5.30.2007

Today is our four-year anniversary (of when we first met in person, anyway), and we've decided to celebrate our wedding anniversary (which is really June 21st) and our relationship anniversary on one day -- May 30th. So Michael bought me this last night:

It's white gold with a garnet and diamonds. So pretty!! I love garnets! :) But not as much as I love my sweetie. Awwwww.

pixie.dust sprinkled at 10:18:00 AM • 0 witty remark(s)

5.23.2007

Had another eyeball appointment today -- my corneas look great, which is the good news, and my vision seems stable -- also good news. The bad news is that my right eye is stable between 20/30 and 20/40. So unless it changes (which I'm not thinking it will, too much), I'll have to go in for a little "enhancement" procedure in August. The best thing is that it'll be free -- nice to have a lifetime warranty on my vision! :-)

pixie.dust sprinkled at 2:57:00 PM • 0 witty remark(s)

5.20.2007

First, thanks for the emails regarding my scholarship, then my test score. :-D I am SO FREAKIN' RELIEVED to have A&P done!!

I emailed Excelsior College last week to figure out how to access my scholarship funds -- the Ladies Board (the providers of my scholarship) don't disburse the funds directly to students, but instead have to be invoiced by the school. I was a little worried that this was going to be a problem because the usual way to pay for an exam was by credit card through the website, so I didn't know if they were set up to invoice in this manner.

I received an email Monday morning from an accounting assistant who said they needed a letter from the Ladies Board with the contact info and phone number, and that the letter needed to state that Excelsior needed to invoice them. Luckily the scholarship letter I received stated all those things, so I was able to fax it to my ultra-helpful accounting contact, who wrote me after receiving it, telling me that all I had to do to register for an exam was tell her via email. So I wrote her back and told her I'd like to register for Nursing Concepts 1. She wrote me and said to go ahead and register ... and when I went to the page where it shows the test and the prices, the price for NC1 was $0.00. Woo! So I'm all registered for that, and I've scheduled my exam for June 4th. :)

In other news, some anniversaries are coming up for Michael and me: May 30th, which is when we first met four years ago, and June 21st, our second wedding anniversary. :) Not sure what we'll do to celebrate, but I'm sure it will be something!

pixie.dust sprinkled at 10:01:00 AM • 0 witty remark(s)

5.14.2007

I took my Anatomy & Physiology test today ... did I mention this test was for 6 credits, covering what is normally taught during two semesters? And the text has 1128 pages??? Well, I got ...

... a B!

I'm usually an A student, for the most part, so I was a little disappointed at first ... but holy crow, after some of the questions on that test, I'm THRILLED with my B! Ha ha ha!!

My appointed time at the testing center was 11:45, but I had to be there by 11:15 for registration and whatnot. In my usual fashion and with my distrust of traffic on Route 7 in Northern Virginia, I left home early and arrived a little after 10. I called to confirm my appointment, planning to sit in the car and do some last minute review, but when I called, the desk guy said I could come any time because they had a few seats open. Eeep! So I said screw it, and just went inside.

I sailed through the 160 questions ... I didn't stop and ponder many of them. I was surprised when I finished, and man was it difficult to click on the "submit test" button and not got back and second-guess myself! And it was like an eternity, waiting for my grade!

Whew ... glad that one's done. That was probably the hardest test I'll have to take, just by virtue of it being 6 credits' worth of stuff!

Yay! On to Nursing Concepts 1.

pixie.dust sprinkled at 3:48:00 PM • 0 witty remark(s)

5.05.2007

Back at the beginning of April, at the last minute (because that's when I heard about it!), I applied for a nursing scholarship from our hospital's Ladies Board, never thinking they would actually give me any money -- most scholarship applications I've seen require you to be a full-time student, to be at a "traditional" nursing school, to be actively doing clinicals, etc. But I applied anyway because it seemed like I met the criteria, and got a letter from the chairwoman in the mail yesterday. I opened it, expecting to see something like "Sorry, but you don't qualify..." Haha. Instead, I was shocked to read that they're giving me a $3000 scholarship!! I am so excited!!! This should pretty much pay for everything, including my three-day clinicals exam. Wooo hooooooo! YAY!!!!!!!! I guess that 3.77 GPA helps ...

pixie.dust sprinkled at 7:17:00 AM • 0 witty remark(s)

5.02.2007

So I figured it was time for an update! :)

My eyes are doing great! My left eye is 20/20, but the right is lagging behind somewhere between 20/30 and 20/40. It's just healing more slowly than the left, for whatever reason, so I have some slightly different steroid drops to use just in that eye when I finish my current set of drops (steroids and antibiotics for both eyes). I'm not too worried -- sometimes it can take 4 to 6 weeks for everything to settle out. In the meantime, I can see just fine; I don't even notice the right eye being slightly blurred unless I think about it. Night driving is a little sketchy because of it, but it's not that bad. I'm still SO freakin' happy that I had this done!! It's unbelievable. All last week I kept hitting myself in the forehead because I was trying to push up glasses that weren't there, ha ha. :)

Everything else is going well ... I'm finishing up my A&P studies (testing on 5/14!), and I'm about 1/3 of the way through Nursing Concepts 1. I don't think it'll be long before I test on that one, too. I'm also going to CLEP Sociology and Life Span, but I think I'll focus on the Nursing Concepts (there are seven of them) first. Oh, and there's Microbiology. Maybe I'll do that one in and among the NC classes. :) Fun fun fun!

Had the fun experience today of assembling a wheelbarrow with less-than-stellar directions ... it's a little off-balance, but it'll work. Heh. We're probably going to do a little yardwork this evening, when it's a little cooler outside. I am loving the warmer weather!! Except for the bees, but hey.

Hope all you Pagan-types had a great Beltane! We did. :-D We went up to Berkeley Springs (which isn't really too many miles from home) to have lunch at Tari's Cafe (our usual place) and to poke around the shops and just enjoy the day in general ... it was really nice. I love having days off with Michael where we don't have to rush or do anything specific. :) Those are the best!

That's pretty much it from here ... oh, except that we bought big portobello mushroom caps at Costco (4 for $4.99), marinated them, then grilled them on the stove (stoved them? ha ha) ... they are SO YUMMY. Must buy more!

Okay, back to my A&P notes ... *whip crack*

pixie.dust sprinkled at 5:24:00 PM • 0 witty remark(s)