Happy Birthday to ME!

Monday was my birthday... it was my ... 30th birthday. I feel like I've officially left my youth! lol! It was a quiet day. Berto took the day off so he could spend the whole day with me! He got me some much needed make up from Ulta!! It was great! My mom made my favorite lasagna and strawberry cake! Our good friends Jen and Sasa and Berto's parents joined us for cake and ice cream! Jen and Sasa are amazing and got me this adorable pair of shoes... AND a pregnancy massage! I just love them! It feels a little strange to say "I'm 30" now... but of course I don't feel any older! :) The best gift of all was I felt our little peanut move for the first time! Haven't felt it since of course but it was a nice birthday gift! Thank you little peanut baby!! It was a fun day! Thank you every body for making my transition into my 30's so much nicer!!

It's a gross picture taken AFTER I blew out all 30 candles with one breath! :) I thought I'd put it up so you can see how big my baby bump is already... holy cow I know it's big considering I'm only 12 weeks... gotta get feeling better and get exercising so I don't gain a bazillion pounds again this pregnancy! .... Hopefully it's not too late!

The Dentist... duh... duh.. duh....

We started taking Oliver to the dentist when he was 18 months old because inspite of my obsessive brushing of his teeth it looked like he was starting to have some tooth decay. It was really upsetting to me. After a pretty easy going exam by a local pediatric dentist it was decided that it was probably tooth decay and that we should take Oliver in every three months for flouride treatments and start using a small amount of flouride toothpaste on his teeth. SO that's what we started doing. At that point Oliver wasn't on our dental insurance. But we took him in like clockwork! We put him on our dental insurance as soon as open enrollment came around. So we took him in to see a new pediatric dentist last week because (even though I LOVED the other dentist he was not one of our providers for our insurance). I think that might have been a blessing in disguise. This dentist went ahead and did a x-rays and an exam on Oliver. (Something the other dentist had thought Oliver was too young for and probably was a year ago) The x-rays revealed that the discoloration of his teeth is not actually tooth decay. It was nowhere to bee seen on the x-rays. It looks like it's a staining on the surface that was probably caused during the development of his teeth.

To say that, that was a relief to me is an under statement. I can't even express the anxiety I would feel everyday (twice a day) when I was brushing his teeth feeling like there was something I had done wrong to make his teeth decay at such an early age. (Oliver never went to bed with a bottle, didn't use a pacifier or anything like that). So I was beyond relieved to hear that it was not decay after all!

Oliver did GREAT with his real cleaning! I keep trying to use that to my advantage when I'm brushing his teeth. He's so bad for me and just willingly opened his mouth for the dental hygeneist who cleaned his teeth. Thank goodness it worked out so well!

Fixing up the playroom

At this house we have this huge loft upstairs! This is where Oliver and I spend probably 98% of our time! It's huge we have our t.v. up there and this is our "family room" and Oliver's toy room! It had a huge organizational problem though. Olivers toys were all in these big buckets! When we were living with Berto's parents it was convenient because his toys were kept in a downstairs closet and it was easy to pull the buckets in and out so Oliver could play with them. But that was the end of convenience.

One morning I woke up and had this idea in my head! These toy storage bins were my inspiration. I don't particularly like how they look but I liked the idea of them and thought I had to be able to come up with a better (cheaper because they are like $50-$60 bucks retail) way to do them! So I started thinking and looking!




This is what our playroom used to look like (on a good day this is a mild mess). It seemed like I would just get the toys finally all picked up and the whole bucket would be dumped out again for one car or one dinosaur. It was getting ridiculous!



This is our after. It cost me about $60 for BOTH. Which is a savings for sure compared to the toy storage bins. And I LOVE how it looks! And I have two containers that are completely empty and ready for more toys.



Oliver is a funny kid and has a little OCD in him I think. This has totally appealed to him and he plays with his toys more. I think it's because he can more easily see what toys are where. And it's so much easier to deal with the mess. He's been really good about getting one container down at a time and playing with it. Then we pick it up and get out the next! This has been so nice. He's learning to be more organized.. and I'm able to be more sane and not despise toys! :)

I bought the two bookshelves from walmart. They were $15 each! They are sturdy and look nice! I love them! The fabric storage drawers I got from Target. The blue (shorter ones) were in the $1 spot in the $2.50 section! I bought four of them at $2.50 each. The green storage drawers ( can't remember what brand they are) but they were also at target and just my luck were on sale for just under $5.00 each! Bringing my grand total to just over $60 (with tax) for two adorable storage units that look great and are way more storage than I had before! None of my bins are totally full! So we have tons of room for growth! I love it!

FOUND

Natacia Owens has been found and is being returned to her family in Waupan, WI probably as I type these words! I'm so happy for their family. I hope they are able to help her with whatever has troubled her enough to leave home... and I sincerely hope they don't have to go through that again.

I know that prayers are answered and I KNOW that they have had a huge miracle in their life today! Many blessings and happy wishes to the Owens family! I'm sure their struggles are not totally over... but the good news is their daughter is being returned home to them safe and sound!

Natacia Owens- Missing Child

A girl I knew several years ago when I was serving a mission in Wisconsin appears to have run away from home. She left sometime during the night on Friday night. Here is a link with her statistics and a couple of pictures.

The family is asking for all the prayers and support they can get. Also, to keep your eyes peeled. She's been missing since Friday night and can basically be anywhere by now. They don't know that she's actually in Wisconsin any more at this point.

I had lost contact with their family and reconnected with them on Facebook! They are a sweet family. Natacia was a sweet 7 year old and I'm sure she's a sweet 13 year old too. I can't imagine what her mom is feeling right now. I would be a complete basket case if it were me.

Thank you for your prayers and for keeping your eyes open. You never know when you might just from seeing her picture see her.

Love,
Elizabeth

Here's the link: Natacia is Missing

Too much T.V.....

Since I have been feeling SO crappy Oliver gets to watch A LOT of tv. I'm glad he is cooperative and there are tons of shows that he can watch and actually learn something so it's not just mind numbing crap. BUT I still feel guilty a lot because I want to be doing more with him than I am... but I just don't have the energy!

Anyway, one of Oliver's favorite shows is Chugginton on Disney. He LOVES "Choo Choo's" and loves the show. For the past few days he's been saying something that sounds a lot like "oh bummer." He uses it in the appropriate context and everything. It's really hilarious... but what's even more funny is I realized today that he's actually saying "Oh Bumpers" which is what they say on Chugginton! It's really funny when he says it. The past few days it's when he asks for more candy and I tell him NO ... then he says "oh bumpers!"

It's really funny... but kind of adds to my guilt for letting him watch SO MUCH tv! But I guess we'll get back to normal in a few weeks when I'm feeling a little more human!

Easter 2010

This year Easter is pretty low key for us. Unfortunately Berto is working (as always) and I'm not feeling great so we're not doing much! On Friday we did an Easter Egg Hunt at Berto's parents house with Oliver and his cousin Vandana who is still here for a few days from Spain! The kids LOVED finding the eggs! It was perfect for the two of them! They had a blast! Then they blew bubbles and chased them! It was a perfect afternoon for the two kiddos!

The easter bunny brought Oliver a fun little basket full of books and toys! At the last minute he decided between the egg hunt on Friday and the two other easter baskets he had gotten from friends that Oliver didn't need any more junk! So Oliver's basket this year didn't have candy and it wasn't missed! (Candy was bought we just left it out because he BEGS for candy all day!)

My mom and I are just hanging out today having dinner and watching conference! Should be a nice quiet day spent remembering our Savior for breaking the bands of Hell so we can return to him when this life is finished!

We hope you all have/had a wonderful Easter Sunday!!

Love,

The Galindo's