Life's Weird and Sometimes Hard

Robin had a white sore inside her mouth on her gums. She asked her dentist about it at her semi-annual cleaning and he referred her to an ENT. They did a biopsy that turned out to be cancer. It had spread to her jaw bone. She had to have a 12 hour surgery at Huntsman Cancer Institute where they removed a bunch of teeth and a small chunk of jaw. They took bone from her wrist to replace what they took from her jaw and then took blood vessels from that same section of her arm to put in her neck to feed blood into the transplanted bone. They also took a skin graft from her left to put on her wrist. It was delicate and time consuming but they were successful. In fact they felt so confident that they got everything that she didn't have to do any radiation after. The surgeon said she was her first patient in this particular situation that she didn't refer to radiation. It wasn't all good news though. She had to be intubated and because she got nauseous and threw up and may have aspirated. Also, Robin's had a weird heart thing for a while that would make her pass out if she got nauseous or was in pain. At one point her heart stopped and she had to get CPR from a male nurse. They were able to get it going again but doctors felt strongly about giving her a pace maker to help her with this. So they had to keep her incubated until after the pacemaker surgery. So she had couldn't talk for about a week, I felt so bad for her. 

It definitely brought back a lot of memories and past trauma from when my mom was at Huntsman. I was with her all day during the surgery but left for the night and felt so guilty leaving her there so helpless. I called Steve and cried most of the way home. 

She was in the hospital for about 2 weeks and we were so grateful to have her back home. 

One tender mercy was that I had not asked her to babysit while Steve and I went to Germany. When we were planning our trip last year I had a feeling that I shouldn't ask Robin to babysit. It made more sense to ask her but just felt like I should ask someone else. So we asked Steve's sister Jessica if we could pay to fly her and Wells out to babysit instead. We didn't find out about this cancer until a few weeks before our trip and Robin didn't get home from the hospital until less than a week before we had to leave. She still needed a lot of care and not only would she not be up for watching my kids but I would have felt very nervous leaving her home alone for so long. But luckily I had already asked Jessica to come and she was able to be here for not only my kids but Robin as well. 

We're so grateful for the good result and hope she can stay cancer free. 

To say Spencer really wants a cell phone is an understatement. He has Robin's old phone but can only connect to wifi to text Steve and I. He's written essays, sent texts, and many many conversations trying to persuade us. I'm still not quite ready but getting close. 

Celebrated my mom's birthday with almond joys. It's been 10 years she's been gone now. It definitely feels easier to have her gone, but will always miss her. 

With everything going on with Robin, while still doing school, work and planning out trip I was very stressed. My good friend Cait Markeson was such a sweetheart and sent me a gift card to take our family out and take a night off cooking. 

 

September

We had a women's picnic with the ward. 

Spencer got to go with Tristan and his dad to a BYU football game. Front row seats right by the tunnel. 

Spencer and Rod did flag football. Dad coached Spencer but I didn't get a picture of them. Here's Rod trying out quarter back though. 

Andrea wanted to take some pics of Hudson Southwick while we were babysitting him. We watch him two mornings a week and all the kids think he's the cutest. 

She also took a silly picture of me. 

Steve's favorite thing was always to take naps with our babies. This is our last baby, I think he'll be sad when she's too old for this. 

Spencer learned how to make German Pancakes and it's his new favorite. 

Some cute, little rascals had some fun with face paint. 

Mrs. Sanderson is seriously the best. Despite being pregnant and late on a school night, she came to watch some of the boys in her class play football because they asked her to. 

Volcano day at preschool. Baking soda and vinegar. A classic hit. 

Rod- always up for something silly. 

Jeffrey after his last soccer game. Soccer is not his sport. He was bored and only came for the treats, but he got some exercise and fresh air which is all I wanted.  

Ms. Katie's Preschool

I've taught all my boys at least one year in preschool. I was hoping to do the same with Andrea but I couldn't find any mom's in my neighborhood that wanted to do a co-op. This is my last full year with Andrea since I'll be starting school full-time next year so I really wanted to still teach her. So I decided to do a little mini preschool with Andrea and 3 other kids that I heard weren't going to go to a preschool this year. I taught once a week and charged $25 per month. I thought it would be a good experiment to see how I liked teaching. :)

 

School Pictures 2022

7th Grade

4th Grade

1st Grade

Start of School

Spencer started his second year of Middle School. 7th Grade

Rod is in 3rd Grade with Katie Sanderson

Jeffrey is in 1st Grade with Tricia Peterson

Me and Andrea went on a nature walk together just us gals left at home all day. 

But she is so excited to start preschool next week! Her picture for the preschool board. 

 

Last Hoo-rah

We went on one last hoo-rah before school started. We went to Thanksgiving Point and went to the Curiosity Museum and Ashton Garden's to see the dinosaurs. I thought I was a cool mom and paid for the older boys to do the ropes course. Neither of them were excited, mostly scared haha. And everyone complained about the seeing the dinosaurs at Ashton Gardens. Oh well, can't please everyone. And it really was fun. 

Summer

Becuase I took a summer class at BYU we weren't able to travel anywhere so we tried to make fun where we could, when we could. 

Breakfast in the park. Packed in cereal and milk. 

Steve and the boys went to see Top Gun in theaters. Rod was a fan. 

Great Tia Karen (Steve's dad's sister) took up knitting and make a blanket for all her great nieces including Andrea. She mailed it along with a crown to remind her how special and loved she is. 

When she's not driving Spencer nuts she has him wrapped around her little finger. 

Tell me Jeffrey takes after me without telling me Jeffrey takes after me. (Lists are the best, what can I say)

Spencer coming home from the Deacon's camping trip. This image just made me smile. 

A picture of Andrea with one of her primary care givers. :/

UCCU comes through again with tickets to the Monster Truck Rally. 

The summer class I took at BYU was an expository writing class. Our main project for the class was a large research paper. I ended up writing mine about the importance of parent involvement with ESL students to improve reading. We had to break into groups to have others edit and comment on our papers. For my final paper there was a girl was an ESL student and who's parents were non-english speaking immigrants, which I referred to these types of situations in my paper. I was nervous to have her read it because I wasn't sure how she'd react to it. She wrote me this comment after she read the paper. It was really touching to me. 

Andrea was invited to Chloe Millen's 4th birthday with a special guest. 

Jeffrey got to attend a birthday party for his friend Stockton to Coin Crazy.