Wow

A friend of mine had a girls' night out earlier this week to show us how she has started saving money by couponing and doing the Buy One Get One Free sales. It was a fun night, spent with much chatting about various things and lots of laughs! We did hear the strategy that she uses though before our evening ended. My friend Renie regularly saves 30% or more on her groceries by using coupons and she doesn't have to shop for off-brands or go to wal-mart to be able to do this.

I haven't gotten into the full routine yet. However, today I went to Publix and mainly using their Buy One Get One Free sales, plus a few coupons I had, I spent $80 and I saved $44.75! I was very pleased with my first attempt at this. Hopefully it will get even better as time progresses.

It would be so great if we could do all our grocery shopping at Publix and never go back to wal-mart again : ).

Thanks Renie!

The Middle of June Already

For some reason I always think summer will be more relaxed than the regular school year, but it never turns out that way. May and June have been especially busy for me. I was traveling some in early May, then some big life decisions had to be made which took a lot of time and were very stressful, and lots of planning going on for a series of XO workshops that start TOMORROW for teachers and in July for students.

I still have a few hundred pix on my camera dating back to Feb. that need to be uploaded and posted here and on Facebook. I keep thinking every weekend I'll have a chance to do it but I never do. I think I need a personal assistant just to handle some of the tasks like this one and keeping my life in order.

So, I keep promising that I'll post pix on here but who knows in reality when that will actually occur. Maybe before summer's end...

They Grow Up So Fast!

We're riding to dinner on Mother's Day and I ask Callen something. She doesn't answer. A little while later she says, "You know I'm ignoring you, don't you?" Bo and I just burst out laughing! She was not amused but it was so funny! She's such a little smarty-pants but gosh how I love her!!!!

May Days

The first 4 months of the year flew by! It seems that time just flies faster and faster the older I get. I know part of it this semester was due to the fact that I travelled rather extensively, much moreso than usual. I'm glad that May is here and travel is over for a while at least!

I've had a productive week thus far. My colleagues and I got an article together in a very short while and submitted to a journal on Monday. Amazing what great people can do when they set their minds to it! I also had 2 articles that were R&Rs (revise and resubmits) that I had hoped to have out a month ago, but with all the travel it just didn't happen. I'm happy to report that they have both been resubmitted this week! Let's hope they both get accepted!

I can tell that all my travel is having impacts on Callen. She has been really clingy for the past few weeks, and also not going to sleep well at night. It seems later and later every night before she gets to sleep. I hope this stage passes soon as she needs her rest! She was even grumpy this morning when she got up, which is unusual for her.

I'm hoping the rest of the month is as productive as this week has been! Here's to May days that relax, refresh, and rejuvenate...

XO Laptops in Birmingham - NSF Article

The National Science Foundation is funding both my projects related to the OLPC XO laptops in Birmingham. They just put together an NSF Discoveries article on our work with the XOs. This is great exposure to have the NSF do this type of article on our work! Take a look.

http://www.nsf.gov/discoveries/disc_summ.jsp?cntn_id=116638&org=NSF

Where Oh Where Are You Tonite . . .

If you grew up in the rural south as I did, you'll know the rest of the lyrics to this song. Any takers?

This semester I've travelled a lot more than I normally do. Thus far, I've been to:
- Orange Beach, AL
- San Diego and UC, Irvine
- Atlantic Beach and Triangle areas in NC
- College Station, Texas
- Washington, DC

I still have upcoming trips this year to the following locations:
- NC
- Atlanta (at least twice!)
- Vancouver
- New Orleans
- and perhaps others : )

I've been traveling so much that my daughter is asking me why I have to leave so often : (. Hopefully one day she'll understand better than she does now...

Where oh where are you tonite . . .

Virtual Senior Center Connects Homebound Seniors to Community and Family -- NEW YORK, March 10 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ --

Virtual Senior Center Connects Homebound Seniors to Community and Family -- NEW YORK, March 10 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ --