This is My Child Life

Dear Mr. Trump, On the morning after the election I posted this conversation with my daughters on Facebook. Me: I'm sad to say that Trump won. older child: oh no. What does that mean? Me: it means we respect the office. But we don't forget that we are beautiful, strong, independent women who will make the world a better place by loving our friends, remembering that a family comes in all different shapes and sizes and that love is love. Bigotry and hatred have no place in this family. younger child: it's ok when I'm president I'll fix it.  God love their sweet young souls! What I didn't mention was that my youngest then asked, "Mommy can I still marry S__? He's brown you know"  It was at that moment I knew that America had just broken up with me and my heart shattered. You said in your speech to those of us who didn't support you, " I'm reaching out to you for your guidance and your help so that we can work t

I've stayed fairly quiet about the election on social media. Silently absorbing and listening to ALL parties as I truly feel that having an open mind helps me make good decisions. I posted once about what I want in a president. Sadly it doesn't look like it's going to happen. With that being said, I just want to be clear about a few things as I can't believe that these are still reasons why someone would choose to vote one way or another. TRUTH: You can get an abortion at your doctors office. It's time to stop picking on Planned Parenthood. Planned Parenthood is one of the nation’s leading providers of high-quality, affordable health care for women, men and young people. Pro-life, Pro-choice it's a doctors office. Here read for yourself:  Planned Parenthood Services TRUTH: Why do you care who chooses to marry who? How does a couple loving each other and wanting to spend their lives together affect you??  If God really cares so much he'll deal with it w

It was a regular Friday morning. I sent the girls off to school. I was still in sweat pants drinking my tea. I logged on to school and was getting some schoolwork finished. Around 9:30 I get a call, I recognized the number as my girls school and thought with a bit of annoyance, who is sick or who forgot what? It was the school secretary, this was our conversation: Ms. G (kinda frantic): Hi Kristen, Stephanie has been stung by a wasp or maybe a yellowjacket. Me (calm voice): Oh that's a bummer Ms. G: The whole class has been stung Me: Oh wow, what happened? Ms. G: The paramedics are here, they want you to come and pick her up Me: Seriously? Is she Ok? Ms. G: She is hysterical Me: Sounds like Steph, I'll be right down I'm still not feeling much urgency, but I do throw on some clothes and jump in the car. I round the corner to the school and see all the emergency vehicles and my heart finally jumps a bit. I park quickly and walk into the cafeteria where I find Ste

2nd semester is in full swing!  I have 2 courses right now 1 / 8 week and 1/ 16 week. Another 8 week will start after the first one ends.  Technology in Schools - required course This class is exactly what is sounds like. Its an intro course to all thing tech in school. A little out of my league but glad that I have 2 kids in school so I can talk it up with their teachers if I need support.  Instructional Systems Design - required course Also exactly what is sounds like. Might be a little challenging but I'm excited to hopefully be creative and make some innovative programs.  I am also volunteering at my kids school this year with the media teacher. So hope to pick up a few new digital video skills taught to me be middle schoolers. Yikes! Well onto the new year!

Tomorrow is the California primary and all I am absolutely sure about is that I am voting for Measure D and E. I support the effort to bring money to our Pacifica schools. The rest I just don't know..... Here is what I want: I want my girls to grow up in a world where they can CHOOSE LOVE and marry whoever they want. I want my girls to grow up in a world where the color of your skin means you have a heritage and a history to tell, not that you should be judged by something as meaningful as where you came from in this world. I want my girls to grow up in a world where people regardless of privilege are responsible for their actions and don't get away with rape. I want my girls to to support medical science and for children with life threatening illness to be cured so that they never have to say goodbye to a childhood friend again. I want my girls to value hard work and understand that path to success. I want my girls to understand that handouts and feeling sorry for y

Yassssss! The first semeseter of graduate school is a wrap! I feel like this may be a little braggy but for those who kicked it with me undergrad know that the fact that I made my first 4.0 in my life is a big deal. I know!! I can't believe how much I love it. I actually learned something and can't wait to get back to it in August. Plans are in full swing to finish up next May. I'll take 3 classes (2 / 8 week classes and 1 /16 week class) in the fall. Then in the spring I'll take another 3 classes and an internship. I feel like Robert DeNiro in the "The Intern", oldest intern ever! Fingers crossed I can land something and that my fellow co-horts will understand and appreciate my 80s references! In the meantime, I'm going to enjoy my summer with the girls and Ry. Happy Summer y'all!

I've nearly survived the first semester of graduate school and I can't believe how much I love it. I have learned and absorbed so much. What surprises me though is how well I WANT to do. I have nothing less than 100%. If you knew me undergrad you'd likely be laughing right now. What a difference 20 years makes! I completed my Web Development class a few weeks ago and boy was that a challenge. My final project turned out pretty good. I would still love to tweek some things but for the most part, I am proud of the finished product. Check it out here:  http://bengal.missouri.edu/~kmbk3f/ISLT7360/finalproject/beckler_project.html I am wrapping up my digital media class. That class has been a blast. I'm finding I love making videos, working on photoshop and the final portfolio which was also a website. I am still working out the website/portfolio but this is what I have so far and you can see some of my project highlights in the class. Check it out here:  http://bengal

Do you know I actually remember meeting you in Kindergarten? We were reading together in the hall when I volunteered one day. I thought to myself, "this little girl is so cute....and so quiet, what a sweet thing." I also remember in 2nd grade when Steph said to me, "Mommy, I've been playing with Bella a little bit, she's really fun. Can we have a playdate sometime?" I loved your friendship with Steph. You had your circle of friends and she had her circle of friends. It just seemed that once in a blue moon whenever she needed a break from the circle you found each other. With that, a very sweet and special friendship took shape. Steph was never scared when she found out you had Leukemia. Honestly I wasn't either. I thought, It's ALL, totally curable.  It'll be a long road, but there is a finish line. Because of my experience as a Child Life Specialist, I jumped in there. Spoke with your teacher to the class with confidence that there was a PLAN,

Last week was almost a balance fail. Kids were out of school for ski week, although we didn't ski. We slept in and hung out and I did 2 projects for school and worked my job. Finding time to work on school was no small feat, but I did it.  For Digital Media this week we were working on Digital Audio. This was so hard for me. I have an appreciation for music, but have never worked on anything with sound before. We had to use a sound mixing program called Audacity and after watching approximately 1000 tutorials I made a promo for world thinking day for the Girl Scouts. My daughter was my narrator (spending time with kid during break-check). I think it turned out OK.  check check, 1, 2...... http://bengal.missouri.edu/~kmbk3f/ISLT7361/Unit3/beckler_digitalaudio.mp3 Then the biggie project was the pilot for my website. I must say I think it's coming along. It's still under construction, but I'm really proud that I have hand coded this all by myself and it'

When my children were learning to ride bikes my husband used to say to them, “you have to fall down at least 100 times before you really learn to ride.” I am learning quickly the same goes for Photoshop. I fell down many times with the Photoshop program.  So much that getting up and shaking it off almost became me throwing my computer out the window! My biggest issue was text/type, which from what I understand is an art of it’s own. I accidentally rasterized my text (made it into a picture) so had to start over which was challenging as I didn’t realize the mistake for some time. It took me texting a graphic artist friend for an hour then just taking my laptop to school drop off so she could actually show me what to do to fix the issue.  Although frustrating at times, once I got going I started to enjoy putting the puzzle together. I also enjoyed creating my own image with the tools I had learned about in the lesson as well as a few I figured out by watching tutorials and read

BOOM! I just coded what I learned this week....(drop mic).

http://bengal.missouri.edu/~kmbk3f/ISLT7360/lesson1/ Read it and weep.....2 loooooong days..... what is it you ask? I know, I know there is nothing there. Well that's step 2. I'll deal with that on Friday. I found myself in a state of panic when the instructions weren't clear. To me it read: downloadthehttpfilewhichisabengalpagebutnotbengelwithanebutwithanaandthentheurlfileandthenmakeafolderbutwewonttellyouhowtomakethefolderortheurlyouwillneedtojustfigurethatoutonyourownandwellgoodluck. On day 2 at 11:30 PM when I was at the end of my rope and planning a conference call with the graduate assistant for the next day. I decided to go through the modules again and low and behold there was a video with detailed instructions (I swear it wasn't there before) to: Create a space in the Bengal server to store all of your work. Apparently my work will be for all to see on the web. It's not searchable, can't find it on google, but with the URL you can see it all. Th

I was reading about Hugh Hefner the other day (I know not so "child lifey" of me) and at one point in his career he decided remake himself as a " bon viveur " and "man about town" that he would live the life he promoted in his magazines.  Outside of the wild parties and extra boyfriend or 3, I feel like I am following in his footsteps....sorta....in a sense.  I am adding something new to my life. Technology. So now I'll be like Hef and promote my lifestyle. I'll blog, tweet and learn what I can in graduate school in order to step up the game at my children's hospital. My first classes are Intro to Web Development and Digital Media. I have started the Web class and I had to call IT immediately and ask for help. Good start! Per the professor by the end of class I will be able to code my own website. (stop laughing). I'll blog along the way as a way to help myself journal what I learn throughout school. Feel free to follow along and