Ive been gone for a while lol.
Im still adjusting to this whole school thing. It usually takes me a week or two to get back in to a routine when I switch things up but this is the biggest change Ive made in a long time so its taking longer.
Getting school and home life coordinated is difficult. Keeping up with my household stuff, time with the boys and jared and my school work is crazy.
I am just now getting to the point of a routine and "normally" which is actually going to change a little with finding a new babysitter. Miss Lauren is moving back home so I need to find someone new. Most of my prospects are on base so thats going to be an adjustment.
Also after this month is over my class schedule changes again. Right now I dont have to be to class until 10am except on fridays I go in at 8am. It will switch to 8am everyday. Then once this quarter is up it will change again once I am assigned a clinic! OY!!
At this point Jared is getting a ride to and from work every day. He pays a friend who lives near by $40 a month which is less that what we would be paying for another car(in payment and gass) plus we use less gas since my school and the babysitter is only 5min away.
So with my house a mess, laundry piling up and dinner being later I think I have a routine made out.
Mornings are flexible at this point. Im "usually" up by 7:30am which lets me get dressed and the boys clothes layed out and I eat. Then I wake the boys up at 8am get them dressed and feed them a little. Then we get to the sitters by 8:30(or 8) and I go to class. Getting to class this early gives me extra time to study, make sure I my assignments are correct and to sit in and watch the other students do machine set ups. Its also nice on test days because I can do an extra study so its fresh in my mind!
Finances and school are TOUGH! Thats another thing we are adjusting too. We had everything set perfectly to live with in our means and have money to put into savings. The money we normally put in savings is going to daycare now. Not that Im complaining about that lol. I was lucky enough to find a friend I really like and am comfortable letting her watch my kids, I was also Extremely lucky that Im not having to pay 1300+ a month like I would at a daycare!!
School came with so many more expenses than where divulged to us. Having to buy extra items, only being able to buy them at the over priced book store.
I did everything as inexpensively as I could. Used what I had at home(pens, notebooks, stray backpack).
We are doing ok, bills are paid and we are feed. There is just NO wiggle room!
I am liking class though. We got threw dry stringing the machine and have moved on to adding a saline bag, so there is actually liquid moving threw the tubing lol.
Its difficult when you only have 1 day of instructed machine set up during the week. You can take turns during down times in class but its hard getting the teacher to help you in depth with each and every alarm going off.
Today he would have a group go up but stop at any point during their set up. He would call up a group and they would have to figure out where the last person left off. That was HARD! 1 figuring out where they left off and 2 remembering the process its self. Its hard from start to finish anyway but doing it like this was harder.
Then he would do something wrong with the machine and the next group would have to trouble shoot what was wrong with the machine.
My group has done 2 field studys at 2 different clinics in the area. It was neat to see how different companies run(one was non profit and one was FOR profit) It was nice to see patients and get good information on the field.
Well Im tired so I will write more later!
Wednesday, April 20, 2011
Saturday, April 2, 2011
Does this mean Im getting older?
In High school I wasnt a bad student but I didnt really try my hardest. I got ok grades with out really trying or studying. I took the minimum required classes and had a short sechedual my junior and senior yrs because there was nothing else I could take. I had double the "extra curricular" classes than needed!
In starting college I knew I would be a little different but worried(and still do) that I would fall back into that pattern. My goal is to have a 4.0 and ALSO learn the non book taught aspect of my field.
I went to school 3 days last week but have yet to recieve the syllabus. We are having out first vocabulary test on Monday. Friday during free time I wrote out the definitions of the words and studied a little. Tonight I ACTUALLY studied the best I could. I actually feel very confident for my first test!!
Well then I got to thinking. If I had bought my medical terminology book/cd I could be studying even more right now. The modules are work at your own pace, so I could be getting a head start. Im a little mad at myself that I am not able to do so. I couldn't afford to buy my $90 medical terminology book Friday because the bank still had the hold on my Pell Grant, but now its good and I can get my book Monday. But thats a whole weekend I lost!
This leads me to the title of my post. Iam starting to realize that postponing school and not going straight out of HS may have been a very good thing for me. I am more motivated now, more focused and more confident!
So maybe it is not a situation of just age but life lol. Im an adult now and I can do this better than I could have then!
In starting college I knew I would be a little different but worried(and still do) that I would fall back into that pattern. My goal is to have a 4.0 and ALSO learn the non book taught aspect of my field.
I went to school 3 days last week but have yet to recieve the syllabus. We are having out first vocabulary test on Monday. Friday during free time I wrote out the definitions of the words and studied a little. Tonight I ACTUALLY studied the best I could. I actually feel very confident for my first test!!
Well then I got to thinking. If I had bought my medical terminology book/cd I could be studying even more right now. The modules are work at your own pace, so I could be getting a head start. Im a little mad at myself that I am not able to do so. I couldn't afford to buy my $90 medical terminology book Friday because the bank still had the hold on my Pell Grant, but now its good and I can get my book Monday. But thats a whole weekend I lost!
This leads me to the title of my post. Iam starting to realize that postponing school and not going straight out of HS may have been a very good thing for me. I am more motivated now, more focused and more confident!
So maybe it is not a situation of just age but life lol. Im an adult now and I can do this better than I could have then!
Friday, April 1, 2011
Im still alive, I promise!
I have really let this fall behind!!!
Things have been so chaotic lately that by the time I have time to blog(after the boys go to bed) I usually just want to spend some time with Jared, and go to bed!
So here what has been going on.
Wednesday I started school!!!!!
The day didn't start out to great.
Around midnight someones car alarm started going off. This wasnt your normal beeep beeep beeep, kind of alarm. Its 5different noises that go ON AND ON AND ON! Then it will stop just long enough for you to think that it is off.......then it starts again!! The people would let it go off 4-5 times before shutting it off!! This went on periodically until around 3am!!
Around 2:30 Rylan woke up. He had wet the bed and had a nightmare. So I changed him up and put him in bed with us. Needless to say neither Jared or I got a good nights sleep.
We then had to get up at 4:45am to take him in to work so I could have the car for the day to get to school.
Once back home I feed and dressed the boys and myself. Took them to Laurens and headed to school!
It was interesting being back in a school setting. I only have one teacher and 1 class room. Because this is a course that you get a certificate in and not a degree, I don't have any pre requisites like say English 101 or math 101. Although I do have medical math!
There are about 24 people in my class. I was intrigued to see the variety of people in my class. From older(40+) women AND men(5 one of which has identical triplet girls on the way) to just out of highschool, 4 foreign students, 2 sets of sisters and many of us with children!
We are in class every day from 8am to 3pm.
This next month is a little different though. In our class room there are only 4 dialysis machines to work on. So Mr. Ken(or instructor) put us in to 6 groups of 4. Only 1 group will come in each morning from 8-10(or machine maintenance and set up class) and the rest of us come in at 10, every day that is not our assigned day.(when our next class starts). This enables 1 on 1 time with Mr. Ken when we are learning how to dry string a machine with blood lines. He has shown us once and its kind of complicated mostly because you have to do it in an exact order due to policy and procedures. Not only that but you are dealing with the machine simultaneously because its detecting levels and such.
Most of the projects we will be doing are group based. We already have our groups and that is it for the year.
Our first project is 2wks long doing a field study. We have to contact 2 different company's( main are Davita and Fersinius?) and ask if our group can come in and basicly interview them. We can ask them any questions we feel we need to pertaining to the whole realm of dialysis. We then compile everything and EACH make our own books with all the info we gathered in them.
So we go as a group and share info but our books are individual.
I actually like my group. Im not a big fan of group projects because I like doing things on my own and MY way lol.
But Im glad I was pared with who I was for 2 reasons. 1)I didn't get any annoying people, and yes after only 3 days they have already made themselves known! 2) Out of the 3 other girls I am more outgoing. Granted Im not as out going as others in the class but in my group I am. This I hope will get me more notice at a clinic than if I were with the others. This sounds horrible but its the truth!
I can very well gain a job from my clinicals so its very important to me!
Ive only hit a few snags in these 3 days but they are kind of major. I'll start with the smallest one.
1)So I got my pell grant the first day of school. I found a "shared" bank here that works with Potlatch back home. I deposited my money but got $200 out for Lauren. It was lucky I did that because the bank is holding my deposit!!!! And it takes 3 days to go threw! The money is there but I cant access it!
So I wasn't able to get any of my books or my scrubs and shoes. I did get some blood lines, a stethoscope and a face shield. So I have to go BACK to the book/clothing store to get my stuff early Monday morning!
2)We have to have specific immunizations to do our clinicals next symester. Well I found out(after doing a worthless test) that I was never immunized for Hepatitis A B or C. All of which I need to do clinical s(c is optional I guess). So now I have to wait for the worthless blood test to come back and then get my immunizations!!
3)At this point I dont have a car.....We had a plan and everything was working fine until we were denied a loan.
After I buy my scrubs and stuff I will have about $1000 left of my pell grant. We were going to refinance the car to lower our interest rate with state farm. They said they could give us a $5k loan to pay off the 2k left on the car and use the left over, plus my 1k to buy me a new car. I even had one picked out too and it was less than 4k. Then they told us we had been denied. That was yesterday and we still dont know what we are going to do.
I dont know how much more I can take of getting myself and the boys up at 4:45am. Its gotten all of us out of whack and I almost fell asleep in school. I know its stressing Jared out too.
Anyway. Thats what has been up with me!
Things have been so chaotic lately that by the time I have time to blog(after the boys go to bed) I usually just want to spend some time with Jared, and go to bed!
So here what has been going on.
Wednesday I started school!!!!!
The day didn't start out to great.
Around midnight someones car alarm started going off. This wasnt your normal beeep beeep beeep, kind of alarm. Its 5different noises that go ON AND ON AND ON! Then it will stop just long enough for you to think that it is off.......then it starts again!! The people would let it go off 4-5 times before shutting it off!! This went on periodically until around 3am!!
Around 2:30 Rylan woke up. He had wet the bed and had a nightmare. So I changed him up and put him in bed with us. Needless to say neither Jared or I got a good nights sleep.
We then had to get up at 4:45am to take him in to work so I could have the car for the day to get to school.
Once back home I feed and dressed the boys and myself. Took them to Laurens and headed to school!
It was interesting being back in a school setting. I only have one teacher and 1 class room. Because this is a course that you get a certificate in and not a degree, I don't have any pre requisites like say English 101 or math 101. Although I do have medical math!
There are about 24 people in my class. I was intrigued to see the variety of people in my class. From older(40+) women AND men(5 one of which has identical triplet girls on the way) to just out of highschool, 4 foreign students, 2 sets of sisters and many of us with children!
We are in class every day from 8am to 3pm.
This next month is a little different though. In our class room there are only 4 dialysis machines to work on. So Mr. Ken(or instructor) put us in to 6 groups of 4. Only 1 group will come in each morning from 8-10(or machine maintenance and set up class) and the rest of us come in at 10, every day that is not our assigned day.(when our next class starts). This enables 1 on 1 time with Mr. Ken when we are learning how to dry string a machine with blood lines. He has shown us once and its kind of complicated mostly because you have to do it in an exact order due to policy and procedures. Not only that but you are dealing with the machine simultaneously because its detecting levels and such.
Most of the projects we will be doing are group based. We already have our groups and that is it for the year.
Our first project is 2wks long doing a field study. We have to contact 2 different company's( main are Davita and Fersinius?) and ask if our group can come in and basicly interview them. We can ask them any questions we feel we need to pertaining to the whole realm of dialysis. We then compile everything and EACH make our own books with all the info we gathered in them.
So we go as a group and share info but our books are individual.
I actually like my group. Im not a big fan of group projects because I like doing things on my own and MY way lol.
But Im glad I was pared with who I was for 2 reasons. 1)I didn't get any annoying people, and yes after only 3 days they have already made themselves known! 2) Out of the 3 other girls I am more outgoing. Granted Im not as out going as others in the class but in my group I am. This I hope will get me more notice at a clinic than if I were with the others. This sounds horrible but its the truth!
I can very well gain a job from my clinicals so its very important to me!
Ive only hit a few snags in these 3 days but they are kind of major. I'll start with the smallest one.
1)So I got my pell grant the first day of school. I found a "shared" bank here that works with Potlatch back home. I deposited my money but got $200 out for Lauren. It was lucky I did that because the bank is holding my deposit!!!! And it takes 3 days to go threw! The money is there but I cant access it!
So I wasn't able to get any of my books or my scrubs and shoes. I did get some blood lines, a stethoscope and a face shield. So I have to go BACK to the book/clothing store to get my stuff early Monday morning!
2)We have to have specific immunizations to do our clinicals next symester. Well I found out(after doing a worthless test) that I was never immunized for Hepatitis A B or C. All of which I need to do clinical s(c is optional I guess). So now I have to wait for the worthless blood test to come back and then get my immunizations!!
3)At this point I dont have a car.....We had a plan and everything was working fine until we were denied a loan.
After I buy my scrubs and stuff I will have about $1000 left of my pell grant. We were going to refinance the car to lower our interest rate with state farm. They said they could give us a $5k loan to pay off the 2k left on the car and use the left over, plus my 1k to buy me a new car. I even had one picked out too and it was less than 4k. Then they told us we had been denied. That was yesterday and we still dont know what we are going to do.
I dont know how much more I can take of getting myself and the boys up at 4:45am. Its gotten all of us out of whack and I almost fell asleep in school. I know its stressing Jared out too.
Anyway. Thats what has been up with me!
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