Study, Study, Study! (With a little dieting, too!)

Oh my. My eyes are tired, my brain is FULL and my laundry is overflowing! I have been studying NON stop for this test. I am so nervous, but I know that many people are praying for me and I have prepared well. Braelyn is at Mimi's house for today, tonight and tomorrow to allow me some evening study time.

My graduation present was the latest iPhone (thanks again Mom Hall!) and there is an app for EVERYthing these days! Our latest find is an app called "myFitnessPal" and it has motivated both of us to go on a little diet. Well, Joe's diet seems little. Mine seems HUGE! This app keeps track of everything. The main thing is you can log everything you eat. It's like a free, better, weight watchers! It has a barcode scanner where you just hold your phone up to the barcode on the food box and it automatically scans it while importing all the nutrition facts. So easy. Joe has it on his Droid, too. It has almost every restaurants menu in their directory along with all their nutrition facts. I am really going to try and stick with this thing. I have some beautiful clothes in my closet that I dont fit into right now...there's some good motivation.

Joe is taking this semester off of school, after much debate. He just needed to give himself a break. He was really having a hard time keeping up with the constant demands of work, home, school and anything else life decided to throw at him. He is currently in his 3rd week of training for CASA. Court Appointed Special Advocate for children. It is a volunteer program and he is training to advocate for the best interests of abused and neglected children requiring court intervention. He is basically a mentor to these children. He will go and make home visits to assess living conditions and potential abuse, testify in court, make recommendations about whether a child should be removed from a home or not, etc. At the end of his 10 week training, he will be sworn in by a judge and have his picture in the newspaper! They welcome family to come and be apart of it. (Oct. 11th- mom and dad Hall!) It's all very exciting and I am so proud of him. It really takes a special person to take on something like that. I know that I wouldn't be able to do it. I am thankful that God created people like Joe who are.

Mimi & Braelyn at Mommy's graduation!

Braelyn 22 months.

New Pediatrician

I *promise* to write more now that school is over. I am an ALUM with a nursing degree! How exciting! I take state boards on August 31st, so I have spent plenty of time studying for that.

I finally bit the bullet and switched Braelyn's doctor...something I have been swearing I would do for months. They have misdiagnosed her twice in the last few months and this latest was the last straw. On Saturday morning, one of her eyes was crusty and oozing. Cardinal signs of pink eye. I took her in for a sick visit and he seemed very annoyed. She has a green runny nose, oozing eyes, fluid in her ear and a cough. He told me she had a "summer cold." Um, excuse me? A summer cold? It was very obvious to me that some kind of infection was present however, he refused her any antibiotics. Only gave her some eye drops that we found out from the pharmacist aren't recommended for kids under 2. Needless to say, her eyes are not getting better despite the drops. I called again today to request that he call her in some oral antibiotics and he refused without seeing her AGAIN. And can't see her until tomorrow. That was it for me. I called another very highly recommended pediatrician that saw Braelyn in the hospital when she was born. The only reason we didn't continue with her is because they didn't accept our insurance. After explaining the situation to them, they have agreed to accept Brae as a patient. :) I am thrilled. I know that she will get competent care from someone I can trust. (I know that Grammie will be happy about this change!)

Other than that, it's just job searching and lots and lots of praying!

Mommy & Braelyn having some webcam fun!