Baby Birthday Ticker Ticker  Baby Birthday Ticker Ticker

Friday 20 July 2012

Aspirations

Well, I've made some progress in reaching my own personal goals.  I've filled out my FAFSA and signed up to register for some classes at the local community college so that I'm all set to apply to nursing school come December.  I have been looking at becoming a midwife for a while now (I think I posted about it a while back) and have decided to go ahead and become an RN first, then work on getting my Nurse Midwife qualifications.  There are several ways to go about doing that and I've looked into all of them.  I am really hoping to get accepted into the Bacc2 program through UTHSC (UT Health and Science Center) here in Houston, although I will probably apply to the one at UTMB (UT Medical Branch) as well.  Both are HIGHLY regarded and I'm just hoping I have what it takes to get in.  The accelerated program is 15 months or so long and is for students who are looking to get a bachelor's degree in Nursing and already have a bachelor's degree in a different field.  This works for me and I save myself some time and money since I don't have to stay in the program the usual 4 years thanks to my degree.  They require you to have 60 credit hours in particular classes, all of which I have except for 6 classes worth (24 hours).  I still have to take Growth & Development (through the lifespan... I've taken a Child Development class, but it doesn't cover adults, obviously), Intro to Philosophy (I chose to take a religion class at UH instead), Human Anatomy & Physiology (I'm hoping I still remember some of this from the Pre-AP course in high school but I'm not holding my breath), Microbiology (I stopped at regular ol' Biology) and Nutrition.  I can apply to the Bacc2 program once I have at least 40 of the required hours complete, so hopefully I can apply in December for entry in Summer 2013, but we'll see.  I'm going to play it by ear and see how it goes.  My GPA is high enough , but it could use a boost in the Math and Sciences area so hopefully this will help me out.

I'm really excited and nervous about it.  I LOVE school.  I always have.  I can't wait to be a student again and am really looking forward to it, but I'm nervous about how I'm going to fit it all in.  The pre-req classes that I'm taking before I start the program are mostly online (the labs aren't, but everything else is), which is good since I can do it while the girls are sleeping/when Nic is home to help me out, but I am going to have to keep my grades up so my GPA doesn't fall below the acceptance point.  Then, once (IF) I'm accepted to the program, it's a crazy busy 15 months until I graduate again and am able to get to work.  They don't allow you to work during that time (for good reason), so we're going to have to pay for childcare as an added expense since I'll have to attend my clinic rotations and go to class at that point.  I think it'll all be worth it, but it's just a scary thing to think about.  I'm more nervous for how the girls are going to be than myself though.  They are used to staying home with me all the time and it's going to be a massive change.  I think I may enroll them in a Mother's Day Out program just to get them used to it.  I asked Liara if she wanted to go to school and she says yes, so that's a good thing.  She even grabbed her backpack and filled it with toys last time.  Maybe she's ready.  What's good is that Amaya will be done breastfeeding by the time the program starts, so that's one less thing I'll have to worry about.  It'll be ok.  I just need to remember I'm doing this for me AND for them.  I want my girls to see that you can do whatever you set your mind to and that you don't just have to be ONE thing.  I CAN do this.  I need to remind myself how good it'll be to be able to tell my girls, "I have two beautiful, well-rounded children, a nice home, a great marriage, two degrees and a reliable and meaningful career... all because of dedication, hard work, and love".  I want to show them that if you have a dream and a desire to do something different, you CAN do it and should.  Anything is possible.

I may just have to make myself a list of inspiration quotes and plaster them on my wall so I can remind myself every day of just what I am capable of.

I have the desire to care for others, I have the need to help other people, I have extra amounts of love and compassion to share.  I'm ready.

Ok... on to other things.  Amaya is getting so big!  She is bound and determined to do everything before Liara did.  She's pulling up on everything like a boss and the other day she managed to let go and stand on her own two feet for about 5 seconds before falling.  I have to keep reminding her that she's barely 7 months and to slow her cute little booty down!  Liara is becoming quite independent lately and I'm loving it.  She wants to help do everything (or do it on her own), from making her own chocolate milk to getting the mail, to picking up her toys before bedtime.  She is too cute.  I adore my children.

Nic has been working up a storm and I'm so proud of him.  He's such a wonderful man and I'm so blessed to have him by my side.  He came home at 10 am yesterday from work because we had a water line break and he fixed it all by himself by 3 pm, then went back to work.  He had a dinner meeting with Bob and James at 7 and so he went to that and didn't get home until about 10 pm.  Bless his heart, he's tired, but he still stays up for me so that we can at least visit a little or watch an episode of something together.  It means a lot to me, I know he's exhausted.

Anyway, I need to clean my house a little before the girls wake up from their naps... I hope everyone is having a wonderful day!

Sunday 1 July 2012

Life with Three

Hey y'all..

SO, my little brother is here visiting for a couple of weeks and let me just start by saying that life with three kiddos isn't overly different than life with two, only having a boy around is super different.  I'm so used to my girls and I find myself struggling a little to figure out activities that we all want to do.  My little brother is 8, and I don't know if it is just because he is raised completely different than I was or if it's just because we are the opposite sex, but man, are we different.  He's sweet and calm most of the time, but his interests differ greatly from mine.  He's a huge sports fan/athlete, and I'm, well... not.  I'm more of the artsy craftsy kind of person who likes to be still most of the time.  I've seen his karate routine I can't even tell you how many times and am trying to come up with new adjectives to describe it.  "wow", "awesome", "cool" etc... only go so far.

He's done well with the girls, but sometimes he just really wants my attention (usually when I am putting the girls to sleep or cooking) and it's hard to get him to just wait a minute.  He's not used to that I don't think (he's pretty much an only child since I've never lived with him) whereas my children are definitely used to it now.  Nick is a huge help when he's home, but that's been pretty limited lately.  He is taking a driving course (more on that later...) so after working all day (7-4), he was at his course from 5-9, then this weekend he has been there from 7-3:30.  Today is the last day and boy, am I glad.  He's taking next week off (the whole week!  I'm excited!!!) to play with us and spend some quality family time with us.  That will really help because I'm running out of activities for us all to do without Nick around.  When he's around we can do all the things I had planned out.  We're going ot be going camping, to the children's museum, NASA, the museum of natural science, the zoo, the aquarium and we're taking Ryan go-carting.  He's never done any of that before... so it will be quite the experience for him I think.  He's quite homesick, especially for his cats, so hopefully being busy will help him.  I remember how that used to be, so I'm trying to be as sympathetic as I can be about it.  He's awfully brave for coming to stay with us for two weeks since he doesn't really know me that well (he was just 3 when we moved to Scotland and didn't get to visit too often).  Hopefully the weather will get better for us.  The first two days he was here it was 111.  Yes... without the heat index.  OUCH!  Then the past few days it has been POURING down rain.  Like, to the point that our power went out and my backyard is now a marsh.  Fun.

We're still working on getting moved into our house... man, it's a slow slow process when you've got two small kids.  I have yet to hang anything up (other than Clyde, my Dad's stuffed pheasant).  I can't wait to get the boxes all out of here and feel like I'm really at home.  The new neighbors are awesome... they have 4 girls (one of which has already come to babysit for us once, although I didn't leave... just unpacked a little) and are really nice.

We went to visit my grandparents some and they have some big news, although I can't tell you what it is until everyone knows and they have it out and about.  We also went to Papa's wedding to Linda... Liara was the flower girl and did an amazing job.  Man, she was cute and we are so proud of the great job she did!

Ok, well, I have to get going because my girls are up and causing all kinds of trouble while I'm over here typing.  I should have loads of pictures next post of the fun stuff we'll do this week!

Here's the rain again... geez, I wish Plainview would get some of this!