A bit of good news

No, I don't have a job for next year yet. However, the interest rate on the car loan for the new Outlander went down. So did our payments. We will be paying $20 less a month:) The money we will be saving makes up for all the money we had to pay in our taxes this year. Unemployment really stinks. They could at least take out some taxes so you don't get socked with them all at the end of the year. At least we won't have to worry about that next year. And I am hopeful that I will find a full time teaching position so we will be able to pay down some of our debts. Contracts are due in a few weeks, so I am waiting to see what kind of postings I will see then. Can't wait. I have the printer warming up for all those resumes it will need to spit out. All I need now is more resume paper!
Sorry that this is all the exciting news I have. Subbed last Friday for an LD parapro, but nothing since.

Death and Taxes

Those are the only things that we can count on in life. And right now I am not happy about that. We decided to have our taxes prepared again this year, by H&R Block. All was going well, until we got to the IRA contributions. Turns out they were entered wrong last year, giving us a credit that we should not have gotten. So, H&R is doing an amended tax return from last year, for free since their guy screwed up. (Which doesn't surprise me after the trouble the guy had last year. which is why we specifically asked for someone else this year.) H&R will also cover any interest or penalties that occurred because of the error, but we still have to pay the back tax. And, as if that weren't bad enough, we are probably going to owe the feds quite a bit this year again-mostly due to my unemployment and the fact that they are not taking enough taxes out of our paychecks. Needless to say we have changed our exemptions so that will not happen again for 2007. So, we go back in on Saturday to find out exactly what our damage is to the government. I am sure that it will not be good since that seems to be how our life is going right now. I just hope that someone in a higher power grants me a much needed full time job for the 07-08 school year. If that could happen, things will slowly get better.
There is a piece of good news though. I only have 2 more payments on my truck and then it is mine. And we will have that extra money each month. Yeah, we will finally own something!!

I learned something new yesterday.

Ok, for all you computer savvy people this may not seem like a big deal, but I was pretty excited. I was subbing at the middle school library as the parapro yesterday. the librarian was showing a video on the big 6 steps to research paper writing. Well, during the research stage they were talking about searching on google. If you want to narrow your search, you can put a minus sign in front of any words you don't want included in the search. I never knew that before, but it is going to save me a lot of time next time i have to google something. I also learned that if you are searching for a name of a person, put that name in quotes otherwise it will look for the first name and the last name, not necessarily together. I thought those were pretty interesting tips and wish I would have found them out sooner, would have made all those college paper searches a little bit faster. Oh well, I guess this just further proves that you are never to old to stop learning.

Since I am not subbing today, I am not really expecting to learn anything new today-unless it comes from the news. Course, the book that I am reading for Lent has provided some pretty thought provoking questions. (Rae Ann, still waiting to start discussions!)

Haven't gotten a wake up call in a week.

I haven't subbed since last Wednesday. I thought for sure with cold and flu season lasting longer this year I would be kept nice and busy. Guess teachers have found ways to stay healthy. Oh well, hopefully something will come soon.
I have been keeping busy applying for a few jobs. 2 in Kimberly and 1 for the new school they are building in DePere. I already got a no from Kimberly for one of them, but I am still hoping. The jobs are starting to show up more now that contracts are coming out.

For anyone wondering, we ended up driving to Watertown on Friday night. Not the best drive I have every had, but we made it in one piece without landing in the ditch. It took us about an hour longer to get there then normal, which was actually quicker then I was expecting. The main highway was not too bad, but the country roads had major drifting. Especially as we got closer to my parents. By the time we pulled in, the back of my car was buried in snow and the underside was also caked in snow. It is days like that where i am glad that I own an SUV, even if it does not have 4 wheel drive. I am not sure we would have done so well in a car.

Well, I am off to do some more applications.

To Go or Not To Go...

that is the question. It is snowing now and we are supposed to have 2-4 inches by the time it is done. 1-800-ROAD-WIS says all the roads are snow covered and slippery. The sun is out right now and I am sure there are at least plow trucks on 41. The only problem is after 41 I still have about an hour drive on 2 lane dark roads. I really want to go to Watertown just to get away from everything here for a weekend, but I don't want to end up in a ditch. I guess I will wait to see as the day goes on and call the roads again later and see how they are. Who knows, maybe the snow will stop sooner then they expect and the roads will all get cleared up. If things get too bad, guess we could always leave early tomorrow morning and drive at least in the day light. Too bad Brian works until 5:45 tonight.

Speaking of work, they didn't cancel Sylvan last night, but they might as well have. I didn't have to be there until 5, but called at 4 to make sure they were still having classes. they said they were, so I made the trek in. 2 minutes from Sylvan, my cell phone rings. they are asking me if I am on the road yet. Hmmm, 10 minutes before I am supposed to be there and I live 20 minutes away in good weather-YES I AM ON MY WAY. So she said okay, come on by and we will figure something out. I got there, ended up teaching no students at the 5 class, but got everything pulled that they need for Saturdays classes. 6:00 class, there were 2 students that hadn't called in by 5:45 and there were 2 teachers. Would be a slow night. At a little after 6, one of the students called in. So, we were all heading home at 6:15 and the director would teach the other student if she showed up. I busted my butt to get to Sylvan and will only be getting paid for 1 hour of my 2 hour scheduled shift. They didn't close because of the hassle it would have been to schedule make ups for all the kids in the schedule that night. Well, now they have to schedule make ups for all those kids anyway-except for the 4 that showed up for the 4-6 class. Snow has a way of screwing everything up. GRRRRRR-I hate snow!!!!!

And March Comes In Like A Lion

We are getting our second major snowstorm this week, and it promises to be worse then the one from the weekend. "Edward" is going to be dropping about the same amount of snow as "Danielle", but it will also be bringing sleet and freezing rain. Wonderful news for all people without a snow blower. Course, I am not sure how well a snow blower would work with really wet snow. Many schools are closed today, with many more closing by 1pm. We are supposed to get the brunt of everything tonight, and I am hoping they are right. We are hoping to drive to Watertown tomorrow night to visit my parents and I really don't want to do the 2 lane country roads if it is snowing/sleeting/raining. And according to the radar, the precipitation will be changing depending on the part of the state you are in. Gotta love this wonderful winter weather. I guess I shouldn't complain, I mean we had to know that we were going to get hit hard with the way winter started out so mild.
So, now I sit here, watching the snow, waiting to see if Sylvan will be cancelled for tonight as well. I am assuming they will, since most area schools are closing early, but you never know. And I am sure that schools will be closed tomorrow, so no subbing there either. Luckily I got a little bit of subbing in yesterday afternoon.