Puppy, Christmas and a New Year

Well, I had no intention of not posting for almost 6 months. The time that has passed has been a whirlwind!

The biggest news of the last 6 months has been that we now have an addition to the family. Her name is Lucy, our new (and growing) black lab puppy! For about 4 months between the late summer and Thanksgiving, Emma and Carter worked their way to earning a puppy by filling up a "puppy chart" that Kate and I created. The idea was simple. We put pictures on a 24x36 foam board that showed different supplies that a family needs for a puppy during the first year: crate, food, leash, biscuits, collar, shampoo, etc. Each supply was attained by earning a puppy icon to place over the top of the supply picture. To earn the puppy icon, they had to fill up what we had been using, a smiley chart, with 7 smilies. (These smilies were usually earned for a full day of good behavior.) In all, there were 25 puppies that had to be earned in order to get a puppy.

In mid-October, we learned through a friend of Kate's who lives out of state, that she knew of a family that was selling black lab puppies. She checked it out for us and after a few phone conversations with the owner, we reserved a little girl for us. So for about a little over a month, Kate and I kept it secret from the kids that we already had the puppy picked out. On Thanksgiving weekend, Kate and I took a little road trip and picked up Lucy! (We didn't officially decide her name until about an hour after we got her.)

So far, she is doing very well. The house training is going great. Instead of an accident every 30 minutes, its an accident every other week or so now. Most of those are our fault now anyways for not paying enough attention to her "signs". The kids love her. About a month ago, she moved from a tiny puppy travel kennel to a large crate that Emma has in her room. Emma has found a best friend in her puppy. Its funny to listen to her talk to her in her room when she doesn't think that we are listening. Lots of secrets apparently! Carter, who less than 3 months ago was absolutely terrified of dogs, is doing phenomenal around her. He even chases her around the great room and giggle hysterically about it...of course he seems to like it more when I do it....maybe its just the sight of me acting like an idiot that he's giggling at.

For Christmas, Mom and Dad flew up here from North Carolina from the 21-25th. I can't ever remember them being up here before Christmas. It was great to have them. Its weird how when you're young and you can't wait to get out of the house and away from them, but then as you get older and start having children of your own that you really look forward to the moments that you get to spend with your own parents. Maybe sometime in the future we'll figure out away for our families to not have to be so long distance.

In other news, Kate finished the academic side of the SLP program in December and passed both the WSU departmental exam and the national Praxis exam in January. Right now she is doing her 4 month internship in Bloomfield Hills at an elementary school. In less than 3 months, she will be a Clinical Fellow!

I returned to school in January. I'm working as a Graduate Assistant for Dr. Derek Daniels. He's doing some very interesting research in stuttering perception and I am having a great time working with someone like Dr. D. He has also agreed to be an advisor to me as I work on my own research (more to come on that later.) I am also starting to work on a project with Dr. Susan Bowyer and Jennifer Peacock at Henry Ford Hospital in downtown Detroit. Jennifer and Dr. Bowyer are looking at what happens neurologically when a person uses the SpeechEasy fluency device. Specifically, what effect on "timing" neurologically, does the device have. We're talking literally milliseconds here, but in a process like speech, that timing is critical. The beauty of working on this project is that I get to learn about the critical aspects of neuroimaging that I have to know as a basis for my own project with the device. Plus, its just wicked cool to be a user of the device, look at your own brain scans and see just what the heck is happening up there.

Also in January, we celebrated Emma's 7th birthday with a big party at the house. Lots of our friends from around metro Detroit (and some from Up-North!) came to celebrate. Happy Birthday Emma!

The two big things coming up are Ashley's wedding in April and then Kate's graduation in May.

I think that catches everyone up to speed. I promise...no more 6 month layoffs from this! Afterall, with these two huge events happening, I'll be in the doghouse forever if I don't keep people updated!

Take care everyone!