My How Time Flies

I knew that April was going to be a busy month.  But, I can't believe how quickly it disappeared!

We had planned months ago to have Easter dinner at our house, with my family.  It is usually just easiest for us to host family dinners.  Then Jason has access to a good bathroom, and doesn't have to worry about being hauled up and down stairs.  We also thought it might be nice to have Jason's parents up for the weekend, as we hadn't seen them since we shared our big news at Christmas time.  We did have a nice visit, but the weekend was full of work projects and cooking/tidying and hosting 18 people for Easter dinner on Saturday.  But we did get to enjoy a nice Easter brunch at the German Cultural Centre on Sunday morning before they headed for home.

The biggest project of the weekend was getting the baby's room set up.  Dale and I spent probably 4-5 hours on Saturday assembling a dresser and crib from Ikea.  I am really pleased with how they look, and I am sure the dresser will be used for many years to come.  Because of the setup in our house, the baby's room will be in our spare bedroom, so we had to move the guest bed out of there and into the rumpus room area of our basement.  Then I had the great idea of moving our old leather reclining couch into the baby's room, as place to lay/sit/feed the baby.  I don't know if I had done any measuring, but for some reason, I assumed that we would be able to get this behmoth of a couch around a 90 degree corner in a hallway.  I was starting to doubt that it would be able to be moved into there.  But my ingenious father-in-law and father made it work, and the couch is now in that room.  We did figure that by the time we are ready to move the couch out of that room, that it may need to come out in pieces.  We will see, haha.

Also, months ago, we decided, that since we will be sticking close to home this summer, that we would like to get away for a weekend to Calgary while I am still feeling good enough to go.  We chose the weekend after Easter, expecting that we would have some nicer weather, considering it was the end of April (haha, right!).  We did have fine weather for traveling, but the Saturday that we were in Calgary it rained/snowed for the better part of the day, and just was cool and not all that nice.  Thankfully on Sunday the sun came out and we were able to get outside a bit and enjoy some fresh air.  We did a lot of shopping on Saturday, which is always hectic and tiring, so I was glad on Sunday that we had a much more relaxed day.  We went and hung out at a small farmer's market just north of Calgary, that I stumbled upon after Jason Chadney recommended a coffee shop to us.  The coffee shop's first location was at this little market, and now they have 3 or 4 other locations in the city.  It was nice to browse and talk to the vendors and try a lot of generous samples. 

In the afternoon we ventured in to downtown Calgary.  We had always avoided downtown, as it seemed kind of intimidating, but after our trip to Vancouver and Seattle last summer, we felt pretty invincible, and Jason did a great job getting us around the city.  We spent the afternoon checking out the Core Shopping Centre and walking down Stephen Avenue to the Olympic Plaza.  It was a much more relaxed day.  (Except for the fact that the only bathrooms in that mall are on the 4th floor (in the food court area) and there was only ONE freakin' elevator that EVERYONE wanted to take.  So usually it was at least a 5-10 minute wait to get on the elevator and it was always packed like sardines in there.  Seems like a pretty big design flaw :P

I also decided a couple of months ago that I should tackle some of the continuing education credits that I need to get before the end of next year.  Since I will likely be tied pretty closely to home until at least next spring, I started looking closely at any of the course offerings that were coming up.  There was one, that was kind of expensive, but was three days long, and would give me just over half of my required credits.  So, I believe I will now only need about 10 more credits in the next year and a half, which seems much less daunting.  There are even online courses that I can take for free to get one or two credits, so that is probably what I will do next year to fill the rest of the requirement.

My course was this weekend, and was really good.  It sounded somewhat interesting, so that is why I was willing to jump in and pay the money for it.  It was called Ligamentous Articular Strain Technique for the upper body and extremities.  I am not sure that I will incorporate every technique I learned into practice, but will definitely be using my clients as guinea pigs in the next little while to try out some of the things I learned.  The guy who taught the course was really engaging and down to earth, and I think I would be willing to take more courses from him in the future.

So, now that those three very busy weekends are behind me, I feel like I have some time to breathe, and relax and prepare for baby.  There is not THAT much that we need to do or prepare.  I need to pick up a few things in the next couple of months, but I feel better now that baby's room is painted and furniture is set up.  We are taking prenatal classes through the health region starting at the beginning of June.  They run for one evening/week for three weeks.  I hope that they are interesting and informative.  Time is really flying by....and I think this baby is going to be here before we know it!  And life will change....but that's okay :)

I see dead people...

We went to the Saskatchewan Science Centre in Regina this weekend to take in the Our Body: The Universe Within display. Well we actually went to Regina to participate in the baptism for our friend's son, but thought we would kill two birds with one stone. The display was very interesting! It reminded me a bit of going to the cadaver lab when I was in massage school, without the stink of formaldehyde.

If you are unfamiliar with the concept, it is a very extensive display of specially preserved whole cadavers as well as partial specimens (ie upper limb, lower limb, organs, etc). I have always been fascinated with the human body and learning anatomy and physiology. I think initially looking at the specimens I felt like they were made out of plastic but when I mentally realized that they were actually real people at one point....well it disturbed me on some level. Seeing things like hair on the skin and fingernails grossed me out more than seeing a body dissected apart. However, I was able to look past the grossness of it to have a great refresher course in anatomy.

After we were done looking at the display, I would estimate we spent about an hour looking at it, we went to see an IMAX movie. I love IMAX! I wish we had one in Saskatoon. We saw the show Wild Ocean which was about the migration of the sardines along the east coast of South Africa and how all the different predators (ie dolphins, sharks, seals, birds, humans, etc) all gather together and the ocean is alive hundreds and hundreds of these predators to have their feed of sardines. And the shoals of sardines are incredibly large. From an aerial view the sardine shoals looked like an oil slick on the water. What a cool documentary!

There and Back Again

I went to Regina Thursday for a two day continuing education course. I have a few points about my experiences to share:

• That was my first time driving that distance on the highway by myself. It went just fine, even driving in the dark wasn't too bad. I saw one deer, but it was quite a ways ahead of me so I didn't have to brake.
• I am so glad the highway to Regina is a divided highway. I cannot imagine driving that highway if it wasn't. I think I probably passed about twelve or fifteen semis on the way home.
• It was nice to visit with one of my friends from massage school. Trina let me stay at her place so I didn't have to pay for two nights in a hotel. We had a nice supper out on Friday night and went to see the movie Date Night. It was pretty hilarious!
  
• The course itself was pretty good. It was called Soft Tissue Release. We learned how to apply it to most of the more commonly injured muscles in the body. It is a combination of stretch and pressure applied to certain muscles and feels pretty nice to have done. Some of the positioning for it would be a little awkward if you are dealing with someone who is undressed under a sheet (laying at the end of the table with both legs hanging off the end to stretch the hip flexors, for example). I hope to incorporate some of the techniques, and I found myself thinking of certain clients of mine with specific problems that the treatment might benefit.
• There was this older (probably in her 70s) lady taking the course who was SO annoying. She was a know-it-all who was 'correcting' the instructor, and throwing out her two cents when no one cared. You could just tell everyone was just rolling their eyes when she opened her mouth. I got the 'privilege' of being partnered with her to practice some of the techniques and most of what I was doing was wrong, but yet when she treated me she wasn't performing the techniques correctly and I just kept my mouth shut. Also she had a few fingernails that were really long. Her one thumb nail was probably 3/4 of an inch long! Ew! Massage therapy and long nails do not mix!!!
• I made it home last night by about 7:15PM. It felt very nice to get home and see my hubby and puppy.
• I was pretty apprehensive about the weekend, leading up to it. I was a little concerned about driving in the dark by myself. I was apprehensive about staying with Trina because I knew I would have to sleep on a lumpy futon and I didn't want to be a bother to her. I was apprehensive about the course because I didn't know anyone there, and I was hoping it would be an interesting course. I would say overall the weekend was much better than I was expecting. As I said, the drive wasn't bad, it was nice to visit with Trina (and the futon, though hard and lumpy was comfortable enough that I slept well), and the course was pretty decent and somewhat applicable.

This afternoon I did my P90X fitness test and passed all the requirements so I am planning to start my 90 day journey tomorrow. I imagine in the next three months I will write quite often about my experiences with this program. If I follow this through for the 90 days my last day will be July 18th, 2010. That is the first Sunday of our summer holidays. Then I would imagine that I would take a week or two off from P90X and maybe do another round.

Some Thoughts on McKay

I have thought in the past about going back to McKay (where I went to massage school) to teach. From what I have heard recently, they are pretty desperate for teachers and will hire pretty much anyone. That is rather disappointing to me. When I went to school there I felt that our instructors were very qualified and knew their subject matter well. For anatomy, physiology, assessments and pathology classes we had grad students as well as a chiropractor teaching us. For our massage therapy classes we had massage therapists who had been in the field for a number of years, so they had plenty of hands on experience with which to answer our many questions.

Talking to one of my coworkers who graduated from McKay a little over a year ago, she had some pretty awful teachers. Mostly they were massage therapists who had only graduated a couple of years prior to going to teach. They did not know the ins and outs of the anatomy and physiology classes well enough to be teaching them and to be able to answer the questions that would inevitably arise. But their class managed to learn what they needed to learn and I think most of them that chose to take the MTAS board exam passed it. So obviously they did learn enough. However, she said that only three of their class of eight students are still doing massage, a year later!

This same coworker of mine decided to apply for a position at the school teaching Q1 massage (first term of class). Q1 is a pretty basic class, however there is a lot to teach, like techniques, informed consent, history and theory behind massage, general contraindications, etc. She went to the school today, and gave the program director her resume and was basically hired on the spot. She will get the chance to TA in the class for a few months so thankfully she won't just be thrown into it by herself.

When I was in school, the requirement for teachers was that they had to TA for one term (6 months) in the class that they wished to teach and they had to have graduated a minimum of 2 years previous. I realize that they are desperate for teachers, but their lax attitude about hiring really bothers me. It is part of the reason that I have opted not to apply for a job there. I don't really want to be part of a school that has really taken a turn for the worse since I went there. I have heard that the other school in Saskatoon is in a similar situation. If someone approached me about going to school to become a massage therapist, I don't think I could recommend going to school in Saskatoon and feel like I was being honest with them. It really is a shame, considering that massage therapy is a pretty expensive course to take.

I don't want to be a quitter

But I am thinking about quitting. School that is.... I realize I am not quite even two weeks into the start of my classes, but I am having some serious doubts about them. I know I am able to withdraw from my classes and get most of the money back within the first thirty days of the course start date (and no blemish on my transcript).

I have done a lot of weighing of pros and cons and I just am not sure I want to be a student right now. I know that I probably won't be able to do massage therapy forever, but for now it's enough. I really don't want to waste the tuition I have spent on these classes if I decide not to pursue this any further. I would rather withdraw from them and possibly research some other options at a later time. I don't want to go into all my reasons, but this is what has been on my heart.

I feel so blessed to have such an incredibly supportive husband. He has always taken the "whatever you want to do, I will be behind you" attitude and I love him so much for that. I told him some of my doubts about this and he said whether you stay in our withdraw from the classes you have my support. Sometimes it seems like it would be nice to have someone to tell you what to do, but I know it's best this way. I have talked with God about it, (which maybe I didn't do enough of before I jumped into this...) and I feel pretty peaceful about withdrawing.

I think this is why I have been so quiet on this blog for the last week. Just a lot on my mind.

I am a keener

My course materials arrived on Friday from Athabasca University. I was excited to see them, but all of a sudden felt a pretty overwhelming feeling of doom. I thought, "What am I getting myself into? Why am I going back to school, I swore I would never be a student again when I finished massage school?!" I opened up the materials and looked at the different assignments and quizzes and exams that would evaluate me in these courses.

In the biology class I am taking there are four assignments to do and four quizzes as well as three midterms and a final exam. The assignments are pretty much entirely short answer questions and the quizzes are done over the phone with my tutor (the prof). The midterm and final exams, I will have to arrange to write them either at the U of S or SIAST when the time comes.

I also enrolled in a nutrition class. I chose it, because if I do get accepted into nursing it will count as the nutrition requirement for a nursing degree. The evaluation for that class involves only an assignment, a midterm and a final exam. The assignment involves keeping a detailed food diary for two days (including measuring or weighing everything I eat and drink). Then you compare it to the Canada food guide, then use a CD ROM program they give you to analyze it even more. Then you write about your level of activity, and decide if you are getting what you need from what you are eating. I think it should be enlightening.

I decided to crack open the books tonight. I had nothing else to do and thought, why not get a head start?! I got out the Biology text and read through chapter one and took notes and at the end I did the chapter end quiz and was able to answer all the questions. I will keep reading and see how it goes. I do not officially start my classes until July 1st, but I am free to start now if I like. The only thing is that if I have any questions or concerns about anything I am not able to contact my tutor until after July 1st.

I was thinking tonight about these classes. I am going to do my best to use my free time to work on these classes. I have a lot of days where I have long breaks at work, or mornings off, or evenings with nothing to do. I am hoping I will be motivated to use those times to study or work on assignments so that when the time comes that, for instance, I am going on summer holidays, it will not kill me to take a few days off.

5 year plan

Wouldn't it be nice to know what will be going on for the next five years of your life? I have been thinking about my future a lot lately. It has been almost five years since I graduated from my massage therapy course. I can't believe it has been almost five years!! I have been thinking that massage is not something I can do forever. I don't mind it, but I definitely don't have the passion for it that I used to. I am finding that it can be quite repetitive and boring. However I do have a good number of clients who I really appreciate and enjoy working on. I like working with people, and I like when someone gets off the table and says "Wow, I feel so much better." I definitely like aspects of massage, but massage is just massage and when you get too old or sore to do massage there are not too many other opportunities out there to stop treating but still make money.

Over the last few years, I have contemplated nursing as a career path. I believe that I have what it takes to be a nurse. I have a number of friends who are nurses, and I have read stories and comments on a nursing forum numerous times. I think I have a fairly good grasp on what a career in nursing might be like. A few weeks ago I went to SIAST to talk to an academic advisor there about the requirements to apply to the Nursing Education Program of Saskatchewan (NEPS). I found out some disappointing things. Basically, I screwed myself over by doing so poorly in my third year of university many many years ago. What I was told is that there are a certain number of seats reserved in the program for people coming out of high school, and a certain number for those with some post secondary education. The required average, 76%, is the same for both groups and has been increasing by a percent or two each year. So, I would need to have at least a 76% average in my most recent 18 credit units of university classes to even be considered for the NEPS. My average isn't anywhere near that because I did so poorly in my 3rd year. My option is to take 18 credits of additional classes then apply to the NEPS if my average is high enough. I am leaning toward trying that option.

Today I registered with Athabasca University. For those of you who don't know, it is an almost entirely correspondance university. I am planning to take 18 credits of classes (one 6 credit and four 3 credit) courses over the next year and a half, then see if I can even think about applying for nursing. If not, I guess I will try to find a different direction. I am hoping to keep working while I do these courses. The way I have it figured out is that I would only do two classes at a time starting July 1 of this year and ending by the end of December of next year. I think it's doable.

One thing that frustrates me is that the admission to the NEPS is based solely on grades. I think that there should be more to it than that. I think that my massage education and working on people for the last five years would be an advantage in pursing a career in nursing. I knew that my massage courses would not transfer to university credit, but I thought that it might at least be taken into consideration. I wonder if someone who graduated high school almost 11 years ago, who did not go to university, who had an average of 85% in high school would do any better in the NEPS than someone who had been doing massage therapy for the last almost 7 years. I realize that they have to have a measure of who they can accept and who they can't. I also realize that an interview process would be time consuming and expensive. It just sucks for me! If they could overlook my university grades I would get in, no problem, my high school average was always well over 80%. Oh well, I am going to give Athabasca a try and if that doesn't work I will keep my mind open to other opportunities.