Mommy Loves U

My date of departure grows ever closer. I found a house (or a room rather) to live in for school until our housing situation resolves. I'm renting a room from a divorced lady and her 2 kids. This is interesting since my own children will be 600 miles away. We put an offer on a house in GA and then received an offer on our house on basically the same day. I don't dare assume things are settled, but things are looking up. God is working through the details and I have feel a strange calm that things are going to work out. Perhaps its now safe to take a deep breathe and enjoy the anticipation of my first year. I'm off to pack up my clothes and spend some quality time with my kids and husband. It will be increasingly more emotional as the date of departure grows closer. How will I ever be able to look my children in the face and say goodbye? I just want to hug and kiss you all the time; as if some how I can save it all up for the impending dearth. Mommy loves you, darling.

Housing Woes

Still haven't found a place to live. E27 days and counting and I'm possibly going to be the first student to live in my car while attending vetschool. To tell you how stressed this whole situation has been, I've even contemplated not going. Yeah! Can you believe it. I'm totally ashamed. Fought 7 years to get here and I'm considering not going because of a little minor inconvenience like not having a place to lay my head at night. So, I threw myself a little pity party, cried, complained and then promptly reminded myself, to shut and and stop whining. I got accepted to VETSCHOOL! What the hell to I have to complain about. Thank you GOD for that. My apologies for complaining. But I do hope we get a house soon.
On another note, my big sib sent me some study notes for the first semester. I started looking over my millers and pasquini anatomy books and UGH, I'd forgotten how mind-numbing learning all that anatomy minutia is. Lightbulb......stress about no house......read anatomy book.....sleep like a rock. ZZZZZZZZZZZZ

19.5 credits

Another milestone behind me. Today, I registered for my first semester of vet school. 19.5 credits. Yikers! Thankfully not all those 19.5 credits are taken simultaneously, but still a daunting task. My house is still not sold. Thus I am now having to consider renting it out. Ugh! The thought of strange peoples in my home making a mess sends shivers down my spine. Also means I will have to rent in GA. Also a daunting task with 3 kids, a 3 yr old intact, male, 50lb pitbull and a FUS cat. Wow! I really hope I win the parking permit lottery- XX.

Southern pace

Now dont take this the wrong way, Im southern born and bred. Total G.R.I.T and proud of it. But I just dont understand why it takes southern schools so much longer than other schools to get with the program. Here we are short of a month away from day 1 and Im still waiting for information. Im know the date of required orientaiton (ie the day Im supposed to report), August 11th. Short of that, Im aimlessly wandering in "what the hell's going on?" land. Cum' on people I need to obsessively plan here. A book list, class list, school handbook, policies, required equipment, electives, computer info, rabies vaccine info.....SOMETHING**** ANYTHING!
Now, wouldnt it be wonderful if once we matriculate, we could benefit from this whole southern pace idea. Come to class whenever, turn in assignments whenever, take test whenever. But sadly Im thinking once we arrive, they will be cracking the proverbial whip. So long southern getalong.

Mixed Emotions

45 days. 45 days until I need to be in Athens. Excited as I am to finally be starting vetschool, I'm sad to let some things go. Our first home, the only home our children have ever known and my family. I started crying packing up baby clothes yesterday. Why? I'm absolutely sure I do not want anymore children. I think it was more because of the finality of the whole process. Baby clothes gone (check), vet tech career over (check), entire life turned upside down (check). I do fine with change, really. But its the ending of things familiar that gets me all blubberly. I realize that new and wonderful things are going to replace those lovely old memories. But dang, like an old comfortable blanket, Im really go miss 'um.

Becoming a research guinea pig

So as a vet student, Im required to be vaccinated against rabies. Rabies virus [hereto refered to as RV] (info courtesy of CDC.gov) infects the central nervous system, causing encephalopathy and ultimately death. Exposure is typically from a bite, but can be passed from saliva into an open wound or from blood to blood contact. Human vaccinations for rabies consist of either a pre- or post exposure protecal. The pre-exposure protecal consists of a series of 3 intramuscular (IM) injections. OUCH! The thought process is for those who are at an increased risk of exposure, (vets, animal control officers, vet technicians, ect.) these vaccinations will hopefully prevent the disease from occuring if indeed we are exposed.
The problem is that the vaccines are not covered by most health insurances (???) and as a lowly, soon to be broke, graduate student I can not afford to shell out $500 per injection for shots. Yep, that is correct! $1500 total for pre-exposure vaccines. Thanks to a shortage of vaccine (made by only one manufacturer) and the limited amounts of persons qualifying to receive the vaccine, the cost remains high. This is the reason, I was never vaccinated for RV as a LVT. Employers wont pay for it and insurance will only pay for post-exposure vaccines. (Okay, side bar, don't you just love the insurance companies.)
Anyway, so UGA sent us this info packet about a CDC study that is requesting vet students volunteers to be subjects to study the IM vaccine as a intradermal (ID) injection. Same vaccine, just different route. And we get the vaccines completey FREE! So, as you might have guessed, I totally jumped at the chance. Ain't research grand! :P****** PETA.

Im Going to Vetschool?

So, seriously, after so many failed attempts, I have to keep telling myself this over and over because it still hasn't sank in. I received a very vague phone call from MM at UGA the other day that sent me into a complete tizzy. I immediately thought the worst and surmised they had found something wrong in my application and were rescinding the offer. I stressed about it all day and then found out it was a simple error. I'd paid my seat deposit and application fees on one check...they needed to be seperate. O jez, is that all. It's a little sad; instead of feeling peacefully overjoyed, I have this impending sense of doom.

God grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change;
Courage to change the things I can;
And wisdom to know the difference.

Living one day at a time;
Enjoying one moment at a time;
Accepting hardships as the pathway to peace;
Taking, as He did, this sinful world as it is, not as I would have it;

Trusting that He will make all things right if I surrender to His Will;
So that I may be reasonably happy in this life and supremely happy with Him forever and ever in the next.