Five For Friday

I'm linking up with Doodle Bugs Teaching for my first Five for Friday!

1. Free Breakfast

My husband and I finally got around to using our IHOP gift card for a late breakfast this morning. He didn't have to be at work till 3, so we decided to take advantage of the morning. The only downside was my breakfast alone left me with only 170 calories for the rest of the day. Good thing I'm still full!

2. New Scooter

Earlier this summer, my husband sold his car in hopes of paying off some debt and downsizing to a more fuel-efficient scooter. I wasn't thrilled with the plan, but since I wasn't working this summer I followed along with the plan. He searched and searched and searched for a reasonably priced scooter and finally found one on Craigslist this week for under our budgeted price! Dave Ramsey would be so proud. He's been riding it around this week and finally got a helmet on clearance today at our local cycle shop. He feels a little nerdy wearing a helmet on a 49 cc scooter, but I insisted on it. By the way, I tried wiping off the lens of the camera before taking this pic, but it instantly fogged up again thanks to the mega humidity we're experiencing here in southeastern PA. Ugh!

3. New Necklace Holder

Back when I was in college I talked my baby brother (who was like a freshman in high school) into helping me make a necklace holder because all of my necklaces were getting tangled up constantly. Our original model was riddled with problems, but did the trick. He later made my mom one that looked more like the one in the above picture. For years I begged him to make me a new one, but he always refused. Finally, I talked him into making me a new one this summer. This is what he came up with. The base was a surprise. He started experimenting with using the router and decided to do the same to mine. It's a little big for my tiny apartment, but I love it because my Baby Jake made it for me (he's not a baby anymore, he's like 19 now). I picked it up from him when my husband and I went home to visit for our annual pilgrimmage to IL to see our families. I finally separated all of my necklaces and bracelets and set it up on Monday of this week. I love it. Hopefully it will make it easier for me to access my jewelry during the school year. I'm going to try to focus on my appearance a little more and oversleep a little less this ; ) (sorry for the poor quality pic, it's a hard thing to take a picture of!)

4. Accordion For Sale!

I don't even know what to say about this picture. This has been sitting in front of my dresser ALL WEEK! My husband is in this selling frenzy trying to pay down our student loans...when I say mine, I mean his. He is currently enrolled in a 96 credit Master's program at a private school that doesn't offer Grad Assistant positions. Needless to say, we've been racking up the debt the last several years. Anyways, he's trying to sell this accordion on Craig's List for $450. Apparently it's a really nice one in great condition. I don't know why anyone would want to buy an accordion for $450, but he assures me it's worth even more. I guess other instruments sell for over $1000, so I suppose I understand. I can't wait to get it out of here, though. I'm going to encourage him to take it to a dealer if it doesn't sell before school starts. My house my start the school year in pristine condition! Wanna buy an accordion?

5. Shrinking School Stack

Oooo...check out my awesome alliteration. Nice, eh? I should've been a Baptist preacher...oh wait...that would never work. Never mind then. Anyways, my school stack that has been taking up valuable ottoman space is dwindling! That means I'm making progress. However, reading all these teaching blogs about going back to school is making me panic a little on the inside. Only two full weeks of summer left till in-service. I know, I know, I'm lucky. I also go till the first or second week in June and have very few days off during the school year. This summer I've been re-vamping my reading curriculum, but got de-railed when my laptop keyboard stopped working. It was supposed to come today, but alas and alack it never showed. Maybe tomorrow!

Overall it's been a great first week of blogging on Simply Sixth Grade! Be sure to link up with Doodle Bugs Teaching!