Dreaming of Short Term Memory

I am so excited to be a School Psychologist. I went to bed last night dreaming about concepts related to sensory memory, working memory (generally referred to as short-term memory) and executive functioning skills (i.e. the processes within working memory). The funny thing is I woke up with these thoughts still in my head when I slunk out of bed. Excited about this, I started reading an article from my favorite school psychologist's blog and read this...

From Dr. Branstetter's Blog, "Notes from a School Psychologist"

Dr. Bell: Hi Teacher, did you get my note about the IEP tomorrow?

Teacher: The IEP for the LD kid?

DB: Yeah, the LD/ADHD kid we wanted to recommend for RSP instead of SDC.

T: Why RSP?

DB: Because we need the LRE, especially since he bypassed the SST process.

T: Do we need to bring the paperwork for AB3632?

DB: No, we need to SB1895 first.

T: Ok, and are the parents ok with RSP instead of the SDC-LD class?

DB: Yeah, because the SDC we have on site is an SDC-ED not an SDC-LD class.

T: Make sense.

Average reader: ????

Anyone else in the field of special education: Got it. See you at the IEP.

I am excited to get this (and for those of you wondering what in the heck all that was, don't ask me, yet).

I love my field and I am still so far away. - Micah

Why Get A Dog When You Have Kids?

Ever wonder why people compare their animals to kids? I am sure you have seen it; dogs wearing sweaters, shirts, sunglasses, etc. These anthropomorphized mammals are hilarious and, yes, even cute. Like looking at a toddler sit on the toilet and read the newspaper. Hilarious!

It is the family set up that couples with no kids and old kids prefer. It's the in between group that I don't get, you got it, my friends WITH kids and animals. Don't get me wrong, I love animals (except the ones that growl/hiss at me for no reason or ignore me for the same reason). As an aside, I know all about the "don't show them you fear them" and "let them sniff you" routine. I do that and for the most part they like me, but I don't get the ever-angry or ever-annoyed animals, whatever. Mixing animals and little kids together are not a good mix and I mean no offense to my brother Caleb and his sweet wife, Palmyra.

So, why do I bring this up? Well, I have been thinking about reasons why I don't have any animals (and let's just remove what you are already thinking, "It's because you don't like animals."). Au contraire, I love them, but they have a time, place and season in my life. If I don't have the time, place or season right, then it's a no-go.

So, here is a list that I have come up with to help me rationalize why I don't have animals BECAUSE they are my kids:

1. When my oldest was two I found her face immersed in the doggy water dish at Gma and Gpa Jeanne and Michael's.
2. Likewise, this same daughter is constantly found with her face in her 'human' dish licking and lapping the remains of her meal. And, inevitably she gets food on her, I don't know how.
3. They bark, growl, bite and unfortunately leave little 'surprises' on the floor ("pssss", "bleah", *concentrated look...* "ahhhh").
4. They wake you up at all hours of the night when they are sick, scared, hot/cold or if they need to go potty.
5. When you get a new one you take more pictures of them instead of everyone else and inevitably you miss capturing events in your life because you have a bunch of pictures of their face instead of what you were doing say at Christmas.
6. They are the joy in my life and I would do anything for them.

So, there you have it, I will NOT get a dog/cat/animal until my kids can take care of themselves or are out of the house. There it is in writing and I'm not going back. I love you kids, but don't ask for a pet unless you want to move out.

*I have included some pictures, for fun, of my kids and their animal counterparts.

P.S. Case in point, listen to the beginning of the video below as I talk to Eden and Wyatt (it's short and quiet, but you'll get the point).

Grapefruit - Yum!

I love grapefruit, and so does my family. We actually like all kinds of fruit and some of us are fruit Nazi's. I say this jokingly, but seriously some of us are very attached to our fruit. As an example, we went to Grandma Carol and Grandpa Bobby's a few years ago and I swear Eden ate like 5 clementines (picture to the right is for illustration only) in one sitting. She LOVES oranges of any kind so watch out, if you want your oranges don't leave her unattended by them or they will be gone.

Back to my original topic, grapefruit. I have evolved over the years as a grapefruit eater. When I was growing up we ate them sparingly, with a bunch of sugar and a grapefruit spoon. Then, I got married and Ahnica LOVES grapefruit. The only problem is that over the past few years our special serrated spoons have all disappeared, but one. This is a big problem when you have four people who love grapefruits and two who are Nazi fanaticals about them. So, what do I do? Improvise. That's what I do best, however, Ahnica doesn't always agree with or like my methods or the results. I love to think creatively, in fact it's when I am being creative that I am most in the "zone". I get a weird elation when the creative juices are flowing.

Back again to my original topic, grapefruit. So I improvise and change my grapefruit eating habits; instead of scooping the fruit out with the spoon, leaving behind all of the yummy pulp and and hard to squish out juices, I open it like an orange and de-skin the fruit. It is amazing this way! Here is a picture (left), maybe later I will show you how I do it, step by step, so it doesn't make a huge mess (oooo! Try to contain your excitement, please.). Happy eating!

Bubble Boy

So, I have decided that I am going to start a blog to get thoughts off my chest and onto "paper" so to speak. I am generally scatterbrained, so I thought I would go ahead and start with something,... well, let's just say it's random, which is fitting I think.

Here it goes:

I saw this picture on a friend's Facebook (FB) page that made me think "How cool would that be?". So, I am sharing a similar picture (since I couldn't find the original) and some of my random thoughts explaining just that: "how cool" it would be.

Maybe it was the fishy side of me that couldn't stop thinking about it. Whatever the case, here is a short list of things that sounded like so much fun to do with it:

1. This would be the first thing I would do... get inside and start running across water yelling "look I am walking on water!". How awesome would that be (okay, maybe it's more awesome in my head)?

2. Get two of them and devise a way you could race an equally adventurous brother or best friend down the side of a two story house into a large pool (Ahem, SAFELY!). I have learned through the years that my outer extremities are precious commodities and I don't want to lose the use of them in a stupid stunt like the one I have just illustrated, so I would make sure this was safe before attempting it. For instance, I could let someone I don't like try it first and see if they make it out okay. I know, I know, "next please!"

3. Have a dinner date with my beautiful wife inside the balloon and then roll away off into the sunset. Awesome!

4. Put a bunch of blankets inside the bubble and sleep for a night, maybe this sounds boring to you, but really? How awesome would that be?

5. At the exact moment of anger stick a co-worker, boss, spouse or child inside and watch them roll around in it for a while. I bet you they would forget why they were mad in the first place. Awesome!

I invite you to take a brief moment and think about what you would do in the bubble. The possibilities are endless. Maybe the kid and psychologist inside of me is trying to tell you and me that sometimes we need to step back and have a little fun. It is said that laughter/humor is the best cure, so take off your shoes and play even just for a little while.