The 25th Hour ~karenjcardoza.com~

Ahhhhh!

It’s so nice to have my class behind me and another full week of no homework or projects to do!!  It’s Mother’s Day today and my children are both away and my husband is working so I’m spending a quiet day at home with my girlies, catching up on the DVRd shows that my husband doesn’t watch.  I’ve been able to read a couple of books last week and yesterday we spent a glorious day on the Bay. Looking forward to many, many more.

The end of the tunnel

So… I made it!  It was an INCREDIBLY stressful week of working on final projects for my two classes. I worked round the clock and barely slept. Literally,  all of my time was spent on schoolwork that wasn’t spent sleeping, teaching, or driving. But… I made it!!!  I finished my Assessing Social and Communication Skills for Students with Autism Spectrum Disorders project and my Accountable Talk final project and lesson plan.  I’ve still got to present the ASD project in class Tuesday night but the assessment, implementation, data collection, and documentation is complete.

Completing the projects means that I can read for pleasure until May 21st when my next class starts. It also means that I was able to attend the Northern RI Special Olympic Games at Bryant University on Saturday as well as spend the night in Andover celebrating the wedding of fellow Razor’s Edge Tailgate friends, Mark and Anita. The best part was the reunion of the infamous Table 10 Crew from Randy and Tracy’s wedding. We celebrated Cinco de Mayo  style, with some Patriots flavor thrown in.  (We didn’t take pictures but I’m sure I’ll be able to link from someone.)

Now… once the the presentation is over on Tuesday, I’ll really be able to relax and enjoy the week off. Fun things coming up.. stay tuned.

Still plugging along

I’m exercising some patience with my weight loss as it’s taking me weeks to lose one pound.  I needed one pound to get to my 10% weight loss goal for weeks. I’m .2 pounds away from that goal now after weighing in this morning. I’m following the Weight Watchers plan to a tee and have had activity points left over both weeks but it’s going slow. I’m not giving up though and will up my exercise this week to push through. Sometimes, doing everything right and not seeing the results that I want jeopardizes me because I feel like.. WTF?  why bother? But, I’m not losing sight of my goal and I’m sticking with it and will try harder this week. I’m going to be wearing a bathing suit in two weeks and want to feel as comfortable as possible in my skin.

I’ve got lots of work and school things on my plate and have been very focused and organized. It feels good to be making progress and getting through. I’m very anxious to be finished with this course (and the next one) and look forward to some time off in July to be completely free from homework and assignments. I need the break so desperately. Knowing that there IS a light at the end of the tunnel is what’s keeping me going. Many people comment “I don’t know how you do it all!”   It’s not without effort and sometimes I don’t know how I do it either except to say that I just keep plugging along…

Downward dog anyone?

Great shape

Things are looking up!!  I can finally say that I’m in a good place with my busy, crazy schedule for the first time this year. After a really low place where I was feeling overwhelmed, I “changed my work hours” and go to school from 6:30-4:30 and then leave everything there. Rather than take the RI Alternate Assessment home and spend weekends and school vacation weeks buried in it and growing more and more resentful of the inequity in the amount of work my job has compared to everyone else in my building, I decided to create a mind shift and I’m much better.

Yesterday was parent/teacher conference night but since I had met with them all last week for IEP meetings, I had nobody show up and had 6 solid hours of time to work on the assessment. I now have every activity for this final marking period prepped and written in my plan book so I can just execute them. Now, I’ll be able to spend my prep period working on other things and may even be able to head out for a walk every now and then!  I still have work to do for my class that I’m taking but without RIAA hanging over my head, consuming my time, I can manage it.

I’ve also been doing well with my re-dedication to following the Weight Watchers plan that I’ve been paying for…lol.   It’s amazing how well it works when you actually DO IT… lol!  My goal is to lose 2 pounds a week so that I’ll be down 10 by the time I go to Aruba in April.  So far, I’m right on track and plan on continuing.

I’m not sure what the future holds in terms of my job because of the city bankruptcy and how it affects the schools but I’m not focusing or worrying about that right now. Instead, I’m just giving 100% every day, staying positive,  and having faith that it will all work out and all of my dreams will come true.

PS… We had our class reunion on March 3rd and it was a blast!!!!