Ultimate Girl's Day Out

 Back on September 2nd I was able to experience one of the most ultimate girl's day out ever. It was the Friday before I started my new job and we had planned it all to perfection. It was seriously one of the most fun days of my life. It included amazing friends, terrific shopping, eating delicious food, great company, and good music. See? Perfect day. 

It started bright and early as Katrina, Marcie, Shelly, and Cindy picked me up at 6:30 AM to head up to Swiss Days in Midway, UT. This is a craft/boutique festival that has gained popularity through the years and they have so many fun and unique items for sale. It is all sold at a terrific discounted rate and we cleaned up! We found so many darling and cute things to take home and spruce up our houses and wardrobes.

They have their infamous scones and this sucker filled me up for the majority of the day. So delicious.

They have the best wrapping paper booth and we all stocked up.

So cute.

Love these dear friends of mine!

After Swiss Days we did a little shopping in Park City and stopped for salads at Zupa's. 

We headed home to get ready for our next event that night. I ran home to change and clean up and chatted with my family for one minute before zipping back out the door. Andy was amazing that day, helping out with all the kid stuff just a day after his motorcycle accident. I appreciate him so much. 

Marcie picked me back up and her car was full of all of our friends. We headed to Cubby's where we went to dinner. More delicious food was eaten and then we went on our way to the Dixie Chicks Concert at Usana Amphitheater.

 We had lawn seats and it was a perfect evening.

 There was a whole hodgepodge of us there together. My good friends there were: Julie, Kari, Marcie, Katrina, Lori, and Cristan, and then the 4 other ladies (that I actually don't know) are friends of Katrina's and Julie's and we just all sat together.

 Kari, displaying her lovely belt buckle.

 We had a great time chatting before the Dixie Chicks came out (the warm-up band was terrible)

When the Chicks came out, it was pure madness! We all went crazy. We had a great time dancing, singing our hearts out, and laughing.

 To be honest, the concert and the Chicks performance was slightly underwhelming. But everything about it was great and we made it more fun with our crazy antics. You would never know that between all of us we have about 40 kids. Getting out of the parking lot afterwards was a madhouse and we almost got in a couple of fights with other cars, hahaha. 

Some of us were SO tired, but we didn't want the night to end. So we headed to Cheesecake Factory and got in at 5 minutes to midnight, right before closing. They put us in a corner and we just laughed and talked for the next 45 minutes until they basically kicked us out.

It was truly a day/night to remember and it made me so incredibly grateful for my amazing friends and the great examples in my life. I am so blessed. I have such a wonderful and happy life. I live for days like this one because it makes all of the day-to-day drudgery worth it.  

Loved my Ladies Day out!

Childhood Cancer Awareness Month aka Go Gold in September!

 September is Childhood Cancer Awareness Month. I took the opportunity to flood social media daily with Childhood Cancer Awareness Facts, posts, and information. Even though Magnus was diagnosed just 2 years ago, so much more awareness has been brought to light and I am doing my part to help. It is a very near and dear and important cause to me and I will do what I can in my small world to make a difference. 

There are so many foundations who also do their part and post daily. I love reading all of the things they post. Also, more sports teams and franchises are getting into it. It is terrific! Here are some of the many, many posts I made about Going Gold for Childhood Cancer. 

This is an incredible photo a friend took and as she described it, it was "raining gold". I thought it incredibly appropriate for September and found it to be a sweet tender mercy from my Heavenly Father.  

This showed up on my TimeHop app from Septemeber1st. Such a difficult and surreal day. My child has cancer. Nothing in the world can prepare you to hear those words.

My little fighter with a 7 inch scar and a brain drain.

 Gold toes, naturally!

This was pretty dang cool, one of those things that makes me so happy that more awareness is coming forth. Niagara Falls was turned gold in honor of Childhood Cancer Awareness Month.

 Go Gold!

We LOVE soccer in our house and I was so incredibly psyched to see the MLS support Going Gold in September for Childhood Cancer Awareness. 

Gold sandals! YES! Go gold!

 We went to a Real Salt Lake game in September and Childhood Cancer Awareness Posts kept flashing across the big screen. Yes!

One of the moms in our local support group took it upon herself to make t-shirts in honor of the month. On the back is a list of the angels, fighters, and survivors who have been treated at Primary Children's Hospital. SO, so happy to see Magnus' name in the "survivors" column.

And lastly, there was a benefit gala in Vegas put on by the TRF (Tyler Robinson Foundation) which was started by one of my all-time favorite bands, Imagine Dragons. Oh, what I wouldn't give to have been able to attend! Tickets cost a ton, and I have no money to donate anyway, but I am doing my part where I can. Anyway, they had an auction and this print went up for sale. I LOVE IT. I want a copy so badly. It seriously speaks to my soul.

I actually have a friend from high school who is married to the brother of Tyler Robinson's brother, so they go to the gala every year and I was able to live vicariously through her as she posted videos and photos to social media from the event. SO cool. 

Anyway, another year of Childhood Cancer Awareness wrapped up and even though I especially focus on it in September, I talk about it often. We need a cure and our children are worth more than the 4% that the government allots for childhood cancer research. 

Go Gold in September!

Andy's Motorcycle Accident

 On the Thursday, first of September, I had so many plans. It was the last day I would be home all day, my kids would all be in school, and I had several things on my to-do list to accomplish before starting my new job the next week. I started out the day kissing my husband goodbye as he headed off to work (on his motorcycle, as he did every day), got the kids ready and drove them to school, and then I headed to the gym. Halfway through my muscle blast class, my phone started ringing. I glanced over and saw that it was Andy and dismissed it immediately, thinking I'd call him back after my class. But then I really felt like I should answer it, so I did. 

He told me that there had been an accident, but he was okay. His motorcycle had been clipped by a car as it change lanes and he had gone down. The car, and the idiot driver inside, were oblivious to what they had done (or so I'd like to think-- I would hope that the woman inside would have stopped had she realized she hit him) and they had driven on their way. I was kind of freaking out, but he kept telling me he was fine and some very nice people had helped him. The accident had happened right by his work, so they had helped get him and his barely damaged bike back to the office. An ambulance had come and EMT's assessed him, but he had told them he was fine and that he would just call his wife.

I left class immediately and drove to his office. He was banged up, bloody, and his pants were completely torn down one side. We drove home and I think he was kind of in shock. As I assessed his injury's I decided we better take him in just to be safe. His wrist was killing him and I did not want to attempt to clean out all of his road rash wounds.

We were admitted into the ED and he was looked over by the doctor. He had several x-rays done and a nurse came and flushed all of his wounds and dressed them. We were there for several hours as they got him all fixed up. The x-rays showed that there were no fractures, just sprains. He was a very lucky boy.

A little bit after they finished x-raying him, his elbow blew up and was all squishy. He had a hematoma, and the doctor just said to ice it and it would go down.

Look at the difference between his elbows!

We are so blessed that Andy was okay. I am grateful he has a calm head in these situations. The guy driving behind him when the accident happened was an experienced motorcyclist and said that he has never seen anyone lay a bike down so smoothly to do minimum damage to the bike and the driver. i am so thankful for all of the many people who stopped and helped him. It was a scary day and I am so relieved it all worked out and Andy was okay.

Just a quick little testimony I wanted to share... When I was helping Andy remove his torn up clothing so he could change and I could take him to the ER,  We noticed that his pants were torn all the way up to the pocket. He had road rash all over his leg, until his garment line. His skin was completely in tact on his leg underneath his garments. Little miracles.

And as a side-note: On this exact same day two years ago (Sept 1, 2014) was when we found out Magnus' brain tumor was malignant and he was diagnosed with cancer. I guess it's not a lucky day for us. I will be very wary of Sept 1st in the future!

Hi-dee Ho!

This is just a photo of me drinking an avocado smoothie. Have you tried one? You SHOULD! And here is my favorite place to get one, right HERE. You're welcome.

By the way, hi! I've just been blogging for the last 4 hours trying to catch up in this here space of mine. Don't worry, I only have 4 months of stuff to go! Ha! But summer is finally caught up.

And guess what? It's the first day of a new year.... fresh and clean! At least it was when I started blogging tonight. Now it's actually the second day. Oh well.  

Christmas was amazing. The New Year was fun. I've had a bit of drama this week in my life, but I won't share that here. It's a little personal. But the good news is, it's a new year and a fresh start! I have tomorrow off and I am going to get my house in ORDER!! HEAR THAT HOUSE?!? You will be put in order!

The kids have agreed to help me while Andy works (they need some extra help tomorrow and he gets holiday pay plus time and a half. Bonus!)

After that, we are going to go do something fun for FHE before we all go back to the daily grind and suffer through January (besides Daphne's birthday which we love).

I am excited for this year. Last year will be tough to beat. It was the best. But I am determined to make this year just as good! We already have so many things to look forward to. Trips always help me make it through. We have a cruise in April, and California in September. We have a few mini trips thrown in as well. I am going to start training for a marathon in a couple months. (Yes, I said MARATHON) It is bound to be a great year. 

Andy and I went through our budget today and figured out how we can payoff the remainder of our debt so that we can start saving for our very own house. My problem is patience. I want it NOW. That's how we seem to get into debt in the first place, but I am definitely working on that! I have gotten so much better, I promise... I really want my own house. So it'll be worth it!

Anyway, that's just my sleepy mind running a million miles a minute. I better go to bed. But happy new year!! I hope it's your best one yet.