Noah Travels Awesome

/ Dawn Kasal-Finley / 2 Comments

I am exhausted.  We are home.  I am tired but it was so much fun to get to meet the most awesome people ever…The EOR board ROCKS and we are going to do some really awesome things.  I will certainly be writing more about it here and if you are near me and want to help/volunteer let me know. 

I have a bit of a cold and am a little tired from the whirlwind trip.  I will post more in-depth later.  But it was so awesome and I can’t wait to get together with these wonderful women and their absolutely beautiful children again. 

I Hope I Survived

/ Dawn Kasal-Finley / 4 Comments

I am now safely in Portland–I hope.  Noah and I are travleing to Portland for our first Ethiopian Orphan Relief board meeting.  Noah hasn’t been on a plane in a while and the last time wasn’t all that much fun.  So much not fun that I cannot even remember when it was we went or where it was we went–I am thinking San Diego in February, but I could so totally be wrong. 

I have packed all of Noah’s favorite dvds and am hoping all goes well.  I am so being a bad parent and not making him fly in his car seat.  Part of this because I am traveling by myself and don’t want to have to lug the car seat for our connecting flight, when Noah will probably already be close to asleep and I’ll have another carry on to lug around.  Also, those seats on the plane are so small that his car seat barely fits and it’s a complete pain in the ass.  I am checking it to use in the rental car.  I know–please don’t send me comments telling me how much safer it is, etc.  I know.  I know.  But you gotta do what you gotta do and I promise to hold him tight if there is any turbulence… And lets be honest.  If the plane crashes from 30,000 feet, carseat isn’t really going to help all that much.

I am so looking forward to meeting in real life some amazing women who I met through the blog world and now I am part of this terrific organization that I know will do great things. 

I won’t be posting until Sunday.  Have a great weekend. Think of me on Saturday afternoon and hope that my awesome son decided to cooperate and fly nicely.  If you are sitting near me on the plane.  I can’t do anything with him when he is loud, excited and tired.  Feel free to offer all of the unsolicited advice you have–because chances are you don’t have a two-year-old and I am sure you know what you are talking about. 

I Heart Dr. Dan

/ Dawn Kasal-Finley / 1 Comment

Noah’s dentist. Noah had his first dentist appointment today and it was pretty easy. Noah was excited about getting his teeth counted–he was sure he had 11 teeth (that’s as high as he can count).  He was shocked to know he had 16.  Very exciting times.  Dr. Dan said his teeth look good, but that it is time for the pacifier to go.  His teeth are are beginning to get misshaped and I was more than happy to have the doc tell me this as I have needed that little extra shove to really stick to my guns about the pacifier. 

They told me that they have a pacifier exchange program where the kids give it up and get to pick a cool big toy.  They make a huge deal out of it and take the kids picture with their toy and hang it on the bulletin board next to their pacifier.  Everyone cheers and gives high fives.  Noah was totally into it.  I hope the excitement isn’t short lived.   He asked about his pacifier all morning…

“Mommy, where Woah Binky?”

“Where is it Noah?”

“Woah Binky at Dentist, Mommy.  Woah big boy.”

He wanted one when we got home, but I asked him where it was and he told me at the dentist and then he showed me his toy that he got in exchange.  When it was naptime Noah spent some time looking for a pacifier in all his usual hiding places but couldn’t find one and I had to remind him that we gave it to the dentist and that he was a big boy and big boys didn’t need pacifiers.  He is napping.  I am surprised and impressed.  I am hoping it lasts.  My little man is growing up. 

Getting Ph.D Behind Your Name Isn’t Easy

/ Dawn Kasal-Finley / 2 Comments

Unless you use one of those online schools.  If only I wasn’t interested in really learning. 

I am up to my neck in forms and committees and who likes me enough to give up chunks of their time to work with me…being on a doc committee as a professor is not easy.  It takes time and work and consideration for your doc student.  I am happy that I have two committee members who I adore and who really like me. They also don’t have any other doc students which is really super awesome. 

There are so many steps and classifications and things have to be done at a very specific time.  I am a newly accepted doc student and will become a pre-candidate as soon as my committee meets and we approve my program of study–which is mostly laid out but might change once everyone on the committee looks at it.  It’s crazy. 

I have to start thinking seriously about my future and where and what I want to be teaching when I graduate.  I need to start researching and polishing papers to present at conferences and scouring journals for “calls for manuscripts” so that I can start attempting to be published.  I need to get my shit together and really begin planning for my eventual tenure as a professor of education. 

UGH.