Update about the Boise interview

I had the interview with the Boise site yesterday. I think it went pretty well, but it's always hard to say. I felt good about it after I left, but then spent the rest of the day worrying...I kept thinking of all the things I should have or could have said differently. I'm just hoping it went ok. I REALLY like the site! The people are great and the current interns are really happy there. I think I would really enjoy it there. I would be doing individual and group therapy with children, adolescents, and their families. I would also see some adults since sometimes the parents are seen for therapy if they need it. I would also do comprehensive assessments and go out to the schools for one afternoon a week to meet with kids for therapy. It sounds great!

This whole internship application process is very long.....once I have completed all my interviews (my last one is Jan 18th), I have to submit a rank order list of the sites where I interviewed. All the applicants have to submit their lists by Feb 6th. The sites have to rank all the people they interviewed and submit those too. Then a computer system figures out where everyone is placed based on the rankings submitted by applicants and the rankings submitted by the internship sites. We find out on Feb 22nd whether or not we matched. If we matched, then we find out on Feb 25th where we matched.

Anyway, I will keep everyone updated about my interviews. My next one is Jan 3rd. Wish me luck!

Interview update

I have heard from all but one of the sites I applied to....the Ole Miss e-mail was partially working by Monday (I had to access it using Mozilla Thunderbird). I found an e-mail from Oregon State--they rejected me. That left three sites I hadn't heard from. I e-mailed the remaining three today....turns out that two sites had e-mailed Friday while the OleMiss email was down and I didn't get the emails. Annoying. Anyway, I got rejected by Wasatch Mental Health in Provo, UT. I got offered an interview at the University of Utah Neuropsychiatric Institute in Salt Lake City. The interview is on-site and will be on Jan 18th. I still haven't heard from one site (it's in Portland) and I'm not really sure what is up with that. They haven't responded to my e-mail yet. So, the total now....7 interviews, 7 rejections, and 1 site that hasn't contacted me.

I had my first interview this afternoon. It was a phone interview (the site only does phone interviews). It went ok, I guess. It's so hard to tell with phone interviews since you can't see the people on the other end. It was with two of the psychologists on staff at the counseling center. They were on speaker phone. I feel like I answered some of the questions pretty well, but feel like I didn't do so hot on some of the others. It was hard because this was the first interview. Plus, I was SOOOOO anxious. I'm glad to have one under my belt now. Tomorrow is my interview with the Boise site. I really, really hope it goes well since I feel like it's the most important one. They said I would meet with the psychologists for an hour and then meet with the current interns for an hour. Wish me luck!!

Kids will sleep anywhere!

People always talk about how kids will sleep anywhere. You hear stories about kids falling asleep in strange places, in strange positions, in the middle of doing something, etc. Well, Christopher was never one of those kids. It usually takes quite a bit of convincing to get him to go to sleep. He prefers to keep playing. He has occasionally fallen asleep on the couch and quite frequently falls asleep in the car, but that's about it. Until now......

Some explanation first....Christopher has decided that he no longer wants to take naps. Unfortunately, he still really NEEDS to take a nap. When he doesn't take a nap he gets uber-cranky and becomes Destructo-Boy. He does things like take ALL the clothes out of his dresser and throw them around the room or tear down all his drawings and paintings that were hanging on his walls or climb up onto a chair and attempt to get everything off the kitchen counter. Today he emptied three shelves of the book shelves in our family room and left all the books in a giant pile on the floor. He was refusing to clean them up and at one point was trying to hide from me by going behind a chair in our family room. I knew he was back there and couldn't get him out, so I decided to get back to work preparing for my interviews. After a little bit, I realized that he was very quiet. I went to investigate. This is what I found.....


He had fallen asleep back there behind the chair! He slept like that for about an hour. Crazy kid!

E-mail can be frustrating

The Ole Miss e-mail system was supposed to be back up this morning, but it isn't yet. They said we should be able to access our e-mail accounts by this evening. So, it means I still don't know anything about the remaining 4 sites and whether I have any more interviews. Sooooo frustrating!!

Random pics of the kiddos

Here are some random pictures of the kids taken in the past week or so. Christopher didn't want me to take his picture most of the time, so there aren't as many pictures of him.

Christopher got this fireman hat when the firemen came to do a presentation at his daycare. He was so excited to see the firemen. He LOVES the hat!

Here Christopher is just playing around...

Here's a picture of Jessica that I took today. She is a very smiley baby!
She will be 5 months old on Sunday (the 16th).

Here she is just chillin' in her bouncy chair.

More smiles!

She is totally into blowing bubbles these days. You can kind of see a big bubble on her chin this picture...

Here's another picture of her just hanging out....

one more...

I got an interview at the Reno VA hospital! It's on-site and will be on Jan 16th.

So, the total now stands: 6 interviews, 5 rejections, 4 sites I haven't heard from.

I probably won't know anything else until Monday. The stupid Ole Miss e-mail system is down until Monday and the sites notify by e-mail.

more interviews!!

I got two more interviews! Valley Mental Health in Salt Lake City offered me an interview. It's on January 3rd and is an on-site interview. Then today the counseling center at University of Idaho offered me an interview. They only do phone interviews and mine is scheduled for January 7th. Yay!

So now: 5 interviews, 5 rejections, and 5 sites that I haven't heard from yet.

...and another...

Got rejected by the counseling center at Utah State University today.....

Now, 3 interviews, 5 rejections, 7 sites that haven't notified me.

....and another rejection

The Portland VA hospital rejected me. They got 192 applications this year, so I'm not too surprised I got rejected.

Now...3 interviews, 4 rejections, 8 sites that haven't notified me.

Yay! Another interview!

I got offered an interview at the counseling center at Washington State University today. Yay! They don't do on-site interviews, just phone interviews. It will be sometime in the next couple weeks. I e-mailed them some preferences for times and they are supposed to get back to me once they get it all scheduled.

Current interview status: 3 interviews, 3 rejections, 9 sites yet to notify me.

Jessica's check-up at the dr

Jessica had her 4 month check-up with the dr today. She is actually almost 5 months old (she'll be 5 mo. on Dec 16th). We got behind because she was sick at 2 months old and had to wait to get her shots. Anyway...

She weighs 18 lbs, 11 oz. (above the 97th percentile) and is 26 1/2 inches long (the 97th percentile). She is still a really big baby and is so much bigger than Christopher was at this age. The dr said she looks great! She got her shots today, which she wasn't too pleased about. The dr said we could start her on solid food now, so that should be fun. She'll start with rice cereal.

She goes back for her 6 month check-up (and more shots) in 8 weeks (at the beginning of February).

Subject: Rejection

I got rejected by the counseling center at Central Washington University yesterday. I appreciate that the internship site was perhaps trying to save me from getting my hopes up when I saw an e-mail from them in my inbox, but there is really nothing at all pleasant about getting an e-mail where the subject line simply states "Rejection." They of course also sent the somewhat standard rejection e-mail...we had lots of qualified applicants, it was a difficult decision, we are unable to offer you an interview, good luck with the application process, etc, etc. Oh well. Another one bites the dust.

Current application status...2 interviews, 3 rejections, 10 sites yet to notify me.

More interview news....

Yesterday the Salt Lake City VA hospital rejected me. Then this morning I got a call from Warm Springs Counseling Center (the Boise site) and they offered me an interview. YAY!! I'm interviewing there on Dec. 19th. So, for those of you who have nothing better to do and are keeping track....that's 2 interviews, 2 rejections, and 11 sites that haven't contacted me yet about my interview status.

Interview update.....

I heard from two internship sites today...one offered me an interview and the other rejected me. Pacific University's Psychological Service Center (which is in Portland) rejected me, but Spokane Mental Health (in Spokane, WA) offered me an interview. Their interview day is on January 11th--it's basically an all day kind of thing (from 9:30am to 3:30pm).

I'm excited to have an interview at the Spokane site. I have heard really good things about their internship program. The training director is a graduate of my clinical program at Ole Miss and had the same advisor as me. One of the grad students from our program went on internship there a couple years ago and said it was a great site.

Anyway, now I wait to hear from the remaining 13 sites. Keep your fingers crossed for me that I get some more interviews.