First Day of School 2017-18

The first day of school was August 23rd.  The summer just flew by and we didn't even get to do any thing fun (stupid cancer!).  Okay we did do a few fun things like Hogle Zoo, camping, and playing with Grandma and Grandpa Morwood.  Oh and we can't forget the kids rode their bikes non stop and had lemonade stands all the time with their friends.  So we did have a pretty good summer.  But now it is back to the old grid and back to school!

This year should be really fun.  I am excited for the great teachers the kids got and I am happy they have a lot of friends in their classes this year.  Look how big they are getting!  Stop growing right now!!

This year, Emily is in 3rd grade.

Emily has been looking forward to going back to school ever since it got out for the summer.  This girl loves school!  Emily was lucky enough to get Mrs. Katie McBride this year for her teacher.  She loved Mrs. McBride when she was the school librarian and now is really happy that she gets to be her teacher. 

The other thing Emily is super excited about is having her two best friends in her class this year.  When we saw Ayzleigh and Jadaci's names on her class list, she was jumping for joy!  She was sad they were not in her class last year but is really looking forward to this year now.

Colby is in 1st grade now:

He is all ready to go to school all day long and has his Star Wars lunch box ready for lunch.  Colby got kind of mixed around with teachers this year because at the last minute we decided to switch him out of his original class.  At first Colby also had Mrs. McBride (Shana).  We loved her when Emily had her so we were excited.  Then, however, the principal called us and told us that Mrs. McBride would only be teaching part-time and would have another team teacher take the other half.  We were still okay with it until we found out who the team teacher was then we kind of lost interest.  The other teacher was one that was very strict, and, I feel, too hard on the kids in her class.  I had originally requested to not have her as the teacher.  Russell and I both felt like this situation would be bad for Colby. We wanted him to continue to like school and didn't feel like this was the best.  We decided to switch Colby into Mrs. Smith's class and we are really happy and excited that she is his teacher this year.

Mrs. Smith is very friendly and we have heard great things about her.  Colby has loved being in her class so far this year.  Also on the plus side, there are so many kids Colby knows in this class.  The funny thing is that his whole primary class is in his school class too so they all have a good time.  Colby's really good friend, Quinn, is in this class too.  They played together all summer.  When Colby found out that Quinn was in his class, he told us that he hoped he didn't sit by Quinn in school.  Russell and I were both shocked by this comment and asked Colby why he had said this because it wasn't very nice to say about his friend.  Colby said that if he sat by his friend, they would talk the whole time and then they would get in trouble or not learn so he didn't think it would be a good idea.  We both laughed and said, "You're right."  Well he didn't end up sitting by Quinn but he does sit By his other friend, Madi, but he said they don't talk.

Logan started preschool this year:

Logan absolutely loves going to school.  He looks forward to it everyday.  He goes for about two and a half hours everyday except Friday.  He has met a lot of fun new friends and is learning a lot.

His teacher is Miss Maggie and she is super nice.  On the first day, we found out that she is friends with Calen and Rochelle so she has a special connection with Logan.  

Logan's preschool is held at Mountain Crest High School behind our house.  Because he goes to school at the high school, whenever anyone asks what grade he is in, he says he is in high school.  He is a funny kid.

In between sick times with chemo, I made Emily and Logan new backpacks for school.  Colby's was still in great condition from last year.  Emily's backpack was getting too small to carry everything so I made hers bigger.  And of course, Logan needed a backpack for preschool.  Each of the kids picked out their own fabric and they loved how they turned out.  I like how they turned out too!  

Before school started, Emily had a losing teeth party.  She lost two teeth within a week of each other.  She was so brave and pulled her own teeth even!  She was too scared to have Russell or me pull them so we told her to pull them herself then and she did!  She was pretty excited about that.  

So now school is in full swing and we are back to a structured schedule of school and after school activities.  In a way I am glad for that but I have really been loving this laid back summer too.  Oh well on to the school year.

Chemo #3... Cancer Journey Part 10

Chemo round number three is in the books.  This round was probably the easiest so far on my body.  Yeah!

While the poison was going in, Russell and I had some fun taking selfies.  Russell was emailing Tyler so we decided to send him some pictures of us too.  I really like the shirt I am wearing.  It says "Heck, yes, they're fake. The real ones tried to kill me!"  Every time I wear it people comment and laugh about it.  Hey if you are going to have this, you might as well find some humor in it, right.

While we were at the hospital, the kids were having a blast at the Dennis's watching the solar eclipse with the neighborhood kids. 

August 21st was a total solar eclipse.  Apparently the only one we will see in our lifetime.  I don't know how this could be true because I have seen at least 3 solar eclipses in my lifetime and I am not even that old.  I guess this one was special because it was a complete solar eclipse.  Anyway, while Mitzi, our nurse, was mixing up my drugs and waiting for the lab results, Russell and I were able to go outside for a few minutes and see the eclipse.  Mitzi let us borrow her protective glasses and it was pretty cool to see the sun be covered.  We also did it the old fashioned way by looking at the shadow through some holes in paper.  We were not outside when the total eclipse happened but our friends told us that it got darker outside and the temperatures dropped probably 10 degrees.  It was amazing.

I found this cool picture of the eclipse on the Internet.  It is probably photo shopped but it looked cool to me.  As there always is when something big goes down, there were rumors of the world coming to an end during the eclipse.  I never believe these things because nobody knows when the end is coming so I just can't worry about that.  This time though, I was really hoping the world would not end during the eclipse because I was getting chemo!  I did not want to go out like that.  I also didn't want it to happen because I was away from my kids!  But of course, thankfully the world did not end.

So with this treatment, I had many of the same symptoms.  Thankfully I was not sick but I was just tired again.  Once again the worst side effects were the loss of energy, the loss of my taste buds, and the cotton mouth.  My fingernails did hurt quite a bit this time too so I tried to help them out by sticking them in cold rice.  This is supposed to stimulate the nerves in my fingers and help prevent neuropathy.  The kids thought this was the best thing ever.  They sat by me and just played in the cold rice.  Charlotte loved it the most and made the biggest mess.  She would grab rice and then shake her hands and the rice everywhere!  It was so much fun.  I don't know if the rice has helped but I guess it can't hurt.  

One thing I did notice this time is the effects of chemo brain.  The night of my treatment was also Back to School night.  Because I am the PTA Treasurer, I had to help with the Night as well as taking orders and selling T-shirts.  For some reason, this was really hard for me.  I could not concentrate or even do simple math without thinking about it for a minute.  This was really the first time I had noticed the effects of chemo brain.  I made it through though but it sure was annoying.  I really hope this side effect goes away and my mind gets quicker again.

Well chemo number three is done.  Only one more to go.  We are almost there...

Head Shaving Party... Cancer Journey Part 9

When I first got diagnosed with cancer, I felt like I had to fight this thing on my own.  I didn't even really want to tell anyone besides family.  But I have learned that this is not something you can do on your own.  I needed the love and support of everyone around me, even people I didn't even know.  

When I lost my hair, Russell suggested we have a head shaving party with the guys from the fire department.  They had done this before when a few other guys or their wives had had cancer so he thought they would do it for me too.  At first I thought it was a crazy idea.  I mean, these guys don't even know me so why would they shave their head to support me?  I went along with the idea not really expecting anyone to actually do it.  I figured there might be one or two guys but that was it.  Russell was really looking forward to it though so we planned the party and set a date and time for all the guys to meet at the Merlin Olsen park to get their head shaved.  When the day came, I was amazed at how many guys and their wives showed up.  We were at the park for probably two hours just giving hair cuts!  

They wanted me to shave every one's heads at first but I told them no way!  So everyone took turns shaving each others head.  Some guys even had their kids do it.  The whole night was so much fun.  We all laughed so hard as we shaved funny things in their hair before cutting it all off.  Ben was the most emotional one I think.  He loved to take off his hat and just flip his hair around.  He said he had been growing it out just for this moment.  We all laughed at him as Russell took the first whack.  Ben said he cared the most because he had the most hair to give.  I don't know if he had the most hair to give because the Coby Kearl had a full mullet shaved off.  That kid was awesome.  He just said, "Do it!" and his mom, Jenny, cut it off.

Not only did many fire guys from Logan come but there were guys from Wellsville and Hyrum and other cities in the county.  I could not believe they were all doing this for Russell and me. 

In all there were 12 or so guys that willingly shaved their heads for us.  It was amazing to feel the love and support from these great guys.  Words cannot express my gratitude.  

Not only were these guys supportive, but their wives were there too.  Each of them came up and talked to me and wished me well and just expressed their support.  This really made me feel good and loved by people I don't even know.  There were two women that were very encouraging to me because they were breast cancer survivors as well.  They gave me some great pointers and just let me know there was light at the end of the tunnel.  They each told me about their head shaving parties that these guys did for them too.  It was nice to get to know Jenny Kearl and Colleena Hammer.

Thank you again guys!

Chemo Round #2... Cancer Journey Part 8

Here we go again for chemo treatment #2.  This treatment and side effects were better than the first round.   

We went into the treatment on July 31st.  The nurse accessed my port and then tried to draw blood out.  Something was wrong though and no blood would come out.  This kind of worried me.  The nurse tried a few tricks to get the blood out but nothing seemed to work.  This was really weird because my port has always worked fine before with no problems.  I am guessing something was not done right when it was accessed in the ER.  The nurse had to put some declotter medicine in the port and then we had to wait for a half an hour before we could try and get blood for the labs again.  While waiting, I went up and saw the oncologist. Dr. S was out of town so I saw a doctor from St. George named Dr. Nadauld.  He was good and said everything looked fine and the declotter stuff would work fine and we would be on our way soon.  We went back down to the Infusion Clinic and thankfully the declotter worked and the nurse was able to get the blood and the flow we needed.  Then however we had to wait for the lab results before we could start the chemo.  Of course we had to wait because cancer equals waiting.

Finally the chemo started and we were out of there in a few hours.  When we got home,  I had decided that I was not going to take any other medications besides the required steroids and just see how it goes.  I think that was the best decision because I did not have any of the negative side effects I had last time.  I was never nauseated, didn't have diarrhea or was not plugged up at all this time around.  I was still really tired and had no energy for the first week but that was it.  Maybe my body can't handle Zolfran and Imodium?  

So I did a lot better this time around.  That is until wonderful Aunt Flow came around.  I don't know what the deal is but chemo must make Miss Flow pretty upset because it was terrible and lasted almost two weeks.  I was really concerned that I was hemorrhaging because I was passing multiple large clots each day and going through a lot of pads in a short amount of time.  Because of this, I was even more tired and uncomfortable.  I called both the oncologist and my gynecologist and they both said that this was normal for a chemo patient.  In my head I'm thinking "No this is not okay!"  The oncologist said the only thing we need to worry about is if my blood counts were still okay so he had me come in for some blood tests to check my levels.  I never heard back about the results so I assumed they were fine.  Thankfully after 11 days that too passed.  

Another side effect I have this time was the wonderful mouth sores...  I had two huge cankers.  One on my tongue and one on the inside of my cheek.  These were great because it made my mouth hurt all the time and eating was so... enjoyable...not!  Anyway I was talking to another breast cancer survivor and she told me how to fix it.  I told her I was just using my normal toothpaste and she told my to stop doing that because that was causing the mouth sores because it was drying and irritating my mouth.  She recommended using Biotene toothpaste and mouthwash and she said that would help a lot.  So I went straight to the store and bought some.  Guess what, she was right!  After using that toothpaste for a couple days, the cankers were gone!  I am going to continue to use this wonderful Biotene and hopefully not have any more of these nasty sores.  Thank you Jenny!

So other than the other side effects of losing taste buds and my sore fingernails,  that is how this treatment went.  I am so glad that these treatments are easier on my body than I thought they would be.  I am generally healthy and can get the things done that I need to.  I am also glad that I have great family help and support.  Russell has been so awesome at helping me with everything.  My parents also came up and stayed for a few days to help out during that first week.  But mostly I am glad that I am half way done with these treatments! 

11 Months

11 months old!   This baby is growing like a weed but she is becoming a beautiful flower.  We love Charlotte so much.  She is so fun but also so ornery!  She definitely has an attitude that girl. But we'll keep her anyway.  Just look at that cutie:

Isn't she the funniest little baby making all those faces?  I was kind of being a slacker mom on her 11 month photos because I couldn't decide on an outfit but then I thought, "Why have an outfit? Why not capture all this chunky goodness in naked baby photos!"  Anyway she loves baths so it was really easy to get her to smile and have fun.  She is definitely a chunky baby.  She is already wearing Emily's old 18 month clothes and some of the clothes Emily wore when she was 2!   

Look at that face!  One minute she is a sweet little innocent baby giving hugs and blowing kisses, and the next minute she is making huge messes.  Oh well we love her anyway.  Charlotte loves to eat and will eat anything we give her.  She especially loves chocolate as you can tell.

Though she is not walking yet, that does not stop her from getting around.  She crawls all over the place and she is super fast at crawling too.  Recently she has started pulling herself up to a standing position and will cruise around the furniture:

Just because she can't walk does not mean she can't get into everything.  Here she is "helping" with the dishes.  For some reason she loves to play in the dishwasher.  Anytime I am loading or unloading the dishes, Charlotte is right there ready to "help" (aka make a mess).  She even thinks sitting in the dishwasher is pretty fun.  Charlotte has also discovered the Tupperware drawer and thinks it is so much fun to take everything out of that drawer and throw it on the ground....

Charlotte is discovering that one great thing about being the youngest is that your older siblings will do all sorts of crazy things to you.  For example, put funny things on your head:

Even though the other kids give her a hard time, she can hold her own.  Charlotte sure loves her older brothers and sister though and she misses them when they are gone to school.  They make her laugh and mad all at the same time.  We love you Charlotte!

Activity Days Day Camp

Emily had a great day yesterday. She was able to spend the day at Camp Keisel in Ogden Canyon with the Activity Days girls and leaders.  She said it was such a fun experience and she cannot wait hopefully to do it again next year.  Here is Emily to tell you all about it:

 So as mom told you, yesterday was an awesome day. So the first thing we did was drive there. The drive was fun we listened to some music, we danced to the music then guessed what song was on.The second thing we did was getting out of  the car and bugs were flying all over the place so we put bug spray on.  We walked to our table and put our stuff down. The things we had was sun screen, bug spray, money for the trading post which was a little shop, dinner, hat, and water bottle.

 The next thing I did was play 2 games, sharks and minnows, and red light green light. In red light green light there was scout helpers trying to make us laugh and smile. I had to go back because I moved and if you smile or laugh you have to go back. But luckily the scout helpers didn't come to me. So the next thing we did was sing a song then the flag ceremony.  Then Princess Lea came out with a scout helper.  Princess Lea had some plans to destroy Darth Vader but some storm troopers came and grabbed Princess Lea and the scout helper. Then Darth Vader came. He took the plans and then a Jedi Master started fighting Darth Vader and scared him away. Then the Jedi Master told us to follow him and asked if we could help find the pieces to the plans. We were in line behind a red flag so we were red team and our scout helpers name was Tootles. So we went with him to find our very first spot which was shooting BB Guns. The picture below. We found our first piece of the puzzle here.

We also did archery.  We aimed our arrows at a target to see you many we could hit. We also got another piece to the puzzle here.

The next thing we did was go on a hike.

As we hiked around, we found animals and different things in nature.  We also got another puzzle piece. 

Then we walked to the lake to get on the boats.  We went boating and each of us got a turn to row earning us another puzzle piece. 

When we were done boating, we went to the trading post to buy some fun things.  I got a soda,  bracelet, and  fidget spinner.  Then it was time for us to make some arts and crafts.  We made leather prints.  We used metal stamps and a hammer to make designs on the leather.  We also added four beds to the leather strap.  

After this, we did an obstacle course or ropes course. We walked across a rope ladder that was up high.  Also in the obstacle course, we jumped over tires and climbed over tires too.  We also played a fishing game and tried to catch paper fish.  If you caught one, we had to identify the fish in this fish book and see what its name was.  After each activity we found more puzzle pieces.

After doing each activity, we had a final flag ceremony to show everyone how many puzzle pieces we had found.  We were able to find all of the puzzle pieces and put together Princess Lea's plan to defeat Darth Vader.  Yeah!  Finally, we all had dinner together.  When we were done eating it was time to go home.

On the way home we saw this waterfall on the mountain so I took a picture of it:

That is what we did at our Activity Day trip.  I had a lot of fun.  I was so tired at the end but it was so fun.  My favorite part was everything!  The girls that were there were: Maylin, Callie, Mylee, Addie, Ellie,  Sami, Whitney, Summer, Addison, Lyndee, Lyla, Bro & Sis Hooton, and Bro & Sis Hieniger.  I can't wait to go again if we can next year.