Busy Brad

Easter Saturday: Brad and Amy went to Choir practice and the choir director had transposed some music especially for Brad to sing. It was a solo. She had lowered it by 3 full steps so that the high notes were only C's above the Bass Clef. Although Brad may talk like a tenor, he sings bass best. This solo turned out to be pretty much the most challenging and scariest thing he's ever done in his life. The last time he'd done something this scary was back in March of 2004 when his trainer told him to convince this strange man he'd never met to let them teach the gospel to his wife... and do it all in spanish without any help. Well that was 8 years ago so hopefully this stresses the amount of stress Brad went through in singing.

And then last Sunday Brad gave a 35 minute sacrament meeting talk. He loved the topic (super powers) aka Spiritual Gifts, and the congregation loved the talk too. Like for serious, Brad made sure that nobody fell asleep the WHOLE TIME. After sacrament meeting he taught the teenagers in Sunday school which he also feels like it was a success and then in Priesthood Brad was challenged to play chubby bunnies. After only shoving 5 Peeps into his mouth he started to gag and quickly spit them out and lost the contest before he puked. So through and through it was quite the busy Sunday (not to mention an hour of after church choir practice and 2 hours of Home Teaching.)

And then on Monday Final Exams begin.

I (Brad) have often complained about how difficult school is to you. Well. 1st year 1st semester was very very difficult. It was the first time that I had ever taken 21 credit hours. I barely made it out of that alive. The 1st year 2nd semester was the same difficulty, and so naturally that means that I felt like it was easier! I had become accustomed to the difficulty. Then I hit 2nd year 1st semester and became acquainted with Pharmacology. For those of you who may consider Optometry school to being inferior to Medical school, I'll have you know that in our curriculum at the University of Houston, we attack Pharmacology so heavily that we're able to cover 2 semesters of medical school pharmacology in this single semester. It's so intense that I studied just this class for an average of 3 hours a day... neglecting my other classes and I barely made a C in the class.

Now we're finishing up 2nd year 2nd semester. The half way point. The semester that finally attacks pathology of the eye now that I've got a strong base of physiology and pathology and pharmacology of the whole body. And this semester has kicked my butt. Namely 3 reasons. 1 Ocular Pharm is a class equally as hard as last years Pharmacology. Add to that Ocular Pathology where I learn to Dx Tx and Rx. (diagnose, treat and prescribe) This class is equal in difficulty to pharm so that makes this semester a double whammy. And then on top of it all I'm working in clinic pretending I'm a doctor once a week with an attending (supervising doctor) who picks at my mistakes and freaks out on me whenever she OD's on coffee.

Needless to say I'm excited for this semester of heck to be finished. Curtis and Marcies wedding was beautiful and wonderful and worth every second but it kinda affected a test I took right after getting home... got a bad grade and I'm currently failing by 1% my Ocular Pathology class. Now to be very humble, I actually know more about ocular pathology than the majority of my class mates but I tested worse then most all of them.

So here we are with Finals week just beginning today. And I know I've complained before... trying to recruit a little pity my way... but if there was ever a time for you all to add me to one of your prayers, now might be the best time to do so. If I don't improve my grade in Ocular Path, and if I don't pass my Ocular Pharm finals then there's no doubt about it, We'll be living in Houston for and entire Extra year, putting us back until 2015. We really really do NOT like the sound of that and so please pass along some of your little miracles our way and we'd really appreciate it.

And yes, if I pass this semester, it's all down hill (besides the dreaded National Board Exam) but at least that exam won't hold me back a year!! And if I pass these classes then we are gonna Celebrate like crazy!!

Love yall

-Brad