Transitions

As a person that works with people with disabilties, I have learned the value and importance of transitions. During my time as a director at summer camp, I always made sure to tell the kiddos when we had 5 minutes left of an activity, what we were going to do next and where they needed to be. This was repeated about 3 more times during that final five minutes. This helped the kiddos, as well as the staff, know what was about to happen and what was expected of them. With all of this preparation, why are transitions so hard for me to deal with?!? I wish that someone would just be able to lay out the master-plan, go over the expectations, and then prepare me for what is next. So, with all of these thoughts, I bet you all are wondering why I am mentioning transitions. Well, this past week, I accepted a new position with a non-profit company call MARC (Midland Association for Retarded Citizens). I will be in charge of the six clients in the house, as well as the 9 staff that work there. Basically, they said that my job duties are described as being the 'mom' of the house, so I will be doing anything and everything from laundry and cleaning to maintenance requests to dealing with staffing issues and making sure the client's needs are being met. I'm excited for this new adventure, although I know I will miss the kiddos at school. With this new transition will also come the transition of changing my work hours. Monday and Tuesday, I will have to become a night-owl, since I work 4p-12a. Then change back to daytime hours during my Wed/Thurs/Fri shifts of 9a-5p. Whew! I'm really optimistic about this new adventure, so I will let everyone know how things go!

As for other details, Phil and I continue with our day-to-day activities. Last week, Phil had to work his lovely 8-day stretch of the evening shift before getting a few days off and then transitioning into day shift for two days, only to then go back to swing shift. I don't know how the poor boy does it. But, they're getting closer to hiring another agent, so he's excited with the prospect of having another body around the office.

I've been keeping up with my training, and even ran a 10K race yesterday. I was super excited with my time (beat my best time by 10 minutes!) of 56 minutes. This gives me hope that I can finish my 10K run during my triathlon in 1:20. We'll see about that...

Last night, Phil and I were part of a Murder Mystery Dinner with our bible study. It was a great time to get together and chat with everyone, and of course my favorite part was being able to dress up in 'pretty' clothes! Yes, I am a 5-year old girl that still loves to play dress up. Phil and I are always dressed opposite when we go out because he has to dress up for his work, so any chance he can get, he dresses in jeans and 'comfy' clothes, but I dress in jeans all the time (and with my new job, I get to wear scrubs), so any chance I can, I dress up. There were 9 people invovled in the mystery and it was a lot of fun! No, Phil or I were not the murderer, but we did have fun accusing each other :)

The past couple of days have also been full of hockey! We love having great hockey on TV (the NCAA men's hockey championships are being played) and we've enjoyed every minute of it. Friday, we went to a restaurant to watch the Air Force vs. Michigan game (I think people got mad that we requested a TV play the hockey game-- I mean, who watches hockey in TX?!?) and we spent 5 hours at our table! Well, I spent about 4, since I got there late after school, but from the time Phil was seated until the time we left, he had been there a little over 5 hours. That's what I call dedication! It was so great, grand and wonderful to see how amazing Air Force played (my parent's have been season ticket holders since '94ish, so I grew up watching them play). Then yesterday, the UND game was played on a channel we could watch at home, so I watched here while Phil caught bits and pieces of it while he was at work. Yeah, we won't go into the details of that game... But, only a few more weeks until the Frozen Four and more great hockey!