Am I the only one who backs out?

I was just wondering tonight in Wally World if I was the only one in the world who backs out before paying out. I had about an hour and half to waste. Dara and a friend went to the movies tonight in Cleburne. I didn't want to waste diesel driving home then back to Cleburne, wayyyy too far. So, I went to Wally World to waste time.

I wondered through the clothes only to find that they didn't have anything new. Speaking of clothes...I wear plus size clothing. I know that's not a shocker. But, the problem is that the plus size section in ANY store is about 2 to if we are lucky 10 racks of clothes...and those clothes look like some little old 80 year old lady going to the doctor's office would wear...or they look like something I wouldn't put on my dog. The clothing buyers don't think that there are large sized women and GIRLS who don't want to look like their grandmother or great-grandmother, so they don't buy for us large people. It is so DAMN infuriating...I have many, many, many times called and filed a complaint with the corporate offices of several clothing stores about this.

So, moving off my soap box...then I moved to the bedding, kitchen, and household goods section. The one in Cleburne has a section that has a discounted aisle of just these things. I found several slip covers they had marked down. The only problem was that they didn't have a love seat and sofa of the same color. The sofa slip cover was only $35 and the love seat slip cover was $25. Thinking this is a great deal, I threw a dark green and a light green one in the basket. I carried these slip covers around with me for over an hour, wondering how I was going to make these two different shades work together.

The closer it got to the movie being over the more I decided that I didn't need to spend that $60. Again, as always, I put them back because I figured that my family needs something else more importantly that slip covers. I DO THIS ALL THE TIME.

Most of the time it is makeup, clothing, shoes, under garments, hair spray, etc. that I put back because I think that I don't need to spend that much money on something for me and not the family. I'll pick it up, carry it around, get to the check out and ask the cashier to put it back.

Am I the only one who backs out like this? Just wondering...

Baby's First Vet's Visit

Today was Satch's first visit to the vet's office. I sure hope it doesn't leave a bad mental blurr in his mind. The little guy was gelded today. Dara and I got to watch the whole procedure. It's not much different than castrating a calf. I felt so sorry for him.

We had to take his buddy with him in order for him to get in the trailer. It was pretty easy...once Rhum walked in we just had to give Satch a little coaxing with a few smooches and in he went. He never really fought us AT ALL. He just wasn't sure what we wanted him to do until Rhum climbed in. Now coming out was a different story. He was too scared to put his feet down on the ground. He hesitated a few times and then just stepped off like he'd been doing it all his life. He really is a pretty smart little guy. We really haven't found anything that he is terrified of. There are times, of course, that he is a little skittish. But, isn't that how all babies act?

By the way Jennifer, that is Rhum in the background. You really can't tell much about him other than how big he is to be a year and 17 days.

Kids, Parents and Demerits

Four and a half years of college...BS degree in Elementary Ed...with a minor in English...Elementary teaching certificate...English as a Second Language endorsement...21 years experience teaching mostly Reading/Language Arts/Writing, and a parent of one of my students has the gaul to tell me that I must have went to college to learn how to write demerits because I do it so well. A second time she writes...that all I must have done is study how to write demerits.

Now let's not address the issue that her son had been told many, many, many times to turn around and stop talking over several weeks. I finally had had enough of him disrupting the class by turning around and talking that I did give him a demerit. I usually try to give the students a few chances to change their behavior before I take action. This time he was turned around one too many times and talking one too many times.

Again, let's not address the issue that her son was wasting time by drawing instead of working on his writing benchmark test (which is a mini-TAKS test). Again, he was told many, many, many times to get busy...not to mention that he had to take three days to complete the stupid thing when it should've only been a two day test. (Now, to interject here, the actual TAKS test is only a one day test. I was only giving the mini-test to both my classes in one day, so that meant that they had a half a day each day to complete it. I only have each class for a half a day.)

So, I write her a letter back stating that I need to address both of her gratuitous comments (you like the word? I bet she had to get a dictionary to learn what it meant), and tell her that even though she doesn't like him getting demerits for disrupting the class he will continue to get them as they are warranted (like that word?), and according the student handbook blah blah blah.

I never heard a word from her. He came up to me to tell me that his dad was getting out of jail and they had to go to Huntsville (jail? how bout prison) to get him. He said his mom has to talk to immigration to see if he can stay here when he gets out. WHOLLY SHIT are you thinking what I'm thinking? Two days ago he came in all teary eyed, and I asked him if he was ok. He told me that his dad did get out of jail, but he was deported back to Mexico. He doesn't know how to speak spanish nor does he understand it...mom doesn't speak spanish either.

Does anyone else besides me see a problem?

Cost Cutting?

I'm taking Jenn's post about cost cutting...Spin Cycle topic. I posted about this before...I titled it You (I) might be a redneck if... Well, to start off the car engine blew, the truck's clutch burned up, our cell phones got turned off, we moved our double-wide home onto 5 acres with my mother in another double-wide home, have a 1974 motor home that hasn't run in over 3 years parked in the front yard being used as a storage facility, and I could go on and on.

But that is not what this about...it's about cutting cost. To replace the car we bought another one for $250.00 plus tax/title/license plus a water pump. We called someone that buys vehicles running or not. He came and got the dead car, gave us $100, and towed it off for free, so the one we bought actually cost us $150. Yeah a car that has fewer miles than the one that cratered. To fix the clutch...we asked a good friend if he knew of anyone who did clutches and he had a friend who would do it for just the cost of the clutch $300. Mom is still living next to us, and that seems to be working out ok because she does the cooking and we're not eating out AT ALL (so saving that money). She buys the groceries, and will not take any money from me or let me pay for them. We are using that money we are saving on groceries and eating out to get the phones turned back on. We're also saving money on a having to not rent or buy a storage building by using the motor home for storage.

So yes, cutting costs is hard to do. But every little bit helps. How often do you get to buy a car for $150? Now is that cutting cost or what?

My Little Tanner

I'm so upset I could literally shoot someone right now. The neighbor two doors down stopped me in the road to tell me my Tanner got attacked by a pack of dogs from across the street from them. He told me his wife heard their dogs (in a fence) carrying on, and her horse making a commotion, and looked out and saw a pit bull with what she thought was a rabbit or a small cat. But as they got closer it wasn't...it was my 2 year old Chihuahua Tanner. This is the second fight he has been in. The first one costs us around $400 in vet bills. The second one cost him his life, and the loss of my sweet little man.

So needless to say, if I see those dogs they are dead. Everyone in the neighborhood have lost many dogs, a show rabbit, a show goat, many cats, and house pets. They have tried to attack another neighbor's yearlings they raise and sell. So I guess I'm going to be the one to get rid of these killers.