81 puzzle pieces have been claimed...this just about completes half of the puzzle! To get a reasonable rate on airfare, they will have to purchase flights next week! Thank you to everyone who has claimed a piece or pieces! If you need this info again, donations can be made:
Through PayPal by using this link and making a friends and family donation to their email address:
toddandamywestlund@yahoo.com
https://www.paypal.com/us/webapps/mpp/send-money-online
With a check mailed to their address:
725 Setter Court
Redding, CA 96003
Who else wants to claim a piece and help make their adoption final? ❤️✈️😊
Sunday, February 22, 2015
Thursday, February 12, 2015
Westlund family adoption update!
As a lot of you know my sister and her family are in the process of adopting a 12 year old boy from Eastern Europe. In November they got to go and stay in his country for three weeks and then bring him home. Things have been going great but unfortunately this process still has a couple of hurdles to jump through before it's all said and done!
The next obstacle is for my brother in law and my new nephew to travel back to his home country for 6 days March 29th-April 5th. During this time they will meet with the orphan court and verify that "S" is doing well and still wants to be adopted. This will finalize the adoption with his country. This will be trip #2 of 3. While this is exciting because it is ensuring things are moving along just as they should, its a little nerve wracking for them because that means they need to come up with the cost of the travel expenses.
On top of all of that, their family also needs to find a new home to live in by March 31st! The owner of the home they have been living in the past few years needs to use the house for family. They have known it about it for awhile but haven't found a new place to call home quite yet. We have been praying they wouldn't get travel dates for trip #2 until after the move but for some reason God had other plans.
After talking with my sister and her being sure she had drained everyone's well dry with the first half of this adoption process Iforced encouraged her to do another fund raiser! She came up with a very meaningful way to earn the funds needed for trip two! Here is what she wrote on their adoption page on FB.
"As most of you will remember, we started this journey to bring S to California with a puzzle fundraiser! S now has that puzzle hanging in his room as a reminder of all the people who loved, prayed and supported us in bringing him into our family!
2 years later we are doing a puzzle fundraiser to raise the funds needed to make our adoption of S final in his country! We chose the puzzle that S and I worked on while we were there on trip one! It is of his country and it has 165 pieces! If each piece is claimed for a price of $20, we will have raised enough to cover the cost of two international flights, hotel accommodations and food costs for 6 days/nights!
Donations can be made:
Through PayPal by using this link and making a friends and family donation to our email address:
toddandamywestlund@yahoo.com
https://www.paypal.com/us/webapps/mpp/send-money-online
With a check mailed to our address:
725 Setter Court
Redding, CA 96003
Who would like to help us put this puzzle and our second trip to ****** together?
1 puzzle piece=$20 and we will put your name on the back of each piece you purchase!"
So help me prove her wrong! Help me make her realize people do still want to contribute and want to see this adoption through to the very end! We are starting off by buying a puzzle piece for each of our kiddos! So only 161 pieces left to sell! Thank you so much for your love and support!
The next obstacle is for my brother in law and my new nephew to travel back to his home country for 6 days March 29th-April 5th. During this time they will meet with the orphan court and verify that "S" is doing well and still wants to be adopted. This will finalize the adoption with his country. This will be trip #2 of 3. While this is exciting because it is ensuring things are moving along just as they should, its a little nerve wracking for them because that means they need to come up with the cost of the travel expenses.
On top of all of that, their family also needs to find a new home to live in by March 31st! The owner of the home they have been living in the past few years needs to use the house for family. They have known it about it for awhile but haven't found a new place to call home quite yet. We have been praying they wouldn't get travel dates for trip #2 until after the move but for some reason God had other plans.
After talking with my sister and her being sure she had drained everyone's well dry with the first half of this adoption process I
"As most of you will remember, we started this journey to bring S to California with a puzzle fundraiser! S now has that puzzle hanging in his room as a reminder of all the people who loved, prayed and supported us in bringing him into our family!
2 years later we are doing a puzzle fundraiser to raise the funds needed to make our adoption of S final in his country! We chose the puzzle that S and I worked on while we were there on trip one! It is of his country and it has 165 pieces! If each piece is claimed for a price of $20, we will have raised enough to cover the cost of two international flights, hotel accommodations and food costs for 6 days/nights!
Through PayPal by using this link and making a friends and family donation to our email address:
toddandamywestlund@yahoo.com
https://www.paypal.com/us/webapps/mpp/send-money-online
With a check mailed to our address:
725 Setter Court
Redding, CA 96003
Who would like to help us put this puzzle and our second trip to ****** together?
1 puzzle piece=$20 and we will put your name on the back of each piece you purchase!"
So help me prove her wrong! Help me make her realize people do still want to contribute and want to see this adoption through to the very end! We are starting off by buying a puzzle piece for each of our kiddos! So only 161 pieces left to sell! Thank you so much for your love and support!
Friday, February 6, 2015
Molluscum Free thanks to ACV!
Ok friends... I am writing this post because I want to give anyone and every one this information regarding Molluscum Contagiosum and what worked for us to get rid of them! Please note I am not speaking as a health care professional and assume no legal responsibility for my recommendation but just a mom who figured out how to get rid of Molluscum!
Over a year ago "C" got these little white bumps on the back of his legs... They didn't seem like a big deal but at any given time some of them would be irritated and red so he would itch them. I took him to a P.A. and she told me about Molluscum and said they are very common in kids and that there's not much you can do but they would just go away in a few months. She even had a hand out ready to go with the information on them because they were so common! She also told me they were contagious and would spread but since there's nothing you can do about them (besides freezing them off and that would be incredibly painful and would leave scarring) there was no point in really worrying about them. Eventually they would go away. Here's a close up of some of them... The red one is inflamed and the little white bumps were what they looked like most of the time.
I gave it about a month and saw no change, if anything he had more so I decided I would get him into the dermatologist to see if they had a magic cream or something. I couldn't get into our normal doctor so I made an apt with a PA at another dermatologists office assuming she would maybe have more experience with this pesky virus. She was very helpful and told me that he had eczema, even though his skin wasn't red and didn't look irritated that because of the eczema his skin wasn't able to fight of the Molluscum. Her thought was that if we healed his skin from the eczema then Molluscum would go away. So she gave me a prescription for a body oil to use on his whole body and a cream to put on the areas with the Molluscum. I used these products every night for a few weeks and still nothing...
Throughout that time I had also tried tea trea oil and a face wash for acne that I had read would help. Neither of those things seemed to make a difference at all.
Finally I found a few blogs that recommended using Apple Cider Vinegar! At this point I was willing to try anything. One blog I saw said you should soak a tiny piece of cotton in the ACV and put it on the Molluscum and put a band aide over it for about 6 hours. I tried that on some of them but there were so many it was time consuming and started to irritate his skin. So I tried the advice of another blog and they said ACV baths! I figured at this point I had to give it a shot, nothing else was working and basketball was coming up so he wasn't going to be able to wear pants forever. So we started that and I noticed a difference after a few days... here's what we did..
Every night he would shower and wash his hair etc.. Then once he was all clean I would start the bath. He only had them on his legs so I would fill the bath up just enough to cover his legs with warm water and then pour in about a cup and a half of the ACV. I'm not even talking about expensive ACV from the health food store.. I'm talking about the cheapest stuff in the gallon size from Raley's or Target! $3 a gallon! I wouldn't measure it.. just pour for a few seconds. He would mix it all around and sit in it for about 10 minutes. We wouldn't rinse or anything after, just pat dry. I would put lotion or body oil on his whole body after the bath.
I noticed all of the white bumps started reacting to the ACV. They all turned red and the lotion helped him not to itch them. With all of the Molluscum reacting to the ACV at the same time it was a little bit alarming because it looked so bad. I just kept it up because I knew this was part of the process to them dying. Finally after about a month they are gone! We did a ACV bath every single night for about three weeks. I still do them about two times a week to make sure there aren't any hiding and also to prevent any new ones from coming. I am so happy to finally have this behind us and to know of a solution that will work if any of my other kiddos get it!
Here are a few more tips I have to keep Molluscum from spreading*
-Wash your hand with antibacterial after treating the Mollusucm
-Try as hard as possible not to touch or itch the Molluscum... The contagious part is in the white bump and if breaks open that is what will make it spread.
-Never re wear clothing that has touched the Mollusucm. We wash EVERYTHING after wearing it once to make sure its not spreading.
-My son had it on his legs so after the ACV bath and lotion he was only allowed to wear pajama pants to bed. No shorts.
-Use towels only once and no sharing! When you have lots of little ones it's easy to line them all up after bath and pat them down before getting them dressed but this is a sure way to spread the Molluscum! Whatever towel I used for my son I would make sure and take it straight to the washer. More laundry for awhile but it is so worth it!
-Gummy Vitamins with Vitamin C boost to help his immune system fight of the virus from the inside
*I've read that the virus can't live on clothing etc but it was still worth it to me to be extra careful not to give it any chance of spreading.
I was too embarrassed to talk about the Molluscum with anyone but once they started to clear up I started talking about it and realized A LOT of people I talked to had kids with it or knew someone that did! I hope this blog will find them and they can get rid of them like we did!
Over a year ago "C" got these little white bumps on the back of his legs... They didn't seem like a big deal but at any given time some of them would be irritated and red so he would itch them. I took him to a P.A. and she told me about Molluscum and said they are very common in kids and that there's not much you can do but they would just go away in a few months. She even had a hand out ready to go with the information on them because they were so common! She also told me they were contagious and would spread but since there's nothing you can do about them (besides freezing them off and that would be incredibly painful and would leave scarring) there was no point in really worrying about them. Eventually they would go away. Here's a close up of some of them... The red one is inflamed and the little white bumps were what they looked like most of the time.
I gave it about a month and saw no change, if anything he had more so I decided I would get him into the dermatologist to see if they had a magic cream or something. I couldn't get into our normal doctor so I made an apt with a PA at another dermatologists office assuming she would maybe have more experience with this pesky virus. She was very helpful and told me that he had eczema, even though his skin wasn't red and didn't look irritated that because of the eczema his skin wasn't able to fight of the Molluscum. Her thought was that if we healed his skin from the eczema then Molluscum would go away. So she gave me a prescription for a body oil to use on his whole body and a cream to put on the areas with the Molluscum. I used these products every night for a few weeks and still nothing...
Throughout that time I had also tried tea trea oil and a face wash for acne that I had read would help. Neither of those things seemed to make a difference at all.
Finally I found a few blogs that recommended using Apple Cider Vinegar! At this point I was willing to try anything. One blog I saw said you should soak a tiny piece of cotton in the ACV and put it on the Molluscum and put a band aide over it for about 6 hours. I tried that on some of them but there were so many it was time consuming and started to irritate his skin. So I tried the advice of another blog and they said ACV baths! I figured at this point I had to give it a shot, nothing else was working and basketball was coming up so he wasn't going to be able to wear pants forever. So we started that and I noticed a difference after a few days... here's what we did..
Every night he would shower and wash his hair etc.. Then once he was all clean I would start the bath. He only had them on his legs so I would fill the bath up just enough to cover his legs with warm water and then pour in about a cup and a half of the ACV. I'm not even talking about expensive ACV from the health food store.. I'm talking about the cheapest stuff in the gallon size from Raley's or Target! $3 a gallon! I wouldn't measure it.. just pour for a few seconds. He would mix it all around and sit in it for about 10 minutes. We wouldn't rinse or anything after, just pat dry. I would put lotion or body oil on his whole body after the bath.
I noticed all of the white bumps started reacting to the ACV. They all turned red and the lotion helped him not to itch them. With all of the Molluscum reacting to the ACV at the same time it was a little bit alarming because it looked so bad. I just kept it up because I knew this was part of the process to them dying. Finally after about a month they are gone! We did a ACV bath every single night for about three weeks. I still do them about two times a week to make sure there aren't any hiding and also to prevent any new ones from coming. I am so happy to finally have this behind us and to know of a solution that will work if any of my other kiddos get it!
Here are a few more tips I have to keep Molluscum from spreading*
-Wash your hand with antibacterial after treating the Mollusucm
-Try as hard as possible not to touch or itch the Molluscum... The contagious part is in the white bump and if breaks open that is what will make it spread.
-Never re wear clothing that has touched the Mollusucm. We wash EVERYTHING after wearing it once to make sure its not spreading.
-My son had it on his legs so after the ACV bath and lotion he was only allowed to wear pajama pants to bed. No shorts.
-Use towels only once and no sharing! When you have lots of little ones it's easy to line them all up after bath and pat them down before getting them dressed but this is a sure way to spread the Molluscum! Whatever towel I used for my son I would make sure and take it straight to the washer. More laundry for awhile but it is so worth it!
-Gummy Vitamins with Vitamin C boost to help his immune system fight of the virus from the inside
*I've read that the virus can't live on clothing etc but it was still worth it to me to be extra careful not to give it any chance of spreading.
I was too embarrassed to talk about the Molluscum with anyone but once they started to clear up I started talking about it and realized A LOT of people I talked to had kids with it or knew someone that did! I hope this blog will find them and they can get rid of them like we did!
Sunday, February 1, 2015
Gudgels Do Disney Part 1- Shoes and Ears
We have been planning a trip to Disneyland for about six months. As our trip has gotten closer I find myself doing a lot of unnecessary planning for our adventure. I love crafting so give me an excuse and I'm going to run with it! I will blame this one on my sister in love- Katie. For Christmas this year we did "family" gifts with Brian's siblings. For our family gift Katie got us matching Disneyland shirts (I will share those in a later post). Of course I had to start thinking about what K & T would wear with their personalized Minnie shirts and all of the sudden I was in craft mode. That combined with Brian telling me the girls probably should have some tennis shoes for comfortable walking riding in the stroller I knew it was time to get my craft on. So here is post one of our Disney adventures... Disney shoes and Disney ears for our girlies.
Here is what you need-
For the Shoes:
-Ribbon- Size 5/8" for the laces and the "flare"
-Size 7/8" for the base of the bow
-Floral Wire
-Fray Check
-Buttons: Two big and four small
-Glue Gun
-Shoes
For the ears
-1.5" Ribbon
-Black Sparkle foam
-Black foam with sticky back
-Alligator Clip
-Glue Gun
-Fray Check
I decided it would be easier for me to make a video of me blinging out the shoes and making the ears rather than showing each step in pictures.. It's a little long so just scan through to the parts you have questions about. I gave a lot of details... I also say "and" a lot. Happy crafting!
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