Category: grad school

grad school, illness

Been Busy.

Olof
I have to apologize to all of you.
I have been so busy with grad school and illness. At the moment I am fighting a sinus infection and crazy allergies. I’m on penicillin and steroids, and allergy medicine and a inhaler. Last week both kids ran a fever of 103F and I think M has a sinus infection now as well.
My knitting is sort of on hold and my quilt is as well. My house looks like a tornado went through it and I don’t have the energy to even think about picking up. My deal with myself is that I can’t take out the sewing machine unless the house is clean. I do have a few things on the needles but they are all sort of long term projects. I will post photos later.
During this illness I have been able to watch quite a bit of TV since I don’t have to look down to see it and I can watch the kids play while laying on the couch and I have watched the whole first season of Army Wivesand I have started on Season 2 while eating way too much candy. I’m totally addicted to the show now.
[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HZeiQ1y3buo]
I have decided to shed 30 pounds and my first baby step is to quit while flour. I have done really well in that department and not had any white flour in 2 weeks. I also was going to quit white sugar but haven’t been as good on that front. My next step is to get a routine going with exercise. I’ve been really bad about sitting around on the couch lately since I had M. I don’t know what it is about child number 2 but I’ve been a lot less active. But to get me started I got myself a nice pair of Reebok Women’s Runtone Running Shoe and they are super comfortable. But in all the illness and studying I have been doing I have only ran 3 times since I bought them and I can’t wait to feel better again so that I can run on my treadmill.
Here is a good video if you would like to start running with me.

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MgdXq8htJfQ]

Here is to health and happiness and the fact that grad school will be over in December and then no more school for me for a while.

Tell me what are you up to.

grad school, homework, http://schemas.google.com/blogger/2008/kind#post, sleep, wine

Assessment, Family Therapy and Sleepless Nights.

Olof

So I´m at Panera Bread again trying to cram in some info for a finale tomorrow. I´m in a group of people that decided to tackle the study guide together. I´m so glad I did because otherwise I would be up poo creek with out a paddle. I´m finishing up my part which is summarizing 20 pages down to 3-4 pages of material in assessment and I haven´t even started on the study guide for family therapy but I believe that to be a little easier.
My assessment teacher returned my MMPI-2 report with more of her writing on it than mine explaining how I wrote it wrong and that I needed to redo it so that I can get a grade for it. Apparently that happened to half of the class which makes you wonder if it is the class or the teacher that is the problem.
It was my turn to sleep in today and I couldn´t do it. Of course DH had to use the restroom before taking O downstairs with him and in that time O wanted attention. I thought that I was tired enough to pass out after they went downstairs but as soon as DH came back and took O my bellydweller started to do his morning arobics and then 20 min later of trying to pass out my stomach started growling. I was mad. This is the second weekend in a row that I do not get my morning of sleep and DH got both of his because he has no problem falling asleep again no matter what is going on. Next weekend I´m spending the night in the guest bedroom and they can duke it out. I can´t keep missing out on my sleep and be tired all the time. O still has a problem sleeping through the night and I´m the one that gets up to him at night and in the morning while DH gets to sleep at night and sleep in in the mornings while I (the pregnant wife) gets one morning a week and have not gotten that the last 2 weeks because of her stupid body and brain.
Lets just say that lately I have really been craving some wine. Not just a half a glass but a half a bottle. I don´t drink while pregnant but man the craving is still there. I only got 2 months of being able to drink and eat what ever I wanted before getting pregnant again. I had 2 months were I was not breastfeeding nor pregnant. I did not use those 2 months well enough and I have learned that next time I will enjoy it better.

family, grad school, http://schemas.google.com/blogger/2008/kind#post

Did it!

Olof
Finished 5 papers in 2 days. I can´t believe it. I also have done 3 loads of laundry and run the dishwasher twice. I´m even planing on making goulash for dinner. I guess I´m out of my funck. I do have study guides to do and I have to re write my MMPI-2 report. The teacher turned it back to me with more writing on it than I wrote telling me how I did it wrong. I guess it´s back to the drawing board.
Me and O went out to play in the cold today. it´s below freezing and he will not wear a hat. We were outside for about 20 min when he just started getting fussy about everything because he wasn´t allowed to play in the street. So we went back inside. He is now having a snack and watching Toy Story. He loves Buzz. He has a Buzz shirt and sweater and when he wears it (which he is right now) he keeps pointing at Buzz and saying Bus Bus.It´s very cute.
About my knitting progress. I have finished 3 x-mas presents and am well on my way on 2 more. I´m also making a new hat for DH. I´m finishing it tonight since it is soooo cold here. It was in the single digits this morning here in Tulsa. I´ll post some pics of these projects soon.

Peace out!
Olof

coffee, grad school, home work, http://schemas.google.com/blogger/2008/kind#post, milk, motherhood, pregnancy

Eurika!

Olof

So we figured out why my son was getting so sick the last few weeks. He has been vomiting and 3 nights in a row he threw up all night long. Came to find out that he suddenly could not handle the cows milk before bed. Now that he only gets a little milk here and there through the day he is doing a lot better. Last night was hard though. He is getting teeth and was waking up every hour and man am I beat.

He seems to almost always have nights like this the night before I have a big project do for school and need to be able to work fast while he takes a nap and when he goes to daycare. Today is going to be rough and I think I might finish a full cup of coffee today to try to keep myself going. I really don´t like doing that. A cup is considered safe during pregnancy but I try to keep myself at half a cup each day. I´m just so tired today that writing this blog post is actually an effort.

To do today:
Finish bio for Family Therapy
Type the 2 reaction papers I hand wrote on saturday at Barns & Noble
Read today´s chapter and write a 2 page reaction paper for it
Clean the kitchen
and make it to class on time.

Any extra energy that anybody can give me now would be greatly appreciated.

Cloe Madenes, family, family therapy, grad school, http://schemas.google.com/blogger/2008/kind#post, illness, Parenting, psychology

Can’t Catch a Brake!

Olof

So now both my husband and son are running a fever. DH has had a fever for 2 days and DS just started with his. Because of this I am poo out of luck to be able to study. DH is too sick to take care of a sick DS and DS cannot go to daycare. That leaves me what time to study? We also have guests coming this Thursday so I need to keep the house clean.

I don’t know how I have made it this far this semester with all the illness going on. I’m actually passing my classes but with all the final projects coming up it is time for this family to get healthy and stop being sick. I can’t miss any more school and I need time to study. I have to do a MMPI-2 report, a biography for Cloe Madanes for my Family therapy class (this is due tomorrow and I have a page done), I need to lead a group in my group therapy class and I need to write a group proposal. I don’t know how I am going to get all of this done in the next few weeks but it does have to get done and I need to do it well.

I’ve started on my biography paper on Cloe Madanes. She is still around and is nice enough to answer my e-mails with questions about her life. About my group class, does anybody know a good book with group exercises that can help me with leading my group?

family, grad school, http://schemas.google.com/blogger/2008/kind#post, illness

X-mas preparation has started.

Olof

I´ve started working on some x-mas presents for this year. I think I will be able to make something for everyone this year. I have some great ideas that I can´t post here because some of these people read my blog so I guess I will not be posting pics of these projects till after x-mas but I am very busy knitting.
DS isn´t feeling his best. He is not really sick but he has a sinus infection from being sick last time. We are going in for his 18 month check up so the Dr. will be able to tell us if we will be needing some antibiotics. I hope we can skip the antibiotics because he is still recovering from having the runs as well. My poor little man has been sick with everything but the flu and H1N1 which I am very glad for. We are planing not to get the vaccinations for them this year. I do not trust it for me, being pregnant and all, or Odinn because he is still so little.
Grad school has been good. I´m a little behind on a few projects but my family therapy teacher just gave us an incentive to finish early by giving us 5 extra credit points if we are the first to finish all 10 assignments early. I´ve done 3 of the reaction papers and I still have 7 to go. So I have to read 7 chapters and do a reaction paper over each one. Hopefully I can finish by next week and get the extra 5 credit points and not have to worry about doing them for the rest of the semester. A few papers are do soon but they are not too bad. I also have to lead a group in group therapy class and I can´t make up my mind on if I want to lead a group on stress eating or just anxiety. I´m thinking that my fellow college students will be able to identify better with just anxiety. What do you guys think?
Assessment has been interesting the last few times since we are actually working on the MMPI-2 and we get to analyze ourselves. Makes it interesting. I keep getting some depression characteristics because they are the same as pregnancy symptoms which just shows how important it is to do an actual interview with the client to know if there are any medical reasons for a person to get a wrong psychological diagnosis.

grad school, http://schemas.google.com/blogger/2008/kind#post, parents, Rumba, School pics, scuba

School and other things.

Olof

I´m so glad with this year’s semester. I have 3 classes which are Assessment, Group Therapy and Family Therapy and so far the work has not been overload which makes a huge difference.

Mom and dad are coming to visit from Iceland this weekend and I can’t wait to see them. Dad just had my brother buy him an RV and I’m sure he just can’t wait to see it and try it out. Mom and dad plan to travel the US in it after my dad retires in January. I’m so lucky to have parents that can travel that often and come to visit us. When they come, me and hubby get a date night and we can’t wait and it is also great that Odinn really gets to know them since they are living with use for a week at a time when they come.

Odinn had picture day at daycare today so he had to go to daycare early. Normally he doesn’t go till 2pm and is there till 5:30 but today he is going to be there from 10am till 5:30. I was there for his picture and it went great. He smiled and everything. Looking forward to getting them and be able to send them to friends and family.

Me and Hubby are going to take advantage of him going to daycare yearly today and going to go out for lunch with out having to run after an 18 month old. Maybe even meet with friends and just be adults!

I’m also using the time to study and update my blog. I should go upstairs and get to cleaning up the guestbedroom so that mom and dad can stay there and we can easily convert it to a room for my little man. He really needs his own room before this baby arrives. I don’t think it would be a good idea to have him and a new born in our room even though there is room.

The Rumba has been working great for me. It’s great to be able to do dishes and dust while the floor is being vacuumed for you. All I need now is a Scuba to clean my floors and then I will be set.

corporal punishment, grad school, Parenting, Research, spanking

Doing research on spanking and its lasting effects.

Olof

So, I started my research for my research paper for school and I picked spanking and its results on children because I am a new mom from a background of spanking just being used when children do something that can be deadly to them and then it is the last resort. I don’t plan on hitting my child at all. I feel that there are plenty of other things that can be done to get your child to understand. It does take more work on my part in the beginning but I did not become a mother thinking that it was going to be easy or that there are any short cuts. Both me and my husband were only spanked 1 in our life and it was when we were around 4 years old. I had nightmares after my spanking for several years afterwords. I don’t plan on doing that to my son.

Having run into mothers that use it as their main form of punishment I started wondering what sort of research has been done on this subject and its lasing effects. I came to find out that the earlier that children are spanked especially before the age of 2 there were more disciplinary problems. These children tend to pick more fights when they get to school and tend to hit their siblings more when their parents are not looking. Spanking tends to teach them that it is ok to hit others if they are not doing what you want them to do. Spanking also usually does not help children to think of why they should not do things other than their parents, the people that are suppose to love and keep them from harm, will hurt them if they do it. Also people of lower economic status tend to spank or hit more than people of higher economic status. Most pro spanking researches were very clear on that spanking should not be used before the age of 2 and should be last resort. There is also the problem of a mother or a father loosing their temper and hitting the child harder then they meant to and I’m sorry but most spankings no matter how much you love the child happen out of anger. If the parent wasn’t angry then they wouldn’t be spanking the child and if the parent waits until he or she is not angry then the moment has past and the punishment would not work. For it to work it has to happen at the moment of misbehavior. I’m not saying that all parents are enraged at the time of spanking but they are frustrated and sometimes taking the frustrations of the day out on a small child that can not defend themselves from the person that is here on this earth to care and protect them from harm.
Well there it is. I know you spankers out there dissagree with me. That is ok. I have the right to my oppinion and if you have emperical research that showes me that Spanking is the best sort of punishment and should be used all the time please tell me about it so I can use it in my research paper.

children, grad school, http://schemas.google.com/blogger/2008/kind#post

Grad School Woes!

Olof

I have lots of homework do tomorrow and a test and I am not motivated to start doing what I need to do. I have a tape to transcribe and a study guide to finish and turn in for credit. I also need to e-mail clients and set up new sessions for this weekend. I also get to give my nephews the WISC this weekend which I am super exited. Who would have thought that an intelligence test would cost over 800 dollars?

At least the weather is crappy so I don´t want to be outside watching my garden grow. I do want to get some seeds in some grow pods tonight though. It´s time for peppers, eggplant, and tomatoes to get seeded.

Óðinn finally went down for a nap but I´m going to have to wake him soon since it is 6pm and we would like him to go to bed at some point tonight. Man it is hard to wake up a child when he has been fighting sleep all day long.