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.

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.

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 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!

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...