August 2013 SLP Link Up

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Wow has summer flown by!!  I can't believe that it's August already!  As of now I have one more week of ESY services.  5.5 hours of student contact plus progress notes and data entry.  (I may or may not be counting down).  Then I have two beautiful weeks off before I officially go back on the 26th. 

I was very excited to see the August Link-UP on All Y'all Need.  I love reading about other things going on the the lives of my fellow bloggers, especially since I think we all need an occasional reminder that non-speech related things might actually happen.  I also am excited to share mine with you.

So here are my big three things for August!

The dead elliptical, the plastic needs to be removed so we can scrap the metal bits.

Buying: I am buying two big things, a new (to me) elliptical trainer since mine has finally run out of it's nine lives.  To give you some perspective on it's age - I remember it from middle school and adopted it out of my parents house.  Today my dad confirmed that the part we had welded back together last time failed again and Monday there will be shopping!  Now if only I had the money to replace the orange carpet (of doom) that the elliptical trainer resides on.

My other big purchase is a new patio door.  I've had it sealed up since last fall and have missed being able to go out on my deck this spring and summer.  I'm excited since I am going to choose to assume that the new door won't lock me outside as the rotten bits change it's level.  I'm two years post the foreclosure purchase, so I'm hoping that I will finish up these things soon.

Trying: Tunisian Crochet, because I clearly need a new way to play with yarn...  Last weekend I was assisting one of my friends with a pretty ridiculous yarn purchase (and by assisting I clearly mean cheering her on and participating - those who play with yarn will understand.  In a stunning show of support, my mom suggested additional yarn storage today).  Anyway, while shopping we both impulsively bought Tunisian crochet hooks (double ended or long).  I am enjoying the mix of knitting and crochet that it provides and frequently doing and undoing rows in my confusion.  It's nice to have a new challenge.  Below is a picture of my first Tunisian project.

Not perfect, but definitely interesting.

And finally, Speeching! As I said above, I will have two weeks off in August, but at least one day will be spent organizing in the speech room.  I have been slowly carrying in my summer thrift store purchases and just today finished cutting out everything I currently have laminated. I need to figure out where to put all of my new stuff and sort through the things currently occupying my shelves.  I also have several TPT units in the works that I want to finish.  I have a massive articulation/inferencing unit designed to hit mixed needs groups/students that I've been working on and hope to finish soon.  I will also likely continue thrift store shopping (I have been on a ROLL lately with great finds) and checking back to school ads for good deals on back to school items.  I do have two weeks off and intend to have at least a few work-free days!

My big tip on back to school sales!  Office Max allows you to get 20 of the great sale items with teacher id and Office Depot allows 2/3 times the limit (it seems to depend on who's checking you out..)  You do have to join the free teacher clubs, but in my opinion it's been worth it.   Also double check before you pay since every item above the normal limit has to be manually changed, I have stood there for 10 minutes while the poor employee figured out how to refund and re-ring me for items at the correct prices.

The pile of things that have yet to make it too work.  The drawers were at goodwill and came with a bonus surprise of a couple yarn darning needles way up on the inside that I found when I was cleaning it off!

Do any of you have anything big happening this month?