WOW!

It's been a while. So much has happened! Now, I'm back in school, I'm moved into a new house, I'm married, I'm a stepmom, and most importantly, I got a haircut! For those of you who know me well, I am a gal who likes her long hair. My hair is now as short as it was last when I was nineteen-years-old. New house, new husband, new hair, I suppose.
How is married life, you ask? I love it!
How was the honeymoon? Fantastic!
How was the wedding that I spent seven months planning? The best day of my life. I had all my loved ones around me, everyone had a great time dining and dancing and most importantly, I was calm ALL day (My bridesmaids will tell you differently, but for me, it was calm).
I love my wonderful husband and my beautiful new little boy. I highly recommend marriage if you have found someone you like. There is nothing like it.
Now. . . back to school. How did this happen so fast? This had to have been the fastest summer of my life. Planning, packing, and running around like a crazy person (maybe that's why I like marriage, I'm suddenly not being pulled in so many directions).
Now I'm just running around like a crazy person at school instead of everywhere.

I Have More To Say

How could I go through the rest of my life and not mention the Highly Successful Shopping Adventure of Katie n' Cambria! Do I even need to tell you where this adventure took place? Why the greatest store in the world, NORDSTROM! Down in Provo at 6:50 a.m. Four hours later we left with such greatest in retail I can't even detail it all. I did buy a pair of riding boots, oh so comfortable (Stuart, watch out, there might be jean tuckage involved this fall) and the cutest grey mary janes! As the shoe-expert at my school, I'm only obligated to give the fans what they want!
Trust me, I purchased and I purchased well. I won't tell you exactly how much was spent, after all, Stuart reads this blog!
However, we did make a little wager. I have promised no more shopping in 2008, but if I slip I am not allowed ice cream for six months. To you this might seem like a some thing, but ice cream is like air to me! I am determined to keep up my end of the bargain, after all, Cold Stone just came out with a new flavor call "Heaven in a cup!" Blueberry Muffin Batter. I crave it with my whole soul. I better stop talking about it, or I'll need to abandon work to go buy some.

The Twelve Days of Matrimony. . and Bittersweet Memories

So, I am the biggest blog slacker in the universe this summer. . .and by the way, what happened to my summer. I have spent hundreds of hours packing and planning and next to no hours reading. No bueno! Oh well.
Well, it is upon us. Twelve days until I get married. AHHHH! So many emotions, so much to do, so much time still until my honeymoon (I won't be blogging then either!)
This has been a bittersweet month. My BFF, Katie and I are moving out of our cute "girl house" (Thanks, Erica!) and in the words of Monica on Friends "have to live with boys" now. Weird. Both of us are highly excited (at least Katie is going somewhere warm), but I think that the experience of living together has been priceless. I shall miss Katie, our long midnight talks, watching fashion and make-over shows, going to Olive Garden for soup (Katie) and salad (Cambria), having our own little runway shows in our house, and laughing together being silly.
Here's to us, K-Fab! (Our cell phone minutes are about to increase extensively!)
Love ya! C-Note

We Basically Rule

Yesterday kicked off the great Katie and Cambria Cleaning Extravaganza!. . And by cleaning, I mean getting rid of all our garbage that has been lingering in our apartment since WE MOVED THERE!
A 2 a.m. Bedtime
14 Garbage Bags
15 Yard Sale Bags
and a total of 76 pairs of shoes.
We seemed to have made some progress. I wish I could tell you I was done.

Do you have any idea what I was hanging on to?
Let me elaborate for your comic pleasure.
ALL of my college notebooks.
Two shoes boxes full of notes from friends dating all the way back to Jr. High
My fifth grade social studies project
A Christmas Shopping List from 1993
Two boxes full of Hallmark Cards
Endless stupid self-written poetry dating back to 1991
Hundreds of buttons
A random glove
Jewelry that I bought on a whim and have never worn
Love letters from my high school sweetheart
Lots of Teaching things could have helped me for the past two years
Beanie Babies
and the Bodyguard Soundtrack

. . .just to name a few items. Trust me, I am sure there is more embarrassment still to come.
Proudly though, I am giving away my most expensive shoes (that kill my feet), shoes I've never worn, shoes I've worn out, shoes that say "I used to be a hippy," and shoes that only a fifteen-year-old would wear. Sadly, I still have twelve pairs of flip-flops in my closet. How to part with Hawaii's greatest gift?
Among all the things I threw away, I also had a chick-flickesque moment of classic Hollywood in which I cut countless pictures of me and .. . well, it's just me now. What? I don't want to throw perfectly good pictures of me away!
Although, I must say, that as proud of myself as I am, I am still aghast and do not want to even entertain the thought of how many thousands of dollars I got rid of last night. My fiance says that between Katie and my things, we could paid off all our debts, or at least fed a small country. I hate to say that he might be on to something.
NEW GOAL! No more shopping this summer until July 18th, The Extraordinary Nordstrom Anniversary Sale. That's going to harder than waiting for my wedding date.

What? LIke You'd Blog If You Could Be Outside.

This is week three of summer and though I feel badly that I haven't blogged this month thus far, I can't say that I really feel all that bad. Summer has meant that I can finally relax and although I have discovered that day-time TV sucks, I have greatly decreased the amount of stress lines on face.
And when I'm not cursing out soaps or court shows I am outside or. . .
I am almost to the month mark on my wedding date, so all studies, reading, and sadly, gym time, has taken a backseat to Cambria's Wedding Week Extravaganza! Sounds like a circus doesn't it.

Not My Day

Yesterday my day started off great. I woke up refreshed, got a good workout. . Let that be a lesson to me. Things can always get worse. Observe.

When blow-drying my hair, I began smelling burning. . .curious. Ah! It's me, or rather, it's a chunk of my hair now lying in my hand! I panic because today is Sawyer, my future stepson's birthday party at Discovery Gateway (the Children's Museum at the Gateway Outdoor Mall), which I have pretty much planned and am super-excited for. I'll be seeing lots of people today, some friends of Stuart's that I have never met. . . .Now, they get to meet Stuart's bald fiancee. With Katie's help I discover it's not that bad. Okay, moving on.

Next, it's time to get Sawyer's birthday balloons. Walking into the store, I can tell this is going to be a moment involving special people. . . and don't worry, they made special balloons. At the rate of paint drying. Okay, little hiccup, but I can recover.

I am now on my way with a car FILLED with balloons (I'm serious, I can't see out the backseat) to meet Stuart and Sawyer for birthday brunch before going to the party.

Sawyer declares on the way to breakfast that he will only be eating cake today. Stuart and I retort that if he wants cake he will be eating breakfast today.

. . .Something is wrong with Sawyer. We get served delicious French toast and Sawyer just sits there (and I mean, he curls himself into a ball and moans, whines, and yawns). Stuart and I roll our eyes, assuming this is some sort of stand-off for cake.

Soon Sawyer is saying his tummy hurts.

Try as we might, we cannot get Sawyer to eat anything. 45 minutes later, we decide that he may have a stomach ache from all the junk food he ate yesterday at the Bees Game. Sawyer's crying in the backseat is further supporting that conclusion.

Stuart runs in the store to grab kids-whatever-make-Sawyer's-stomach-better-so-he-can-have-a-fun birthday-party-medicine and I put Sawyer on my lap while we wait.

"I'm sorry you don't feel good, Buddy."

Sigh.

More Sigh.

Now Heavy Breathing.

"That's weird," I think. "Maybe he's just.. . . "

We are now standing outside the car. Sawyer's popcorn from yesterday now lies on the ground in front of us. And on my pants. . .and shirt. . .and my seat in the car.

Stuart comes out of the store to see his fiancee covered in vomit and his son crying because this has just scared him to death. Stuart cleans off what he can using some clothes found in the car and changes Sawyer into new clothes. I am not so lucky.

Sawyer seems to feel better now and now we are off to the party, after Stuart realizes he has left his debit card at the restaurant, which we decide to get it later, which means we will be paying with the debit card that is in the car, mine.

We are late. Can you blame us? And party-people are standing outside with gifts and smiles (and probably secret laughter after they see me). I stand as far away from the information desk as possible with still being in proximity to it so the perky girl at the counter can hear me speak. . because honestly, I am starting to ripened at a dangerous level.

I quickly grab the wrist-bands for the party, fling them at Betty and walk as fast as I can (Damn heels!) to the closest retail clothes store. Walking in, I bark orders at the closest anorexic salesclerk to get me a pair of jeans in my size (yeah, right, like I'd tell you what size I am) and find the least expensive shirt in my size. When I get to the register I REEK! The salesclerk is nice though.

"My four-year-old threw up on me." I say.

"Oh." Click. Instant understanding. And probably more inside laughter.

I change in the dressing room into vomit-free clothes, and now I am running back to my car, where the "special" balloons await and throw my clothes in the trunk.

Special Balloons - $12.00

Uneaten Breakfast - $6.00

New Replacement Outfit - $70.00

Employees at the Gateway getting the laugh of their lives - Priceless

When I arrive at the party, it seems to be going well now. . .until Sawyer, the saddest birthday boy I've ever seen loses his steam again and it's determined that he has a bug, not just a bad eating habit. The remainder of the party is spent with Sawyer being passed from lap to lap in between more rapid trips to the bathroom (thank goodness it's across the hall). He lack-lusterly opens his gifts and barely has the energy to blow out his cheery candle.

Sawyer is the first to leave his party and my parents and I are the last as we pack up his presents, I cut my finger badly on one of them, and cry myself back to the condo, where our birthday boy is now comfortably resting in bed.

Later, Sawyer wakes up feeling a little better. He plays with his balloons and new toys, but declines any birthday cake, the only thing he had wanted to eat all day.

We end the day with Hungry, Hungry Hippos, new books, and Stuart and I passed out on the couch (But not before we eat the rest of the Kettle Corn from yesterday and two huge pieces of Sawyer's birthday cake) with stomach aches.

Can I have a do-over?

10 Days and Counting

I am 10 school days left.  I'm not sure that it will come soon enough.  My students are basically checked-out.  I can't even get some of them to bring a pencil at this point.  What's next, their shoes?

Some people think that school teachers are lazy people who picked their career based on the words, June, July, and August.  While this might be true for some, this is one teacher who is tired, and finds that she works a lot of hours in the other months to sort of even it all out in the end.  Not to mention, I'm getting a money-itch so in no time, I'll be at my other job full-time through the beautiful summer months saying, "Thanks for calling Marriott,"

Does work ever end?  Retirement seems a long, long ways away.