Happy Birthday Cameron!

Well, today is Cameron's birthday!!!  He never gets as excited for his birthday as I do mine, so I figured I should do all I could to make him LOVE his birthday this year and get excited for all the birthdays he has to come!!  He deserves to have an awesome day!  So, on this day of Cam's birth, I thought I would share with the entire blogging world some of the many great things about my hubby!!!

First of all, look at that handsome face!!  How can you not love him!!!

He supports me in all that I do, especially when it comes to my work.  He is willing to help me count out 25 bags of 100 Fruit Loops for the 100th day of school, and will even come help on field trips (even though they usually require him to do "projects" with the kids.....and he hates projects!).  He is very busy himself, but always asks me what he can do to help me.

He's taken me on several awesome trips!  Like this one to New York City!!  It was my 21st birthday present!!!

He loves my family as if they were his!!!  He was a natural fit into the fam!!

He helped me work through college and made sacrifices so I could work less and focus on school!  Now it's my turn to support him through school!

He loves his family!

He knows how to have a good time and can always make me smile!

But most importantly, he loves me for me!

Happy Birthday Cam!!  I love you and hope your day was all you'd hoped it to be......even though  you had to spend part of it working.  At least you get to go to work and do what you love!!!

The Story of My Life........

I saw this in a magazine the other day and it made me laugh, mostly because I think at least one of these things EVERY DAY OF MY LIFE!!

You know your a kindergarten teacher when............

• You look at junk and think to yourself what can I make with this.
• You do a happy dance when certain children are absent.
• You know wwwaaaayyyy too much about childrens families. TOO MUCH INFORMATION......like what parents "naked dances" look like.
• You shutter when you hear a certain name.
• You can discuss "bathroom issues" while eating.
• You feel uncomfortable sitting in "big people" chairs.
• You burst out into song at the drop of a hat.
• You can carry on 3 conversations at once and know what everyone is saying.
• You hate Pull-ups!!!
• You only fill cups half full and remind your spouse to use two hands......Cam hates that!!!
• You get excited to see the new Scholastic flyer.
• You start thinking about mothers and fathers day gifts in August.
• You know at least 5 books by heart.
• You wonder why Jon and Kate are so frazzled by 8 kids, you have 24.
• You have sooooooooo many toys and books at your home that you could open your own home day care, YET you have no children of your own.
• You know all the latest greatest kid things.

To Bump, or Not to Bump.....That is the Question.

Another week has flown by at the Romero's, and we are just as busy as last week, if not more!! Here are a few of the fun and exciting happenings of the past week. I apologize for the length of this post. I just couldn't leave anything out!!

So, it is no surprise to anyone that I am a fan of big hair. I always have been. I guess that is a trait my mom passed on to me. Now, lets get one thing straight......there is a BIG difference between big hair and "West Valley Hair". I happen to enjoy full bodied hair with volume that will last all day long. I consider myself to be pretty dang good at teasing my hair to add volume to the top of my head for both down do's, as well as up do's, such as my personal fav, the ponytail. Well, Cameron knows of my love of voluptuous hair, and saw a commercial for a product called a "Bump It". It is a plastic "thing" you put on the crown of your head to add volume without teasing your hair to death. He knows how much I hate how teasing breaks my hair off (but mostly I think he hates how the broken off hair ends up on the bathroom floor), and so he decided to order a Bump It for me! Well, he ordered it more than a month ago, and it just barely arrived at our house yesterday. As silly as it sounds, I was so excited to try it!! If it will make the "getting ready process" more simple, I am all for it. I tried it today with my pony tail and was pleasantly surprised. I struggled with it at first, because I wasn't putting enough hair over the top of the nifty hair piece. So far, I am impressed. I will have to let you know what I think of it when I leave my hair down, or half up.
We had a fantastic Easter Sunday last week. We went to church with Greg, Karine, and the kids, then went back to their house for a delicious brunch of breakfast casserole, hash browns, and pancakes. Between our brunch, and dinner at my Grandma's house, we went home so I could work on finishing my paper that was due that night. I had hoped to finish it last Saturday, but for some reason was seriously lacking in the concentration and motivation needed to finish the project. I don't know what my problem was, but I just couldn't manage to organize my thoughts into a meaningful paper. After my attempt to finish my assignment, which didn't happen, we ventured back to Murray for a BBQ at my Grandma and Grandpa's house with that side of the fam. We were wishing is was a little warmer outside, but we were just happy to be together talking and enjoying hamburgers, hot dogs, salad, and most importantly strawberry shortcake. When we got home later that evening, we were surprised with an Easter basket from my Dad and Cort filled with lots of yummy treats :), especially the mini Cadbury Eggs! Mmmm!! It was a busy day, but a great one since were able to spend time with all the different sides of our family.

On Wednesday night, Karine, Lauren and myself had the AMAZING opportunity to go and see the Broadway Musical Wicked!!! Greg was able to get us tickets for Christmas, and we have been patiently waiting for months for our night to go and see the play. I had only heard great things about it, so I was so excited for Wednesday to come!!! Well, it was all that I had hoped it to be and SO much more!!! The actors were fantastic, the music was phenomenal, and the whole production was so well put together!! All 3 of us had such a great time!!! I know the production is sold out the entire time it is in SLC, but if you have the opportunity to get tickets, even for a steep price, I would suggest you go. It will be well worth every penny, and you won't be disappointed.

I have almost survived my first class as a grad student!! Only 16 more months to go!! I won't lie and say that it has been easy, because it has been a huge challenge! I have had to learn to balance school, home life, and my job (which is crazy busy this time of the year, since the end of school is just around the corner). I swear, since going back to school, I have done more laundry!!! I don't think it is ever done!!! Cameron has been a great help, even though he is nearing finals at school as well. He has had to put in more study time this semester with his Statistics class, but has managed to find time to help around the house and just relax with me when I need it (and I need it a lot). I am so happy I decided to go back when I did, and not put it off any longer. I can't imagine how difficult it would be to try and do all that I do and have a kid on top of it. I am pretty sure I would have to be committed to a mental institution if I took on one more thing!! I am almost done with my classes for my ESL endorsement! Yay!! That class has tortured me!!!!! I dread Tuesday nights, and can't wait to be done!! I am really glad I did it this year, because next year in order to have ESL students in your class, you have to have an ESL endorsement. Since my class is made up of about 1/3 ESL kiddos, it is a good thing I will have the endorsement so I can keep my all day kindergarten job!

Friday at school was Decades Day, where the kids and students were encouraged to dress up in clothes from the decade of their choice. The school musical this year "Camp Rockin Through the Decades" was being performed that day, so everyone was really excited to get dressed up and support the kids and teachers who worked so hard to get ready for the performance.......or so I thought. In the spirit of things, I got all dressed up in my 80's gear and went to school. Well, once I walked into the school, I saw that no one was dressed up. As I wandered the halls looking for others dressed as ridiculous as I, and found no one until I went into the office and found one of the special ed teachers dressed as a hippie. I guess, people weren't as excited to dress up as I had originally thought they were. I really wish I hadn't dressed up because I wouldn't have gotten suckered into being a part of the musical!! I not only had to perform in front of the school, but also in front of all the parents for the night performance!! One of the 5th grade teachers and I lip synced to "These Boots Were Made for Walkin". Naturally, I told Cameron he had to come to support me, but he got a little more than he had originally bargained for. Melissa (the 5th grade teacher) decided it would be funny if she brought up her son, and I brought up Cameron on stage, and have them sit on stools so we could "sing" to them. Cameron was a good sport and came up on stage with me, even though he was a little mad at me for a while afterward. I was mortified!! I learned my lesson about being "the fun teacher", and am not sure I will dress up for one of these events again.

So, I really owed Cam big time for being humiliated with me on stage. I decided to take him out to dinner after the performance and to a movie of his choice. We went and had dinner at Z'tejas at the Gateway and then to see the movie Fast and Furious. We are both big fans of the original movie, so were excited to see this installment since the original cast was back. It really was a pretty good show (well, at least the parts I was awake for.....it started at 10:20, a time when I am usually sleeping in my bed). I think it made up for my humiliating the both of us in front of the parents of all the 5th and 6th graders at the school, or at least I hope it did.

I am really hoping for a more mellow week this week. Although it was busy and hectic at times, it sure did make for an exciting blog post.

Time for an Update.....Here ya go Mom!!

Well, it's been a long time since I last updated the ole' blog, for a number of reasons.........

But, after much harassment from my mom and Liz, I decided it was time for an update.....even though I don't really have anything really exciting to write about.

So, I have survived my first month of grad school! Only 17 more months to go until I have that administrator license!! So far, it hasn't been too bad. I have been able to keep up with all of the reading, online discussions, and assignments...... even though I feel like all I do anymore is write papers!! I struggled at first getting back into the swing of things, especially remembering how to write a paper in APA format. I haven't been out of school that long, but I guess I forgot all that does with being a student. I have been very surprised at my ability to stay on top of it all. I was worried about the program being online, and not having to go to an actual classroom. I never thought I was disciplined enough to do it. I have found myself being a little OCD about it actually. It has helped Cameron for me to be back in school as well. His new rule is that whenever I do homework, he has to do homework. I don't think he realized how much homework I actually do :).

The past 4 weeks, I've had a student teacher working in my classroom from Westminster. I'm going to be honest, it has been a bit of a challenge. I was really excited to have the chance to teach someone about doing what I love, and perhaps instill in them that same love. Well, needless to say my experience has been the complete opposite. I feel like she has put as little effort into teaching my kids as possible. She has told me she really doesn't want to teach kindergarten, and really wasn't expecting the kids to be as "needy" as they are. Having spent the past 7 1/2 months with these kids, I can say they are NOT needy. They are so independent! Yes, they are 5 or 6 and need to be reminded of how to hold scissors, pencils, or to flush the toilet after they use the bathroom. Anyone who has EVER spent time with a child in that age group knows that. I hate to say it, but I am kind of excited to have my classroom back to myself, and I think my kiddos are ready for me to be back teaching them full time. I've said it time and time again......teaching Kindergarten isn't for everyone. I guess it was meant to be a learning experience for me.

Cam and I have also been looking at buying a house, well actually a condo. Cort's mom, Janene is our fabulous realtor and has spent so much time doing research and setting up appointments for us. Well, we fell in love with a 2 bedroom, 2 bathroom BRAND NEW condo not far from where we live now. We were pre-approved for a mortgage a few months ago, so we didn't have much work to do after we found something we loved, and could afford. Well, Janene was working with our mortgage broker on setting up our loan and an offer on to make to the realtor at the condo complex......and well we got screwed. The advertised on the listing that they would sell to buyers who were financing through an FHA loan (which we were going to use), when in reality they are not, at least right now. They are required to sell 51% of the units with conventional loans (which require A LOT more money down) before they can sell the remaining 49% on FHA loans. The only problem is that only 1 of the 3 buildings in the complex in built. They haven't even broke ground on the other 2. We are really bummed about not being able to buy one of those, since they were everything we were looking for. I feel that all things happen for a reason......and am sure we will find something else we love just as much, or possibly even more.

Last Saturday night, Liz and Josh came over so Cameron could back up their computer on their new hard drive. It was fun to chat and hang out with them since we don't see them very often since they live so far away in the frozen tundra, A.K.A Logan. They boys did their nerdy thing, while Liz and I talked and caught up on any and all the gossip. The night before, Cam and I had bought a Wii and Wii Fit, and Liz wanted to play with it. It was great fun, and Cam took some great pictures of Liz workin it out on the Wii Fit. I promised her I would only put up good pictures, so here are my 2 favorite.......

Liz tight-rope walking...........

Check out that face!!!

Well, that is about all that's been happening in the world of the Romero's. With the Easter festivities this weekend, I am sure I will have things to add next week. Until next time........