The End of our Havasu Living Days

Well Dave did not receive the Navy scholarship, but that is ok.  He also didn't get the public health scholarship he applied for.  Things will work out, we will just have to be on a tight budget after he graduates to pay off all that debt! Whew!

Ollie sure loves daddy time.  

Brooke got to go to 2 proms this year!  She went to her own prom and brought a date from California.  She met Robert at a New Years dance when she was visiting Barbi and David in CA.  They talk a lot and have little crushy relationship :). They looked great on prom night though!

Socks that Brooke sent to Robert as part of a Valentine gift.  The socks were fuzzy and pink and he sported them at the prom. 

Well...... Oliver was just barely over a year old when we got some news.  The news took us a little bit by surprise because we were not TRYING for it.  But, sometimes things happen for a reason.  The story goes that there was an illness going around that several people around me had.  My dad had it--the symptoms:  throwing up, nausea, fatigue, weakness, stuffy nose....  So I all of a sudden started feeling very similar symptoms to my dad and thought, "great dad, thanks for giving me your sickness!"   Well after a week or two, the throwing up and nausea didn't go away.  Mom said "Brittany, seriously are you pregnant?"  I said "No mom, i'm sick!"  But just in case I went to the Dollar Store and got a few little tests and went in the bathroom and saw two little pink lines.  I came out and said "Dave, uhh, we are pregnant". haha.  We were very excited, and also very nervous! Some of our trepidation included:  I had just accepted a job position at the dental school in MO and I would have the baby in the middle of my first year working there, we were about to move far away from any family,  Dave was about to embark on the hardest scholastic year of his life, and we felt like Oliver was still a baby.  How are we going to manage TWO babies?!  I was grateful to have the help of my family during this time because I felt horrible.  First trimesters are not kind to me.  I can't be around food, I puke, I heave, my stomach never stops churning, I feel as though I can not peel my lip body off the couch.  I was working for my dad, so still somehow managed to make it through 3 half days of work every week.

My mother MADE me take a belly picture.  She said that the next baby will get very jealous off all the pictures I took of my pregnancy with Oliver, if he doesn't have pictures for him.  But we were excited and did want to document it! This was around 9 weeks or so?

Well we got to talk to Liz (Hermana Lundin) who is in Ecuador on her mission!  It was mothers day and we got to skype with her.  It was fun to see her.  We got to announce then when she gets home from her mission she will have another little niece or nephew.  She left when Oliver was only a few months old, so she will be shocked to see what a big boy he is when she returns!

Lance came for a visit from LA to see us before we leave for MO.  He is such a good uncle!  He is so good to Oliver.  His favorite thing to do was to whisper 'secrets' in Oliver's ears about the sounds cats and dogs make.  Oliver always stopped and listened and had this intrigued look on his face like it was the most important secret in the world.

Saying all my goodbyes.  Holli (my gooood friend) came down from Vegas to say bye to me before we left!  

Brooke took this picture of Oliver hysterically laughing, she wrote on it that she was going to miss it.

Ollie got his 15 month shots in Havasu.  We are starting the tradition young that after shots, our kiddos will get a treat.  Oliver loves Keva Juice, so we went and got him one.  He was in heaven. Well we really all shared that one.  When I would take it from him for momma or dadda to have a turn, he would get very impatient and reach his hands out for it.

Yay for splash pads! Oliver loved running around dunking his head in the water.  Best idea for toddlers.

My parents had planned an amazing trip to Europe at the end of May.  They took Brooke and Cameron along.  They started out in Ireland visiting Dallin and Daniela who are living over there.  Then Dallin and Daniela joined all of them on a trip to Poland to visit where Cameron served him mission a few years ago and then on to Czech Republic where Daniela is from and to visit her family.  I was a little jealous of the trip, but happy they had such a great opportunity.  It was the first time my mom has EVER been out of the country!  She deserved it.  Plus they had great family tour guides who knew all the areas they went, so they didn't have to worry.  The sad part is that them leaving for Europe meant the last time we were going to see them before we moved to MO.  We were leaving about a week and a half after they left.  The most emotional part was seeing Ollie's 'best friends' leave and know they aren't going to get to see him for a long time.  They loaded up the car and Dad asked if he could say a prayer before they left.  It was a sweet and sincere prayer and when he asked that Dave, Ollie and I could be blessed in our endeavors, he got choked up.  This had a spiral affect on most of the rest of us and we all started crying. 

 Ollie being silly.... One sippy had milk and one had water... he loved chugging one then the other.

He also found some really good uses for our moving boxes--awesome fort hide-outs.

A few days before we left, we were at Safeway getting into car.  I started buckling my seat belt and felt this burning stinging sensation on my neck.  I thought, what the heck? I just got abrasion burn from the seat belt. But could not figure out why the feeling kept burning and lingering.  I ask Dave to take a look and move my hair out of the way and he sees a bee chilling on my shoulder.  He had gotten caught in my hair and then I started buckling, it freaked him out and he stung me right in the neck.  Well this darn bee bite affect me for a week and a half.  My body lymph system went into hyperdrive to try to reduce the toxins.  The whole drive to Missouri, my whole left side from behind my ear and down my neck was tender and inflamed with large lymph nodes running all the way down.

The week following was a busy one.  Dave and I had to gather all our stuff that had been scattered around the house and clean the whole house before we leave.  We had a nice guy in the ward (Paul Mosley) help Dave load up the U-Hall.  I got to know Sara while I was in Havasu.  She had a son a little younger than Ollie and I was so glad to have someone to do playdates with!  She went to high school with Cameron and was investigating the church.  She came to hang out the last day we were there while we were packing up and such.  We miss her and little Jake!

Dave and I stayed up until 1 or 2 in the morning the night before we left finishing cleaning.  We also had someone come over after Oliver went to sleep because Dave really wanted to replace his lost retainers and I had an unexpected hole in my tooth where a filling fell out.  This all happened after Dad left for Europe unfortunately, otherwise he would have helped us handle all this.  So Dave and I at like 8 PM the night before we left for MO went to my dad's office.  I took impressions on him and we made him new retainers.  Then he (who had assisted my dad many times on fillings) proceeded to fill the whole in my tooth the way he had seen my dad do it many times.  It was all fun and games until he had to use the handpiece to even out the bite and smooth it town.  Having the drill in my mouth was a little scary.  Dave did a pretty good job, but did have the 'smooth' mastery that comes from years of practice.  He kept forgetting to let off the pedal to stop the bur from spinning when he would go into and out of my mouth.  At one point he was coming out (while it was still going) and it slipped out of his hand and onto my lip.  Luckily he caught it really fast (cat-like reflexes) and it only nicked me.  But after that I was a little petrified. haha  He said "don't tell anyone about this".... mmhmmm dave, I won't ;).  

Next Up... driving cross country with a toddler.  YIKES

April

I'm probably not going to take pictures of Oliver every month now because he isn't changing quite so fast anymore. And I have been slacking on blogging for the last few months.  So I will try to remember the going ons in April!

Oliver is getting very good at his animal noises!  He is getting them down!  He can say a few other words too, but if I say "Oliver what is that? (referring to a car) He will say VROOM VROOM.  Or if I say What is that? *referring to a dog* He will say WOOF WOOF.  So the name of things right now are the noises they make.  

I always thought it was odd when people post naked pictures of their babies.  BUT I couldn't help it.  For some reason it is "different" when it is you own. haha.  Not a good excuse.  But look at the C-U-TE toosh!

It was one of those rare occasions in Havasu when it rained! Oliver sat in the garage fascinated!  a few times he tried running out in it and then got startled at what the heck was getting on him and ran back.  

This next picture is kind of sad to me because it is the last dental convention I am going to get to go to with my dad for awhile!  There is an annual Western Regional Dental Convention in Phoenix that dental professionals can attend to attend courses to get the hours they need for renewal of our licenses.  Since I became a dental hygienist (even in school), I have attended this with my dad.  We always get a hotel and stay 1 or 2 nights (it is a 3 day event) and we have a good time going to restaurants and hanging out.  I just really enjoy this bonding time with my dad because I don't get it often.  Well Oliver and Dave attended with us this year so I could nurse Ollie during lunch and after.  It was a good time.  Because we are moving to Missouri now I am not going to be able to attend this with dad anymore.  :( I will actually miss it!

Oliver did very well through general conference.  I was able to hear more than I thought I was going to with him being the rambunctious toddler that he is.  We watched it in my parents room while my parents were at the church watching it.  At one point Dave, Ollie and I were on the bed.  Ollie squeezed himself between Dave and I and started rubbing my back like he saw Dave doing.  He is learning our mannerisms and copying them so well!  I got on dad's chair and had Ollie asleep on my chest and look over and Dave is crashed out on the bed.  Had to snap a picture of my tired boys. haha

Oliver at our dental convention was running around while we were eating lunch outside.  There was a tree planted with a metal ring around it.  He fell right between the metal plate and the tree and banged his lower lip.  It was realllly puffy and bled a little.  Then at some point a few days later, my mom took Oliver outside and they were walking down by the wash (which makes me nervous because he is still unsteady and falls a lot and there is quite a decline down into the wash).  Well Oliver ran away from my mom and of course tripped because it was downhill.  He hit his mouth on the pavement and was bleeding.  It looked like his frenum was ripped (the little flap of skin above the upper central teeth).  So this pooor boy had this puffy bruised lower lip and tender bleeding upper lip, but still was able to nurse and eat---poor thing!

You can kind of see the puffiness of his lip and the flap of skin hanging down on top

This is just sillyness at Walmart.  Funny bride picture op.

It took SOME convincing to get Dave to let me take his picture. hahaha.  I was laughing pretty hard to see this bearded man with a dainty bride body.

Sometimes I like to take pictures of when Oliver is crying because usually the reason he is crying is ridiculous.  Here he is crying because I wouldn't let him crawl up on the table and SIT on the laptop.  Sorry Ollie, I am such a bad mom.

Sometimes I let him feed himself.... yummy yogurt! haha

Ollie has such a rough life--Daddy feeding him sandwich.

Our pre-easter egg hunt.  We were heading up to Thatcher for our Hatch family reunion during easter weekend, so my family wanted to have a little easter egg hunt with Ollie.  I filled them with raisins and let him loose.  He had no concept of putting the eggs in the basket and so just picked up 1 or 2 and walked around shaking them up and down.  haha.  Kind of uneventful.  But he was still cute.

Off to Thatcher for family reunion!  It was themed HATCHWARTS (Harry Potter themed).  It was a fun time had by all.  Besides the fact that Ollie got sooo sick toward the end of the week and had to get him antibiotics for an ear infection :(.  Poor guy.

This is the Hatchwarts take on QUIDDITCH (I have no idea how to spell that).

We had different challenges and this one was an "iron chef" themed challenge where we had to make a 3 course meal with the available ingredients.  We didn't win :(, but it was still fun!

Ollie again only liked getting one egg during the easter egg hunt.  He found a tasty starburst that I let him eat and was in heaven chewing on that for awhile!

So great for Ollie to get to see his cousins!  We miss Tim and Cadie and Trent and Allie!

Julie and I dressed in our Harry Potter get-up.  Julie was the Petronus? Sp again?  I'm not  a Harry Potter know it all, so I don't know the terms very well.

Some of my favorite times of the week was just hanging out playing games.  My sister-in-law Cadie wrote in her blog the most hilarious moment for me, and she writes better than me so I am going to plagiarize (sorry Cadie) and copy what she wrote on my blog.  At least I'm giving her credit! :).  Seth, Tim, Brittany and Jeff were in the living room playing with a balloon. (Cadie) was sewing an owl pillow Trent and Allie had made at the reunion that day, and watching the show! They were keeping the balloon off the floor by using their feet. Tim was rolling all over the floor and cracking everyone up with his antics and sound affects. After a while he stopped and said, "I feel like fat little pokemon. What's that one called?" That sent Brittany on a three minute giggling spree, and in the middle of it she said, "Jigglypuff!" Later that same night Liz came up and her, Tim, Jeff, Brittany, and Seth played boggle. I was so tired I literally could not stay awake. I fell asleep on Tim while they played, but as I was sleeping I could hear Seth cheating. He kept making up words, or completely misspelling them. At one point he was reading off his list and he said, "Worked." Everyone was trying to figure out how he'd gotten that word and he spelled it "werkd." Apparently that is Liz's favorite game, but she can't stand playing with Seth cause he's such a cheater at it. But it was really fun to listen to, even while nodding off.

Anyway, back to my horrible story telling.  *sigh*.  We tired SOOOOOO hard to get Jeff (Dave's Brother) to ask Brooke (my sister) to prom, because Jared and gone with Lizzy a few years earlier and they actually had a good time.  Jeff is one stubborn guy and would. not. budge.  We were a little sad, but Dave's cousin Parker stepped up and thought it would be fun.  So he send Brooke a pizza in Havasu that said "I know this is 'cheesy' but....." on the front of the box and then on the inside it said "Will you go to the Thatcher" and then on the pizza was spelt "Prom".  It was fun

Brooke had her messengers "dave and I" put together a response because she could not physically be present.  Outside of the tennis courts where Parker practices after school we wrote PARKER YES (see pic below).  A lot of his classmates saw it.  It was fun.

On their day date together.

I did Brooke's hair.  Holy stressful and holy amount of bobby pins! Luckily it turned out and looked super cute on her!

She looked like such a babe (as usual). :)

Oliver loves his books.  That kid can spend half a day reading.  What makes reading better? Having your own sized chair to sit in of course! 

Someone in the ward gave us this cute truck for Ollie. He loves pushing it around.  The trick is the back part goes up to get the "dump" affect, which means he is unexpectedly face planted it a few times while pushing it.

I had to add this, a picture of my dad when he was a baby.  hehe.  He has the receding hairline even then!  No wonder I have no hair in front!  Definitely strong genetics in the working.

Love this sweeeet boy!

I HAVE A 1 YEAR OLD!!!!

First off I am going to say congrats to myself for keeping a kid alive for a whole year! :) Oliver and I got to celebrate our birthdays together for the first time! He was due on my birthday but ended up being born 2 days later on my Grandma Lulu's birthday.

We got a DELICIOUS cake (chocolate cake with sweetened condensed milk drizzled into it with cool whip, fudge, caramel, and health bits on top).

Ollie was a little hesitant about digging in to his cake.  He dipped his little pointer finger into the whipped cream and tried it out.

Then he decided it might taste OK.  Who needs hands?  He went in head first, mouth wide open.

After that he just decided he was done. Got on good bite out of it.  I gladly finished his cake for him.

Oliver got a birthday card from Grandma and Grandpa Hatch, Great Grandparents Lulu and Papa, and Aunt Uncle and cousins Cadie, Tim, Trent, and Allie. It was so sweet of them to think of him!  He especially enjoyed this doggy card that plays pick-a-boo.  He would open and close it many times.  

I too got birthday cards, and in Tim and Cadie's card, Cadie said she hopes I get sushi or go to a movie or something fun.  Well I was at the store and had to get sushi and send a picture to Cadie. :)

Oliver at 1 years old is 30.5 inches in length (75 percentile). His weight is 21 lbs 11 oz (50th percentile) and head circumference was 49'' (99 percentile).  He is FINALLY starting to sloooow down in his growth.  That first year he was always at the top of the charts for everything.  Well... he still is at the top for his head.  Boy his head is big, when he walks around with no clothes on it looks like he should just tip over. Well he does tip over a lot actually.  He hits his head usually at least once a day! It kills me, he has goose eggs all over!

We have a new pediatrician in Lake Havasu and I miss our old one :(.  Oliver got his 1 month shots and the pediatrician said to start him on whole milk now.  Well I gave him whole milk for like half a day after that appt and then stopped because he had diarrhea.  Well 4 days later he still has diarrhea. It stresses me out.  It progressively got more and more runny and he would poop 3 or 4 times a day (BIG poops). I don't know how his little body holds all that.  Poor baby.  He also doesn't have much of an appetite and has always been bad about drinking liquid.  He has never taken a bottle and is really bad and using a sippy cup. So getting him to drink like 2 ounces of liquid is a miracle.  So we give him a little pedialite, breastfeeding, and yogurt/bananas here and there.  We gave him a blessing and the next day he started feeling better.  So amazing! I am grateful for the priesthood in our life.  He hasn't had it since, so I am happy.

Oliver is a silly little guy.  He doesn't get that hearty laugh easy, but when he does I just love it.  Lately when I bump something and say BOOP or OUCH, he just cracks up!  Another funny thing to watch is his new "problem solving" skills.  Oliver was trying to figure out how to carry a little silky rag that he was carrying across the door jam to go into the office at my parents house.  The door jam is metal and raised because that door used to go to the outside before they added on the office.  So he decided to throw the rag onto the other side and then grab on to the door to get over and then picked back up his rag.  Smart little move on his part!

Ollie wanting to sit on chairs have me push him around.  (You know when you do something really fast for a kid because it is fun, and then they love it soo much they want you to do it over and over, yea that's what I get myself into a lot)

My little munchkin gives the BEST hugs.  It isn't often, because he is so busy.  But I know he loves mama, and saves his best hugs for me.  He puts his head on my shoulder with his arms around me and pats my back.

When I was little I used to make a duck face in a lot of pictures by scrunching up my lips so they looked like a duck bill.  Well Ollie takes after his mama.  I find him making this 'duck face' a lot. haha

Ever since we were married, Dave has always called my pinky my 'dainty finger' because when I eat my pinky is usually always stinking straight up.  Again, Ollie is my mini me. haha.  Here is his pinky while he eats his cracker.  He does this ALL the time!

I've been going to work in the mornings so Dave or my mom usually have to try to get Ollie down for a nap.  He has grown accustomed to nursing to sleep, so it can be a struggle.  I came home to see these cuties snuggling.

Oliver loves his aunt Brooke (or Br as he calls her).  He insisted she hold his hand while he ate dinner.  He kind of picks on Brooke more than anyone else to.  When she tries to sleep on the couch he will go up and slap her face, then pull her hair, then bite her cheek, then pat her bum...Guess that is the way he shows her affection?

This boy LOVES playing outside.  He loves rocks.  We are sad it is getting warmer and it is soon going to be too hot to go outside.  Guess we will have to swim a lot!

Oliver always has a ball in hand

Crawling while still holding the ball

Another love, playing in cars.  He takes after his cousin Trent.  He was making funny faces at Daddy through the window.

It is so fun that Oliver is at the age now where he mimics things I do! Fun and a little scary! I need to be on my best behavior :).  He holds a pen like a champ and can draw already.  He watches me hold the pen and write and then does the same thing.  He is starting to know a lot of animal noises, so if I say "what does the horse say?" He says " RRRrrrr" in a high pitched voice. Or dog, or monkey, etc.  He loves sitting in "big people" chairs just like us.  He will pat on a chair and beg to be put on it and then will just sit back and relax for a second before he pops back up and is on to the next thing.

Ollie holding pen in the background

Sitting on his chair :)

My mom got Ollie some cloth diapers, so during the day he usually wears those.  For some reason she has a bad track record for ordering 'feminine' things for Oliver  These were the cheetah print diapers she ordered for him. haha.  Pairs well with the pink umbrella stroller she got him.  I tell her "mom, he is a BOY".  Her excuse "Well they were the cheapest ones".  *sigh*.  Oh well.  We just turned Oliver into  little Bam Bam here.  He was running around the house saying "Bam Bam!"

We made Oliver a little fort out of two chairs and a blanket.  He has fun crawling through it and sitting in his little cave.

This boy loves his bath time.  He splashes a LOT and usually I am soaked by the end. The other day Brooke came into the bathroom for a few minutes and Ollie started acting crazy showing off to Brooke.  He started laughing hysterically and going on his belling and dunking his head in the water.  Of course every time he would do this, he would act surprised and get up really quick.  But then he would do it again a few minutes later! I thought he kind of looks like cousin Trent in this picture.

I have some great friends from high school still.  2 of which are Katie and Holli.  I love them to death.  Katie and I decided that Holli does a lot for us and is always willing to be there for us and help us and visit us.  So we planned a trip to go visit her in Las Vegas.  We had a great girls weekend.  Little Oliver got to come along because he is still nursing.  Katie told us that she was pregnant and I am SOOO excited for her!  She has been trying for a long time!  (I acted surprised, but I already knew she was pregnant because her niece that I babysat spilled the beans a few weeks earlier).  Even though Katie was so tired a lot of the time, we always have so much fun just talking and catching up.  We got to go eat a few awesome places and walk around the strip a little to see the architecture of the buildings.

A cool local pizzeria we went to

Love these girls.

Seemed like a good time for a car selfie.  I think we were happy there that Oliver was finally asleep, because he was crabby in the car rides!

Watching the waterfall show at Bellagio.  Oliver got scared by the noise of the water spraying, but also found it very fascinating.

I had been to a fun murder mystery in Oct and was telling Brooke about it and she decided she wanted to host one.  We found a chocolate themed "girls night" murder mystery online and ordered it.  We decorated our house like a candy shop (because that is where it takes place) and all dressed according to character.  We spend a LOT of time on decorating, but it turned out cute!  We also served homemade pizzas and homemade mozzarella balls

We got to take a fun trip to CA. We got to go see my aunt Barbi's little boy who is Oliver's age and celebrate their first birthdays together.  Also we got to see Lance again (prob the last time before we move to Missouri).  Also Brooke stopped in Fallbrooke to see her little boyfriend that she met at a New Years dance that she went to with our cousin Evan.  While she was seeing him I got to see my college roommate/dental hygiene classmate Bridgette and her husband and baby.  We hadn't met each other's babies yet so that was exciting! It was a busy trip and Oliver was a little over-tired and cranky at times.  But we had a lot of fun!

While in Fallbrooke, our hotel was right next to these beautiful gardens where they usually have weddings and such.  My parents were walking around it and then someone ran up to them and said it costs money, so they had to pay.  Whoops.  It was pretty though!

We met up with Bridgette and Gabe at the beach.  Had a picnic and walked on the pier.

Bridgette's hubby Gabe affectionately calls Oliver's pink stroller "The Pink Panther".  They had to get a picture of him.  I probably will buy another stroller when I have another kid and can get a double stroller.

Cute little buddies sizing each other up.

Oliver taking a selfie of him and his friend Jay.  "Just hanging out at the beach".

Driving to the park for the birthday picnic.

The little 1 year olds posing for a picture.  Oliver did not want to pose for a picture :).

 But he didn't mind enjoying the cupcake.

Loves exploring.

And loves balls.

Oliver's hair was getting overdue for a haircut---we did a little buzz buzz and boy! He had a lot of hair on the ground when we were done!  His hair turned blonder!  He looked pretty handsome with his hair cut.

I had to take a picture of this---this is chicken aaaand popcorn.  Courtesy of my dad.  He dished up some chicken for dinner and saw that I had just made some popcorn, so he grabbed a handful and put it on his plate.  He has the funniest eating combinations. He drinks orange juice, but instead of pouring himself a glassful, he pours in about a 1/4 cup of orange juice and fills the rest of the cup with water.  He loves chips (I inherited that one) and ice cream.  Pretty simple guy. :)

Dave got this book in preparation to dental school.  "What Smart Students Know".  Oliver was trying to prepare as well.  

 Brooke taking some funny shots of Ollie  He decided that was a great place to hide.

 Another Papa and Ollie activity is laying outside and pointing at the sky, the planes, the birds.  Apparently there was a lot going on because they had lots to point at.  Ollie even was pointing in 2 different directions in the first pic.

Brooke creeping on Ollie under the table.

On our nightly walks.

Went to the driving range.  I felt like I KIND of got the hang of it at the end.  The next day my midsection was KILLING me from twisting so much!

I got to go to the general relief society broadcast with my grandma, momma, and sister.  It was a really neat meeting.

  I had a lot of thoughts run through my head and wish I had brought a paper and pen to jot them down.  I loved how they stressed that we are all sisters and we need to focus on each other's similarities and not dwell on our differences. This will help us all to be more united.  Also I had a lot of thoughts on being a mommy.
 1) Eve knew the importance of eating the fruit of the tree so that she could be a mother and didn't waste time to do so. I likewise have a very important responsibility to be a mom.  President Eyring said something about bringing children into good families.  After giving birth I wanted to put a number on how many kids I want to have and saying that I wouldn't consider having more because it was so hard.  But then I thought that Dave and I can give a child a good home where Christ will be the center of it.  We can teach them and help them grow intellectually and spiritually.  We have been blessed to have the knowledge that we do of the Gospel and to be getting an education to get Dave a good career that can support these sweet children.  So why am I putting a number on it?  I need to just have faith that the Lord will bless me with the children I am meant to have and that I will be given strength to handle it. (I'm not saying here that I want like 10 children--that's probably a lot for me, BUT I will not be so selfish and be open to the promptings of the spirit).

2) Along those lines I find myself dreading, complaining about, and being resentful of how hard my birth was and it makes me VERY nervous to get pregnant again.  Sometimes I find myself complaining about it too much.  I told Dave I am going to try my best to not complain about it anymore unless people ask me specific questions about my birth.  I feel like dwelling on the negative aspects of it takes away from what a miracle it really was.  And if I remain negative, then my next experience will probably be negative because of my mindset.  I need to have faith and be positive. 

 3) Sometimes I compare Oliver to other children and think that he has been more difficult for various reasons than other children his age.  I made a new resolve to remember what a blessing he is and how much I love him.  And I told myself I will only say positive things when talking to people about him unless I have a specific question.  

 4) The other thought I had is that maybe someday I will adopt a child.  I don't know for sure, but I plan to remain open to the promptings I receive on what to do for our family.

And now time for some other good news.  I applied about a month ago for a job in Missouri at the dental school.  I had a phone interview that went well, but wasn't really going to be that sad if I didn't get it because I could always go and find an office that would hire me for half a day or so to do hygiene work.  Well they wrote me an email at the end of March saying that I got the job!  The more I hear about, the more I think that if I have to work while being a mommy, this is the job to have.  

1) I will get to work in the clinic (not on real patients) mostly teaching the dental students skills on each other and on dummies.  Skills like taking impressions, giving shots, hygiene instrumentation and sharpening skills, oral cancer screenings etc etc.  So I get to rub shoulders and get to know all Dave's classmates  and I also get to be DAVE's instructor!  Wahahaha.

2)I get to work with only 8-10 students at a time--I like that it is small groups so I don't get intimidated.

3) I get to work with another hygienist--it will be nice to have someone to collaborate with and makes me feel more calm that if I don't know something then she might know it and vice versa.  

4) I only work Thursdays 1 PM-5PM (half days) and Friday 8-5.  And that's it!  The rest of the time I get to be home with my sweet boy.  

5) I don't work whenever the school has breaks, which means that Dave and I will have the same time off all the time--so we can travel, or just spend time together!  

6) At last but certainly not least, they are paying me $50/Hour.  Umm what?  The most I have EVER gotten paid for being a hygienist is $40/hr, and that was on the higher end for AZ.  I am so grateful!  This will really help us not get into more debt for living expenses, which will be such a blessing when Dave graduates school and starts working.

I have already gone on the wife facebook group page and talked to a few people who are LDS and have a few kids and are medical/dental student wives that said they would be willing to watch him.  I plan on meeting up with them and seeing who I might think is the best fit when we go there in June.  

While I was completing the background check paperwork that they require, they wanted me to list all the places I have lived in the past 7 years.  As I was thinking about it I realized I have moved 7 times in the last 7 years.  That's a lot of moving! 

We are still waiting to hear from the Navy to see if Dave got the scholarship from them or not to pay his tuition.  We are hoping to get it, otherwise $500,000 in debt--here we come! I'm sure things will work out either way though.