End of March already?

Where does the time go?  School will be out in just a little over two months from now.  I have so much to get done before then.  I guess it will either get done or it won't.  It's been difficult to get stuff done in my library this week.  The temperatures are slightly rising outside which means the district shuts the heat off and pumps cold air into our building for unknown reasons.  It might be 70 degrees outside, but it's 64 degrees in my library.  I stay huddled at my desk with my electric blanket plugged in.

So my students did well at the Scrabble tournament.  There were 27 teams total.  One of my students didn't show up the morning of, but thankfully one of the other student's mother brought some of his cousins along so he partnered with a cousin.  They placed 6th, 9th, and 11th in the tournament.  I thought that was a success coming from an inner-city school competing against mostly private school students.  They were nervous before they started playing but after they all won their first games, they realized they were better than they thought.

Matt's birthday was on Wednesday.  I took him out to dinner at a steak restaurant.  I feel bad that I didn't get him a real present.  My bank account was suffering this month after buying his Valentine's present and then hit with a subscription renewal for Lumosity that I hadn't planned for.  It would have been ok had I gotten my reimbursement for the trip I took for work in February.  I asked about it last week and was told that the lady who takes care of that has been out on jury duty for two weeks and I wouldn't get it until next Friday.  I even had to borrow money from our tax refund to pay all of the bills this month.  I'll pay it back when I get reimbursed, but it's been frustrating.  So Matt's birthday present was the Lumosity renewal since he had mentioned he wanted to start using it again.

So I've been completely lazy today.  It's almost 3 and I haven't showered or changed out of pajamas.  I'm looking pretty grim at the moment.  I did start dinner in the crockpot though.  I'm trying a recipe for pepper steak. I've been finding all sorts of interesting recipes on Pinterest.  The crockpot lasagna I made turned out good, but it was too much food for two people.  I should start cutting the recipes in half which is what I did with the pepper steak recipe.  I think I'll even make a cake for dessert - a belated birthday cake for Matt.

Time for some Scrabble

I can't believe that my spring break is already gone.  I didn't get much of anything done though I did read two books.  I rested a lot.  I made shirts for our Scrabble tournament that we are going to this weekend.  I got my hair cut.  I did some shopping but didn't buy anything significant - just stuff I needed for the trip.  I went to Scrabble club tonight.  I had a good night.  I averaged over 400 points a game.  I was losing the last game by about 40 points until I bingoed out with the word "WINNABLE."  I tried playing "BEANINGS" first, but it was challenged off.  I finally found winnable and wasn't positive it was good, but was fairly certain.  I also played a 104 point bingo in my second game.  I couldn't believe that my opponent forgot the D-hook for the word "JINN"  (DJINN).  He played off two other D's before I was able to play my word "TRAGEDY" for 104 points.

I need to go to bed, but I'm waiting for the last shirt in the dryer.  I realized I had the wrong size for one of my students so I picked up another shirt tonight before Scrabble practice but I couldn't wash it until after I got home.  I have the iron on ready to go - just need the shirt.  If it's not going to be dry in the next few minutes, I'm going to go to bed and will finish it in the morning.  Most everything else is packed and ready to go.  We have to leave by 8:30 to go pick up the suburban that I am renting.  We pick up students at 9;45 and hit the road by 10:00 a.m.  I think it will be a fun trip.  I hope my kids do ok.  If they draw well, they should have some good games.

Well, I'm going to go check on the shirt and call it a night.  I'll try to post the results this weekend.  We will be getting back late Saturday night.  Here's some pictures of our stuff and the T-shirts I made.

Spring Break and Losing an Hour

I can't decide if it's better to lose the hour the week of spring break or not.  Perhaps it means I'll ease into the loss a little better as I slowly get used to going to bed an hour earlier.  But then again, spring break means I get to sleep late every day, so it will still be a shock to my system when work starts up again.  I will have to get used to it a little earlier than normal since I'll be taking my students to their first major Scrabble tournament on Friday.

Yesterday I helped out my library facilitator at her house - packing stuff up to be moved into storage.  She has had a rough time lately.  Her partner of many years passed away a few weeks ago.  She wasn't able to take much time off to spend with her before she died and is dealing with that at work.  Now she has sold her house and is moving her stuff into storage.  She is going to move in with her mom.  I can't believe the amount of stuff she has in her tiny house.  I was glad to help her out - I understand how daunting it can be to move everything without much help.  I started months before I moved down here to San Antonio.  Matt and I went back over this afternoon to help out for a few more hours.  I'll probably go back later in the week.  My back is sore now though.  Packing is tough work!

I'm not sure how I'm going to spend this week of spring break, but I plan to get some reading done.  I've already finished one book that I got at the book store the other night.  I'm in the process of reading The Princess Bride for the first time.  Yes, I can quote the movie, but I'd never actually read the book.  The book I just finished was written by Cary Elwes that was all about the filming of the movie and it was very interesting.  I also need to finish the cleaning and sorting that I left behind over Christmas break.  I can't make any promises that I'll get up the same motivation that I had then.

I need to get my hair cut as well.  It's growing out a bit too much for me.  I guess all of this should keep me pretty busy this week.  But I'm going to be a bit of a lazy bum as well.

Just stuff

Things are still busy but thankfully spring break is next week.  I spent most of today writing a grant that I have to submit by tomorrow.  I had to go pick up a check for student meals for our upcoming tirip since I wasn't sure what would happen with the weather tomorrow.  We are scheduled to get a cold blast of icy, wintry mix.  That might freak the city out and shut everything down.  I hope not.  I don't want to have to make up the day later.

I broke my chromebook the other day.  I dropped it carrying it to the kitchen to use it for a recipe I found online.  It still works, but one of the hinges is messed up.  I'll see if I can take it someplace to get it fixed next week.

I was trying to come up with an idea for Scrabble shirts for my students that are going to the state Scrabble tournament.  I looked online, but it was going to cost me $150 for just 8 shirts.  Last night I went to Michael's and got stuff to make my own.  Shirts were on sale for $2.50 and I spent less that $10 for iron on transfer paper.  I spent only $28 to make 8 shirts.  I think they turned out pretty well.  I'll try to post a picture of them later.

So I'm taking six kids to Dallas next week on Friday (the 13th no less).  They are playing in a Scrabble tournament.  I hope they do well.  It will be tough, but hopefully they will do ok.  I hope I've prepared them enough.  They are at a disadvantage in general because they have limited vocabularies already.  But we've worked on some word lists so hopefully, they will be able to make some good plays.  Their strategy is pretty good, but they need to work on not shutting the board down.