I’ve been taking a Content Brew class over at Momcomm. It’s wonderful and I highly recommend it. I’ve gotten great ideas and feedback and now all I have to do is implement it with my blog.
The Spare’s allergies have really flared. The Patriarch is doing some reno on the back bedroom, soon to be TV/family room, and all the microdust particles from the sheetrock taping and floating process is doing a number of him. He has a HEPA filtered air filter in his bedroom but I feel terrible when he’s sneezing and coughing. He’s due for his every two week allergy shot this weekend, but I think I may have the Heir take him over after school tomorrow.
Speaking of school, both boys started full time this week. I officially have a high school senior and an 8th grader. So we will be attempting to get one kid into college and one kid into high school. It will be nothing but applications this year.
The Heir usually rows both Fall and Spring season but elected to not sign up from crew right now. We are going to focus on getting him a job, getting him into college, and he will row in the Spring. He admitted that he couldn’t do everything he wanted at the same time and this would have to go. I think it’s easier for the kids in his rowing club who go to public school. It seems as if they have an easier load than the kids at the Catholic schools. The Heir is in all AP classes which require dual enrollment at the community college. He’s a strong B student but I think without rowing he could be an A student. It’s nice to see him maturing.
The 8th grade is all about confirmation. We had to pick a sponsor and I must admit that I decided to go with someone who had been born and received all their sacraments in our parish so that I wouldn’t have to deal with the drama of obtaining sacramental records. I’m lazy like that.
The first week of school is always tough on everyone in the house. Everyone goes to bed early and has trouble getting up. It takes about, oh 9 months or so to get our biological clocks reset for school. I must admit I can’t wait until the day everyone is graduated and I can just get myself up and raedy.
My thesis class starts in a few days. I’m totally freaked out. Mainly because it means that I actually have to write one and then if I’m not successful, how do I explain all the money and time I spent on this? It’s very nerve racking. How do I avoid this terrible feeling of performance anxiety? Any suggestions would be most appreciated.
As always, thanks to Jen and go check out the other fabulous blogs linking up!
For more Quick Takes, visit Conversion Diary!
churchworkhome 
That’s a good question. I have a BA (I refused to take physics) in biology. I work at a major University with a medical school and started at a midlevel job as a research assistant. I did data management, tissue collection, and then worked into coordinating by taking on more and more responsibility. I then took a national certification exam and became a certified clinical research coordinator. Over time I ended up the senior coordinator in our division. We work with industry sponsored, investigator initiated, and national cooperative group research in gynecologic oncology. I love my job. i love the people i work with, I love the patients, I love the detail that is involved. It soothes my OCD nature (or as the joke goes, CDO because the letters should be in alphabetical order). It’s not for everyone, but it suits me very well. I went back to school to obtain a Master’s in bioethics and health policy, not because I want to be a bioethicist, I don’t, but because to be a research manager you have to have be mastered. Are you interested in clinical research?
P.S. How did you get into clinical research?
Saying “hi” from Jen’s QTs! My best advice for #7 is that the thesis looks WAY more daunting and scary when you avoid working on it. I’ve been trying to tackle my own dissertation for the last few months, and once I stopped procrastinating I was surprised how manageable it became. Good luck!