October 2014

 October was a busy one! Magnus' treatments were in full swing, every morning, bright and early, 5 days a week. We still had plenty of fun throughout the month though! I absolutely adore October, it is by far one of my favorite months. This one was beautiful and more of an "Indian Summer' so I was able to enjoy it even more.

We spent one evening at Andy's mission president's house for a mission reunion. His house is absolutely incredible and the kids had so much fun on the human slingshot, zipline, rock-climbing wall, giant slide, and other fun things that they had to do. It was a fun night and I always enjoy talking to Andy's mission president and his wife. They are some of the kindest and most generous people I have ever met.

Just me and M, waiting for a therapy appointment :)

Rachel's birthday is October 4th, so I surprised her by waking her up SUPER early, taking her to breakfast, and having our college roomies meet us there. It was great conversation, and yummy food, two of the best things!

I was able to take Daphne and Baron to Cornbelly's with Daphne's soccer team to help chaperone. Originally Andy had planned on coming with me and Daph instead of Bear, but he wasn't feeling well, so Bear took his spot. I had never been there and it was SO much fun!

 We did all of the crazy activities, got lost in the corn maze, and ate a bunch of fried food. Definitely a good time ;)

Magnus begged Rachel to take him back to Discovery Gateway and since she is the sweetest person ever, she took him and Liam one day.

This is one morning after radiation therapy, just me and my boy having a little breakfast at the hospital cafeteria. Whenever we would have a therapy appointment shortly after radiation, we would just grab breakfast here. They had the most amazing berries and cream oatmeal.

One weekend Andy and I were invited, along with some other friends, to celebrate my dear friend Katrina's birthday. Her husband, Scott, had planned a surprise party for her. There were about 6 couples and Scott had rented out the Flowrider in Orem. It was so fun (and funny!) to watch everyone try it.

I did way better than I thought I would. I would love to learn to surf someday!

After Flowrider, we all went to dinner at Brio and then the husbands headed home to be with the their kids. The wives went to stay in a hotel for the night where we pampered each other with facials and nail-painting, drank gallons of coke with lime, ate lots of candy, and talked until the wee hours of the morning. A true Birthday Slumber Party. It was so much fun. 

The next morning we headed to Waffle Love and got waffles for breakfast. Sooooo yummy! It was a fabulous night, and so much fun to celebrate lovely Katrina turning 30.

Andy's sister, Terra, had put her mission papers in to go on a mission about 8 months ago, back in January or February. She got her mission call to Utica, New York mission and left in October. It was great to get to spend some time with her before she left. She had been living in Arkansas for a few years before her mission, so we hadn't lived by her for years. Our kids adore her, she is an amazing young lady.

I applied for nursing school in October. It was just for an LPN program, so I would need to go back to get my RN after this program, but I felt like it would be great to be able to make more money while finishing up my degree. Also, the program had a link with Weber State's RN program, and after completing the LPN program, Weber would accept me into their RN program. I worked my butt off to complete all of the requirements for the application including a ton of studying, taking a national test, meetings with directors, completing my CNA test for licensure,  taking a 1/2 day CPR certification course, and filling out tons of paperwork. Everything kept falling into place and I felt really great about it and was so excited. Out of about 100 applicants, I was selected for an interview, along with 33 other people. They would take 24 into the program, and I felt like I was a shoe-in with my experience. After my interview, I felt kind of uneasy about how it went. I felt like I might not get in, but I didn't know why. I found out a week later that I didn't get in. I was so angry at first and so frustrated that my plans hadn't worked out how I wanted. A few weeks later I found out that the school I had applied for had done away with their link to Weber State's RN program. It is extremely hard to get into a second year nursing school as an LPN, and all of the sudden I was relieved that I didn't get in. Heavenly Father blesses us with things we NEED and works in mysterious ways. Something I was so upset and frustrated about ended up working in my favor. Whew! It was a good experience though. So now I will apply for an RN program at the end of this year if everything continues to go as planned :)

My cute, cute kiddos! I love school pics.

Mag was in desperate need of a haircut with all of his hair coming out from radiation. We trimmed it very short and it really showed his scars and just how thin it was getting in the radiated areas.

Lucky Laylah was able to spend a week with her dear cousin Kathryn that lives in St. George. Even though these girls are 2.5 years apart, they are inseparable.  Cousin bonds are the best bonds.

There are 2 other families in our stake boundaries who have sons with cancer. It is both of their 5th and youngest child, and they are all boys. I was able to get together with these awesome cancer moms for a night out to dinner and discussion about everything cancer related. It is so therapeutic for me to talk to people who have been in my shoes! Even though all of our sons have different kinds of cancers, they are all brain cancers, and there are a lot of similarities in treatments. I have loved keeping in touch with them.

Laylah was invited to her first girl/boy party for Halloween! Crazy how grown-up she is getting. She said it was fun, but not really what she expected. She and her best friend Katie were hilarious when telling me how immature all of the boys were. 

Since becoming part of the "Cancer World", we have been introduced to many foundations that do incredible things for Cancer Kids. One of those is The Jessie Rees Foundation and they create JOY jars to help encourage kids in their battle against cancer. They send out these darling jars full of fun toys, games, and activities. I encourage you to check out the website. They are fully non-profit and do it all for cancer kids. They only run on donations and fundraisers. It is an incredible story how they came to be. Go check the out!

Magnus has received two Joy Jars in the mail so far (one for his birthday, and one for Christmas) and he absolutely loves them. They also do things for siblings and families. We are going to hold a fundraiser for the foundation come spring. I can't wait.

We got a family pass to Murray Rec Center several months ago and we love to go swimming in their indoor pool as a family. While Magnus was going through treatment, he couldn't swim, or even take a bath for that matter. He had a PICC line in his arm that couldn't get wet at all. We took the older four swimming one day while Rach watched Magnus. It is always fun to spend time with our older 4. They are such good kids, and the best of friends.

And that's a wrap for October Randomness! I will do Halloween in it's own post, hopefully sooner rather than later!

September 2014

 Ah, September. Month of craziness and catching up before Magnus' treatments started. Magnus came home from the hospital on Sept 4th. A few of these photos are from the last week of August, mostly of stuff Rachel sent to me because I was missing things with my kids and she had taken over as mom of the year. She has 5 kids of her own (which included a new baby at the time) + my four, so she was taking care of 9 kiddos. Yeesh. Talk about amazing.

Anyway, September also had some crazy rainstorms which I loved. Some beautiful rainbows followed those storms. So applicable to my life at the time.

Our elementary school does a Parent Picnic after the first week of school. I have missed it the last 2 years due to unforeseen circumstances. I promised my kids I would be there this year, alas, I missed it once again. I have yet to go to the Parent Picnic with them. Thankfully, Aunt Rachel and Grandma Claudia sufficed and were excellent fill-ins.

Soccer was in full swing while we were in the hospital and we were able to sneak away for a bit to watch Jonah and Daphne play in the Mayor's Cup, a soccer tournament up in Ogden. Jonah's team one 1 game and Daphne's team got into the finals. They lost, so they took 2nd place overall in their age group. Pretty impressive!

 

Baron played rec soccer again and it gets pretty competitive once they go into first grade. He decided this year that he really doesn't like soccer all that much. I doubt we will sign him up again, unless he changes his mind in a couple years.

And just a random apple I cut open one day to find that the seeds inside had SPROUTED! Sick, huh?! This apple had probably been sitting in our fruit basket since before we went to the hospital. SO gross.

Rachel had some lovely flowers waiting for us when we got home from the hospital. I'll blog about the rest of our hospital stay and coming home in a separate post.

It was cousin Liam's birthday the day Magnus came home. The next day we went to the Clark Planetarium, out to lunch, and to get ice cream. It was a fun outing for Magnus since he had been cooped up for the last few weeks. We had to be very careful since he still couldn't walk or really talk at this point. He rode in the stroller or I carried him everywhere. Not an easy task with a 50 pound kid.

Andy's brother, David had gotten engaged over the summer and the wedding was at the end of September. With everything happening with Magnus, we had to be really quick about finding outfits for everyone to wear. The boys were easy, Andy's mom got them all matching ties with instructions for white shirts and navy pants. But, the girls had to find something in with in either blush pink or cream. I took the girls shopping and we had fun trying on lots and lots of dresses.

 We were all able to find some cute stuff and it was a fun time with my girlies.

Laylah decided to try out for Mountain West Ballet's Nutcracker. She did a great job and got the part of a King's mouse as well as a Chinese Dragon. She had lots of practices every week from September until performances started in December. More on that later.

We had so many people do so many nice things for us while Mag was in the hospital. Andy's best friend, Paul, works for McDonald's Corp and sent us a gift card. We snuck the kids out of school to go get lunch one day.

I had to do some last minute searching for the wedding and Magnus tagged along. He had started walking really slowly at this point with hand-holding and lots of support. His favorite thing to do at the mall is ride up and down on the escalator. We went up and down, up and down, up and down. He loved it.

One side effect from M's surgery is personality change/frustration/lack of control over frustrating circumstances, etc. One day his toast broke and I thought it was the end of the world when he started screaming and carrying on for 15 minutes. Luckily he has gotten better since then, but it sure was weird to see my normally calm, and easy-going little guy to freak out about something so silly.

My dear friend Lori invited us to the zoo one day. It was so much fun. Even though all of the other kids are in school all day, Magnus and I don't get nearly enough one-on-one time together doing fun activities. I always thought it would be easier to get out once everyone was in school full time, but I find the opposite to be true. I'm always shuttling kids everywhere once school gets out, so I find myself wanting to be home more during the day. When my other kids were little, before they got into school, getting out for activities was crucial for my sanity. Mag has always been so easy-going, I haven't ever felt the need with him. I have tried to change that and we try to get out at least once a week for a fun activity together.

Lori's darling girl, Eleanor, is so tiny compared to Mag!

Andy's sister Stefanie is married to Travis, who is a Highway Patrolman. He let Magnus "drive" his car one night and Magnus had a blast. He now wants to be a "Police Doctor" (?!?) when he grows up.

Rachel and my mom took Magnus to the Thanksgiving Pint Farm one day so I could catch up on some stuff at home. He always has so much fun with his cousins.

And the night finally came where we were able to celebrate David and McElle! We went to their wedding dinner the evening before their wedding and it was so much fun to be ALL together. That doesn't happen very often since some of Andy's family lives out of state.

Their wedding day was absolutely beautiful. The weather couldn't have been better. They were married in the Logan, Utah temple in the morning and that evening they had a reception in Bountiful. It was just beautiful. Such a wonderful evening to celebrate the lovely couple.

 All 20 grandkids!

 Like I said, absolutely beautiful. 

One day Andy and I decided to get the kids out of school early, grab lunch, and then head to Discovery Gateway. We hadn't been there in years. In fact, Magnus had never been there. He asks to go there all of the time now. We all had so much fun and played for hours.

And that was our September. I mentioned earlier that Andy and I both dropped our classes for the semester to just focus on Magnus' treatments and therapies. I am so glad we did. I would never have been able to handle it. I promise I will do a separate post on All Things Magnus that includes more hospital stay, therapy, doctor appointments, and whatever else I can remember. 

Love these two boys.

So, It's Been Awhile

 I just am not quite sure what I am going to do about this little blog of mine. I have been writing on it for over 6 years! That is crazy to me. I am not quite ready to give it up, but it is so overwhelming for me to think of catching it up. I have an idea, but my OCD side wants everything to be in perfect, chronological order, so I'm struggling a bit. As I go through photos from the past 5 months, since M's diagnosis, it is completely and utterly overwhelming. I have caught up on 5-6 months in the past, but that was when I didn't have a job + school. And sleep is a necessary evil, so I can't give that up.  I've also let my health take a backseat since last summer, so that needs to be addressed as well. I am currently training for a half marathon as well as Ragnar this summer, so I have to run at least 4 times a week. Whew! Life, huh? What a trip.

Anyway, I am thinking that I may just photo dump each month into a post and make sure big events have their own post as well. The only thing I won't include in monthly posts is Magnus' stuff. I still have high hopes that I can do separate posts for him and his progress. I have so many hospital photos I still haven't shared on here, as well as therapy sessions and info that I want to have a record of. And then there is his cancer treatments that I have literally written nothing about. I am pretty much relying on Heavenly Father to bless me for trying to keep a family history and for Him to help me remember specifics. I don't think it will be too hard. I just need to find the time to do it!

In the meantime, I wanted to post these lovely family photos that my dear friend Julia did for us. I love them. I also want to give just a quick update on our family happenings.

 Soooo, The Collette's! Here's where we are...

Andy quite his job at UPS right before Halloween. He has been needing to start a job in the medical field so he can start getting medical hours to apply for the Master's Program that he wants to do. It requires 2,000-4,000 hours experience in the medical field, depending on the school he applies to. After our experience at Primary Children's, he decided he was going to apply there. Andy has always loved kids and they love him. He is the perfect kind of "goofy" and he can totally relate to them. I don't know how he does it. He's amazing. He absolutely loves his new job. He even works in the unit where Magnus stayed, the NTU (NeuroScience Trauma Unit). He also received his EMT certification! His hard work has paid off over the last few months. He has a meeting with a nursing school tomorrow to see if he can start an accelerated nursing program that would have him graduate with his Bachelor's degree in just 15 months, and then he can move onto his Master's program. It is all very exciting and I am just such a proud wife.

Then, there's me. I am taking 11 credit hours this semester and working 2 jobs. Eek! It's a lot. However, I only work my stylist job one day a week. It's pretty much an outlet and I love going there. It is such a fun job, and I adore my clients. I am also working as a CNA to gain medical experience. I work 2 days a week (always weekends) and it is not too shabby. It's not as bad as I feared it to be. However, I will be glad when my CNA life is behind me :) I will be applying for nursing school at the end of the year. I was rushing so fast a year ago so I could apply last December, but it became overwhelming and I realized that I was doing this because I wanted to and not because I had to. So I have slowed down a bit and I am just taking my time. I am also busy with running like I mentioned, and of course--kids! I love my kids. The schedule I have now allows me to spend A LOT more time with them than I was previously. We have made much more time for family outings and general togetherness. We are definitely busy, but we keep the important stuff first.

Laylah is loving dance SO much. She is excelling in school and gets straight A's. She will be 12 soon (seriously?! seriously.) and be going into Young Women's. She has started babysitting for about 4 families in our neighborhood and has lots of money to show for it. I can hardly believe she is starting Jr. High in a short 6 months!! It's all just flown by too quickly. 

Jonah is so much fun. He is the funniest kid ever and always has me laughing. He continues to be a rock star on the soccer field. He took a break from soccer this winter and started basketball. He is improving, but it is harder for him. He made a couple baskets at his last game, and his face lit up like a light bulb. He earned 3 pins at his last pack meeting and enjoys scouts a lot.  He also does well in school and enjoys his friends so much.

Daphne... this girl marches to the beat of her own drum and I love it. She is such a great example to me. She continues to LOVE soccer as well and she has two teams that have asked her to guest play for them at games and in tournaments. She is an amazing defender and has gotten so aggressive. She loves school and loves, LOVES her friends. She does so well and is so good at managing her time. 

Baron has grown up a lot this past year. He is a crack up. He continues to be quiet and mature, but he makes us laugh like nobody's business. He does awesome in school, and his teacher even went as far as to say that he was at the very top of his class. He is an old soul and very logical about everything. He decided he hates soccer, but prefers basketball. He has been playing this winter and loves it. His coordination is off, but I have to keep reminding myself that even though he looks 10, he is only 6. I love my Bear and every snuggle he begrudgingly gives me.

And, Magnus. How this kid has improved with all of the challenges he faced a few months ago is nothing short of a miracle. He is so much fun and has a zest for life. He is up for anything and my little partner in crime. he absolutely LOVES his cousin Liam like nobody else. They are inseparable. He loves to play quietly with his toys and watch movies. He has such a wonderful imagination and I love to hear him playing by himself. He also loves to read and will bring me stack after stack of books. I love it.

Sadie.... continues to be a pill. I love our little dog to pieces, but most of the time she drives me nuts. Good thing she's cute :)

And there's a long, old update on our fam. New Year.... lots happening.... happy, blessed life.... what more can a gal ask for?

Nothing. Nothing at all.