Tis' The Season....To Make Teachers Feel Like Criminals...

....Fa La La La La...La La freakin La!

Ok, so my tune does not sound very merry.  I got that.

The local news channels are covered up with the report warning parents about giving gifts to teachers this year.  Our lovely state of Alabama has decided to enforce the strictest ethics laws in the country this year regarding gift giving to teachers.

Here is the gist of the story borrowed from our local news station....

"An Alabama teacher who accepts a Christmas ham or a $25 gift card from a student is breaking Alabama's ethics law. The possible penalty? Up to a year in jail and a $6,000 fine for the teacher who accepts the gift.

The law, which took effect earlier this year and is considered one of the toughest in the country, limits what public officials and employees can receive as gifts to a "de minimis" value, but it doesn't define that amount.

In an advisory opinion Wednesday, the Ethics Commission said "hams, turkeys or gift cards with a specific monetary value are not permissible." Items of nominal value, such as homemade cookies, coffee mugs and fruit baskets, are acceptable. "

You may be thinking that this maybe rubs me the wrong way because, I like to get "stuff".  That couldn't be farther from the truth.  It's not that.  I don't care about the 'monetary value' of the gifts I get.  It's just the point of the whole matter. 

The values in our country are really screwed up.

A professional basketball player's salary is often in excess of 25 MILLION dollars per year.

A pro baseball player can surpass even that.  Alex Rodriguez' salary for 2011 was 32 million bucks.

Football is no better, with salaries passing the 20 million mark.

(These amounts are not including indorsements and gifts, of course.)

116 million went into Lady Gaga's bank account last year because she sings songs and wears weird clothes.

Johnny Depp made over 100 million for his work in Alice in Wonderland and Pirates of the Carribbean.

James Cameron, the movie director, made 257 million dollars last year.  For making movies.  257 million. For making movies.  $257,000,000.00!!!

A teacher in alabama starts with a salary of around $31,000.

That's messed up.

Within just the last week, I have done ALL of the following....

Bought shirts for a craft for students in my class who couldn't afford them.....with my own money.

Supplied snacks to my students so they wouldn't have to go without one.....with my own money.

Bought paint, ribbon, and crafts supplies......with my own money.

Bought Christmas gifts for my students......with my own money.

Spent my 'free time' painting t-shirts and crafts.

Supported every fund raiser that our school had by buying everything from cookie dough to chances on an ipod to barbeque plates.......with my own money.

Cleaned up pee, wiped noses, soothed tears from tummy aches, and applied band-aids to boo-boos.

And, of course, I taught 18 kids the skills they need to be successful in school.

I do not teach to make big money.  No one does. You will not find a teacher....anywhere....who teaches for the money.  And we certainly don't teach for the gifts we get. We do it because we love the kids.

Some parents really do try to show their appreciation to us. The gifts they give are usually not much, but they are certainly appreciated. We, as teachers, just enjoy the little "thank you"s. 

The new law is a slap in the face to teachers.

Telling students and parents that they are no longer allowed to give a teacher a ham (or other similar illegal gifts) for Christmas because it has too much value, but allowing entertainers and sports stars to get salaries upward of 25 million......

That 's unethical.

Please click the link below to give me a vote.....
(As far as I know, it's not breaking any ethics code yet to vote for me.)

Indentity Crisis

Our identity has been stolen.

Again.

This is Tucker years ago.  He wasn't too happy about having his identity stolen either.

Within the last year, our debit card number was stolen and the thief went on an overnight New York spending spree before I caught it the next morning.  He used it to make a down payment on an overseas vacation.  Withdrew money from an ATM.  And even made a donation in my honor to The United Way. 

How nice.  A benevolent crook.

This morning, I got up and checked all my regular sites.  Facebook. Blogspot.  My bank account. 

And there it was again.

A thief had struck again.  Luckily, this time.  The spending spree had just begun.  The card was used only twice.  Again in New York.  This time at two Metro Stations. 

 Before I got to the bank to cancel it, the bank's "Risk Department" had picked up on the suspicious activity.  He had apparently tried to use the card on a larger purchase.  Too bad for the rotten crook, he picked a school teacher and an electrician to mess with.  We aren't known to have extra cash floating around in our account.  And we watch it like a hawk.

I don't know about you, but even a couple of hundred bucks can cause a crisis at our house. 

Blogging has not made me rich

   I just thought I would throw that out there.

   When I started blogging a couple of years ago, I didn't realize that people were making money off of blogging.  To me, it is just an updated way to keep a diary.   A very public diary.  After reading some other blogs and learning more about it, I realized that some people make decent money from blogging.  One Mom wrote on her own blog that "Blogging is kind of like a supplemental income, like Tupperware parties were back in the day."  I would have a hard time supplementing my income with what I have made so far blogging.

   I have recently learned that you get money from the little ads that are on the sides of your posts and sometimes under them. 

   Those over there. ------------------------------------------>
   When someone clicks on those ads, the company pays the blogger.  It's kind of like a "refer a friend" program.  Just for kicks, today I checked my payment account section thingy (obviously, not the correct terminology).  I learned that my account is sitting there with money in it.  Just waiting for me to get it.  Do you know how much money I have made so far?  Buckle up for this!   83 cents.  It comes from someone who clicked one of the ads.  If I knew who clicked it, I would send a thank you card.  When I figure out how to withdraw the money, I can go buy myself a candy bar.

    Let's be clear on something else.  I am also not getting famous from writing a blog.  I look at other blogs that have thousands of "followers" and "subscribers".  At the present time, I have one follower.  And it is me.  I follow myself.  I admit it.  If you look down at the bottom, right side of my blog, you can see for yourself.

    I know you are jealous.  You will probably start your own blog now.

Chore Champs

Bradley and I started the new year of 2011 with a goal.  We wanted to begin to eliminate our debt and become better stewards of what God has blessed us with.  After a fabulous suggestion from our dear friend Kristy, we read the book "Total Money Makeover" by Dave Ramsey.  We became very motivated to make some changes in our lives.  We started with a budget.  This was something we had never done in the past.  We began to spend less that what we were bringing in and started to pay off some debt.  We are definitely still learning and getting better control of our personal finances.  I could write an entire other blog on just this.  During our own path, we became to realize that we never really learned the lessons that we should have on how to take care of our money.  It was not the fault of anyone but ourselves.  We are definitely intelligent enough that we should have taken the initiative to learn more about money management ourselves.  We still have a lot to learn.

Very early on in our discussions and budgets, we agreed that we needed to do something proactive to teach the boys how to be good money managers.  Of course, we couldn't begin any kind of system until we had the ball rolling with our own debt reduction.  After a couple of months, we were ready to start something.  I had given the idea of implementing a system A LOT of thought.  I read some books seeking knowledge and inspiration.  I sought out bible verses for guidance.  I was finally ready to start something.  I knew that starting anything was better than starting nothing.  Our goals for the boys were for them to learn some basic knowledge of money.  We wanted them to learn:
Money does not come without work in real life.
Some things are worth saving for.
It feels good to give your money to someone in need or the church.


I had a meeting with the boys at the table to teach them about our plan.  I explained the point system to them. They would earn "points" throughout the week that would be worth money on payday.  They could earn 5 points per day. A morning point is awarded for getting up and dressed on the first request, eating breakfast, and getting backpack ready and out the door. A school point is awarded for good grades, no problems with behavior, and doing homework without being asked.  Two chore points are awarded for completing two chores per day. A "round-up" point is awarded at the end of the day after we "round-up" all of the things that were left out during the day, such as shoes, cups, toys, etc.  The boys are also given the opportunity to earn bonus points for doing more difficult jobs.  The bonus points are optional, the regular chores are not.  I was not prepared for the reaction I got from the boys.  They were so excited to get busy earning their points.  they were already looking forward to payday.

To help manage the payday system, we bought this tiny drawer system that is just big enough for their "time-card", pencil, and the chore sticks.  Each child keeps up with their own points by marking it on their timecard.  They must total it up and have it verified by Mom or Dad on Sunday before payday.

About 25 different chores are written on craft sticks and are inside a paper sack.  After the boys do their homework, they draw out 2 chores to complete.  They put those 2 sticks in their drawer.  They keep the completed sticks in their drawer until all the chores have been drawn out of the bag and have been completed.  This ensures that all the chores get completed within about 4 days.  With this system, my toilets, tubs, floors, windows, mirrors, counter tops, and more.....all get cleaned every 4 days.  After all the chores have been drawn out and completed, they go back in the bag to start over.  There are definitely some jobs that they enjoy doing more than others.  Carter enjoys cleaning tubs and showers, the other boys grimace when they draw those chores.  Sawyer's favorite job is to gather up all the dirty laundry.  Tucker doesn't mind cleaning the toilets.  He says it's an easy job.  I also have one stick in the bag that says "Paid Vacation Day".  That has been a fun one to have!  The day Sawyer was on crutches for having an injured knee, Carter stood next to him with his fingers laced together in front of him while Sawyer was drawing out his chore  chanting, "Please get paid vacation! Please get paid vacation!"  It just so happened that Sawyer did draw out "Paid Vacation Day" that day that he was on crutches, much to his brothers delight.

Our payday system is based on age.  The thought process behind this is that an older child will be financially responsible for more things.  

Our payday night is somewhat of an event.  We do it on Sunday night after dinner.  The boys do last minute calculations and I get out the money box that is only used for their payday.  I also award bonus "worker bee" points for the child who worked the most meticulously and pridefully throughout the week.  For the first 2 weeks, Carter has earned this award both times.

After payday, we talk about the things the boys are saving for and what they might want to spend their money on.  Tucker is currently saving everything to buy a dirt bike.  At this payday, we were discussing some events coming up at school in which the boys would have to decide to spend or not to spend their money.  We had a bookfair this week at school as well as nacho day at p.e.  Carter decided that he would probably buy the nachos for $2.50 and both the other boys decided that nachos were't worth $2.50.  They were all 3 trying to decided on some books that they might want to buy at the book fair. There was no right or wrong decision on either of these events.  It was their choice whether or not it was worth their money.

 After a couple of weeks of implementing this program, I have been dazzled by the abilities of my sons!  On the first payday night, I made a formal apology to all of them.  I told them that I never gave them enough credit for being capable of so many things.  They have completed their chores beautifully, never once complaining or doing a poor job of their work.  The house has been kept clean for over 2 weeks, which doesn't sound like much I guess to many people, but around here we are so busy that I was never able to keep it really clean for more than 2 days at a time.  We only invest about 15 minutes a day on chores and the boys complete them as soon as we get home and we still have plenty of time to play or go to ball practices.  I absolutely cannot imagine going back to the old way again.  The payday system will probably still have to be tweeked and changed, but it is working perfectly to get us started.  I am so proud of my boys and all they are learning to do and all they are becoming.  They are my little chore champs!