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This & That

June 7th, 2013 at 08:37 pm

Gah, I am so behind on posting. So this post will be a hodge podge...

**Set out a bunch of Goodwill bags on Memorial Day, so that was awesome. Feeling lighter...

**I suppose my declutter efforts were maybe subconsciously spurred. Our recycle pickup will only be "every other week" starting in July. I've been tossing those bags of cans into the recycle bin every week and have one more left. Phew!! (I just threw one in this week but it won't get picked up until Thursday, so two more weeks of a full can??). We have some boxes, but my work has a recycle dumpster, which I suppose we may utilize more with this change. I asked dh to put any boxes we have in the van (over the weekend) and I will take them to work on Monday.

The garage could use a good bicycle and paint/chemical purge. Will aim to get that done this summer. Other than that, there's not a lot and we mostly store cars in the garage. Getting rid of so many bags of cans freed up a lot of space.

**I've still got a big bag of shoes to recycle. We decided that we will be in the general area (or that it's kind of on the way) when we take BM to University summer classes. So, we can maybe get rid of those in a couple of weeks.

**I've arranged for cat boarding while we are at camp. Will see how that goes. I hope it goes well. If it does go well, I will reserve his stay for our October road trip. I am crossing my fingers that he gets along with the other cats. If he does, it seems they don't particularly leave them in their cages (& so the nicer/big rooms would just be a waste of money, unless a cat was particularly anti-social and had to be locked up the whole time).

I don't know if boarding will always be necessary for our June camping trip, but I think it's wise while we are still adjusting to him, and will be a good trial run for checking out the boarding place. I am not really expecting to board him every time we leave for 3 nights.

We left him overnight last weekend and he did fine. Phew!! (I was a little wary of what he would do if he got too bored alone, and we have kind of spoiled him because don't think we had ever left him alone any length of time).

We will have plenty of opportunity to leave him for two nights - that will be the next test...

**Dh is doing the Scholastic thing the next couple of weeks and so we will ply the kids' teachers with tons of gift cerrtificates. (Like worth $150 retail, each). So, not really planning any "end of year" expenditures.

Oh, the school got cheap and cancelled their "last day of school" BBQ. What is that about!?! I totally understand, but think it's a shame that they aren't doing that for the kids. I always went the last day of school for the free food. Now I am thinking I will go because it's just been tradition for so long that I do show up. But we got this nice little note to bring our own food. LOL. I suppose I should just be happy that they are still doing anything. It's a BYO-picnic thing. I am sure that will be fun too. I just wish they would do the BBQ for the kids and forget the parents. The kids always LOVE it. I suppose it's fair enough that we may have 3 times the kids now that we did 5 years ago. We keep adding new classes and grades. The more I think about it the more understanding I am about the situation. We will make it a nice picnic for the kids.

**LM's second grade teacher is so awesome. We got the CUTEST Mother's Day gifts ever. The last couple of teacher tried to do a nice Mother's Day tea or this or that, but it was kind of torture because there was always the kid crying through the whole thing because his mommy couldn't show up. *sigh* NOT exactly fun. Cute in theory, but never fun. So this year I get this "recipe book" put together by the kids. O.M.G. It is hilarious. They wrote down all their favorite recipes off the top of their head and drew pictures. So lots of very cute wording and missed steps, and "serves 100," and hilarious reading.

I tried not to assume too much about all the "Get the pizza out of the freezer" recipes, because my child chose boxed max and cheese for his recipe. Rolleyes

Oh, so anyway, the kids made a joke book for Father's Day. I haven't read through that one yet, but it also looks to be a crackup. These gifts are SO precious!

**Dh and I made it to cooking school for lunch this week. I lucked out. IT was hard to get into for a while so we kind of gave up. I called Tuesday and asked on a whim if I could get in Wednesday. I could!!! I then asked about next week because I had forgotten some last minute work meeting. They said, "Nope, we will be closed for the semester." Crap!! So we reworked Wednesday. I was a little late and dh had to leave before the check came, and it was a little rushed, but did not want to have to wait until fall. Big Grin So that was our nice last date of the year. I don't think we did many (any?) during tax season so maybe we can do another lunch date next week.

Actually, the food was kind of "meh" on Wednesday. Maybe we won't go the last day of the school year, next time. We theorized they were using up whatever was left in the kitchen. Though dh had some chicken that was *divine.* I had a "meh" Cobb Salad, but the bacon in it was the best bacon I have ever had. So, it was hit and miss like that. Usually everything is so A+. (I only got the salad because the menu didn't really appeal to me very much. I would have gotten the chicken if I knew it was SO GOOD - they didn't sell it very well in the menu).

**June will not be cheap. Correction: July will not be cheap! I have a MRI bill to pay ($1,500) and $600 due to the University for college classes. I will charge them in June and pay them off in July.

I think our cash will tread water if nothing else comes up. But heck, what are the odds of that?

I updated sidebar, and am not feeling terribly enthused with my grand mortgage goals. (Though everything else is well on track - will throw all savings to the ROTHs for the rest of the year to max them out). BUT, the year is young, so I have not given up. I am hoping for some credit card rewards, and so on. Actually, I find that making the goals is often 90% of the battle. With the caveat that they can't be crazy unrealistic goals. But I feel like my subconscious is figuring it out while my realistic brain is feeling very "yeah right..." right now. Subconscious brain usually figures it out.

**I failed on my May declutter goals because I was sick the last week of May? Mostly was in bed for Memorial Day weekend. Last weekend we had a big family thing out of town. This weekend!?! I should probably tackle it and be done with it... Will see.

**I think it's supposed to be crazy hot this weekend. Interestingly, we have had several mild summers. To the point where I don't remember the last time it was 107F, or whatever it is supposed to be. (Though 100+ usually pretty standard summer weather, otherwise). {Yes, our weather tends to run OPPOSITE most the rest of the country, in recent years. So thank you for the very mild summers? Big Grin }

Yeah, I don't know if I will get much done... Might get the heck out of town. This might be a better "go to the beach" type weekend. San Francisco is 30 degrees cooler, at the moment.

5 Responses to “This & That”

  1. rob62521 Says:
    1370735712

    I wonder if the school BBQ was cancelled not only because of cost, but also because not enough parents volunteered to help. Unfortunately, many of schools have too few volunteers and staff wind up doing almost everything so if it something during the day, they can't help out because they are taking care of the classes.

  2. FrugalTexan75 Says:
    1370739913

    That is a cute Mother's Day gift idea!

  3. MonkeyMama Says:
    1370785670

    Volunteering is not a problem at our school. Big Grin In this case, that has nothing to do with it. I think it's probably just logistical with the growing population. I am doing the math in my head and while the BBQ started out as a really nice tradition with 180 students the first year they operated, I see that it has gotten to be overwhelming with 600 students. & we are nowhere done growing... It is likely both the staff and the volunteers said "Hell no," this year - that part is certainly likely. In addition to regular growth, we increased class sizes. {This year we had bigger class sizes, so a big population jump. Next year we add 8th grade plus we add 2 more classes for 2nd grade. Year after that we add 2 more classes to 3rd grade, and so on for many more years - so why there is so much growth. The school started with a 180 population for grades K-2}.

  4. Looking Forward Says:
    1370800243

    Glad you found a place to board that you are comfortable with. Smile Do you mind sharing the name/website? (You can email me it if you want.) I am curious to see their setup.

    Did you stay cool yesterday?

  5. MonkeyMama Says:
    1370803261

    http://www.patsplaceforcats.com/

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