Wednesday, September 30, 2009
Monday, September 28, 2009
Frustration
So, I don't normally use my blog to rant and rave about issues that bug me, but today I have reached my boiling point. I was in a store after school today, and happened to still have my name tag on that I have to wear at school. The man checking my out asked me if I was a teacher, and what grade I taught. I told him I teach kindergarten, and he went on to laugh a little. I asked him what was so funny, and he went on to say "well there really isn't a whole lot to teaching kindergarten". I WAS ABSOLUTELY DISGUSTED WITH HIM. Normally, I would have brushed it off, but since that is the 3rd time in the past week I have had someone make a comment like that, I couldn't keep my anger inside anymore. So, I let him have it!! I am so tired of people not taking my job, or kindergarten for that matter, seriously I had to give him a piece of my mind. Kindergarten is not all about coloring pictures, nap time, an graham crackers and milk. The kindergarten core curriculum is HUGE, and involves a lot of complex skills necessary to developing early reading and numeracy skills. It actually is a lot like what 1st grade was when I was in elementary school. If kids don't go to kindergarten, and mind you kindergarten is still not mandatory in Utah, there is no possible way they can be as successful in school as they could be if they went to kindergarten! They miss out on learning so many vital skills, and have a difficult time catching up with their peers as they go through school.
Ok, I am done now. I just had to let it all out!! I feel better, and hope this is an eye opener for those who don't realize how important early education is for kids. Thanks for letting me rave!!
Sunday, September 27, 2009
September in Review
So, as everyone knows I am possibly to worlds worst blogger. But September may be one of my busiest months with the start of the new school year! So here is what has happened in the world of the Romero's in the past month.
The most momentous event of note this month was Cameron starting nursing school!!! He has spent so much time waiting to be accepted and actually start the actual nursing program, we were so excited for the day to finally come when he could get working!!! He has worked so hard so far this semester!! He passed off all of procedures in the lab, and staring Tuesday he will get to practice them in real life at the nursing home. He will have so many stories to tell about the people he treats!! He is excited about getting the hands on practice, but not about going there at 5:30 AM.....he isn't really a morning person! I am super proud of him!! He works so hard and studies so much!! He is just a natural!!! And, doesn't he just look so cute in his scrubs? He sure does look official!!! Stay tuned for stories from his nursing home experience!!
As many of you know, my sister Tayler is a rock star cyclist! She took up the sport about a year ago, and has made quite the name for herself in the cycling world here in Utah and beyond. This year, as crazy as it may sound, she decided she wanted to ride in LOTOJA, a 206 mile bike race from Logan to Jackson Hole Wyoming. Crazy, I know!! Well, on long races such as this one, the cyclists need support crews and my mom, aunt Susan, and I were nominated to be Tayler's support crew for the race. I will admit, I was very skeptical about doing this at first since it happened so early on in the school year, and with grad school and all of my other adventures, I am pretty busy. I also don't know the first thing about cycling, and thought I would be absolutely zero help!! So, after being talked into going, I decided that I would be the driver (since that is something I can do). We headed to Logan on Friday the 10th to check into our hotel room, go to a support crew meeting on campus at Utah State, and get some dinner with the fellow riders we knew who were racing. I also hoped to spend some quality time with Liz and Josh while I was there, but with our hectic schedule and Liz working, that didn't happen. Next time....right Liz?!?!? Well, we went to dinner at a delicious restaurant....Hamilton's. IT WAS SO DELICIOUS!!! Steak and seafood.....is there anything better? After that, we went back to the hotel room to get the feed bags (I laugh every time I say that....horses eat from feed bags, not people), and paint our "Team Tayler" t-shirts so we would be very visible to her in the feed zones.
If you know my mom, she is not a crafty gal. She did do a fantastic job painting the letters on our shirts!!
Mom and Tayler! Tayler should have been in bed getting rest for her 206 mile race....but we were having way too much fun!!!
The finished product! PCIM is the team Tayler races for (Park City Iron Man). Susan actually free hand painted the LOTOJA cyclist art. Very impressive!!!!
This was race morning! We woke up at 5 AM to to get ready, and cut fruit up to put in the feed bags. We also wanted to get a final game plan set for the feed zones, and had to make sure we lathered Tayler up with sunscreen.....since she would be riding pretty much all day long!! Doesn't she look excited?!?!?!?!
Here I am stuffing food in her pockets for the first 8o miles of the race, while sporting my fantastic "Team Taylor" t-shirt!!
Her official start time was 6:58 AM. In true Lindsey fashion, I left the camera at the hotel, so I got no pictures from the starting line. So, here she is somewhere between Logan and the first feed zone (which was 80 miles into the race). I managed to steal this action shot from zazoosh.com....they are the race photographers. Don't mind the watermarks :).
I was the designated picture taker at this feed zone, because we knew she would stop to get her goods because it was a left handed feed, and well Tayler hasn't mastered that just yet. Aren't Mom and Sue lookin good while waiting for Tayler?
This is Matt, Tayler's man friend. He too is crazy enough to race in these long races. He came through this feed zone about 30-40 minutes before Tayler....but she is a rock star and managed to catch up to him and actually finish the race before he did....even though he had a head start on her :).
We did a great job feeding her the first time.....which happened to be the only time we fed her. We HUGELY underestimated her speed, and well missed her in Afton, WY (where we just so happened to be eating lunch...yes I know, we are lame.....we decided to eat rather than wait for her at the feed zone. Nice, huh!?!?!). And, since we waited for a bit for her there.....we missed her at the next feed zone.....which was the last one we were able to feed her at. So, needless to say, we may have been the WORST support crew ever!!!! She rode 180 miles without our food and water. Luckily, there were neutral feed zones where she could get new water bottles and a little food. There were also some fellow racers who were nice enough to share some of their food with her. So, you can imagine how we felt....TERRIBLE!!!! Since we were so late, we thought we missed her finish as well. Luckily for us, we made up some ground and were able to see her finish!!! This is my favorite picture from the whole race!!! I even took it while yelling at her!! It was an encouraging yell might I add as she was nearing the finish line!
Here she is crossing the finish line.......in 2nd place!!!!!! Go Tayler!!!!
Here are the post race shots!!! She did so great!!! I would have crawled into a little ball on the ground and went to sleep!! She still had energy!! Crazy child!! And, most importantly she didn't hate us for being a bad support crew and failing at our feeding responsibilities!!
Now, for one of the funny stories of our trip. After the race, we checked into our hotel, which happened to be hosting a tour of senior citizens as well as many racers. Well, at around 12:30 AM, not long after we ventured to bed, we woke up to the sound of someone pounding on our door. It was someone from the front desk telling us there was a fire and that we needed to exit the building immediately. What a wake up call!! So, we wandered around the room in a daze for a moment trying to decide what to take with us. We got out of the hotel, just as the fire alarm started to go off. It may have been the worst sound I have ever heard in my entire life!!!!! We got in my car and waited for about an hour and a half before we were let back in. We began hearing that the fire fighters found a smoldering log in one of the room. Are you kidding me? What the heck!?!?! So we went back to bed. We were under the impression that someone decided to build a campfire in their room, without a fireplace, but we were wrong. One of the cyclists....who happens to race for Skull Candy (Matt's team), decided to build a fire in the fireplace in their room because his wife was cold. All was good....except for he forgot to open the flew....sending all of the smoke into the room, and the halls leading everyone to believe there was a fire. Needless to say, it was an interesting experience. I am glad it happened post race, since the poor cyclists may have run out of gas a lot earlier had they not gotten enough sleep before the race. So, I say "Thank You Skull Candy Man.....for keeping our night intersting!"
The awards ceremony was the following morning at Jackson Hole High School. Here she is standing on the podium collecting her 2nd place award!! She should have been in 1st place since the lady who won was a cheater and raced with a group she wasn't supposed to!! Oh well, there is always next year!! I am super proud of Tayler!! I know I could NEVER in a million years do what she does!!! Love you sister, and make sure you give us a chance to redeem ourselves being a support crew!!
Other than that, life is the same for us. We work, do homework, and try to keep up with the day to day activities life throws at us. Hopefully.....someday.....life with calm down for us and we might get to do some traveling again! But until then, we will keep on keepin on!!!
The most momentous event of note this month was Cameron starting nursing school!!! He has spent so much time waiting to be accepted and actually start the actual nursing program, we were so excited for the day to finally come when he could get working!!! He has worked so hard so far this semester!! He passed off all of procedures in the lab, and staring Tuesday he will get to practice them in real life at the nursing home. He will have so many stories to tell about the people he treats!! He is excited about getting the hands on practice, but not about going there at 5:30 AM.....he isn't really a morning person! I am super proud of him!! He works so hard and studies so much!! He is just a natural!!! And, doesn't he just look so cute in his scrubs? He sure does look official!!! Stay tuned for stories from his nursing home experience!!
As many of you know, my sister Tayler is a rock star cyclist! She took up the sport about a year ago, and has made quite the name for herself in the cycling world here in Utah and beyond. This year, as crazy as it may sound, she decided she wanted to ride in LOTOJA, a 206 mile bike race from Logan to Jackson Hole Wyoming. Crazy, I know!! Well, on long races such as this one, the cyclists need support crews and my mom, aunt Susan, and I were nominated to be Tayler's support crew for the race. I will admit, I was very skeptical about doing this at first since it happened so early on in the school year, and with grad school and all of my other adventures, I am pretty busy. I also don't know the first thing about cycling, and thought I would be absolutely zero help!! So, after being talked into going, I decided that I would be the driver (since that is something I can do). We headed to Logan on Friday the 10th to check into our hotel room, go to a support crew meeting on campus at Utah State, and get some dinner with the fellow riders we knew who were racing. I also hoped to spend some quality time with Liz and Josh while I was there, but with our hectic schedule and Liz working, that didn't happen. Next time....right Liz?!?!? Well, we went to dinner at a delicious restaurant....Hamilton's. IT WAS SO DELICIOUS!!! Steak and seafood.....is there anything better? After that, we went back to the hotel room to get the feed bags (I laugh every time I say that....horses eat from feed bags, not people), and paint our "Team Tayler" t-shirts so we would be very visible to her in the feed zones.
If you know my mom, she is not a crafty gal. She did do a fantastic job painting the letters on our shirts!!
Mom and Tayler! Tayler should have been in bed getting rest for her 206 mile race....but we were having way too much fun!!!
The finished product! PCIM is the team Tayler races for (Park City Iron Man). Susan actually free hand painted the LOTOJA cyclist art. Very impressive!!!!
This was race morning! We woke up at 5 AM to to get ready, and cut fruit up to put in the feed bags. We also wanted to get a final game plan set for the feed zones, and had to make sure we lathered Tayler up with sunscreen.....since she would be riding pretty much all day long!! Doesn't she look excited?!?!?!?!
Here I am stuffing food in her pockets for the first 8o miles of the race, while sporting my fantastic "Team Taylor" t-shirt!!
Her official start time was 6:58 AM. In true Lindsey fashion, I left the camera at the hotel, so I got no pictures from the starting line. So, here she is somewhere between Logan and the first feed zone (which was 80 miles into the race). I managed to steal this action shot from zazoosh.com....they are the race photographers. Don't mind the watermarks :).
I was the designated picture taker at this feed zone, because we knew she would stop to get her goods because it was a left handed feed, and well Tayler hasn't mastered that just yet. Aren't Mom and Sue lookin good while waiting for Tayler?
This is Matt, Tayler's man friend. He too is crazy enough to race in these long races. He came through this feed zone about 30-40 minutes before Tayler....but she is a rock star and managed to catch up to him and actually finish the race before he did....even though he had a head start on her :).
We did a great job feeding her the first time.....which happened to be the only time we fed her. We HUGELY underestimated her speed, and well missed her in Afton, WY (where we just so happened to be eating lunch...yes I know, we are lame.....we decided to eat rather than wait for her at the feed zone. Nice, huh!?!?!). And, since we waited for a bit for her there.....we missed her at the next feed zone.....which was the last one we were able to feed her at. So, needless to say, we may have been the WORST support crew ever!!!! She rode 180 miles without our food and water. Luckily, there were neutral feed zones where she could get new water bottles and a little food. There were also some fellow racers who were nice enough to share some of their food with her. So, you can imagine how we felt....TERRIBLE!!!! Since we were so late, we thought we missed her finish as well. Luckily for us, we made up some ground and were able to see her finish!!! This is my favorite picture from the whole race!!! I even took it while yelling at her!! It was an encouraging yell might I add as she was nearing the finish line!
Here she is crossing the finish line.......in 2nd place!!!!!! Go Tayler!!!!
Here are the post race shots!!! She did so great!!! I would have crawled into a little ball on the ground and went to sleep!! She still had energy!! Crazy child!! And, most importantly she didn't hate us for being a bad support crew and failing at our feeding responsibilities!!
Now, for one of the funny stories of our trip. After the race, we checked into our hotel, which happened to be hosting a tour of senior citizens as well as many racers. Well, at around 12:30 AM, not long after we ventured to bed, we woke up to the sound of someone pounding on our door. It was someone from the front desk telling us there was a fire and that we needed to exit the building immediately. What a wake up call!! So, we wandered around the room in a daze for a moment trying to decide what to take with us. We got out of the hotel, just as the fire alarm started to go off. It may have been the worst sound I have ever heard in my entire life!!!!! We got in my car and waited for about an hour and a half before we were let back in. We began hearing that the fire fighters found a smoldering log in one of the room. Are you kidding me? What the heck!?!?! So we went back to bed. We were under the impression that someone decided to build a campfire in their room, without a fireplace, but we were wrong. One of the cyclists....who happens to race for Skull Candy (Matt's team), decided to build a fire in the fireplace in their room because his wife was cold. All was good....except for he forgot to open the flew....sending all of the smoke into the room, and the halls leading everyone to believe there was a fire. Needless to say, it was an interesting experience. I am glad it happened post race, since the poor cyclists may have run out of gas a lot earlier had they not gotten enough sleep before the race. So, I say "Thank You Skull Candy Man.....for keeping our night intersting!"
The awards ceremony was the following morning at Jackson Hole High School. Here she is standing on the podium collecting her 2nd place award!! She should have been in 1st place since the lady who won was a cheater and raced with a group she wasn't supposed to!! Oh well, there is always next year!! I am super proud of Tayler!! I know I could NEVER in a million years do what she does!!! Love you sister, and make sure you give us a chance to redeem ourselves being a support crew!!
Other than that, life is the same for us. We work, do homework, and try to keep up with the day to day activities life throws at us. Hopefully.....someday.....life with calm down for us and we might get to do some traveling again! But until then, we will keep on keepin on!!!
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