February was much like the previous months. Lots of work, lots of side projects, and lots of running around.
We did discover a restaurant for Valentines day that was very good (but also very expensive). Tamara ate fish, and actually liked it- which is a huge landmark. She has always hated fish, so it was pretty cool.
The weather here is warming up again so we are able to go on more picnics and walks, which is fun.
I entered a weight-loss competition at work, and was shocked that I was able to lose 10 pounds in the first week. It would be fun to win and get a HD TV and money... but I don't have as much potential to lose as some of my co-workers... but we'll hope that will-power wins over potential ;)
Unfortunately nothing really fun happened this month. We'll see if we can remedy that for next month.
-the Bateses
Thursday, March 4, 2010
2010 Feb: North
It has been a crazy month. I had a test 3 weeks ago and we still don’t have our scores back yet. We are taking the final test for this class in 1 week, and we don’t know what our grades are. It’s a little scary to go into the final like that. I guess it helps us each do our best instead of brushing it off if we know we did well on the midterm. Let me tell you about one little stressor in my life over this last month. In my course of study we are put into small groups for 10 weeks at a time. In those small groups we choose what we want to study, we compare notes, we teach each other, etc. We work very closely with our group, so it’s important for the group to get along. Well my current group has not gotten along very well. We have struggled the whole time in our meetings. There is a lot of interrupting, discord, and chaos. There have been accusations made about people playing favorites, and ignoring other’s opinion. It all came to a head on Friday. We had our most tense discussion. Some cutting personal attacks were made; luckily I was able to avoid that. It even got so bad that a faculty member was called to come in and settle the matter. He used some strong words to tell some of the group members to grow up. He reminded us that we are in medical school, not junior high anymore, and that we need to be willing to work, or we should find a new school. It was very tense for awhile. Fortunately we won’t be meeting again in our current groups; we get new ones next week. Not every day is that bad, in fact we’ve had some very productive days, and I will have some good memories of this group. Although painful, this is an important experience because we will spend the rest of our lives working with disagreeable people. Doctors are notorious for being arrogant, and we will have to work with them every day. It is important to learn to disagree but not be disagreeable.
Last night was our school talent show. Because I am a member of the club that sponsored it I was involved. My main duties were with the fundraising aspect. We held a silent auction and a raffle. I believe we raised well over $1000 last night. We are donating it to local charities and performing arts companies. The talent show was held in a building that was originally built by Andrew Carnegie, so it is technically a “Carnegie Hall,” and my club opened the show with a dance number, so I can now truthfully say that I have performed at Carnegie Hall! My debut was spectacular. The crowd cheered and cheered, well, at least my wife cheered. The closing number was very unusual. It was a faculty “band” made up of 2 accordions, a banjo, a tuba, a saxophone, and a French horn. They played the chicken dance song. I never thought I would see the Assistant Dean wearing a chicken hat and playing the accordion. It was a fun night, and a great learning experience. I think Becky will be posting a video of my brief dance solo on our blog soon, so swing by and check it out.
All things considered we are doing well. Becky is learning lots at her work. She has already moved up the totem pole and is training another worker on how the office works. In church she has been released from the nursery and called to be the Relief Society secretary. She didn’t think she would miss the nursery, but she does. I think she enjoys mingling with the other women her age and getting more spiritual nourishment than the little children can provide. We feel blessed and happy and we hope the same for you.
Last night was our school talent show. Because I am a member of the club that sponsored it I was involved. My main duties were with the fundraising aspect. We held a silent auction and a raffle. I believe we raised well over $1000 last night. We are donating it to local charities and performing arts companies. The talent show was held in a building that was originally built by Andrew Carnegie, so it is technically a “Carnegie Hall,” and my club opened the show with a dance number, so I can now truthfully say that I have performed at Carnegie Hall! My debut was spectacular. The crowd cheered and cheered, well, at least my wife cheered. The closing number was very unusual. It was a faculty “band” made up of 2 accordions, a banjo, a tuba, a saxophone, and a French horn. They played the chicken dance song. I never thought I would see the Assistant Dean wearing a chicken hat and playing the accordion. It was a fun night, and a great learning experience. I think Becky will be posting a video of my brief dance solo on our blog soon, so swing by and check it out.
All things considered we are doing well. Becky is learning lots at her work. She has already moved up the totem pole and is training another worker on how the office works. In church she has been released from the nursery and called to be the Relief Society secretary. She didn’t think she would miss the nursery, but she does. I think she enjoys mingling with the other women her age and getting more spiritual nourishment than the little children can provide. We feel blessed and happy and we hope the same for you.
2010 Feb: Robertson
I'm feeling productive...
Well we slacked off a bit in writing last month, so we will do better in making up for it this month. School started with a bang for me in January. I hit the ground running and haven’t stopped since. All of January, I was gearing up to take my comprehensive exam. This single test determined whether or not I could graduate with my Master’s. If I failed, it would have almost been like I just wasted the last two years of my life – probably not that dramatic, but you get the idea. I was constantly reading some book or article trying to get all the information I could into my head and keep it there. I as giving presentations to others taking the exam in the hopes that I would remember even more. Morgan would quiz me on dates and events that surrounded the authors that I had to study. I had 17 different works that I had to know inside and out and be ready to write an essay explicating any of them.
The day of the exam came, and I went to the library. For my first question, I had to explicate the Declaration of Independence. I ended up writing a 9 page essay in three hours explicating the philosophical ideas and rhetorical devices used in the first two paragraphs of the document. There was then a hour break for lunch and then back to the library for part two. The second question I ended up using a Marxist reading of literary history to show how Frankenstein was able to maintain a continuity with the Gothic tradition (ideology) while at the same time begin a discontinuity (antithesis) which resulted in the Science Fiction genre. Again I had three hours and wrote another 9 page essay. All in all, 18 pages written without any books or notes in six hours is respectable, I think. After that I started to sweat bullets because I started to second guess myself almost constantly. Luckily, I didn’t have to wait too long to hear back from the grading committee. I ended up receiving a “high pass” on my Frankenstein essay and passing my other essay with flying colors. I was the only one out of the graduates this year to receive a high passing score. Now hopefully a Ph.D. program will take me.
The rest of February has been spent trying to get caught up with all of the work that I didn’t do in January. I have been getting caught up in all of my classes that I am taking and the one that I am teaching. I feel sort of bad for the class I am teaching since I wasn’t able to focus on them as much during the first month of class, but I hear what some other graduate students have been doing and don’t feel quite so bad…
Other than that, we have been busy fighting off sickness here. The cold has laid everyone here low. It hit the girls twice. The first round was bad enough that we ended up buying a nebulizer to give them breathing treatments. We have only had it for a month, but it has since become an entrenched member of the family. Kyla and Daria also started a pre-preschool class that they get to go to once a week where they play games and make crafts. They love their class, and Morgan loves it too since she can go and socialize with adults while the girls are in class. It becomes a highlight of the week for everyone except me since I don’t get to go. The girls also celebrated their third birthday in January. They were really excited to learn that this time the birthday cake was for them. They have been asking for birthday cake on and off since then. They point out the birthday cakes at the grocery store and tell us that we need to get them. They are becoming quite the independent little thinkers, and the things they say, most of the time, are really cute. The other day I told Kyla that I would get her a treat if she cleaned up the living room. She started running around the room yelling, “Treats! I love treats! I’m so excited!”
Morgan has been busy trying to keep everyone healthy and keep me in line (not too easy). Other than that, she has had even more frustrations with her calling as the branch presidency keeps taking away the people that she calls. So she has lost a nursery leader and a cub scout den leader. The problem is with our size of branch, there is no one left to call. Hopefully things can be figured out soon. On the plus side, she and her 1st counselor were able to go and have a girls night out and go to the movies. She really enjoyed that. Morgan has also been busy researching possible places for us to live after we leave Winona depending on where we get accepted. She is ready to leave this town and move on to the next chapter of our life. Can’t say that I blame her. I should be getting back any responses to Ph.D. programs here in March, so we will know soon if we will be allowed to advance to that chapter or not. Oh, the wait is horrible. Anyway, I think that brings everyone up to speed on how we are doing. We wish everyone the best and keep you in our prayers daily.
God Bless,
The Robertsons
Well we slacked off a bit in writing last month, so we will do better in making up for it this month. School started with a bang for me in January. I hit the ground running and haven’t stopped since. All of January, I was gearing up to take my comprehensive exam. This single test determined whether or not I could graduate with my Master’s. If I failed, it would have almost been like I just wasted the last two years of my life – probably not that dramatic, but you get the idea. I was constantly reading some book or article trying to get all the information I could into my head and keep it there. I as giving presentations to others taking the exam in the hopes that I would remember even more. Morgan would quiz me on dates and events that surrounded the authors that I had to study. I had 17 different works that I had to know inside and out and be ready to write an essay explicating any of them.
The day of the exam came, and I went to the library. For my first question, I had to explicate the Declaration of Independence. I ended up writing a 9 page essay in three hours explicating the philosophical ideas and rhetorical devices used in the first two paragraphs of the document. There was then a hour break for lunch and then back to the library for part two. The second question I ended up using a Marxist reading of literary history to show how Frankenstein was able to maintain a continuity with the Gothic tradition (ideology) while at the same time begin a discontinuity (antithesis) which resulted in the Science Fiction genre. Again I had three hours and wrote another 9 page essay. All in all, 18 pages written without any books or notes in six hours is respectable, I think. After that I started to sweat bullets because I started to second guess myself almost constantly. Luckily, I didn’t have to wait too long to hear back from the grading committee. I ended up receiving a “high pass” on my Frankenstein essay and passing my other essay with flying colors. I was the only one out of the graduates this year to receive a high passing score. Now hopefully a Ph.D. program will take me.
The rest of February has been spent trying to get caught up with all of the work that I didn’t do in January. I have been getting caught up in all of my classes that I am taking and the one that I am teaching. I feel sort of bad for the class I am teaching since I wasn’t able to focus on them as much during the first month of class, but I hear what some other graduate students have been doing and don’t feel quite so bad…
Other than that, we have been busy fighting off sickness here. The cold has laid everyone here low. It hit the girls twice. The first round was bad enough that we ended up buying a nebulizer to give them breathing treatments. We have only had it for a month, but it has since become an entrenched member of the family. Kyla and Daria also started a pre-preschool class that they get to go to once a week where they play games and make crafts. They love their class, and Morgan loves it too since she can go and socialize with adults while the girls are in class. It becomes a highlight of the week for everyone except me since I don’t get to go. The girls also celebrated their third birthday in January. They were really excited to learn that this time the birthday cake was for them. They have been asking for birthday cake on and off since then. They point out the birthday cakes at the grocery store and tell us that we need to get them. They are becoming quite the independent little thinkers, and the things they say, most of the time, are really cute. The other day I told Kyla that I would get her a treat if she cleaned up the living room. She started running around the room yelling, “Treats! I love treats! I’m so excited!”
Morgan has been busy trying to keep everyone healthy and keep me in line (not too easy). Other than that, she has had even more frustrations with her calling as the branch presidency keeps taking away the people that she calls. So she has lost a nursery leader and a cub scout den leader. The problem is with our size of branch, there is no one left to call. Hopefully things can be figured out soon. On the plus side, she and her 1st counselor were able to go and have a girls night out and go to the movies. She really enjoyed that. Morgan has also been busy researching possible places for us to live after we leave Winona depending on where we get accepted. She is ready to leave this town and move on to the next chapter of our life. Can’t say that I blame her. I should be getting back any responses to Ph.D. programs here in March, so we will know soon if we will be allowed to advance to that chapter or not. Oh, the wait is horrible. Anyway, I think that brings everyone up to speed on how we are doing. We wish everyone the best and keep you in our prayers daily.
God Bless,
The Robertsons
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