Isn't it amazing?

The more time I spend in anatomy the more amazed I am with the human body. I am not a religious person. I hold to some pretty esoteric viewpoints when it comes to my beliefs on why we're here and where we're going. Those viewpoints don't exclude the existence of God, nor do they even attempt to disprove any modern religions. I simply don't hold to a dogmatic viewpoint.

From the beginning of A&P I, I was amazed at the beautiful complexity of the human body, specifically the microbiology behind how our body does what it does. The simple action of breathing, and eating a cheeseburger are so much more than what they appear to be. When broken down into their component parts all the way to the cellular level, it's amazingly complex.

It's almost a spiritual experience when you realize that there is no possible way that our coming to be was completely random.

We just finished the respiratory system, currently doing digestion and moving into urinary after that and I had the experience again that I had in A&P I with these last few chapters. The complex elegance of the Bicarbonate buffer system is just astounding.

I love this stuff!

President's Congratulations

"Dear xxxxxxxxxx:

Congratulations! You achieved honors designation for the spring 2011 semester. You are to be commended for your hard work and your excellent academic performance during the spring semester."


Woot!

Makes me want to get up and go study.....

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Timing

I recently made the decision to wait another year before entering the nursing program. The main reason is I want to be able to take off the summer in between my junior and senior year for a potential externship and if I attempt to enter the program Fall 2012, I won't have enough time to finish the 16credit hours of classes i'll need at the 4 year school.

Financially it's not a concern, but waiting another year means I won't enter the program until Fall 2013, and won't graduate until 2015!!

When I started back to school summer of '09 I never anticipated it taking this long to make this journey, but in the long run i'll be happier for having taken the extra time. I love not working and being home a lot more to see the kids grow up. When the first was born I was gone from 7am-6pm and felt like I missed out on a lot of him being a baby.

Barely hanging on

We just finished the respiratory system, had the lecture test yesterday and I made an 83. My overall average is down to a 91.5, so gone is my A. I'm going to start working on a few of the extra credit opportunities in the hopes that I'll be able to stay close to an A until the end of the semester.

It won't be the end of the world if I only manage a B in the class but I really wanted an A. I think right now there is only one person in the class with an A.

Assuming I make a B this summer in A&P II, combined with my other nursing pre-req classes i'll have a 3.5 GPA in pre-reqs and a 3.45 overall.

While not stellar, it's more than sufficient to get into the BSN program I plan on attending at the Private 4 Year University.

On the baby front:

Little man is getting bigger, he can find his hands on his own just about every time, he's starting to attempt playing with little objects and he absolutely adores his big brother.

I find it amazing how different this baby is from the previous. They have such differing personalities that it's hard to believe that both kids came from the same parent!

I look forward to seeing him grow up and how the two children contrast eachother.

As usual the lovely wife is a saint, staying home all day long with both kids and taking care of everything like she does makes me unbelievably happy.

Thanks for being a wonderful wife and mother!

Tribulation Tuesday

Went to school 3 hrs early today with the intent to study some more before the test. Ran into a few classmates in the library and were shuffled into a study/conference room with a projector and large white board.

Going around the room asking people what they most needed help with, it became glaringly obvious that all but one of these folks had not even LOOKED at this material. Which I guess for me may have been a good thing, because utilizing the whiteboard I explained everything from apoptosis through humoral immunity and immune response.

While this helped with my processing of the material, I'm just saddened that folks still don't seem to be putting much effort into this class.

Note: I realize the irony of that last comment given that I got a horrible grade on the blood/circulation test. :)

Of A's and C's

A&P II in the summer is just horrible. The pace is amazingly fast and there is no time to catch your breath from one test to another.

I did not start the summer out well. Previously I did not make any bad grades in A&P. Summer starts and the first two tests were horrible. 81 on Endocrine and a 67 on blood/circulatory. Quickly on the heels of those two tests was the cardiovascular test which I made a 90 on, and the Lab practical for Endocrine,Circulatory,Cardio and Lymphatic that we took today which I made a perfect score of 100 on.

I'm sitting here going over my notes for Immune response and it's mush. Everything is bluring together into one unintelligible clump in my head. I understand the conceptual difference between Cellular Immunity and Humoral Immunity, but I'm struggling with being able to get it back out of my head in the correct manner.

I'm fairly certain they won't accept "Uh, one uses cytotoxic T-Cells and one uses b-cells" as an answer.

Anyway!

On a non-school related note.

We have a two story house, or rather a single level house with a full, finished basement. Before the arrival of Kiddo #2 we spent all of our time in the basement. Now however all of our time is spent upstairs as to be closer to the screaming demon.

Here in lies the dilemma, Kiddo #1 still spends the majority of his time downstairs as thats where all his toys are, and he basically has full run of the place. He also has a bathroom down there, and being that he can't wipe his own bum yet lots of yelling was to be had after the deed was completed. Yelling that we don't always hear around 4 corners and a flight of stairs.

So this morning my wonderfully inventive three year old takes his green flute/recorder thing into the bathroom with him, does the deed and then proceeds to blow on the recorder like his life depends on it.

I was so busy laughing it took me twice as long to get him situated as it normally does! So now the sound of that recorder, and poop are now inextricably connected.