!)

I've learned from this lady that the numero uno rule in de-cluttering your life is REFUSE. This is hard for other people to accept. 'No thank you, sweet friend, I don't want your jankety angel figurine and your re-gifted, chemically scented Christmas candle. Thanks though.'

So, as I navigate through this mess of stuff, don't be mad at me if I refuse stuff with a polite, 'No, thanks." I promise I won't call your stuff jankety. Sadly, after all this cleaning at work, I'm not completely done yet. I hauled a lot of this criz-nap to my classroom to officially go through it before school starts. Here's a pic of just one load. Yikes!

My teamie Jessica--worked for 4 hours with a broken toe. Dedication!

Updates on my classroom to follow. Pray for me. Just kidding. But really.

Paying off the Bully

As you may recall, I've been Debt Snowballin' for about 6 years now and was able to pay off a major debt of mine a few months ago. Woohoo!

But, I have to say that this month's payoff of MajD 2/3 is much, much sweeter. You see, when I was a wide-eyed, excited 18 yr old, I was ready to take on the world. With my freshly inked foot tattoo and all my belongings in a poopy-brown jalopy, I was off to attend Texas A&M. The only problem was: I didn't have a cent to my name. So it was either forfeit college or sign up for student loans. 'Here I come, Aggieland!'

Now I realize it was more like this:

As I entered college, I didn't realize half of what I was getting into. I chose the cheapest college in Texas (at the time), received scholarships every year, obtained several grants, did work study, worked each summer, worked 35 hours a week while taking full time classes my final 2 years, and lived at home during student teaching. Needless to say, I tried to only take the minimal amount of loans to cover the bills. Minimal schminimal.

Since graduating and working for 12 long years to pay off my loans, I'm honestly not sure college is worth it! {Stay in school kids. Or not...}

I am proud to say that I paid off the big bully that I have been fighting with for over a decade. Her name is Sallie Mae and she's a wench. A rich, greedy wench. But unlike regular school bullies, I owed her money and I'm always one to responsibly settle a debt if I am able-bodied. So, there you go Sallie. You can't take any more of my lunch money. That's Wells Fargo's job now.

Debt Snowball: That's how I roll...

What's this, you ask? Don't get too attached...I sure didn't. I took it straight from one bank and plunked it down at another one. Dave Ramsey style. This week, MajD 1/3 was paid in full and I can already feel the shackles loosening a bit. It is a huge deal for me and I just wanted to share it with the people who care enough about me to read my ramblings. :) 

And don't worry, I didn't do anything shady for this chunk o' change {well, unless you are one of those people who thinks teaching, spray tans, or MLM is shady; in that case, you can judge me all you want. I'll be too busy paying bills to even notice your disdain.} I just worked the Debt Snowball that Dave Ramsey talks about in Total Money Makeover. 

At first, it seems illogical to pay off the smallest debt first (sadly, my 'smallest' wasn't too small), but he is spot on when it comes to psychology. Because, although this debt's interest rate is higher than my student loans, walking in and paying it off gave me the taste of freedom. And my snowball starts to grow and pick up speed. So, one MajD down, 2 more to go. On to the next!

I have found the best way for me to radically stick to becoming debt-free is automatic withdrawal from my paycheck to a bank payment, before I even touch/smell/plot & plan for the green. Any other creative ways you've found to pay off your debt?

Princess and the Paycheck: Absence makes the heart grow fonder, right?!

*Holds imaginary microphone* Is this thing on??

Wow, 5 months to the day of my last post. Do I still have any readers out there?? I will start by saying, 'hello there. nice to see you again.' Your response may {hopefully} be, 'wow. 5 months...where have you been, Katie?'

Well, I'll start by telling you what I have NOT been doing while staying eerily silent this past Fall:

-vacationing in Fiji

-resting on my laurels

-in a whirlwind romance

-cleaning my house

-organizing my life

-relaxing of any kind

This Fall has been an amazing and very tiring one...and I've got lots to say about it! So, until more posts come with details, here is the gist of what I've been up to. I knew it was time to blog again when my busy sister said she wondered where I had been on the blogosphere (she rarely has time to read my posts when I post them, and then she catches up by reading them all in one sitting). So when my Princissy is all caught up on blogs, I'm def behind! Here's what I've been up to:

-Helping with my sister's wedding plans & DIY projects; she was an incredible planner & I just helped her make some of it happen {more to come on some of those projects--hopefully not in 5 more months. Ha!}

-Helping with my best friend's wedding in Orlando over the break; she, too, did incredible things and I helped her a bit in the final stages to pull some stuff together {more details later, of course!}

-I got bangs! Ok, that didn't take any work, but there it is.

-Teaching first graders how to read--for some reason, I've had a harder time with my attitude this year, so it has taken more energy than normal

-Arbonne Consultant--I have advanced to the second level of the company and trying to work hard at this second job to pay off my debts. The job is simple, but it ain't easy. VERY rewarding work, however. 

-Bronzage--Last year, I started a mobile airbrush tanning business to help with debt, but never REALLY started. This summer, I registered it with the state as a business, and have officially 'launched'.

All this to say: 'She works hard for the money!'      {I've always associated that song with strippers, but as it turns out, it is about a bathroom attendant. Ooops. Why I went there, I don't know.}

I am working tirelessly to pay off a lot of debt {student loans, dental & medical debt, and a few other dumb purchases when dumb credit card companies gave a broke teenager plastic money}. I have been paying it off for 15 years and I'm tired of it. I got all gazelle-intense about it (as Dave Ramsey would say) and I'm seeing the light at the end of the tunnel. This month, thanks to 3 jobs, I will pay off Major Debt #1 out of 3.  I have been paying MajD 1/3 for at least 8 years, but transferred it to a bank loan and have been paying them since 2008. I can't wait to march into DATCU with that final payment in a week! Like I said: light.at.end.of.tunnel. Here I come!