Catch the Baton

I'm waiting for my youngest son to finish getting ready so that we can go eat breakfast. Every two weeks or so, Dan and I have a breakfast date. It's pretty cool that he actually still wants to do this, and he even picks up the check every once in awhile. We have a good time, and even talk about "important" things sometimes. Within a year or so, he'll be making more money than me, so I hope we can continue this tradition of breakfasts out after he's out of school. By then, he'll be carrying a briefcase and looking so very-business-like and grown up, making his own way, like young men have been doing since the beginning.

In 30 years, or so he'll grow nostalgic for "home", and drive past the old home place, telling his wife and children, "That's where I used to live. There's my school. There used to be a Braums there, and a hardware store there, and, oh, my friend Michael used to live there...did I ever tell you what good times we had back then?" And his children, like children have been doing since the beginning will roll their eyes and listen to stories of his youth. "Oh daddy, things aren't that way anymore. That was back in the olden days." And there will be a knot in his throat and a catch in his voice as he says, "Yeah, you're right. Things aren't that way anymore." Looking at his kids, he will feel like parents have felt since the beginning- that his kids have somehow missed out on something important from his generation. And so he begins another story, this one about how he threw a bat in anger one summer day because he missed a ball being pitched to him by his brother. And the bat hit a window at his school and shattered it. And about how he ran home, and his mom marched him back up to the school to view the damage. And how she made him confess to the principal that he broke the window, and how the prinicpal and his mom decided he should learn a lesson, and how for the next week, he worked after school doing chores-like sweeping the parking lot. His children look at him incredulously. For breaking a window? Accidently? You had to sweep the parking lot in the 104 degree heat? A life lesson learned. And passed on to the next generation. Mission accomplished.

Making Life Easier

Monday morning-so nice to see ya! After the weather man on channel 12 said there would be no rain last night, I woke up at 4:00 am to lots of thunder and lightening, and...would ya know it, rain. It's cooled things down and kept me from having to drag the hose around this morning to water the little plot I have planted some things in. I have decided that I really must invest in one of those wheel thingys that hang on your house that you can roll your garden hose on. I spend about a year untangling and unknotting it before I can turn the water on.

It's one of those things that makes life easier that you wish YOU would have invented. My son was telling me last week about "fingertip pens and pencils". Have you seen those? They fit on the end of your index finger and that's how you write with them. No more gripping those writing utensils between your thumb and finger. One of the school psychologists I worked with last semester always commented about a kid's pencil grip in his reports and described it. "Hortense uses a 'fist grip' to hold onto her pencil and her writing appears laborious."

So maybe I should invent something this week and make a fortune. Nah, I think I'll have my coffee first.

I have been remiss in posting these last few days. First of all I want to wish my “baby” brother a happy birthday-he turned 46 yesterday. Although he can be stubborn and obtuse at times, I greatly appreciate him. We live fairly close, and are in frequent contact. He’s intelligent, funny, compassionate, and a great husband and father. I’m proud of him!

I didn’t get any responses to my query on the last posting regarding what goals you may have in life, except, this brother aforementioned sent out an email to some of us siblings asking us to write down 10 things we would most like to accomplish before we die. Well. You talk about taking stock in life-that little assignment will do it for you. Once I got started, I had no problem coming up with 10 things. I’m thinking about sending this question to my kids. I’d like to know what they think.

I’m taking Ms. Pancreas to the doctor today. Started on an additional med to help with the fasting (first thing in the morning) blood sugar numbers. I’ve taken it for a week now and I’m noticing some side effects, but my finger sticks in the mornings are looking a little better. And actually, Ms. Pancreas isn’t in this rebellion herself. She has recruited Mr. Liver to help her dump large quantities of glucose at night while I’m sleeping. so this new med is to help counteract that. I thought about my dad today-he passed away several years ago. He had type 2 diabetes and the only thing available for him at the time was monitoring sugars by checking urine. Certainly not very accurate. Diabetes is a progressive disease, and I often wonder just how well it was controlled with him. I know he watched his diet extraordinarily well and was active. I think that helps a lot.

I thought today I need to change the name on my blog. I’m no longer a practicum student. I’ll be an internship student starting August 1. That’s coming up quicker than I realized.

What do I want to write about today? I dunno. Let’s start with this: I’m really enjoying being out of school. In addition to working 20 hours weekly, I’ve got several projects started, all of which, if I told you about them, would have you bored to tears within seconds. One thing I’m really liking about this part time schedule is that I get to practice the piano almost every day. My son, who is a better classical player than I am, is giving me “lessons”. He’s assigned me a couple of pieces to work on, plus I also have dragged out my scales book “The Complete Book of Scales, Chords, Arpeggios, & Cadences”, “Includes all the Major, Minor (Natural, Harmonic, Melodic) & Chromatic Scales-Plus additional instructions on music fundamentals"...just in case you were asking WHAT scales book…and am playing scales every day. One of my life’s goals is to be able to play a piece by Beethoven called “Sonate Pathetique”. The adagio cantabile portion of this piece is some of the most beautifully written music I’ve ever played.

Do you have any life’s goals that would involve you learning something new? I’m not necessarily talking about climbing the Andes Mountains (unless that indeed is your goal, then more power to ya), nor am I really talking about ethereal intangible things (that’s another topic for another day). I’m just asking if any of you would like to share on this page any specific goals you have, and are working towards in this life. Maybe you would like to learn to knit, or to run a mile without collapsing, or give up one meal a week in order to spend time meditating, or learn about stars and planets and constellations. I hate to own up to some of these (knitting! really!) but all of these plus many more are on my to learn list. Maybe you’re a busy mom, a student, and an employee-or you do all three of those jobs, like several people I know. Believe me, I understand that. But I would encourage you to take a little time for yourself, if to do nothing more than to think. To ponder. And to dream. You’re worth it.

Saturday, way too early

It’s early.  I woke up at 5:30 am – that’s what I get for having that schedule the last 5 months. Through my open bedroom window, a light morning breeze stirred the air.  The birds were beginning choir practice, and I could hear a train in the distance.  Normally, I can snooze right along with all the first light awakening sounds, but today, for some reason, I just couldn’t.  Even as I type this my sleepy brain is struggling to wake up, but I tell you, if I went back to bed I’d just lay there and think about things-and thinking does me no good this time of day.  The “I wonder whys” start.  At first, they are somewhat insignificant.  “I wonder why my middle son is such a slob.”  “I wonder why someone would pick OUR car to steal a license tag from.”  They progress in significance to, “I wonder why I can be disciplined in SOME things but not others”.  Then the “you oughts” begin.  “You ought to test your blood sugars more often.”  “You ought to get more exercise.”  “You ought to practice the piano every day.”  And then there’s reminders of obligations, and of things to be done and checked off a list.  And finally, if I let my brain go there, I can then progress to reminders of mistakes in the past, and moments I wish I could take back, and bad decisions, and all kinds of things it does me no good to mull over. I got up to avoid all that…now I’m writing about it.  Great.  

Stemming the tide

Today, I’m going to do a public service announcement.  Are you ready?  Here we go.  

I know it may come as a great shock to people, but those forwards you get in your email may not necessarily be true.  I know, I know, it’s just difficult to understand that not everything you read on the net is true, and, it seems a little odd that I’m using that very medium to inform you of that, but, so it goes.  Case in point:  I received from a person (by the way, this person is none of you reading this, he is someone who is affiliated with WSU and has my email address for other reasons), a forward about Bill Gates and Microsoft offering a refund of 245.00 for each person they sent that email to.  This man, who is known by graduate students and has a fairly public position at the university actually took the time to read the forward, then to send it to at least 300 people in his address book.  

I responded back to him as follows:    
Don't be sending out crap like this.  This is a HOAX.  Please check out:
 http://www.snopes.com/inboxer/nothing/microsoft-aol.asp
 This website addresses this rumor.  You need to send an email out to every single person you sent that load of crap to and apologize.  And next time, check out any internet rumors by going to www.snopes.com and using their search feature.  Are you really that naive that you believe this?

Amazingly, I have not heard back from him.  I would encourage you today that when you receive any kind of internet rumors in your mailbox, that you delete them, or, if you want to be in public service, check them out by using one of the better internet rumor sites, www.snopes.com.  They have search feature that works quite handily-you just have to put in a keyword from the rumor.  Then when you get the real scoop, email the sender the information back.  I realize I’m only plugging up one little hole in the dike of internet hoaxes and rumors, but hey, at least I’m trying to do my part.  

Here's a pic of me - just so you know I really graduated. This was taken at the reception after graduation. The rest of the group has been cropped out as I wasn't sure THEY would like to have their pictures posted online...

Boom!

Well, I’m sitting here listening to the 1812 Overture, as only the Wichita Symphony Orchestra can play it.  BOOM!  There go the cannons…awesome!  Usually I’m down at the riverbank with my brother, enjoying the last night of the River Festival, which includes a gigantic fireworks show, but this year I elected to stay at home and listen to the Twilight Pops Concert on the radio.  I can see some of the fireworks from my house, but the show is really spectacular from downtown.  

Thanks to all who made my graduation a memorable experience, to all who emailed, called, sent cards, and emails.  Scott, it was good to hear from you!  Now that I’m out of school, I’m not going to end the blog, but I’ll keep it going for awhile.  I’m going to see if I can find where I misplaced my sense of humor…..

It's over, it's done...

Yes, graduation is over. I am awarded the Educational Specialist degree, now I can put some letters after my name-Ed.S., in case you were wondering. I have three more days at my practicum site-and may work also on Thursday and Friday if they have anything for me to do. In that little town I'm working in, school is out Tuesday the 16th, so Wednesday will probably be my last day.

I told someone that now that I've graduated, and had a wonderful day with family and friends on Saturday, I've got to come down off that high sooner or later, and I'll probably be cranky and depressed this week. I don't think it's really hit me yet that it's over. And really, for me, it's not really over. Not only am I working in the office at WSU all summer, but, I will be on a year long internship in the fall. This will require me going to classes at WSU every other week, and preparing a case study to present at the end of next spring. So I'm not done yet. Some School Psych programs have the internship before graduation. WSU has you do it afterwards. I don't know the wisdom behind that, but it works for me.

I hope to blog more this week. Thanks for hanging in there with me. I didn't do really well at writing last week. BTW, my son took some pics of me at graduation. I'll try to figure out how to post one on here. I'll see if I can find one I'm not embarrassed to post. And, more words of advice, if you want something important videotaped, find somebody who knows how to do it well. Don't ask, say, oh, I don't know, for example, don't ask your spouse to do it. Even though you love your spouse, and are so grateful for your spouse's love and support, and your spouse means the world to you, don't ask them to videotape something if they really can't do it very well. There. That's all I'm going to say about THAT.

Monday Musings

We had intermittent internet service yesterday-I called our internet provider. A nice young man came on the line to assist me. We had just gotten started, and I noticed the tone of his voice took on a sort of patient “I know I’m talking to an older woman who probably doesn’t know where the ‘enter’ is on her keyboard” quality as he began asking me questions. Fortunately my younger son came in the room so I immediately asked him to intervene. Well. In about 30 seconds they were discussing routers, connections, and alphabet soup, you know, ISP, and all that. Turns out our router, (one of four box type structures on the top of our computer desk) is not sending a good signal. Works sometimes, doesn’t work other times. I don’t really know about this stuff. But I’m glad I have a kid who can converse fairly intelligently with these people - he’s always sorta functioned as our own inhouse tech support.

Next to the last week of practicum. Two more weeks of spending 50.00 a week on gas just to get to work. It’s been a bummer to do that, but it has been a valuable experience. We’re wrapping up some evaluations this week and I’m also going to give the “Test of Visual Perceptual Skills” for the first time. I hear it’s not too bad. I brought it home to practice on my oldest son but didn’t catch him to do it.

Graduation this Saturday! There are only 4 of us graduating in the school psychology program this semester, but I think that's probably a bit more than what they generally have, which is 2, maybe 3 graduates a semester. We'll be walking with the College of Education, and will be called to the platform after the doctoral candidates and before the master's degree graduates. I was asked at church yesterday if it was about over, I replied rather enthusiastically, “oh yes!” The questioner stated, “I could see it in your face! You look great!” That, my friends, is what going back to school at 45 will do for you, once you’re finished six and a half years later. People start telling you how “great” you look. By the way, I need to let you know that I saw proof finally, on Thursday, that my incomplete grades were finally changed, and now, I don't have to hang on by fingernails anymore. I'm feeling much relief. Barb, Deb and Sylvia-see you Saturday on a milestone day for us. In case I don't get to say it Saturday, it's been a privilege for me to get to know you. You are all going to be great school psychologists. Congratulations!

Just rambling

Well, I can see these jokes went over big time.  I can hear your uproarious laughter from here.  You’re welcome.  I’m glad to add a little levity to your day.
*****
I just heard a peal of thunder.  I guess it rained last night but I wouldn’t know-I slept pretty soundly-only woke up twice-for the first time in many nights.  
*****
I’ve got 3 weeks to go working on practicum, and 10 days before graduation.  I’m feeling a little nervous and pressured, but am thinking, if I can just HANG ON, I’ll make it. If I can just HANG ON, I’ll make it.  HANG ON.  There’s quite a bit of work to do on practicum yet, but not overwhelming.  I think the most stress is coming from not having two incompletes changed to grades yet.  I’m nervewracked waiting on the professor to do so and thoughts of getting up there and not being able to graduate because the grades weren’t changed are racing through my head.  She assures me they will be changed-just HANG ON.  Sigh.
*****
If you’re human, this has happened to you -you’re living your life, ambling along, not bothering anybody, doing your job-when all of a sudden, a situation you were blissfully unaware of rears its ugly head and upsets the tranquility of life.  This happened to me on Tuesday evening.  A very messy situation came to my attention, and even though I was involved in it in a minor way several weeks ago, now it seems that I’m involved in a major way because my minor involvement was gossiped about by several people which then, mushroomed into major involvement a couple of weeks ago.  How’s that for confusing.  This gossip and talk really hurt a third party and now we have a mess.  Here’s the life lesson:  Don’t talk about others when you don’t know what you’re talking about.  And don’t talk about others even when you DO know what you’re talking about-more often than not, it’s a hurtful thing.  
*****
That’s all.

How about some doctor doctor jokes...

Doctor, doctor, I keep thinking I am a set of curtains!
"Pull yourself together, man!"
Doctor, doctor, people tell me I'm a wheelbarrow.
"Don't let people push you around."
Doctor, doctor, I keep thinking I'm invisible.
"Who said that?!"
Doctor, doctor, nobody understands me.
"What do you mean by that?"
Doctor, doctor, People keep ignoring me!
"Next!"
Doctor, doctor, I feel like a pack of cards.
"I'll deal with you later."
Doctor, doctor, people keep telling me I'm ugly!
"Lay on the couch, face down."
Doctor, doctor, I'm manic-depressive.
"Calm down. Cheer up. Calm down. Cheer up. Calm..."
Doctor, doctor, I feel so short!
"No problem. Hop up on the couch."
Doctor, doctor, I feel like a small bucket.
"You do look a little pail."
Doctor, doctor, I've only got 59 seconds to live.
"Wait a minute please."
Doctor, I have a ringing in my ears.
"Don't answer!"

Let's hear it for "Colie" and "Shelee"

Hey, at least I’m not writing about TOES like my brother is on his blog.  However, he did have something momentous happen with his toes, he dropped a heavy table on them.  Ow, Ow, Ow.  That’s gotta hurt.  

When I asked in the last blog what people were reading, one of my nieces replied that she’s reading Jane Eyre.  Again.  For the 2nd or 3rd time.  I’m so impressed with this young woman-she’s going to K State and having the time of her life.  She’s always struck me as a balanced person-someone who wants to try everything, but yet maintains perspective and a focus toward life goals.  It’s been a privilege for me to watch her and her equally charming sister grow up.  You girls are terrific!”  

Not much here...

Well, what do I want to write about…work?  Work’s work.  Wrapping things up.  School?  School’s school.  Wrapping things up.  There’s a lot going on, and the next three weeks will be both exhilarating and exhausting.

How about if I write about stuff that doesn’t matter much to anybody else…let’s see. Need to plant some canna bulbs my brother gave me-maybe Saturday afternoon will work for that.  The yard is a mess-it needs raking, mowing, trimming, all that good stuff.
Got my car outta the shop again today-the gas line had to be replaced.  It was leaking and I lost 18 gallons of gas in 2 days.  Ouch.  My son has a job interview tomorrow at a bank.

For what it’s worth, that’s all there is.  What are you currently reading?  Looking forward to reading this summer-I’m all for getting lost in a fiction book on a Saturday afternoon.

Talk to you all later, and thanks again for “tuning” in.  

    

30 years of marriage

Well, April 24 is a special day for me- I’ve been married, let’s see, I’ve been married 30 years as of tomorrow.  Is that a long time or what?  

I was going to try to write something elegant about this, but words are sorta failing me.  I don’t see my husband a lot - the main reason is because he works two jobs in order to support me as I go to school.  He has never complained about doing that - I’m so grateful for his support and encouragement.

What’s it like to be married for 30 years?  Well, it’s comfortable.  It’s a good routine.  It’s secure.  And, you’ve got the whole issue of taking each other for granted, but that’s another subject for another time.

For right now, this Sunday evening, I just want to say that I’m blessed to have him here with me.  Thanks, dear, for all you do.  

Baby steps

Hey!  I turned in the last report yesterday.  To celebrate that I finally have completed the work for that class, I bought my graduation “regalia” at the bookstore.  What a deal.  Now the only thing I have to do is make sure I get in all the practicum hours I need to, but at least I won’t be trying to do class work as well.  

I’ve got an interesting sort of project to tackle at work.  The small town I work in is seeing a rise this year, and a dramatic one at that, in the number of teen pregnancies. A state BOE member has proposed an “abstinence only” based curriculum be taught in public schools in Kansas.  In a meeting I was attending, someone asked if there was any scientific research which points to an abstinence only curriculum in human sexuality being more effective in curtailing teen pregnancy.  Stunned looks all around, no one knew, so I was asked to see what I could find.  I wonder if this board member has any researched based information to back up her assertion that this type of curriculum has had a better result.  I hope so. I may have to email her and ask, but until then, I’ll look for myself and see what’s out there.

Well kids, time to get going. Now that I’m not so busy with school work, I may have time to write in here once in awhile.  See ya later…

Stay tuned...I know I haven't written recently, but I may have news tonight. I've been working, working, working on reports for Personality Assessment, I have one to go, and there's a good possibility I'll get it done today. Yee haw, I will keep you informed. This may be the best day I've had all semester.

3:00 am musings

I’m up at almost 3:00am.  Normally at this time, I’m doing what most of us are doing, however, I’ve got two (only two??) problems.  I’m coughing, and, the neighbors are up.  The neighbors are up rather noisily although it sounds as though they are getting ready to call it a night.  

It’s been warm, but I’m not turning the air conditioner on in April, sorry.  It was 96 here on Thursday.  I think yesterday it was only 89.  But I’m NOT turning on the AC.  The windows are open for breeze, and besides letting in a little air, they let in the sounds of beer bottles clinking into a paper bag as they are being picked up, slurred voices, and people who shouldn’t be walking across the street getting into cars and driving away.  The party over, I hear sirens in the distance heralding a life changing moment for someone.  

I’m a simple person of the soil (SPOTS), who lives in the middle of a large Midwestern city.  I have a 50 foot by 75 foot plot of land with a house sitting on it, and neighbors all around.  It’s noisy and it smells funny when the wind blows just right -the meat packing and rendering houses from the north and the sewer plant on the south remind me I’m really close to, well, close to “things”.  My dad summed it up once while visiting my house soon after I bought it, “You can’t even pee in your backyard without anyone seeing you.”  (He was really a SPOTS.  For many years he lived on the edge of a small town on a couple of acres-just enough to say you owned some land, but not enough to say you have to “farm” it.)  And for him, you have enough land between you and the guy who lives next to you if you can have enough privacy to pee outside if you want to (although you don’t just stand out in your field and do it, you find a tree or stand in an outbuilding with a dirt floor, you always do these things with decency and decorum, you weren’t born in a BARN for heaven’s sake…)

The coughing has subsided somewhat, my head is clearing, and the neighbors have called it a night at least outside, so I’m thinking about going back to bed.  Come on breeze.  It’s muggy and warm.  If I were a SPOTS truly in a SPOTS’s home, I’d go sit on the porch in my nighclothes in the dark.  Can’t do that here, the porch is lit like a beacon.  If I turned the light off, I’d get robbed.  I get robbed anyway, but…did I tell you that someone came over the fence into my yard and helped themselves to a 20 foot aluminum extension ladder we had back there leaned up against the back of our house?  It was a nice one.  It held my rather portly self quite nicely as I painted trim on the house, or hung Christmas lights up.  Oh well.  Time to call it a night.    

No whining allowed or "aloud" as the case may be...

It’s gonna be 90 degrees today!  Is it summer?  It feels like it.  I am enduring a second round of coughing, sneezing, and congestion-I just got over it, now here it is again.  And I know it sounds weird, but I can tell you exactly when and where I was when I first noticed that scratchy tickle in my throat- I was in a meeting at a school where we were discussing a preschooler’s readiness to enter kindergarten.  Shortly after that my sinuses filled up, shortly after that the sneezing started, and within two hours, I had a full blown problem.  Yesterday evening the body aches started, and by 10:00pm I was miserable.  HOWEVER, I must state that there are others who battle physical illnesses every day of their lives so much worse than a bad cold.  I should not devote blog space to whining about that when others are dealing with far worse.  I’m thinking of you, G., and of someone I know who has liver cancer, and someone else with severe heart problems.  God bless you today, if you are reading this and are suffering a debilitating illness.  You’d probably exchange your problems with my cold malady any day of the week.

This is my last day to work this week at my school, but I’ll be working at home tomorrow on some things.  It seems there are a lot of things for a school psychologist to do at the end of the year-finishing up evaluations would rank pretty high.  In talking to some in this field, there isn’t enough time left in the year to complete those evaluations that were requested in February or March, so those will have to wait until next fall.  

Next week I’m doing a Functional Behavior Assessment (look that up on the net) and am going to try to get to more of those benchmarks that are required in my practicum but which I haven’t done yet.  There are like a million indicators you have to fulfill.  Well, not that many, but it seems like it.

Gotta get going.  The end is near…

Good Monday Morning

Good morning!  6:00am on a Monday…and I’m sorta chipper.  (Isn’t coffee an amazing drug?)  I’m on the downhill slope to completion.  I have, let’s see, six more weeks of practicum.  Five weeks until graduation.  Two weeks before all reports need to be done.  Deadlines, deadlines.  They don’t call ‘em “dead” for nothing.  Sometimes by the time you reach a deadline successfully, you feel like you COULD be dead…

I haven’t said much about work at the practicum site recently. Last week I finished screening kindergarteners to ascertain readiness for first grade.  This week I’m helping finish up evaluations, and in fact, need to do some testing.  I think I’m going with a special education class to the zoo on the 21st-that’ll be an adventure.  And, I’m hoping in doing that, I can check off a few more of those practicum requirements.  Did I mention  that for practicum there are 11 standards, and each standard has anywhere from 3 to 10 indicators that must be met in a semester?  It takes like 2 hours just to check off what you’ve done for the week on the evaluation form.      

On another subject, I didn’t get around to wishing my oldest child a happy birthday last week on the blog.  We did take her and my son-in-law out to eat to celebrate, but I thought I should give her a line here.  She was born on Easter Sunday 26 years ago, and her birthday has never fallen on Easter since.  I looked it up one time on the ‘net, and she’ll be like in her 50’s before just the right combination of equinox, Sundays, and birthdays all roll around to be on Easter again.  

I think that’s about it.  Time to get rollin’.