Political Debates

Are you watching? I have a few things to get off my chest and I know that I am getting old because of these comments:

First, Let me just say that when they host political debates on college campuses in the mid-west, those of us on the East coast are holding our eyes open with toothpicks in order to stay up. The debate started at 9 and was over at 11. I think I made it though the domestic policy issues and by then, well, I'd had enough. I had a choice to make -- another hour of this or my nice warm, cozy bed. I think you know what I chose.

Second, am I the only person in the world who hates the Town Hall format? Like I said, I must be a fuddy-duddy. Just stand behind a podium and talk to the American public. I think they were too busy wandering around the stage and not wanting to appear too stiff that they were just driving me CRAZY. Really, I do not want to see your back-side and the camera people had no idea where they would be going to next so we say their back-side almost as much as their front-side. It just appeared sloppy to me. Were they talking to the camera, the moderator, the audience. Tom Brokaw even had to ask them to move in order that he could read the teleprompter -- come-on now that is just sloppy.

What's up with the stop light? Is this not the craziest thing. I must be have a post-modern moment -- isn't it a bit ironic that there is the odd Stop light in the room that no one is paying any attention to -- that is except Tom. Not only do they not pay attention to the stop light at all, Tom even interrupts them and reprimands them for not "following the rules" -- are we in kindergarten? I guess I am too much of a "J" on the Myers-Briggs. I just want you to stop talking when its not your turn. Is it too much to ask you play nicely and talk when it's your turn. My goodness, I have to teach this conversational turn-taking to my 5 year old. I would have thought that two presidential candidates would have conquered this skill by now.

I must also mention that I am a terrible political pessimist. Really, I have no faith that either of these two POLITICIANS will be able to reform Washington, DC. How many times have we heard that? And all these great programs and no new spending and no new taxes -- sure I'll believe it when I see it.

Thursday has come and past and guess what -- another trip to the doctor. Honestly, I am going to schedule a standing appointment at the doctor's office for Nicolas. This time, he had a reaction to the antibiotics and ended up with a yeast infection. I knew that girls/women experienced this, but had no idea that boys might too. So, the doctor gave us yet another prescription and off we went. Nicolas is doing much better and I even think his ears/lungs are clearing up, but that will take another doctor's appointment to be for sure.


I never imagined how stressful our daily schedule could be with two children. On Thursday, Slade took Nicolas to the doctor because I had a 4-7 class. Tori also had ballet at 4:15 on Thursday. Nicolas had to get to his doctor's appointment and Tori wanted to go to the school for book night at 6:30. Is it really possible to get all of this done in a day? Obviously, my husband has skills that I never knew about because when I came in at 7:40, dinner was made, the kids had eaten, they both had taken their baths AND all of the above appointments/activities had been met! That is SuperDAD of the year worthy if you ask me -- oh, and now that I know about these super hero powers, I think he will have to use them more often.


Of course, I must also give a some credit here to the Nelson's (our neighbors). Tori has been walking home from school with Michael and David every day and staying with them until Dad gets home. And, they actually get the credit for getting Tori to book night at the school on Thursday. She has even gone to football games with them as Slade and I do our best to balance our schedules. Which comes to the fact that they are truly becoming the three musketeers. It won't be long before people start thinking that Beth has triplets!


So this week, they take a trip to Pet's Mart to pick up some dog food. Beth let's them pick out a special treat for the dogs, and each of them chooses and doggie treat. Tori picked out one that looked like a chocolate chip cookie (no surprises there). So all the kids were clear - these treats were for the dogs. That is until they are half way to the car and Tori has eaten half of the dog treat! Don't worry -- it wasn't harmful and a trip to the emergency room did not follow. I just had to laugh -- my daughter is so chocolate crazy that she is eating dog treats now!

Proposal Date

Ah, two sweet little words and yes, I have a proposal date my friends!

My proposal meeting will be schedule on Tuesday October 14. On this day I will surely need your prayers and prayers for all my committee members. My dissertation is on the influence of college experiences and leadership development on leadership self-efficacy for students who participate in military education programs. Boy is that a mouth full!
I have a few revisions to make to the proposal, and then I will send the proposal off to my committee for review.

This is the first of a three step process.

• First, I will meet with my committee at the proposal meeting. This meeting which is scheduled for 2-hours is an opportunity for the committee to ask me questions about the design and theoretical foundation for the study. Remember, I am just proposing the research. So, they will make recommendations in order to improve my study and approve my moving forward with the research.
• Second, I will conduct the research. I will be using data that was collected as a part of the Multi-Institutional Study for Leadership. Since the data has already been collected, it makes the dissertation a little smoother. I will be analyzing a subset of the data for my study. This will include writing chapter 4 & 5 of my dissertation.
• Third, I will schedule the dissertation defense with my committee. It is during this meeting that they will decide if I passed the dissertation. The defense is open so friends and colleagues are welcome to attend. My committee members will again ask me questions about the study and my findings. Hopefully -- I will have very good answers to their questions. If all goes well, I will be Dr. Wilson at the end of the defense!
  

Another Thursday, Another Drs Appointment

Well, it appears that Thursdays are going to be doctor appointment days in our house. This is mostly because our doctor has late hours on Thursdays, and it makes it a little easier for to get in for an appointment.

A few weeks ago, we took Nicolas in to see the doctor because he had been coughing quite a bit and also started pulling on his ear -- I just knew that he had an ear infection. Well, the outcome of our dr's appointment was that Nicolas in fact had an ear infection. We got an antibiotic and we were off.

This Thursday had been two weeks since that appointment. Nicolas had completed the antibiotics for the ear infection, and it wasn't but a few days and he started with the coughing again. So, back to the doctor we went. This time she wanted a chest x-ray. Nicolas still had his ear infection and the result of the chest x-ray revealed a little mucus in his lungs. So, we got another, stronger, antibiotic, and he also got a nebulizer so that we can give him breathing treatments. At first, he really hated the treatments. I think he was probably a little scared. but now that he has completed several, he is actually ready for it when it is time. I think that he knows that it makes him feel a little better, and I can tell that the nebulizer is helping with the coughing. I do hope that he begins to feel better, soon. It just kills me because he is so active and when he is not feeling well, you can just see the energy drain out of him.

If he is not showing much improvement by Tuesday, then we will probably be back at the doctor on Thursday. If not, another two weeks and back to the doctor. I do hope this round of medication takes care of all the ickys.

Gates v. GM

I received this message as one of the many e-mails that you find in your inbox everyday. However, because of my constant computer woes, I thought it was just hilarious. While I am sure the backdrop has little truth, the comparisons made are just striking and given the cost of gas it is even funnier. Well, you be the judge:

For all of us who feel only the deepest love and affection for the way computers
have enhanced our lives, read on. At a recent computer expo (COMDEX), Bill
Gates reportedly compared the computer industry with the auto industry and
stated,?"If GM had kept up with technology like the computer industry has, we
would all be driving $25.00 cars that got 1,000 miles to the gallon."
In response to Bill's comments, General Motors issued a press release
stating:If GM had developed technology like Microsoft, we would all be driving
cars with the following characteristics (and I just love this part):

1. For no reason whatsoever, your car would crash........? Twice a day.
2. Every time they repainted the lines in the road, you would have to buy a new car.
3. Occasionally your car would die on the freeway for no reason. You would have to pull to the side of the road, close all of the windows, shut off the car, restart it, and reopen the windows before you could continue. For some reason you would simply accept this.
4. Occasionally, executing a maneuver such as a left turn would cause your car to shut down and refuse to restart, in which case you would have to reinstall the engine.
5. Macintosh would make a car that was powered by the sun, was reliable, five times as fast and twice as easy to drive - but would run on only five percent of the roads.
6. The oil, water temperature, and alternator warning lights would all be replaced by a single 'This Car Has Performed An Illegal Operation' warning light.
7. The airbag system would ask 'Are you sure?' before deploying.?
8. Occasionally, for no reason whatsoever, your car would lock you out and refuse to let you in until you simultaneously lifted the door handle, turned the key and grabbed hold of the radio antenna.
9. Every time a new car was introduced car buyers would have to learn how to drive all over again because none of the controls would operate in the same manner as the old car.
10. You'd have to press the 'Start' button to turn the engine off.

More on the "Project"

Ok. So, I'm upset and disappointed. I did post on my blog about the Members Project, and I did ask many people to vote. I was not really prepared to flame anyone but there are some who are. If you are interested in reading more, surf on over to the Simple Justice blog.

Etcetera

• So much to say, but I won't bore you with all the details - or at least I'll try. . . .
  135 feeds to read. Just finished. Sorry if I haven't been commenting on your site. I feel like I am getting caught up now.
• Chapters 1-3 completely finished (in draft form) are in my advisors hands. Wow -- what an awesome feeling! I cannot wait to schedule the proposal date!
• I have been "decorating" my office at work. It is finally coming together. I'll have to take a picture to post soon.
• It hasn't even been a month of school and Tori has already missed a day to to "illness". I won't go into all the details but just say that everything in my house has been disinfected multiple times, and itch just thinking about it.
• What happened to the AmExpress Member's Project? Your guess is as good as mine. Cure Fragile X finished 5th -- yes, 5th in the voting (If I remember math correctly that is in the top 25?) and yet didn't make it to the second round! Ok -- someone please, tell me that the Presidential election will not be run by AmExpress!
• Kindercare opened in Gambrills which means that my morning commute is much better. However, this is one more change for Nicolas. I can tell that it is beginning to take it's toll on him. I just want some stability in my life for a few weeks -- hum, that must mean that I am about to experience significant changes :)
• For those of you on Facebook -- I finally set up my account today. Look for me, I'd love to add you to my friends list. Oh, and I am also considering starting up my blogger site again. I think I finally have it the way I want it. Maybe I'll just post both places for a while and see which tends to work better -- what do ya think?

Ok. I'm finished for now. That's like two week's worth of posts in one -- what a bargain! Boy and I glad to get that all out of my head!

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