Things are going well around the Hall household. Here are a few pics! :)

I got into the tupperware drawer!

Messy but cute :)

Check out all my chompers!

Haha, mom took this picture after dinner... she calls it the crazy baby picture!

Me and daddy

Little crawler

Hard to believe my first birthday is in just 4 weeks!

Playing catch

Payton loves to throw a ball (she's already more athletic than her mother) and even congratulates herself on a job well done. Check it out!

TGIF

Thank goodness it's Friday! I'm not used to working five days (I've been spoiled with working only four), so it just seemed like a longer week than usual. I'm finally starting to feel a little more settled at work though. All the different computer systems are making sense, and I'm becoming more familiar with scanning on the different machines. Enough about me though, I know who you really want to see! :) Payton wants to climb EVERYTHING! It's not safe to turn your eyes away from her for a second. She's been feeling so much better, back to her happy self. We've pushed her bedtime back towards 8:00, she's been waking up around 7:30 in the morning (which is awesome!) since I don't have to wake her up so early to go to work. She's been abandoning the army crawl and has been crawling regularly, even trying to bear crawl, which is hilarious to watch. Her sense of humor is really starting to emerge. The other day Kyle pretended to drink her bottle and she cracked up laughing, and she giggles and flails her arms around if you play peek a boo with her because she gets so excited. The days seem to be going by so fast...

Helping mom do laundry :)

Also helping us pack!

I have enough hair to start putting bows in!

Dad helping me drive the car - I thought it was so much fun!

Pretty blue eyes :)

I'm gonna get you!

Ooooh a glass door

I want to climb it...

I did it!

That was FUN mommy! :)

NEW!

Whew, what a whirlwind the last few days have been! My brain feels like it's about to explode with new information and experiences. The last couple days have been pretty exhausting, but we seem to be settling into a routine here pretty nicely. Kyle, Payton and I moved down to Albany on Saturday afternoon with the help of my parents (who are AWESOME by the way!) We only took the "essentials", but turns out we needed to go back to U-Haul and get a bigger truck. It's amazing how much stuff you can have that you don't even know about. Rick and Sue left Sunday for Hawaii, so it's pretty much just been me, Payton and the boys. Payton has her own room, and Kyle and I are staying in Bryan's old room, which was Kyle's room in high school (Bryan is very graciously staying in a trailer in the driveway until his wedding in March--he's the best! Thank you Uncle Bryan :) Our stuff has been put away and organized, it feels good to finally be more settled.

My first day at Albany General Hospital was yesterday. I showed up at HR and filled out some paperwork, got my badge, watched a video on hand hygiene (yawn) and then headed over to the ultrasound department. One of the techs was off and another called in sick, so someone from Nuclear Medicine offered to walk me around since ultrasound was slammed. She helped me get some of my computer logins, passwords, all that stuff. I got to shadow ultrasound again in the afternoon, and it was a little overwhelming. I'm a quick learner and I know I can do it, but the idea of learning vascular (there's a LOT to learn!) is a pretty daunting task. Plus new computer systems, variations in protocols, new faces... when I went back today though it seemed a little easier, so I think by the end of this week I will feel more comfortable with everything.

Last night though... ROUGH. Easily one of the worst nights Kyle and I have had with Payton. Luckily we rarely have any bad nights, but she was a very unhappy camper last night. I felt so bad for her, you could tell she was in pain, but it's so frustrating that she can't tell you what's hurting her. She was up most of the night fussing and crying, and finally calmed down when I put some numbing drops in her ears. I asked Kyle to call her new pediatrician's office first thing in the morning so she could be seen, because we suspected she had another ear infection. This doctor was recommended to us by Kyle's aunt (who is an OB nurse and knows a lot of the pediatricians), and he is awesome! He checked Payton out, and she has an ear infection in both ears. Poor little girl :( So she's back on antibiotics again, and will hopefully start feeling better soon.

After my sleepless night I had to drive to Corvallis to attend my CPR recertification... fun. Not. Oh well, I only have to go every two years! I spent the rest of the day back at the hospital, trying to learn the computer systems. They haven't really had a chance to sit down with me though and do some specific computer training because they've been busy, so hopefully we can work in some time for that soon. I've only done a little bit of scanning, which has also been a challenge because I haven't scanned on one of their machines since college. So I'm reallllllly rusty, and still trying to figure out where all the knobs and everything are. I was so focused on learning the machine today that I completely forgot to take an important picture, and I felt like such an idiot. They were extremely nice about it, but I hate making mistakes like that, especially when I'm making first impressions and I know I'm better than that. I just told myself to take a deep breath. There's always tomorrow!

Tomorrow I'm headed to the clinic in North Albany to get some 3D training for one of the machines, which should be fun. Then the rest of the week will be at the hospital learning as much as I can. I'm going to be working full time for the next 4-6 weeks, then I will probably start my regular shift at the beginning of March, which my manager said will usually be about 10:00 - 5:00. So awesome! That coupled with a less than 10 minute commute home means a lot more time with my family, which I'm very excited about!

Our little girl is starting to get into EVERYTHING, and I know it's just beginning. She can pull to standing, and has even started cruising a little bit. She got her first big bruise last week from falling, right on her forehead. It freaked me out, but I was assured by our parents that it is probably the first of many once she hits this stage. She doesn't want to bother with getting dressed or getting her diaper changed, she just wants to immediately roll over and try to climb something... which means every diaper change pretty much turns into wrestling match. She is now down to propranolol just once a day, and in about a week and a half it will be once every other day. Just three more weeks, and then she will be DONE! Amazing to think she's been on it for almost 8 months. Payton loves playing peek a boo, and we found out she can be very ticklish on her feet. She shakes her head "no" a lot, every question you ask her is no. She is very loud, and if she doesn't think you're paying enough attention to her she will give a little scream just to let you know she's still there. She loves to imitate sounds; if you make a funny noise, chances are she will try to copy you. It's so fun, like having a little conversation. She is sticking her tongue out a lot, I don't know why! I thought she was maybe feeling her new teeth with her tongue, but who knows. She's also started to drool a lot again; maybe a new tooth is on it's way? :)

Anyway, got another full day of learning ahead of me tomorrow! My next post will have pictures I promise. Have a great rest of the week!

Happy birthday to Ashlyn and Connor!

Payton Cracking Up!

Lindsey took this the other evening. Isn't it the cutest laugh ever???



First day at work went great, exhausting but met a lot of nice people. Have CPR recertification first thing in the morning, so I'm going to head to bed. Will blog lots more details soon!

Last day

Today was my last day at Providence... needless to say, it was a very emotional day. It's just so hard for me to grasp that I won't be working with and seeing these people everyday! They've been a big part of my life for the last three and a half years, and have taught me everything I know about the career that I love. I managed to hold it together throughout the day with only minor breakdowns, but I still can't wrap my head around the fact that I don't work there anymore. It probably won't really hit me until I walk into Albany General and they slap a badge on me and ask me to scan. I am starting an exciting new chapter, but that doesn't make it any easier to close the old one. Payton's last day at Wee Care was also hard for me; those women are so amazing at what they do and the program they run, and I'm going to miss seeing them and all the little ones everyday!

My teachers and classmates made this for me, aren't they sweet?!?!

Payton is doing amazing, we say this all the time but every day she is more and more fun. She can now push herself up into the sitting position from the floor, and is even pulling herself to her knees by herself when she grabs onto something (see video below). She will put her foot under her like she wants to stand, but can't quite get her weight on it, her foot just slips everywhere :) She was a little cranky over the weekend, but I think we figured out why; her two front teeth on the top have popped through. She now has two teeth on the bottom, and four on the top. We're working on teaching her "gentle" (she likes to swat at people's faces when they get close) and also the concept of an "inside voice". I finally ordered her a new carseat, she is waaaay too big for her infant one. This one will go up to 70 pounds and can be both rear facing and front facing, so we should get several years worth of use out of it. She's slowly transitioning into 18 months sizes for clothes, one of her notes from Wee Care the other day said that she's starting to look like a toddler in her clothes, not just a baby. Weird to think February is just a few short weeks away...



The rest of the week Kyle and I are going to be getting organized, packing stuff up into boxes and getting ready to move the essential stuff. I also have to go shopping for work clothes, at my new job they don't wear scrubs, it's business casual with a lab coat. I don't have a lot of that stuff, and I don't think they want me to show up in my jeans and Ugg boots :) It's definitely a good excuse to go shopping!

I'll keep everyone updated on the move!

Welcome 2011!

My first post of the year! We rang in 2011 in Sunriver with the Casebolts and the Halls. I love when all of us get together! Neither Kyle or I worked on Friday, so we took off around noon... going over the pass took FOREVER though! We didn't get there until after 5:00, so by the time we got there we were definitely tired of being on the road. Time to party! Well, kind of. Our definition of "party" has changed a lot over the last year or two :) We had several studio condos, and it was nice that everyone could have their own space, especially Payton. She went to bed around 8:00, and my mom and Sue hung out in her room so the rest of us could have a chance to be loud and play games. Hard to believe another year is here already! 2010 was a huge year for us, and this year is shaping up to be pretty eventful as well.

Going for a walk in Sunriver!

All bundled up


This is my latest art project from school! I made a reindeer with my foot

So I mentioned in my last blog that Kyle and I are moving. Even though it's been our eventual intention to move, I never imagined it would happen so quickly; it's still hard for me to wrap my brain around the fact that I only have a couple more days of work at Providence. Kyle was planning on student teaching in Albany starting in February, but we just figured he would commute until graduation. After that, we thought I would start looking for jobs based on whether or not Kyle got a job in the Albany school district. Every once in a while I would peruse different websites to look at what kind of jobs were out there, and when I looked at Samaritan's website they had just posted a job in ultrasound at Albany General. It was a .8 position, which means it's 32 hours per week. I kept coming back to it for a day or two, then decided to mention it to Kyle. The thing about positions in smaller hospitals is that they don't open up very often; the turnover is much lower. I couldn't help but think this may be our chance for the small town life we were craving. Not that Albany is a tiny town, but Kyle and I were becoming more and more frustrated living in Portland with the traffic and busy pace of life. We're just not cut out for living in the city long-term. The factors keeping me here were the love of my co-workers and Wee Care, and obviously our house. We decided though that I should just apply and see where it takes us. If I didn't get it then it wasn't meant to be, but if I did then we would consider our options at that point. I got contacted for an interview, and was offered the job the week after. After consulting with our families, we decided that this would be the best option for us at this point. The biggest thing holding us back is our house; we figured we would be in Portland for a while, so a couple years ago it made sense to buy it. We can't sell it, so we've decided we're goint to rent it out. In the meantime, we're going to be staying with Kyle's parents until that happens. Not the ideal situation for anyone, but they have been so gracious in moving their lives around so we can stay, and we're really thankful they're helping us out so much.

We just feel that in the long term this is the best decision for us. We will have so much more support and help in Albany, and my parents are hoping to eventually come south too someday, which would be perfect. Payton and I won't have to spend an average of probably about 5 hours a week commuting, plus it's a little bit of a reduction in hours for me, which is just more time I get to spend with Payton. I wish I could pick up where I work and all the people in it and just plop it down south, because the last thing I want to do is leave them. They have been some of my best friends over the years, and have taught me everything I know about ultrasound. I could never thank them enough for all the great experiences and memories, and I am determined to stay in touch no matter what. They're my ultrasound family :)

Friday night a bunch of us went out so that we could celebrate my new adventure.

Mom and Dad got a night out! :)

My work peeps... I'm going to miss them sooooooooooooooooo much!

So that's pretty much the scoop. This job will be very different, but I'm excited to start this new chapter. Albany General is very small compared to what I'm used to, so I think it will be a little bit of a culture shock! I will have to learn vascular ultrasound (blood vessels), which I haven't done since college, and I will be taking call as well, so lots of learning and new experiences in my future. Plus Kyle starts student teaching on February 1st, so the next couple weeks are going to be a little crazy. But, we will also get to spend more time together, so we're looking forward to that :) My last day at Providence is this Tuesday, and then Kyle and I are going to spend the rest of the week getting organized and packing up. I start the following Monday... I will be sure to update frequently!