Time flies when you're havin' fun!

It seems like I just updated this thing, but I just noticed that it has been almost 2 whole weeks!!! So sorry!!! We have been really busy. David and I started school last week and it has been an adjustment - we have been spoiled with both of us home and I don't know yet if I like all the being gone.

I have 2 classes at Sac State. One is Phonetics and I absolutely love it! My professor is great and so are all the students in the class. I go to class on Tuesday and Thursday from 10:30 - 11:45, but I am at the school from the time we take the kids to school at 8 until around 1. My other class is online and it is psychology. So far, not so thrilling, but I am hopeful as we delve further in it will become more interesting. David goes to school Monday thru Friday. He is done by noon everyday except Wednesday and that day he is done by 1:30. Nephi and Gloria go to school Tuesday thru Thursday and seem to be adjusting to the schedule. Nephi has a hard time with the drop off and Gloria is really ready to come home when we pick her up, but overall it is a fantastic program and I am so grateful for all their teachers. It is a blessing for us! On Wednesdays I only have Helaman in the morning and then when he leaves for school I have a few hours to myself - which I use for sleep and homework. So far the schedule seems to be working well.

The first day of school was also the first day of my 5th round of chemotherapy. This round has been the hardest so far. They - the nurses - say that chemo is cumulative and so it does usually get harder the further into that you get. I'm sure that starting school right then was not the best, but that's the way it worked out. I know many people think I am crazy for continuing my education with 6 kids and now having cancer and dealing with the chemo, but it is my thing. Some of my friends scrapbook, some of my friends sew, some read, some play games, some do other things - and my thing is school and learning. I absolutely LOVE it!!!! It is not easy and I think this might be the hardest semester I have had, even though I am carrying a smaller load, but I want to do it and it gives me an escape. I don't have to be a cancer patient at school and I don't have to be a mom there either. I can just be me. I need that break. So, crazy or not, I am taking it!!

So back to this difficult round of chemo...over the Labor Day weekend I was having chest pains so my wonderful Dad took me to get a blood test. We got to Kaiser and the lab said they were closed! I was so upset - I was told they were a 24-hour lab. So, the door was open and my dad and I went in to sit down so that I could rest and we could decide what to do - go home or go to the ER - which I so did not want to do! We sat for maybe 2 minutes and out comes a lady who says, "Can I help you?" I responded with, "I need a blood test, are you really closed?!" Her response, "yeah, but I can do it right now if you want." My dad and I turned to each other and laughed - the Lord was looking out for me and I got my test. My results came back within an hour and all looked okay. The next day I called the nurse and she said that some of my results weren't back so we would wait for those but, in the meantime just rest. The results came back late Tuesday and I was extremely low on magnesium. Apparently they use magnesium to stop muscle contractions - hmmmm I had been having those chest pains - they were caused by that! So Wednesday I went to the doctor and got magnesium. I could walk again - I could breathe again - it was FABULOUS!!!!

Labor Day weekend was fun. We spent Sunday afternoon at my parents' house. My sister and her hubby and her new little baby were here for the weekend and we had a blast visiting with them and holding that precious little girl! On Monday we went over again and the kids got to swim and play with their cousins. I laid on the couch most of the time and we had a fabulous dinner. I wish that I had been feeling better. I could tell that I was worrying my parents and poor David, so I felt bad, but other than that we had a good visit with the family. I miss not getting together so often with them. We used to get together every Sunday, but it just got too full of a house - my parents have 6 kids, 5 in-laws and 20 grandkids. It is a little crowded and LOUD when we all get together, but I sure love it when we do!

As for now, I am doing okay. I am tired much of the time, which leaves David to deal with the kids. My chest has begun to hurt again so I go for another blood test tomorrow. Lately I have felt like a lame Mom to my poor kids. I hate it when they know that I don't feel good they have a look in their eyes that is scared and I can't stand it - especially the girls. It makes me so sad for them. I have been trying to sit with them more, hold them more, hug them more and kiss them more. I love going to school and I have been trying to stay on top of my homework. The house is pretty clean - thanks to my wonderful hubby that works so very hard. Things are good. Life is good and I am going to enjoy it all!!

We are planning to take the kids on day trips over then next few months. My goal is one a month on a Saturday. So look for those updates. Oh yeah! I almost forgot - if you want to see the pictures from our photo shoot in Old Sac go to www.bluelilyphotography.com, click on the "clients" link and when it prompts you for a password you can put in my name "kaci cox" and you can see our amazing family!! (Don't forget the space!)

Enjoy your life while I am enjoying mine! Thanks for checking in!!!!!! Love ya!!!!!!!!!

Somma my cute kiddos

Tonight we went to a Family Home Evening Ward Activity at the park. For those who don't know Family Home Evening is held every Monday night - it is a highly encouraged activity by our church. We want our families to be strong and helpful. FHE - as we affectionately refer to it- helps us to spend time together and we usually have a gospel lesson, on things such as "love your neighbor," "treat others with respect," "obey your parents," "Jesus loves us," etc.... There are times when we choose to go and have a family activity and maybe forgo the lesson. Tonight was that kind of night. We got together with our Ward Family (again for those who don't know - our church is divided geographically and you go to the building at the time based on where you live. Those who you go to church with at that appointed time are what we refer to as your "Ward Family") at Ashton Park. The kids played on the playground, at yummy make-your-own ice cream sundaes and followed some dogs around while David and I got to relax a little and visit with the adults. It was a really fun activity.Here is a picture of my Vilate - ya know the one that is terrified of dogs! She came up to me and said, "Mom, look what I can do." She was then handed a cute little dog to hold. She was so pleased with herself. Vilate really has come a long, long way. We are so pleased with her!!!

Below is a picture of Nephi. He is posing for the picture and he altered his outfit all on his own. Please notice the Cinderella skirt, the fantastic head flashlight - turned on so that he has red eyes, and he completed the look with Helaman's rainboot - on the wrong feet I might add. Didn't he do a great job? I think maybe he needs to be on one of those designing shows! He's got TALENT!!!! I love these kids!!!!!

The Weeks keep on Flying....

I thought that the kids starting school would give me and David a chance to breathe. But NO! We have been so busy this past week - at least it feels like we were so busy. As I am sitting here I am trying to recall what all we did.....hmmmm....having a hard time remembering. Here is what I remember:

On Tuesday I started calling around to try to find somewhere to get a hearing test. My hearing is getting so bad and David and I were getting nervous about school starting and my ability to hear and understand the lectures. The first place I called wasn't Kaiser because I had been told that they had cut our Audiology coverage - they told me to call Kaiser and make sure. So, I did. The nice lady at Kaiser told me that I was covered and scheduled me for a hearing test on Wednesday in Roseville (about 25 minutes from my house). So, on Wednesday I went and had my hearing tested. Sure enough I have a moderate hearing loss. It is from the chemo and they expect that it will get worse over the course of my next two treatments but that it might improve following the final treatment. Then the audiologist gave me great news! Hearing aids would be helpful and not only that - they are covered 100%!!!! That is HUGE! Hearing aids run about $1500 - $3000 a piece.

I was able to get a hearing aid appointment for the next day. So, on Thursday I headed back out to Roseville and met with Matt. He showed me the top of the line hearing aids and explained how they work and why they cost so much. They are getting me one for each ear and I get to go and pick them up on Thursday of this next week. I am really excited to be able to understand what everyone is saying again. The great news from Matt was that while I have lost volume, I really haven't lost clarity. Basically that means that once the hearing aids are in, my hearing should be good - not as good as it was before - but good. Some people, when they lose volume also lose clarity, but not me and that is good news.

On Friday I took the morning kids and David and I took Helaman to school and then we headed over to Sac State. Gloria and Nephi had a "meet the teacher" thing and Gloria was SOOOOOO excited! She got to tour her classroom and play with all kinds of things - she was in heaven! Nephi fell asleep in the car and missed meeting his teacher. We then headed over to buy our ridiculously expensive parking pass and then over to the bookstore to buy ridiculously expensive books for me. David is still working on his class schedule and didn't want to purchase the wrong books so he held off. After spending lots of money we took the two little kids and heading to McDonald's so that they could play and we could have some lunch. Then we picked up the boys from school. The girls had gone to a swimming party at a friends. Later in the afternoon I took the 4 kids at home and we went to my parents' house so that they could swim. We picked up the girls on the way home and stopped at Wendy's for dinner (gotta love the dollar menu). The kids watched a movie last night on the Disney Channel and I went to bed! It was an on the go day and I was sure glad it was over!!

This week has flown by. I would love it if things would slow down a bit. I feel like things have been flying for months. Oh well, I guess I will just try to enjoy the ride - even if it is going a bit faster than I think it should. Hope you enjoyed your back to school week (if it started for you this week).

First Day of School

They were so excited to go to school last Monday. Vilate, Hyrum and Faith started at 8:05 and Helaman started at 11:20. At 7:45 we loaded all the kids into the van and headed over to the school. Being the so "on top of it Mom" that I am, Vilate reminded me: "Mom, I don't even know where my classroom is!" I had not even though about that! We walked the 3 kids into their classrooms and then David, the 3 other kids and I headed over to the MP room for the Back To School Tea. It was fun and the kids had a great time eating a bunch of muffins and then playing hide and go seek with their friends. Here is Nephi counting at the tree. He would just stand at the tree and put his head on it and when HE was ready he would just start looking for the other kids. The best part was that all the other kids hid together in the same spot each time! It was a great kids game of hide and seek!

At 11 we took Helaman to his first day of Kindergarten and he LOVED it!! After school when I asked if he played with certain friends, he replied, "No Mom, I made new friends." Then when I asked what his new friends' names were, he couldn't remember - but this didn't bother him at all. I love 5 year olds!!

The only problem with the day was having to explain to Gloria why her school didn't start until next week. She sure felt left out.

After school the kids reported on their day and were very pleased with their teachers and classmates. That night I was lucky enough to sit and fill out 12 emergency cards (3 per kid). It was so much fun! - Why can't they just make copies??!?!?!?!?! All in all it was a great day!

Week in Review

It has been another busy week. I started out the week pretty tired from last week's chemo. Sunday I missed church because I was so exhausted and then on top of it all I knew I was getting another bladder infection. So, I spent part - lucky for me and my mom only a small part - of the afternoon in the ER. Stupid Kaiser wouldn't just prescribe me meds over the phone after having a positive urine test. So dumb! Anyways, Monday was spent being tired and laying around and as I recall, Tuesday was similar. Wednesday we drove out to the airport and picked up Grandma Cox (David's Mom) and then we stopped by the school and got the kids teacher assignments. We came home for a while and then spent sometime at Del Norte swimming before Hyrum went to Cub Scouts. Oh yeah - and I had to go back to Kaiser to have a blood test and see where my counts were - I was way too tired and having some weird chest pains that I get when my counts are too low.

Then came Thursday. Thursday was great! Started off the day with another blood test - they wanted to check my counts again and sure enough I had dropped dramatically over night and so the wonderful nurse scheduled me for another transfusion on Friday. Good news: I was going to get an instant pick-me-up; Bad news: I had to wait another day. Oh well!

Around 3:30 we left our house and took the kids and Grandma to Old Sacramento to meet up with Aunt Tami's friend Wendy. Wendy is a photographer from southern California who travels and happened to be in Sacramento on this day and we were lucky enough to get a photo shoot! She is AMAZING. Okay, I haven't seen the pictures yet, but the ideas for shots were fantastic. I have seen other pictures that she has done and they are wonderful. I can't wait to see how our pictures have turned out. We haven't had family pictures done since Gloria was a baby - so it was WAY past time. In case you were wondering, I wore my red wig most of the time and switched to the blonde for the last picture. It was a lot of fun and the kids really liked posing and having pictures taken, although Helaman was a bit of a pill in the beginning, he finally came around thanks to Faith and her offer of Tech Decks! You can check out Wendy's awesome work at www.bluelilyphotography.com.

After the pictures we took the kids and headed to the Back-to-School picnic. It was chaos - ya know hundreds of kids, lots of parents, teachers, food, creek, etc. It was great chaos. We were there for a few hours and the kids got to meet their new teachers, play with their friends and I got to see tons of my friends. All around a good time. We love the picnic and are so glad that we get to visit with everyone before starting school.

Friday we made a decision regarding the move that most of you have heard about. If not, here it is in a nut shell: We had been offered a house at the same rent we currently pay. It is a 4 bedroom, 3 bathroom house with a pool and in a nice neighborhood on a quiet street. Sounds great, huh? And it was a great deal, but after really considering the deal and praying about it, David and I both felt like it is a great deal for someone else. We need to stay where we are at. It is small, but we fit just fine and we love the environment here. We have a great yard - that we don't have to mow - and a playground and wonderful friends and neighbors. So, we are NOT moving. I must admit I was a little disappointed, but in the long run, this will work for the good of my family - I am sure of it. The Lord has never steered me wrong and He has His reasons for us to stay here, so I will make the best of it!

Friday morning I got to take Helaman to his Kindergarten class orientation - basically just a get to know the room and see where you get to come to on Monday. He had a blast. He toured the classroom, played on the playground, saw some of his friends, and even got to play on the computer. Wow! It was really a great morning and I had fun catching up with friends and meeting some new parents.

That afternoon I headed over to Kaiser for my transfusion. It seemed to take forever! I talked to the doctor while I was there regarding my hearing loss. He has determined that it is a side-effect of the chemo (well, duh!) and so they are going to be changing my chemo drugs. I'm glad that he finally is doing something, but now I am a little nervous about a drug change. I am going to contact the doctors that I contacted before for a second opinion and see what they thing about the new drug and go from there.

Right after my transfusion I got to go and see Faith in a play that she has been working on with 40-something other kids for the past 6 weeks. She did fantastic - big surprise! She sang a solo - here comes the bragging - according to the composer of the music, it was the hardest song in the play and Faith did it perfectly! The music was written by the lady who wrote the song, "I'm a Mormon" when I was a kid - some of you will know that song. It was a great play and the kids all did a great job. It is so cool to see your kid on stage being successful! She did great and I am so grateful to Brady, the director, Lisa and Denise, who drove Faith everyday, and all those other parents and kids who worked so hard on pulling this thing together! It was a very enjoyable evening. After the play we dropped Faith at her friend's house for a sleepover and got to go out to Leatherby's for dinner with my parents - HUGE THANKS goes out to Mom Cox for watching the kids through all of this craziness!

And that brings us to today. We didn't do much. Faith had a recording session today followed by a birthday party and the rest of us hung around here and then headed over to Del Norte for an end of summer swim. Mom made us patty melts that were divine and now the kids are all in bed. I am blogging and eating tons of candy - the doctors keep telling me that I have lost too much weight, so I am doing my part to put it back on!

School starts on Monday for the older 4 kids and I am not sure how I feel about that. I am glad that they will have more structure - I'm not so good at structure - and something to do all day and even get to play with their friends, but I am a sad that they will be gone. I am sad that this means for certain that they are another year older. Faith is in 5th grade for goodness sakes. That is only 7 years away from graduation and then BYU. SCARY!!!!! I know that they will enjoy school and I will enjoy the break, but I will miss them.

And a note to all you people out there reading this: LEAVE COMMENTS!!! I love knowing that you read this. I had no idea how many people were peeking into my little corner of the world. I hope that you enjoy what you read, I know I love reading other's blog (so if you have one, TELL ME) and I always learn from others' wonderful examples. Thanks for checking in!!