Dollars and cents

I received my financial packet today for my four year university. Between pel grants, state grants, as well as a merit based academic grant from the college my year tuition went from 28,713$ to 10,863$. I'm soooo happy that I was able to significantly reduce the tuition amount. All of that assistance paid for all of one semester and a small part of another.

Scrubs

My scrubs came in today. Lovely white pants (gag) and a wine colored shirt. Thankfully, these are only the colors for my CNA class, and not my nursing school. I still need shoes though!

Immunizations

Between my upcoming CNA class, and my admission to nursing school I have several immunizations that I need to get, and a few more that I need titers for. I've got an appointment scheduled with my FNP for a physical and the shots, I just hope it doesn't take many trips!

On a different note, I went by the Four Year University today to pay my admissions fee and was overjoyed to hear the financial aid person welcome me to the school officially. 

You know.. cause it's never official until they have that first check!! ;)

My Geology class is plodding along, currently holding an A in the class (big surprise, I mean, it's rocks, right?) but it amazes me how many people either blow off the class, or sleep when they do bother to show up.

On being accepted

I received my official welcome packet to my four year university. I'm so very excited to be starting this fall at a new school.

 

On the agenda to take over the next several months is microbiology, intro to professional nursing, health assessment, an environmental science, and two other classes that were not offered at the community college level.

 

I mentioned in a previous post that I'd experienced a timeline jump. Well, after much soul searching and discussing with my wife, we've decided it would be best to keep my original start date of next fall to actually start clinicals. This gives me the opportunity to do all of my prereqs, have a free summer between junior and senior year for a possible internship and allows me to focus solely on core nursing classes.

 

 

Timeline jump!

I can't express how excited and terrified I am right now!

After applying to my four year university the admissions counselor for the nursing program told me that there is a more then good chance that I can start the BSN program this August instead of waiting until next year.

So since that day I have been scrambling to find a CNA program I can complete before the fall that will also leave my days this summer open so I can take Intro to professional nursing, and Health Assessment which they require you to have taken before you enter the program in the fall.

So I am so close to FINALLY starting that I'm anxious, nervous, and scared at the same time.

Burning Ring of Fire

I feel like I am never going to be finished with this two year college. Last semester I was unable to work a 4 hour science elective into my schedule so I could graduate the two year school. So instead of getting to start at my four year university where i'll be taking the nursing program, I get to take one single class.

That one single class, is.... Physical Geology. Yay. Can you tell how excited I am? I don't want to be at this school anymore, I drive 25 minutes to class, sit there for 50 minutes, and then drive 25 minutes home. My teacher that I wanted and signed up for took emergency leave for upper respiratory problems and will not be back this semester, so I'm stuck with an aging retired USGS employee that really has no idea how to teach a class, and completed his masters in geology in 1959.

On a positive note, I finally get to do something Major related this summer as I'll be taking my CNA course with an eye to have that finished before Fall.

Then, then I will finally be able to begin at my four year school. Wait, thats not it though! I get to take two full semesters of pre-req's at this four year school before I can enter into the nursing program. Granted, I could have forgone the two semesters of credits and attempted to work the 19 credits in while I am in nursing school, but I really didn't want to burden myself with unnecessary course load if I could simply wait a bit before starting nursing school.

It seems like my journey is never going to end, much less start, I'm hoping that I'm just feeling burnt out on my two year school because I know I'm so close to the end.

Fitness

I have not posted in a while and I could make all kinds of excuses for it but frankly the main reason is that I haven't been in front of the computer all that much.

October 17th was sort of a new beginning for me.

I'll start with a little bit of history. Eight years ago I weighed in at 420lbs, one snowy night I was unable to drive my car up my quarter mile long iced in steeply pitched driveway. My only choice was to walk, in the middle of the night up this slick patch of road. I just couldn't do it, I had the will and the desire to do it, but I physically could not make the climb. It was then and there that I decided something had to be done. I was 24 years old and weighed over 400 lbs.

So I did what I thought at the time was the best way to handle it, I went to my Dr., got prescribed phentermine and began working out while using slim fast shakes to replace two of my meals, I'd go to the gym every evening after work for an hour or more and then come home and eat a horribly unbalanced meal of rice and meat.

Every. Single. Day. for 7 months.

I lost 130lbs in that time. I was wonderfully happy, I was in the 200's for the first time in ages. As it happened, I ended up getting married shortly after that, my wife had two children, and here we are seven years after that day and every bit of that weight has crept back on, and then some.

This time around I kept getting inundated in all of my pre-req classes about the horrible things that were happening in my body, and how it was all fully in my control to change these things. Anatomy taught me the disease processes to an extent and Nutrition filled in the blanks left by Anatomy. Both of these classes combined with an injury that left me unable to walk for a weekend provided the eye opening catalyst I needed to change my life.

You see, I knew from the day I enrolled in school that I would need to get this weight off before I went into nursing school because I could not see myself having the energy level needed to be as successful as I wanted to be.

All of that led to October 17th.

That was the day that I started eating a realistically healthy diet, a diet that I actually had a scientific understanding about thanks to my nutrition and anatomy classes. I started a six day a week exercise routine that I have stuck to religiously since that day.

I feel like I finally "get" it, I don't feel like I'm dieting, I don't feel like I have to force myself to be active. I'm not going to kill myself to get this weight off, I'm just going to live a healthy, active lifestyle and forgo the huge helping of misery.

Since the 17th of October I've lost over 35lbs and with the level of activity I've committed to I'll likely have another 10-15 off by Christmas.

This post, while lengthy and meandering at best is indicative of my life over the last few months. Now whats on the agenda for this coming spring and summer?

Graduate 2 Year School

Enroll in 4 Year School

Complete CNA this coming Summer

Run/Walk/Complete a 5k before August '12

Be a better Husband, Father and Individual

Just one more thing that I want to leave you with that has really stuck with me over the past couple months.

Every good healthy choice you make in a day is a step in the right direction, don't allow one misstep to alter the course of your day, week or month. Simply commit to making the next choice, and the next after that a better one.