I'm in Low Power Mode.

This past week, I have been so busy! It's just because it's the beginning of the school year. Things will die down eventually. But at the moment, there is just not enough time in the day to accomplish everything I want to accomplish!

Many things I had time for in the summer have been pushed to the wayside...

• There's not enough time to listen to my podcasts and they are piling up.

• I'm unable to watch all the daily news shows I enjoy... Morning Joe, Jake Tapper, and Anderson Cooper.

• It's taking me awhile to respond to text messages, emails, and other areas of communication with friends and family.
• I'm slow to read and comment on blogs and reply to comments on my blog.

• I can't keep up with everything that is going on in the Big Brother house! I like reading all the updates but there is literally not enough time!

• I haven't done a puzzle since school started.

A couple days ago, I was listening to the Happier with Gretchen Rubin podcast. One of the Try This At Home tips is to go into "Low Power Mode". It's kind of like when your phone is running out of battery power, it only performs the most important functions and gets to the other functions when it has more power.

So it goes both ways- if you are swamped at work, sometimes your personal life goes into Low Power Mode. If you're swamped in your personal life, sometimes your work goes into Low Power Mode.

Right now, my personal life is in Low Power Mode. That does not mean I am not giving myself time to unwind, relax, and be happy. It just means for the next few weeks, until work dies down, I may not have as much time as I would like to do those things.

 But that's okay! Soon I will be back in the groove and have a better work/life balance!

Soon, I will be FULL POWER MEGAN!

Are you ever in Low Power Mode?

Weekly Workouts!

I'm having some random hip pain post run... sometimes it happens, sometimes it doesn't. Sometimes it's on the left, sometimes it's the right...

Saturday- 11 miles on the AT with Kristen and Allison. The three of us were doing all different distances that day. I started at 850 and ran to Scott's Farm and back. It was so humid. I was huffing and puffing up the hills. I don't know what was wrong with me!

How many snakes do you think are in there!!??

Sunday- Lifting @ the gym. I also tried the row machine. It was... okay... I'm going to watch some Youtube videos on technique and try again!

Monday- 2 deck of cards workouts. Then Chrissy helped me stretch.

Tuesday- 6 morning miles! I woke up at 1:30 and could not fall back asleep. It was a rough day. My right hip hurt throughout the day. When I say hip, I mean high hammy and groin.

Wednesday- Lifting @ the gym and 2 treadmill miles. I'm back on the 5am gym train. Choo choo! Unfortunately, I woke up at 3:30 and couldn't fall back asleep. However, when I left the gym, there was a HUGE rainbow! It was a sign it was going to be a great day. My hip did not hurt at all after two miles. I don't know if it was due to lower mileage or the treadmill.

Thursday- 3 nighborhood miles and 1 deck of cards. My hip did not hurt at all! I think I will try 3 miles tomorrow too.

Friday- 4 neighborhood miles and 1 deck of cards. I felt great during the run except my LEFT groin hurt a little, and then continued throughout the day. I wonder why it's jumping from side to side. I think it's my lower back affecting my hips. It gets tight. I might go get a massage.

There are a shit ton of sunflowers in one of the alleys I run down.

How were your workouts this week?

How I Get Ready for the School Year (Friday 5)

Hey all! I am linking up with Running on Happy and Fairytales and Fitness for Friday 5 2.0!

Today, I'm going to show you how I got my classroom ready for the school year in just THREE DAYS!

Why did I only have three days? Because I don't go in to work in my room over the summer. A lot of teachers go in early and you can tell because their classrooms are BEAUTIFUL!

You will not see beautiful, Pinterest-worthy classroom pictures in this post. You will just see the down and dirty process of how I get ready for the year.

(If you DO want to see some beautiful classroom photos, check out my friend Molly's blog @ The Sassy Apple. She is so creative and spends a lot of time making her classroom look happy, organized, and fun.

Here's what I did...

1. Seating charts, class lists, first cycle lesson plans and materials. These are "behind the scenes" items that you can't see when you walk into my room, but they are the MOST IMPORTANT THING for me to have in order before the students arrive on the first day. Because they're most important, they're something I tackle first. They are also the most time consuming.

2. Updated my desk calendar. Every year, I have a huge desk calendar. When my calendar is updated, I feel IN CONTROL of everything. This is what keeps my life in ordered during the school year. Definitely priority number two.

3. Prepared paperwork for parent night. I took on the duty of 4th grade band this year. I wanted to make sure I had information to hand out to parents because I knew they would have questions. I have some anxiety about not only adding more work for myself, but something brand new that I don't feel totally confidant doing yet. I'll get there!

4. Decorating, organizing, and tidying up my classroom. I will be honest, I do the bare minimum when it comes to bulletin boards and classroom decorating. Bulletin boards are very time consuming and I'd rather spend my time creating fun lessons for my students. But my classroom needs to look inviting and ready for the students to arrive, so I do need to put some effort into this. Luckily, I don't take everything down at the end of the school year so I have less to put up. I'm no dummy!

New toys!

Oh, my friend Molly, who I mentioned above, did the bulletin board outside my room for me! She spent a lot of time making it look AWESOME. Thank you, Molly!

5. Other random crap... such as creating playlists on my phone, putting tape on the floor for the kindergarteners to sit on, decorating my band room, laminating, making copies, picking chorus music... The tasks are endless! In fact, I woke up at 1:30am on Tuesday morning and just freaking got up because my to do list was so long that I couldn't sleep! Wednesday morning I got up at 3:30. Ugggggh!

Behavior communication chart I can use to let the classroom teacher know how the music class went.

We got new phones! I feel like an adult!

I was super productive, and for the most part, I was prepared for the first day!

Do you work well under pressure?

Teachers: What is the most important thing for you to have in order for the first day of school?

Happy First Day of School!

Today is the first day of school for the students!

I'm sure the kiddos are excited and nervous. But I'll tell you a secret... The teachers are excited and nervous too!

Normally, I'm unable to sleep the night before the first day, but adrenaline gets me through.

Today, I will be doing the standard "first day of school" spiel in my room... That means a hello song, a movement activity, and of course lots of going over rules, expectations, procedures. I will be very bored after doing that seven times today. But I better suck it up because then I get to do it nineteen more times over the next three days!

I am very excited for the school year. I have a lot of NEW ideas for my classroom. This is the most excited I've been in a long time to go back to school.

The first couple weeks of school are tiring because it's very important to be VIGILANT. I'm very strict with rules, procedures, and classroom management. But believe me, it PAYS OFF, because soon, I will have a seamlessly running classroom. All the hard work I put in at the beginning of the school year will be worth it in the long run.

I'm looking forward to my FOURTEENTH year of teaching!!! There are going to be some big changes this year, but I'll get into that at a later date.

To everyone going back to school today August...

Parents: Are your kiddos looking forward to the first day of school?

Anyone have any good first day of school memories?

I got scammed in Craigslist!

Guys, I got scammed on Craigslist! Don't worry, I did not lose any money because the scam didn't go completely through. I got my head out of the sand and realized something was wrong...

I was selling a lamp on Craigslist. No one emailed or texted me about it until like two weeks after I posted it. I got a text message. This is what it said:

Then I gave him my address, which I removed for blogging purposes and the conversation continued...

So obviously this guy's story seemed weird, but I was multitasking when we were texting and I was just thinking, fine, yeah, send a check and then have your mover pick it up. I wasn't really focused when I was texting this guy.

I didn't hear anything for several days. In fact, I forgot about it. Then I got this text:

Weirdo. Oh well. I just figured I'd wait and see what happened. And again, I forgot about it...

Until about a week later when I was doing a deck of cards workout in my driveway and the mailman delivered a big priority mail envelope. I wondered what it could be. Then I remembered the check for the lamp. I bet that's what it was!

I continued my workout and decided I'd open the envelope when I was done. But then I got this text:

Yeah, right. I'm not doing jack shit. This was weird. After my workout, I opened the envelope. The check was for $938!!! What the freak!? This was fishy. THERE WAS NO WAY I WAS GOING TO CASH THAT CHECK, DON'T WORRY.

I googled the return address on the envelope. It was a warehouse in Michigan.

I googled the address on the check. When I did street view, it was a truck loading dock in Houston. It was labeled as "Zesty Corporation", which when I googled it, it took me to this website and description.

I googled the name of the bank on the check.. "East West Bank". It took me to this website. The address took me to an empty building with a for sale sign.

Wow, someone, or someones, were working very hard to scam me, and probably lots of other people!

Later that night, I got this text:

Creepy! I did not respond to any text messages after I got the check for $938. I knew it was a scam but I didn't understand what the scam was going to be. The person didn't ask for my bank information or credit card number... they wanted me to cash a check. So of course I had to google "craigslist scams" and did some reading. I learned what type of scam this person was trying on me.

From The Balance:

"The most common cashier’s check scam goes something like this: A "buyer" wants to purchase a product and will use a cashier’s check. For whatever reason, the buyer has a check issued for an amount in excess of the purchase price. Still, the buyer wants the seller to "just go ahead" and deposit the check. Finally, the buyer requests that the seller return the excess money, typically in cash, by wire transfer, or via Western Union. The return payment might go directly back to the buyer or to a third party.

Note the key elements:

1. The buyer uses a cashier’s check or money order. They explain that this is their only option for payment.
2. The seller or recipient gets a check for more than they asked for.
3. The seller is supposed to send the extra money back to the buyer or to a “helper.”

If you’re faced with a situation that looks anything like this, you’re almost certainly dealing with a thief.

Timing is essential: Don’t send any money or merchandise until you are 100 percent certain that the paying bank has actually sent the funds. This is often referred to as the time when the check “clears,” but that term can be confusing—even for bank employees.

Funds from a cashier’s check will be available to you for withdrawal within one business day, but that doesn’t mean that the funds actually exist or that they moved to your bank. That process can take several business days or longer. The less you know about your buyer, the longer you should wait.

How cashier’s checks bounce: These scams work because everybody believes that cashier’s checks are safe. If the bank lets you take cash, the check must be good, right? Unfortunately, your bank assumes that the check will be good, but the responsibility for the deposit is ultimately yours.

If you use that money (to send it to a “shipper,” for example), you may have to replace the funds. Once your bank finds out that the check is bogus, the deposit will be reversed—which could leave you with a negative account balance. With an empty bank account, you’ll end up bouncing checks and missing other important payments. What’s more, victims of these scams can lose hundreds or thousands of dollars."

After I realized I was nearly scammed, I reported the incident to Craigslist, the PA Attorney General, and the US Post Office.

Geeze. All this to sell a freaking lamp!!!

$40 obo!!!

CASH ONLY!!!!

BWAHAHAHAHA!!!!

Did you ever get SCAMMED?

Weekend Wrap Up!

 

Happy Tuesday!

It's my last Weekend Wrap Up of the summer!

Here's what we were up to...

Well, my last day of sleeping in for the summer wasn't meant to be. Jelly woke me up for food at 5:00. After that, I was wide awake. I didn't wallow in self pity. Instead, I decided to get up and take on the day!

What a little shit.

First, I did lots of blogging. But when I'm on a roll, I have to take advantage of it and bust out a lot of posts!

Then I went to Holiday Hair to show them that they burned my skin when they waxed my lip on Wednesday. 

The manager was polite and said she was sorry it happened, but that's it. I asked if I could be reimbursed. She asked, "Is that what you would like?" I said, "Well, what I would really like is for this to not have happened to begin with. But yes, I think it would be fair to be reimbursed, especially now that I have to purchase cream for my face so it doesn't leave a scar." 

So I got my $20.50 back for my lip and eyebrow wax, then I picked up some of this stuff...

Hopefully it doesn't scar. I don't have great skin to begin with.

After that, I putzed around some shops. I only bought one thing, this statement necklace from Burlington Coat Factory. It was only $7.99! It's silver.

While I'm taking pictures of jewelry, I may as well show you these two necklaces I got the other day. They are gold and I love them!

When I got home from shopping, Paul and I watched Big Brother. I am really enjoying this season but I hope Tyler, Angela, Kaycee, and Sam LOSE. If one of them win, I will be annoyed.

Then I worked out. I was so tired but I did it. I even wore my 16 year old sports bra!

It was my turn to clean the house, so I fired up a podcast and got 'er done. It will be nice to have a clean house for when I go back to work.

That evening, I went to Helenic Kouzina with Randy and Michael. I have been planning to try this restaurant for years. Let me tell you, it was worth the wait! 

I had a gyro and Geek fries. It's was $12. The restaurant is BYOB so you can save a lot of money that way. 

Randy and Michael let me try a bite of each of their desserts... OMG THEY WERE DIVINE! I look forward to leaving room for dessert next time.

I had so much fun chatting with my friends. We literally closed the place down! We celebrated Michael's work promotion and Randy's 10 year mark at his company!

Jelly had me up ALL NIGHT, slamming the door against the wall. I figured out why he was going nuts. Paul didn't fill their bowls with food before he went to bed so when I woke up to feed them in the middle of the night, I had assumed they already ate. Well, they didn't. Jelly raised hell from 2:30-5:30. Finally I fed him and got up.

That morning, I met Kristen and Allison on the AT for a run. We were all doing various distances, me the shortest at 11 miles. I ran from 850 to Scott's Farm and back. It was super humid but a great run with great company!

POST RUN GAS STATION FOOD!

MMMMMMM!

That evening we went to one of Paul's high school friend's wedding. It was held in Atglen and it was very beautiful. The bride and groom looked extremely happy!

I was worried I wouldn't know anyone at the wedding, but not only did I know three of Paul's friends who were there, BUT we all sat together. And their girlfriends/wives were SO much fun! We had an absolute blast. 

I hit up Aldis as soon as it was open! We were in dire need of groceries and I needed lunches and snacks for school. 

When I got home, I did A LOT of cooking. We are set! 

Quinoa Surprise: quinoa, green peas, mushrooms, chickpeas, peppers, onions.

Couscous Surprise: couscous, mushrooms, green peas, onions

Sweet Potatoes: sweet potatoes, salt, garlic, oil

Stuffed Pepper Casserole: peppers, ground turkey, brown rice, spaghetti sauce, shredded cheddar cheese

Then I loaded everything I need for work this week into my car.

I even made my lunches for part of the week.

Outer order, inner calm, right?

That afternoon, I got a text from Loft that my order was ready for pick up. So last night at the wedding, I fell in love with the jumpsuit the photographer was wearing. She told me she got it at Loft, it was 40% off, and she ordered it online and picked it up at the store! So I went back to my table, went online, and ordered that jumpsuit right there at the wedding!

I drove to the store to pick it up and tried it on before I left. It fit PERFECTLY and I LOVE IT!!! I can't wait to wear my jumpsuit. It's weird, I never thought I needed a jumpsuit, but now I realize that is what has been missing in my life...

Then Paul and I went to Planet Fitness to lift. I tried the row machine for the first time. I liked it and it didn't bother my knee. However, I couldn't get my heart rate past 75 and my Garmin said in 5 minutes I only burned 10 calories. So I'm not sure if I'm doing it right. The resistance doesn't go up much higher...

The rest of the night was just spent relaxing... playing cards with Paul and watching Colbert. I went to bed early so I'd be ready for the first day of school!

Do you think I'm doing row wrong, or is it supposed to be a less intense cardio exercise?

Are those necklaces your style? What kind of fashion jewelry do you like to wear?

Do you like Greek food?