Free Breast Self-Exam Shower Card, A Video & Farewell

"As part of the three-step breast health approach, Susan G. Komen for the Cure recommends that beginning by age 20, women become familiar with the look and feel of their breasts through monthly breast self-examination (BSE). Komen for the Cure offers a variety of BSE cards in different languages and for specific populations. You can order a free BSE card."

Also, I came across this video online about a 60 mile 3 day walk for breast cancer: http://www.cnn.com/2007/HEALTH/conditions/10/22/cancer.walk/index.html. Makes 5K look like a walk in the park.

As for the farewell, I'm only saying good bye for one week. I'll return next Friday to post pics from the race and tell you how it went, after I turn in my 20 page research paper for my history class. 1.5 pages down, 18.5 to go! Pray for me!

Whew! Test 2 is over.

It's been one crazy week. Once Roger left I had to hussle this weekend to get caught up with all the reading for both of my classes plus write a paper for my history class and study for my anthropology test. I didn't go into the test on Thursday feeling good. I felt like I needed another day to prepare but I didn't have a another day. And after I finished it I felt the same. There was a lot of material on this exam and it wasn't easy material to remember. Just to list a few things: we had to know all the traits of, physical and behavioral differences between and the history of the appearance for each species in the genus of Australopithecines and Homo; the characteristics of each era, period and epoch of time from the Pre-Cambrian to the present; plus all the traits and differences of each taxonomic order (phylum, subphylum, superclass, class, order, suborder, infraclass, superfamily, subfamily, genus, species) of primates and what they aren't; plus a bunch of other stuff. It was just a lot to remember. I was quite worried about my grade.

But today we received the email from the teaching assistant that the grades were up. He explained they dropped the two most missed questions and applied a curve. There are two possible curves for each exam: (1) Subtract the highest grade from 100 and add the difference, or (2) subtract the raw average from 75 and add the difference. The highest raw score was 86 (+14). The raw average was 56 (+19). Therefore, 19 points were added to every grade. So I rushed to see what I made. My final grade after the curve was a 92. I was shocked. I couldn't believe it then I had to know what my real grade was, 73. That's how I felt about my grade after I took the test. I know this is going to sound mean, but thank goodness so many people did so bad on the test because it made the curve larger and my grade higher. This is going to sound really bad, but it seems like me doing good in this class depends on others doing not so good. I know, that's so sad. But I'm ready to get back to my normal schedule and stay up with my reading. And Roger's not here to distract me. Oh, also, I made a 93 and a 92 on my last two history papers. So I'm doing good in that class. Not a surprise that history is my major. Two more tests in anthropology and three more papers in history. I'm off to read some anthropology homework. That's my Friday night.

Busy, Busy Weekend

I'm blogging right now because I'm avoiding reading my anthropology homework. And I'm really behind! Okay, I'm really not that far behind, but I don't like to be behind at all. I'm trying to finish reading Tuesday's reading. Chapter 6: Deep Time and Evolution is killing me. That's why I'm doing this. I'm so avoiding it. I'm only half way through and there's 18 pages left. Then I have to start Thursday's reading. I'm sure Chapter 7: Hominid Evolution in the Pliocene and Pleistocene Epochs is going to be great! The class lectures and the secondary sources he assigns are really interesting, but the textbook for this class is awful! I mean, it's science, so it's not like the textbook is going to be like reading a novel or something. And thank goodness the professor doesn't know this blog exists because he wrote the textbook. But it's awful! Thank goodness next week's reading is completely from secondary sources and will go fast while Roger's here. I've got to get through this reading though. I have so much to do this weekend. I have a plan for every waking moment of the weekend in order to get ahead on my history research paper so I don't have as much to do while Roger's here. Tonight I'm going to organize and complete my source research. Tomorrow will be start and complete my primary source summary and presentation. Monday will be anthropology reading, maybe, and start the introduction and outline for my research paper. I'm going to need a lot of caffeine this weekend.

I'm not sure what Roger's up to this weekend. He's staying with John & Tamra. He had to get away from Walter Reed. He had a really trying day on Thursday. Thank goodness he's coming home Tuesday because he really needs to get away from there. It's hard enough to live there every day, but it seems like once a week something happens to make the place even more unbearable. And Thursday was a doozy with several things happening on the same day. I can hear the frustration in his voice. And it sucks for me because I can't do anything to help except listen and allow him to vent and pray for him. So please pray for him. I know he's more than ready to leave that place for good. He just called me. They are on there way to the church's softball team "practice" then over to another guys house to play Xbox. He needs to decompress. Don't worry, Roger doesn't play softball, although if he hadn't fractured his finger he could. He just takes pictures. And he really enjoys that. He's been bitten by the photography bug.

Okay, okay, I'm going to get back to reading. Please pray for me!

Stuff Going On This Week

Well, I got my research proposal back from my history professor yesterday. I made a 93, which I'm happy about and I got some good feedback from her which has helped me narrow down my topic. I met with her yesterday after my second class and we discussed my research and the topic itself. Since it's a current event unraveling as I type, it's pretty interesting to people in her field. I'll post about it specifically later.

So now I have to read all my sources and this weekend I will be preparing for a primary source presentation I have to make next Tuesday or Thursday. We'll get more details tomorrow and I need to know what she wants before I decide which primary source I will present. I will pick the one that will help me meet all her requirements. That's another way to make it in college. Give the professors what they want. Which brings me to my anthropology class. This week we are starting to cover evolution. We got the lecture from our professor in class yesterday that even if we don't agree with him on evolution and we don't have to, we should keep an open mind, yadda, yadda, yadda. I usually sit on the front or second row and I couldn't figure out why he kept looking at me. Then I realized I was wearing a Women of Faith t-shirt. I'm sure he probably assumes he knows my opinion regarding evolution, but until you sit down with me, you won't know how I feel about it. I have to say as a person interested in history and anthropology, the fossil record is exciting and interesting to me. Some scientific people can't see God in there at all, but I do. And I'm going to give him what ever he wants on his test in order for me to get the best grade possible. I'm not even going to go there with him nor interrupt class. That's just disrespectful. I'm sure that if I really wanted to discuss evolution with him, he'd be happy to meet with me during his office hours.

And some really great news: Roger's coming home next Tuesday (Oct 2nd) for a week of leave! I'm so excited! I can't wait for him to be home. I will have a lot of reading to do while he's here because the week after he gets here, I have to turn in my research paper introduction and outline and whatever reading is required for both classes, but we'll manage. My goal is once I start writing it, I'm just going to try to finish it completely so as the semester progresses, I can keep tweaking it but basically be done. Especially since I'm going to DC for Thanksgiving and the final paper is due the week after. Roger and I don't have many plans while he's here, except a David Crowder Band concert at La Zona Rosa on Thursday, because we hope to spend as much time together as possible. So don't plan on seeing much of us, if at all. :)

Just a quick note about something exciting for me that happened this weekend. I've been going to Austin Stone Community Church since we moved back and this Sunday, Chris Tomlin actually was there leading worship. It was so cool. This was the first time I've seen him at church and I wasn't expecting to see him any time soon. So that was exciting especially since our friends Jonas and Darcey stayed at our house this weekend and they were able to see and experience him too. Darcey sings on the worship team at our church in DC so I'm sure she was stoked. It was a very moving, Spirit-filled worship experience for us all.

One Exam Down, Three To Go

Wow, my anthropology test yesterday wasn't as hard as I imagined. There was a lot of material to cover plus no one knew what he wanted from each reading. The test review/study session was really helpful. After the test was done, I felt like I probably made a B. We received an email today from the teaching assistant that our grades were up online. So of course I had to see what I made. He did explain that they dropped the two most missed questions and applied a curve. There are two possible curves for each exam: (1) Subtract the highest grade from 100 and add the difference, or (2) subtract the raw average from 75 and add the difference. The highest raw score was 94 (+6). The raw average was 66 (+9). So they added 9 points to everyone's raw score. My score posted online was an 89 which means I really made an 80. But I'll take the 89. One point from an A. So my intial feelings after the test were correct. And now that I know how he tests and what and how to study I should do better on the next test. Yeah! I'm so excited about my test grade!

I turned in my research proposal for my history class at midnight last night. It wasn't due until 5pm today but I decided to turn it in and get it over with. I'm telling you, I love technology. It's so cool I don't have to wait until next class on Tuesday to see my grade and I can turn in my assignments online from any where. I love that professors are using technology to their full potential!

Now more reading for both classes plus extra reading and research for my history paper. Thanks for the prayers! Have a great weekend!