She's here! and other adventures...

Stats: Abigail Jayne Cobia, 7 lbs 14 ozs, 20.5" @ 10:04am on Monday 11/27/06 , apgar score 9/9


Everything went really well, Rachel did good during the C-section, she is recovering smoothly. Abigail (Abby) is a cute kid, she'll get cuter as the newborn/old man look fades. We are really happy and so excited to have her. For those that know, she looks exactly like Kelly. "Kelly Part II", or "The Return of the Kelly" we should call her. Speaking of Kelly, she is really enjoying being a big sister, and totally wants to be involved in everything to do with Abby; she is going to fit nicely into the role. It is really fun (for the moment) to have 2 kids, such a great time.

So, we had Abby, and because of the C-section we can stay at the hospital for 4 days. But, this killer storm was coming on the third day, so we're like "Let's bust out of here before it hits." On the afternoon of the third day we leave in our crappiest car, the Pimpster Mercury Topaz (Peggy had the Altima with Kelly), with baby in tow during a snow storm. It took 1 hour to drive home, but it was worth it. We got home, got all settled in to brave the freezing rain storm (it rains, then freezes instantly to whatever it touches, like being coated with a nice thick ice-glaze). Six hours later the power in our place goes completely out, same with the whole street, and eventually ~500,000 people in the St. Louis metro area. What the crap!? I guess some trees and power lines couldn't take the weight of the rain. So, we hunker down for the night in our bed, and I really mean "we" as in all of us. Rachel, Kelly, Abby, and I all snuggle under our down comforter as the temperature dropped to 15 degrees that night. So freakin' cold! No newborn should be dealing with that. So, the next morning we pack up and head for the only hotel that had vacancy and power: the Watertower Inn at SLU! This place used to be a hospital, so it's kind of weird, but it's not bad (free wireless!). We've been here for 2 days, and rumor has it we'll be here at least 2-3 more. Just great... To top it off, Rachel had to go to the ER for swelling, but we bailed after a half-hour because we would have been there all day. She's ok, some nurse just freaked on us ("You're swelling? Better go the ER!"). Bull crap, the L&D nurse said swelling was totally normal for up to 3 weeks. So, this whole ordeal has been quite the adventure. Abby has spent most of her life at a hotel, now that's something to be proud of. Well, here's some pictures of us. Enjoy. I'll keep you posted.










She looks crazy in this last pic, what a kid.

Dissertation & Internship lazy crap for crap

So. I'm am knee deep in the deepest crap ever now. I am busy applying for internship while trying to develop a dissertation topic at the same time. Why are you doing this at the same time you ask? Didn't you plan ahead and do one earlier? Well, I thought I did, but then the great cheeks in the sky opened up and dumped on me.

All summer I was researching and planning on doing my dissertation project on a longitudinal autism neuroimaging study. Well, the data came from UW, and they hadn't finished providing us with all of the scans, etc, etc. Well, late September I find out that only 4 kids from the control group showed up for the follow-up scan. If you know stats, you know that's not so good (our original n was close to 25). So I was like "crap...ok, no worries, I have some back-up research I'm doing at the hospital I could use instead (examining visual memory deficits in traumatic brain injury). Well, as I finished collecting that database together I soon discovered that there were some significant gaps in the data set. "Double crap!" This I discovered Oct 11th, and here I am trying to get a proposal together so I can put it on my applications (the first one is due Nov 1st). Not good. So, basically I'm back to square one, where I was in June.

All is not lost, the Conte Center is letting me use the data set from their first grant to develop an idea. It is going to be in a schizophrenia population, and will likely involve determining the relationship between working memory, executive functioning, and cortical gray matter volume. So now I'm running around trying to meet with people who don't have time to meet with me to get approval. I don't know what I'm doing....

Where am I applying to internship you ask? (from West to East)

University of CA San Diego
U of Arizona
Primary Children's Hospital in SLC
Utah State Hospital
U of New Mexico Health Sciences Center (HSC)
Baylor College of Medicine
Texas Children's Hospital in Houston
U of Chicago
U of Illinois-Chicago
Henry Ford HSC in Detroit
West Virginia HSC
Dartmouth College of Medicine (New Hampshire)
Harvard Medical School/Mass General Hospital
Kennedy Krieger Institute @ Johns Hopkins (Maryland)
U of Florida Gainsville

Any favorites out there?

Time for some updates

Here we go! There are a lot, so scroll on down.

First Days

Kelly had her first day of dance class and preschool a couple of weeks ago. Here are pictures. She is really excited about being involved in both. In dance she is doing ballet and tap (if it's possible for a 3 year old to do those things). She attends school at the Zion Methodist Preschool. We thought it was important for her to be exposed to some gentiles here and there. She has great teachers and it has a strong curriculum (Coloring 102, Painting 305, and a 500 level Jungle Gym course, pretty advanced if you ask me). We think this was a good career move for Kelly and we're happy about it. St. Louis Community College here we come!

It's a Girl!

We had the ultrasound done in the middle of August and found out we're having a girl. We are both pretty excited about it. Like I mentioned earlier, we wouldn't have been disappointed with a boy, but having another girl is going to be really fun. The name will be either Abigail Jane (Abby, my favorite) or Lillian Grace (Lilly, I like this one too). Sorry Jon, I know you like Lilly, but we got it first. :) Any votes on which one?

Fun in Boise

Rachel and Kelly spent several weeks in Boise over the summer. Here are some pics of their excursions. I came out for almost a week, dang school is out of control, so I couldn't be gone long. Enjoy.

Water fun


Mowing the lawn with Nana Peggy


Kelly thinks these armbands are leggings, they're from an old costume of Rachel's when she was a kid.


Kelly feeding Val with Papa Warren


Nothing like fishin' in Idaho!


Biggest catch of the day


We had fish for dinner needless to say


Whoopin' it up at the Snake River Stampede!



Kelly in her cowgirl hat riding "Daisy"

Canlas visit

The Canlas' came into town for the 4th of July. It was a lot of fun having them here, Kelly really enjoyed being around all of the kids. They stayed at the Union Station hotel which has a mall inside the building as well. In one part of the mall they have these trampoline devices that kids can be strapped into to jump like 20 feet in the air. Kelly saw other kids doing it and said, "It's Kelly's turn now." We were like "Ok...." Well, needless to say she got strapped in and had a blast, we couldn't believe how high she was going, it was funny. Here are some pictures.





What's really sad it that this is our last 4th of July in St. Louis. That is very weird to think about. We stopped off Highway 55 and watched the fireworks under the Arch. Really cool.

Being a Father

So, I got this book for Father's Day that I have been reading. It called "Wisdom of Our Fathers" by Tim Russert. It contains various stories he has collected about people's memories of their fathers and the good things they have done or been. I really enjoy it...for two, no, three reasons. One, because it's heartwarming, funny, and full of stories about good people. Second, because it has caused me to think about the relationship I have with my father. My dad has always been a hard worker, sometimes too hard. Despite that, I always remember him being at sporting events, band performances, and other activities. He has been a great example of a priesthood holder for me, and faithfully fulfills his callings. I am proud and grateful for that. Yet, my father and I haven't had what you would call an extremely close relationship. I confide in him about some things and stuff, but I don't cry on his shoulder. Maybe that's just the way relationships are between fathers and sons. I think we silently understand and appreciate each other, but aren't opening emotional. Last of all, the book has helped remind me how to be a good father myself (not that I'm not already :), but some pointers couldn't hurt). I really want to be this great super dad - supportive, kind, loving, diligent, and all that. There are so many qualities I'd like to espouse, but I don't know if I can do it all. I guess that is part of the difficulty of parenthood, attempting to do it all. Hopefully learning from others helps to ease the burden (maybe it's because we're sharing it?). Anyway, this whole topic is especially salient due to the fact that we're having another child in November. Crazy life... We are pretty excited. We don't know what it'll be yet, but I'm hoping for a girl. If it's a boy I won't mind either (sorry future son if you read this, you really will be cool). The only problem is we're having trouble coming up with good boy names. Any suggestions?

Dr. C, Paging Dr. C...

Dude, where's my car?

car = dc

Well, here it is

It's official. I have my Masters degree. Look I even have a picture to prove it.



They sent this to me in the mail the other day. Kind of cool, but a little anticlimatic seeing as that I have two more years left in the program to finish the Ph.D. portion. Still fun nonetheless. The summer has been going well, not too stressful, but I have a lot coming up. Need to select a dissertation topic, and finish off some other research. I start my new job at the WashU neuroimaging lab tomorrow, that'll be fun.

We took Kelly out on her new bike yesterday. She picked it up like a champ. This was downhill of course, but she is actually doing quite well. Here is a picture of her in all her glory, she's so funny.



Father's Day was also today, and it's been great. Rachel made me huevos rancheros for breakfast, and some ribs for dinner (yum!). Couldn't have asked for more. I also got a book I've been wanting for awhile, "Wisdoms of Our Fathers" by Tim Russert. It's a collection of stories from lots of people about their experiences with their dads. It's very good and a "highly recommend" item. I also got "Batman Begins" and a sweet memory foam pillow. I totally cannot wait to try that out tonight (I sound like such an old man...). Well, that's all for now.

Time to catch up before I get more people pissed

So...yeah. Thought I'd start out with a funny pic of Kelly. She does this totally funny/random thing. In the middle of dinner she'll just look up and say "Hey dad, look at my crazy eyes!" and then do this eye-crossing bit. It is so funny, I need to post our video of it. Well, a lot has happened since I last wrote, so, here we go.

The last time you read about this hero, I was in the middle of taking prelims. The next day I took my final part, which was interventions (i.e.- therapy) and ethics/professional issues. I cannot tell you what a good feeling it was to finally have those over with. I studied my butt off for 6 weeks straight, 4-7 hours a day. For finishing them Rachel threw me a "Man Party" where I had lots of friends over to play Xbox and eat buffalo wings, meatballs, chips, and other junk food. It was great, but I woke up kinda sick the next day. I'm getting too old for this kind of stuff. Well, two weeks later we got prelim results back, and I passed (of course!). It was a relief though to know for certain.



So, the semester ended and I finished my only class and, get this, I got a B+ in it. What the crap? I do not know what was up with the teacher. I went in and talked with her, and she still cannot give me an adequate reason for giving me a B+. I do not understand that crap. It was very lame because the class was very lame. I'm serious, it was like an undergrad class. I shouldn't complain because it's only my second B+ in grad school, and it may sound like whining to others. But still...I did quality work in there.

Another kind of disappointing, yet blessing in disguise, experience was in regards to obtaining new practica (clinical training positions) for the coming year. For the past three years I had planned to get a spot at St. Louis Children's Hospital (associated with WashU) in the pediatric neuropsychology department as an assistant; totally great experience with epilepsy, tumor, tbi, and other pediatric medical populations. Well, I interviewed there along with one other first year, so I thought I had a pretty good chance of getting the spot (seeing as that I'm a third year and have had more experience). Well, I got a phone call from one of the doctors I interviewed with, and she told me they decided not to extend me the offer....what the...!? Needless to say I was pretty disappointed and let down. They gave me a few reasons why I wasn't a good fit, but they never came out and completely explained it. So, here I am with no prospects of getting clinical work for the coming year, in addition to being out the money I get for working (which means more lame loans). Well, to cut out the boring details, I really think the Lord helped me out on this one; the whole "where a door closes, a window opens" bit. So, I did some digging of my own and ended up securing two spots for the coming year. One is at Cardinal Glennon Children's Hospital (the other kid hospital) working with the pediatric neuropsychologist there doing basically the same stuff I would have done at Children's Hospital, but with some more opportunities. In addition, I'm working at a neuroimaging lab at WashU, which I am very excited about. Neuroimaging research is getting really big in my field, and is typically hard to get at the graduate level. So, in addition to doing the research, I'm doing it at a well-respected institution, with a doctor who is well-known in the field. I couldn't have asked for anything more. I've learned some good lessons from this experience, though it wasn't a very easy road. I guess that's the kind of thing the Lord has in store for me.


Mother's Day was nice, got Rachel "Walk the Line" on DVD and and clay imprints of Kelly's hand that go in a frame with her picture. It was sweet. May ended on a good note. I'm still going to be a little bit busy this summer. I'm writing a book review with an old advisor, and going to help write an article on how tbi affects certain memory systems. Two publications isn't shabby, I need them too. Well, I can't sign off without making a formal announcement about the fact that we are going to have another baby. Holy crap is right. We're very excited because it is about time. The official date is December 8th, but Rachel is doing this one C-style, so they'll probably take it 2 weeks early. So we're talking end of November. She's 12 weeks along and still feeling pukey, I hope this ends soon, it's not fun seeing her sick. Well, this is enough writing for now. These pictures I've posted are some recent ones from April, enjoy!

I beg of you...

Just post something, pictures, pictures of kelly, pictures of rachael, pictures of your hairy butt. I don't care what, just post something!

Dude, Jesus is pissed at you...

For letting your blog/journal slack and not posting for over a whole month. Now get crackin...we want to know what Dr. C's next move is...

Half Way There

Well, I completed the Psychopathology and Clinical Assessment portions of my preliminary examinations today (aka - prelims). Only two more sections to go - Interventions (psychotherapy) and Ethics/Professional Issues, they will be on Thursday. I felt very good about the sections today. Pathology went better than I thought, Assessment was ok. I really nailed one question on Assessment, the other was so-so. I'm going to study my butt off the next two days so I will be ready for Thursday. Bring it on! Jon-Callie and Company will be here for the 4th of July. I am very excited. Time for some Bandana's BBQ! You hear that Jon? Be prepared to immerse yourself in sauces.

Easy Like Sunday Morning

Here's a recent pic of Kelly and I from last Sunday. She is getting so big, I cannot believe it. Before I know it, I'm going to have to start chasing off boys (Issac) with a shotgun. Oh, and where the crap is spring? It has been getting so freakin' cold here, I think it will warm up this week. Can't wait till baseball season, this new Busch Stadium is the bomb. Just Google "busch stadium" and you'll see what I mean. Go Cards!

Call me Master

I've official earned my Masters degree. Thesis defense went fine, I still find it weird that I've accomplished this. I really don't deserve it.

Weird

I defend my thesis tomorrow, and I'm weirded out. First, I'm fried because of all the prep I'm doing along with class, work, and prelims. It is a rather surreal experience. I never thought I would see this day. I have this eerie feeling that I'm going to "flunk" my defense and get kicked out of the program. More than likely not, but I'm probably actively delusional right now. Just feeling wore down. Can't wait for the semester to end.

Springtime...Love is in the air

Well, it appears official. Adam L. is finally getting married. He seems pretty serious about it too. There were many times where he contemplated over a girl or two, but this seems different. I'm happy for him, he appears very excited. He is the last of my friends to get married, and he's doing it at 30. Not a bad age. The girl he's marrying seems to be the spitten image of him (but in girl form of course, and prettier too...I'm meaning personality wise they are the same). The date is late in May and I may just fly out for the ceremony (SLC Temple). Take some time to hang with Jon, the artsy-fartsty camera guy. Congrats to Adam.

March comes in like a Lion

Not the best day in my life, but I am grateful for one thing. I have a really great father-in-law whom I trust very much. He's a good man and I appreciate him.

These painful, blistering, winter months.

Mr. Independent

Yes Jon, you were man for the day yesterday, but don't let it get to your head.

So...my music world has received new vigor recently. I'm all about indie music! Well, at least for the next month. Maybe next month it'll be Euro-Techno-House music. But for now I have tons of listening to do. My current favorite is Kings of Convenience and Yo La Tengo. There are still many more to check out. Does this mean I am going to abandon my heritage of Instrumental Rock, Smooth Jazz, 80's hair, and Bluegrass? Of course not, I am just broadening my horizons.

It has been very interesting to see my musical tastes change over the years. Before I turned 12 I knew practically nothing about music except for hymns, The Carpenters, Neil Diamond, and other AM Gold hits. The minute I got my first radio, I was hooked. I was taping everything, and I think I still have some of those tapes. That was back in the good ol' days of MC Hammer, New Kids on the Block, Vanilla Ice, and Bon Jovi (ahhhh...). As I entered high school I became a musical elitist. Nothing that was of the purest form of sonic, rhythmic, and melodic complexity ever touched my discman. I listened to a lot of instrumental rock (Steve Vai, Joe Satriani, Steve Morse, etc), classical was definitely there, and some jazz too. This was in the hey-day of grunge, and I was living in WA too. I even poo-pooed this music as well as "whiner-power-chord-hud". First semester of college, same thing, pretty elitist, even though I was exposed to a lot of stuff. During the mission....uhhh...there was no music. Even for a few years after my mission, I still was pretty selective, but I continued to delve further in my favorite genres. I guess you could consider my breadth of music narrow, but having good depth at the same time. I would have to say that in the past 5 years my musical interests have really changed. I'm much more open to good songwriting and harmonies. I'm not so stringent about technical acuity with performance and writing. I'm really into bluegrass, trip-hop, and now this indie stuff (whatever that is, just a catch all for "none-big-label" stuff I guess). I believe that my taste for this stuff has always been there, if only I was more accepting and not so hard-lined, maybe I would have jumped into it sooner. We'll see, I'll keep you posted.

Boston Tea Party, without the tea

Finally I have some time to post about my adventures in Boston. The conference ran from Feb 1st to the 4th. It was great. The minute I stepped off the plane in Boston, I knew I would love it. I took the T (subway) to the hotel, and it was a fun experience. I think that's my first time on a "real" subway, none of that Metrolink stuff we have here in St. Louis. iPods were freakin' everywhere; I swear, about 60% of people had them. So I wasn't too worried about mine getting swiped. I wish I would have taken more pictures, but I got what I got. They aren't all pretty like Jon's, but they're something at least.






There is some from the view of my hotel room. The Boston Public Library is beautiful, took a pic of that. I spent a lot of time with Adam L. My first night there he took me on a whirlwind tour of downtown Boston on his glorified scooter (he claims it's a motorbike). It was crazy. Here we are, two grown men, one hugging the other on this scooter at 9:00 at night in Boston zipping in and out of traffic. Adam is crazy on that thing, I thought I was going to lose a knee or elbow a couple of times. He came so close to the cars. The tour was awesome, he showed me some beautiful churchs, old meeting halls, and other sites from the Revolutionary period. We went down back alleys, on sidewalks, and drove along the wharf. It was great, I got the whole thing on videotape. Too bad I don't have a way to upload it on the site. Here are some pics of Adam and the bike.





On Thursday night we went to see The Samples, who just happened to be in town.



We went with this lady friend of Adam's, Kathrine. She's kinda young, but that has never stopped Adam. They aren't really dating, just friends now. Adam's eyes are on another at this point from what I gather. The concert was great, Sean sounded good, but I wish they would have miked his guitar louder. It was at a smaller venue, but I liked it like that.

Adam also took me to Harvard's campus (he taking classes at the divinity school there). It's a beautiful place. I swear if family wasn't so far away I would live in Boston. It is such a cool place, a lot of culture and great people, too bad it is real spendy. Overall I had a good time and would love to go back a visit. Maybe we should vacation there this year, or hopefully we'll get there on internship or post-doc.