#19 Open a 529 account for my 14-month-old daughter

My apologies for the out of order blog postings. I had written a post and then forgotten that I had written it and wrote another so I just changed the title of the first and posted it expecting it to be posted afterwards but no such luck. They are apparently posted in the order you write them, not in the order they are published. What's up with that!?!





This is one of those things that I knew I needed to do but just hadn't gotten around to doing yet. I especially knew that it needed to be done after I read earlier this year that the tax benefits were permanently set. Two things held me back. One, we don't have a lot of money, and two, there are so many 529 accounts out there, which one to choose? Well, we finally picked one, filled out the paperwork (I filled out the paperwork), picked the investment and sent some money that her grandparents and great grandparents had already given her over the last year so that it could start earning some real money. Now, once I start earning an income, we should be able to start putting money in regularly as well.

#18 Read 2 "What's going to happen in book 7 books"

Yep, I am truly prepared for my copy of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows to wing itself to me today. I even have a crash pad prepared to disappear to on Sunday while I read the book in peace, minus the baby, the husband, and the household chores. My Mother's Day gift at last. :)

Back to #3 Get a job

And finally after months of tirelessly checking websites, going to interviews and fruitlessly pounding the pavement, I finally have a job. It isn't exactly what I imagined when I set out to get a job but it is a job and I am really looking forward to it. I am now a high school ESL teacher. When I set out on this quest, I really wanted an elementary school position but any positions are few and far between in my county right now so I found it difficult to find anything full-time, much less full-time and elementary. I thought perhaps I would end up in a middle school again, where I had done a large chunk of my student teaching, but instead, I ended up in a high school where I have never taught. AAACK! This could be interesting. Fortunately, I have taught middle school and, frankly, I think they're scarier than high schoolers. I was also planning on a full-time position and instead I got a part-time position that might turn into a full-time position if the 10 day enrollment numbers hold. So much for my planned stability. But, I am extremely happy with the school, my co-teacher is fantastic and I think it will be a wonderful experience all around. It just goes to show you that, if you want to hear God laugh, tell him your plans. He must have be rolling on the floor...

...And we're back! #17 Read Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince

Well, I've been out of town at a wedding for several days so I didn't get a lot done on my list this last weekend. I even took several things with me but since Jim was in the wedding that meant that I had full charge of our daughter and she kept me hoppin'. I did at least get this book finished and I am now almost ready for the final book to come out. I also wanted to read two "What's going to happen in book 7" books and I have finished one of them so look for that in the next few days...

#16 Tame kitchen desk clutter

Our kitchen desk has always been a bit of a sore spot for us. It is a very convenient horizontal surface right as you enter the house from the garage that regularly collects things like junk mail, newspapers, and just about any other detritus that enters the house. It is also where we have tried to keep the computers (two laptops) my cellphone and PDA chargers and about 10 other corded things. Basically, it's a mess. It's also dangerous for a very tall toddler who doesn't know any better than to grab onto things that hang and dangle (this, of course, is also dangerous for the computers). (Important note, the BEFORE pics were taken after the months spent working on the cabinets above the desk so the mess is not nearly as bad as it used to be. It used to literally be stacked up to two feet high with miscellaneous stuff.) So we spent several months coming up with new routines to deal with junk mail and receipts and whatnot and cleaning out the cabinets above the desk. Then, in the last couple weeks, I ordered a magazine rack and a really cool desk valet charger (something that you wrap all your cords up into and then put the little electronics things on top of) and it is now regularly clear which is nothing short of a miracle. (Disclaimer, we actually finished this task a few weeks ago and it has collected a little bit of junk since then so I had to remove a few things to take the very nice AFTER pictures below. HOWEVER, it has improved so much that most of the stuff is truly temporary and takes only minutes to clean up instead of literally an hour of bulldozing.)

BEFORE

AFTER

#15 Read Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix

Okay, so I completely underestimated the pull of the Harry Potter books. I have read them before. Many times in fact. Still, however, when I finished book 4 on Sunday, I immediately had to dive into book 5 and spent 3 days reading it whenever Katie was sleeping, playing independently, or sometimes when she was eating (it's often boring to watch a toddler eat, or frustrating, better to do other stuff). I hadn't planned to finish it before we went out of town, in fact, I hadn't expected to start it until we were out of town and maybe read it while we were gone and finish it when we got back. Nothing doing. I read in every spare moment (even though I KNOW how it ends for heaven's sake!) and finished it Tuesday night. (I even started book 6 when I was supposed to be packing...) As a disclaimer, I am a really fast reader and I did sort of mentally skim over the stuff that I wasn't interested in reading again. Like Hagrid's story about his trip to the giants. It is the mark of a really good book, however, when you can get people to read it like that even when they've read it before.

#14 Read Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire

Okay, I have now read all the way through books 1-4 and movies 1-3 in preparation for movie 5 and book 7. Only a little way farther...