Steve's wisdom tooth

Just some cute pictures of Steve's chipmunk cheek. I love when the kids get out their wisdom teeth.

Wisdom Tooth and State XC

Look at what I found in the newspaper today! Kaylea ran at the State cross country meet on Wednesday. She did really well; again came in second place for Stansbury high school, but very happy with her time. Now Kaylea is off to Las Vegas for the Ragnar Relay with Jessica, and other family members. We have a team called "The Dickson Scrubs". My grandma used to call us "scrub" when we were younger. The team consists of Grandma and Grandpa's grandchildren and great grandchildren. I wish I could run along with them, but I'll be in the hospital all day Friday.

Steve has been working really hard to get ready to leave on his mission on December 8th. We took him in for a dentist appointment and we were told that Steve has only one wisdom tooth, but it needed to be removed. Today was the day.

He was halarious when he was coming out of the anesthesia. He kept trying to stand up and leave, he was chewing on the gauze like bubble gum, and the nurse finally had to take it out of his mouth because she was afraid he would chew his tongue. Normally Steve is really reserved, and polite. I don't think I've seen him so lively and obnoxious EVER! He kept saying "I'd be a really bad drunk!" The doctor tried to come and talk with us, and every time he would start talking, Steve would crack a joke really loud, or interrupt whoever was talking.

Wow, that was not what I was expecting!!

Family Night Activity

We thought it would be fun to make jack o lanterns for a family home evening activity. We got VERY creative this year. I thought mine was quite cute with curly hair, eye lashes, and even ears with earrings. My kids have me concerned, they let their imaginations run WILD!! Here is Kaylea's, it reminds me of something in "Nightmare before Christmas." It has pins for teeth, and multiple eyes like a fly. It has stitches on the face with blood for just the right effect. The hair is just a matted up mess.

And here's a close up of Conner's. A little bit morbid. It's covered in blood, with a large knife sticking out the side of its head. Notice the braces, whiskers on the chin, and if you scroll back up to the top picture, his has crazy hair too...Should this worry me???

Or should I save my concern for this gem? It's hard to see anything beyond the blood on this one!

No, these knives are not on my front porch, but I did let him keep them in for the pictures... We did have a fun evening, and these will definitely add to the halloween spirit in my home.

Region Cross Country Race

This was Kaylea's last race, and last chance to qualify for State. She has had a pretty good running year, she has set a few goals and has been able to reach them.

Steve and I can see at the beginning of the race how well Kaylea will do...when she has that FIRE in her eyes, we always know it will be a memorable race. Today she had that fire... and it was her best race of the entire season.

The top 10 runners get medals and go to state. Kaylea was in 8th place. She has been trying all season to break 20 minutes. Today she made it in 19:53. She ran this race at the beginning of the season and today shaved her time by 3 minutes!

Kaylea is a little bit excited!!!

And dad is VERY proud!!!

Buying Suits

Steve thinks mom's a freak!!! I pull out my camera at the weirdest times! We went shopping for suits today, it was so fun!

He will look so handsome. It was a little bit embarrassing; we had the whole family come and watch him pick everything out. In fact, each of us picked out our favorite tie for him to buy.

Trying on some nice Missionary shoes. Don't they look nice? Once he gets the suit tailored, I'll post pictures of him all dressed up. I did pretty well, I only felt like crying a little bit.

Great Conference Weekend

One night at the Salt Lake Temple... Steve's first time.

One Homecoming Dance on Saturday night.... ain't Kaylea beautiful???
Two days of General Conference.

And Three visitors playing Phase 10 and Monopoly Sunday night. (Jessica, Chris, and LoaJean)

=One FABULOUS weekend!!!

BYU game!!!

We have season tickets to BYU. Normally Steve takes Conner and Steve Jr. and they have seats by John and Kenney. This week Steve Jr. was working in Arizona so there was an extra ticket. My brother Jared and Brother in law Brayden have season tickets too. It was kind of funny because on top of all these season tickets, there were a few extra ones floating around. Jared was given 4 box seat tickets so he took his wife and her parents. This left an extra ticket with Brayden, so he took his wife. My son in law, Chris was given two tickets through his work so he took Jessica, and My hubby took me!! It was like girls day at BYU!!!

First stop before we even found our seats was FOOD! Look at these yummy turkey legs!

I had a great time hanging out with my man.

This picture makes me think of a little side note. Conner was voted "cutest smile" at his school and will be in the yearbook . I think he has kind of a cute smile. As we were leaving the game, a group of about 6 young girls, about his age all said hi and waved at him. He tried to "be cool" but I think it made his day.

Chris and Jessica came up to say hi to us. Their seats were on row 5 in the endzone. We could pick them out below us by Chris' white hat. They're such a cute couple. (If I do say so myself.)

Remember girls day? Here's Kenney with Maili and her friend...

...and John with Chloe. We were very happy John made it. I guess Clara had smashed her toe and was in the hospital E.R. the night before. She was home resting with her mom and grandma taking care of her. John showed us pictures...so sad.

I only wish the team would have done a little better. They had many chances to score, but couldn't make it happen. It was a fun day. Afterwards Steve, Conner, and I went to Tepanyaki in Lehi. We had yummy food and a fun show. It was fun hanging out with Conner and Steve for the day.

Actually the 3 of us spent the morning in the Salt Lake Temple doing baptisms before we went to the game. That was a fun way to spend a Saturday.

September 4-11

I was able to find a better picture of the hospital where I'm working.

This week at the hospital was so fun. I got to work in labor and delivery again, and was able to stay with a couple from the time they checked in, through the labor, delivery, and recovery stages. I got to give the baby an assessment, and it's first shot. I stood right beside the mother through the delivery, and was able to be right there, by her side (while hubby video taped the whole thing).

Once we sent the first couple upstairs, there was another couple waiting to see if it was time to admit them. We hooked her up to fetal monitors, and were able to determine that she should be admitted, and would definitely have a baby that day. I would have liked to stay through the whole experience with them too, there were a few things on the monitors that were questionable, and my guess, they probably had to have a c-section. I had to leave before I found out, and the privacy laws won't let me know what happened. But they were a really sweet couple, and I'm sure everything went really well.

I was so impressed with the staff at IMC. They are really careful, and know what they are doing. My labor and delivery clinicals are over now, and the one thing I have figured out, I'm really liking nursing in every aspect. I didn't think I'd like working in the nursing home, and ended up loving it. I didn't think I'd like working in OB (Taking care of whining women...) I was definitely wrong, that was a great experience too. I'm very interested to see where this education will take me. It's truly been a blessing so far.

Kaylea went to Idaho Falls for a cross country race. She came in 24th place, they give ribbons to the first 20. She was a little bit disappointed, but I think she had a fun trip.

Conner spent the day with his friend yesterday. His friend just moved to Erda, and he doesn't have many opportunities to spend time with him. They had a blast, watching football games and riding 4 wheelers.

Steve Jr. has put in a lot of overtime at the Salt Palace, replacing the roof. He will be traveling to Arizona in a couple of weeks, and New Mexico after that which should get him into November. He has been able to earn most of his mission money, which has really been a blessing.

I went on a horseback ride with Steve yesterday... I know, shocker! He was so happy. I really enjoyed spending time with him. We've both been really busy.

One more quick story. On Friday, we had a wedding reception to go to. I had been working in Salt Lake and Steve was in Grantsville. We decided to meet at a parking lot in Tooele, and go to the reception together. Once the reception was over, we forgot that my car was in the parking lot, and just went home. We realized about half way home, but decided it would be okay to just pick it up tomorrow. Saturday morning, I was awakened by a knock on the door. It was a police officer. He said that my car was the only one in this parking lot, and they were having a special event. I was blocking them from doing what needed to be done. I had to remove it RIGHT now, or it would be towed. When you wake up with a policeman at your door, what's the first thing that goes through your head? It wasn't my car, I was so relieved that that was the only problem. I quickly woke up Steve and we drove to Tooele to move my car. My hair was standing straight up, and I was pretty embarrassed, but the people were really glad I came and moved my car.

Labor Day 2010

For Labor Day we decided to go camping as a family. This was our first, last, and ONLY camping trip of the summer. We went camping at the Big Rock Candy Mountain. We left after church Sunday night and arrived there late. We made hobo dinners and played games, and then TRIED to sleep. It was a little bit noisy, and I don't think any of us got sleep. The highlight of the trip was on Monday. We went on a hike to Bullion Falls just outside of Marysville. The hike was beautiful, the falls were even more beautiful, and the company was the best!!



We were missing Steve Jr. he had to work on Monday, but it was fun having the rest of the kids and Chris there.

At the base of the falls. There were a few motorcycle riders there enjoying the view too.


Hiking up to the falls. I spent most of my time in the back of the pack, I wore sandals... not a good idea when we're hiking.
Cute picture of the newlyweds. Thanks to Chris for being prepared, he remembered a shovel, knife, and lighter. We really enjoyed spending time together!

Conner

This year Conner is not in football. It was just more taxiing than I could handle this year. We (Okay, I) decided this would be a good time to help Conner get as many merit badges as possible so that he can get his Eagle Scout Award.

Conner had to make one project to finish his woodworking merit badge. He decided to make this bird feeder. I took this picture and then Conner painted the whole thing pink (don't ask me why), filled it with birdseed, and climbed as high as he could in the tree in the back yard, to hang it up. He has had a little more time on his hands to hang out with his dad and Steve. They have BYU season tickets, they went tonight to that game. In previous years he has had to miss most of the BYU season because he had little league. I don't think he'll skip another year, but I'm enjoying having him around a little bit more.

First Week of School

Kaylea ran her first cross country race this week. They ran the course that they will run at region. Kaylea did pretty well, she took third on her team, and 7th in the race. I believe she is really happy in her new school. I started my clinicals this week at IMC. I tried to get a picture of myself with the hospital behind me. It's a huge complex, and it's beautiful inside and out. I worked in the nursery and post-partum units my first day. I was able to give a baby boy his first bath, right in front of his family. He was pretty slippery, which made me nervous, but it was so fun!!

Today was a busy day. Kaylea ran with her team up to Deseret Peak. That's always such a hard run, but the kids worked hard all summer running, this is their payment. Kaylea ran about 500 miles in 3 months. I'm so proud of her.

Steve Sr. took Conner and Steve to the BYU game. They have season tickets, and this was the first game of the season. BYU won!! This is the view from their seats.

They had a blast!!

Back to Nursing School

Wow, talk about "hit the ground running!"

School started up this week. I am in a clinical group that gets to go to the hospitals right away. I had lab days on Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday to prepare for clinicals next week. I basically had 3 straight days of training, and already have procedures I am supposed to pass off before my first real lecture. It's so cool!

I have my first regular classes on Monday and Tuesday, then I have to pass off my procedures on Tuesday, and a test on Wednesday, then I work in the hospital on Thursday for 4 hours and Friday for 12 hours.

I'm really loving this semester. I am studying Maternal Newborn (labor and delivery), Pediatrics (children), and Med Surg (pre-op, surgery, and post-op). So far I'm enjoying it a lot more than last semester because it is a lot more hands-on work. I got to help deliver a baby yesterday. It was just a mannequin, but next week, it should be the real deal. Is anyone out there planning on delivering a baby next Friday at IMC???

Collings Reunion 2010

Some fun pictures from our family camp out. We rented a cabin in Park City for 3 nights. We had a blast. Steve's parents are in Washington D.C. They joined us by web cam. Todd and his family weren't able to make it. We really missed them.

White elephant exchange. Molly got "the picture".

Carter got hand-cuffs from his "secret buddy" Conner. He put them on his ankles and walked around with them on. He LOVED them.

The Bunkhouse for the kids.

Chloe and Brinlee spent a LOT of time doing gymnastics.

A pretty decent picture of everyone. We're missing Steve Sr. and Brinlee (she was up watching a movie.)

The grandkids. Chris didn't think he should be in the picture, but he was out-voted. Next year BRIANHEAD!! (maybe)