So I don’t get it, what are you doing??

This my friends is a question I get a lot and something most of you reading this most likely have so I figured I would go ahead and answer you! I think for most the whole “dual doctorate thing” is a confusing process, it sure was to me and I admit I didn’t fully understand all that was involved when I started my program! Sad but true!

I have had this question a lot now that I am on the job market so thought if there are still any of you out there who are wondering what the heck is going on in my world or thinking.. didn’t you already graduate, why are you still in grad school?? Hopefully this will help.

What am I doing? The program I am in is a dual PhD program in both developmental psychology and educational psychology. This program provides me with a solid foundation and understanding of development throughout the lifespan (primary focus is on child development) as applied to education. Many have asked if it is a 4 year program, oh how I wish that was true. Often times PhD programs are a go at your own pace kind of thing where there are general guidelines to follow and keep you on track but for the most part you reach each milestone based on your own work. Some research like survey research doesn’t take long at all and other research, like when you are testing participants takes a while. I would venture to guess the average time in my program is around 6 years although some have finished in 5 and many have taken much longer (I refuse to!). The masters degree is incorporated into our program so that we get our masters degrees along the way (usually after first 2 or 3 years) but there really isn’t any fuss or big to do over it at all, we don’t walk for graduation (we prob could I guess) and most of us still have our diplomas still rolled up in their tube, sadly. In fact, mine is safely in its tube waiting to be framed as I type this. It is not out of disrespect for our masters degrees, it is just that they aren’t really what we are working for.

What do I study? My research is focused on the cognitive development of children from low-income families. I study their problem solving skills as related to their school performance. I use behavioral techniques (they play some games on laptops that allow me to get a good measure of each skill) and physiological techniques (I measure their heart rate while they solve problems so I can get idea of how much sustained attention they have while playing). My study is a three year grant funded study, so I started testing them when they were in preschool and kindergarten and I have followed these same kids through second grade. I have their academic records from the school board so that I can relate their performance in my study & over time to their school performance.

Why? Most kids in poverty/ low-income families have delayed cognitive and language development and poorer school performance. Early intervention programs like Head Start help to close this gap in achievement BUT effects are not as far reaching as expected. I suspect that kids need a well developed set of problem solving skills (attention, working memory, planning, strategy usage, cognitive flexibility, inhibition, etc) to be able to sit in a classroom and learn the basics of early literacy and math. These skills seem almost foundational and are obviously critical to academic success and I expect that training Head Start kids in these problem solving skills in addition to early literacy and math will better prepare them for kindergarten so that they can start closer to the same level as their more affluent peers. So far, the results from my research confirm this.

But didn’t you graduate? What was the hoopla a few months ago? Oh how I do wish the answer to that was yes but no, I have not yet graduated. The program is set up so that after you get your masters you must pass a set of qualifying exams (quals), to move on towards doctoral candidacy. This is what I passed (thank you JESUS!) in November and I am now working on my dissertation. After we pass our quals we are labeled ABD which means “all but dissertation”.  It is all downhill after the dissertation proposal, where we present our dissertation plans to our committee members (6 professors who are experts in our area). So basically we just need to analyze our data and write the equivalent of one giant paper. Easier said than done since we go through many drafts before it is “cleared”. Then we have the dissertation defense where we submit the written version of it to our committee members and give an oral presentation of our dissertation. After this is when I will hopefully hear the only words I have longed to hear more than “Well done good and faithful servant” when I die & see my Savior face to face, and those other highly desired words will come from Keith’s mouth and will hopefully be “Congratulations Dr. DeLucca”… oh that will be one glorious day for sure. 

So you’re a child psychologist right? Do you counsel kids? Actually I am a developmental psychologist and in the field of psychology there are basically 2 areas or ways to go with the degree. One can either go clinical and counsel/treat patients or can go the more nerdy route of research which is what I do. So yes I am a psychologist but I am on the research side of things and haven’t ever seen patients. Although at parties I often get asked if I know what people are thinking at that very moment and THAT my friends is a slippery slope and so easy to play with. haha! Hey, gotta have some fun right?

When will you finish? Oh that is the age old question, if only I knew for sure! I can’t say with certainty but what I have discussed with my dissertation committee is that I should have my defense in August, so the end of this summer. Unfortunately though, due to timelines with the grad school I am not allowed to walk for graduation or get my diploma until December b/c I have to wait one year after my qualifying exams. If however I find a job before that they agreed it would be ok to go ahead and accept a position and continue working on my dissertation from wherever we will be living and fly/drive in for my defense.

 

I hope this helps everyone and can clear up some confusion, although I like the thought of being a woman of mystery. Seriously though, don’t feel bad if you have asked me about it. I’m sure you quickly found out I love to talk about my research and can go on and on. Asking a researcher about their work is like asking a parent about heir child, we just can’t help but talk about it because it is so kewl!

For Grammy & Papi

Technorati Tags: Sammy,Grammy,eggs,train ride,videos

We made a couple videos for Sam’s parents, these were made after Sammy had helped me peel some hard boiled eggs for breakfast. We finished and he clapped his hands together and said “so yummy mommy! I show Gwammy!”, he still doesn’t quite get that he can’t show her over the phone so I attempted to make the following videos. The first one, as you will see turned out rather silly but his little sense of humor is evident even at this young age as he did one of his “jokes” (I use this term loosely) at the end. He used to call Sam’s mom “Mimi” but he very recently declared that she is no longer Mimi and that now she is “Grammy” pronounced “Gwammy” and he is quick to correct us if we forget and slip up. At the end of the video I asked him to say bye to Mimi and Papi and his response is his attempt at a little joke. Too funny. 

Thankfully the second video was a little more serious and you can kind of get the gist of how the egg peeling went, well for the most part as told by a two year old.

Hope you enjoy them Grammy and Papi! He sure loves you!

Here are a few shots from his big train ride with them, yes they both rode right along with him and he had time of his life. Even got to wear the conductor’s hat! 

Sorry if these pics end up being ginormous on the blog, I am learning how to use the new writer program.

Operation Strawberry Festival

**attention bloggy friends*** I wanted to try out Katie’s tip re Writer and let me tell you, much easier! I did this whole post in 4 min! I wanted to try lots of pics and video to see how it would measure up and yep.. 4 min is all it took! I HIGHLY recommend it! Give it a try!

A group of my mommy friends got together and headed down for a road trip to Plant City (yes that would be a 141 mile trip.. brave or crazy? You decide!) for the Strawberry Festival! This was no small undertaking as we had 9 kids under the age of 6 crammed into 3 cars and we were gone the entire day. I had so much fun taking a break and getting some fun time in with friends and watching all the kiddos together. The weather was just perfect. I am not kidding when I say those strawberries were some of the best I have ever had and the giant strawberry shortcake was beyond delicious! I half considered driving back down just for that, oink oink. We received a lot of looks and attention as we paraded through the festival with all of our strollers and little ones and had 4 different people ask if we were a daycare on a field trip, which I thought was funny. We were the mommy parade and we were on a mission! Everyone said we were crazy when I told them we were going with that many little kids but I think all in all it was a great day, even with the meltdowns. We saw pig races, ate yummy food, the kids rode rides and we all did a whole lot of laughing. I would say operation Strawberry Festival was a huge success. Will I be going back anytime soon? Probably not as I am still recovering, but it was such a fun time with a great group of ladies! I cherish the great talks, support, and encouragement I always find with these amazing friends. Thanks for the memories!

Luke, Sammy, Nicolae, & Gina

 

The parade of strollers

Choo Choo train ride was hilarious, some loved it, some hated it and the others were just flat out confused

and they were off!

I LOVED this shot of all the proud mommies, it was like the paparazzi. Letting our little ones go all by themselves!

checking out a strawberry patch.. little Giovanni was too small to be in this pic but he was there and taking it all in too!

 

They loved this old truck and were fascinated by the wheels their conversation had me laughing

So glad Gloria came along, she loves children and had such a great time with all of them and they sure love her!

Katie and Lukers (as Sammy calls him)

Check out little Mr. Gabriel!! Sneaky little thing, I promise I was already sharing with him but man.. I looked away for one second and he swooped in and gobbled up my strawberry shortcake! Now who needs to say oink oink????? ha! I love Amy and her boys!

Our little gang

Somehow I ended up pushing Sammy & Gracie in Suzanne's stroller and look who we found along the way

Pig Races!

This was where I had a little drama letting my boy be big on his own. I was so terribly scared for him to go on this ride! It just seemed so big and him so little but apparently I couldn’t go on and break it and I was peer pressured (don’t deny it you know I was ladies) into “letting go” and thankfully his angels kept him safe.. goodness he was high enough up in the sky I told him to wave to my Gram while he was up there!

This is about where I got a little teary, but they were giggling and I could hear Sammy above all the laughter saying “So fast! So tall! Helicopter Fun!”

Yep.. full tears here. At this point I think 4 people were reassuring me that he wasn’t going to leap out of there/ their little purple one wasn’t going to fly off

Look at our babies, they were so proud of themselves! All we heard were shrieks and giggles

Who knew they custom made a ride just for my boy, he drove his very own dumptruck that he named “Dumpy” ha ha

All smiles

Here’s Gina! She sure loves cars and trucks and she meant business on this ride, never stopped steering once

Fun day together!

Look what we found! Representing in good ol’ Plant City!

He picked out the strawberries for Gloria’s family

Technorati Tags: Strawberry Festival,Sammy,mommy

Mr. & Mrs.

One reason we were so busy in Feb had to do with Sarah's wedding~ it could not have gone any better and it was truly just a perfect day! It had been super cold here but for that one day, we had gorgeous weather and we all had a wonderful time. They were married in St. Augustine at the Casa Monica hotel and it was just absolutely gorgeous! I was some what anxious about Sammy doing his job as ring bearer since he is two now and we do have "two year old moments" as I call them. Thankfully they are not often but when they come.. you better watch out. I wanted to do everything I could to keep him on his best behavior so every moment of the days leading up to the wedding were planned out to the minute all to ensure he was on good sleep schedule and well rested. Thankfully his day of nap worked out perfectly and all was well! I felt like such a bad mommy as I stood in the check out lane at Target before the wedding, I stocked up on sugary gummy snacks, juice boxes, goldfish, basically all the junky stuff he never gets so that he we could keep him pumped up. It worked! He danced the night way until about 10:30 and was just as pleasant as could be! Anytime he seemed to be winding down or a tad grouchy I would open up some snacks and some fruitable juice and bam! He was back in action, ha ha. In fact it worked so well I have used the trick now at the Strawberry festival and at SeaWorld to make a long day pleasant..sshhhh don't tell.

The ceremony was so sweet, we were all happy that Pops and Esther (Sam and Sarah's great grandparents) made it up and were able to watch. Sam's dad cracked me up with his cheat sheet.. his only line was "her mother and I" but he had to write it on a bandaid on his hand b/c he was scared he would forget. I got a little teary as I watched Sarah stand there and exchange vows with the love of her life. I can't believe how far we have all come! I think back to that first time I stepped into their old house on Aba drive, I was some teen girl with a mega crush on a cute boy and was so scared to eat dinner with his family that I could hardly eat a bite! I was so nervous! I just remember how cute and sweet his little sister was, in fact talking to Sarah was what made me feel comfortable and loosen up. I remember I left there all the more "into" this boy all because of that family. They were all so close and the relationship between Sam and his little sister was so sweet and just really rare, something you don't usually see these days. He was such a good big brother to her.

The wedding was just amazing. All of their family came down so it was nice to see and spend time with everyone again. Sammy loved the dance floor! He sure tore it up out there. I loved watching him, he had us all entertained with the "love triangle" as we called it. Aiden, the other ring bearer is 5 and Layla the flower girl is 3. The three little ones all got along great and loved playing together but the dance floor had us all laughing. A love triangle emerged and Aiden would dance with Layla and Sammy would get his feelings hurt, then get brave and walk over to ask her to dance. He would grin ear to ear when she said yes and took his hand and they danced, but then Aiden would swoop Lalya away off into the night after a few min and Sammy would run to me with his head on my lap and say "I want dance wiff her". Awww!!! Just a foretaste of years to come my love. ha ha

The bride and groom seemed to have a fabulous evening and we did too! Congratulations Sarah and Brennan, we love you!

Few videos of Sammy dancing

Here is a link to a few pics their photographer put on her blog, just so beautiful and artsy..

http://www.oeilphotography.com/index2.php?v=v1 (click on featured and then Brennan & Sarah)

Here are some of our favorites I put into smilebox..

ceremony

Make a free digital scrapbooking design

reception

This slideshow design customized with Smilebox

Love Love Love!

Here are some pics from our Valentine's Day.. better late than never right? Unfortunately our Valentine's day was clouded with the ever daunting statistics project I was working on but since Sam worked the night before I was forced to take the evening away from work (yay!) and had a great night with Sammy and Hannah and a fabulous morning before returning back to work (boo!). We try not to go to all out on Valentine's day as it seems like such an artificial holiday but on the flip side I am not one to miss an opportunity for a teachable moment. Valentine's day is such a fun way to teach some good love lessons to your children and a great excuse to sneak away and have a wonderfully romantic date night with the love of your life, or if you are single to have a fun girly day with your girlfriends.

How did we celebrate you ask? Well Hannah, Sammy, and I all went out on a date and had a wonderful time. We went out for pizza b/c that is what I had a coupon for, not quite as fancy as I had hoped for but hey.. it is our reality but we made the best of it and had such a fun time. Hannah pretended she was a fancy lady and wore some fancy jewelry and I just truly enjoyed sitting at the table chatting with them. I love that Sammy can join the conversation now and that he has his own opinions an thoughts. They are rather silly for the most part but still I love that he is a part of it. We talked about a wide range of things, from serious to silly and we laughed a whole lot. We came home and made cookies, played some indoor soccer, and made a fort with sheets and once inside it we had our "love lesson" where we learned some about how God commands us to love one another. I tried to talk with them some about how when we celebrate Valentines we are not only celebrating love in the romantic sense but also we are celebrating God's love for us and b/c of that our love for others.

After they fell asleep I put out Sammy's "art cloth" which is a plastic table cloth from the dollar store we use to cover the table when he paints or uses glue. I realized it had pink cupcakes (this is why it is his art cloth, ha ha) on it and would be festive for Valentines day. I put that on the table along with my flowers Sam and the kids surprised me with in the center and then arranged their surprises. Molly's bday party had been the night before and I had swiped some cute heart goody bags filled with Valentine's candy and treats so Sammy & Hannah really lucked out this year! Each year they get a little stuffed animal and a candy treat of some sort but this year they had goody (or doddy as Sammy called them) bags too! Hannah especially made out b/c Valentine's fell on a Sunday, so she got extra! See, after first being matched with her it came to my attention that she and her sibs miss out on some of the cool stuff involving parents at their school (field trip chaperones, family picnic days, etc etc). So, for our first Valentine's day together I left a brightly colored gift bag at the front desk of her school. It had a small stuffed animal and some treats with a Valentine's card in it so that they could deliver it to her in class and surprise her. I did it that first year and it made her feel just oh so special, it was ALL she talked about for several weeks. Her teacher even called me at home to mention how important it was to her and that she had that moment where she could show all the rest of her class how special she was to us. I decided right then and there it would HAVE to be a tradition. So, not only did Hannah get her treat at school, but she also had something valentine's morning b/c I didn't want her to feel left out. I found her a $3 lava lamp at Kmart and thought it would be perfect. Lets just say it was $3 for a reason. More to come on that another day.

On Valentine's morning I like to sprinkle sweathearts candy on the stairs for them to find when they wake up and the candy trail leads down to the table where their surprises wait. This year was even better b/c Sammy was old enough to really get into it too. We had such a great morning together! I made heart shaped pancakes and we had a sweet family prayer time, it was just wonderful and was oh so hard to take Hannah home but I had to get back to my stats project. As I drove her home I told her I wanted to be sure she really understood why we gave her the gift and why we made valentine's day so special. She responded with "cuz yall love me". Yes true, but it is so much more I said (I thought to myself "um hello child.. can you not remember what we talked about in our fort not less than 12 hours ago!" but I kept that to myself). We had a great talk about loving God and loving others. It seemed to really sink in this time and I prayed that some of that conversation will be stored away in her heart forever.

Anyone who has been to our home recognizes the sign in the above pic as the one that hangs in the family room above the entry way to the kitchen that states very simply "Love God. Love Others". We chose this location so that it can always be seen and serve as a daily reminder that this is our family "motto"if you will. This is what we hope our family will be known for and remembered by. I recently read this written by Mike Clark..

1 Corinthians 13:2 says "if I have all faith and can move mountains but have not love then I am nothing." That is what makes us either something or nothing. It is not our status, race, nationality, position in the community, or wealth. It comes down simply to the question "do we love others?". Your quality of life will be measured by how much His love flows through you to others. Without love your spirituality becomes useless and cold.

I firmly believe that when I die, the job I had, degrees I earned, money I made, etc will just not matter. What will matter is how well I loved others. His words regarding quality of life are so true, if you are not living your life in a way that pours love out on others, you really will lack joy. Sure you can feel happy and I am sure you can feel happy quite often but I think there is a huge difference between happiness and Joy. Joy is from the Lord and doesn't leave you, even in your darkest moments. Even when your world is caving in it is possible to still have joy when you have a relationship with Jesus and I for one am a living breathing example of that! I have had some dark moments but never did his joy leave me, never did He leave me. Life is all about relationships and I need to be sure that each and everyday I do my best to reach out and love others, especially those who feel they are unworthy of love. This is what it is all about, truly making a difference in the lives of others and being His hands and feet to a world of hurting people. This is not easy, especially with people who are hard to love and those who do not appreciate your self sacrifice and effort. It can be exhausting but let me tell you, God will ALWAYS see you through and multiply your time and energy when you are obeying Him in this way. So, if you have been thinking about stepping out in faith and taking on something extra maybe some sort of volunteer position or a mission activity of some sort, I strongly urge you to stop "thinking" about it or "praying" about it and just Do it! The answer is YES and I am sure God agrees with me on this one. We love each and everyone of you who reads our blog! Thank you for caring about us and our little family!

If you like our sign, you can click here to order one yourself! I found this site where they offer $10 of the purchase to Hati's disaster relief through Compassion International. How great is that??

Sammy had fun writing out his valentine's cards for his little friends in his class.... and making some for our family and friends. *sidenote* he BEGGED to wear his train sweater vest with jeans to school that day! He looked ridiculous and didn't match but I let him b/c it was oh so important to him. ha ha It is funny to watch his little sense of style emerge, I love it.
He took this very sticky vday card to his YaYa and she was proud that it was all written in spanish and we got it right too! Mui bien mi Samuelito!
He helped me make cupcakes for his class and Hannah's class parties...
Check out all his cards! If his Aunt Sarah or his Aunt Cindy are reading this right now then don't peak.. we have been slackers and haven't mailed yours yet and we want them to be a surprise so just skip past this pic! Better late than never right?????? Hey I have been seriously really busy
This is a historical picture.. please everyone take note!! This is the last ever picture you will see of cupcakes for either kid's classes b/c I vowed to NEVER sign up for cupcakes again. It is too much work and I have learned to only sign up for plates and napkins from here on out!
He was really proud of his bag of valentine's from his buddies. We had to read them over and over again for about a week until they all kinda fell apart and I snuck them in the trash when he didn't notice.
My man surprised me with these beautiful flowers!!!! It was so sweet and I loved that Hannah got to see him spoiling me.. I told her when she is considering a hubby to get one who spoils her, even if it isn't with things, not talking money talking LOVE. She needs to be treated like a princess always and needs to accept nothing less!
My little chef making a kissy face.. muah!
Teaching Sammy how to do it. She was great sport b/c his turn really messed up all her hard work.
Already for the am!
Sammy was up first and excited is an understatement. He was in total awe that there was candy on our "staiws"!
He grabbed all the candy off the steps he could reach from behind the safety gate
My sweet card from my sweet little lovey!
look who we found creaping down the stairs grabbing up all the sweathearts!
I love this action shot of the two of them, they couldn't grab it fast enough ... Sammy's little mouth was so full! *sidenote* I do not usually approve of eating off the floor but the stairs were freshly vacuumed in preparation and I figured it was worth it for just this once.
reading her card.. that's right cuz our girl can READ like a champ now!!!
They did a switcharoo for the pic but Sammy named his dog "Ralph" we have no idea why and she named her dog "Sarah" because "Sam's sister Sarah is getting married and she is so pretty and I want to be like her" awww! Hannah loves her some Sarah that is for sure! She always takes their pic off our fridge, I need to just print her her own copy.
Here is my sweatheart trying to figure out Hannah's horrible lava lamp... oh the drama that ensued. My honey was such a good sport and he got it working after all and was oh so patient!!!
I love my Hannah Banana and she loved her heart pancakes!
Such a fun fun morning!!!

Here is Sammy making a valentine....no idea what the bumble bee song is and also no idea why he mentioned Campbell, his little friend down the street that he rarely plays with


and this was a second attempt at getting his heart song on film that was a failed attempt!