I really believed sociology was going to be an easy, minimal effort class. It seems I was wrong.

There are 10 assignments due in the first week of class. And most are not quick assignments either. Ugh!

Tomorrow marks the first day of summer quarter. When I signed up for classes I was looking forward to a nice relaxing quarter. All of my heavy science classes are behind me, what would I have to worry about? Um, my sociology class seems to have an excessive workload. We are talking DVD's to watch weekly, along with essays and a couple other assignments... weekly!! Oh well, it will be over soon. And, as disappointed as I would be to knock down my GPA, most nursing programs figure your GPA only from your pre-req classes. So, I can lower my standards for this class. Yeah right.

I'm only a couple weeks away from having to turn in my nursing school application. Exciting! Scary! I am not looking forward to this. Logically I know that I have a good chance of getting in. And if I don't get in at my first choice, I have even better odds at my second choice. But still, it's hard putting yourself out there for others to accept... or reject. I've looked through the application packet, found myself overwhelmed and put it away again. So much is riding on these next few weeks!

Back to summer quarter. I will be enjoying the sun while studying sociology, medical terminology 2 and 2 typing classes. Hopefully this quarter will go smoothly, and I'll just be killing time until I get my acceptance letter!

Spring quarter is finally over! It felt like a sprint from the first week through the last day. never giving me a chance to stop and catch my breath. I wish I could say that I learned a lot. My grades seem to indicate that I did, but sitting here enjoying not having class today... I can't remember a thing I learned. I keep wanting to call this spring break, but no, this is my meager summer break.

Here they are, the spring grades:

• Microbiology 4.0
• Organic Chemistry 4.0
• Keyboarding 4.0

Yippee, another quarter I have not failed. I wonder when I will realize I'm not likely to totally flunk out of school?

This quarter has been harder than I anticipated. I suggest to everyone I meet on the path to nursing school.... don't take these classes together (organic chem and microbiology). Two challenging classes that don't tie in together with complementing information. Sure, they both are pulling heavily from information you learned in your previous biology and chemistry classes, but they aren't complementing each other. Both instructors are great, and I am learning a lot, but looking back I see better ways to have combined my classes.

Spring quarter is almost over! Then on to summer. Thankfully with just filler classes to make me look better to nursing programs. I'm almost done with my must have classes!!

Who knew I would be good at microbiology? The topic doesn't particularly interest me. In fact, I'm generally uncomfortable with a lot of the "what we can do and what we might be able to do soon" discussions surrounding this topic. I know I'm the oddball, but I don't necessarily think it's a good thing we can take a multivitamin when we eat a carrot because it has been genetically modified to have all these extra vitamins in them. In fact, genetic modification as a whole just seems very wrong to me. I am interested in diseases and disease processes. Learning the techniques used to identify a bacteria is interesting, though something I don't foresee utilizing in my career. Typically, if I'm not interested in a subject, I don't excel at the subject. So color me shocked that I currently have the second highest grade in the class after our first two exams.

As for organic chemistry...I'm fairly convinced that chemists have created this crazy naming system just to create job security for themselves. The long list of rules you must go through just to identify that the strange little drawing you are looking at is a 1,3-dimethylpentane, just seems a bit silly. And I dread lab every week. It seems you cannot have an organic chem lab experiment that doesn't include smells that you wish you couldn't smell while in the lab, and your nose burning and unable to smell anything else for days. There are several of us who have experienced nose bleeds, burning nostrils and lost ability to smell each week. And for what? So we can see that cyclohexene will react in the presence of bromine? And I will use this when?? Exactly, just as I assumed.

I do enjoy being at the end of my pre-reqs. And I also enjoy being known as someone who is competent in science. Hearing that more and more of my former instructors are sending struggling students to find me is a nice ego boost.

Microbiology seems to be a pretty standard pre-req for most all RN programs, I just can't figure out why. What are we learning in this class that we are going to utilize in our careers? I doubt I will find myself staining a slide of e-coli in the next 5 years. Maybe I'm wrong though. Don't get me wrong, I find the information interesting. And watching the people at the lab station across from you attempting to set themselves on fire day after day is always amusing. And really, I think what it comes down to, microbiology that nursing programs use to weed out those that can't candle the higher level sciences.

After several promptings by my instructors I filled out the application for tutoring. It seems that many of my former instructors would like me to impart some of my knowledge into future students. And it pays well, so why not? Well, because the supplemental instruction (SI) instructor for A&P doesn't want there to be tutors in the tutoring center, she wants students to be forced into using the SI. This would be great, but the SI instructor only offers one time slot twice a week, and that time slot leaves students in conflict with their other classes. This was something that frustrated me when I was in A&P, the SI was offered during the same time as Chemistry, so I was essentially forced to choose between getting more practice in A&P or attending my chemistry class. So, college politics being what they are, I am now in a tug of war between instructors and SI. The instructors want me to come to their classes personally and round up the students who are interested in tutoring. I am sure this would not cause warm and fuzzy feelings with SI. Not to mention, if the tutoring center doesn't decide to go ahead and override the SI people and hire me anyway, I would essentially be signing myself up to tutor large numbers of people for free. And that wasn't really my goal.

Ok, time to polish my essay for this years scholarships.... it's due tonight by 5!

This is the quarter I've been dreading since the first time I sat down with a adviser to plan out my pre-reqs. The very idea of a quarter of microbiology and organic chemistry made my heart beat a little faster. Now it's here, and instead of voices in my head, I'm hearing action music as I dash from one thing to the next trying to keep my head above water.

I have never been a student that had to put in the required hours of studying. It's not fair, but true. I tend to need to study less than many other students. This quarter I'm living with my books. Picking away at pre-test questions for micro, writing another lab report for o-chem, taking a stab at another problem from my o-chem homework.

I keep hoping that I'm going to fall into a routine and it will all feel more manageable. I think the reality is I will be hearing action music in my head for the next 7 weeks, and will hopefully slide out of finals week knowing I can take on more than I thought.

I still haven't even looked at my keyboarding stuff... that's a bad thing, right?

11pm on sunday night and spring break is over. For some reason I thought spring break was going to be longer than one week. Maybe universities have a longer spring break? At any rate, tomorrow we return to class. This quarter will bring me to Microbiology, Organic Chemistry and Keyboarding. It could be a rough quarter. I have two instructors that I've had before and I'm not dreading having to spend another quarter with either of them... so let's hope all will go well.

Grades from last quarter:

A&P 4.0
Nutrition 4.0
ECE Pass

Cumulative gpa is 3.92, I should be in good shape for getting into TCC. Not my first choice school, but I like feeling like I have a solid back up plan.

Wahoo, another quarter down. And I'm expecting good grades too! I'm starting to feel nervous at the idea that in one more quarter I will be applying to nursing programs. I'm so ready, and yet not, all at the same time.

As silly as it sounds, I couldn't bring myself to sell back my A&P book or lab manual. I'm telling myself that it will be a good reference while I am in nursing school. I think part of it is that I've never put as much effort into any class before. I'm happy it's over, and yet, find myself also wishing A&P was a 3 quarter class. It feels like there is still so much we didn't cover.

Nutrition is over, and I am quite tickled to have walked out of that class with the highest grade. It was fund having Woods for an instructor again, and I allowed myself to come out of my shell and be more outspoken in that class than I am in my others. He is writing me a letter of recommendation for my nursing applications.

I'm so happy to be on spring break! The house will get cleaned, and I will take naps. And I need to work on memorizing the functional groups for organic chemistry. Other than that, I'm making no promises.

Next quarter is Microbiology, Organic Chemistry and Keyboarding.

For the first time in the last two quarters I feel like I have a good routine going. Ok, so I never made time to get groceries last week and we were without milk for 2 days, but still. I think I have figured out what I need to do to get the grade I need out of A&P, and have found a balance of getting things done ahead of time for Nutrition so I'm not cramming the night before. Of course, we have less than 3 weeks left in the quarter so I'm not going to be enjoying my better schedule for long.

I'm still very frustrated with A&P. Yes, I am going to have a good grade in this class. Most likely not the 4.0 I really want, but certainly above a 3.5 and for this level class that's nothing to shake a stick at. However, the way I'm getting that grade leaves me feeling a little dirty. This class as a whole is failing. We are either failing to understand what the teacher is instructing on, or we are failing to be able to figure out what he is asking on tests. The most likely thought is that it's a combination of both. On our last test the class average was 56%. That is unbelievable in a 200 level class. This is not a class full of slacker students who don't care what their grade is; it is a room full of pre-med, in one way or another. We are all either pre nursing, pre dr, pre pharmacist, pre dental. We are all heading for highly competitive medical programs. And we are all at the end of our pre-reqs, we've done lots of other classes, we know how to study and we don't expect to be handed easy grades. So, I don't have to get great grades on my tests to earn a good grade, I just have to do enough to be above the curve and allow the curve to push me up to the higher grade. And I'm worried that while this will look ok on paper, I'm not learning all I need to know to be successful in my nursing program, and in my career. I don't want to be the nurse that no one wants to care for their family.

I registered last week for my spring quarter classes. Microbiology, with my A&P instructor from last quarter. Organic chemistry from my Chem 100 instructor. And I'm rounding out my credits with a keyboarding class, one credit that I wont learn much from, but I will allow me to remain full time status. While I am really looking forward to this quarter, Mike is dreading it. Our organic chem class is from 5-10pm. Yawn. I love the night classes, he just wants to go home and go to bed. But it's the only one being offered this quarter... some of our science instructors are taking leaves, and/or are trying to teach a much lighter class load. I'm hoping this works in my favor.

Well, we've hit the mid point of this quarters classes. This quarter is flying by.

I feel like I have found my niche... I really love learning about anatomy and physiology. I love the concrete -ness of this is how the body works. I'm really wishing we were allowed to dissect, or even just get a hands on look at something that has been dissected. This whole looking at pictures and talking about it isn't giving me the full immersion that I'm craving. Still not hot on the instructor though.

Nutrition. Well, this class is more in depth than I anticipated. Still not hard, but harder than I anticipated. Having my biology instructor makes it worth it. Having the top grade in the class is amusing. I could probably score higher in this class if I was to devote the study time to this class that I do for my others. Basically, I ignore that this class exists until about 8 pm Friday night. I spend some time getting my notes ready for the test and print off the power points for the lecture. And then I spend 4 1/2 hours in class on Saturday and I'm free again until Friday night. To be fair, it really helps that a lot of the more in depth ideas that are being taught I've already been exposed to in at least one other class, sometimes as much as three times before. So things like cellular respiration just doesn't require a lot of thought on my part this time around.

I register for my Spring classes next week. I can hardly believe that I'm getting ready to start my final quarter of pre-reqs. I hope nursing school goes by just as quickly.

I guess I somehow forgot to update here with my winter quarter schedule. So far this quarter has been a breath of fresh air and I can see this being my favorite quarter... so long as my A&P instructor gets well and comes back! I anticipate the quarter taking a much different direction should she decide she is not well enough to continue the quarter and we are stuck with the boob that took over our last lecture. For now, let's think positive.

This quarter I'm not on campus nearly as much, and I'm loving it! I have A&P Tuesday and Thursday nights from 5:30 to 9:10. Half of that is lecture and the other half is down in the lab. The instructor is fabulous! I love her teaching style, I walk away from class feeling like I've learned a ton and not feeling like I need to go home and attempt to muddle through the text alone. She also give the impression of truly caring about her students and being invested in each student learning as much as they possibly can. Then I have a class on Saturday from 8:30 to 1:00. Everyone I tell about my nutrition class seems to think it's horrible to have to go to school on a Saturday, but I find it very peaceful. The class is filled with people who are there to learn instead of the random mix of people filling their time until they grow up. Plus the instructor is the same instructor I had in biology and we get along swimmingly. As an entry level class (that also gets me extra points on my nursing application, bonus!) the material is not very challenging. And since it's such a long class the instructor has decided that it would be best for us all if he limited his lecture time and gave us time to complete our homework with our peers.

All in all, I have little to complain about. I can't believe it's almost time to submit my nursing school applications! I have been spending time reviewing each schools requirements to make sure I have all my ducks in a row. It's a little scary and overwhelming, to tell you the truth.

Oh, I made the dean's list! Exciting! Wish I knew more about the significance of this.

• 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.