• A&P- 3.3
• Chemistry 121 4.0
• Developmental Psychology- 4.0

GPA for this quarter 3.74. Cumulative GPA 3.9.

I'm just glad it's over. I am officially taking a slacker quarter in winter, A&P 2, Nutrition and a 1 credit early childhood education class that is mandatory for Cam to be in the preschool. I will only be on campus 3 days a week... Tues and Thurs nights and Saturday! I'm so looking forward to this break.

A group of us from A&P got together at a local restaurant after the final for drinks. Yes, we were waiting for the doors to open. And yes, we ordered alcohol well before noon. Grow up? Yeah we probably should... but it felt great to kick back as a group and cut free from the stress of the quarter. We all hung out for a good four hours, so no one was unfit to drive home. I can't wait to see some of them in class again next quarter!

So here's the thing, if you tell your students no less than 3 times that something will not be on the exam and then have no less than 12 questions devoted to it.... chances are good that it's not what we spent the weekend studying and we probably wont get the answers correct. And yes, I am aware that I should know everything that has been lectured on, but I mistakenly paid attention to what you said and thus devoted my studying in other directions. Thankfully those were also on the test or I just may have broken out in sobs.

And to my chemistry instructor... when you hand out the group exercise and no one in the class has ever seen anything even remotely similar, and none of your lecture print outs even pretends to hint towards how to start tackling these problems.... you have a problem. 2 days to figure this out while studying for a test... just ugh!

And now I will go back to trying to figure out my chemistry project. Anyone really great at figuring out energy resulting from a chemical equation? The big lesson in all this is to study it all, even what they promise will not be on the test. Otherwise your high A score will suddenly shatter to a mid B and you will want to smack your head on your desk.

Really I have too much to do this weekend to take the time to post here instead, but I need a moment to collect my thoughts. This quarter continues to just be hard. Lots of tests, lots of papers, little free time. I'm feeling totally out of touch with my family and friends, I really hope next quarter is better.

Chemistry is frustrating as I don't feel that I'm learning anything, so far everything we have covered was already covered in my previous chem class.... only each teacher has their own particular way of doing things. I'm finding I know how to get to the answer but my path is often different than the one currently being taught.

Anyway... there's some new features on my blog. I felt the need for a more wintery theme and then added some links. One of the links should, if it works right, take you to the notes I've been taking for Chemistry and A&P. I haven't done much testing of it, so we'll see if it works as intended. The other new thing is the list of school work. I'm going to try to keep it updated on the weekends so there is a list of the things I know I have coming up in the next week. It's good for me to write this out, I had forgotten that I have chemistry homework due on Monday!

My school week was only 2 days long this week and I am exhausted! Unfortunately, instead of going back to bed after dropping the kids off at school this morning I have to head out to take care of some things. I picked up my financial aid check today and there seems to be a huge error. I'm not pleased. I'm not sure that I can cash this check and still expect them to fix it so first priority today will be to figure out where the other $1100 of my financial aid is. I also need to hit the grocery store for coffee. I can't believe I let us run out of coffee. Then I'm going to hit the thrift store to see if I can find a lab coat. It is required for A&P and we get extra credit if we have it in Chemistry. I know there is more, but it's slipping my mind at the moment.

Cameron has started preschool. So far he loves it. I was worried about how he would adjust, but it looks like the fast pace the keep there works really well for him. He has already made some friends and tells us all about them when he gets home. He's off at class today so that means I have the whole school day alone!

Grey's Anatomy returned last night! It was great having Lynessa over to watch with me. We were both disappointed at the end of the show to hear that the next episode isn't for 2 weeks!

First day of school update...

I think the world was against me today. First my caregiver showed up an hour late, putting me in a tizzy about getting to class. This also caused me to get out the door late, by about 13 minutes. Apparently 13 minutes at the beginning of the day is what it takes to throw off the whole rest of the day.

I arrived on campus only 5 minutes late to find that there was no parking to be had anywhere. After circling the lot a couple times I called my friend who I knew had just gotten out of class and asked where she was parked. And then I waited... she pulled out, I pulled in. Made it to my first class, found my husband had saved me a seat and started trying to figure out what the instructor was saying. It seems my college has decided to employ Robin Williams to teach A&P. Fabulous. He finds himself quite humorous, I assure you. Seems like a nice enough guy. Lecture was over and then it was on to lab. 2 hours later and it was time to run to the cashiers office to grab my financial aid check. The school seems to have lost 1/2 of the transfer forms that move our checks from the campus 25 miles away to the local campus. There were lots and lots of us not so happy. No big deal I figured, since my next class was at the other campus, I would just pick up my check while I was there. I had an hour to get to the other campus, and decided not to stop to check on Cameron and instead head over and make sure I could find my next class.

Once back in the truck heading to the other campus I realized that I had forgotten my map to the other campus at home, and that piece of paper also had my class room number written on it. Did I mention that I'd never been to the other campus before? I get out the the general area that the college is supposed to be in and get horribly lost. After driving in circles getting directions from anyone I can think of, I finally get to the campus only 4 minutes late. Still no idea where my class is, and lucky me... the college is under major construction. After wandering around, and asking for help, I find my class about 13 minutes late. All eyes on me as I slink into the back of the room.

This class goes well other than this is the first instructor I've had that not only lectures up until the very last second... he also held us over. Now I don't have time to pick up my financial aid check and still pick Cameron up on time. Of course, since I was so hopelessly lost getting to the school, getting back to the highway was also a bit of a guessing game. After several wrong turns I make it back to the highway and manage not to be late to pick up Cameron... this is great news as I need every last possible second on Mondays when I will also need to pick up the older kids from school.

Bad news, I wake Cam from his rest and discover that he has wet himself in his sleep. *sigh* It takes us about 20 minutes to get out of there, pack up his blanket and get into clean clothing. Look at the clock as I get back into the truck and realize that if I had had to pick up the other kids I would already be late. Lucky for me I don't have to pick them up today. Cam and I head over to the cashiers office and fill out the form again that will transfer the check to the local office... check should be there for me to pick up tomorrow.

Now we are finally home, I have a headache and do not have the energy for dinner. I think Friday will be spent putting a bunch of meals in the freezer for next week.

I've officially dropped my early morning class and am taking chemistry at the campus further away in the afternoons. The upside, it is a 4 day a week class instead of 5. Now I just have to cross my fingers that there wont be any last minute hiccups with Camerons daycare/ preschool. We have orientation for Cameron tomorrow morning.

Our fall quarter schedule will be:

Monday~

• 8- 9am Mike Chemistry, Cam preschool
• 8:40am I drop older kids at school
• 9- 10am Mike and I have Anatomy and Physiology
• 10-12pm A&P Lab
• 12pm I hop in my truck and head for the other campus. Mike has 2 hour lunch/ study time
• 1- 2pm My Chemistry class
• 2-4:30pm Mike Statistics
• 2:30pm I pick Cam up from preschool
• 3:15pm I pick kids up from school and head home

Tuesday~

• 8- 9am Mike Chemistry, Cam preschool
• 8:40am I drop kids off at school
• 9- 10am Mike and I have A&P
• 10 am Mike heads to work study, possibly me too
• 1- 2pm My Chemistry class
• 2:30pm Cam from preschool
• 3:15pm Kids from school

Wednesday~

• 8- 9am Mike Chemistry, Cam preschool
• 8:40am I drop kids at school
• 9- 10am Mike and I have A&P
• 10- 12pm A&P lab
• 12:30pm Mike picks up kids from school (half day every Wednesday)
• 1- 2pm My Chemistry class
• 2- 4:30pm Mike Statistics class
• 2:30 Cam from preschool

Thursday~

• 8:30am Mike drops Cam at preschool
• 8:40am I drop kids at school
• 9- 10am Mike and I have A&P
• 1- 3pm Mike and I both have Chemistry lab, at different campuses. Mike grabs Cam
• 3:15 Mike picks kids up from school

Friday~

• 8- 9am Mike Chemistry, Cam preschool
• 8:40am I drop kids at school
• 9am Mike heads to work study
• Friday will be my study day and the day I set aside to do my online class.
• Afternoon sometime Mike will pick Cam up
• 3:15 I pick kids up from school

It's going to be a busy 10 weeks. I can do anything for 10 weeks right?

My books cost about $600 this quarter, $330 covered by my grant and the rest out of pocket. A&P books are stupid expensive! $180 for the text and another $130ish for the lab manual. So much for having enough monies to get a few new supplies.

My dad gave me this for my birthday. I can't wait to try it out on my classes this quarter. I'll be sure to share here once I start uploading notes/ lectures.

I have about 24 hours to decide what I'm going to do about my fall quarter schedule. Finding someone to take the kids to school in the morning is proving to be very difficult... maybe even impossible. So, I have double enrolled in a second chemistry class. If I can't find childcare today then I will be forced to let go of my first choice class and take the second one... at another campus 25+ miles away. Which leads to it's own set of problems....

I'm really dreading the start of this quarter.

Grades were posted this morning. I pulled off 4.0's in chem and statistics... however a 3.9 in medical terminology. As far as I can tell she requires 99% or higher to achieve a 4.0, and my final grade was 98.7%. Call me a whiner, but I think 99% is too high of a bar to set anyway. Yeah, it's not the end of the world, but I'm disappointed. Final GPA for the quarter 9.97, cumulative GPA 3.98.

Now for a few weeks rest... I'm ready for the break.

We are more than half done with summer quarter now so I thought it was time for an update.

Chem 100~ Going well, not that I thought it wouldn't. The teacher can be a bit frustrating when he marks down your homework without one single note as to what you got marked down for. When asked.."Oh, maybe I was grading too fast, I'll take another look." Followed by, "I'm not sure what you are whining about, you have one of the highest grades in the class and most people would give their right eye tooth for your grade... whats a few more points?" Ugh, I dunno, maybe cause I earned them? Or maybe I didn't, but if I didn't I would at least like to know where I was docked the points.

Statistics~ I don't know what to say about this class. We are graded almost entirely on our 3 tests and final. Though we have a bunch of required homework that may or may not count toward our final grade. Oh, and gee he didn't realize how quickly the quarter was going by and doesn't feel it's fair to give us our second test without having graded our first test... so there will only be 2 tests instead of 3 and one of them will be a take home test. OH, and then he didn't remember to write the take home test so instead of lecturing he'll just have us help him come up with a couple problems to use for the take home test. And then get distracted by the pretty numbers on the board and get carried away giving us the answer to the first question. I finally got my first test back last night... 98%, add in my extra credit participation points and I received 102%. He let me know if I wasn't satisfied with my test score to let him know and he would arrange a make up test. I think I'll just stick with what I have.

Med Term~ This class has been a learning experience for me. At this point in my life, self paced courses are a dangerous move. Based on her rough timeline, I am about 3 weeks behind. I'm not too worried yet, so far I've been able to hammer out a week in a day. This weekend will, hopefully, be a big catching up weekend.

Wahoo! I made the President's List!!! I'm quite proud of myself!

We are a full week into our summer classes. It's been a long week, and feels like these classes have been going on for much longer. I'm not enjoying these classes. Medical terminology is going well, though there is no interaction between students or with the instructor. Chem 100 is just as anticipated. Most of the people in this class have had no experience with chemistry before, and since there seems to be quite a bit of math in these first few weeks, it has also become obvious that many of them don't have a ton of math experience as well. He assigns lots of homework, but that's ok since I am managing to do the homework and take notes on his lectures at the same time. He has done a great job at explaining significant digits, though it makes my math minded brain cray to be rounding off large parts of my answers.

Statistics..... I fear for my grade in this class. The teacher thus far is wholly unprepared and seems to be trying to get through by winging it. No syllabus, in fact he hasn't even looked through the book or other required materials. One minute he tells us that our grade is only from the 4 exams and final, then he gives us an assignment that he says will be graded. I guess I'll just keep trying to adapt.

Wahoo! My first quarter back is done!! And, if I may pat myself on the back (since no one in real life has offered so much as a *good job*), I met my goal of a 4.0!

I should be starting working on my medical terminology class now, it's a self paced class and I can see that this will put me at risk for not being as motivated to get stuff completed. Chem 100 (baby chem as my bio professor called it) and Math 140 (formerly 281, how weird is that?) Statistics start next week. While I'm not looking forward to those classes, I am looking forward to checking them off the to-do list.

It looks a though Mike and my schedules only overlap one day a week, and only for a couple hours. That makes finding childcare easier, especially since I have two teenagers chomping at the bit for the opportunity to babysit.

I'm pretty sure I've decided against the LPN and then bridging idea. There is still the chance that I wont be selected at my top two schools and that my 3rd choice school may offer me a slot in their fast track LPN with a guaranteed spot to bridge upon completion.

So, kinda funny story from chatting with my Bio professor last week. We were talking about how Mike will be taking his class this summer, this lead to him asking what I was taking. When I told him Chem 100 he started making fun of me... but in the nicer way of telling me that I didn't need that class and would be more than fine taking chem 101 (which has also been renumbered, but I can't remember if it was to 130 or 140...) So I let him know that chem 101 wasn't offered in the summer, but I was taking it in the fall. He tried to convince me I would be a better fit for taking chem 102 this summer, without 101 than I would be in the baby chem class. He he. Here's to hoping it's an easy A.

Last week was registration for summer and fall classes for current students. The more credits you have completed the higher you are on the registration list. Frustrating now, but I guess it'll be to my advantage later. I was hoping my summer schedule would be Developmental Psych, CNA, and Medical Terminology. Luck was not with me. After much fretting and stomping of feet, my schedule is as follows...

• Chem 100 MTWTh from noon to 1:30. I can not express how much I am not looking forward to this class. Technically I do not need this class. It is the equivalent of high school chemistry. But, it's filling a spot, keeping my full time enrollment status and earning me extra credits and hopefully a few spots up on the registration list.

• Statistics TTh from 5 to 7:40. Ugh! But at least I can look forward to this being a class full of adult learners, and it is in the evening, so that's good anyway.

• Medical Terminology I Online. So... one out of three isn't horrible I guess.

The CNA class I wanted is full for fall quarter too, so I think I'll look into taking it from a local nursing home or something. I am first on the waiting list, however in a class of 10, pretty much all being pre nursing I have little hope of actually getting in the class. Mike took the last open seat 2 hours before I could register, big meanie. Developmental Psych made it to the fall schedule... probably.

Fall Quarter:

• Chem 121 MTWF 8a-9a Lab Th 1p-3p
• Anatomy and Physiology I MTWTh 9a-10a Lab MW 10a-12p
• Medical Terminology II Online or Developmental Psych Online

We do all remember that I have 3 children right? I'm not quite sure what I'm going to be doing with them in the fall....

Finals in my current classes are staring me in the face. As of right now I have over 100% in psych, a huge question mark for english, and I am 1.6% shy of a 4.0 in bio. Luckily in bio I still have 2 homeworks, a lab, a test and a final. I should be able to snag the points I need.

Here I am. Miss me?

The whole school ting is going fairly well still. My Bio grade isn't currently a 4.0, but I'm hoping I can yank it back up again before the end. I really really get genetics, I'm actually looking forward to our test on Friday. Psychology has become mind numbingly boring. I don't feel like I really have to put much effort into it in order to pull out a good grade. And english... I finally received my grades from the first paper. 96% if I remember correctly, it's somewhere in that area anyway. There are only a total of 3 papers for this class, so hopefully I can pull a nice grade.

With 3 weeks to go I'm just feeling a bit tired. Overly antsy I guess. I'm ready for new subject material. I've already had my advising appointment to figure out what classes I'm going to take for both summer and fall. If everything goes as planned I will be taking developmental psych, medical terminology and either statistics or CNA this summer. Fall will be A & P 1, chem 121 and either statistics of the CNA class, depending on which one I took over the summer.

After fall I will be done with all my pre reqs except for my sciences, so I will need to fill in with other classes to maintain my full time status. Right now I think I'm going to take medical terminology and medical transcription, and hopefully have a medical transcription degree by the time I'm applying for nursing school. It may give me something to do while I wait for nursing school to start. My adviser wanted me to take a typing class instead of medical terminology, but when I saw that it was recommended for students with a WPM of 15 I decided it would be too boring for me. Such a snob I am.

We got the scores from our second test in biology today.... I scored above the adjustment which means I came away with 103% brining my grade to a 97.6%... aka a 4.0! I'm the second highest in my class and it feels great! I am prepared for my percentage to drop a little next week due to my lab partner issues. I'm basking in the glow while it's available. Now, if someone in my life would actually congratulate me instead of going, "oh, well, keep in mind that you are only 4 weeks in." Gee thanks, you are right, it must just be a fluke.

I'm contemplating my options for nursing programs right now. I wish there was a clear "this is the right path" answer. My plan has been to do my pre-reqs and apply to the Pierce ADN program next spring, to start the program for winter 2010. Though this option gets me where I want to be, it is placing a lot of pressure and taking a big risk. Pierce requires slightly different pre-reqs than Highline, which is the other close ADN program. Tacoma Community College is also an option, though I haven't spent too much time looking at their requirements. Pierce only accepts 20 students a year and it is very competitive.

Another option I have been giving a lot of consideration is taking the LPN program at Green River. The college is slightly further away than Pierce, but closer than Highline. The positives of this option would be that I could have my pre-reqs for this program done in one quarter and would for sure be eligble for the program that starts fall 09, they accept on a first come first served. Plus, they are contracted with the huge medical group in this area and a lot of the graduating LPN's are hired on with the medical group which then pays them to complete their ADN. I could complete this program and be working as an LNP while completing my schooling, which pays better than working as a CNA. The downside is that none of the pre-reqs for the LPN program are pre-reqs for the ADN and I would still have to complete all the ADN requirements to be eligible for the LPN-RN bridge. I know I will not be happy staying with just a LPN so getting the RN would be a must for me. Ugh. I'm flip flopping back and forth on this and I really need to make a decision. If I do the LPN program I loose my Opportunity Grant, it is only available at Pierce, though there may be a similar program at GRCC that I don't know about yet. It is much easier to get into the LPN-Rn bridge at Pierce than accepted to the ADN program.... Total time to get my RN would be longer if I did the LPN....

And back and forth I go. I think I'll email the nursing adviser and ask if I can apply for my LPN license after the first year of the RN program at Pierce.

I'm 4 weeks into my classes now and I think I've definitely hit a slump. I spent all day yesterday doing nothing involving school. I still have to finish up my lab report for biology for tomorrow morning and print off a bunch of stuff for lab tomorrow. We had a test in bio on Wednesday, no class on Friday so I'm looking forward to finding out how I did tomorrow. I think I did pretty well, but everyone else was saying it was a really hard test so I wonder if I really bombed it and just didn't realize how badly I was doing.

Psychology still feels like just a ton of busy work. I don't feel like I've really learned anything I didn't know before. My grade is above 98% this week, and I got in my first online disagreement with a fresh out of high school know-it-all... that was kinda fun!

English.... I know in theory why they want us to take this class, however I really dislike it. I am really not big on writing essays just for the heck of it, and we are in week 4 and I have not gotten one bit of feedback from the instructor. I have not gotten grades from the first week of class. It's making me really nervous about going into yet another big project without knowing how I scored on the others. Writing is a lot about style, one instructor will really like what you have to say and it wont do anything for another. I would like to know how I'm doing while there is a chance to change something.

My only complaint with biology is lab partners... enough said.

So, the 4 week update is a bunch of pissy-ness.

I am not loving the english class. It really feels like busy work that I wont really get a whole lot out of. Writing essays on topics I don't particularly care about... blah.

I have an idea that I've been kicking around for a while now. I would like to find a way to put up some of my papers, homework, projects. There has got to be a way to link documents to the blog....

After another week my psychology grade is now above 97%, still holding my own in english and biology has come up a little. There's another biology test this week and I'm really hoping to do quite well on it. Also coming up this week is an appointment with the nursing adviser to look over my planned classes for the next couple quarters. I want to be extra sure I'm getting all the right classes to be ready to apply next year.

I'm starting to get grades back on my first assignments, and the news is mixed.

In English 101 we have had a few assignments due already, though have only received grades for one.... and it was a small one at that. I received 10 out of 10. I have not heard any feedback on my first essay so far. Currently we are working on an essay worth 300 points. I wish this instructor gave a better idea of a class calendar. I have no idea how many or what kind of writing projects I am going to have in this class, this is frustrating since I would like to start being able to get ahead sometimes.

Psychology... doing well in this class. My overall grade is a 96% I believe. We have done 2 tests already and I just turned in my first project. This class is not overly challenging for me, but I feel like there is a lot of busy work.

And then there is Bio. Ugh! I so wish I was doing better in this class. I have a 86% after the first test, one lab and homework, in this class that is a 3.1 and I must have at least a 3.0 to qualify for nursing at this school. Good news is that the lowest test score before the midterm is dropped. Another hopeful bit of good news is that the first 2 weeks are supposed to be the hardest in this class. He claims to basically be forcing a full quarter of organic chemistry in the first 2 weeks. I am definitely having a much easier time with the homework in the second unit. Tomorrow is our 3rd lab and I am really looking forward to it. This is definitely my favorite class.

I survived the first week of classes, now the homework assignments are starting to roll in. Since I'm already getting a bit nervous about some of my to-do list I thought I'd plan it out here.

• Mon (today)- Bio 9am-noon, turn in lab 1. Take a nap in hopes of getting illness under control. Review Essay for Eng, due tues. Work on Psych test, due Wed at noon.
• Tues- Finish Psych test, submit. Finish discussion responses, due Wed. Finish Bio homework. Read lab 2. Eng start outline for essay, due thurs. Pick up financial aid check. Shopping for work outfit/shoes/retainer.
• Wed- bio 9am-noon, turn in homework. Work 2:30pm-11pm.
• Thurs- Study for Bio test on Fri. Finish outline for essay. Psych, work on week 2 reading, start discussion questions. Start week 2 psych project. Work 3pm-11pm.
• Fri- Bio 9am-10am test. Finish psych discussion questions, due Sun. Get some sleep. Work 11pm-7am
• Sat- Sleep. Start rough draft essay. Work 11pm-7am
• Sun- Sleep. Start psych discussion responses. Bio lab 2, due Mon.

And then it starts all over again. I'm keeping my head up, hopefully it will only be this crazy for the next 2 weeks. After that I'm going to be on a regular work schedule, and hopefully 3 days instead of 4. I should have gotten more school work done today, but the whole family is having a bit of an intestinal illness and fever so I decided a bit of rest may help me get well sooner.

My Bio class is down from 52 in lecture and 26 in lab to 30 ish in lecture and 15 in lab. Intense? Yeah it is. But not undo-able. I guess it's just a matter of who wants it most. I think all of the non-medical field people are gone, plus a few more.

Must go finish my work....

Classes have started! I made it to the biology class Monday morning, however the instructor didn't know if there was going to be room for me yet. His advice was to attend lab on Monday and lecture and lab again on Wednesday and go from there. Which meant I also had to attend the statistics class Monday night, since I didn't want to be behind in there if I didn't get the biology. It made for a very long day. This morning the professor let me know that I had a slot! Yippee! We had our first lab project today and I am loving it! Today we looked at Daphnia under the microscope. After counting their heartrate we switched the water with alcohol of increasing amounts. Again, we counted the heartrate. Next we removed the alcohol and added caffeine. I really enjoyed being behind the microscope and being back in class again.

Tonight I need to write the rough draft for my first english paper. I've already tried working on it, but erased everything I had written as I didn't like the way it turned out. I also plan to read 2 chapters in Psychology and get started on the assignment due on Sunday.

My online classes, psych and english, started on Friday. Psych is cool, I took it in high school and also during my brief stint in college straight out of high school. Easy A's both times and I don't anticipate having much trouble this time either. All my work for week 1 was done within 2 hours of the classroom being open. English is another story. i have never enjoyed english. Never. Writing an essay does not fill me with happy thoughts. In high school I did ok, was in the honors classes and held my own.... but never enjoyed it. And truthfully, I don't understand why I got decent grades, I never put much effort in. The only difference between my rough drafts and final drafts was a run through spell check, and everything was done the night before the paper was due. I would really rather not follow that line of procrastination with this english class. So, I've dutifully signed on to the blackboard, read the syllabus, read the first weeks assignments... and kind of stalled out. Today I forced myself to pick up the text and start reading the first chapter as the instructor wants. Now I'm half way through and have totally lost interest. Instead I'm fighting the urge to go do next weeks psych homework, or maybe preread another bio chapter.

I went to the PICC on thursday and had an interview. It went well, I think. The lady that interviewed me took me back to meet the director of the clinic and gave me a tour of the faucilities. And.... oh the babies!! The sweet sweet, fuzzy headed babies! All so tiny and squishy and wonderful! The pay is garbage, lets just say I came home and had to look up the minimum wage rate for WA cause I thought it was higher! This will not work for my work as few hours as possible while bringing home some money plan, but my heart is pulling me there. Anyway, they said they would be calling my references on friday and getting back to me early next week.

Online classes start on Friday, on campus classes start Monday. It's starting to get real to me now!

After a mess with my financial aid and my last name I have everything straightened out, and when I checked the status of my financial aid online tonight it said that an offer for aid had been mailed out! I was a bad bad adult and did not change my name with the social security department when I got married. I changed it with the Department of Liscensing and banks and everything else... but never got around to changing it with SS. Mainly because I thought it would be a much harder process than it really was. This didn't cause a problem until now... half of my documents were in one name, the other a different name. So, now I needed everything to match. I'm so glad to finally have all these hurdles put behind me.

Remember when I mentioned the Pediatric Intensive Care center located near me? Well, guess what?? They *do* do on the job training for their Nursing Aids, and they are going to have openings for evening and graveyard shifts open in about two weeks!! I chatted with the gal in charge of hiring today and she asked me to come down tomorrow to fill out an application. She said she will look over my application and references with me while I'm there. I'm so excited! getting in at the bottom level with this center is really great. They have openings for nursing students and hire fresh grads at a cool 66k yearly starting salary. And they are less than 14 miles from my front door. Here's a link, if you care to check it out! http://www.picc.net/

Could it be? Are things starting to slowly fall into place?

I made it back to the bookstore today to get the rest of my text books. After showing the Opportunity Grant head the breakdown of cost on my texts, she added more money into my account. She even added enough for me to get the other incidental supplies I will need. So I headed in this afternoon and enjoyed the quiet campus. It's spring break so the bookstore was very quiet, just me and one other student for the whole staff to fuss over. I was able to get the rest of my books used... wahoo for saving money! Then I fugured out how much money was left in my account and spent part of it on some notebooks, pens, highlighters, note cards. All that's left is to get my part of the school armoire set up!

I believe the online classrooms open up on the 27th and instruction begins the 31st. EEEk! I'm getting more nervous by the day.

Mike and I went to the bookstore to pick up our texts for spring quarter. As luck would have it, Mike's books went over his bookstore account amount by $1... I was not so lucky. I need another $90 plus tax to be able to get mine... and that was with picking as many used books as I could. I think I will call the Opportunity Grant gal tomorrow to see what she wants me to do. My grant is supposed to cover the full amount of the books and the gal at the register did say a lot of people were telling her that the bookstore amount wasn't covering it all and she was adding more to their accounts....

On the other hand, we do have that particular text here since Mike took that class winter quarter. So, in theory, I could just use his text and not ask for the extra funds... But, we were planning on taking his books to the buy back and using the cash to get some study guides for this quarter.

It's starting to hit me that I will be back to school very soon. I'm getting a bit nervous. It all just sounds so overwhelming. I can do this... one day at a time.

I finally received a response from the Biology instructor today! He can't overload the class for me, but he told me to print out his e-mail and attend the first day of class and probably someone would drop and I could have their seat. So now the big question... which text should I buy? In a perfect world I would be able to buy both, but I don't have enough of $ in my book account to do that. I'd rather not buy the bio text late... I don't want to get behind right at the beginning.

Wahoo! At least it's a chance!

Well, it looks like my schedule for spring will be Eng 101, Psych 110 and Stats 281. English and Psych will be online and Stats will be a twice a week night course, 7:50 to 10 pm. I'm trying to get excited about it. Right now the most exciting part is getting my two most dreaded classes over with, and the other should be a cake walk.

Maybe I'll have time to continue looking over the biology and anatomy and physiology classes/ web casts in my spare time. It would be really nice to have a little head start on the sciences.

I didn't get into the biology class I needed. I'm so frustrated, I thought about crying, but quite frankly I'm just a bit burnt out on the whole thing. Here is my screwed up way of thinking... There is a nursing shortage. There are a ton of people trying to get into nursing school. Wouldn't you think the schools would make an effort to have a more apropiate number of the pre-req classes available? There just seems to be this bottleneck built into the system. So what are my options now? I can take 2 classes instead of 3, kissing a portion of my financial aid goodbye and pushing the oportunity to apply to nursing school back at least a year. I can take one of my other prereqs, pulling it from later in my academic plan and still pushing nursing school back a year. Anyone else have any bright ideas?

I've signed up for my statistics class in place of the biology so I can still take a full load of classes, but the plan is to continue to try to find a way into the biology class. I've already sent an email off to the instructor asking if he would consider overloading the class. I'm sure he probably wont, but it's at least worth the effort of trying. I'm also refreshing the add/drop a class section of the web site in hopes that someone will drop their spot and I can snatch it up. I really really don't want to take the math class this quarter. Please don't make me.

There is a slim chance that biology may be offered for summer quarter, but it wasn't last year. If I don't get in this quarter summer quarter would be the only way to be able to apply to nursing in the spring of 2009.

I met with my guidance counselor/Opportunity Grant person today. For some reason I thought I signed up for my classes with her today... sadly not. I can't register for classes until tomorrow, so even though we sat there typing different classes in to the computer to see what was available and planning out my schedule, there is the chance that one or more of my classes will have filled today and tomorrow I'll be back at square one. Considering there was one seat available in the biology class I NEED to take this quarter, I'm a bit stressed about it all.

If all goes well I will be taking English 101, Psychology 110 and Biology 101. Even getting my best case classes I'm going to be putting myself in a bind. The biology class that has one seat available starts at 9 am. My kids get dropped off at school at 8:55, they can not be there earlier than 8:45 and their school is about 20 minutes away from mine. Monday's it wont be a problem since that is one of Mikes days off, but every other Wednesday and every Friday he will be at work. So... got to figure out some way to get them to school on those days, plus I need to figure out what I'm going to do with Cam during those times. I went to the daycare on campus to check it out today and even with grants I'm looking at $78 a week. Too much. Trying not to panic. I'm getting quite a bit of pressure to not take a on campus class this quarter, but dang it... I'm pushing myself back a full year if I don't get this science done this quarter and I'm being selfish. Maybe I'll hit a stroke of luck and one of the slightly later biology's will have a seat open when I go in for registration tomorrow.

Since I was at the college anyway I decided to stop by the bookstore to see what my books would cost me this quarter. Well, not really me, the opportunity grant opens up an account for me at the bookstore. I can't wait to go pick up my biology text and lab book! Maybe I can get a jump start on reading! My account with the bookstore doesn't open up until the 15th.....

Totally not bragging, but the opportunity grant lady needed to look over my COMPASS test scores. She was quite literally gushing about my math scores. Yeah, math and science seem to come to me naturally. Honestly, yeah I did well, but I guess I'm used to it so I wasn't feeling overly giddy.

I went in to the college today and took the COMPASS placement test. Funny enough, I had resigned myself to possibly not placing where I wanted to place in math and needing to take math 97. Nope, all that studying was enough to refresh my mind on everything I learned in high school. I placed in math 281, statistics. This class scares me. I also easily placed into English 101. However, since I got a perfect score on both the reading and writing section, I really wish there was a waiver for taking English 101. I do not enjoy writing classes and am really dreading this class.

Tomorrow I go in for my appointment with my opportunity grant adviser and sign up for my spring quarter classes. Yay, I'm really on my way now!

Mike and I went to the college on Wednesday, I met with the Financial Aid adviser as well as a lady who is in charge of the schools opportunity grant. So far it looks good for both of us to receive a grant, and since they have money they need to use up they are going to try to back award Mike for his winter quarter also. I'm so excited!

Since I took the placement exam at a different local college I need to go take it again at Pierce. Not a big deal... hopefully I'll get to it next week. Registration for spring quarter is March 5th!

So this is nursing related.. just not related to me and nursing. Unless you count giving me a good chuckle while browsing the internet instead of doing the 3 math chapters I promised myself I would do today. Really, I planned to keep this blog a bit more on topic than this, ah well, a little fun now and then never hurt anyone.



So, I'm seeing that my transparent background is maybe not the best to watch a video over... sorry. I think there may be a way to click and see it at the you tube site.

I finally finished up my financial aid stuff for spring quarter! Assuming all goes well, oh please oh please, I will be taking psych 110, English 111, and Math 281. I'm hoping to get them all online also.

Next up is completing my paperwork for financial aid for fall 08. I think I have most everything done for it. Rough numbers have been entered for taxes so hopefully by friday I'll have the taxes filed and can put those numbers into my financial aid packet.

I'm still plugging away at the online math, averaging about a chapter a day. Really, most of this is review from middle school for me, but it makes me feel good to accomplish something anyway. A side note about math... Mike is in Math 281 Statistics right now and really struggling. Really really struggling. Last night he came up to me and wanted to drop the class, insisting that it's just too hard. Yeah, I probably should have been more supportive, I know this is supposed to be a really hard class. I offered to see if I could help him make heads or tails of it and he basically tossed the books in my lap and told me to go ahead and take the quiz he took and see if I was really that much better at it than he. I didn't think this was fair since I had never peeked in the book before but ok, whatever. I got a 100%. Ooops. I have again offered to help him along in the class. Heck, if I'm going to be taking it next quarter some advanced studying can't hurt...

It's been crazy around here with grandma and the kids this last week. I've not carved out enough time to make progress on PICC, but it remains on the to do list.

The big deal of the week was the visit from the state case manager for my grandma. Once a year or so they have to come out to reevaluate grandma and see if we should have more or less C.O.P.E.S. hours, note any medical changes and generally make sure her home is safe for her and we aren't neglecting her. I was really nervous that since we have hospice involved now and they come out to give her baths and offer other help that they would reduce our hours. The social worker had said it was possible. As it turns out our monthly hours were increased by 20 hours! My kids can be signed up for chess club! Chess club is after school on Thurs and Thurs was one of our short days for help. Unfortunately our care giver would be leaving a half hour before I would have picked up the kids and it's not so easy to just move hours from one day to another. Now I will have someone here late enough that I can pick the kids up.... yay!

Why is all this on my nursing blog? Umm, cause I kinda feel like I'm a manager of my grandmas care in a way that could be somewhat similar to a long term care facility.

Since my schooling is on hold for this quarter I'm taking this opportunity to get in some studying early. I've found a link to a colleges math 97 lessons online. I've set myself a goal of a chapter a day until I get through it all. I think I've also found a similar resource for biology, chemistry and A&P. Not that the computer can totally get me through the science classes, but it would be nice to have a little understanding going in.

So far I have received one rejection from the 5 applications I sent out. Silly, but it really got me down for a couple days. Like somehow that one rejection meant that I'd never get any job anywhere. Ugh, am I a drama queen or what?

I have been really fighting getting my CNA. Sounds silly I know, but even knowing I needed it for nursing school I was desperate to find a way around it. Let's face it, I'm here doing the work of a CNA and more every day. The idea of going to work in a LTC facility and then coming home and doing even more every day was something I knew I could not do. I had begun considering taking the CNA class to say I had the certificate but never actually using it. Then on new years eve I was browsing the web while the kids watched one of the count down shows and the end of a commercial caught my attention. It was for this organization. (there is a link there it just isn't showing in a different color for some reason) THIS I can do! This is something that I have dreamed of doing since Kaleb was an infant. How odd that I saw a news program about them when Kaleb was 4 or 5 months old and then heard nothing until now! I'm going to contact them since they are looking for CNA's and see if they would be willing to put me through the class in exchange for me signing a contract with them. If not I'll find another way. They are even close to me!