Work-free Zombie weekend comes back to bite me in the butt

It was almost the weekend of "no work". Which for less than a month out from state testing is pretty much a miracle. Just papers to grade. Aaaaand they're still sitting there. They HAVE to get graded before I go to bed tonight. So naturally, I'm blogging. 

Uh oh... gotta update my school websites too. How did I forget that??? 

And pay bills. Hmmm... that can wait a few more days...

At any rate, I must not be the only teacher stressing about state tests, because I've sold 8 copies of my book (click on the picture at right) and another 5 digital chapters on TeachersPayTeachers in the last two weeks! That can't just be a coincidence :o) Thanks everyone!!! 

Before I dart out for the night to do some "real" work, I thought I'd share some amazing penny-pincher scores I made at Toys R Us this weekend. 

First, the glow-in-the-dark planets seen above! They aren't listed on their website, but they come in a skinny clear tube with black ends, (right next to the rest of the planetarium items in the store) and they're only $4.99!!! All the other solar kits my oldest zombie child wanted were between $20-$30, and were probably really heavy for the ceiling. These are super light plastic, and came with clear fishing type string, that tied to the planets, and then I looped them around nails, and jammed the nails under the metal ring of the light fixture. Voila! Light doubles as mobile. And kinda looks like the sun!

Secondly, these lovely "Imaginarium" brand track switcher packs are AMAZING!!! And they're about half  the price of the fancy "Thomas the Train" ones. We already had a base set of wooden rails, but this pack came with so many switches and crossings, that I spent literally three hours on Saturday and another hour today trying to get them all to fit in one giant circuit. Not possible :/

And lastly, bring on the fantabulous Carnation Instant Key Lime Pie kit that has been staring me in the face on my counter for a month. My boys helped me make it on Friday night and we've plowed through half the pan already. It's surprisingly lime-y for not having a drop of real lime juice in it (that I know of).

Makes me almost forget that my DVD player is broken, and that it ruined my Breaking Dawn DVD, and that taxes were hideous this year, and that me and my fellow teachers are still working without a current year teaching contract. Maybe I'll cut myself another slice before I dig into this huge pile-o-grading.