Candle frenzy

Does anyone know where to purchase some really fragrant candles - and i do mean fragrant.    The ones that will burn for 15 - 25 hrs - I think they are cake candles.  I have tried yankee candle which is dismally disappointing and even  others.   Does anyone have a favorite candle that fragrances the entire house or at the very least the kitchen and dining room?    i need fragrances like cinnamon, or cinnamon/clove, lemon, vanilla bean or even pumplin spice.   

a former neighobr was moving and gave us this cake type candle that had the most heavenly fragrance.  My mom and i fell in love with it.  It scented the entire downstairs and even drifted upstairs a bit - only problem is, the name of the candle company was missing.    I have spent several hours on line searching for fragrant candles and have been sadly disappointed by thier offerings.   Soy candles have been disappointing as well.  

Just one of those days

Today is one of those days that I am unmovtivated.   Usually I can get myself psyched up to at least accomplish a couple things and often even more but today was not it.  I had plans to do so much and looking back I don't think I accomplished one thing.    Maybe it was because it was a cloudy overcast day.  I seem to be so much more invigorated when the sun is shining even if it is dead in the winter.  

I need a duvet cover for my alternative down comforter but I don't happen to have the $30 - $90 it costs to get a new one.   I have checked around at the local Goodwill stores and there are none to be found.   I came up with the idea to make my own by purchasing two really pretty and silky soft top sheets - I got mine at Goodwill in Delaware for $4 each.   They do not match, but by having two different sheets it will be reversible.   Anyway, my plan today was to lay it out on the bed, pin it together and then sew it on the sewing machine.  That did not happen - just no motivation.   

I needed to study up a bit on 5th grade math, which I may be doing at my 1/2 day of class for a 5th grade subbing job tomorrow.   I managed to do some studying last night, but not a damm thing today.  It is thoroughly frustrating for me - so many inconsistencies that are just driving me crazy.  

Maybe this duldrum i seem to be in is to the pressure of not having a job, one where I can depend on a steady income, regardless of what I make.  Only working one or two days a week can be a bit of a bummer.    

Social security vs teacher retirement

Teacher retirement may rob me of upwards of $350 a month in benefits when I retire?   According to the Windfall Elimination Provision, I could lose that amount of social security benefits simply by working for a school system.  Now that does not seem fair since i have worked for 25 years and paid into social security.    I plan to work until I am 70 at which time I can get the maximum benefit of around $1200.   You mean I am going to lose $350 of that money automatically.    Subbing is actually only part-time if you look at the actual possible days you could sub throughout the year, with holidays, Thanksgiving, Christmas, spring break, and summers off.    Even if i work for 10 years I will not have made enough to warrant social security stripping me of $350 a month.   

Has  anyone out in pnn land had social security deducted from their checks for 20 plus years and then gone on to teach or work in a school enviornment?   How much did you lose of your social security money?   

Gone awry

Krogers is no more.  I had to resign before i even started.    That HINI really kicked my butt for 2 weeks, I felt better then I got hit with a mini-version.  I just could not get rid of the sore throat/cough.    I was beginning to think that my deep bass voice was going to be with me forever.    Usually by the end of a day of subbing my voice was practically gone. 

In the meantime I had finished my online training at Krogers.   However, I soon found out that just going outside and working in my own yard - raking leaves, was causing me great distress in my lungs.    that led to being sick for a few more days.  I knew then and there that I could not be a bagger for Krogers.  It would require me to be in a warm store, then going out into the cold/rain to load groceries for customers, and then repeat that several times a day.  I knew that I could not do that.  So now i am back to one part-time job again. 

The subbing varies, one week I was able to work 4 days, but the next two weeks I only worked 2 days, so i cannot depend on a regular weekly salary.    I have gone the extra mile by applying to work in two neighboring counties to bring in some extra jobs.  So far i have only had one out of county job.    For the Thanksgiving holiday, schools are out 3 days now, not 2, so that week I may not sub at all.   then for the Christmas break, schools will be shut down for 2 full weeks. 

I need a part-tine job to fill in those gaps and jobs are just so darn scarce.   The loan companies are hot on my heels for there money, and i can't make the payments.    I can get assistance for the federal loans but not for my private loans.  they don't care that you are only working part-time.   How do you make them understand that when you only work 8 days in a months time, that they are not going to get any money that month.    I have had conversations with them and I am hitting a brick wall.    Federal loan personnel are very helpful, and will give you the time you need, but not private lenders. 

I certainly hope that with all this stress that I do not have a repeat of my GERD.  For awhile, the doctors thought I might have an ulcer - but whichever way it goes, the pain can be merciless.   It is hard to stay positive. 

I should know better

Like everyone else, we want the opportunity to sleep in a little later on the weekends, to get that extra ounce of shuteye that we were deprived of during the week.   For the past 2 nights I have not slept hardly at all and now I know why. 

Mom said that she made coffee and did I want a cup, and of course, being a little chilly outside, I said sure.  Now my mom knows that I only drink decaf because the caffeine keeps me awake, but apparently she chooses not to recall that when making coffee in the evening, so Friday night and Saturday night I got less than 3 hours sleep.   So my next chance for a decent nighs sleep is 6 days away.  Oh well, live and learn.

Happens every time

It never ceases to amaze me, and yet it happens all the time.  I purchase something new,  and then discover a few days or even a few weeks later that it has grown on me and I really like it, so much that I want more.  However, therein lies the rub.  What I have really taken a hankering to, cannot be found.    After Christmas last year I purchased these big opalescent lavender Christmas tree bulbs.  They were quite large, bigger, maybe 4.5 inches across.  Normally I would not have purchased something so large, but I just fell in love with them.   

After seeing them on the tree this year, I discovered that they pick up the light from the Christmas lights that surrounds them, so these bulbs that are normally a beautiful lavender color can be seen glowing a soft red, or green, or blue.  If a day is particulary sunny out, a rarity in Ohio, the bulbs closest to the windows turn a soft white.   

My dilemna is that I cannot remember where I purchased these lights.   I thought I got them from Menards, similar to a Home Depot store, but I did not see them this year.  Of course, these bulbs may just have been a one-time promotional item, who knows.    So now I am on a search.  Hopefully I will find them, as I would love to have at least 6 more.  Even without the lights on they are spectacular.   

chronic asleep-at-the-wheel

I would like to know how come I  am so friggin tired all the time.   My head hurts either at the base of my neck, or around the temples.   A friend of mine asked if I might have Narcolepsy.   Maybe i do, as soon as I sit down I get sleepy.  

That is not good particularly since i am trying to study for my last final exam for spring quarter.  I no sooner sit down to study then I am nodding off.  I have tried for 3 days now to study and I can't stay awake long enough to get through my notes.   It doesn't make any differrence if I take a nap, i still can't stay awake.  I don't know how many near misses I have had when driving home, falling asleep at the wheel.   I often call a friend of mine to talk to me while i am driving home, to keep me alert but sometimes he is not available and that is when I know that I have a guardian angel watching over me.  I have no idea if i nodded off for microseconds or seconds or longer.    Regardless it is not good.   

Does anyone else have trouble staying awake?  

Informercial bargains?

Usually I pay no attention to my msn homepage but last night caught my eye with consumerreports.org reports of three very popular info-mercials and the fact that they are in stores all around the country now. 

The first one that consumers have been looking at is usually a full=page ad in newspapers througout the United states - heaters that claim to heat your entire house for pennies a day and are surrounded by Amish crafted mantels.   According to the consumers union, it is cheaper to run your gas furnace than it is to run this electric model.  The second infomercial craze is the SHAMWOW - apparently the author of this project has changed his mind, on tv, several times that the product soaks up twice its weight.  Now it is down to either 12 oz or 10 oz.    The last is the Snuggle which wraps alround the weaer but is open in the back.  Consumers union washed it, and got a pile of fuzz after every washing, a whole handful of fuzz.   After 4 washings there is enough fuzz to fill up a zip-loc quart bag, so ladies beware, just because someone says it is a good deal, doesn't necessarily make it so. 

Sign-in-hand

How many pnn'ers have observed individuals stand near the road or on a street corner with a sign in hand that says "will work for food?"  I get negative comments from folks who say they never give anything because they are drunks just looking for the next sucker to come along, or others say "Why don't they get a real job?"   Maybe in the bigger cities the drunks do take advantage but don't harden your heart. 

I always counter with the obvious, or at least it is obvious to me, and ask folks if they observe the weather conditions.  Most of these men (usually males), stand outside in the boiling hot sun, or in the pouring rain, or in bone-chilling cold.  I say they are working.  Would any of us stand outside for 8 hous a day in the conditions I just described?  I think not, unless you were desperate to feed yourself or your family.   The next time you see someone in that situation, don't judge - just give him or her a couple bucks or more and a smile of encouragement.   They are not just faceless individuals

Nursery rhyme add-ons

Now that i am a grandma, and the fact that I have been studying children's literature for the past ten weeks,  I find that I have resurrected long-forgotten nursery rhymes.    Somewhere along the line, someone taught me the rest of Jack be Nimble, and I wanted to know if anyone else has ever heard of this addition and do you have any new ones, or updated ones.   Oh, I also found out that the Nancy Drew, and the Hardy Boys books have been updated somewhat to keep the interest of a new generation of children.  

Jack be nimble, Jack be quick, Jack jumped over the candlestick.  He jumped so high, he hit the sky, and never came back 'till the 4th of July.