Ikea, I Wanna Love You

So, my mom flew out late last week partially in case I decided to go to graduation and partially because she was dying to see me pregnant and really wanted to partake in some of the baby shopping.

And yes, I did go to graduation but skipped the main ceremony and only went to the College of Nursing ceremony. In the end, I'm glad that I did go. It was nice to have closure and see everyone one last time. As predicted, my name was butchered even though we spelled it out on cards phonetically which the announcer read from....whatever.

Anyway, yesterday was Ikea day. Hubster, Mom, and I took the trek and found a bookshelf for M's recods, Mom and I both found duvet coveres (one and the same), we contemplated getting a dining room table but held off for now, and found a dresser, crib, mattress after much debate. By this time, my lower back and feet were killing me. We finally head to the warehouse only to find that the only thing in stock was the shelving unit M needed for his records.

I was so annoyed!!! My back and feet were killing me for nothing, to think of the time we wasted pondering this piece versus that piece when it didn't matter. We asked at the checkout and the woman told us basically that we would need to arrive early to have our best shot at getting the item and to check online first. Then she quickly told us that even though it says it might be in stock on the website, it might not actually be in stock when we get there because people might have it in their carts and haven't checked out yet. So basically, you're taking your chances.

So needless to say, the search continues for all of the baby gear. The whole point of going yesterday was to get this done and we have nothing to show for it. The plus side is that I read Baby Bargains so long ago that I couldn't remember if foam mattresses were better than coil, how to judge a good mattress etc. Today we are venturing to Target and Baby Depot at Burlington Coat Factory to finally get this job done. I will cry a thousand tears if we come home empty handed.

Graduation

So the dust has settled, I'm officially done with my Master's program and I'm adjusting to the non crazy life of working part time while studying for the boards on the days that I used to have clinicals. Enough time has passed that I'm no longer over zealous about attending graduation, but I still can not totally make up my mind!

My mom is flying in today, not for graduation but would go if I decided to go. The reason for the visit is to glimpse me while pregnant, before that baby bump goes away and she has a new granddaughter. We're planning on doing some baby shopping and catching up since school kept me so busy for the last semester.

Here are the pros and cons of graduation
Pros

• Won't regret not going
• Memories
• Worked really hard for degree and it would be nice to be recognized

Cons

• 33 weeks pregnant
• 2.5h main ceremony directly followed by another 2 hour nursing college ceremony
• No time for lunch
• Need to be at University by 8 for 10am ceremony so I can line up,which means leaving house by 645a, getting up at 6a.
• Do I have to stand for that long?
• Sitting in uncomfortable folding chairs outside for 2.5h
• Dealing with parking
• Inane chit chat and family introductions with colleagues
• Losing a day of visiting with Mom to attend

I was totally leaning towards no and then got an email from the College of Nursing today with all the details and someone reminding us that we should be so proud. I guess I can still be proud without attending though.....

Stay tuned for final decision.........

Finito, Fine, Finished!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Ladies and Gentlemen of the interwebs.....I'm pleased to inform you that I did survive and that I am in fact a Master.

My last day of having to do anything grad school related was yesterday (short of turning in my final clinical hours and evaluation). Yesterday, the graduate students had to present (either oral or poster, and who would choose oral that's just crazy) our capstone projects that we've been working on for about a year.

I presented it to about 4 people, it was a breeze. And it was extra breezy becuase it was the.last.thing. i had to do. Even if I royally screwed it up, I was still graduating.

There was a breakfast, the morning presenters, a few keynote speakers, lunch, awards and then I headed for the hills. The festivities went on all day but most of my class wasn't even showing up unti the afternoon so I felt that I had put in my time.

I spent the rest of the afternoon shopping and trying not to fall asleep. I intended on buying a new wallet, I want something that's real leather but without logos and junk on it. That is surprisingly hard to find. Needless to say, I did not return home with one, but instead, some of my favorite towels from Pottery Barn. For some reason, the blue ones were on sale and it will actually match our upstairs bathroom.

I spent the entire car ride in this morning asking M, "Can you believe I'm done? I mean, really? That I never have to go back there again?" I think he can believe it as evidenced by the following comments ,"Well, it was bound to end at some point." and other such variations.

But seriously...I'm still incredulous and still fear that someone will tell me that I have to just one more thing before I'm done or that I've missed some major class I should have had....

Can you believe that I will have free time this weekend? Time that is free....not time that I have taken as free time that should have been used for studying so I feel guilty during this stolen time slot...but totally free!!!!

The Final Final Countdown

I did. I went to the last class of any structured program that I'm ever going to take in my life! I have zero interest in pursuing a DNP or a PhD and I can't fathom that I every will. On our last night in class, we were basically told that if our interest is purely clinical, the MSN is the way to go and there is no need for another advanced degree. We were told that the DNP would be recommended if we wanted to do some clinical, some research, and teach. The PhD would be if you primarily want to work in academia..ugh no thanks. The only way I would consider another advanced degree is if somehow it was required to practice clinically and it doesn't sound like it will go that way.

Unfortunately, the last class lasted about 30 minutes longer than our normal classes because it was taught by my advisor and the head of the entire FNP program. A few things annoyed me about the last class (surprise, surprise). We were asked to evaluate the class but 'not to be too hard on people'. She asked us to give verbal feedback to her rather than to slam the course. I don't agree with that, it's very intimidating to provide feedback to the head of the program in front of the entire class. Interestingly, there was no space for comments. I do cherish the moment I get to review the entire program though, because I have much to say about the lack of organization and clarity.

Anyway, people said that information about credentialing, billing, certification exams, and malpractice insurance would be most useful at the beginning of or mid way through this semester instead of being scheduled for the last night of the class when nearly everyone has already chosen which certifying test they will be taking. The professor basically said that we recieved that information when we took a class about the role of the NP which is true, but that is the first class in their program. That was back in 2007! That was before any of that information was remotely relevant.

We had many questions earlier in the semester about the differences between the two offered exams and really received little to no help. Classmates looked up info, created word docs, and sent them around to other classmates. This would have been helpful as a planned topic during the course since many nights there was no scheduled content and we talked about case studies. This valuable information was crammed into 10 slides which started during the last 20 minutes of class (when we were already over the normal allotted class time).

All in all, my suggestions for the program:

• Much improvement needs to be made as far as placements go. Placements were often left up to the student, relying on connections...which is problematic if you need a peds placment and you've worked with adults your entire career. Also, depending on where you're placed, you might have a broader or more narrow experience than others. For example, one of my preceptors would not allow students to do 'male' exams (testicular, rectal, prostate) so I'm coming out of the program with no experience whatsoever. Luckily, I finally got a placement where I can do pelvics because my former site also would not let students do those.
• Customer service was completely lacking with my advisor until I was in the last year of the program. After this past year, I now see that these students are where she focuses her energy but when I had questions prior to that I wouldn't even get an email back. It was bad enough at one point that I was very close to talking to the dean.
• Better site visits. Almost every semester that I've been in clinical, my visits were postponed until the very last minute. The point of the visit is to make sure you know what you're doing and that the placement is adequate. Neither of those can be assessed properly if I'm being visited on my last day there.

Home Stretch

Dudes! I have one class left! I gave my left in class presentation and turned in a final paper on Tuesday night. I took an exam for my online class yesterday. The remaining hoops include:

• Completing remainder of pediatric and OB hours (will finish the week of May 10)
• Take final exam for online class
• Create poster
• Order said poster
• Present poster on 5/13 for Research Day

Can you believe that? I want to pinch myself...freedom is so near and I can't grasp it! Life without school looming over me!!! Is this for real??

Weekend of Homework

Well, it wasn't the most exciting of weekends...well I guess in some ways it was. I worked for about 6 hours on Saturday on a paper and presentation that is due on Tuesday. Why is this exciting you might be asking? Because, it's the last true paper that I have to do before being bestowed with my MSN. I do still have to finalize an abstract, make it into a poster, and present the poster but that is the last and final hoop to jump through. That paper has been completed for awhile now. The upside was that it was nice on Saturday, so I did most of it outside on the deck.

Boigie was meowing at the patio door constantly, so I tried again to bring him outside. It sort of worked, he was more calm than last summer when we tried this and he enjoyed laying in the sun but something startled him and he kind of leaped forward and the collar came completely off. While I'm certainly for collars that don't strangle my pets, I am thinking there is limited usability with this one....what good is it if it's just going to unlatch? Luckily, he wasn't skittish of me and I could grab him and toss him back in the house. Unfortunately, his taste for the outdoors couldn't be tamed, now that he had a taste of it he wanted more. For the rest of the weekend, as soon as he heard the door unlock he would come running and want to be back out there. We'll have to think of a better solution....

In home improvement news, we are STILL waiting on the contractor for that quote! I'm thinking it might be time to move on. We are not off to a good start and we haven't even started anything! He cancelled our first appointment as he was supposed to be showing up and M had left work early to meet him. Now it's taken him over 2 weeks to get us the quote when he said it would take 1. If it's taking him this long to just write some words and numbers on paper, how long is it going to take him to nail boards to the floor? Yeesh...

M finished painting the office which is actually what made me realize that we are much further behind than I thought we would be at this point. When we were first looking at colors for the baby's room and the office, I thought his plans of finishing both rooms before the flooring was laid was a pipe dream...and yet here we are. Anyway, the color is lovely. I'm glad M had a penchant for the red instead of boring blue. We decided on the Ben Moore Sante Fe Pottery and it's a soft red/pink/orange color. The room looks nice and fresh with the white trim and the white in between the chair rails where the wall paper used to be. I have pics, I promise I'll upload tonight.

I realize I haven't written much about knitting even though this blog is technically a knitting blog, or started that way and then other parts of life took over. Rest assured, dear reader, I'm 80% done with a sweater for Little Y and I also couldn't resist the Anniversary Sale at Webs so I'm working on a sweater for myself. How could a knitter resist Cascade 200 for about $4 a skein, that's almost halfprice! I'm making a Paton Cabled Yoke sweater, it's one of the first sweaters I ever made but I made it with cheap yarn that didn't breath and the sweater was so warm it was unbearable. I have learned much since then, so it's a take two.

It Must Be Happening.....

There is outside evidence that I really am graduating in a few short weeks. Before I get into Exhibit A, I would like to take this chance on Marathon Monday to compare my grad school program to a marathon. At first, I was going along just fine, not really realizing what I had gotten myself into but knowing that I just had to keep going. I don't quit something once I've started it.

It was ok in the beginning, not overly time consuming and just required some slight finagling with regular life. This was the situation until halfway through the program when clinical's started. At that point, the intensity cranked up. I like to think of this part as the Heartbreak Hill of grad school. At this point, your mentally tapped because you are seeing patient's for the first time pretending you know what you are doing. In addition to the clinical hours, there is time spent in the classroom and in lab. There are now two days that I had to finagle my schedule at work.

Then, I hit last semester...2 full days of clinical in addition to about 6 hours of class each week (3 in person and 3 online). Presentations galore. Major rescheduling at work. During this semester, there was an upheavel at my clinical site and I had to find random people to precept me until I could find something more permanent. Semester ended, I didn't die but I really thought I was not going to make it to the end of the semester. Even though I had only one semester left, it felt so far away and that I was really far from graduating.

Fast forward to this semester, same schedule as last semester. Minor upheavel a few weeks ago with my clinical site because I wasn't seeing enough pediatric patients but I got moved to a far less stressful environment. The assignments were roughly the same as last semester with the addition of finishing up a major project. Class schedules were the same as last time. I began to think that there really was a light at the end of the tunnel....I had hit the runner's high. Formal count downs of classes began, talk of taking the boards began, letters about graduation fees were sent to my home. I wasn't being delusional, the finish line was near! Other people were noticing this!

This brings me to today, I'm on autopilot and I'm in the last three miles of the finish line. After you've done 23 miles, what's a few more! I can do this, and I did do it for the past three years! Since January 2007! I'm now starting to think of myself as a superstar, it's so close I feel like I'm starting to glimpse life without school. I listen to other people talk about their grad school programs and it's very different than mine. I was not paid a stipend to be a student, I did not get the luxury of making my own schedule and could not afford time away from clinicals and studying to become someone's research assistant or TA. This program was grueling and not for the weak! This is why I feel like a superstar....I did it and lived to tell!

As promised, the evidence that I really am graduating!

• Letter from Citibank telling me my previous loan is coming out of deferment with a 'seperation from school' date of 5/21/10.
• Letter from the government telling me about grad school student loans pay back options
• Letter from AANP confirming that they have recieved my transcripts and are just waiting for my final transcripts which will trigger them to send me a testing date window
• Graduation gift from my inlaws! Pregnancy massage(s) here I come.

The proof is in the pudding...hopefully my running shoes last till the end!

School Minutae

Here's the latest:

• I finished my second of three presentations. I haven't even started the assignment for the third presentation, but it's not due till 4/27.
• I have one more test and one final for the online class
• The instructor for the in person class is going to see about cancelling the last class which would mean 4/27 is the end. I'm not holding my breath, I could not really see my advisor (the one who has to ok this) being good with that. Even if we don't get to cancel it, we have only 3 more classes!
• I have an almost finalized version of the paper about project I did last semester
• Once that's finalized I have to create an abstract and then refine that into a poster for presentation on 5/14
• I learned that there is a slim chance I could take the boards before I give birth. I have heard you can sit for the exam with your final official transcript without the degree conferred date listed on it, they just won't pass your scores on to the state until you send them a copy with your degree conferred date
• Next week is school vacation week so I have no peds clinical so I'm squeezing in some extra hours at OB. I should be able to finish both the week of May 10, worst case would be the week of May 17.

To Do List

This weekend I accomplished a lot on my abstract/final paper. I have to get the abstract ok'd before I can design the poster for my presentation on research day at school so I had to make it a priority, the end is nigh after all! I spent more time on that than I thought I would need to but my advisor kept emailing back with further suggestions. As a result, my to do list is growing...

Non School Related List
I need to:
1. Pick up the bridesmaids dress from David's Bridal
2. Take my car in for th 60k tune up
3. Find time to go to Ikea with M to pick up baby furniture

School Related List
1. Finish Abstract
2. Begin layout for poster and complete by 5/7
3. Do Symptom Analysis paper
4. One test
5. One final
6. Talk to registrar about releasing transcripts ASAP
7. Continuing studying for boards

A Likely Snafu

This is out of my hands so I'm not really going to dwell on it, or try not to.

I have heard from fellow colleagues at school that the earliest the University can guarantee sending out our official final transcripts is July 1st. This throws off my whole plan of taking the boards before the baby because of the following cascade of events...

1. Preliminary application can be processed to a point by using official transcripts through the end of last semester
2. Final official transcipts must be sent in
3. Upon receipt of final transcripts, I will receive a letter from the certifying body stating that my application is now being processed
4. After the application is processed, I will recieve another letter with my testing window
5. In about 2 weeks, I will receive a letter from Prometric inviting me to sit for the exam.

I can't see this feasibly happening before the baby is born...this should prove interesting. I'm hoping that I can sweet talk someone in the Registrar's office to process my final transcript way before July 1. Technically, our graduating date is May25, but the degree is not conferred until June 4. At that point, the University manually audits each graduate to make sure all requirements for their particular program were met. Then they send it. Hopefully I can tell them the situation and someone will be nice to this pregnant lady....I'm not holding my breath though.

More School....

So I am being removed from my family practice effective immediately because of the lack of peds exposure. I'm being moved to a school setting working with a PNP. I am curious to see how much this helps my assessment skills, I don't imagine one does much of that in the school system but perhaps I'm wrong. It's k-8, majority Hispanic population. I think it will be interesting, but I will be sad to leave the family practice. It was like a nice bonus adult clinical so it's a bummer that I no longer get to work on those skills...

Also the PNP could not do Fridays so my new clinical days are Tuesday and Wednesday. Thank the good lord my boss is being flexible with this.

School Rant

So, I thought this was uncool. Last night in class, the professor (who is not my advisor) took up class time to discuss, in front of class, my clinical issues (that I'm at a family practice where I'm seeing very few pedi patients even though I'm taking a pedi course). She mentioned in front of class that this probably means I can walk for graduation but there won't be a diploma in there and that I will most likely have to take an incomplete till I can finish it. She was even asking nitty gritty details like how many hours I've completed, how many of those were strictly pedi (which seems strange to me since my advisor put my in family practice which means I'm clearly not seeing just pedi patients).

I left feeling a little uncomfortable that my 'dirty laundry' was being aired during the middle of class. I think she was trying to be helpful and solicit ideas from other classmates about potential placements or preceptors but I thought it was strange to take up class time to drill me on my clincal progression.

My advisor, who is the head of the FNP program, has not suggested to me that the hours I'm doing at the family practice do not count nor that I will not graduate on time. I emailed her this morning to tell her I was a little uncomfortable with how things went down and to ask if there is any validity to this because I'm thiiiis close to sending in my preliminary application for testing. You have to list the date that your degree is to be conferred (June 4 I think) which will be thrown off if I end up graduating late. Also, I don't have the luxury of time. I finish my clinicals in mid May, plan to study for the test for the rest of May and June, take the test June/early July, have the baby. There's no room for this to be dragging on endlessly!

Let the Review Begin

I decided to go with the Margaret Fitzgerald FNP review course. $455 dollars worth of cds, I'm on my way. I promptly converted all of them to mp3s, they are a little behind in the times and don't actually offer these as mp3s. I asked them when they would and they were iffy on the date so I decided to just order the cds so I could get started. The other kind of annoying thing is that when converting them to MP3s, each the cd track labelling method is varying from cd to cd so then I have to go back and make them uniform so that when I'm searching for them in my library the tag makes sense.

So far I've gotten through the first cd and a half and it's been helpful in terms of what to expect on the exam, the differences between the two exams, the content, passing scores etc. My plan for now is just to listen when I can without really focusing on it, just have it in the background to hopefully absorb some of it. When school's done I will start the real nitty gritty studying. She recommends doing the review course when you have at least 4-6 weeks before you take the test, so I'm good to go since I'm not planning on taking it until June/July.

So far, I joined the AANP at the student rate which will give me a discount on the test. I then formally changed my name with the school and am waiting for that to kick in at which point I'll order my official transcripts and send in the application. That way, after finishing the semester, I only have to update them with my current semesters grade and the official sign off that I did complete the program.

The Future's So Bright...where did I put those stupid shades again?

The other day I was trying to imagine life with Little Y. I was thinking of things we could do this summer, granted she will just be a wee one but there's no reason the newbie and I can't tool around this summer while on maternity leave.

I was having pleasant thoughts of the things we would do, the places we would go when ugly thoughts of school dared to invade. How will I do that, I'll have to work around classes etc...then it dawned on me, there is no school in my future! Only a blissful maternity leave and bright future to look forward to.

Resuming my pleasant thoughts....
Taking a day trip to an oceanside town
Reading non text books
Spending time with Little Y exploring our neighborhood
Taking Little Y out on the deck in the pack and play, she sleeps and I read or knit
Taking tons of pictures, capturing each giggle and coo
Adjusting to motherhood without the heaviness of school sitting on my chest

Certification Exam

So, I'm so excited to be posting that a major component of my Sunday afternoon was spent researching which certifying exam I should take. Yes, we are finally at that point! I informed my advisor that I am pregnant and need to take the exam in early July and she told me that I should start the application process now.

So ANCC vs AANP....no one can really tell me clear difference. Including my advisor. Yesterday, I set out on a knowledge quest to discern which one I should take and it's coming down to a few factors:

• The AANP exam is 150 questions vs the ANCC with 175
• AANP exam is about $50 cheaper (if memory serves)
• AANP has a posted passing rate, couldn't find one with ANCC
• AANP does not test on theory, ANCC does
• AANP will grant you a 120 day testing window, ANCC gives you 90 days
• Both certify you for 5 years
• Both accept CME as continuing ed credits and required 1000 hours of practice in 5 years with 75 credits
• AANP credentials are NP-C, ANCC credentials are FNP-BC (my advisor said there is no preference for one over the other)
• AANP application is 2 pages, AANC is 4 with parts that the school needs to fill out

Anecdotally, I have heard that the AANP is easier in some ways...so it seems to me that it's a no brainer to take this exam. My next goal is to find out why some of my classmates are opting to go the other route, what do they know that I don't?

Calgon Take Me Away...Soon Preferably.

As you know, my schedule is insane. And it's about to get crazier. Next week, I begin my OB rotation on top of my ongoing pediatric rotation. As of now, I'll be in 2 seperate areas of the state for these rotations on Tuesday, then going to class that night. Now, to mix things up more, my advisor is looking for a new pediatric placement for me because I'm not getting enough pediatric experience at the family practice I'm working at. This is good because I'm really not getting much pedi experience, nor do I feel comfortable with peds at this point. This is bad because I can not ask off at work for a different days or cut my hours further, so the moons have to line up and this has to happen on a Tuesday or a Friday, the days I'm already cleared to be out.

When/if I get a new placement, I will most likely have to continue working at my current placement because I will not have enough hours (my advisor said we would be lucky if she could find a pediatric placement where I could get four hours per week). If I did only four hours pediatric and four hours OB per week, I fall drastically short of hitting the required 225 by the end of the semester.

So far, I've had about 63 hours (only 2 out of the required 60 for OB). To make things more complicated, the OB placement is requiring me to view long powerpoint presentations and take a test at the end in addition to attending a mandatory four hour computer class to learn their charting system all before I can get started. This further cuts down on the time that I am at my family practice rotation. My plan is to actually count these hours as part of my OB hours since it is required for that placement. The drive between the two locations on Tuesdays is about an hour, so that's one hour less that I am attending a clinical, further cutting down on the number of hours that I have completed.

This schedule is completely absurd but what can I do? I have to keep plugging away until it's done. Each week down is a week I will never have to repeat again. I will laugh in my advisor's face everytime she brings up my entering the DNP program. Forget it! A master's degree will suit me just fine. This is the end of the road for me.

Food Related/School Related Pet Peeve

I think all of you know that Tuesdays are my foe...I have clinical all day and then it's straight to class from 7-9pm. With unpredictable traffic, there's really not time (nor an easy on/easy off place) to stop and get something to eat. It's difficult to think of a suitable dinner to bring, one that won't be ruined if frozen in winter or that requires refrigeration in the warmer months.

These dilemmas leave me with one option, eating at school. The school is basically a commuter school, it has no dorms and it relies heavily on it's non traditional student/grad student population to keep things afloat. These students primarily attend classes offered after the typical work day, either from 4-7p or from 7-9p.

Here enters my pet peeve....
The sad excuse for a food option (really the only one that isn't just a tiny Starbuck's Express), is located in the student union. It only operates until 6pm! Does that seem illogical to you? It would seem to me that if the second set of night classes are first starting at 7pm, you would keep the store open until around then so you can get the extra business. Also, the times I do make it to school a little early, everything is entirely picked over and they have started shutting down everything. I rarely get to campus before 6 due to traffic, leaving me with junk food from the bookstore as the only option. To make it worse, the bookstore doesn't even sell beverages!

Last night, I did not make it in time so I got some Baked Lays and a Sprite Zero from the Starbuck's express. Not ideal dinner for a pregnant lady. I've started to eat a bigger lunch in anticipation that dinner is going to be hard to come by.

Isn't that ridiculous? Makes me want to write a letter.....

The Beginning of the End

And really...thank god for that. Last night was the first class of the last semester with clinical starting this Friday. Luckily, I'm in the same clinical location so that's one less thing I have to adapt to this semester. But...the big adaptation is pretending to know what I'm doing in the pediatric role.

This semester started off as most do, the room we were told the class would be in was not actually where the class was held. Luckily, I was with a large group of people and we somehow just ended up in the right location, there was no email sent with a room change which is pretty much how they do it.

The instructor for this course is not my advisor, but she did sit in for the entire class and tried to direct the class even though she wasn't teaching it. I could feel the actual instructor getting a little tired of this routine. Also, it seemed the syllabus was written by my advisor who is not teaching (once again) and the instructor had nothign to do with it and that the syllabus was not reviewed between the two of them prior to class. There were things the instructor didn't understand, the usual typos listing differing due dates in multiple locations for things, one assignment said that 8 sources were required for an annotated bib while somewhere else in the paragraph it said 6 (6 is the correct answer). You know, the usual. And because my advisor was there, we did not leave until 945p even though we had all heard rumors that the instructor was trying to get us out by 9. I have no idea if my instructor is planning on coming every week, but I think we're all hoping that's not the case.

Assignments that are due:
2 SOAP notes with audits and then presented in class
1 case presentation of a symptom with a lit review and annotated bib, presented in class
Finish Capstone project
Present case from text book and lead discussion

The only silver lining here is that no power points are required this semester. She felt it would be distracting during the talks and it creates too much busy work.

The other class is online, I have about 400 pages to read for the first week and I'm not exaggerating. There are 6 exams for that class but no other assignments.

Spring Semester....AKA 5 Months of Hell

Well folks, it seemed like a lifetime away when school and I parted ways just before Christmas and this time off has truly been a dream, but the time is nigh.

I've already purchased my books and started reviewing a few things...classmates and advisors have started emailing. There's no denying it, in 14 short days I'll be back into school full swing. This time (AND THE LAST TIME) around, I'll be taking Primary Care of the Childbearing Family. Like last semester, there is a 225 hour clinical requirement (60 of which are required to be in OB) as well as a Tuesday night class from 7-945p and an online lecture component.

The difference is..this semester when I do my countdowns they are for good! Not just until the end of the semester, but the end of my graduate academic career as a whole! There will be so many countdowns this time around, the countdowns make it manageble. Without having started classes yet, it feels like things will be more manageable just knowing that it's the last time I have to do this! I have already received the graduation paperwork (and bill if you can believe it, $150 graduation fee) in the mail. The proof is in the pudding. It's almost official, I'm almost a former grad student.

Stress Free Start to the New Year

I know this will be short lived, but I'm trying to enjoy each of these school free, juggle free days while I have them even though my pessimistic self can't help but also count the dwindling days of freedom.

I didn't feel like this semester was officially over until I saw my grades posted, A's for both. I filed for my last reimbursement from my employer. Last semester was over $3k and I only get $1200 in reimbursement now that I cut my hours. That's per year, folks, so my fall classes have eaten up all the funding for the entire year. Luckily, I will get some scholarship money this last semester which will pay for one of my classes.

Classes don't start until January 26th and I will most likely start my clinical again that week. I think I'm cutting back to 30 hours again the week before, I want to ease into the semester and really enjoy my last week of freedom, run all of the errands that will be put off forever in favor of studying, clean my house one last time etc.

This semester's classes are focused on pediatrics and women's health (GYN, OB). I have to do 225 clinical hours again, but 60 of them have to be in an OB setting. I've heard this setting is kind of a joke, there is so much liability that goes along with OB that students are left to shadow and aren't allowed to really do much more. So far, my advisor hasn't found me a placement but I'm sure she'll come through. Now I can say this confidently, I didn't really feel that way until last semester.

23 days and counting, but you didn't hear it from me!