Hello and Happy Holidays!! We hope the season is finding you well and happy.

We are winding down our racing season. Dwayne is past his rest period and is biking at the YMCA during the week but is still on the roads on the weekends. He said that he is much stronger than he was last year at this time. He had a couple of good races and a couple of crashes this year along with some scars to show it. The one crash gave him a concussion and a scar on his cheek, arm, shoulder, and hand. He is moving up in his bike race classification next year. I just finished a 23 mile run with a friend of mine (it was supposed to be only 20 miles but I did the math wrong, part of the JFK 50 miler). I thought about doing a marathon but I need some down time at home and I was awfully sore that next week.

Shannon is doing well in first grade. We just got her 1^st quarter report card and she has A’s in math, science, physical education, music, and art. We have been told that she really enjoys art class and is very good at drawing different ideas (maybe that why she likes to do crafts with me so much). However she said she likes kindergarten better – not as much play time in first grade. She is also taking tap and ballet this year. After her recital this past summer she was so excited to take more dance classes and get back on stage – and to receive more flowers!

Dwayne also changed jobs this past April. He is getting new in his niche area of assay validation (I’m glad he likes that kind of stuff….). Of course, he does not enjoy the commute. He has more responsibilities and is looked at as the "expert" in his field - he is quite good at what he does. He’ll be able to get some stock options soon as well as bonuses.

After many interviews and some job offers, I accepted an offer to stay with the company I have been with for over 10 years, HealthSouth (yes, the company that has 2.3 billion dollars in stock fraud because of a dishonest CEO. They are restructuring and stock is up from 3 cents to about $5 now!). I am the Site Coordinator of the Catonsville clinic, which is about 45 miles away from Frederick. It includes my hours with the Dance Dept. at Goucher College and my Regional Clinical Coordinator (RCC) responsibilities, plus a raise. It is a good deal for me and for them. I had an offer coming from Kessler Rehab in Gaithersburg (strokes, amputees kind of patients). I really don't like that kind of rehab but they were going to pay for my MBA. I had an interview for a Clinical Director of PT clinic in Frederick. They would have almost matched my salary and vacation time. But I did not like the clinic itself and I would not have gotten all of my Medicare and clinical education training that I’m getting now. Their benefits were not as good as what I have now.

I have looked into some schools and I think I’m going to start with a certification program in interior design as well as some architectural design classes. The school that has this program is the Community College of Catonsville. Commuting to and from work in the middle of the day will hopefully be easier than if I was working in Frederick. I’m going to talk to the department chair about different options before I officially enroll in the certification program. I am very excited about changing careers.

We are still hard at work renovating our house (one of my favorite past-times). We put up a garage this past autumn. Now all 9 bikes and 1 scooter are hung up and out of the house (my personal goal!!). We are going to concentrate this winter on some painting and cleaning out the rest of the basement. In the spring we hope to have some easy landscaping done.

Have a great holiday!!