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.

Wait, what?

I spoke to soon.

Sadly I did not get a straight A semester as I expected. I must have totally bombed my old testament final in order to not get an A in that class. So unfortunately I got a B in that class instead of the expected A.

Monday the 16th I start A&P II, I'm really nervous about taking a class that is this hard in 8 weeks instead of the regular 16 weeks. I feel like I did well enough in A&P I that I can also make an A in A&P II despite the compressed timeline but man, its going to be a lot of work.

I looked over the syllabus and it seems like A&PII is mostly going to be physiology with much less anatomy. Which, for me atleast might be a good thing. I did markedly better on the sections in A&P I that had more "systems" to comprehend and put together then I did on straight anatomy. For instance I did better on cellular metabolism and the nervous system then I did on the skeletal system. (Actually skeletal system was my worst grade all semester, in my defense, my wife did give birth that week! lol)

Finals

Finals are done!

My finals this semester were all laughably easy. A&P which I had been dreading being horribly difficult, was the exact opposite and I almost felt like it was a joke given the detail oriented nature of my regular exams in there. The test was multiple choice, and had questions with amazingly obvious answers.

Final grades should be posted soon, should be a straight A semester.

On a personal note, we left for our vacation a few hours after my last exam. One week off before I start an accelerated version of A&P II.

Nerve II Written and Lab Test

Made a 91 and 95 respectively on my last two tests of the semester on Tuesday. This gave me a 104 average going into the final dropping my lowest test grade (a 70).

Weee!

Cumulative Final

A&P I cumulative final is this thursday. I'm looking back over my notebook for the semester and I'm feeling pretty overwhelmed. I have a 150page notebook, college ruled, completely full of hand written notes from lecture. How in the world am I going to distill what I've picked up over the course of this semester. Gah!!