Becky's

It’s time for an update! I can’t believe my last update was about when we had registered! I think I am going to steal a good idea from my friend Michelle’s blog and organize my updates into categories.

*Wedding*

Our wedding was much more than I ever hoped it would be! I think the one thing I never anticipated was how incredible and special it would feel to have EVERY single person in my life, from all stages, ages, and areas coming together to give love and support me. It really was an overwhelming feeling in a beautiful way. My bridesmaids were so attentive and my family was so supportive and helpful. Jerome was so calm, supportive, and loving too. I was honored that so many people were able to witness how happy he makes me. We were thrilled with our how good the food and especially our photography were. Both were done by armatures to save us money and we got some really great results! I had so many friends of my parents and members of my family give their time and talents in the days surrounding our wedding in order to make our day as memorable as it was. I feel so indebted to so many people for their time and so many generous gifts! We have an apartment full of new things and it gave us a great start in our new life together. People have often asked me ‘how’s married life?’ I laugh and say ‘easier!’ It’s so nice to have all the planning behind us and simply enjoy and laugh through life like we always have.

*Honeymoon*

Our honeymoon was at an all inclusive resort in Aruba! I didn’t know how much I would enjoy an all inclusive place, but it was so awesome! It was like a fantasy with the white beach outside our room, and all the free drinks and food you wanted! The food and drink were so awesome and there were all sorts of free live entertainment and activities on site too. Most days we laid by the beach or the pool and drank and ate ourselves silly. Jerome loves the ocean way more than me and got lots of swimming in while I sat on a beach chair and finished a 450 page book in 4 days! lol It was incredibly relaxing and the perfect honeymoon!

*Work*

Teaching has been pretty good. It is hard to believe that is already my fifth year of teaching! I’m starting with 26 2nd graders, which is more kids than I have ever had. I always have some really limited English speakers and a boy who is diagnosed emotionally disturbed and quite a handful. On the plus side, I’m in the same classroom, have some really sweet kids again, and have an awesome parent volunteer who stays for half the day. I am a pretty tough teacher for the first two months of school which can be tiring, but it definitely pays off for the rest of the year. My goal is to always get the kids working with me, instead of against me, and it is slowly but surely happening again. I’m still getting used to hearing Mrs. Powell from my new students and Mrs. Gustav from my old students. lol It’s a challenging job as always, but still has so many rewards and brings me so much satisfaction.

Jerome got a big promotion at work!! He has been looking for a new job for over a year and we are thrilled he got a new position in his company! He always had a great company to work for and awesome co-workers and it was bittersweet that he might have to leave that for a new job somewhere else. The promotion he got solves that problem perfectly and gives him the chance to manage 20 people below him. It’s the career he has always wanted and didn’t think he would get until much later in his life. This is the perfect scenario for us. Now we can really plan for the future because we both have our careers nailed down.

*New things from Craigslist*
Sometimes I think that our life has been bought on craigslist.com! lol Things we have gotten from Craigslist include finding our apartment, dining room table set, living room couch set, bedroom furniture and mattress set, and not to mention all the things we have sold on there too! The newest two items off Craigslist include a new laptop and a new car!! Jerome bravely traded in his Honda Civic and we spent a little extra to buy a Honda Element! It only had 10,000 miles on it and it was much less than a car lot would sell it for. I’m so happy we have a big family car and now and don’t have car payments too.
Sorry for the length of this update. Life is good!

We are finally registered for our wedding! We are not totally done as we still have to finish up at Bed, Bath and Beyond, but Target is all done with. Yay! It's way early I know, but my wedding shower at work is only a few weeks away and people were asking for it. Registering for all sorts of gifts sounds like fun, but it is so exhausting! We spent almost four hours in Target getting everything we were looking for. I had a huge list so I thought the process would be smooth and fun even, wrong! For example, we needed a pot and pans set for our kitchen, but there were 8 sets with different parts and prices to choose from! I'd say about 80% of our registry is kitchen stuff since that is what we needed the most of (and of course what I wanted the most of ;). Go check us out if you are curious on Target's website. :) I have mapped out the rest of the wedding plans and have managed to push back most of the planning until summer starts and I actually have the time to do it. I won't do summer school again, (way too exhausting and stressful!) but will work my tail off from June until July on all those details! I can't wait until our honeymoon in Aruba after it's all done with…warm sand…cool drinks…relaxing in the sun…

Ok, back to reality. School is going pretty good. The end of third grade is a very exciting time, but also al little annoying. It's exciting because of how mature and adult the kids are. They actually get my humor now and really are coming into their own as people. The annoying side is how much social relationships are playing a bigger role in their lives. If I have to hear one more time 'Ms. Gustav the class is saying I like_____ and I don't' I will scream! I am still really enjoying most of the kids though, especially the ones I had last year. I have grown extremely attached to them. :) About a month ago was stress central because we had to prepare for the Oregon state reading and math tests. Out went the 3rd grade curriculum for a month and in came practice tests, drills, and enough skills for the kids to master to drive me insane. I was so stressed at times that I lost my appetite and could not eat my lunch at school and would come home starving. The actual testing process is relatively easy since it's on a computer and you can automatically see the kid's score when they get done. I am very happy to report that all but three of my students have passed their reading and math tests! I am also proud that all of the kids I had last year and this year passed and even frequently surprised me at how well they did. Awww…what a great feeling. :)

Last week I started teaching an after school enrichment class on teaching kids from our school how to cook! It's exhausting going from teaching all day to teaching for another hour, but I think I may end up enjoying it. The first day was last week and it didn't go well at all! I have 12 kids and some are really hyper, not too fun to manage kids. I taught them how to make a drink and none of them ended up liking it. They actually threw it away because they really didn't care for it. Sigh. Here's the link to the recipe http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/Moms-Warm-Milk/Detail.aspx

It sounded good though! :( Next week we are making these

http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/Chocolate-Pretzels/Detail.aspx

and I hope things will go better!

And lastly…GO OBAMA! I'm reading his book The Audacity of hope and it is so inspiring! :D

My brush with reality stardom
Current mood: excited

Jerome and I watch the show Big Brother and yes, we know it is frivolous and mindless. For the fun of it, we even auditioned in Hillsboro a few months ago when Big Brother had open casting calls. I blogged about the experience and about some nice people we talked to in line while waiting in the freezing cold for two hours. Anyway, Jerome and I were settled in to watch the premier of Big Brother when up on the screen appeared Natalie, the same girl who we had stood right in front of in line a few months ago!! She had the exact same raspy voice and looked pretty much the same! She was very easy to remember because she was so likable, confident, talkative, and pretty. Jerome was pretty sure that if someone was going to make it from that Hillsboro casting call, it would be her. I guess he was right! So being able to meet her was my brush with reality stardom I guess.

No New Year’s Resolutions for me
Current mood: thoughtful

I don't believe in new year's resolutions, chasing dreams, and searching for what you think will make you happy. What I do believe in is taking big personal risks and living your life in the right way. The best things in my life (Linfield College, living in England, getting my dream job, meeting Jerome) have only happened because I was not trying to chase them down. They found me as I was enjoying and leading my life. I was not compeletely passive with my life, however. These incredible and life changing events and people only came to me because I took a huge personal risk with each one. Below is a quote from a speech which sums up my beliefs better than I could…

"It's not about how to achieve your dreams. It's about how to lead your life. If you lead your life the right way, the karma will take care of itself. The dreams will come to you."

The Holidays are here!
Current mood: amused

The Holidays are off to a great start! I have most of my Christmas shopping done! I did almost all of it online this year since buying online is so much easier than braving the cold and crowds! The one exception to my online shopping streak was on black Friday. Jerome and I went to his uncle's house for Thanksgiving this year in Gaston and tried to leave as early as we could so we could get up early enough to snag some deals at Fry's Electronics. Our alarm woke us up at 3:00am (ugh!) but we thought we would have a good shot at getting the items we wanted. We were in for a surprise because when we got to Fry's there was already a line around two blocks! Some people had tents up from the previous night! It was madness of crowds and lines when we did end up getting inside the store and the customer service was awful. Twice we were promised a certain item by an employee, but it was sold out when we went to buy it! We ended up leaving at 6:00am empty handed and very annoyed. We then went to Best Buy which had much better customer service and actually had the promised items in stock. We then dragged our tired selves out to breakfast and finally home to sleep for five more hours.

Jerome and I both braved the cold winter weather again yesterday. Big Brother the TV show was having open casting calls in Hillsboro! So we thought what the hell? We won't get on the show, but it will be fun to see what happens…. We just had no idea the line would be outside. We froze for two hours with freezing temperatures and wind chills blowing around our heads! We met some really fun people in line though and did finally get interviewed by the casting crew. The interview itself was really lame since three people got interviewed at a time. I think they only asked me two questions and with the other two interviewees cutting me off I maybe only said 15 words! lol Jerome had a similar experience as well. I had no idea how serious some people were about getting on a TV show! Oh well, it was an interesting experience none the less.

Teaching is going lots better than it was at the beginning of the year. My new kids who were a mess of emotional issues have calmed down quite a bit. Some days I still feel that I am a part time guidance counselor along with being a teacher! There are the rewards of course though and I love how many of my kids are getting old enough to joke around and talk with at a more mature level. I had an all day sub take my class last week while I tested my kids in their reading. I am very proud of how far my kids have come with me over the past year and a half. It makes me feel so happy when I get kind compliments of what a good class I have from the substitute. Three more weeks until Winter Break!

PS Today Jerome and I set up our first Christmas Tree! Check out the pics!

Back to School
Current mood: pleased

The school year has started and so has the wedding planning! Jerome's friend recently took some photos of us for our newspaper announcement and wedding invitations. I am very happy with the photos that we have, but it took a lot of photos to find ones we like! Both of us are very unphotogenic. Next up is the guest list so don't be surprised if I have to ask you for your address soon!

School has started again and I am very happy to have looped with my classroom from last year. All my old students were all such sweet kids and I love teaching them now in 3rd grade. However, I did lose a few of my students from last year to this year and got a few new students. Three of the new ones have been pretty challenging so far. Sigh. I'll keep working with them and hope for the best of course though.

I will be flying to SanFransico the last weekend in October with Jerome! Jerome will be in a video game tournament and the place where it is being held happens to be a short distance form where Debbie and Chris live! Plane tickets were petty cheap and I looking forward to going and seeing my twin.

I love Autumn! This is my favorite time of year with all the changing colors and fresh breezes. Awwww.... Time to enjoy it before winter comes!

Home Sweet Home!
Current mood: accomplished

Jerome and I have finally moved and settled into our new apartment! We have unpacked all the boxes and put up all the decorations. It's sooo much nicer and loads bigger than our old one bedroom apartment. I just love having some much space, along with a huge kitchen, air conditioning, a washer and dryer, and a five minute commute! The people who live all around us are single middle aged ladies, so we finally will not have to deal with inconsiderate neighbors. It was a bit spendy to break the lease on our old place, but the price and quality of this place was just too good to pass up. We will be having an apartment warming in a few weeks to allow friends to visit and check out our new place. :)

Summer is sadly ending and work is starting again in a few weeks! I am getting excited and have started missing my kids from last year. I feel very lucky to be keeping this sweet group again and for being able teach them again as third graders. :)

I have new pictures up from a bachelorette party weekend in Washington with the old grovergirls and of course Bobbie's wedding. :) Her wedding was absolutely beautiful and was of course lots of fun too!

Wedding plans for Jerome and I are still moving along, slowly but surely. We are hoping to get married next August, 8-9-08 maybe? We still need to pick a place though before we choose a date. We still even need to decide on the type of wedding we want! A part of me wants a traditional wedding with the dancing and fun, and a part of me just wants a simple wedding with not a lot of fuss. Still lots of time to plan though I guess. :)

Tough Summer School
Current mood: exhausted

I am weeks into my new job as a migrant summer school teacher and boy has it been tough!! I expected some impacted kids coming into the program of course, but this has been much harder than I ever thought it would be. There are some really impacted and tough kids I have. High on the list are a handful of boys from the refugee camps of Somalia. I can only imagine what they have been through in their short lives and try to remember this when the going gets tough with them. I also have 29 students, and will have 30 tomorrow! I totally respect any teacher that has so this many all year long! I have been very spoiled at Kinnaman where I have had low 19-23 kids for three years. The first week of the job was really rough, but I stuck to my belief system with teaching with the 'sticks and carrots' method (lead a horse to water with a stick to move along and carrot to motivate to move). I just carry a much bigger stick and carrot to work everyday than I ever did at Kinnaman. :) And the kids are making progress! I see it everyday with their behaviors and their academics and it makes me feel like I did something worthwhile (although exhausting!) at the end of the day.

I only have 10 days left before my summer can really begin....
On the agenda:

Bobbie's Bachelorette Party and wedding in Seattle! :)
My own wedding planning-eek! :/
Reading the final Harry Potter book (of course!)
A week long math class
Visiting my parents
Looking for a new living room furniture set
Searching for a new apartment to move into (hopefully)

Maybe I'll add things as I go along, but this sounds like the perfect lazy summer to me. :)

The Engagement Story!
Current mood: loved

So yes, Jerome and I got enaged and couldn't be happier. :) In case you are curious, here is the story of how it all happened....

Jerome and I spent the holiday weekend in Lincoln City and slept in a hotel across from the beach. On Sunday, we decided to walk along the beach and enjoy the sunny weather outside. After a while of walking along the surf, Jerome asked me if I wanted to stop and sit on an old tree log in the sand. He then proceeded to give me a back massage while telling me to close my eyes and listen to the ocean waves. When I finally opened my eyes, the engagement ring was in the sand in front of me! He then proceeded to get on one knee and pop the question. I blurted out 'of course!' It was very memorable and definitely romantic. :)

Thank you for all your love and support! :)

I DEFIANTLY, DEFINITLY, DEFINTLEY must get this off my chest!
Current mood: annoyed

Argh!!! *puts head down and shakes it* Why is it that NO ONE can spell the word DEFINITELY correctly?!? Why oh why?!?

Now I am generally not picky about grammar and spelling (for goodness sakes, I work with 8 year old writers everyday! ;) ) I am also by no means an expert at writing, but I must confess that this is DEFINITELY driving me nuts! Everywhere I turn, every email I receive, every blog post I read, everywhere there are misspellings of DEFINITELY ! Here are the common ones I stumble upon daily and which DEFINITELY drive me crazy.

Definantly-Yes, this is the way it sounds and spell check will not correct the writer. However, this is because they have spelled the word that means defiant or resisting. For example, 'The little boy DEFIANTLY refused to the follow the rules at school.' Hmmm...I am sure I DEFINITELY don't have one of those little boys in my classroom...

Here are the other common culprit that DEFINITELY needs to be fixed.

Definitly-As in: I definitly enjoyed the snow during the last week. Again, this sounds right, but it is sadly not even a word.

Defintley-As in: I defintley had fun with my family over the holidays. You guessed it, this sounds right but is not even a word.

Ok, here is an easy way to remember how to spell this tricky word in 3 simple steps.

1. DE
2. FINITE (finite is a word and therefore easy to remember)
3. LY
Put it together and you get: DE-FINITE-LY! Great job! :)

*Whew!* Thanks for reading this. I just DEFINITELY had to get that off my chest. :)

***I'm posting all old blogs from myspace. I'll try and remember to keep posting blogs to myspace and here for you Mike and Joe. :) Myspace is still better. :P***

Snow days! :D
Current mood: lazy

Everyone remember those great winter days as a student when snow would fall and school would be canceled? Well here I am right in the middle of two back to back snow days! :) Although, yesterday was ridiculous because Beaverton Schools initially said they were going to have school open on schedule. After maybe 40 kids showed up in the whole school, (I only had 7 in my classroom) they decided schools should actually be closed! So the teachers waited around until maybe 10:00 for all the kids to get picked up before we went home. Jerome has had the last two days off as well because of ice on the roads. We have had a wonderful time relaxing and hibernating in our warm little apartment. Yesterday we both went outside and made a snowman and after walked to 7-11 for hot chocolate. While we were making a snowman I couldn't help but notice all the little kids sledding down on the hill next to our apartment. I laughed when I saw some kids improvising laundry baskets in place of sleds!

Gotta' love these snow days. :)

I am sitting around on a lazy Saturday feeling like I should be productive…..so I'm updating my blog. :) Christmas came and went with many good times in-between. At school, my dear old dad visited on the last Thursday before Christmas break. He is so natural with children and my kids just adored him! He joked around, read 'The Night before Christmas' , and even helped each student make a very special Christmas ornament for their family. We left the painted ornaments in the classroom to dry. The next day I was planning on having my kids take their ornaments home and having our class Christmas party. As bad luck would have it, the next day school was cancelled because of high winds! I was so bummed, but I rescheduled the party and the taking of ornaments home until after Christmas break.

I had a wonderful Christmas! I successfully managed to balance both Jerome's family and my family. We had a great time at both places and it was wonderful seeing Debbie again. Jerome bought me an hour long full body massage-oo la la! I can't wait to use that one! :) And I bought him a 12 DVD set of Mohamed Ali's greatest fights since he is a big fan of the guy.

Life after the holidays has continued to move along smoothly. I was definitely ready to come back to teaching after the break. I missed it! How wonderful to have a job you actually look forward to coming back to after a vacation. :) I have gotten two new students in the last few weeks and will be getting a 3rd on Tuesday. Still, I only have 23 kids which is nothing to complain about really. Hard to believe, but it is officially the half way point in the school year. Still, I am happy about the progress that most of my kids have made and continue to make.

Some exciting news is that in one month it will be Jerome and I’s 1 year anniversary! We met four short days after Valentines Day last year. Jerome is definitely it for me. It really is that 'you just know' feeling that is impossible to describe. He is such a kind person and treats me so well. He brings a balance to my life and completes me. I know that is cliché but it is so very true.

Ok, time to get productive… The winter weather is freezing! Stay warm! :)

Greetings! I can hardly believe time has flown by so fast and that it is already December! Let's see how much I can recap....

Teaching is still going wonderfully. There are some sweet kids this year in my class. I have really fallen in love with teaching second grade. The kids continue to grow so much and they still have a strong love for learning. I am very happy that I get to loop with this group of children. This means I will teach my students in 3rd grade too. I loved teaching 3rd grade last year, and again I am lucky to have such a sweet group to loop with. :)

I have found quite a hobby within cooking in the last few months. I have made many treats for my staff in the staff room and continue to make dinner every night. I am learning the basics (meatloaf, fried chicken ect.) and I am even starting to dabble into the creative (coconut shrimp, calzones ect.) Cooking is a great outlet for my creativity and I humbly think I have gotten to be pretty decent at the whole thing. ;) I must credit allrecipes.com with inspiring me with so many darn yummy recipes!

Jerome and I are still doing great! He just got his Nintendo wii and now I think he sees more of Zelda than he does me. ;) Jerome and I went down to Sacramento to visit his entire extended family for Thanksgiving weekend. It was a long and uneventful 11 hour road trip each way. I was a bit nervous to meet so many of his relatives at once, but they were all such wonderful people! Everyone was very kind and could easily hold an educated conversation. I had a great time over the weekend playing cards, wine tasting, and shopping around with various members of his family. I can say with certainty though that his family is definitely not subtle. I had four separate members of his family ask if and when we would be married! I guess I should take that as a compliment though... :) I can't wait until Christmas when I can put Jerome in front of all my extended family in Portland. ;)

What is everyone doing for Christmas? Anyone going back to Lebanon for an extended amount of time? I would love to get a group of us together again. :) I have two weeks off (yay for school vacations! ;) and will be free.

Seasons Greetings and have a wonderful December! :)

Happy Day! The Democrats have taken control of the congress! Donald Rumsfield has resigned! Yay! I am so friggin' happy about all that good news! I was up late last night watching CCN and the election results. I even woke up before my alarm clock this morning to check on the close senate races. :)

In teaching, things are going along wonderfully. My kids all had a fun in the classroom on Halloween. We painted our pumpkins that we had used descriptive words to write about the previous day. The party at the end of the day was a lot of fun too. This Friday we have no school because of Veteran's Day (gotta love being a teacher! ;) After the next week, we have Thursday and Friday off for Thanksgiving . My kids are really doing a great job at school. I am super proud of how well their writing is coming along. It melts my heart when some of my lower kids produce a beautiful piece of writing. Being a teacher is so darn rewarding. :)

This Friday Jerome and I are going to a wedding of one of his good friends. It has an open bar and the wedding is at night. I have never been to either type of wedding and I am looking forward to it. Jerome, his mom, sister, and I are going to California for Thanksgiving! We might be leaving early Tuesday morning (I would use a personal day at work) to road trip down to Sacramento. Everyone in his family will be there for the holiday. It is a bit daunting knowing I will meet so much of his family at once, but I love meeting new people and have loved all the family of his I have met so far. :)

Have a wonderful rest of November!

I will finally confess, Jerome and I are officially living together! He moved into my apartment about a month ago. I hate saying that because it sounds so living in sin like. On a positive note, we are having an absolutely great time at it! Everything feels so natural and we can't ever seem to find much of anything to bicker about. I feel like I am living with my fun best friend and super affectionate and attentive boyfriend all in one. :) I am already into the routine of waking him up every morning as I leave for work, making us dinner every night when I get home, talking about our day over whatever I cook up, watching a favorite show together after, and then falling asleep together. It may sound boring but I have never looked forward to going home so much. :)

At school, we finally got in that new second grade teacher. I now have 22 kids which is soo much better to manage! We hired a first year teacher around my age. I love working with her and I am mentoring her and helping her get ready for the day ahead every afternoon. She reminds me of my first year as a teacher and I am really trying to lighten the load for her, especially since I know how hard that first year can be! I am having a few problems with a few of my kids, but those kids have progressed so much already and hopefully will continue to do so. Parent teacher conferences are on Thursday all day and half a day Friday. Thursday will be super long (8 am until 8pm!) but at least Friday I will be gone by noon. I can not wait to see Debbie and hang out (hopefully) with the Lebanon group this weekend. :)

Well, I made it past the first week of teaching! 29 second graders are a lot! I was in for a huge culture shock on the first day. I have been fortunate enough to have 19 kids for the previous two years so this was a huge change for me. The first day was much more of a challenge than I ever thought it would be. Surprisingly, my kids got much better as the week went on. This was weird because you usually start with little angles and then they start pushing the limits. I was surprised how hard the afternoons are for some of my kids. Many were asking if it was the end of the day or if it was lunch time yet. :) We have some really challenging kids in our grade level this year. I was given only a few of them. Although these kids really mellow out when you heap on the praise and stay positive. More than anything, I am exhausted at the end of the day. I now totally respect any teacher who has so many kids all year long! The good news is that we are only steps away from hiring another second grade teacher. This will all put us down to 21/22 kids which will be much better! I am still optimistic about the year ahead. Teaching really does make me happy and I feel very lucky to be in such a good school and location. :)

Has it really been two months since I last updated?? Summer has flew by so fast! So, here's the recap...I moved into my new apartment the weekend after the wedding. My new apartment is only two blocks away from my old place. It is a nice one bedroom and the rent is reasonable. It's right near a Safeway and blockbuster. It also has vaulted ceilings and we there is only one neighbor to our side. Jerome stays over most days and that is really nice. : ) So June was my vacation time where I really took some time to relax and honestly not to do a whole lot. In July Jerome and I traveled to Cabo San Lucas! It's a wonderful vacation and I highly recommend it to anyone that feels like some sun and warm ocean water. I adored the beaches and the seafood there. Jerome and I went parasailing, kayaking, snorkeling, and scuba diving. It was probably the best vacation I have ever had. : )

For the rest of the summer I read some good books, saw some movies, and taught myself how to cook. I can proudly say that I can cook over 30 tasty meals! :) I learned off allrecipes.com -great website for easy and yummy recipes! The summer isn't over quite yet though and Jerome and I are going on a hot air balloon ride for our 6 month anniversary on Monday! We will by floating high in the sky above the wine country of Yamhill county. :)

After that, it’s down to business as I start teaching on Tuesday! Gulp! I am teaching 2nd graders. I am very nervous because I have a class with 29 students this year! The good news is that it looks very likely that we will be hiring a new 2nd grade teacher. Whew. I am happy about starting a new year, but those first few days sure can be nerve racking. Wish me luck!

I hope everyone else had a great summer too! Take care and I will hopefully find some more time to squeeze in a blog here and there during the school year. : )

It's finally here! The lazy and hazy days of summer! This whole past weekend and first days of the week have felt like a huge burden has been lifted off my shoulders. The wedding is finally over! The whole event was so many plans and too much detail to worry about. I was exhausted from so much family over the course of four days as well. The wedding was great though and it was lots of fun seeing the Lebanon crew and I did enjoy seeing parts of my family whom I rarely ever see.

This week is full of classes for me because I get paid by the school district for taking them. Next week, I will be focusing on boxing up my things in preparation for my move to a new apartment in Beaverton! I am looking forward so much to this summer. A new apartment awaits and lots of lazy days in the sunshine. :) Hope I'm not rubbing it in for those non-teachers out there, but two months off a year ain't bad at all. ;) I hope I can spend this summer reading lots of good books (Dan Brown anyone?) and catching up on some movies. I want to also hone my cooking and experiment with a few recipes, Jerome being my guinea pig, and of course I plan to sleep lots! :) Jerome and I will also soon be preparing for our trip to Cabo in Mexico for the middle of July. We are really looking forward to that vacation time. Jerome and I just passed our fourth month point and are doing wonderfully. He makes me feel so good about myself and is soo affectionate and can always make me laugh. He's one of my best friends who I can totally be myself around. I've never been happier with someone. :)

So anyway, THANK YOU MIKE, JOE, MICHELLE, KELLIE, and TED for coming down to Portland and spending your weekend with Debbie and I. A good time was had by all. I know Debbie really appreciates you taking time out of your lives and spending it with her on her special day. :) I think a trip down south is in order to make up for so much time up north by you guys. :) Let us know if you want us to come down for a game night ever or whatever. :)

I am off to make a new recipe for a tuna casserole. Thanks again everyone for your support! :)

Greetings! Today is a teacher work day and I thought I would take some of my down time without my kids to update my live journal. As most of you know Debbie's wedding is coming up and she stays busy preparing for that. I am trying to a good maid of honor and plan a bachelorette party in June. So far we are thinking about a day of massages ect and a night out in Portland in June. All will be welcome, regardless of gender, so be prepared to mark your calendars! :)

Time is flying by in my classroom! We just finished our two rounds of testing and I am a little disappointed with the results. What s frustrating is that all the kids who failed their tests either are Latino and have language issues or came into my classroom half way through the school year and are low academically. Sigh. Retakes are a in a few weeks and I hope I can get most, if not all, of my kids to pass this time! It's such a rewarding job, but I hate the pressure of it sometimes! Yesterday I had a very nice mom come to my classroom and sincerely thank me for a job well done with her daughter. It's moments like that I live for. :) So looking far ahead, what should I do for the summer? I know I want to get some kind of part time job to keep busy. I always planned on traveling, but now that Jerome is around I want to spend time with him too.

So speaking of Jerome, *smile* so much is going great with us. He always makes me laugh and we have a great time together. He is such an affectionate person and very loving. We have a strong compatibility and I have definitely fallen in love. Even though he's totally confident in us and has told me that he knows what he wants and I'm it, I still need more time. We practically live together since he works in Hillsboro but lives in McMinnville. It's hard to believe that Tuesday is only our two month anniversary! I've never been so happy and in love with someone. :)

So on that wonderful note, I should get back to working. ;) Today after work is happy hour with my teammates. Then Jerome and I are going out to dinner and a movie at my favorite place in the world, The Kennedy School. :) Happy Easter weekend everyone!