So close but no cigar

Did my final exam for my mental health course

I got 86% - yay for me! This is my weakest subject area so I'm proud of that number. I studied for lots of days to get that amount...

Unfortunately it wasn't high enough for me to get my A-.... I missed that by TWO questions! A bloody 4% overall. That's the part that doesn't sit well with me.

For the other tests that we've had the teacher has come back and corrected marks because of questions so I'm REALLY REALLY hoping that he'll do the same thing.

But for now, this is me....

Batshit crazy courses

School courses have started full force and let me tell you, I am NOT sure that I can complete all the required reading for ONE course, let alone two!

My mental health course requires me to read FOURTEEN chapters!!! How the HELL does anyone complete this AND work full time?! And next week doesn't look like there will be less readings unfortunately. Also, this course isn't going to be open book, which means that I need to know my shit and study, study, study. As it is I HATE (yes a very strong word but that's how strongly I feel about it) mental health - bane of my nursing school responsiblities.

My healthcare ethics course requires that I read only 4 chapters so that's definately more managable.

However when you combine them and then add the fact that 3 of my books haven't come in yet - that makes me INCREDIBLY nervous!

Aside from school..... is that I may actually get back to work in the very near future. Tomorrow is my meeting with my manager and union rep. So I will know tomorrow when my return will be. I'm so excited!

Oh TEAS how I hate thee

I've been given until the 13th to complete my TEAS exam - so I've been trying to study out the wazoo - hope it helps!

I'm still having difficult in two different things, so I'm hoping that I figure them out by thursday!

Send a little prayer out for me, I need to get at LEAST 63% to pass this section. I need to sooooooo badly!!!

Well that sucked!

So I went and took the NCLEX-PN, pretty sure I failed.

The computer kicked me out at 85 questions. Pretty sure that's a sure sign I failed.

Guess I'm paying another $200 to write it again in 3 months time.

Damnit! And I did a prep book, 4 courses (though they were for school, they should still have helped me prepare for the exam), and 2 online NCLEX-PN prep exams. Man I feel like an idiot!!!!

I have to wait for monday (officially 48 business hours) til I can UNofficially find out if I passed or failed.

Guess I'll post when I find out then.

NCLEX-PN - wish me luck!

This week is rather a biggie - I take my NCLEX-PN exam.

So now hubby wants me to do the practice exams. That's what tomorrow is going to consist of.

Then tomorrow night, we head to Niagara falls to have a romantic (less so considering we have to bring the 3 1/2 yr old with us as no one can watch her while we're gone) night away and then I do my exam on Thursday morning.

I have to admit, I'm not as nervous to take this one. I think it's because I've been working and been able to see quite a few different disease processes and diagnoses and such. I feel like because of the experience with working, I have more knowledge from the "real" world and not just the one that lives in side text books. Anyone else see it that way?

I sure hope I pass this on one try, I'll certainly feel really defeated if I don't!

I'm coming home

I came home today. It was SUPER sad to leave my son and my mom. I loved having the two weeks away but as always, it was nice to come home. The two weeks FLEW by (doesn't it always?!)

Tomorrow I'm back at the grind. I have to get back into super study mode. I'm set to do my exam for sunday. I have to work Thurs, Fri, Sat evenings. It's always interesting to see the unit after quite a bit of time off because there's hardly anyone there that was when you went off. You start back at the beginning.

Speaking of beginning, I am starting there again with my work outs. I'm going back to the gym starting tomorrow. As soon as hubby gets back from work, then I'll leave to go to the gym. I need to loose some of this weight that I have that's not very healthy. Ahhhhhh to have goals!!!

Home with Family

I've been away for almost 2 weeks. I've come to my hometown to hang with family and see my kiddo. I LOVED going out to the cottage and being able to fully relax, to go swimming, having a campfire and just being able to be with family and good friends.

I have been too relaxed, I haven't done much studying.... and when I get back home on Monday I have to begin testing out on my courses. First up is Nursing care for the childbearing family, and the other one is Mental health aspects of nursing practice. I have to study more for the OB one cuz let me tell you, there is a LOT of stuff covered in that course!!!

One of the good things about coming back is that I get to travel thru Michigan (in the US).... and get to do a TON of shopping!!! YAY SHOPPING!!! When I go back home I have to stop and shop again, I'm trying to find a nursing outfit that I like... I found the bottoms but the top I HAD found was sold by the time I got back to the store. AND my credit card was cancelled by the company I got it from because they thought there was fraudulent activity, ya it was me trying to use it on my vacation!!!! GRRRR Thankfully I have a back up CC cuz I would seriously be up a creek without a paddle!!!

My brother & SIL are pregnant right now - approx. 34 weeks. I'm so excited for them, they've had difficulty getting pregnant. They've been trying for 3 yrs now so it's nice to see that they're going to have a child. This sunday my mom's throwing a baby shower for them. My mom bought them a travel system (stroller & car seat together) that cost sooooo much money!!! When I was preggo with my daughter, she bought me one as well and a whole whack load of baby supplies. She didn't buy the other stuff for them so I hope that they don't complain. The reason why she didn't buy the other stuff was because my travel system cost half of what theirs does. Oh what ppl would assume when they don't know the details!!! Oh well, we shall see.

My bestie and I have been able to hang a whole bunch - LOVE HER! and last night we went to her mommie's house to grab some stuff out of her garden... so tonite I'm having fresh carrots and beets from their garden. OOOOOO I cannot wait, it's going to be so yummy! Maybe I'll have to get a few pictures to post for next time.

A bit off the grid I know

I know I've been off the grid for a bit - sorry about that, it's not that I have been working (much), but rather studying my ass off and working a bit of my ass off (haha).

The little tyke went to England for 12 days, she just got back last friday, and of course I had to work all weekend - and not for lack of trying to trade out of it either! So I saw my little girl very little for the past 3 weeks-ish.

While she was away, I signed up for a gym membership. It's about time that I lose this extra weight. When I had the kiddo 10 yrs ago, I went from being 130 lbs to 198 lbs. It took me about a year and a half to get down to 160 lbs-ish and I felt pretty good. Then I had all that crap with school and the teacher and gained a bunch and then went on anti depressants and gained to the point that I weighed 210 lbs. I said to myself "screw this crap, the anti depressants aren't really helping cuz I'm depressed that I weigh so much." And I was even exercising daily AND watching when and what I was eating, and I was STILL gaining weight! So I went off the anti depressants an lost 30 lbs in a month and a half!

I had married my hubby at this point and we decided that we were going to start trying to have a baby. So I wanted to lose as much as I could before getting pregnant and I got down to 175 lbs when we found out that I was pregnant with the little tyke. I gained 35 while I was pregnant, which I thought wasn't too bad but could have done better. Now I weigh 193 lbs and figure that no time like the present to do something MORE about my weight. I convinced hubby that going to the gym is the best choice for me and he was okay with me getting a personal trainer. Having the little tyke away in England was like the perfect time to start because I could go to the gym at any point, not mattering if there was someone to watch her. ALSO, the gym that I go to has 4 days that they're open 24 hrs/day which is perfect for me as I get the desire to exercise later at night, sometimes as late as 2am! I know, I'm a weird one but I just go with it.

So I've had 2 times with the personal trainer now and she's focusing on getting my abd muscles stronger and my arms, since I told her that I do leg strength weights on the days that I don't have the trainer. And HOLY CRAP did my arms KILL after she's done with me. Last week I had one session with the trainer and I had to work the next day, WOW was it hard to do my job!!!! Sometimes it felt like my arms weighed a million pounds and it was just an effort to even lift my arms, let alone push, pull, or lift a patient! It's been 3 weeks (as of yesterday) since I've started, and although I've gained a pound, I can see a change in my body already. My tummy has gone down a little bit and my butt is tightening a smidge, and my boobs have gotten smaller (SUCH a shame I tell ya!!!).