shut up and drive

Seriously, you'd think I was on speed or something. I'm not...let's just clarify that fact! I have one trillion things going through my mind. First, I made a B on today's test, which with the failing grade from the last one brings me up to a C. Yeah!

We have another test tomorrow on skin assessment, something, something, and dosage calcuations. Oh, I think one of the somethings is on history and physical. ??? When asked of our instructor what in particular the test would be on she replied, "Look at your syllabus". Ummm, ok. We can all read. We have no idea what this test is going to be like. She did later inform us it would be multiple choice.

I have to start my care plan for my current clinical rotation, start reading for the community health ATI that we have to take next month, read for OB...

Tomorrow the community college is holding the annual college night and I have to take LB to it.

AW came home with two Ds on his interim progress report today. The rest of the grades were great and he's probably brought the Ds up as he's turned in the missing work that caused the Ds.

Did I mention I made a B on the test today? :D

Ok, well I need to get off here, eat dinner and then go tackle those one trillion things I have on my mind.

Time to "shut up" before I drive myself crazy!

let's go crazy

In honor of my last unit exam for Mental Health Nursing:


Lets Go Crazy - Prince -

That would be today. Here in a bit I'll go finish studying for the test and at 1 pm will commmence to taking it. I really, really can't wait for this semester to be over. This class has been the bane of my existence. It's boring, but not because of the content. At times, while reading, I thought for sure I would go crazy, but being in class was/is sure to be the final clincher in the armor of sanity. My armor is made of aluminum foil anyway.

I like psychology, I really do. It's the instructor. She read from the PPTs last semester, and this semester hasn't exactly done that. She's skimmed the PPTs, I guess you could say. She doesn't teach the material though. Really, we could do just as well reading, and rereading the text. That's what I've been doing. I was printing off the PPTs, but gave up on that in an effort to somewhat Greenish. The material was pulled directly from the text, so why bother? PPTs and lecture should add to the content. Ugh!

I took my last unit exam for Nursing Principles and Concepts yesterday and got an 89. I'd like to know how I got an 89, as it should be an 88 or a 90. Fifty questions, at 2 points a piece, you do the math. See...going crazy, because who really cares???

May 1st I go to take both of my ATI exams, one for Mental Health, the other for Fundamentals. I told a couple of my classmates that I was taking them on the last possible day, and got some interesting feedback from them. They think we should take the exams in plenty of time to retake before the end of the semester. I think you should take the time to study the material, and pass the first time around! A 65 is needed to pass. I'm using other materials along with the ATI modules, so I'm hoping for the best. I don't want to have to do remediation, which has to be done before you retake the tests anyway. I don't want to have to go back to the testing center if it isn't completely necessary. One of my classmates, the only guy, took his tests yesterday. I'll find out from him today how he did, and see if my plan needs adjustments.

May 4th (Nursing P&C) and 5th (Mental Health) are the dates of our final exams. May 6th I'll be able to wake up and rejoice that the semester is over! May 22nd starts summer semester, and I'm taking A&P II, Nutrition and Development, and Developmental Psych. I was going to CLEP out of Dev Psych, but need 6 credits to maintain half-time status, necessary to maintain deferment of my student loans. The first two classes only add up to 5 credits. Rather than taking an unnecessary class I'll take the psych class. All the classes will be online.

I should find out sometime soon if I got the externship from Hospital #1. At this point I have mixed feelings about it. I would love to do it for the experience, not to mention the income would be nice, but it may be for the best if I don't get it. We shall see.

Time to do some last minute studying! Huh, "last minute" almost seems ridiculous since I'll be studying pretty much straight through til May 5th!

no rest for the weary

Yesterday we took our 3rd exam for Nur108, Nursing Concepts and Principles. Many of us were left feeling broken and abused. Evidently there were about 5 questions that ended up being, well...questionable because I went from an 80 to a 90. That would be one point away from failing to a high B. I'll take it. From the sounds of it I had one of the highest grades. That sounds pretty crazy to me, even now, because as soon as I'd finished the test and turned it in I thought for sure I was going to see a lot more wrong answers than I did. Even crazier is the fact that I didn't study as much as I should have! Remember, last week....little motivation...

Today we took our 3rd mental health nursing exam and it was a more pleasant experience than yesterday's. I'm extremely happy with my grade, which is also a 90. If nothing else I'm consistent. Once again I didn't put as much effort into studying the material as I should have. I'm not going to complain though, just do better time management and learn from my complacency.

My complacency, lack of motivation, whatever, caused me to have a near anxiety attack on Sunday. It dawned on me that we only have 6 weeks left in the semester until finals week! If final exams aren't bad enough we have two ATI tests to look forward to, one for fundamentals, and the other for mental health. I'm not a big fan of the ATI modules so I've actually ordered a couple of other books to help me prepare. I'm going to have to focus on the end prize. Short-term we're talking the end of the second semester of nursing school, and long-term would be becoming a nurse and living out a dream.

Tomorrow we start our clinical rotation at the nursing home. My classmates and I are somewhat disgruntled because not a one of us feels like we're prepared to walk into our perspective LTC facility tomorrow. I have angst over not knowing if I'm supposed to look forward to the first couple days being spent as basically a shadow or are we supposed to jump right in and take over. If that's the case, well um...hello???

Oh, geez...can we say nervous?



I also have to condition the boys into getting up a tad-bit earlier than usual so I can get out the door and not have to worry about someone oversleeping and missing school. There isn't a lot of parking at the place we'll be working at, and so we've been advised to carpool. A classmate has offered to meet us at the local grocery store parking lot so we can pile in and head over. Well, depending on how the boys do will be the deciding factor in my being a participant in said carpool, at least in the beginning. By skippy the boys will learn after this week what's expected of them on Wednesday and Thursday mornings!

Friday I have an interview at one of the local hospitals for a summer position as a nurse extern. I ended up only applying at two hospitals, the two closer ones to be exact. This summer I also have to take A&P II, since the school only awarded me credit for A&P I from my prior A&P class. When I took it it was a one semester, 5 credit class, whereas now it's a two semester, 8 credit class, so I have to make up the 3 missing credits. I also have to take nutrition and development. My school isn't offering A&P II at all, at either campus. One of the other local community colleges is offering what is probably my best option, considering I am planning to extern, and that is an online A&P course! It may sound somewhat daunting, but after taking the plethora of online courses I have, I know I will manage. One of my instructors also informed me she's going to be offering an online section for the N&D class.

The only problem is with the two classes I need to take I am left taking a total of 5 credits this summer. To keep my student loans from my BS degree in deferred status I have to maintain half-time status. Normally that would mean 6 credits. I do need to clarify that it's the same for summer classes. If it is than I need to come up with one more credit. Other CCs are offering other nutrition classes, for more credits, so I may take that route. I also still need Developmental Psych, (yes, even with a degree in psych, I've never take Dev Psych)! I plan to CLEP out of it.

I'm so tired I am bailing on the family baseball player for the second night in a row. Last night I bailed to stay home and study, that and the fact that the game was quite far away. Tonight's game is even further and it is still so cold out that I've decided to play the part of the errant parent. I still have drug cards to write up too. I feel horrible though. Last night I misssed two awesome plays made by LB, and will probably miss more tonight. I don't usually do this, but I guess this would be one of the mom-is-a-nursing-student-sacrfices I knew I would be faced with on this journey. Still doesn't make it feel any better.

LB has ended up playing on the JV team, much to his pleasure. I think he got kind of irritated with the Varsity team because they weren't as cohesive a team as the JV group. He'll see way more playing time on JV anyway. Selfishly speaking I prefer the JV team since I know more of the parents, and a couple of them are some of my closest friends. One mom and I met and have become friends because our boys have been on the same teams together for a few years now. She's bailing too, because of the cold. Heck, it's nearly 6:30 p.m. and 48 degrees out! Don't get me wrong, if it were a home game I'd be there!


It's time to take my weary behind and go write up the rest of my drug cards!

the simple things

Both boys ended up crashing over at friends' houses last night, which left me to my own devices today. I had my game plan laid out for my retail therapy, and off I went.

The first stop was Wegman's grocery store. I picked up some rolls and cole slaw fixin's to round off the meal of comfort food I have planned for this evening. On the menu is roast beef I had in the crock-pot all day yesterday. It was intended to be consumed for dinner, but with all the running around our family did, we weren't able to sit down for a meal together, at all yesterday. Meanwhile the roast roasted away all day! When I went to take it out of the crock-pot to package it up it fell apart, that's how tender and juicy it was! Tonight I'm warming it up with some BBQ sauce and serving it on the rolls fresh from Wegman's bakery.

Next stop was Ross. I'm not one to spend tons of money on myself, so I'll opt to buy my clothing at discount stores. I found myself a new purse--love it! Bought a few simple knit tops, as I'm all about comfort and basic wash and wear, most of the time. My biggest purchase was a new dress. It wasn't that expensive though, but it was a necessary purchase. The high school booster club is putting on a dance at the end of the month, to raise money for the school's sports programs. Big B and I are attending thanks to our local American Legion, where he is a member and I am supposed to become a member. The American Legion supports the schools. One of the booster club members told me that it's not a formal event by any means, some people dress casual. But heck! I'm calling it a date and I'm wearing a dress! It's simple, nothing formal, or even semi-formal, by far....but a dress saves me from putting together a pants outfit.

From Ross I went, grabbed a bite to eat, and received a call from one of my classmates. She told me the pharm grades had been posted. Here I am stranded about 25 minutes from home! Oh well, trudge on with therapy! The original reason I set out was to go to DSW as I'd found two pairs of sandals online that I liked, and was hoping to find them in the store. I'm so glad that the first part of the day was successful otherwise I'd have been irritated! Neither pair was in the store, oh well-will just have to order them!

What goes up, (me going north to shop) must come down (me coming home, going south). It was a nice relaxing trip out to the retail world. Aside from not finding my shoes at DSW, the rest of the time was splendid indeed!

Almost forgot to mention, I got an A in pharmacology!!! 91 on the final.

indications for retail therapy

I should really be studying for Wednesday's pharm final, but it's been a few days since I've posted so here I sit typing away to my heart's desire. This past weekend was spent studying and it was fruitful to say the least.

Let me back up for a bit though. Last year I had to take basically a full year of math. First it was Introductory Algebra, since I placed that low on the university (where I recently graduated with my B.S. in psyc) placement exam. It wasn't good enough that I had taken remedial-get-your-high-school-equivalency-credit when I first returned to college in 1999. Nope, not for this brain--too much time had passed. Then after Intro I had to take Intermediate Algebra. I actually went back to the U after finishing Intro and attempted the placement exam again in hopes of placing into College Algebra. WRONG! I had yet another grueling semester of algebra to look forward to, fortunately I had one of the best professors ever. Mary D was one of the most positive and inspiring people I've ever learned from...ever. Mind you, since we've been back to the states, up until I started my nursing classes, so from 2005 until 2008 (in finishing my psych degree) all my classes were online and a deadbeat Prof can make or break a class! Finally last spring I was able to take College Algebra, which I finished with an A, and in the summer I took Statistics for Psych (that Prof left a lot to be desired in a prof), but I believe I came away with an A or a B in that class so what the heck, who gives.

Anyway. What's with all the mathematical babble? I obviously somewhere in all those semesters of algebra learned about ratio and proportion. For the life of me I could not figure it out the other day when one of my classmates tried showing me how to do it in relation to a heparin drip problem. I basically (iffy, to say the least) got it. I sat down with my textbook, which was no help. It just further confused me. I have the book, Math for Nurses and found my lightbulb moment contained within. Seriously. It's as if the lights all over the country went out...and came back on all at once. Originally our professor had shown us a different formula for heparin drips, that was just little bit more labor intensive, and well once my classmate had pointed out the ole ratio:prop method, I had to give it, and him, well...props! Now that I am hip to the whole scheme of things, I'm cool!

Friday, we didn't do anything over-the-top for LB's birthday, even if it was his 16th. All he wanted to do was go skating. This was much to my displeasure even if it was the much less expensive option in comparison to what we (I) had originally planned, which was taking him and some of his friends out to dinner, restaurant of his choice, of course. Whatever. I will give him tons of credit for what did happen in the later part of the night. He and his one friend made an extremely wise choice. He intended on having three friends stay over, only two ended up staying through the whole night. To make a long story short, and what's turning out to be a novel, even shorter, two of the boys decided to sneak out with a fifth boy who had come to pick them up, unlicensed, in his own parents' car. They were out past curfew and got busted. One of the two who snuck out, and also lives across the street ended up at home, the other ended up back in our house. Kudos to my son and the other kid who chose to stay behind. Good on them!

Saturday was the first varsity "game", in all actuality it was a scrimmage. Our team lost. LB played the last two innings. He's the only sophomore, so it's what we expected. We hope for him to play more as the season goes on. One of his previous coaches gave him a glowing compliment on how he has improved over the time this coach has known him. Tomorrow I will take a short break from the studying as we have "Meet the Coaches" night for all the spring sports at the high school. We'll get to meet all the coaches that are working with LB. We've only really met one of them. We'll also do all the parenty (yes, I meant "parenty") kind of stuff like assign meals and such, whatever that means.

It's also a big day tomorrow because it's our orientation for our clinical placement at the long term care facility. I'll be ironing my uniform tonight (sorry, you can take the girl out of the military, but not the military out of the girl-besides it's that stiff-ass white scrub material crap). I have my notebook, 4x6 cards to write up my drug cards, because we have to write them-grr- and all my other little supplies, not that we really need anything tomorrow other than our notebook and pen, oh and our badge. I'm the nerd who's had her's in her purse since, oh, about day 15, first semester.

Wednesday's the big Pharm test...might've mentioned that a time or a hundred...and ten.

Thursday I am partaking in some much needed retail therapy. I want some new shoes of the sandal variety, and some new tops, and maybe some new capris also. Oh, and maybe a new purse too! Besides school I've been putting up with a lot as far as dealing with living in a house full of b-o-y-s-es, and I deserve some mommy/girl time!!!

perseverance

It only took me seven years, traveling across two countries and several continents, dealing with small children growing into wild teens, deployments and many other obstacles to accomplish my degree. Hard work really does pay off, don't let anyone tell you otherwise! Don't let anyone get in your way!

Now if I may make it through the current educational endeavor...

On that note I made a 92 on my perioperative nursing and medications exam today! Much better than the last (first) test in that class (Nur108).

wanting what you can't have

Yeah, so I have my annual girly appointment this morning at 0830, and because they're drawing labs I am fasting. What I wouldn't give for a cup o' joe right about now, especially considering I woke up at the lovely hour of 0420! One might think this would be a good time to study, but at this point that would not be a good idea as it would probably be the sleep aid I dont need right now! It's nearly 6 a.m., thus the point of no return. So here I sit, blogging.

I was checking out one of my new friends here in blogland, at The Adventures of a Single Mom/Nursing Student where she has the following video posted. I decided it's too funny to not hijack, so here it is for your viewing (and laughing) pleasure:


And if you can't get enough of those very talented Baylor Louis Herrington School of Nursing students than you're in for a treat with this video:


Just an update to yesterday's mention of the MH exam, I made a 33/35. Now it's time to focus on the next Nur108-Concepts and Principles exam we're taking this coming Monday. It's going to be on perioperative nursing and medications.

As for today, after my appointment I'll stop off and pick myself up something for breakfast and head to lab for the day. We'll be working on IV meds, and hopefully we'll have a chance to practice the skills we've learned in previous weeks, since our check off is next Wednesday.

bursting with elation

Today's exam went much better than yesterday's! We took our Mental Health Nursing exam.......drum roll......I got a 100!!! A lot of people were pretty disappointed after yesterday's exam, after realizing they'd also done worse than they'd originally thought.

I am pretty tired right now. Big B's alarm goes off at 4:50 a.m., and wouldn't ya know I woke up with it. There was no sense in just lying there as the girls would never allow it, so we made our way down the stairs. That's usually pretty scarey considering how excited Labrador Retriever's become when food is in their near future!

Minnie runs down the stairs at the speed of light, rips around the house since there's a perfect track around where my staircase and water closet are located. By the time she's blazing past the foot of the stairs going into her second lap I've made my way down. Sandi, being the older of the two, usually follows close by or behind. That's pretty dangerous considering I'm accident prone. She's no less excited than Minnie, just more mature.

I'm headed out pretty soon to play financier to the teenager. He wants to go to the high school basketball games this evening and needs some dough to get in. Can you believe they charge $5 for sporting events around here!!! And if you leave you have to pay to get back in! Where does the money go???

third letter of the alphabet does the job

Humphh...so much for the A and B(almost an A at 91.4) I ended up with last semester. That's ok though. I did study really hard and I feel comfortable with my gained knowledge. A couple of the questions I got wrong were stupid mistakes. What can ya do?

Live and Learn!

Thanks to those who wish(ed) me luck and stand in my corner!

Now, as long as the weather holds up, and it doesn't look promising, we'll be taking our first Mental Health exam tomorrow. It's the one we were supposed to take last week, but didn't because we had a snow day.

Isn't it ironic?

We also missed lab last week due to the weather and will have to play make-up this week...as long as we're able to go to school!

Such a great time of year!

send me into respiratory alkalosis

Yeah, cuz I'm about to start hyperventilating!

Big exam this morning, huge!

All I know is I've done some strong studying, and now can only hope for that C which equals RN!

really now?

Our first exam for Nur108-Nursing Concepts and Principles is Monday morning. The subject matter for the text includes oxygenation, circulation...and fluids & electrolytes with acid-base balance...and urinary & bowel elimination.

How about your program?

Have they tested you on this many topics/systems at once?




Anyway, found these two gems at Borders yesterday. I had been studying the F&E material and came across conflicting info between the oecture notes (printed from data the instructor had posted online) and the text, so became sort of confused. Turns out it all means basically the same thing. Thanks to the Mosby's Memory Notecards I figured it out!

If you're like me and it's been a while since you took A&P you might find the Cliffs book extremely useful!















All that and if you like romantic comedies you'll love New in Town!

brrrr....it's cold outside

It seems the whole country is experiencing frigid temps this week. Here in Virginia we haven't been spared of any chill, or precipitation for that matter.

The boys were off school Monday and Tuesday for teacher work days, and then we had a snow day yesterday, thus no school, no classes. Today we're all home because of ice. When I say "we're all home" that's actually not entirely true. What's meant is Big B, AW and I are home. But we're all off school or work because of the ice. LB just happens to have spent the past two nights at a friend's house.

I'm going to be spending the greater portion of the next few days studying for two tests. One is the Mental Health Nursing exam we were supposed to have taken yesterday, and the other is regularly scheduled for Monday.

The latter will cover oxygenation, circulation, fluids & electrolytes, acid-base balances, and urinary & bowel elimination. The instructor told us it would be fifty questions evenly distributed amongst the different chapters.

Today we're missing lab. I'm wondering how it will be handled considering the Thursday lab group will most likely have their time tomorrow as I don't think we're in for anymore weather this week.

Tomorrow a friend has asked me to take her to the airport as she's leaving for a few months. I'll drive her up and drop her off after we've had lunch. Then it'll be right back to the books upon my return home.

I know why I've been in a funk the past few days and why I let the negative message a friend sent get to me, even though I came out of it temporarily last night.

Friday's my birthday. I'm not upset like some people get, because they're getting older. What upsets me is, for years now I've been the one in our house who puts her heart into celebrations for everyone. I do it because I love seeing my sons and husband happy. I'm human though and it's nice to be appreciated and receive reciprocation in kind, and well when it doesn't happen it causes morale to take a nose-dive. It's become a pattern over the years.

The hubby's not one for Valentines Day either. Being the romantic I am, I love any opportunity to celebrate love, birthdays, and anything special.

Last week while at Quantico I made a new friend. Come to find out her birthday is also the 30th! How wild is that!? She's turning two years older, and for her this year it's the big 4-0.

We're planning to go see New in Town and go out to dinner after the movie.

Sometimes you have to take matters into your own hands!

two weeks from today

Two weeks from today I'll be taking my final exams for NUR100 and Nur105, and my first semester of nursing school will be O-V-E-R!

Just this morning I had myself quitting and going to work as a medical assistant. I did graduate from a MA program in 1998, and all I'd need to do is re-up my credentials. Why do I have to be so wishy washy?

For one I'd like to be bringing home a paycheck...right now!

This isn't the first time I've swayed against my current career/college path.

So what's the problem? Fear? Fatigue? Sheer laziness? Self-doubt? Who knows? The things that keep me going are the possibilities that are out there. I also don't want May 2010 to come around and I reflect on what could have been.

I don't want the next year and a half to go by too fast-because I want to see my kids grow. Then I just want it to be over with.

That's enough whining for now. I suppose I'll go watch House and then study for my skills assessment tomorrow.

waddaday....What a day!

Today we had exams in both Nur100-Intro, and Nur105, Basic Skills lecture. The dean (she's teaching our Nur100 class because of the instructor turnover that happened just prior to classes starting in August) is stepping up the difficulty level of the tests with each one we've taken. I will admit this one gave me a run for my money. In fact as I walked out the door, toward one of classmates who had already left the room, I said, "There goes my A". After we did our collaborative testing and then the dean went over it, I feel a little better, not having done as poorly as first thought. We'll see what the final outcome is once grades are posted.

After all of that, and for the remainder of the class we had a guest speaker. The speaker was from the main campus and she was there talking to us about "caring communication". She had come in while we were doing the coolaborative testing and had observed our collaborative state of stress. So she at first had us do a focus exercise. She had us close our eyes, and then she spoke us through envisioning different places on our bodies-"knowing and naming, not judging". We started at our scalps, down the front, worked our way down to our feet, and then back up our backs, ending at our scalp. I have to admit it was very relaxing. Then she had us watch the following video. I highly recommend you watch it if you want to see a powerfully moving example of human fortitude.



I nearly had to leave the room because I nearly bursted into tears. That would have been just wonderful, but I maintained control. What can I say I'm emotional? I watched last week's episode of ER yesterday intending to relax before studying and I ended up bawling...sheesh!

Back to the matter at hand.

The whole experience with the speaker and the video was great, except for we were still facing our second test of the day. wonderful!

If we're not stressed enough we've just watched an emotionally riveting video. Not helpful!


Since this was our first test with the "new" instructor, who is actually an old instructor...hopefully you already know the story, if not read this, we were all more nervous than we have been since we took our first nursing exams....and with good reason. I thought I'd bombed the Nur100 test??? HA!! It was a consensus! We all felt the same way. We quickly went through it after everyone had finished and returned to the room, and I think I did better than I had thought at first, but still not very good.

STBTF?
I'm thankful to have no more exams until the final exams.

Oh! I am also extremely thankful for the college awarding me equivalent credit for A&P I. Now I just have to take A&P II and will accomplish that during the summer next year.

my head might as well be a pressure cooker

For one I have a headache, and have had it all day long, even after taking 2 extra strength acetaminophen, 1 Allegra-D, and 1 ibuprofen. I get headaches quite frequently, and have for many moons. If it'snot a menstrual migraine it is a sinus headache.

The real reason my head is about to explode would be the pending academic obligations that are climaxing as I type.

In class today we got our group presentation assignments, for Nur100. Each group has to present about something medically related, or something we've maybe learned about this semester, but maybe not indepth. My group is going to do animal therapy. We were originally going to do alternative healing modalities as a whole, each member taking on one therapy, but the prof put the big kibosh on that idea. So we will focus on one therapy. It's no fun having your bubble burst!

For my psych class I have to head up the conclusions section for our lab report, as well as complete a lit review for a student who dropped and left us hanging in the lurch. Then I have to combine that lit review and another one a fellow group member is writing up for the same reason, into the lit review we already have started for the report.

I have an assignment due next Tuesday for Nur100. We also have our third exam for Nur105 that day. Hence a need for studying. Luckily it's only one chapter. Don't let the meager number fool you. It is nursing school after all.

I have about 7 chapters to read by this time next week, or really by the 18th. Our next Nur100 exam is then. Of course I'll have had them read long before then and will be studying it all.

Tomorrow I have my hygiene/bedmaking skills test. You know, bed bathing, oral care, occupied/unoccupied bedmaking, blah, blah, blah. So I need to review the CD-Rom for that this evening to make sure I don't miss any of the details or reasons for why we do what we do.

The Phillies will hopefully finish, and win, game 5. It was delayed last night because of rain. If they win Big B is planning on going up to Philly for the parade and such. Normally I could careless, except for the historical aspect of a win for Philly as a whole. I wouldn't mind being part of it. Had they won last night, he would have left today for a parade he suspected would have taken place on Wednesday. Instead they will finish game 5 tomorrow, and a parade would probably happen Thursday or Friday.

Halloween is Friday-must hand out candy.

There are not enough hours in the day, or days in the week!

l.w.a.i.

living while ability impaired

That's me, today. Dare I get behind a wheel and drive an automobile, or speak to another person, or or or, take a nursing exam? I really, seriously thought about calling my instructor to see if I could schedule to take the exam some other time. Then I thought better of it, that would be a hassle. So I hopped in the family roadster, drove the 14 or so miles in to town, none of which is remembered, and attempted to take the test. It turned out not to be such a bad deal. Checked for my score online earlier and it had already been posted--33/35. That would be a 92%.

Yeah, see...I really shouldn't even be typing! Here I am babbling on and haven't even mentioned how my abilities are impaired! Ehh, who knows? Flu? onset of sinus infection? ...just basically feeling like crappola deluxe!

Time to go crawl back into bed, and attempt to watch an episode of House.

give me an A!

Nur100 Exam #2, the results are in and I'm happy to announce I received a 96%. Which is kind of weird, since that's exactly what I scored last time! No complaints though!

OK, so I'm exhausted. Time for a nap.

busy days ahead

ugh! double ugh! Momentarily I will be starting my day, post cup o' joe.

Our second test in Nur100 is today, after which we have Nur105 lecture. Because people have complained about the single, lonely, inept hour dedicated each week to our Nursing Skills lecture class our instructor has agreed to add an hour.

This is all well and good except for when she is also your advisor and has informed you that you need to speak to her after class today. I'd emailed her last week about my prior classes transferring-or not-and she said to see her after class on Tuesday, that being today.

So, I've been patiently waiting to hear my worst case, that they wont accept my A&P credits from long ago, or the credits for my how-to-be-a-college-student class I took at the university level for my B.S. How appropriate the abbreviation for that degree is!

What's one more hour when you've been waiting DAYS?

This is all not to mention the fact that for the next 72 hours I am going to be in school-induced, family-related hell. LB has a baseball game tonight...must attend, even at the expense of other priorities. I promised, well that may be a strong word, told, my online psych class, (you know the one I'm referring to? the one that provides my last ticket to graduation with the B.S.?) lab group that I would have my methodology for our lab done by tomorrow night.

That may have to be adjusted!

We have Nur105 lab all day tomorrow, as our group has every Wednesday.

It's sad, but true, I have to go to the cheerleading competition tomorrow night. Have to! It will probably be one of the only ones I go to in the next year and a half. It's the first for this year, districts, and is at our high school.

You're probably wondering about this daughter I must have, that I haven't mentioned before?

Yeah, daughter from another mother! I also like to think of her as my future daughter-in-law, although that probably isn't going to happen...

All this and I have to study for the Nur105 test that we have next Tuesday.

I don't know when I'll be able to blog again...will probably squeeze it in somewhere.

Must go shower, then suffer through another test...wish me luck!

impending doom

That's what I'm/we are in for. This past week our class was notified about ATI testing. (For non-nursing people who might be reading, ATI is a prep program for NCLEX-National Council Licensure Examination-how a RN truly becomes a RN.) I had been previously warned, so was not as shocked as some...until they told us the price for this semester's portion. Yeah, how does $109 sound...especially if you weren't expecting it? Subsequent semesters the cost will be $89. As far as I can tell the only forewarning given was in the nursing student handbook. Now after reviewing it, it would be apparent that cost is involved...had you read it. How many people actually read the handbooks? I do, really. But didn't remember the section on ATI, but like I'd already said, I had been forewarned-by another source. So on top of all the other reading we've been doing, we're now going to have more reading.

In other news...we received our test results for both Nur100, and Nur105. You may have read a couple of posts ago about my 96% in Nur100. Can we say cloud 9? Unfortunately, that's not the case for Nur105. I received an 82%, and evidently that was one of the highest grades in the class! What does that say for the test? That score was raised from the original 77%, after the instructor threw out 2 questions. 82% is a "C" in my program, and a "D" is failing. Let's be clear, anything 79% and below is failing.

It seems like not much else is going on. Hark! That's not true! The guys are doing well. They're very tolerant of me an my quirks. Let's face it, for the next two years everything is going to be relative to nursing school. (I hope, but will address that hope later.) So this past week in lab we learned asepsis, and safety. We were able to bring our practice gowns, non-sterile gloves and masks home, as well as a set of sterile gloves and a dressing tray. Practice makes perfect right? So I decided it would be funny to see the reaction on the guys faces. I donned my PPE (personal protective equipment), and set forth. First victim was AW. He was sitting at the computer, with his back to me. I walked up to him and said, "Boo!" He startled and exclaimed, "What the heck are you wearing?" As not to ruin the fun for Big B and LB, I quickly went out to the great room, sauntered in like nothing was any odder than usual. Yeah, well if they didn't think it already (fat chance of that), they certainly think I'm crazy now! Minnie, our 1 yr old Lab, who is very timid with strangers was very scared. And I'm her person! Even hearing my familiar voice didn't bring her around to coming within 3 feet of me!

let me pat my back!

We received our scores for our NUR100 test....and I got 144/150 which translates to a 96 %...an A!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! We did receive extra points for the group submission, and without them I would have gotten a high B! I'm happy either way! Now if we can only keep up this momentum! Back to the books!