Extra income

When I stopped working at the ice rink, I knew I'd eventually miss
having 2 jobs. Sounds strange, but I've been that way since I turned
16. I wasn't sure what I wanted to do, but I knew what I didn't want
to do. No resturants.

I posted an ad on Craigslist advertising that I could babysit for
children with special needs. Through teaching children and working
closely with families, I've learned that as the children get older,
the harder it is to find babysitters. I also had the idea of
eventually finding clients to work with after school and on the
weekend. Whether it was for reinforcement of skills or to go out into
the community.

I've managed to meet two really great families through my ad. One, I
am watching today. The other I will meet tomorrow and provided I'm a
good fit, I'll be hired to work with him a few times a week until
graduate school is over- then pick up more hours. I'm looking forward
to it. Their son is 12 and mom is hoping I can teach him lifeskills -
like tying his shoes and cutting his food. This is the type of extra
work I'm looking for. Sounds like it would just be a continuation of
my school day, but different because it's one on one.

Wake up call

Twice this week. I am proud. Twice this week, I set my alarm for 5am.
Woke up, left at 5:15 for the YMCA in Baltimore and hit the gym. I
arrived around 5:45, ran on the treadmill, showered, hit starbucks and
was at work by 7:30.

We joined the Y in August. The one right by the house was remodeling
and looked awesome. Unfortunatly they opened at 5:30 am, and if I'm
leaving home for work, I need to be out the door by 6:55. Not enough
time. However, I happened to notice a perk being 6 other YMCAs in MD
and access to all Ys in the US. I found one 3 minutes from work and
knew I could make it work.

I tried it Wedenesday and ended up going this morning. I hope to
continue next week... And the week after...

Student Funnies

I thought it might be fun to reflect on a few things my students have said to me over the last year... I think I've helped teach these guys how to be "funny" since that's a social skill that is hard to develop. 

"Hey Ms. Diegelman, what do you plan on doing this weekend? You don't plan on tripping while running again do you?" 

"Are you eating Fiber One yogurt? Where's the Fiber? In the cardboard?"

"I've known he was spitting out his lunch for months, it's clear YOU don't have any kids"

"Oops, I wasn't supposed to tell anyone that, mom said it was a secret - but I kept it all day! That should be worth something.....!"

"I like Jack Black, he's jewish, I mean come on, he's Jack Black!" 

Conversation:

"What's an example of an every day hero?"

"A police officer is an every day hero"

"Great! Can you think of another?"

"The Cable Guy."

To some, he's just the cable guy... to others, he's now an every day hero. Amen to that. 

Sometimes I just shake my head, but 9 times out of 10, these kids are my own and I laugh out loud with them. They say some of the funniest things that can make your day.  There may be plenty of days I gripe about my job, but I have to remember, it's little things like that - that make it all the worthwhile.  

Sick? God, I hope not...

I woke up this morning my usual groggy, I'd much rather stay in bed till 1 feeling but jumped out and had thoughts about breakfast. Once the meal was over, I started to get woozy and climbed on the couch for a little R&R. We put on a TV show and I was out in a few minutes.

Around 12:30, I woke back up and decided it was time for lunch. Except this time, I was weak and felt light headed. Maybe I just needed to fuel up? I was also suffering from dry mouth - uh oh. Scott and I went to CiCi's for that awesomely unhealthy pizza buffet, but no relief. I thought maybe I could exercize it out.... 60 minutes later on the bike and no, I only felt weaker. By mid afternoon I was dragging myself around, but somewhere around 5pm, I perked up. Maybe this was because I was going to cook dinner for my parents - for the first time EVER. I will admit, I was a little excited. They had spent the day with my sister and brother-in-law in DC. Mom originally wanted to order pizza but I had a recipe for a really good eggplant parm that I had made with Scott a few times. I, oh so reluctantly spoke up and thought - hey, I could make dinner? They LOVED it. I was glad it was such a hit. 

By this time, I was feeling slightly better, so I decided to head out for a little "Oscar" fun. That didn't last long. I was home and in bed by 10pm! I'm quite the party animal, I know. 

Lent

I've also decided what I'm doing for Lent this year. For those of you that don't know, Lent is the forty day period before Easter, excluding Sundays, it began on Ash Wednesday and ended on Holy Saturday (the day before Easter).  Every Friday during let, we don't eat meat. In the past I've usually been bad with that - like halfway through the hamburger and then I remember. But my mother used to say that I "honestly forgot, so God will forgive me" and I'd finish the burger. However, last year I was excellent with following it. I have a student who also follows it, so she kinda reminds me. We give up something we enjoy or do a physical or spiritual act expressing repentance in general. So this year, I'm going to do both. I'm going to give up Facebook for 40 days, as well as attend church once a weekend. As soon as I decided on that, I almost felt an instant relief. There's nothing wrong with believing in the power of prayer - and I think I need that aspect in my life right now. I guess 12 years of Catholic School will do that to you... 

10

I just finished counting how many weeks of class I have left until graduation. I will have to say, I am getting really excited. This is a big moment in my life. My classes are actually decent this semester. I'm in Classroom Programming for Students with Autism, and Motor Management. When I started the program, the first class I was in was Education of the Hearing and Vision Impaired. Awesome class. I had hight hopes for the program as a whole. And while I learned little things here and there. The other classes just didn't reach the bar that had be set. Except for now. The start of the program was great and so was the end, but everything in between just sucked.  It's almost confirmed, and if all goes well, Thursday May 21, I am walking the stage! 

Frustrating

Do girls EVER stop high school gossip and behavior? I reflected a few
months ago about how I never seem to have any drama with the friends
I've made since college, but always seem to see drama from most of the
high school girls. I just don't get it. It's frustrating, especially
when they come out of no where. Except, this time - at the age of 26,
I think I've realized why they seem to target me. I really think it's
because they are jealous. Not that I'm the best person in the entire
world - boy, we all know that's not true - but the simple fact I've
had a few good successes within the last year that they haven't.

Almost 2 months ago, I posted a facebook status that was a joke
amongst co-workers. Today, I wake up to find 2 responses to it
(remember this is 2 months later after posting it...) which are
totally negative telling me what a sad and immature life I lead. Well,
being caught off guard, I responded to it. Tonight, while I was in
class, I see that one of the girls has copied my message on about 6
other girls walls - and so a full days worth of gossip was developed
at that moment. The 2009 version of Mean Girls should start out like
this.

Now - Hey - I could be positive and say - i should feel special that
at least I was the topic of their conversations today!

But regardless, tonight I cleaned out my friends list. I don't have
the time to deal with childish behavior like that. Actually, after I
post this - I'm not even going to think about it anymore.

But it's made me start thinking about the upcoming 40 days of Lent.
I'm not really a strong Catholic, but I enjoy the challange of trying
to go 40 days without something.... What might it be this year...

Valentine's Weekend

Last minute we decided to head to my parents cabin in Deep Creek Lake, MD for the weekend. What a great get away! Before we left, Scott gave me a beautiful bouquet of flowers, which he arranged himself. We hit the road around 6:30 and arrived around 10 - after stopping to get groceries. So far today, we have ventured out to see the Simon Pearce Glass Blowing Factory, then it started to snow! We came home and watched it snow for the rest of the afternoon. We are cooking Coconut Shrimp (WW style!) for dinner and are sitting by the warm fireplace. Today we've seen a vulture attack it's dinner, two red headed woodpeckers within 5 feet of our feet and over 16 deer in various packs. Happy Valentines Day everyone!

The latest

I haven't had too much of an opportunity to blog lately. I feel like I've been really busy - but then, when I think about it, I don't think I'm any busier then usual, with the exception I'm away from a computer more. 

I was finally able to go back out and try a run again last week. Last Monday, I went out for an easy 2 mile. I set my watch to help with a 5:1 run:walk ratio. Unfortunately, around mile 1.7, the pain in my knee returned. Everything I had read EVERYWHERE suggested that people with IT Band issues can usually work through them. Once they have the right shoes, or adjustments, the pain should fade away. My last resort was heading to the pediatrist. Maybe I needed orthotics?! I made an appointment last Wednesday and sure enough, my right heel is inverted. He was able to make molds right there and send them off - so now I wait for 2 weeks until they come in. 

Over the weekend, I had a thought - I wonder if I could buy some sort of heel support in the meantime, and if they work, they work. If not, that was OK too. I bought the supports and tried another run. It worked! Now, I didn't have any pain while running, but I was a tad sore the next day. Except it felt like the "you haven't run in 3 and a half weeks" type of sore.  I've also bought a foam roller and am now rolling out my IT band every night. 

Moving on to work - things are OK. I've been more tired then usual. I don't know if it's because I'm getting sick (because all the kids seem to be sick right now) or, if I am constantly working mentally it's wearing me down. I do realize I have the type of job that should be left at work, but when a part of my job is problem solving, or trying to figure out why this student keeps doing a particular behavior, it really wears on you. Especially now that I've become the target of aggression from a student on my caseload that absolutely adores me. Well, most of the time. Hopefully this is a phase that passes. And passes fast! 

As we all know, Valentine's day is on Saturday. This year I think Scott and I are headed to Philly for the day. We really like it there. From the museum to the cheese steak subs. However, the weather is looking like it might be a bit chancy for the day. Hopefully everything works out and we get to have a nice day in the city. 

American Odyssey Relay - We need team members!

Ever run a relay before? How about a 24 hour relay?! Well, here's the scope on a race that is coming up - and we need 3 more team members!!! Please read up on the information, and let me know if you're interested. So far, our team is mainly composed of BLOGGERS just like you and me from all over the USA! 

Bottom line: April 24-25, 2009. Race is approximately 200 miles from Gettysburg, PA to Washington DC. The finish line is at the Washington Monument (very cool!). Teams are made up of 12 runners; each runner runs 3 legs of the relay. Individual legs are typically anywhere from 3-8 miles, and vary in diffiiculty (check out the AOR website for detailed descriptions of each leg).

We had 12 members on our team....now we have 9. We need 3 more extremely cool runners to join us! The only prerequisitie is to love running, love to have fun and a weird desire to want to spend 24 hours in a van with a bunch of other sweaty, smelly runners :) 

We are currently made up of runners from all different places around the country, plus two of our northern friends from Ottawa. Some of us are slow, some of us are fast....this is a RELAY, not a sprint race, so the goal is just to have FUN. So dont take yourself too seriously if you wanna hang with us :)

As far as money goes..........(cause that's what everyone really wants to know)......

Excluding any travel expenses, the race costs $195 per runner. $95 of this is the registration fee that goes to AOR; the rest is part of a team budget that will be used for van rentals (each team has to supply their own transportation, i.e 2 vans), gas, team shirts and other incidentals. The breakdown of how we determined our team budget is below. 

Team Registration Fee ($95 ea.) $1,140.00

Van Rental $400.00
2 minivans - $340, plus taxes/fees

Gas
Estimate: 400 miles. $5 per gal $200.00
(can you tell when we planned this thing how
expensive gas was???)

Technical team tshirts $400.00

Water / Snacks for vans $150.00

Van decorations, misc. $50.00

Total estimated team expenses $2,340.00

Money due per person $195.00


As of right now we do have team leg assignments, however they are most likely going to change. The AOR race director hadn’t finished rating all the legs at the time that we picked them, so Micheline (who is heading this whole ordeal) is going to be reviewing them soon and making sure that we have runners assigned to appropriate legs based on both their skill level, and their personal preference.

Here is the website: www.americanodysseyrelay.com

• Regarding travel – we have several “local” runners that live in the area of the race start that have offered to provide recommendations on travel – i.e the best way to get to Gettysburg, where to stay, etc. Based on what we know, Baltimore International (BWI) is the most convenient airport to fly into. This might help you price out flights if you are considering flying.

So.........if any of the above craziness sounds like fun to you, please email me, post a message and let me know. Remember, we have 3 openings on our team!! 

I bought a new car!!!

About a week and a half ago, my dad mentioned right now would be a
great time to buy a new car. I was driving a 2002 CRV. It had 152,600
miles on it. In great shape, so I didn't really need a new car. It's
just that I probably would in about a year. Now would be a better time
to buy.

After trial and error, I managed to hunt down a deal and make it even
better. So, here she is. This is Beverly. We like to name our cars in
my family. She's a brand new 08 CRV. There's another way I saved- I
bought a brand new 08, which is the exact same as the 09. It had 72
miles on it! I am very excited! See you around the neighborhood!!