Well I was obsessively checking the Qtac website last night, after a tip off that the offers would be out early, finally there was something new to look at.
Unfortunately we can not offer you a position in your first preference.
My stomach dropped and I fought to hold back the tears. How did I not get in? I did think that if I did get in in would be only just, but I really thought that my score of 89 would be competitive enough. Apparently not.
Why? Why? Why?
A million things ran through my head as I tried to see the positive of not getting an offer. I can't. This is the course I want. Not nursing and Not midwifery in Brisbane. There is no positive spin I can put on not getting an offer.
I've been on the phone all day trying to work out my options. First up I called Qtac, and was advised that 90 and above got in. I MISSED OUT BY ONE DAMN POINT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Then after talking to the person in charge of the degree I was informed that over 900 people had put it down in their preferences, that is just an unbelievable amount of people to be competing with. Also, because the course can be done mostly externally, there were so many rural and out of states applicants.
I'm stuck and have no idea what to do. I have a few options, but at the moment NONE of them sound even remotely close to what I want.
Firstly, I could change my preference to Midwifery at ACU Brisbane (you know, the one I rejected last year!) and at least then I'd be on the Midwifery journey and hopefully get awesome results and be able to transfer to Griffith next year. The cons of that are the expense of travelling, the time needed for travelling, maybe not getting into Griffith next year and being stuck doing my whole degree in Brisbane.
There is also the option of Southern Cross Uni at Tweed, they also do the Bach of Mid. It's not a fantastic course though, and it involves full time blocks of clinical which would be a nightmare trying to organise kids around. Its also a lot of at uni time, with not much flexibility for external study. Thing is, I'm not even sure I'd get in there now as even though I'm above the cut off, it all depends if there are any places left.
Second option is to change a preference to Griffith Nursing, and do really well and hopefully get an internal transfer into Midwifery next year. This option would be quite easy, in that yes I would be doing full-time uni but it would be close to home and not have all the follow through requirements that Mid has. Cons of this are that I DON'T WANT TO DO NURSING and what if I don't get a transfer and get stuck finishing a nursing degree that I am not motivated with?
Last option is to just not do anything again this year and apply for Griffith next year. I'm trying to work out from the selectors what I could do to improve my chances of next year. This is a bit of a gamble, as what if I don't get in again? If I was to do this I'd have to be 100% with one of the above options, but then I'd be kicking myself if I didn't get in and I could have at least started this year.
I really don't know what to do. I've spent the day going over and over everything, and calling ever contact I have at Griffith hoping for a sympathy place. I've got the person in charge of selection calling me back tomorrow with a yay or nay as to whether second round offers will be made. She didn't sound too hopeful today when I spoke to her that it would be happening, but maybe luck will fall on my side and someone will drop out and I'll get a place. Fat chance.
It sucks!
Thursday, January 14, 2010
The nervous wait......
Wednesday, January 13, 2010
Tomorrow is the official day for the major round offer for Uni. I know last year the offers were released the night before at about 9.30pm, so I'm hoping that the same will happen this year and I will be put out of my misery. My stomach is a knot of nerves and I'm all jittery, just waiting for a computer to spit out the news.
I'm so damn nervous about the result, whichever way it goes. Either I get into my first preference of Bach of Midwifery at Griffith and I'm happy but scared about studying and working with 2 small kids, but knowing that in the long term it will work out perfectly. It'll be hard, but manageable.
On the other hand, I could miss out on a spot and be left wondering what the hell I do for the next year. I'm so ready to be starting something for ME, and although another year at home with the kids is not too bad an alternative, I just want to get stuck into something NOW.
If waiting for the e-mail to come through to say that offers have been made, then I'll no doubt be too anxious to even check Qtac. I know that although my ranking is quite high, it still might not be competitive enough. There are only 50 places being offered, and I've been told about 500 applicants. I also know that there is an allocation of places that have to go to mature age and an amount that have to go to school leavers. I'm just hoping that a lot of those applicants have other courses as their first preference and I scrap in. Only 1 place has been given out in the early round offer, and that applicant had the highest score possible, ter 99. So, it is very competitive but I don't mind taking spot number 50, JUST GIVE ME A DAMN SPOT!!!!
If I do get in, there is so much that I have to organise in the next 2 weeks. Needles to be jabbed, police checks to be done, blue cards to get and to do the CPR course. Thank goodness, my Mum is coming up tonight and will be able to help me out with the kids whilst I'm (hopefully) running around getting everything done.
So, by tomorrow morning I'll either be chucking the biggest adult tantrum around or whooping it up in Office works in a flurry of post-it notes and cool stationary.
But right now, I'm off to pick my Mum up from the airport. The kids are beside themself with excitement and I can't wait to spend the next 3 and a bit weeks with my Mum. Nothing quite like having your Mum around.
Wish me luck.......
PAD #10
Tuesday, January 12, 2010
Xav at 2.5 years, teeing off at one of Australia's finest Golf Courses.
We'd spent Sunday afternoon up at Duane's work. Duane normally takes them up every Sunday by himself, but I tagged along this time, in the hope of getting some photos.
The kids practised their putting on the green and smashing their drivers at the range. After driving around in a cart to look for some kangaroos and other animals, we headed into the clubhouse for babycinnos.
Xav is amazing with his golf, he makes it look to simple with his relaxed approach and ability to never miss. He plays with real clubs that Poppy has cut down for him, and even when his little arms are drooping from fatigue, he keeps on hitting away.
They have never actually played on the course, but today was a very special day. The both got to tee off on the first. Xav nailed his straight down the middle - a perfect shot! Grace was a little unlucky, and after 3 practise swings finally connected enough to dribble the ball forward, just.
I'm sure there will be plenty of wonderful weekends spent enjoying the beautiful surroundings of the Golf Course.
Pad #9
I HATE taking my camera to the beach, always nervous that sand or water will work its way in. I also find it really hard, because of the glare, to check photos and change settings at the beach. So I only took a few shots, and this would be my favourite.
Grace spent the whole time zooming around, Xav is a bit wary of the waves so he stays nice and close to daddy and the dogs just ran around excited! So this photo has all that!
The dogs were absolutely exhausted in the car ride home, so quiet that at one stage Daune pulled over so we could check they were still breathing. BC (before children) we used to take the dogs to the beach every week, but since having the kids they have only had a few visits. It's only in the last year that we have felt comfortable watching 2 kids and 2 dogs, so hopefully there will be more beach visits for everyone.
The beach trip was followed up with an ice-cream on the way home, a wash for the dogs and a big sleep together for the humans.
PAD #8
Monday, January 11, 2010
Sounds easy right? It took me FOREVER to get the settings right, well as close to good as I could get. The iso has been bumped up as high as it could go (1600), which was needed to let enough light in, but gosh the grain and noise is terrible.
I do kinda like this pic, apart from all it's faults. I like how the sparkler is kinda in the shape of the southern cross.
Anyway, this is the best of a bad bunch.
It was Friday night and we decided to have a picnic out the front. The kids and I had spent the afternoon making chicken and prawn rice paper rolls, along with lots of little dipping sauces. The lawn was frehly mowed, and the weather was perfect for some outside dining. The kids set the the picnnic rug out, with stepping stones leading up to it. Grace dressed up for the event in one of her princess dresses and topped it off with sparkly halo.
I'd bought some sparklers, and figured they would be a good start to night photography. I was hoping to get some nice pics with both of the kids, but little Xav was petrified of them. No doubt a hangover from his feear of fireworks. Grace loved them though, totally mesmerised and as soon as one fizzled out she was begging for more.
To end the lovely night off, we decided to rent a dvd and have a movie night. I thought it was about time for Grace to be introduced to Snow White, so that is what we picked out. We made a big bed on the lounge room floor. Grace was a little scared in parts of the movie, she wasn't fond of the parts with the witch but enjoyed most of it.
Cars and gyms - both over rated.
Sunday, January 10, 2010
Damn cars and their money guzzling ways. We knew the Tarago was going to cost us big $$ after the air-con blew up, we were quoted $1200 - Eeek!
Well, before we went ahead with what is essentially a "luxury", I wanted to double check that other major repairs were not about to rear their ugly heads. We put it in for a service, and at the end were given a list of things that would need doing soon due to wear and tear. All added up to $2600, including the air-con. SO right about now the $1200 that I was whinging about last week is starting to sound like a bargain.
Ok, it's virtually free money (after all we are new money now!) so we decided to go ahead and get everything fixed up. The car was booked in last week and so I drove it down and Duane followed with the kids in the Rav. Now, the Rav had been making a strange noise too recently. My denial side had talked myself into it being a leaf or something in one of the belts. On the car ride down to take the tarago however, the noise got louder and louder. Unable to ignore it any longer, I asked the mechanic to have a quick look under the bonnet and to hopefully find the suspect leaf. Well turns out it was the water pump grinding, so to save our self a massive explosion, the Rav was put in for pampering and the tarago was re-scheduled for the following day.
So in the last week we have spent $2200 on cars, and that is NOT including the air-con. Damn I hate spending money on cars, but as we don't live within walking distance of much and the public transport is sporadic, it's a necessary evil. Hopefully the air-con will get done this week, and then it will just be services that cost us for a while.
In light of my need to "tighten" the midsection, Trude and I went to the gym. It's probably not my smartest idea, but in our eagerness we decided to do a 1/2 hour ab buster class then follow it up with a Pilates class. Now, for someone that hasn't been to the gym in a long, long time - this was bound to be interesting.
The ab class sounded nice and relaxing. I was expecting lots of floor work, so didn't worry about wearing a sports bra.
It'll be all low impact right? WRONG. The guy taking it was a sadist, I'm sure of it. He was a big beefcake, who although by the end of the class everyone in the room was verging on having a coronary, he hadn't even broke a sweat. To start with he had us jumping up a down, where I immediately cringed, knowing that the girls where only on light support. Trude started laughing, realising what my problem was. I stuck it out though and spent the next half hour experiencing ridiculous torture. So on the verge of dying, we waited for the pilates class to begin.
This one wasn't too bad, quite easy actually. Well until the Ab parts started, then Trude and I were pathetic. Our poor stomach muscles had given up and would not work, so instead of slowly lowering our self to the ground, we thumped down. There was lots of stifled giggles from us and glares from the dedicated ones up the front. It was a laugh, but enjoyable.
I've decided abs are overrated, instead I might just invest in some good suck in undies.
Hello 2010
Saturday, January 9, 2010
Gosh, I can't believe that another decade has just passed and we are into a brand spanking new one. Welcome 2010!
It certainly doesn't seem like 10 years ago that we were all welcoming in the new Millennium, unsure what the Y2K bug was going to bring. Remember when everyone was petrified that the bug would blow up all the computers and life as we knew it would be over? Well seems that the clocks could tick over, and have been for the last 10 years!
It's been a fantastic decade for me, definitely the best so far. It was all kicked off in 2000 with our wedding, and it's only gotten better from there. We bought our first house together in 2001, bought our second in 2002, bought a business, sold a business, had 2 beautiful babies, I've spent the last 4 years as a stay at home Mum, Duane completed an apprenticeship, we travelled overseas but best of all have had lots of enjoyable time together as a family of 4.
2010 is shaping up to be a fantastic year too. I find out on the 14th of this month if I am accepted into University to study Midwifery. It's no doubt going to be a tough year if I do, but it's all about the long term plan. I'm slightly in denial about how hard it actually will be though, both logistically and financially. We live on a very tight budget, so adding in extra interest rate rises for both houses, extra pre-school expenses for Grace and also when Xav starts in July, the costs of travelling to Uni and also the crazy expense of books etc - the $$ start to add up. I really don't know how it will work, but for some reason things do just work out. I know that's quite arrogant, but for some reason with us, money comes if it is needed. There have been many moments over the last 10 years that we have desperately needed money and it either comes in the form of extra Govt payments, some sort of back pay or a win. Hopefully our luck can stretch for a few more years, just until I get a job anyway! The other part that scares me is trying to juggle the demands of the course. It's not just uni time, there is also 2 shifts a week at the hospital to fit in and following the pregnancy, birth and postnatal care of 30 women over the 3 years. This means attending most of their antenatal appointments (so no doubt lots of hanging around in waiting rooms), trying to organise my family and also to be on call for births and then attending the women postnatally. Although this part of the course excites me the most, I know it's going to be hard to organise the kids for if I am called out over night. I'm just hoping and praying that it all falls into place.
I have a few things that I want to stick to this year. Firstly, If I do go to Uni, I want to try very hard to get the balance between study and family perfect. I'm willing to sacrifice some family time, but still want to spend as much time as I can with the kids and Duane. I want the time that I do spend with them to be quality time, and to work on being present in the moment. This is Grace's last year as a carefree child, before she embarks on her first year of formal education. I know this year she is going to bloom and I want to be around to enjoy it.
I want to work on my fitness. I'd love to get to the end of the year without my flabby stomach, so I'm going to try very hard to exercise every single day. Whether that be going for a walk, doing a fitness Dvd or just running around with the kids - I'll do it. Duane and I both need to be setting good examples for the kids and want them to be active. There will be lots of beach visits, trips to the park, bike riding, swimming and golf. Also lots of tickling, laughter and giggling.
I really want to improve my photography. I'm hoping to have a lesson with a photographer soon, so hopefully that will get me started. I'm slowly working my way through the camera manual, and learning lots, BUT I still feel like I really have no clue. I look back on photos I took last year, and I know that I am getting better - so hopefully this time next year I'll see big improvements.
I want to blog regularly. I love writing here, it clears my head and also leaves something for the kids to read when they are older. Before I started this blog, I had been writing in a word document and I'm hoping to transfer that all over to here and then eventually have it all printed into a book for each of the kids.
I want to take lots of little trips, whether they be day trips or camping ones. It so refreshing and exciting to get away from the normal everydayness of home, allowing time to just be together. Grace has asked to see the snow this year, so maybe a trip down that way might be in order.
So just a few things to kick-start 2010. I'm excited and nervous about what it will bring, but most of all I am just so thankful that we are beginning this new year and this new decade all healthy and happy.
