Thank You Alex!!

Alex was awesome yesterday as he waited patiently for me to call him back and reconfirm I was OK. He then made my favorite dinner and had it waiting for me when I got home later in the evening.....along with a stiff drink that was chilling in the refrigerator!

Happy Birthday Guinness!!

My little buddy turned 2 today! In doggy land he is officially a teenager! Congrats Guinness and I hope you aren't too difficult as a teen!

Back at 100%

I'm back to the gym, working out at 100% and feeling great! This past week was the first week I exercised without any pain! It is truly amazing how exercise affects your mentally. I've felt like a million bucks this past week just from spending some quality time at the gym. It feels fantastic to be back. I'm not running yet, that won't happen until at least January, but I'm back to doing everything else. I did push it a little to far yesterday with some squats and then some sharp pains, but I pulled it back and I'm feeling fine.

Now.....time to start thinking about which marathon I will be aiming for next year! You would think I would pass on the whole marathon idea after the hip stress fracture, but that isn't the case! So, Derek and I have been discussing heading to San Diego, Ca the end of May to run in the Rock & Roll marathon. I think we can totally do that! I think it's a great plan! My husband on the other hand is highly concerned for my well being and doesn't love the idea, but I'm sure I'll be fine this time around! Gold's Gym (my gym) is doing the Body Challenge again starting in January, so that will coincide perfectly with my marathon training as it will give me the added weight training that I need.

Stay tuned......

Happy 50th Diane!!

Happy Birthday to my friend Diane!! She turned 50 today and we all celebrated with a surprise party at the NY Wine & Culinary Center in Canandaigua. What a fantastic way to ring in her 50's! Terry, you did a fantastic job pulling this all together and truly creating a wonderful surprise for Diane! Thank you so much for including Alex & I, it was fantastic and educational!

I'm slacking

I've been totally slacking on the blog writing because I've been swamped with school work!! I have so many group projects this semester, I can't even keep track of who I'm meeting and when! And, I'm pretty sure I've written more papers this semester than in my entire grad school career!! Luckily, we only have 4 more weeks, with Thanksgiving in there, so 2 of my classes are meeting only 3 more times. Now, on top of wrapping up this semester, we also need to have our thesis ideas to our advisors at some point in December. I think I know what I want to do, but I need to connect with a few more people at East so I can figure out how to go about the project.

My internship has been fantastic! I have been working with many students who are interested in how to begin looking at colleges or writing personal statements. I also started a project to find out where all the teachers, administrators, and staff of East went to college so I can create a display for the students, letting them know where these people went to college and where that college is located. Hopefully this will open their eyes to other institutions as well as start conversations about college with students who might not have thought about it. I'm excited because I sent out amost 200 requests around the school and I've already received over 75 responses representing colleges in 16 different states, Puerto Rico, and Australia! I can't wait to get the display up for the students.

Anyway, I will try to be more dilligent about posting and keeping this updated! Now that I'm back at the gym and working toward running again, I will have more to focus on in the blog!

President Elect Barack Obama!

I am incredibly proud to have been a part of history yesterday! The United State of America elected it's first African American President! What an amazing night! I woke up at 5am yesterday so I could make it to the polls when they opened at 6am and proudly wear my "I Voted Today" sticker at the high school. This sticker encouraged many conversations with students about the election and what it means to them. It was wonderful!

Later that night, during my Counselor as Systems Consultant course, we ordered pizza and watched the election results roll in from each state. I was trying not to get terribly excited as we all remember what happened to Gore in 2000, but when Pennsylvania & Ohio came in for Obama, I knew things were looking good!! America spoke loud and clear yesterday......WE WANT CHANGE and Obama represents HOPE for so many people out there. Just hearing my students talk about the election and what it means to them, confirmed that this was exactly what we needed. Congratulations to President Elect Barack Obama!