Overwhelmed and Underpaid

I recently had a decision to make, one that will change the course of my life and the course of the life that Dear Hubby and I are building together. It will change my time with The Rapscallion, it will take my focus away from hobbies and friends. It means that Dear Hubby and I will continue the balancing act we preform with our finances, it means I will continue with my adventures in retail sales and work most evenings and weekends.

The original plan was for me to be done with my dental assisting certificate this spring, my friend Jules and I would be graduating at the same time and we were planning a girls get-away weekend on a short Mexican cruise to celebrate our accomplishments. Now I may still try to go but it will be to support her and celebrate her accomplishments because when I would return it will be back to another semester.

I have decided to pursue Dental Hygiene as my major. I will still finish my dental assisting certificate and sit for my national boards but while I am doing that I will be completing my pre-requisites to get into the Dental Hygiene program. I am looking at about 3-1/2 more years of school (counting pre-requisites) if all goes as planned I should be done with school before I am 35.

I felt a little backed into a corner in regards to this decision, I was told by the college that I had too many existing credits to continue to receive financial aid for my dental assisting certificate (I had taken about 3 semesters of college before I was 21) I was told that if I wanted to pursue a higher degree program I could continue to receive financial aid as long as I am taking pre-requisites towards my stated major.

So I talked; I talked to my Mom and Dad, who have graciously supported me and Dear Hubby during all of this. I talked to Dear Hubby, who offered his unconditional support and love about whatever decision I made. I talked to friends, I talked to my college counselor, to customers, to my coworkers, I might have even had an in depth conversation with Puppy Butt. I called GiGi, who is Dear Hubby's father's wife (did you follow all that?) she is Dental Hygienist and I had questions that I felt like only she could answer. Everyone said basically the same thing, I had their support.

Then I talked to Bean's boyfriend, I was driving him and Dear Hubby home from a party and he laid everything out in black and white for me. Financially the decision to continue my education will significantly change where Dear Hubby and I will be in the future, for me it has never been just about the money. I love dentistry, I love working with patients, I love everything about this field (ok some maybe not the smell of an infected abscess which had to be drained before the tooth could be pulled, that was pretty rank) it hasn't been about the money but I can't ignore that the salary difference will allow me more freedom later in life.

So there it is, that is where I have been. Overworked, overwhelmed, underpaid and having a slight mental breakdown. I am back, I hope to post more regularly. I missed you.

Hours in a Day

Overwhelmed, that is how I am feeling right now.

I am down to my last 6 weeks for this semester (budget cuts mean no summer school) I will return to being a student in the fall. While I am excited and proud to be at this point, I am also stressed, the work is getting harder and we have begun practicing on each other in our labs.

Which on a side note, have I mentioned how wonderful my lab partner is? She is, we will call her Hummingbird, she rocks for a variety of reasons, the least of which is allowing me to stick my fingers in her mouth and quasi-gag her a few time on Monday while trying to take an impression of her teeth. She is a good sport and honestly becoming a good friend.

Work is good, I am over the initial nervousness but now I am faced with knowing a little but not enough to always feel totally confident on the selling floor. The management team at my store has been really supportive and it makes learning and working a very pleasant experience.

But it still takes time; I am lucky to be working but the added hours along with studying, homework, driving, sleeping, showering, eating, and trying to tread water as a housekeeper, wife and stepmum leave me quite exhausted.

I know this blog is suffering, its not that I am not thinking about you, writing blogs while I should be straightening out tables of undergarments. Reminding myself to remember this funny story that happened in class to share with you. Text messaging myself random dental facts that I think you would like to hear about. You guys are on my mind often but then I get home and all the activity of the day leaves me overwhelmed and I have to sit quietly and let the buzzing trickle out of my brain enough for me to get some sleep to start over the next day.

I will try to make you guys a priority one day a week, I would love to show you the flowers we planted, or how we are redoing the Rapscallions bathroom (a project I was trying to finish before the in-laws arrived) since super-sister-in-law is arriving tomorrow I am hoping that they are ok with my half finished projects because once they get here I want to spend all my time cuddling with their finished project, my little nephew.

Report Card Time

and guess what I got?

2 Girls 1 Dental Cup

I can see a scary future for the time being, if you don't want to listen to me prattle on about Dental Vocabulary you may not want to start a conversation with me any time during the next few weeks because right now I have a one track mind and that one track is playing all dental hits, all the time!

Classes for my Dental Assisting program started Tuesday. I was 30 minutes late to class because of the torrential rainfall that Las Vegas has had recently, again another semester with me impressing the Professor right off the bat, at least this time I didn't also point out that she wasn't wearing matching shoes.

Today I heard a story that I am not sure if it grosses me out completely or makes me completely weirded out that I am not scared off by it. One of the students who is ahead of me and already completing her internship at the dental clinic was talking about assisting when a badly infected and abscessed tooth was extracted. She was describing the putrid smell and how it was her job as the assistant to hydrate and suction out the area, she said afterwards she couldn't get the smell off her tools fast enough. When relating this story to my SMIL, I just expressed the hope that if I am ever in that position that I won't vomit into the patients mouth, no thought of changing majors, just the hope that I never puke in someones mouth.

I guess I found my calling.