Still in the land of the living.

We are still alive over here, but I suspect we're in for a hard week. Quinn's nose started running today. I really hope he doesn't have what I have. Cross your fingers. I'm doing better but I'm still worn out and sleeping a lot. I'm dreading the catching up on housework that I know I'll have to do in a day or so. But for now I'm just happy to rest as much as I can.

The bright shining note of today is that Scott got the results from his KTIP evaluation today. For those of you who are not teachers in Kentucky, the KTIP is the Kentucky teacher's internship program for new teachers in the public school system. Scott's not a new teacher. He's taught almost 20 years of college. But he's new to the public school system, so he had to have an internship year. It's supposed to help the new teachers start out. Um, yeah. Help. That's funny. In reality it's a huge amount of meetings and paperwork and evaluations. So much that a lot of new teachers wash out. And while Scott wasn't a new teacher, he was teaching in a very different environment.

His first few months were very rough. In fact, his evaluators told him today that they thought back in October that he had a snowball's chance in hell of passing his final evaluations. If they had asked me, I could have told them that he'd ace it. I know my husband very well. He'll quit because he figured something out and got bored, but not because he couldn't do it. The very fact that he had a hard time at first pretty much guaranteed that he'd do well in the end. If it had been easy, he'd have quit by now.

Scott didn't just pass his evaluation. He got a perfect score. I have no idea how common or how rare that is, but I'm impressed. Of course I was always impressed by him. He's smart. And funny. And a good man. What more can you ask for out of life? Anyhow, he really impressed them and the evaluator sent in by the state wants him to try to get certified as a Highly Skilled Educator. There are only like 40 or 50 in the state and I understand that you can only hold the post for a few years, but while you have the job you get paid at 135% of your normal pay. I don't know if it'll pan out, but I think it's cool that they think he'd be good at it. Plus, a 35% pay bump would be pretty sweet, even if it only lasted a few years. I'm very proud of him today.

On a completely unrelated subject, you guys should go shopping at Rite Aid this week. There's a $5 off $25 coupon here. It's a legit link from one of the NBA teams. Anyhow, here are a few ways to use it:

Buy 2 Compound W wart freezing kits and a package of Huggies Pull Ups. The wart removers are on sale for $9.99 each and you can get a full rebate on both. The diapers have a $3 rebate and Sunday's paper had a $3 off coupon. After the rebates and the coupons (including the $5 off one above) it'll be free.

OR Print two copies of the $5 coupons and then go buy some Zyrtec twice. You can get the $30 bottle (a month's supply) and use a store coupon that's in the flyer for $3 off plus any other coupons you have for it. If you check out twice (so that you can use the $5 coupon for each transaction), you'll get a 2 month supply for $44 (minus whatever manufacturer coupons you had). Then submit the receipts to Rite Aid's online Single Check Rebate program AND to their current Zyrtec Rebate program. You'll get $25 back from the SCR and $10 back from the Zyrtec. So you'll spend about $7 after rebates (or less if you have coupons) for 2 months worth of allergy meds. Not bad at all.

And on another unrelated note, Zoe taught Quinn how to climb out of his crib. They are so proud of themselves. Sigh. I wish I'd had a few more months. Zoe is just now sleeping some nights in her own bed. She's a night wanderer. Plus that pretty much ends my ability to nap when he's napping. Yeah, I know that's supposed to be for newborns. But it works very well for sick moms, too. I suppose I should be happy she waited until I was almost well.