Oral Exam ... the non-flossing kind

I am on Cloud 9



I passed my oral exam this past Tuesday. What a relief!! I can't even describe how nervous I was going into the exam. I don't like interviews very much, and this was like an interview on steroids. Thankfully, it only lasted about half an hour until they were "satisfied" with the knowledge that I had shown. Then they had me leave the room, talked for 30 seconds, and announced to me that I had passed. They said a bunch of stuff like "We're so proud of you," and "You are a fine representation for our school," but at the time I was just so overwhelmed I was trying not to cry.

Afterwards I wrote down some of the questions they asked me because I wanted to remember someday all the things I once knew, haha!

- Describe brain areas involved in attention - functional, anatomical and BA names
- Describe brain areas involved in music syntax
- What is the Rational Scientific Mediating Model, give an example for the sensorimotor domain, how are levels 1 & 2 related?
- What is rhythmic speech cueing (that's a music therpy technique) and how does it work? What populations would you use it with?
- Design and describe a research study you would conduct at your internship site (in full detail!)
- How do you use music therapy techniques with children when they're based on a rehabiliation model?
- How specifically is music a language?
- How do you know what research is good or just the latest fad?
- What if a technique doesn't work with a client, even if research says it will?
- What research have you come across that has had an effect on your practice?

I know no one reading this has the slightest clue what most of these things are, but you can probably appreciate getting something like this over with!

Christ is Risen!

Sunday morning we went to church and Rach directed the choir in the anthem. They sounded so beautiful.


Then we took some pictures outside. It had literally snowed half an hour before this picture was taken, and then it was sunny again. Colorado is so strange.



Rachel with voice student Emma. :-)


Charlie & his papa

Staging and Selling

Charlie's dad Robert came to help us paint, declutter, and stage the condo this past week. What we learned this week:

Step 1: Move extremely large objects to storage. Example: behemoth hockey goalie bag


Step 2: Test new neutral paint color.



Step 3: PAINT, PAINT, PAINT


Step 4: Pose in front of newly painted surfaces to make sure they look good.


Step 5: Continue decluttering and packing up stuff. Make several trips to Goodwill.

Step 6: Sell condo the first day on the market!! Yay!!

Last Fire

This is the last fire we will light in our home in Colorado (unless, say, there is an unseasonable blizzard and we lose power and are forced to live off the land - ha)!

This is (clearly) Rachel talking here. I have to say that it was really nice to have a wood-burning fireplace while living here. I've never had a fireplace growing up and though I still have yet to actually learn how to build a fire or start a fire or anything about fire, I do appreciate them and the ski-lodge ambiance they bring. For example, there's nothing quite like studying for a neuroanatomy exam by the fire, or having dinner by the fire, or watching a movie by the fire... but alas, I would still willingly trade this (and the associated 8 months of winter) for 8 months of summer in the burning fire of Arizona. :-)

Spring Break

It's Spring Break, and what are we doing? Vacationing in Florida or Mexico or even going back to Arizona for a visit? Nah. We're livin' it up in FoCo and counting down our last 8 weeks until graduation. It's starting to feel a little more real.

Here's our picture we took for graduation purposes in our dining room.



This week so far...
*Rachel threw a baby shower for her friend and it was lots of fun. :-)

*Charlie stayed at the vet hospital until almost midnight and then had to return again at 7am.

*Rachel's been checking things off her to-do list, like doing random schoolwork, giving away sweaters and coats to Goodwill, and passing the graduate written exam (Yessss!).

*Our ghetto neighbors below us left on vacation and their alarm clock has been going off the entire time!

*Weather forecast for the weekend : Snow, of course!

The fun never ends around here, folks - make Fort Collins your Spring Break destination today!

Hoop Jumping

Lately I feel like I am an expert at jumping through hoops.
You want me to do what? By tomorrow? Sure thing.
Take 4 exams in one week? Piece of cake.
Schedule my oral exam with 3 insanely busy professors? Can do.
Study all the material I learned from the past two years in full detail? Already done.
Wear a bowl of fruit on my head and do the cha-cha for everyone? Gladly.

So I take my big graduate exam tomorrow!! Let's hope I survive the 2nd to last of the "hoops" before graduation. Wish me luck

Thoughts

1. I am sad the Olympics are over. It really helped me cope with the winter blues that I get from Colorado. Charlie knows it is the only time I am even mildly interested in watching sports unless they involve some type of dancing or costumes like figure skating. Plus I love watching athletes from other countries and seeing their interesting names and outfits. And I especially liked watching the opening and closing ceremonies. It made me A) Want to visit Canada, but only in the summer, and B) excited for the next winter Olympics in Russia after I watched the ballet dancers and Russian choir perform.

2. I took my second neuro exam last week and it was really hard. I skipped 2 other classes to study for it that day - I think I am going crazy! I will find out tomorrow how I did.

3. Two weeks until spring break means two things for me:

- The semester is almost half over!! AND
- I only have two more weeks until I take my written exams which basically determines my academic future. I just read that again and I scared myself even more!