Your Next Disaster

It’s that time again! Buy of the week - here’s a refresher on what this is in case you forgot: I will search through the weekly deals on Buy.com and let you know what’s interesting me at the moment. The fun part is that I want you guys to also check out the site and let me know what’s interesting you (’cause we all know what I find interesting isn’t the only great deal going on over there, so it helps us cover more ground). Are we ready? Let’s get started!

This weeks item is something Joe and I have been talking about for a while, even before we moved in and it became relevant. A Television in the bedroom - we both want one we just haven’t been able to get out there and look for one and funds are a little low since we just did a huge life-changing move. While scanning the Buy.com page I came across this amazing sale on a Vizio 22-inch LCD High Definition Television for only $279! Wow!

Now I look at televisions in stores ALOT and I can tell you; this is an amazing deal! It’s impossible to find a good, flat screen, nice looking television for under $500 and this one is way below that! What’s great about it is it’s not too big or small for the bedroom, it will fit right in on the dresser. It would be great to have today while I’m home sick.. I’m definitely going to mention this to Joe and see what he says (of course, he always says “yes!” to electronics so it wouldn’t be a hard sell). Tune in next week to see what amazing deal will come up next - I’ll see you there!

Still with the lack of updates, huh? I’m home sick today… I forgot how severe my lack of an immune system is - ESPECIALLY working in a school system, good lord. I’ve been sick one way or another since the kids started school.. everyone says all the new teachers stay sick the first year, yay? Hopefully it’s starting to go away though.. I had stomach virus and I was okay with that I guess, atleast enough to go to work. Then today I woke up with that, a runny nose and a migraine so I had to call in. I can’t listen to screaming kids all day with a migraine - there is just no way. But I took my medicine and am resting all day so we’ll see what happens.

Anyways, I’m going to head back to bed for a little while and then lay on the couch and watch tv for a bit. I wish I had a laptop so I could talk to you guys AND lay down at the same time. That would be marvelous ::sigh::

I am so scarce with the updates lately… I swear I’ll get the hang of this routine soon and things will be back to normal. School is going well - the kids are great for the most part ;) There’s a few challenging ones but I’m learning to deal with it. It’s certainly not what one would call a boring job! Something is happening every second of every day. Today someone in the other Sp.Ed. class pulled the fire alarm - heh, that was good times. Most of my kids are really sweet though so I’m thankful for that.

I was sick the first few days of this week.. not sure if it was the stomach flu or what but I just felt really crummy. It finally went away at some point yesterday and I’m feeling better today.. a kid sneezed on me though so hopefully that won’t bring something else about. Yay school? Otherwise, nothing much else is going on - just working and sleeping basically. Can’t wait for the weekend!

Guess what’s back?! “Buy of the Week” part 3! It was so much fun the first few times around I decided to have a revival of it already! To refresh your memory, here’s how it works. I go to Buy.com’s Weekly Deals page and pick the item I would most like to have at this moment in time. The fun part is that you can join in as well - let me know what you think of my choices and also tell me what YOU would like to have from buy.com. Are we ready? Let’s get started!

By now, you’ve read my blog and you know that I LOVE television. I don’t talk about it much in the summer because there’s not much on but the fall is coming soon and television starts back next month (I am so excited!). We all know how much I hate to miss a show.. whether I be out of town or just unable to watch for some reason, it drives me crazy! I must know what occured in a show on the night it aired - the next day or week just will not do! Which brings me to the product of my dreams - The Slingbox SOLO!

This wonderfully magic device allows you to watch whatever you have DVR’d at home on any computer or mobile phone. So if you are out of town and say it’s “The Office” night and you just HAVE to see it - you could hook up your slingbox to your laptop and watch the episode right from your computer! How handy is that?! Can you believe a device this awesome is on sale at Buy.com for only $124?! I’ve seen them much higher and figured I never had a reason to invest THAT much money into this product, but that price isn’t bad at all! I remember one of the bloggers I frequent had one of these because she traveled a lot and she swore by it - could not bare to live without it! I know it’s something I’d definitely have to invest in if I was going to be traveling during the fall or spring when my shows are in full force. Television is serious business!

I keep forgetting to update - sorry about that. The first week of work went really well :) Our teachers are impressed with our work so far so hopefully that will keep up! Tomorrow is when the true work starts - first day of school! I’m a little nervous but I hope it will go well.. my teacher seems really understanding and patient (she has to be!) so I think it will be fine. Everyone’s been really nice so far and hopefully that will continue. I met a few of the kids at open house the other night and they all seemed really sweet - we’ve got a few “runners” but no mean kids so that’s a plus!

The living situation is going great - I am IN LOVE with the new place. My mom brings something new everytime she comes over :P I think she likes filling it more than I do. It’s all settling down now though - It took me a little while to get used to sleeping here but I’ve got it down now and I don’t even hear Joe when he comes home at midnight anymore. At this point though we BARELY see eachother at all - even less than when we didn’t live together. I work 8:00AM-3:00PM Monday thru Friday and he works 3:00PM-12:00AM Tuesday thru Saturday. So that’s kind of rough but it’s only for this month and then he gets a new schedule which is more on par with mine.. except no weekends :( That sucks.. he comes home at 7:00PM every night though so I guess it’s better? We’ll see.

I’ve got to pick a wedding date and start planning the wedding soon.. I’ve been putting it off since we’ve been so busy but if I want it in April I suppose I’ve got to get started! I’m excited about it but also leery of all the work it’s going to take ;) but a honeymoon shall be the reward haha (oh yea, and the marriage?)

That’s about all that’s going on at the moment - hopefully we’ll get to hang out and watch some movies tonight. We’ve been so busy lately that we haven’t really gotten to ENJOY the house like I’d want to.

I had my first day of work today - it went pretty well; albeit boring ;) Got there at 7:45AM and immediately ran into the other special education parapro (Haylie). Our classrooms are connected to each other so we pretty much hung out together all day. First thing I noticed was that EVERYONE had on capri’s (apparently I missed the memo that we could wear them this week - you can bet I will be wearing them the rest of the week. It’s freakin’ hot!) We had a reception in the cafeteria where they introduced all the new people and then the teachers had a meeting. While the teachers were in their meeting, me and Haylie cleaned up the classrooms and the kitchen while listening to High School Musical (heh, my kind of people!)

When the teachers came back it was time for lunch so we headed over to Firehouse subs - my teacher had given me a coupon for a free sub so I got a hot turkey. It was yummy! After that we headed over to another school for a special education meeting - it was 100% boring and no other paraprofessionals were there so our teachers let us leave earlier. Unfortunately, we had rode with the teachers over there so Haylie didn’t have her car. Her mom was nice enough to pick us up though and they dropped me off at home on the way back to the school to get Haylie’s car.

So it was a pretty easy going day! I actually wasn’t that nervous and got some sleep last night - so that was great! Tomorrow we’re in the classrooms working all day so it should be pretty easy going as well. Then after that the week is pretty sporadic and all over the place with times and places.

I am moved in! It took a hell of a lot of work but almost everything is done. We worked on it from Friday morning at 8am til yesterday at about 4:00PM. Here are the pictures of the progress:

http://smg.photobucket.com/albums/v27/savemeimdtba/New%20Place/

Work starts tomorrow so I’m basically taking it easy today. I hadn’t been getting much sleep the past few days because of the new places and my entire body hurts and doesn’t want me to lay on it (which is an impossible request). So I took 2 Tylenol PM’s last night and that did the trick! 10 hours of sleep and I feel much better and now I should be on schedule to go to bed at a good time tonight so I can wake up early tomorrow. One good thing to come out of the busyness is that I’ve had ZERO time to worry and fret about work.. so hopefully I can jump right into it and everything will be okay. This week is just teacher work days and orientations and what not so I don’t really work all day, everyday.

After all these big expenses are out of the way we can start saving for things we want / need like a car, vacation and some work for Joe at a charlotte cosmetic dentist to fix the damage the accident caused. So many hopes and aspirations. Anyways, I’ll be back tomorrow to let you guys know how that went!

Oh. My. God. I am exhausted! We started moving at 8am this morning and didn’t stop until 8pm. We got everything in here though (I swear my mom brought everything from the kitchen sink to wine refrigerators from her old house, most of it ended up in the dumpster though). So now all I’ve got to do is get everything to it’s place and buy a few things then I will be finished and completely moved in! I can take a shower with the door open and watch TV on the couch - it’s a glorious thing! I’m going to try out the bed in few minutes and hopefully sleep really well because I need it. I think I might take an excedrin so I won’t have any of the nightmares - they’d be more likely to happen tonight since I’m in a new place and by myself.

Tomorrow’s the big day! I’m super excited (not about the actual moving process, but finally getting in there)! I ran alot of errands today and made quite a bit of progress:

-Took my lease to the post office and got the key to our mailbox.
-Called the electric / water company to get the balance since our landlord is paying that amount for July since we weren’t moved in.
-Got my pedicure so my toes will be pretty for work.
-Got 3 new pair of slacks (brown, khaki and back) since I didn’t have very many and we’re not allowed to wear capri’s (grr!) Also got two new pair of shoes (they were $4!)
-Went to the board of education and turned in my declination for insurance and my teachers retirement enrollment (we’re required to be apart of it).
-called Comcast and finally got a definite “no” that we can’t have service because stupid Knology has a contract with our community. I guess forcing people was the only way they were going to get customers.
-Took a car load over to the house and did my inspection with my mom. We left a note for Rob about the things that needed work.
-Me and Papa put together the TV stand.
-Packed up what was left of my room and the bathroom

Only thing I didn’t do today was get a liver cleanse but I’m sure I’ll get around to that tomorrow ;) So much to do! Must get some good, early sleep tonight if I can!

It’s finally going to happen! They REALLY closed on the house today and we can start moving in tomorrow afternoon / Friday :-D I’m extremely excited to finally get it going! Got my adapter for the TiVo in the mail today and it works fine - so that’s a plus! Everything is already packed up of course, we’ll start loading up the car tomorrow morning probably. I can’t wait to start doing things like a family does; going into debt, buying cars, sending out Christmas invitations, fun stuff like that heh … I’ve also got to go get a pedicure and some new outfits for work tomorrow - ah, the fun of being a girl.

Right now, I’m marathoning the office because I needed some happiness in my life. It’s been a rough week with waiting on the house, Joe being sick, Joe’s car breaking down, money issues and anxiety about going to wok - ah! But more on that issue later. I’m going to my happy place!

Today Joe and I had our weekly day out - we went to his bank, to the organic store, grocery shopping, had a quick whim to go to the beach which was quickly squashed by the realization that Joe had to go to the Dr. in the morning - darn! We had both got really excited about the prospect of taking a day trip to the beach and then spending the night there and coming back home tomorrow but… his appointment is early in the morning so it wouldn’t work. Maybe some other time I guess… instead we ended up driving around where Joe grew up by the lake - not really doing much of anything. I wish I were a candidate for Lasik ’cause I really didn’t see have the stuff he was pointing out to me - but let’s keep that between us ;)

We innevitably decided to come home, have a pizza and watch “Firefly”. Jade had been watching it this week and that finally got me to stop putting it off and motivated me to finally jump in there. It’s pretty good so far - I just KNOW Joss is going to break my heart though. I’ll let you guys know how I feel after “Serenity”!

I’ve been searching on Tigerdirect.com for a few days to find something I wanted to buy and I finally found the perfect item! The TiVo wireless adapter - now for those of you who don’t know, TiVo collects data and runs off of internet or phone service. At the moment mine is hooked up to my cable modem BUT when I move into my new house my computer won’t be near my TV anymore so this was posing a problem. Now all I have to do is plug in this handy device to the back of the TiVo and it’s automatically connected to the wireless network.

I used a method of payment that I had never used before - it’s call EBillMe and basically it allows me to use my bank account without having to hand over my debit card or account number to a company I’m not that familiar with. All I had to do was click “EBillMe” under the payment options, fill out the information and then head over to my banks secure website to do the rest.

Once I got to my bank there’s a section called “Pay My Bills” - once inside that section of the site I entered the information it asked for about the purchase I made and then poof! My payment is sent off to that company with no hassle of risk! It’s a perfect and safe method for those who prefer to pay cash for items. I know of quite a few people who are afraid to buy anything online so I’ll definitely be telling them about this new method I’ve discovered!

So, Joe has been sick pretty much all week. His blood sugar has been pretty high for no particular reason (he was not feeling well and didn’t even eat on those day which probably contributes to the not feeling well). The medicine they gave him (something he was already taking at a higher dose) seems to have worse symptoms than the one it’s trying to fix … but he finally went back to work yesterday and got sick again and had to go home for a few minutes to clean up (poor thing).

I guess we’ve got to the go to the Dr. and tell them about what’s going on and get the drug changed. Joe is one of those people who plays down the symptoms when he’s telling a Dr. so I don’t think they understand how severe it’s been lately. I’ll make sure to make myself heard this time around - there was so much going on with the moving when we went last time that I was too preoccupied to mention these things. We’ve got to get it figured out so he can at least get through the days at work.. because he’s still considered a new employee and they aren’t very tolerant of these consecutive absenses.

Once we move in together We’ll work on the diet issue side of things - he eats out EVERY day and we all know that’s not a good idea. Our house will have food in it and of course I’ll look out for what he’s eating / drinking. I’m also looking into some fitness equipment for us for the summertime when it’s not practical to go outside and then for the winter we have a track right behind our house so that could come in handy. It won’t be easy but we need to make sure he stays alive and hey, it won’t be a bad idea for me to get some exercise as well!

I’ve had nightmares the past two nights - not the kind you wake up from and then go back to happily sleeping but the kind that wakes you up every 20 minutes with the same thing over and over. The first night it was about some killer glow in the dark bug that kept attacking my face (it sounds stupid but it’s real to me when I’m asleep :P) - I ran out the FRONT door at least 3 times between 11:30PM and 4:00AM. Then last night it was people at the window again… I can’t remember what they wanted but I was constantly looking out the window so no sleep was had. Now I’m exhausted and have a headache - I suppose tonight I will take an excedrin PM. I don’t even dream when I’m on that stuff (I’m a light weight).

I’m not completely sure what the reason for all of it is - maybe stress, maybe the medication I’ve been taking, maybe because it’s 100 degree’s in my room and hard to breathe at night. It could be any of those things.. if I wasn’t leaving soon I’d look into a basement dehumidifiers ’cause let’s face it, my room is pretty similar to a basement (or a prison cell). I’ll take my other medication earlier in the day today and see if that helps as well.

I went to Best Buy yesterday in order to see if they could save my deceased hard drive - the geek squad worked on the body for a few minutes and determined that she could not be ressessitated. So I had to buy a new baby - I had done a little market research and determined the general vacinity of the price I wanted it to be .. I ended up with a Western Digital; she’s 360GB for $89 (I couldn’t find the $79 one that was orange) - I hope she’ll do well. 360GB’s sounds good right? I can copy my whole C: drive onto that thing and still have tons of room for all my videos and what not. Still though.. I realized I lost ALL my Lifehouse videos. I remember deleting them from the main drive because they took up too much room… now they’re all gone. I could download most of them from Lifehouse-media but some of them aren’t on there. I guess I’ll have to get over it though.. don’t really have a choice in the matter.

So now I’m going to plug my new baby into the computer and get her started.. she’s got a lot of work to do in order to entertain me for ANOTHER week of nothing to do.

I am once again not moving. I can’t begin to tell you how much this frustrates me - the guy calls us at 2PM yesterday while Joe and I were at the Dr’s office for his appointment (he’s been sick all week) and after all of it was said and done I just had to walk outside and cry for a while.

The guy PROMISES it will be ready by next Wednesday but I don’t know if I believe him anymore. He said he’d pay for all the additional fee’s and inconveniences we’re going to have because we keep having to change the day the furniture is delivered, the electricity and water have been on for two weeks and my life has all been packed for two weeks and now we’re going on three.. That aspect really doesn’t affect Joe because he only has a collection of books and not much else. But for me; it’s really sucked. Plus now, I’ll only be moving in 3 days before work starts and I won’t have anytime to get everything settled and enjoy it for a little while. It’s all very frustrating when you plan something perfectly and then someone ruins it. I’d look into other places but that would take even longer and we really LOVE this place… so we’re kind of stuck :( Not much I can do I guess, but yell and cry and I already did these things :P Hopefully it’ll all work ouI though… I know bad things happen sometimes and we’ve had a pretty good summer otherwise so I’ll try to think positively.

Yesterday, as I was trying to download “Dr Horrible’s sing along blog”, an unforeseen catastrophe occurred. At around 2:00PM my external hard drive died… ::breaks down:: It’s little fan stopped running and now it doesn’t do anything anymore. Sometimes when I plug it in it makes a ticking bomb sound but Eric says this is the sound of death. ::moment of silence:: I’m not sure how long she’d been laying there lifeless and scared; I hadn’t tried to use her in at least a day. I just hope she wasn’t alone and enjoyed the hours and hours of downloaded movies and videos I always made sure she had. It is my thought that she went peacefully in the night while watching an episode of “Touched by An Angel” or laughing at Dane Cook’s comedy central special.

Once I lay her to rest (after I attempt to recover some of her brain of course) I will purchase another one. As I mentioned previously, I always had intentions to get a back up for my back up but I never got around to it. Every moment counts, people! I found a one online that’s orange, 160GB and only $79 - that one sounds cool to me I guess. I need to invest in some more computer memory as well so my baby doesn’t have to try so hard to work all the programs I make it run. I don’t want what happened to the deceased to happen to my baby, that’d be too devastating.. just too much.

Things are looking good for us to move in on Friday! The landlord said the closing papers were sent in last Friday and they should be closing any day now… regardless, some things are getting delivered there on Friday so they’re just going to have to deal with that. In related news: I finally found a tv stand! It’s a pretty simple one in that dark espresso like color BUT i came with a matching DVD spinning thing and that’s what sold me ;) It looks like it holds a good amount of DVD’s and the tv stand itself can hold some on the bottom as well so I’m happy!

All that’s left to do it find a coffee table and an end table (not an immediate or urgent need) and to buy the groceries this weekend. I’m finally getting excited about all of it and I can’t wait to get started and then get settled. Then soon after that (in less than 2 weeks) work starts! I’m both really excited and scared about that.. but I’m not going to worry myself over it yet. I am qualified and this is something I love so I just have to hope that it goes well and do the best that I can.

Woo, weekend finally starts tomorrow for me! Since Joe works on Friday and Saturday - my weekends are Sunday and Monday. It’s not too bad; I’ve learned to cope ;) Today I went shopping for more random things we’ll need around the house (toilet brushes, broom, mop, dust pan, etc.) - you get the picture. Everything is so expensive! I know I make this complaint everyday but I’m a cheap whore so I will probably continue to complain until I’m well into my 80’s and living on some sweet Wilmington real estate and can’t remember what money is. Oh, that will be good times!

So anyways, after that I just stayed around the house and watched a couple of episodes of “Touched by An Angel” and then “Blades of Glory”. BOG was actually much better than I expected! It was actually funny and entertaining and for some reason I did not make the connection that Will Arnett was in it! That was a nice and lovely surprise! I’ve got “Pathology” and “The Bucket List” to watch as well - I’ll probably get to those after the “weekend” is over.

I’ve never been one to talk about religion (or spirituality in my case), it’s something that’s always been apart of me but not something I share with others very often. My concept of God is usually different than others; I’m not a big fan of organized religion, I think if I need to talk to God I can go straight to the source. Man is flawed and so letting someone else give me their biased opinions on what they think God meant in this or that line of the bible has always seemed odd to me. I figure that I need to decipher these types of things on my own and draw my own conclusions. I’m not an avid believer in the bible and some people believe that fact makes me not a believer in God; well that’s certainly not true. God is something I’ve always known exist and for some reason I’ve always known right and wrong and I’m a little timid about trusting a book written by man as a guide. Especially when the book is filled with so much hate and disdain for the people who are different. My God has never worked like that; he loves everyone equally.

Anyways, this random rambling is brought on by “Touched by An Angel” so forgive me. While watching the show I’ve realized just how much God has had a hand in my life recently. When problems arose, a solution always came about even if it was a solution I didn’t nessacarily care for - it lead to positive things. When money was getting slim, money from unexpected places started showing up. When we didn’t think we could afford the term insurance, medicaid was assured. When we needed things for the apartment that we couldn’t afford, opportunities fell into my lap. And when things like that happen it reassures me that what we’re doing is right. I believe in signs and guidance and if this isn’t what God wanted for us then I truly believe there would be more obstacles… but things just keep falling into place and even though there may be setbacks here and there, the outcome is usually the better for it.

It seems weird to come write this in a blog now because I’ve never really spoken about it but it’s been something I’ve been needing to get off my chest but I couldn’t figure out the words in person. So, in typical Kristi fashion I figured I could get it out in writing. I hope atleast some of it made sense to you guys and if not, I’m sorry about that. It was mostly for me to get my thoughts in order.