$4.76

okay. as many of you know i have been taking a financial peace course through my church. it is great and certainly life changing for me. anyways, i have a budget that is based on an envelope system. for example...if i need $150 a month for gas i put it in an envelope marked "gas money" and use that money only for gas. when i run out, well i run out. hopefully i make it to the end of the month. i am only in my second month of this new budet system and i definitely don't have it all figured out yet. but i am working on it and that's all that counts, right?!?!
so, after some poor calculations i ended up with only $6 for food to last from this past saturday until friday (which is still 2 days away). i don't really have any groceries in my house but i got creative this week. i defrosted all the turkey burgers and chicken cutlets that had gone astray in my freezer, i ate all the canned veggies that have collected dust in my cabinets. but then last night i realized that i had NOTHING left. at least not anything that i could combine to make edible. so i ventured to target this afternoon with my $6. i planned on getting some pasta because its cheap and i like it, but then i got into the store and discovered all the things under one dollar that i could buy! here is what i ended up with 2 bottles of sparking water, 1 pasta side dish thing, 2 bananas, 1 large can of peas,1 box of vanilla cookies and 1 box of pasta...for $4.76! can you believe it?!?! i thought about going back and spending the left over money but i knew not to press my luck! as i stood on line to pay i noticed that a guy in the lane next to me was buying 1 can of tuna fish, 1 box of mac and cheese, and vanilla cookies( the .99 cent ones). i think he was in the same boat as me! it made me feel so much better and i guess that god just wanted me to see that i'm not the only one who has to count my pennies. why am i sharing this? because i want everyone to know that you can survive on very little money and LOTS of faith in god! hopefully i will do better next month, especially now that i know how to spend less than 6 bucks on food in 8 days!!!

Teacher Appreciation

This week is Teacher Appreciation week. I forget its coming every year, but it always comes at the perfect time. May is filled with EOGs, 4th quarter assessments, summative assessments, Spring Fever, etc. Not to mention Mother's Day projects, PTA meetings, parent orientation for next year's class and kindergarten screening day for next year's class...you get the point. With all the craziness I sometimes forget why I teach. I start to count the days till the end of year...when really it is too soon to do it.
Then I come into work on Monday and each of my students came in with a flower for me! They walked in with a proud smile and a flower. I could tell how excited each of them were. They clutched the flower in their tiny little hand and said "This is for you Ms. Halsey!!" It's a flower!" (just in case I didn't know) My class mom came in with a huge vase and arranged them as the kids came in. All together they looked beautiful!!! I also got some really thoughtful cards from parents. Today my c lass mom organized a catered lunch for all the kindergarten teachers. Not only did we eat delicious food, but we also got to eat WITHOUT our students. Parent volunteers came in and took our students to lunch and we got to eat with other adults!! Imagine that! I did not open one milk or ketchup packet. I did not clean up one spill or remind one student to close their mouth while chewing. I did not eat corn dogs with canned peaches or pizza left over from Monday!!!! Needless to say it was nice, very nice. So, I like teacher appreciation week. I know that it is just one more thing for you moms, but please understand that we really do enjoy it! We often really under appreciated-so this week really means a lot. Now I have the motivation to get through to the end of the year (without loosing it). To all my teacher friends-I think you're great. Keep up the great work. What we do is so important!!!

Ryan

Below is a journal entry from August 2005. It seems like ages ago right?!?! So why am I posting this now you ask? Well, God is good. The prayers and prayers and more prayers that I and so many others have prayed for Ryan have been answered. Today marks 2 months of sobriety for Ryan! Praise the Lord! He has been transformed by God and I am finally starting to see the old Ryan...the Ryan that I grew up with, the Ryan that I loved. The pain of the past is still very fresh though, and I find myself still doubting him, worrying about him, suspecting things, etc. I know that only time can heal these things, and at the end of each day now I can breath a sigh of relief. I still have my brother, God spared his life...and I also believe that God is going to work though Ryan in amazing ways. I look forward to what God has in store for him. Happy 2 months Ry! I am so proud of you!!!

August 27, 2005

I use to have a brother named Ryan. We grew up together and I think I loved him more than any other sister loved her brother. My other brother Jason and I both loved Ryan. The three of us had so many memorable times growing up. I remember growing up on Loper’s Path with Ryan. Even when we both went our separate ways off to college, we remained best friends. He even came all the way from his college to mine to surprise me on my birthday one year.
I do not have a brother named Ryan anymore. I have an alcoholic for a brother. He is not Ryan now, he is an alcoholic. The Ryan that Jason and I love has been gone for sometime now. It only gets more and more painful as time goes by. Jason and I are still growing up together, but we do it with heavy hearts now. A part of us is missing and we can only remember the past to hold onto memories of Ryan. We try to talk about the good times often, to keep them fresh in our mind. Otherwise we will forget the brother Ryan we once had.
I hope and pray more than anything that Ryan will come back someday. It may never be the same, but I still want part of him back. Right now Jason and I just have an alcoholic for a brother. I hate my alcoholic brother. My heart will never fully mend until I have Ryan back. I love Ryan and always will. I pray that the Lord will send back my brother. That is all I want. I still love Ryan more than any other sister loves her brother.

To blog or not to blog

When I first heard about blogging I thought it was a selfish hobby. I frowned upon blogging and wondered where people found the time to blog. I would occasionally read a friend's blog just to see what it was all about...but I didn't buy into the whole thing. I found myself thinking, "Don't these people have anything better to do with their time? Heck, I could give them a laundry list of things to do for me." Honestly, I think I was jealous at first-because I wished I had that kind of spare time! However, I now have a part-time second job that has LOTS of down time. In that down time I started to read a few blogs. I was intrigued. I was reading things that I found very interesting, funny and just refreshing. I also was learning things about my friends who I thought I knew so well.
Blogging is really just a fancy word for journaling. (Our culture has created fancy words for just about everything.) When I thought of it more at journaling I started to warm up to the idea. However, I've never been much of a journalist either. I have about 10 pretty journals that collect dust on my bookshelves. Each one a gift or one that I purchased in an attempt to inspire myself to be a better journalist. It didn't work. Out of the 10 journals that I have they each average about 2-3 journal entries, followed by 100+ blank pages! A few years ago I started to journal on my laptop. I am a much faster typer than I am a writer. This solved the sore writing hand problem, but still left me feeling unsatisfied. As I began to explore the blogging world I realized how much you could do with blogs, like adding pictures, changing fonts and colors, etc. That was very appealing to me And most importantly my friends can read what I write! So, to make a long story short HERE I AM!!! I am now an official blogger. If I can find the time to browse myspace and look at the pictures on people.com everyday, I can find the time to blog too. There are no guarantees that I will keep this up, but at least I'm not wasting 100+ pages of a journal, right?