Favorite Day of the Year

What is your favorite day of the year? I honestly think that May 31st must be mine! I mean, seriously, what is not to like? The days are still getting lighter and warmer. More sunshine means more happy people. Summer is lingering right at my fingertips, but is still entirely there. Everything that is good is ahead of us now! Oh, and don't you just love the picture of the waterfall pool that I found here? I want to find this and dip my toes in the water, while sipping a pina colada.

This morning, I got to sit through nearly three hours of high school graduation! I am honestly so excited for these kids. The best is still to come for them. But I have to be honest--as the talks rambled on about all their past accomplishments and all they hope to be, my mind couldn't stop thinking about summer vacation! So do you want to know what was in my head? My all time favorite things about summer are...

Walking barefoot in the soft grass. Mmmmm!!!

Going to watch an outdoor play! Last summer I was in The Scarlet Pimpernel! Sink me!--It was the highlight of my whole summer! The only hard part was getting that ridiculous white wig to stay on long enough for the ballroom mascarade. Sigh. I really miss that Murray Arts in the Park group. If I could have a second career, I would want to be an actress.

Making homemade ice cream! This has always been a fun memory with the cousins and me. Some of my cousins will be in town in July and we can make all varieties of homemade ice cream from lemon cheesecake to mixed berry. Everything always tastes better when you make it yourself.

Going outside and gazing at the stars on a nice, quiet summer evening.






These are a few of the exciting things to come this summer. What is your favorite day of the year?

Off into the Sunset

We finally made it, folks. Tomorrow is high school graduation. It seems like these things come faster every year. The school divides us into committees to make it all run smoothly. Some examples of places we could help out are ushering, sound crew, banner makers, program designers, etc. I am on the Search and Seizure committee. It is a pretty exciting committee, let me tell you! I get to arrive at the E Center--oh, uh hum Maverick Center--tomorrow at 9:00am in my high heels and congratulatory smile. Then I get to walk up and down the tunnel of girls, handing out safety pins, bobby pins, pencils and ribbons. I also get to ask them to show me their pockets to make sure they have no cell phones or other objects that could distract from the ceremony. It is a pretty intense job. Next, I get to make sure the girls walk into the stadium in twos and get seated next to two boys. After that, I get to sit and listen to some inspiring talks followed by 743 names! It is pretty intense. After it is all over, I usually get myself some French fries to celebrate that I survived.

After that exhausting charade, I would like nothing more than to eat my fries in the quiet comfort of my home while watching the Season Premiere of MasterChef. There will be no time for that, however. It looks like I am moving again! That's right, everybody. I have lived in my cute West Jordan house for a mere four months and it is already time to hit the road. You are actually privileged enough to be looking at a picture of my bedroom in its current state. It is time to pack up the boxes and head out. My students are beginning to worry about me. I have become such a transient teacher. One student asked me if I am really so poor that I have to be homeless. The truth is, I have decided to move home for the summer. I will be teaching at BYU's French Camp for June and then going to France in July. I might as well save the rent money and put it towards some French baguettes while in Paris. It is pretty exciting. Packing boxes and filling up a truck with my furniture, however, is not quite as exciting. But, I just tell myself that by Friday night, I will be all moved and everything will be all organized in my new bedroom. I will be eating popcorn and watching video clips and be done moving--at least for the summer.

Awe. I wish I could just snap my fingers and wake up in my new bedroom with every piece of clothing neatly folded and put away, pictures of the Seine hung on the wall and some homemade wheat bread baking in the oven. Well, if it doesn't happen, at least I have a very good imagination.

Let them eat cake

Have you ever had a day where you thought, "I just can't get enough of my job?! I can't believe I am paid to have so much fun!!" Some days, when the kids are smiling and speaking French and listening and responding, I feel that I could do this job every day for the rest of my life! Other days when I get cold glares and kids talking back to me after simply asking them to put away their ipods and cell phones and focus on my well-prepared lesson, I just want to escape to a remote island and sip pina coladas. Luckily, I usually enjoy my time with the kiddies. Last Tuesday, I had one of those love-my-job-forever days!

I waited to post about this entry until I received a few parental permission slips to show you their pictures. I asked them to prepare a presentation on some French figure, real or fictional. They were invited to bring food, costumes, music, video clips, paintings, perfume, etc. to share with the class. They had a few minutes to set up their booths and then we all walked around the room to meet these francophone figures. Many students went the extra mile! As you see here, one girl from French 1 purchased a wedding dress from DI, just so she could look like Marie Antoinette. She did her hair all up and brought in a strawberry shortcake. When Marie Antoinette's people were starving, she is falsely identified as saying, "Let them eat cake!" Though she most likely did not say those exact words, she was very naive to the plight of her people and spent much of the kingdom's money on wigs and pastries to avoid thinking about them. She was called, Madame Deficit. This high school girl did a great job, explaining the pressures that Marie Antoinette had to face in her life.

Another student presented Napoleon Bonaparte. He made Napoleon cookies with three completely different dough recipes. How impressive! Did you know that Napoleon was only 5'6"? He was a small man, but definitely a hero in the eyes of the French. Just don't mention Waterloo to them when you go over to visit. He restored order to France after the bloody Revolution. It is only too bad that he stretched his troops too thin by going into the cold wasteland of Siberia! Who does that?

The Eiffel Tower was build by Gustave Eiffel for the 1889 World's Fair. It commemorated 100 years since the French Revolution. The French originally did not like the structure and wanted to tear it down. Luckily, they found use for it as a radio tower in the early 1900s. Each time they thought about tearing it down, it just didn't happen. Today, many tourists travel great distances with the Eiffel Tower at the top of their To-Do list. Can you imagine what Paris would be like without it?

One girl presented Erik or The Phantom of the Opera. Did you know that there is really a lake under the Opera House in Paris. Could he have existed? Hmmmm....

The original Phantom was so ugly--nothing at all like the romantic and mysterious figure we see as we watch Andrew Lloyd Webber's musical.

Hard to Say Goodbye

One of the hardest things in life for me is saying goodbye. I just don't like it. Why do we have to say goodbye to people we care about? The longer I live, the more goodbyes I have to say. I am not a crier, unless it comes to saying goodbye. Whenever I got transferred to a new area on my mission in Brazil, I just couldn't keep the tears from falling as I tried to give a hug and say Adeos to my newly found friends. I sob uncontrollably at funerals. For the past six years now, in the month of May, I have had to say Au Revoir to a group of students who have become my good friends.

Last night, my Student Body Officers had a Goodbye Banquet. We laughed as we shared some of our most embarrassing moments and some of our greatest memories together. One such story was of a girl who who left her keys in her locked car while it was running and then went to a school activity with her buddies. When she came back, the car wasn't running anymore: it was out of gas! Haha...Another funny award given was a big bag of red Doritos to a boy who goes beet red every time he gets put on the spot in front of the rest of us. When he came up to pick up his chips, he was indeed the color of the bag. It was cute. After all these awards, we handed out some serious awards to the students. At the end of the night, the kids surprised the two of us advisors the best gift I have ever received: a scrapbook of pictures of them from the year along with personal thank you letters next to each of their pictures. These books are priceless. I opened the book and had to shut it immediately because it was too hard to fight back the tears while reading those letters in front of them. It was very touching. We all need to hear that we have made a difference in someone's life. Something like this makes me want to send out more letters of appreciation.

Then this morning, at Copper Hills High School, we had our Annual Goodbye Assembly for all 2500 students. We watched final performances from the senior cheerleaders, drill team and band. We all laughed and cried through the Goodbye Slideshow. The hardest part was the last 6 minutes where the Student Body officers hung up their sweaters on the coat rack one by one before leaving the stage. Before they walked up the staircase and disappeared behind the curtain, they showed off their new t-shirt of the college or program that they will be attending in the Fall. It felt like all of us were symbolically hanging up our sweaters, closing one chapter of life and entering another. Sobs were heard throughout the auditorium. It is exciting to think of all the future holds, but it is really hard, all the same. We must lose sight of the shore before we can discover new oceans.

I don't do well with change in my life. I like things to be constant: my friendships to last forever, my family to never get sick or move away and myself to turn 22 years old at each birthday. This cannot happen, though. One thing I have to learn is how to accept change and actually look forward to it. I am working on this. I know that lots of good things await because lots of good things have come so far. I am grateful for all the wonderful people in my life who have blessed me and inspired me to be better than I am.

Nightmare at the Mall

As the school year draws to a close, the kids have gotten crazier and CRAZIER! Can you say ENERGY times 10?! Needless to say, when my cute cousin Melissa invited me to meet her for a quiet dinner at the Fashion Place Mall last night, I was overjoyed! I was very excited to have a relaxing evening with some stimulating cousin conversation. I hoped this would calm down my nerves from all the hectic end-of-year stuff going on. We met up at the Nordstrom Café. Have you been there? It is an incredibly cute little Bistro/Café. They have pizzas, sandwiches, soups and salads. They also serve baked French fries with incredible dipping sauce! You know me and French fries! Can't resist! The evening was quiet and peaceful. It was exactly what I had hoped for. We talked and laughed and caught up on all the family gossip. Good times.

Melissa asked if I'd like to look around the mall with her for a little while. Pourquoi pas? We walked past all the brightly-decorated mannequins and shop windows. Everything was happy and summmer-y. I was smiling and enjoying the lightly-playing mall music. As we turned one corner, a hippie-looking man with a huge beard walked right into our path. "Herbal Tea?" he asked, right in my face. Before waiting for an answer, he poured us two mini sample cups. I smiled and tried to push it away, but he wouldn't take no for an answer. Melissa tasted it and didn't look convinced. He had out another sample of Chai tea before she could say a word. "Chai Tea, then?" She sipped on that one and still wasn't sold. He then grabbed her arm and walked her into his shop. I followed. "This is the most rare and healthy tea in the world!" he exclaimed. I rolled my eyes. "It will help with digestion, teeth, hair, skin, weight loss, energy and vitality!" What a miracle tea! What doesn't this tea do? He put the tea in her hand and tried to get her to buy. Melissa started looking nervous and said, "We have to do some more shopping, but we will come back." We turned around and walked out. Huge sigh of relief!

We had no sooner started on our path again when a lady, covered in silk shawls, pulled into our view. She grabbed one of each of our hands. "Oooh, sisters!" she said in her thick Israeli accent. I pulled back. I actually have nightmares from these people. About two years ago, I was conned into buying some of their $250 eye cream. Don't ask me how they did it, but they did!!! I left with the sack of product that I didn't want, a dazed look on my face, and a bill for $250 that was nonrefundable and nonexchangeable. This lady grabbed harder as I pulled back. "You will love my hand cream!" she exclaimed with delight! Oh no! Oh no! I wrenched my hand out of her grasp. "No thank you, ma'am," I said. "I already bought some of this stuff." She held onto Melissa's arm and led her to the kiosk. I stood back. You think she would have spent her energy, focusing on Melissa. After all, she was the one, willing to go through with this forced sampling. Instead, the Israeili woman just glared at me. "When you use our product?" she asked. I looked wherever I could--anywhere to avoid her gaze. "Uhhh....a few years back, I guess," I mumbled. "Sorry!" she retorted. "This cream just arrive FRIDAY!" Whoa, lady! Are you really trying to make a sale by yelling at the person who has ZERO interest, while rubbing your sea cream into her cousin's arm?! Bad move, lady! Melissa looked down, trying to hide her giggles. Was this really happening?! This lady wouldn't drop her angry glare in my direction. Finally, Melissa decided that she had had enough herself. She pulled her arm away and said, "Thank you. We have to go." The lady looked stunned. Hooray! Get me out of that stressful situation. I was ready to go home.


I tell you, I think I'll take a room full of 40 teenagers with spring fever over that Israeli woman at the kiosk!!!

A Taste of Europe in Utah

The Dilemma that Ended Well

Have you ever had a really hard decision to make? You decide to go in one direction and then the doubts set in. You wonder...what if...? and change your mind. Then you ask yourself if this other direction is really the best way to go. Ugh. Sometimes I just wish I had a crystal ball so that I could see which way would really make me the most happy. This type of dilemma happens to me all the time. I am pretty sure that I overthink things, but that is the way I am.

Today, I lucked out! This doesn't always happen, but it sure feels good when it does! A science teacher asked me, a few weeks ago, if I'd like a free trip to Lagoon. That's right--Physics Lagoon Day was scheduled for today and they needed at least two other chaperons. I would just have to ride the bus up to Farmington with the kids and then I'd be free as a bird to ride all the rides to my heart's desire, except when I got to take a break for a complimentary VIP lunch. I'd get a substitute teacher paid for and could hang out with teachers all day. I normally don't pay money for Lagoon--all my pennies are saved for the magic of Disneyland--so it sounded like a chance that I wouldn't normally take. For some reason, though, I couldn't really decide one way or the other. I wasn't sure if I wanted to hop on a bunch of corkscrew rides and then ride a bus back to West Jordan at 6pm on a Friday night. I decided against it. I was a bit sad, but just didn't feel right about it. A few times I started rethinking my decision, but in the end, I held firm.

Well, I got to school today and what do you know? First of all, 120 kids were waiting in the Commons Area at 7:00am. There was a lot of excitement. Kids were in shorts and t-shirts with water bottles and big smiles on their faces. Excitement quickly turned to disappointment, however, when ONE MEASLY school bus pulled up to the school! Oh no! Where were the other two buses?! These kids had all paid $35 each for the bus and day pass. The poor chaperons!--is what I thought. They were scrambling, calling the district, trying to figure out what could have possibly gone wrong??! No other buses were available. The final decision was to crowd half the students into one bus, take them the hour drive to Farmington, come back and pick up the second half. What a nightmare! Kids all said that their parents were going to call the district and complain. This didn't change the situation that one bus was all they had to do the job. The chaperons had to ride with both groups. Now, complicate that with the fact that it had to RAIN today! I cannot tell you how happy I was to hang out in my classroom all day.

When 3:00 hit, I skipped out the door. I came home and opened a nice jar of chips and salsa. This is living!

Sugar or Meat?

Every since I was a little girl, I have always been the Queen of What If questions. I remember asking my mom, "What if you had to choose between being blind or deaf? What would it be?" My mom would give me a funny look and say, "But I don't have to choose between those." I kept bugging her to her to pick anyway. Once I got one answer, I would just push on through to another question: "What if you HAD to live in another country for the rest of your life? Which one would you pick?" She never knew how to answer these questions. I just loved all the possibilities and could keep the questions coming for hours. Well, yesterday morning, I woke up with a new question in my head: What if I HAD to live the rest of my life without any sugar or meat? Which option would hinder my life the least? I went over this over and over in my mind for at least 20 minutes as I was driving around town yesterday. I would say I could live without sugar, but then start thinking about delicious chocolate chip cookies, right out of the oven. Then I would switch to giving up meat, but remember how much I love Chick Fil-A chicken nuggets. Oh, what torture!

It only took till the end of today, however, to make up my mind on this difficult topic. It all began with a delicious breakfast of fruit and yogurt. I mixed blackberries and strawberries into my smooth Greek yogurt. Mmmmmm....I got to school at the usual 7:00am time. By 9:00am, I was so hungry, for some reason. I was hungry enough that I considered going to the vending machines, something I think I have only done twice in six years! Luckily, Dennis, my coworker, picked up some chocolate chip cookies from the cafeteria for the student government kids. All right! I grabbed a cookie. It was still frozen, but it helped ease my hunger.

After this 1st period class, the school got divided up by Academies (kind of like what future careers these kids want to have) for a closing social. We watched performances by various groups and gave out certificates. At the end of the party, we opened several boxes of assorted doughnuts. Now, I am not a doughnut person. I never eat doughnuts, actually. But for some reason, the Red Velvet doughnut this morning grabbed my attention. I picked it up. I started licking off the cream cheese frosting. I ate half of it and started feeling sick, so I threw the rest away. It did make for some pleasurable initial bites, though. I was starting to feel too full and that was not a good feeling before lunch, so I decided: no more sugar!!!

Lunch came at noon. I went into the Faculty room and had my pasta with salad. It felt good to eat something that wasn't sweet. Oh no, but on the table right next to the teachers was a huge, free Cookies and Cream cake from Sam's Club. Seriously? Cake today? I do love cookies and cream. I decided that one bite couldn't hurt. I stuck the fork right into the cake and had a good-sized bite. Tasty. Ok. I could feel my stomach churning. At this point, I was really done with sugar.

3:00 hit. School was over. Oh, but I forgot that today was a Bridal Shower for a teacher at the high school! Great! I went into the Faculty Room to see it all decked out in streamers and confetti. On the table was the most delicious looking punch imaginable. It was filled with sherbet and berries. I had to have a little glass--after all, it is not every day a teacher has a bridal shower! Then, someone brought in homemade cookies, just right out of the oven. Oh, those are my weakness! I admit that I enjoyed every gulp and found delight in each bite, but it wasn't until I was ready to go home that I wondered if those small moments were worth it.

Tonight at 6:30, there was a Parent Meeting for the newly elected Student Body Officers. I asked the SBO president to get some healthy snacks. What did he come back with? Over 100 cookies and a small container of grapes and raspberries. By this point, it wasn't hard to look the other way and avoid the Snickerdoodles like the plague.

Who knew that this crazy What If question would bring about such a sugar-coated day. Luckily, this sugar overkill cured my sweets cravings for a long time. I think that tomorrow I will visit a Brazilian barbecue.

What will they think of next?

Today is the day we have been preparing for all year: the day of the AP French test! I don't know who was more nervous, my students or me! This test is a brand new test this year, actually! They decided to get rid of the grammar portion, from past tests, and focus on listening, reading, speaking and writing about authentic sources. I am pretty excited about the change--who likes grammar after all? I hope my students feel good about the test. It finished about an hour ago now. I guess I will find out tomorrow morning how they think they did. I passed by the testing classroom several times, hoping to find the counselor who was administering the test, so that I could drop off some brain food (granola bars and Gushers snacks! Mmmmm...I don't remember the last time that I had a Gusher.) I hope those helped keep their brains working. My French 3 students told me later that the best brain food is dark chocolate and mint gum. Those things are shown to increase brain activity. I wonder what class they learned that in. Is this true? Well, I guess I will put that on the list for next year.

It has been rather exciting preparing for this new test. Our new AP French textbook has given us lots of readings from newspaper clippings, brochures and magazine articles to discuss. One of these articles talks about a soap museum in Paris, dedicated to all different types of ecologically friendly products. One such product is shampoo bars! Have you ever heard of those? Would you really want to wash your hair with a bar of shampoo? It seems like a pain to me. Funny, though, I was walking around City Creek a few weeks ago and I saw a little soap store myself. They actually had shampoo bars inside! I was so tempted to try one out! Who would have thought??

Another new invention is called Le Whiff! Has anyone heard of this one? Le Whiff is "a new approach to eating by breathing." You use it like an inhaler whenever you have a chocolate craving! Guess what, folks? It is less than 1 measly calorie per serving!! What do you think of that? Would this really replace a rich piece of chocolate, though? I wonder how popular this thing has become...

Any takers for a shampoo bar or Le Whiff?

What Motivates You?

As we all know, yesterday was Mother's Day. It is always a difficult task to find the perfect gift for an amazing mother who has sacrificed much of her life, just trying to make her kids happy. Any little token gift that I thought of just didn't seem good enough. I had to eventually decide on something, though. This year, I got her the traditional Bath and Body Works basket along with an inspiring book by Chad Hymas, a quadriplegic who did a very motivational assembly at my school a couple of weeks ago, and...a cat buzzer.

My mom has had this cat, Sneakers, living at her house for the past few years. Sneakers is a very friendly cat. He fears noone and loves to sit on anybody's lap that drops by for a visit. He was originally my brother's ex-girlfriend's cat. My brother rescued him from being neglected outside her house with a bunch of other stray cats. My brother asked my mom if she would mind keeping Sneakers for a little while. My mom originally hesitated because she did not want an animal living in her brand new house. Sneakers eventually won her over, though, and this situation has proven rather permanent. Sneakers really is a sweet cat. He never makes any noise, even when he is hungry. The only problem he has is that he loves scratching up the furniture. The edges of the couches are getting rather ripped up. My mom tries to tell him to scratch his scratch board, but Sneakers is not the best listener. He has now started scratching up the carpet. Getting my mom this cat buzzer means that she can now she can push a button which will play a loud sound that only cat ears can ear and hopefully train him against that. Do things like this work?

As I thought about this, I started wondering if a little trick like buzzing a cat is really the best way to train an animal. The cat will eventually learn to make "correct" choices, but this will be out of fear of getting zapped. I guess it is worth a try on an animal, but what about on a person? How do we respond to fear? I have discovered that people are motivated by external and internal things. External types of motivation include fear and hopes for a reward. Internal motivation, by contrast, includes out of duty, faith in something larger than ourselves and ultimately love. I believe that fear is the least effective type of motivation while love is the most effective. I have noticed this with my students. When I threaten to take points from their grade or send them into the hall with a worksheet, they often make an effort temporarily to focus. Sometimes I offer them a reward. I have a bag of over 300 suckers that was left in my classroom by a student back in October. I want to get rid of them, so I say things like, "Sing this French song well and you will get a treat." This can work for a few minutes, but usually the kids who decide to sing that song with their heart and soul are the ones who would do so anyway. I have noticed that the best way to get my students to work hard and do what I want them to do is just to love them and really show I care. This is the hardest way and definitely takes more work, but is much more worth it in the long run.

It is funny how we really do want to help people and make a difference in the world, but we hate to be forced into it. We don't like guilt trips. We want it to be our decision. When a student asks me for a piece of candy, I never want to give it to him. I always want to give when it is my idea. I guess I need to decide to actively seek more opportunities to give. One of the things that Chad Hymas said at our school assembly (and I HIGHLY recommend his book, by the way) was that we have to decide to give with our hands more than receive. Okay. I had heard that before. But then he asked us to do something I had never done before. He asked us to open the palms of our hands and look at them. Really study them. He asked us to notice the fleshy parts on the palms of our hands. He told us that since his accident, in 2001, his fingers have become boney and permanently limp. Now that he doesn't have full mobility, he has had to make a conscious effort to be positive and find ways that he can give to others without using these hands that we all have. For some reason, by looking at my hands that day, I was really touched. I decided on my own that I wanted to reach out to other people with whatever energy I have each day. Hearing his optimism inspired me to reach outside of myself more than a buzzer, taser, sucker or fear of punishment could ever do. That is what motivated me. What motivates you?

Saving and Spending

When I first began teaching at Copper Hills High, there weren't enough French classes for a full schedule, so I got to teach Financial Literacy. This was an exciting class, let me tell you. I certainly did a lot of research every night. One day, a kid raised his hand and asked, "Could you please explain to me the difference between a Roth IRA and a 401K?" I smiled awkwardly and said, "We won't be covering that until tomorrow." That night, I spent the evening vigorously researching investment options and calling my friends who were into that kind of stuff. Whew! I learned a lot! Well, one of the most memorable lessons I taught those Financial Literacy students was the Bathtub Analogy. This is so simple: you spend less than you make. You always want water to be at the bottom of that bathtub. We cannot all have every one of our hopes and dreams. We have to prioritize.

Each of us makes choices day-to-day on how to spend our precious, hard earned cash. Here are some things that I happily spend money on:

1-Traveling. A Vacation=A Memory. Memories are priceless. I think that trips are definitely worth saving for. There is nothing more exciting than boarding a plane and flying off into the sunset. Usually, I don't even care where I'm going. I just like to take off on an adventure. My mom always told me growing up that if I ever got depressed or needed therapy to let her know and she would plan a vacation for us. Thanks to her, vacations have become my therapy.

2-New Clothes. I think it is thrilling to get a new outfit, at least once a season. Nothing is more exciting than walking out of a store with a bright new pair of shoes or an adorable summer dress. This definitely adds some color to the humdrum of life.

3-I am getting pickier and pickier about restaurants. However, there are a few restaurants that I can't get enough of and Cafe Rio is one of them. Seriously, if I am having a bad day, Cafe Rio makes it better. If I am having a good day, Cafe Rio is a great place to celebrate! And with the Rewards Card, it makes me feel like I need to keep buying meals so that I can work towards a free one!

4-Planning parties with friends or family. Seriously, there are so many themed parties to do and so many people to invite. Just last night, my friend put on a P Party! We all got to choose a P name (I was Penny), we ate Pasta Parchment dinners and played Pictionary. The Pina Coladas made a perfect spring drink! Before I decided to be a teacher, I used to say that I wanted to be a party planner. Wouldn't that be fun?






Now there are some things that I don't spend my money on. These include:

1-Books. Now don't get me wrong, I love to read. But hello--the Salt Lake Public Library system is amazing! You can put books and DVDs on hold and they are delivered right to the library near your home. It is all free and I can return them when I am done. This also makes moving a lot easier because books can be heavy! What would we do without libraries?

2-New cell phones. I kept my RAZR phone until it completely broke. They keep trying to upgrade me, but I am fine with a simple phone and a small texting plan. I know that I will probably have to jump on board with the cool Smart Phones/IPhones one day, but I am saving my pennies until then.

3-I have never owned an ipod/mp3 player in my life. Looking at this picture, though, makes me think I should eventually get one. I do have itunes on my computer and I do like music...hmmm...this one could possibly change. After all, bringing only a stack of library books on my plane rides does have a tendency to weigh me down.

4-New cars. My little Mazda just hit 90,000 miles. Ouch. The Mazda dealer also informed me that it needs new spark plugs, break fluid, rock chip repairs and...something else technical sounding. It does get me around, though, and I appreciate it.



Well, it is interesting to see what we all like to spend our money on and what we can do without. What are your priorities when it comes to spending?