Coupons

I have become a coupon lady. I have a pouch that is sorted by different products in the grocery store. I usually can get good deals if I start to sort through my coupons. I have gotten in the habit of looking through my coupons before going to the store.

When I heard of a guy that touts himself as a The Coupon Guy on a local radio station, I had to investigate. He basically gets a ton of great deals with paying next to nill.

So I started reading his website and I signed up for a magazine called Refund Cents. After getting the magazine in the mail yesterday, I can say I am a bit overwhelmed. There is so much lingo to shift through it is unbelievable. So I am taking it by baby steps.

I got on the website and started reading through discussions about how everything works. I did find one handy piece of knowledge from Target. It was the Target schedule of markdowns. I am a sucker for just walking through the store and purusing the clearance aisles to see what good deals I can find. It will now be easier to know when certain departments will mark down items. So I just had to share:

Target markdown schedule:
MONDAY- kids clothes, electronics
TUESDAY- women's clothes, domestics
WEDNESDAY- men's clothes, toys, health and beauty
THURSDAY- lingerie, shoes, housewares, sporting goods
FRIDAY- cosmetics, hardware, auto, jewelry.

Now I just have to figure out where the rest of the good deals are.

This just makes me think

Dr. Gary Marx was our speaker on Tuesday morning. I could have sat there all day and listened to him. He has a book entitled, Sixteen Trends...That Will Profoundly Impact Education and Our Future. He presented a lot of stats and interesting data that affects the way that we will be teaching our students in the years to come.

I couldn't help but start to think of the video from You Tube, entitled Shift Happens. I was shown this video my last semester before graduating with my Masters. The information just astounds me everytime I watch it.

I wish I had a camera

As I was driving home from Indy today, I was taking in all the beautiful scenery that Indiana has to offer. There is one particular point on US 31 between Grissom and Peru headed north that is breathtaking. I marvel at the beauty of this point in the road. The road winds and the Autumn beauty of the trees looked absolutely gorgeous. It really was picture perfect. Too bad my camera was all the way in the back of the car and not up front with me. I actually contemplated turning around and doing the drive again just so I could get the picture. I then decided that I really needed to concentrate on driving. :)

Adventures in Indy

I have a mini vacation from school. I played hooky Friday and the weekend was quite relaxing, and then I had to go to a two day conference at the Adams Mark Hotel here in Indy today and tomorrow. So technically I have had a 5 day vacation. It has been quite lovely.

I left my house at 5:30 this morning. I had to be at the hotel at 8:30. I figured that would be plenty of time. Since I refuse to drive on the big scary road called 465, I took the back way to the hotel. I got quite a nice tour of Speedway, Indiana. I drove right past the Indy 500. I didn't realize that it was literally in a block of neighborhoods. I guess I should have expected that when we went to the State Fair back in August and that too was in a block of neighborhoods. 

So after turning the wrong way on 16th Street, I finally found my way back and proceeded to the hotel. I finally got to the opening speaker at 9:00. I was only a 1/2 hour late. It just meant I didn't have to stand in line to register. :-) Plus it wasn't anything I hadn't heard before about differentiated instruction. I took an entire grad class on it. I don't think much has changed in two years. 

The meetings that I attended were quite good. I cannot wait to get back to school to try some of these ideas out. I have an opening speaker tomorrow, followed by 2 break out sessions. Then I will be on my home....minus the big scary road of 465. Large lanes of traffic freak me out! :-) Which is one of the reasons I refuse to drive through Chicago.

Shhh...

It was a four day teaching week this week. Today was our diocesan wide meeting day. We had to pick one of 6 meetings we could attend a couple of weeks ago. I picked my meeting about something that had to do with using some computer program to help student achievement.

I get a note from my principal yesterday morning stating that the meeting had been cancelled and that the person in charge of all of these meetings was going to e-mail the principal again to let me know where I was supposed to go.

I never received anything from my principal later in the day telling me which meeting I had to attend. Then I come to find out that the principal left school before school was even out. So I had no way of knowing where I was supposed to go. I figured that I must go to my second choice that I vaguely remember putting down. It was some meeting about using rubrics in the classroom.

Fast forward to this morning....I had to call the doctor and get an appointment. They had an opening at 9:15 this morning so I took it knowing that the actually meeting part didn't start until 9:30. I figured I would be a little late...no big deal.

After leaving the doctor's office, I show up at the school I am supposed to be at and there are 5 cars in the parking lot with a plumber's van. I saw little old ladies organizing something inside the building. I really think that this meeting was cancelled also, but I kept driving not knowing what the heck is going on. So I went to Walmart to get my prescription filled.

So I am playing hooky. I'm sure there was a sign in sheet at these meetings, but I have a feeling my name was not on any sign in sheet because my first choice meeting was cancelled. This is the most disorganized I have ever seen the diocese. Oh well...I'm enjoying spending time with my hubby until he goes off to work.