Untold Stories

So, let it be known that for all I want to be a good writer and whatnot, I'm really terrible at doing it on a regular basis. Needless to say, that causes a lot of untold stories to occur for those of you trying to follow our lives at a distance.  Take this picture for example:

Now if you'll look closely, you'll see in this picture alone that there are two very recent and important untold stories!  First, and probably most noticeable, is Lovetta's hair!  She decided this last week that she wanted to cut her hair much shorter than what it was before. Interestingly enough, she decided to tell no one about it until after it was done (no one but me and her aunt who actually did the cutting).  Stealth haircut!  Some of her students liked it, but one in particular wasn't too enthused.  Lovetta overheard a conversation between two of the kids that went something like this:

Student 1: "Do you like Mrs. Reyes-Cairo's haircut?"

Student 2: *shrug and reluctance to answer*  "She kinda looks like my mom."

You can't please 'em all :)  Lovetta thinks that sometimes kids (girls in particular) like long hair on women because it makes them more princess-like.  I think Lovetta looks hot!  I guess that's why I'm her husband, though >. >

So, the other thing in that thar picture is a brand-new, bright green dutch oven that Lovetta's parents got us for Christmas.  Why is this important to our lives?  Well, if you haven't noticed by now, we love to cook.  Somehow, certain kitchen pieces have escaped us these near-five years.  The dutch oven is one of those things that we'd see time after time used in recipes and we'd always have to work out some other unsatisfactory solution.  Now that we have it, we're making all sorts of roasts, soups and stews, picadillos (well, really only one sort of that but multiple times), and more with the thing!  It's our new favorite kitchen friend.  If you have any good dutch oven recipes you want to share, they would be welcome in the comments below.


So many untold stories over this last month, it makes me regretful not to have shared them out to all of you.  For instance, as I write this, Lovetta is sitting next to me preparing to take her second PRAXIS test for her Level 2 teaching license.  Utah requires that you take some testing after about three years of teaching before you can renew (and upgrade) your license.  A lot of it is about methods, but some of it is also about what people think the perfect teacher should be like.  You know.  The kind that works late and not necessarily because it makes things better, sacrifices personal sharpen-your-saw type activities for work meetings, etc.  Needless to say, I don't agree with everything they're trying to tell you is "the right answer," but if you don't say those things they won't let you teach.  (I guess?)  Maybe this is why no one wanted to hire me as a teacher  >.<  She's a fantastic educator, though, so at least that makes one of us :)

For me, I've had to take on some additional responsibility at work.  We recently had an extremely unfortunate round of layoffs at work. I'm honestly surprised (but grateful) to have my job still.  I honestly think that the only reason I didn't get let go is cause they're not giving me benefits.  One of the few times in life to be happy about that, I guess?  Anyway, because of the additional responsibilities I've picked up as well as the close proximity to our location, I was permitted to attend the CAMEX Trade Show.  It's pretty much the end-all of trade shows for the campus bookstore industry.  I was able to do a little shoulder-rubbing with vendors and campus store managers from all over the country.  It was a ton of fun and there was plenty to glean from some of the sessions I attended.

Well, there's more I could probably ramble on about, but I'll save you the time so you don't go all TL;DR on me.