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!