It is I and I have returned to the land f web journaling!  It's been a productive week...after the death of the fish last week (yes BOTH died!)  We finally figured out what was wrong with the water and my water tested good at the aquarium yesterday (no easy task as they are very fish conscious!)  SO I got two new fish and I must say they are alot bigger and look a lil more lively and healthy.  But I'm knocking on wood as we speak.  They have only survived here for a lil more than two hours.  One is a larger clown fish with THREE stripes and he's bright orange and the other is a Village Damsel...he's really pretty! Purple and yellow.  We named them Freud and Jung!  In honor of my love o Jungian psychology and Adam is in a psych class of his own learning all about the oddities of Freud so there they sit...the lil thinkers themselves swimming in our bowl on our Christmas table.  Other than expanding the Four Quarters HABITAT-I've been preparing for the ARRIVAL OF ANGEL!  She'll be here in a lil less than fourty eight hours! I can't wait.  So...I've been cleaning up the place. I had to take care of an other death (not the theme around here of the less thriving around here..it's survival of the fittest and the bulldogs and us are clearly at the top of the pyramid)...yeah--it turns out our garden out front...I posted pictures a couple months ago when I planted them..well they didn't do too well during our extended absense over Christmas break! Apparently it was pretty dry and they never recovered.  I tried to rehabilitate them but to no avail.  I pronounced them dead yesterday and took them out...now we are in the crop rotation phase (aka the soil is wating till I can afford another couple flowers!)...We've also been cleaning inside...and Bailey and Obie got a bath today! What a job!  They were a mess..Bailey and her lil angel self sat still despite her hatred of water and especially when it's spraying her!  So she wasn't bad although she makes you feel guilty cuz her lil wrinkled face looks as though you are kiling her.  Obie easily distracts from you guilt though because he's like bathing a muddy piglet! He waited till he get all suds up to make a run for it..he got by me THEN Adam and was running madly about our bathroom flinging dirt, suds, slobber, everywhere! After a few rounds of this--he finally was clean...he did his usual spitting up in the bathtub which is always pleasant but finally he was clean! And we dried them off (then I cleaned the bathroom!) So now everything is sparkling! I just have to mop tomorrow My most dreaded household chore!  Oh and I have to go to research..but first I have to come up with the research question that I am going to work on for the rest of the semester..I always get overwhelmed by these big time commitment questions because I want it to be something that I am both REALLY interested in and also something that I'll be able to find a good deal of information on..we'll be developing a study on our question but most of our actual project will be a literature review and then detailing our methods of the study (all of which requires research of what already has been done!) Due to my own oddness (or uniqueness according to how you wanna look at it!) I sometimes choose areas that have virtually nothing on them yet! Which is a good thing for when I actually become a researcher and a therapist!  BUT not such a good thing as a student......I have become very skilled at the part of the lit review where you go on and on about how there is a lack of research in this area and blah blah the direction it is taking is blah blah.....SO that's why I'm a lil stressed about what I will pick as my question.  I'm stumped between THREE populations....It's between siblings of children with disabilities, children of divorce (and a few issues I have in mind), or female juvenile offenders! So...quite the variety although a kid could be all three of course!  So...I'll be nailing down what I want to study exactly tomorrow then going to research tomorrow night.  Tonight I had assessments..it was torture!  Statistics are never very entertaining...especially when you are learning HOW to do them not WHAT they are yet....It was a good review but I've pretty much had it all at Wright State (several times!)  At least it looks like the midterm won't be too hard for me so far!  I guess next week we "get out of numbers" much to the relief of most in my class....I don't mind the stats part of psych but my undergrad was in psychology..lots in my program came from a counseling background in undergrad where I guess it is common to have this horrible FEAR of numbers of any kind.......I don't really get it because if you just don't freak out about it it's not really THAT hard of stuff..I think they get overwhelmed with the IDEA of statistics instead of breaking it down...(As you can see, I had two hours and fourty minutes to analyze the psychology of our class because the rest was PRETTY boring!).......Hmmm...among the other highlights of this week..I'm learning another trade! not that I have thrown in the towel on my knitting (my newest trade before this one I am about to announce)...In fact..the girl beside me was knitting in class today!  She's making a sweater..so she's an advanced one (compared to me!) but she said she just started this spring! So there's hope (note: I am STILL making the same coaster which for somer reason is now like a mini scarf for a ?guinea pig? some small short stout animal)...So in ADDITION to my knitting.....I am learning how to do web graphics using paint shop pro.  I got it for Christmas for myself off ebay on the low!  AND I have joined a couple yahoo groups and they are the nicest groups of ladies!! They've been so helpful...SO I'm learning to make incredimail templates (called stats--see! I know the lingo!)--it's like an artistic background for your emails that you can customize however you want (animation, sound, signatures, graphics) It's all up to you!...There are SO many things you can do with that program....I have alot of ideas but not alot of skills yet! SO I'm working on it-slowly but surely! We'll see I'll try and post it on my site if/when I make anything share-worthy.  Beyond mangling pictures in amusing ways for my own entertainment! If any of yall like the artsy emails or are keen on colors/graphics you should try incredimail! I think it makes the everyday sifting of emails fun!  <---not really a plug! My honest opinion!  OH! the only other happening this week (that I can remember) I got my amazon package! I got a critical review of the Harry Potter books with a few PhD dissertations on different analyses of the bookes! I'm very excited about this one AND I got a brand new book (just out!) called Reflections on the Journey-about what Adults with Disabilities wish their Parents Knew..it is edited by a well known (to me!) psychologist that studies people with disabilities and it's supposed to be really positive.  I'll give you my reviwe asap..well after I catch up on class reading!   

 and  .  I don't think you can "search inside" unless you go to amazon..which there you can.  It had good reviews too..This is part of what I was thinking of with my new page I'll be adding on the www.karaswims.com site----more of what I'm reading/writing/doing at the moment then the interactive part where others could comment and share what is HOT in their world!  Still working on it though! 

Tag my board or send me an email if you have a second!  Talk to yall again soon!

Love,

Kara