Wed, 30 March (Noahs bday)

Well it was very hard to get out of bed this morning and then to put on business casual was even worse.  I just wanted to wear sweatpants and a sweatshirt but no can do.  Funeral wear is a MUST!

So as always the first class was Communications and we were informed that our first test will be sometime next week - not Monday because he does not believe in Monday tests but it will be next week.  We talked about self concept and empathy and that scientist who have done research on twins separated at birth claim that empathy is not only learned by your environment but that it is also hereditary.  Who would have thought?

As always accounting was a joke.  He (I still do not know what this professors name is) decided to finally go over our 21 pages of homework - it didnt help much because he put the answers up on a transparency and we just corrected our pages.  He didnt explain why things were the way they are - just gave us the answers. Again, he said this is simple, why are you guys having problems?  He also kept telling us not to worry because the test is open book.  All of the tests are until I am a Senior...great, so what happens when I can't use the book?  However, I am happy to say that I had the majority of the ledgers right.  There were a few things that I had wrong like I did not know what a drawing was but thanks to Eddie the guy who sits beside me I do.  A Drawing is money that the owner pays themselves.
Next class was Law....did I say Law? Well it was supposed to be but Professor whats his name decided to skip law and continue giving us answers to the accounting.  Is Law going to be open book too? I dont think so.

Then on to one of my favorite classes: Restorative Arts.  We learned the difference between emaciation, dehydration, and desiccation of tissues. An emaciated body will have a long leanness and waster condition of tissues.  Dehydrated: the tissue has experienced a reduction in normal moisture content and desiccation is where the tissues are void of moisture content.  Bodies that are in a desiccated state will not absorb filling when trying to get the face to a normal appearance.  We also learned what constitutes major restorations which includes restoration of dismembered body parts such as decapitation and severed limbs and treatment of 3rd degree burn victims.

Embalming class was next - another one of my favorites.  We will have our first test on Tuesday at 1130. Wish me luck.  Im sure most of you think that the primary purpose of embalming is to preserve the body but it is not.  The Primary purpose is to disinfect and kill the microbial (disease causing) pathogens.  99% of these pathogens will be reduced if proper embalming is done.  Even I didnt think about the risk that embalmers take when embalming a body, there are studies to see how many funeral directors have communicable diseases such as Hep B etc....  In olden days they used arsenic to embalm the body but some families with a lot of children who couldnt afford all of them started killing their children slowly with arsenic and when an investigation was conducted they would not find anything out of the ordinary because the embalming used arsenic so eventually they switched to formaldehyde.  Formaldehyde is a dual purpose chemical as it preserves and disinfects.  what it does is coagulates the bodies protein.  It helps the body be resistant to putrefaction and decay.  By the way you definitely want to decay rather than putrefy!

Last class was Funeral History.  We learned about Egyption Mythology and their Gods today. The below info is not the exact info from class but it is pretty much what we learned. Enjoy!

The Cult of Isis- Background

The cult of Isis originated in Egypt and went through two major stages. In its older Egyptian version, which was not a mystery religion, Isis was regarded as the goddess of heaven, earth, the sea, and the unseen world below. In this earlier stage, Isis had a husband named Osiris. The cult of Isis became a mystery religion only after Ptolemy the First introduced major changes, sometime after 300 B.C. In the later stage, a new god named Serapis became Isis’s consort. Ptolemy introduced these changes in order to synthesize Egyptian and Greek concerns in his kingdom, thus hastening the Hellenization of Egypt.

From Egypt, the cult of Isis gradually made its way to Rome. While Rome was at first repelled by the cult, the religion finally entered the city during the reign of Caligula (A.D. 37-41). Its influence spread gradually during the next two centuries, and in some locales it became a major rival of Christianity. The cult’s success in the Roman Empire seems to have resulted from its impressive ritual and the hope of immortality offered to its followers.

The Cult of Isis- The Basic Myth

The basic myth of the Isis cult concerned Osiris, her husband during the earlier Egyptian and nonmystery stage of the religion. According to the most common version of the myth, Osiris was murdered by his brother who then sank the coffin containing Osiris’s body into the Nile river. Isis discovered the body and returned it to Egypt. But her brother-in-law once again gained access to the body, this time dismembering it into fourteen pieces which he scattered widely. Following a long search, Isis recovered each part of the body. It is at this point that the language used to describe what followed is crucial. Sometimes those telling the story are satisfied to say that Osiris came back to life, even though such language claims far more than the myth allows. Some writers go even further and refer to the alleged “resurrection” of Osiris. One liberal scholar illustrates how biased some writers are when they describe the pagan myth in Christian language: “The dead body of Osiris floated in the Nile and he returned to life, this being accomplished by a baptism in the waters of the Nile.”³

The Cult of Isis-  Influencing the New Testament?

This biased and sloppy use of language suggests three misleading analogies between Osiris and Christ: (1) a savior god dies and (2) then experiences a resurrection accompanied by (3) water baptism. But the alleged similarities, as well as the language used to describe them, turn out to be fabrications of the modern scholar and are not part of the original myth. Comparisons between the resurrection of Jesus and the resuscitation of Osiris are greatly exaggerated.⁴ Not every version of the myth has Osiris returning to life; in some he simply becomes king of the underworld. Equally far-fetched are attempts to find an analogue of Christian baptism in the Osins myth.⁵ The fate of Osiris’s coffin in the Nile is as relevant to baptism as the sinking of Atlantis.

As previously noted, during its later mystery stage, the male deity of the Isis cult is no longer the dying Osiris but Serapis. Serapis is often portrayed as a sun god, and it is clear that he was not a dying god. Obviously then, neither could he be a rising god. Thus, it is worth remembering that the post-Ptolemaic mystery version of the Isis cult that was in circulation from about 300 B.C. through the early centuries of the Christian era had absolutely nothing that could resemble a dying and rising savior-god.

Interesting right?  Well one more day this week and then I get to go see the family.  I think we are going to celebrate Noahs birthday at Chuck E Cheese this weekend! That will be a nice break!!

Happy Tuesday

Hi Everyone!  Its Tuesday and school was ....well....school.
I always arrive at around 0710 and go in, today it was FREEZING in the classroom!  Although classes are only 50 minutes by the end of the day (at 1:20) I am ready to take a nap.    At least I know I am not alone, most people in class feel the same way and surprisingly enough many of the students are living away from home to attend school and go home on weekends.  Another thing that is surprising is that there are at least 5 students older than I am! (A lot more that look older than I do, so thats nice too!)  Anyway todays classes were okay, nothing really exciting.  I can not wait until we start getting into practicals and clinicals.  I want to learn the hands on stuff.

First class of the morning was Communications - this is not the class you want when you just get to school after waking up.  It is so boring.  The teacher is cool and is ex-Navy so he is always calling me Petty Officer. :)  Today we learned about characteristics of competent communications and misconceptions about communication and talked about the movie Nell - many of the youngen's had never heard of the movie.  Then I felt old but only for  a few minutes.

Next class was Restorative Art, did I tell you that there are 2 ways for a restorative artist to achieve acceptable color?  Well there are, these are external and internal cosmetology.  External cosmetology is of course by applying complexion coloring to the tissues of the face, head, neck, and hands by brush, pad, sponge, hand or spray.  The second is Internal.  That is by adding dyes or stains to the embalming fluid.  There are 4 incentives to becoming proficient in restorative arts.   1.  To provide a comforting psychological effect on the family, to aid the family through the grief cycle by emphasizing the reality of death, to create good public relations for the funeral home and practitioner,  to meet the responsibilities and obligations towards the family that has asked for his help.

The next class was accounting...This class was a JOKE!!!! Everyone is having issues and instead of going over homework and trying to explain further he brought in transparencies of past compentency exams to show us what type of questions are on the competencies and national board.  At this rate he should just give us the answers if he is not going to teach.

Next was Law and guess what...I have the same teacher that I have for accounting.  He went through the book and literally read the definitions for words that were in the book (the definitions are in the book as well), he didnt tell us any stories or teach anything or tell us why courts are the way they are or anything.  Just definitions and then he said okay you have the 10 questions at the end of chapter to do, go ahead and do them.  He spoke maybe 20 minutes of the 50 minute class.  The man can not teach at all!!!! Why are we even paying for these classes?  We are teaching ourselves.

Embalming....We learned that Embalming means: Em: in, on, or about and Balm: a sticky balsamic resinous substance.  Embalming is the process of chemically treating a dead human body to reduce the presence and growth of microorganisms by the disinfection process.  You must have prior approval to embalm unless it is mandated by the law due to the deceased having a communicable disease, this is required regardless if the family wants it or not.  You can also embalm as long as approval has been obtained (verbally or in writing) by the next of kin.  If the next of kin says embalm but no one else in the family does...oh well, the NOK has overall ruling.  If a funeral director tries to get permission from the family and has tried 3 different family members 3 different times and they can not get a hold of them and there is no reason to believe the family does not want embalming done and other family members in the past have been embalmed then the funeral director can go ahead and embalm but all three of these items must be followed and permisson must be given after the fact as soon as you see the family.

Well thats it for today, have law homework, need to try and figure out the accounting I did not finish last night and need to read over my notes.  Have a great night!

Funeral History was last class of the day and it was better....We learned about different cultures and what they did with their dead.  Some early Native Americans were so afraid to touch a dead body that they literally left them where they fell.  The Mongolians threw their dead to a horde of dogs that lived outside the city walls.  Many ancient people practiced Zulus which is the practice of burning the deceased belongings to keep evil spirits away.  The babylonians immersed the body in earthen jars filled with honey or wax.  Peruvians placed the deceased in squatting positions  Some cultures believe in Suttee which was a universal custom of  burning the deceased's wife to death.  All people wail at funerals.  Some cultures even pay people to wail at the service to ward off evil spirits.
Do you know that many of the things we do normally such as walking up to the body, eating food afterwards, and even giving eulogies have roots back to ancient times?  Pretty cool eh?

Last Class was Funeral History.

Monday, 28 March 2011

Well Monday is here, back to school!  It was an okay day!  First Class of the day was Communications. We learned that communication refers to the process of human beings responding to symbolic behavior or to other persons.  It is a human survival skill needed to maintain contact with the world.  Aren't you excited?  We also learned the types of communication, functions of communication, and modeling communication.  Now that you are all as board as I was and am in that class I will get on to more exciting things.

The next to horrific hours were in accounting. Our professor has no clue how to teach - again, he told us this himself.  He jumps from one thing to another and does not explain why he does what he does.  Can I just say that T accounts are confusing?  During class I seemed to understand but as soon as I brought home my 21 pages of homework I lost all of the information and knowledge I thought I had.  Can I tell you that I know enough, to  know that I do not know enough!  How do you keep track of where debits and credits go and why are they both positive and negative depending on which account you are using?  How do you know what should go where?  Help!!!! I heard that most of our tests in here will be open book. Yippee - but I still think I have to understand this stuff even to use then book!

Accounting was followed by Mortuary Law. It was a pretty cool class so far but we learned a lot about the history of funeral service which kind of made our last class (History of funeral service) redundant.  Did you know that since the dawn of man societies have had some form of disposition and ceremony of the body at death?  Embalming became necessary during the civil war and it was in the late 1800's when licensing for embalming and funeral directing became required.  There are four different foundations of funeral service.  They are Religious, Philosphical, Psychological, and sociological.  There are 5 factors: psychological, religious, racial, social and economic.  My professor for this class is a veterinarian who graduated from Purdue and then went back to school for Funeral Service and is now he coroner for her county!  Cool!  She is very loud and speaks very highly of herself.

Last class of the day was Funeral Service History.  We learned that Funerak Customs are as old as the history of manm preceding such more recent developments as the treatment of disease, the formation of governments, and even the formation of definite religious beliefs.  There are 4 natural means of body preservation and 11 artificial means of preservation.  The Paleolithic era or stone age was the first to have a funeral adn to first draw pictures of burials.  The one thing I didnt like about this class was its definition of Pagans.  "A Pagan is one who has little or no religion and who delights in sensual pleasures and material goods; heathen; an irreligious or hedonistic person."  Wow that is nothing like the real Pagan.  Pagans are so non-materialistic that I have no idea where the author of our information got theirs.  Strange.

School today was okay, people are starting to talk more.  It still amazes me the type of clothes some of these people are wearing when we are supposed to be in business casual.. Some look like they should be on a street corner.  Well about to get to bed.  Post more tomorrow!

* Just want to say thank you to my wonderful and gorgeous husband and beautiful kids for standing by me and supporting me.  LOVE YOU!

Day 3

Well today was much better.  In communications class we did an exercise where you have to sit back to back and you have to give instructions to the person who is sitting behind you on how to draw a certain picture.  Needless to say we didnt do so well. It was fun though! I am thinking about trying to test out since I have had numerous communication classes.  We will see.

My second class was Restorative Art.  We learned a lot of definitions but they were interesting ones.  Like the definition of embalming classic and contemporary.  We also learned that when reconstructing to help with size the size of the ear is the same size as the nose and that the distance from the top of the forehead to the top of the bridge of the nose is the same distance as the nose to the chin.  God made us pretty even it seems.  There were a few other ones that are escaping my mind right now. My professor is the President of the College and the best restorative Art person in the Nation!!! He must be if he is going to teach me to make body parts out of wax so that they are recognizable! LOL!

Then we had accounting.  The cool thing about this college is that we don't have to leave the classroom all day.  The professors come to us.   Back to accounting....All I can say is AGGGGGGHHHHHH! Does anyone understand T accounts?  I was so lost.  It didnt help that this kid behind me whose Daddy owns a funeral home was sitting behind me and talking to the guy beside him.  He was so distracting.  He is 19 and drives a mercedes.  Nice kid but definitely has the I really dont need to be here attitude.  Guess I will be reading a lot of accounting at home this weekend.

Last class today (because one of the professors wasnt making it in) was Embalming.  We learned a lot of definitions in there too.  We also learned that you have to get permission to embalm from the family, it is just  not automatic!  You only embalm if it is an open casket.  Otherwise no embalming is necessary so the family does not have to pay.  If it is a direct burial or cremation or a closed casket and a refrigeration unit is available no embalming is necessary! Interesting stuff.

Last we had a class meeting concerning class funds, at the end of the year right before graduation we have a banquet which the class has to pay for so we were talking about fundraisers and bake sales and stuff.  We even had a dress down day today for $2.00.  I thought I was away from "civilian clothes" day when I retired! LOL! 

I am getting ready to go home for the weekend, kids will be going home as well, so when I come back it will be just me.  That will be tooooo quiet.

Talk to you Monday!

2nd day

Well today was another boring day.  I had Communications, Mortuary Law, Accounting, Funeral History, and Embalming I.  However, since it was the first day of class it was really just rules and regulations and cans and can nots.  All of the new junior's (me included) were added to the class that started as General Ed's 6 months ago.  These students have been together for 6 months so they were not very receptive to the 18 new people.  The guys finally starting talking to  us but you know how women are...they were kind of bitchy to all of us new females.  Oh well, I dont really care, I am there to learn!  We already have homework in Accounting and Law.  Seems pretty easy so far.  We have 5 tests in thr 11 weeks with a final.  If our grade is a 93.5 or higher we dont have to take the final for each class.  However, we only get 2 free "absent" days per 11 weeks after that every absent day costs  us 3 points off our grade.  So I will not miss any days! Need all the points I can use.  Tomorrow is dress down day, for $2.00 we can wear jeans and tshirts if we want. (or whatever is comfortable).  We also have to pay $2.00 for pizza.  I guess we also have a meeting tomorrow at 1:20 for an hr and then off for the weekend.  I will be heading home this weekend.  :) Talk to you tomorrow!

Orientation

So the last two days (and the first two days) of school consisted of student orientation.  We had to sign zero tolerance policies on Sexual Harrassment, Drugs, and Alcohol.  We also were given our student handbooks and told how to dress - trust me some people need the help.  Some of them came to class with piercings everywhere (nose, ear, chin, cheek, lip) and with all of their tattoos showing.  We were told at orientation that we were to arrive in business casual clothing, no tattoos showing, and no piercings other than ears and people still showed up looking like they just woke up or crawled out of a box. 
I am really lucky, many of the students are only eligible for an Associates Degree, and some of them even need to take offsight classes to ensure they have all of the requirements needed for that.  I am eligible for my Bachelors and do not need to take any additional classes to complete.  I just need to get good grades. My goal is a 95 or above (we shall see).
Today we had to take the Nelson-Denny Vocab and comprehension test.  That was easy!  We also received our text books... Restorative Art, Law for Business, two books of understanding Human Communication, embalming, history, theory, and practice, and two college accounting books.
We start classes tomorrow.  I have Communications, accounting, mortuary administration, and funeral history. 
I also just spoke to a local funeral home and will hopefully have an interview sometime this week.  Need to work, need the money!
I am going to try and blog every day so you can all know what is going on with me at school.
Alexis, Jordan, and Jaedan are here and you can tell they ARE NOT use to being in an apt. I can not get them to understand how important it is to be QUIET!!
Talk to you tomorrow!