October in a nutshell

Ben and I had a wonderful time on our cruise. We stopped in Key West and Cozumel. We mostly walked around Key West, but we did visit one of the oldest aquariums in America. I could have just reached my hand right into the shark tank!

In Cozumel we went to a beach, rented a jet ski, and played on these giant inflatables in the water. I don't have pictures because I didn't want to risk losing or ruining my camera at the beach, but it was a lot of fun! Our dinner placement was a little strange; we requested to be with another couple that we were traveling with at a 4 person table. I was told they would do their best to accommodate the request, but if they couldn't we would maybe be sat with one more young couple. Well, we ended up at a ten person table with three elderly couples! It made for interesting conversation. My favorite part was the eldest couple who had been on 14 cruises, always ordering escargot when it was available. Only after eating it again this time did the wife find out that she has been eating snails for years! I could have died laughing!



It was nice to get back home to our normal life after a few days of fun. Hailey did great staying with her Grandma Coyle for the long weekend... I think it was harder on Grandma than it was on HB! She may still be recovering :)

We've been working on a lot of thing with Hailey at home, she can point to the fan, the dog, show us her feet and her belly button whenever we ask. And rather than bark when we ask "what does the dog say" or "what does Lily say" she grunts. Its adorable!

We went out last week to pick a pumpkin and she loved it. She just toddled from pumpkin to pumpkin, slapping them and laughing. Ben commented that she liked it better than the park, which is so true.

Ben is still doing great with school, and I am still happy with my work. I am going to have to work half days and half nights starting in December, which is going to be a bit of a change. But I guess I will find the best and roll with it. It will take the flexibility out of the already not so flexible weekend schedule I work, and it will require me to work extra to combat the cut in pay from night shift to dayshift. The good thing is that all of this has made me get serious about going back to school while I am still just working weekends. I am applying to the Family Nurse Practitioner program at East Carolina University (where Ben goes) for the fall of 2010. Applications are due January 2nd, but I have no idea when they send out acceptance/rejection letters. There are only 30 spots per YEAR so its really competitive. I take the GRE (its like the SAT's for graduate school) on December 1st. Wish me luck!! Actually - wish me the concentration and motivation to study every night until then!

I realize now why people have to blog almost daily... even when you think there's nothing going on in your life - there is. I will try to keep up better so that you can keep up with the Rivenbarks!

On my way out - this is an adorable of video of Hailey's friend Rosalina at her first birthday party tearing into her cupcakes. I have never seen anything like it!

The Big Fall

Hailey had her first "big fall" this week; actually her first two. On Saturday evening I was packing my dinner for work and looking in the pantry. She was standing next to me, then all of the sudden she hit the tile floor and started screaming and bleeding. She had two cuts on her lip and it started getting swollen. I couldn't wiggle her teeth so I thought they were okay. Ben kept her busy playing until bedtime and she went down great. In the morning when I got home from work Hailey woke up so I changed her diaper and checked her mouth. It was obvious that her right front tooth was pushed back up into her gum and her gum was very swollen and bruised. I called the on-call nurse... who called the pediatrician... who referred us to a pediatric dentist. On Monday morning we went to the dentist, had an xray, and got a balloon :) The dentist said that her tooth is obviously moved but hopes that it will bring itself back into place. We won't know until she loses her baby teeth if it messed up her adult teeth. We'll have a check up in 6 weeks to see if its come down at all.

In other news... Ben's car is in the shop and we are both looking forward to having to cars!! We leave for our cruise in one week and are trying to get our legal affairs in order. It's strange thinking about a will. There are some changes happening at work about when and how our schedules are going to change with the economy being bad and not being able to hire more nurses. Pray that I know what to do! I love my job and want to stay, but I have to do whats best for my family so I am pretty stressed about it. Maybe if I ignore it, it will just go away.

Hailey just went down for a nap and I am crying watching the biggest loser so I guess thats all for now!