WSU, Ryan and Camping

My 4th and final college on my journey to get my BSN.  The WSU Spokane River Point campus will be my home for the next 2 1/2 years.  I started this journey in 2010.  I attended Spokane Falls Community College (SFCC) and Spokane Community College (SCC) for 1 1/2 years of nursing pre-requites.  At that point I put my name on the SCC nursing waiting list as my backup plan.  SCC has a nursing program, but not a BSN program.  The program is not competitive, although you do have to have above a C in all your courses.  The wait time to get into the program is about 1 year.  Then I transferred to Eastern Washington University (EWU) and spent the next year being a full time nursing student working on additional nursing pre-requites required for the BSN program.  Once the pre-requisites are completed you can apply for WSU's BSN program, which is very competitive.  You must have extremely high grades to even be considered.  You submit your transcripts and letters of recommendation, along with the application form.  Then if they like what they see, you get invited to an interview.  You cross your fingers and sweat for 2 weeks until you find out if you made it in or not.  I was one of the grateful students who made it!  A few days after I got accepted into WSU's nursing program I also received my notice that I was at the top of the nursing list at SCC, which I was happy to decline.

WSU's nursing program is very intense.  I was prepared for the academic challenge, but during the orientation we got our schedule and the instructors stressed that the program is designed for a 20 year old student who lives at home with mom and dad, has NO job (they highly recommend you do not work at all during the nursing program.  There really is no extra time) and has NO kids.  The idea is that you attend 6+ hours of class every day followed by 6+ hours of studying every day.  Clinical is from 6am-3pm followed by a mandatory 2 hour group conference.  There is also 8+ hours of prep-time and assignments that have to be done prior to clinical.  After seeing my schedule and hearing everyone talk about how impossible nursing school is with young children...  I spent the 2 days of orientation staring at my planner trying to figure out how to make this work.

Apparently WSU has also spent time thinking about how to make this work for parents or anyone who has to work even 10 hours a week to survive.  They created a 5 semester nursing plan (vs. the 4 semester, 2 year plan).  The first year of nursing is the hardest and most demanding.  The extended plan divides the first 2 semesters into 3 semesters.  I, along with several other students that have children switched to the 5 semester plan.  There are 117 students in my class.  The majority of which are under the age of 25, have no job and no kids.  But for those of us who have kids or have to work... the extra 6 months is great!  I'm not thrilled about paying another semester of tuition or stretching my graduation out another 6 months, but I am thrilled that I can still attend WSU and get my BSN!  And really with Jason traveling and essentially leaving me as a single parent, who has to depend on daycare in order to attend class...  this is really the only option for us.  I'm grateful to WSU for making this option possible.

 WSU is in the process of building the new Medical building on the River Point campus.  They will be moving their Pharmacy program, along with other things to the River Point campus.  Great news for my brother, who just started his pre-requites to be a Pharmacist! 

 I love the nursing building.  Everything is modern and new.  This is one of the many lounge area's to study.

 I also love that ALL my classes take place in the same building!  No more sprinting across campus in a snow storm to reach my next class in 10 minutes.  In fact ALL my classes take place in the same room.  The main classroom on the lower level is for all J1 (1st semester Junior) classes.   We also have 2 off campus sites: Yakima and Tri Cities.  The blue wall to the right has 2 huge screens.  1 is used by the professor for instruction and the other is a view of the students in Yakima and Tri Cities.  Our class is taught with a video conference so that both sites see everything we see.  Our desks have microphones so that the other locations can hear any questions we ask in class.  There are also camera's so they can see who is talking. 

 Ryan has his cast off!  He's not walking yet, but it won't be long.  He's currently crawling.  He needs to build up muscle and get the confidence to walk again.  I think he's mainly just scared of hurting his leg again.

 Last time camping for the summer.  Connor slept in his new Spider-man tent with Chloe.  Jason and I slept in the big tent with Nala... well, for part of the night.  Jason attempted to sneak into the house to sleep in bed an hour after we went to sleep.   I made him promise prior to setting the tents up that he would sleep outside ALL night long, since he bailed on us the last 2 times we camped.  Then in the middle of the night I bailed and slept in bed the rest of the night.  The boys stayed outside until early in the morning and then they also bailed and crawled in bed.  The dogs are the only one's who stayed in the tents all night... Chloe in the Spider-man tent and Nala in the big tent.

South Hill Aquatic Center

We decided to spend what might be our last HOT summer weekend at the South Hill Aquatic Center... playing in the water.  We gobbled down breakfast and jumped in the car.

 Just as we walk through the gate Connor declares that he's hungry again.  So, we grabbed some lunch and stretched out in the lawn chairs for a bit.

 Connor cooling down with a popsicle, which was followed by all 3 of us enjoying an ice cream treat.

 Then we were finally ready to hit the water!

 Connor and Jason going down the mini slide

 The boys waving from the top of the BIG slide

 They had so much fun on the big slide!  I think they went down about 6+ times.  They discovered after the first run that you get way more speed if you use a tube.  So, every run after that was with the tube.

 I was enjoying a leisure drift around the lazy river... but after the boys went down the slide half a dozen times with great big smiles on their faces, I decided to give it a try too.  And then I was hooked on the fun  and joined them for several more rides.  Of course there is no pictures of me going down the slide since all 3 of us were having fun together.  What a great way to cool off and have fun!

mother-son pictures

Here's our 2012 mother-son pictures with our purple dyed shirts.  Connor was thrilled that he got to choose the color theme this year, which of course he chose PURPLE, his favorite color.  Real men wear purple.  My handsome little man makes purple look good!

 

 

I sure love this adorable little 4 year old!

Connor has been eating a lot more than usual, which I interpreted as he's going through a growth spurt.  So, we checked... We have a growth chart in his room that we measure him against.  Here were the last measurements we took:
March 16   39.5 inches tall
June 30      40.0 inches tall
August 28  40.75 inches tall
In 3 1/2 months he grew 1/2 an inch and then in 2 months he grew almost 1 full inch! Wow!  I'm barely over 60 inches tall.  Connor is already 2/3 of my height at 4 years old!  He weights 31 pounds, which is 1/3 of my weight.  He's always been between the 50-75 percentile for his height and the 5-10 percentile for his weight, which just means he's always been a tall, skinny kid.  He eats healthy and he's active.  That's a very good thing and lowers his chances of diabetes later in life.  I used to joke around that he was going to pass me up in height by the first grade, but I'm starting to wonder if that might actually happen now.  Maybe not by the first grade, but I'm thinking it might just happen before fifth grade.  I'm between 5'0" - 5'1" and Jason is 5'10".  Jason is the tallest in his family and I'm the shortest in mine.  Connor is just under 3'5".

Mirabeau Park

So, it's time again for Connor and I to have our Mother-Son pictures taken.  Last year I chose matching teal outfits for our picture.  This year I told Connor he could pick the color.  Of course, he picked purple.  I was hoping to find a button down collar shirt with a tie for Connor to wear.  I looked everywhere.  I found lots of cute purple dress shirts, but nothing in a 4T.  I finally gave up my search and bought some purple dye to make our own!  I already had several purple shirts to choose from, but nothing that matched or looked good with the purple dye... so I also dyed a tank top to match Connor's purple dress shirt.  Then for fun we dyed a tank top for Connor and some bed sheets.

 After our Mother-Son pictures Connor changed into his swim suit for the park, but not before he got to pick any candy he wanted a the candy store.  He did such a great job following directions and being patient with the photographer... and waiting patiently while his mom debated on which pictures to print and in what sizes... for being such an incredible young man he deserved a special treat!

 We also stopped at the mall play center for a few rides

 his candy choice after much debating was an Apple sucker

 Then we hit Mirabeau park for some fun in the sun!

 he found this little scoop in the sand area that he attempted to make a sand castle with

 adding water to his sand

 Then he switched to this little bucket that he filled with water and brought to a little girl in the sand area so she could build a sand castle mound.

 My dripping wet little guy

 He played on the playground again... then he wanted to push me on the swivel chair.  Wow, this chair makes you dizzy.  Of course I don't handle anything that spins anymore. 

 I love the quotes and nursery rhymes they have stamped into the concrete at this park

Our last fun outing before school starts tomorrow...

Cheney Parks

Jason went golfing with a friend today.  We decided it would be a good day to break in Connor's New Balance shoes.  I can't believe he's wearing a size 10 already!

 Connor's shoe and my shoe...  My 4 year old is quickly catching up to me.  Won't be long and he's going to be taller than I am and wearing bigger shoes!

 We started the day off with a walk around the block with the dogs.  Connor typically walks Nala, but decided he wanted to walk "his pal" Chloe this time.

 Then we hit the Cheney Parks with George, his new octopus.  Park #1: Golden Hills park, located in the middle of a fairy tale housing development.  The houses look like they are out of a princess fairy tale with crazy bright colors, white picket fences and lots of detailed wood work. 
Can you see George?  Yeah, me either.  He stayed in the car for this park.  Instead Connor brought his tiny yellow dinosaur, who we almost left at the park... and Connor about had a panic attach when we got in the car and he realized his dinosaur was missing.

 Park #2: Sutton park, located across from Eastern Washington University.  Oh there you are George!  Your much easier to find if Connor decides to put you down so he can scale to the top of the jungle gym.

 Park #3: Veterans' Memorial Park, located just down from Eastern Washington University and across from the Fire Station.

 great balancing Connor and George!

 the veterans' monument is located in the middle of the park

 Park #4: Centennial park, located next to this under ground earth house.

We had fun showing George all the parks in Cheney.. and George had fun too, until Connor met two other little boys at the last park and decided to toss George aside and play with them instead.
Connor is such a social kid. He's very outgoing and can't wait to start pre-school again next week.