Diving and Swimming

I took Stockton to diving today.  As I was driving there I got a text. When I was stopped at a light I glanced down at it.  Mike said, "You officially own a cabin."  Woohoo!  Happy, happy, happy!  Now...back to diving.  Stockton did really well.  He has never, ever, ever liked to be called out of a dive.  How would he know if it was really the right time? He prefers to go by feel.  In short, he has never had complete trust that someone would call him at the exact right time. Anyway, today he was on the 5 meter.  He was doing a falling back dive. Tyce wanted him to start with his arms by his side.  When he called him out he was supposed to kick out and put his arms above his head. I could tell Stockton was scared.  A lot of the dives he does really scares him. Anyway, Stockton did it and did it perfect.  As we were driving home, Stockton said, "I can see why Josh likes Tyce so much".  Yay! I'm glad Stockton is liking him too!

I decided to stop by the high school on the way home.  Maysen's English teacher wasn't at parent-teacher conferences yesterday, but she was there today.  I left Stockton in the car.  There was a line, but I sat in it thinking it would go quick.  Boy was I wrong!  I waited in line for thirty minutes and still had two more parents in front of me.  I finally left.  Stockton was in the car in his swim suit, plus I was anxious to get home to Jorja.  Stockton was a good sport about it.  He had his homework, so he was able to work on it while he was waiting.

Jorja had a swim party for her softball team tonight.  I took a few pictures, they weren't great but I took them.  For some reason I can't get them off my phone right now.  Oh well.  Anyway, Jorja had a great time.  She has loved playing softball, loved the girls she plays with, and loved her coaches.  She is really going to miss this team.  She is one of the older ones and will not be able to play in this age division next year. Too bad because this coach is the best!  I love that he approaches coaching with two purposes.  To teach the girls and for them to have fun.  He lets them play any position they want to.  He told me when he got to the game on Monday Jorja said to him, "We have it all figured out.  I'm going to pitch the first inning and Sarah is going to catch." Haha!  Wow my Jorja has changed!  The girls swam for a long time. The water was warm and they didn't want to leave each other.  I'm happy Jorja had this experience.  Too bad it is over!

Mike snuck away during the party and worked on his rope tow.  He has played with this off and on for almost ten years.  Now he bought a car from Steve for about $200.  The tow is going to go around one of the tires.  He had it on and was quite proud of it.  I have no idea how to describe this, but Mike is having a lot of fun with it.

No Piano

Maysen and Stockton had parent-teacher conferences today.  I was able to get all their teachers today except Mr. Packer, who is out of town, and Mrs. Karren, who will only be there tomorrow.  The teachers all sit in the cafeteria and we wait in a line until we can talk to them.  I actually like this.  They used to do this way at the middle school, but the last two years they have just done student led conferences.  Those are a joke.  We go to school, sit with our student and they show us papers they have written.  Why can't that just be done at home? Technically you can talk to any teacher, but I feel like I'm intruding.  I never met Mrs. Falk because of this.  I think maybe some of the problems with Stockton might have been avoided if I had talked to her. Jorja's school has a new principal this year.  I was hoping they would go back to the old way of doing conferences.  It doesn't look like it. Jorja told me that they have been working on their student led conference sheets at school.  Drat.  Anyways, both of the kids are doing great.  I'm glad I was able to go.  Stockton's English teacher is letting the kids whose parents came to conference have one week to make up any assignment they got a low score on.  Right now Stockton has an A- in English, so that will be extremely helpful.

Preston had his piano lessons today.  They are at 4:00 and just down the street.  He gets home just before 4.  He came home and started practicing right away.  I wanted to be at the school as close to 4 as I could because I needed to get all the teachers the same day.  I reminded Preston three times about piano.  Then I told him that I would be gone most of the day.  For his homework I needed him to do a math page, practice his Chinese song, do flashcards and 20 minutes reading. When I got home from conferences I found out that Preston forgot to go to piano.  What?  He literally had to go out the door five minutes after I left.  He was practicing piano as I was leaving.  What happened? Well, when I gave him his homework instructions he thought I wanted him to do his homework before piano.  Oh boy.  I guess he went 45 minutes late and just came back.

Jorja invited a friend to game night with the young women.  Jorja's been having a hard time feeling included lately.  She found out one of her friends from school lives in our ward boundaries, but is not a member.  On Sunday Jorja sent her a text asking if she wanted to come to game night.  I found Jorja laying in her bed with her iPod clutched to her chest and tears running down her face.  Her friend texted back that she has tumbling until 7:00.  Jorja texted, "You could come late." Again, she clutched her iPod to her chest and cried.  Soon her friend asked where it was.  Jorja replied, "On my street.  Number 10."  Her friend was given permission.  Jorja was so happy!  Jorja decided to go late to Yound Womens as well.  Her friend was going to meet at our house and they would walk down the street together.  When I got back from conference Jorja was downstairs crying.  Her friend couldn't come.  Her parents wouldn't let her because she still had homework. Jorja didn't want to go.  I told her she was going and I would go with her.  We waited a few minutes for her face to not look so blotchy and then headed down to Sue's house.  Sue, Kristin and nine other beehives were there.  They were playing the candy bar game.  When Jorja came in they all cheered.  I stayed and watched.  I miss being with these girls. I'm glad they have bonded with Sue.

Kristin, Jorja and I walked home together.  Kristin talked with Jorja for at least twenty minutes.  I was really happy she spent so much time with her.  Hopefully Jorja believed everything Kristin was telling her. Kristin talked about how much the other girls look up to Jorja even though she doesn't see it, how sometimes they are intimidated by her, how she brings so much joy to everyone.  I can't remember everything they talked about, but I was very thankful for that conversation. 

Jorja Smurf

Mike and I went to the bank today.  We needed to sign some papers for the cabin and have them notarized.  We also wanted to wire the money to Idaho.  Well, turns out our home equity loan went through.  The bank said that we had already used all of the new loan.  What?  We now owe an extra $190,000ish and have no cabin.  Luckily Mike has made sure he has talked to the same lady every time.  We sat there as she tried to find the money.  I could hear her say, "I know they haven't accessed this yet.  Where did it go?"  That was a little disconcerting. Anyway, the lady assured us that she will find the money and they will be able to wire it tomorrow.  Kind of scary how easy something like that could happen.  I was just talking to Maysen this morning about things like this.  She found a news article where Verizon charged someone two million dollars for his account that was open for a month.    Her statistics book had an anecdote about someone who was charged over four quadrillion for a subway ticket.  Wow!  That must have been some ride!

My scouts and I finished up the Spirit of the Water adventure.  Then they got to play around in the pool.  It was nice because Burke was sick last week and so disappointed that he missed scouts.  Nice he could come and swim one more time.

Jorja had her last softball game today.  Her team name was the Smurfs. Her friend Katlyn came and watched.  That was sure nice of her.  Mike and all the kids were there as well.  Jorja got to pitch the first inning. She did great for her first time pitching.  I love how she wants to try every position.  Catcher is still my favorite position to watch her play.

Jorja  

After a predetermined number of batters, Jorja switched with Addison who was in the outfield.  Jorja doesn't like the outfield very much.  This is the first game she played out there this season.  She also played shortstop today.

Jorja was up twice and got two great hits!  Her first hit she got in a pickle between first and second base.  Saturday she told me that they were supposed to practice getting in pickles, but they ran out of time. She was disappointed because she wanted to try that.  Today she got her wish.  She even survived and ended up on 2nd!

 Jorja raising the roof on 2nd base

 Coming home

 Praise from Preston

 Jorja ~ second time up

Jorja is so sad to see the softball season end.  She loves, loves, loves it.

Primary Program

Preston had his primary program today.  For the first time in a long time I only had one child participating.  Jorja was very happy about that fact.  The program was great.  The kids knew all the songs.  The only thing I was disappointed in was Preston was on one side of the chapel and we were on the other.  I thought we would still be able to see him, but when the kids stood up Ava blocked my view.  Every once in awhile I would catch a glimpse of Preston.  He looked like he was singing his heart out.  I wish I could have watched him the entire time. I'm going to have to remember that next year.  Find out where he is sitting and sit there.

Today went by pretty fast.  Maysen, Stockton and I went to choir practice after church.  I told them if they participated in the choir I wouldn't make them take music lessons anymore.  They haven't enjoyed choir so far.  Hopefully it gets better.  It is nice to have one less thing to do during the week.  Although it made today pretty crazy. Maysen had a missionary prep class and Mike and Stockton had a stake priesthood meeting.  We managed to catch a glimpse of the blood moon before bed, but today was pretty hectic.  Busy, busy, busy.  

Jorja Pitching

Mike and I went to the temple early this morning.  We were asked to be the witness couple.  We spent a lot of time in the celestial room just talking.  It was really nice.  We came home and watched the BYU game. Well, I watched and Mike slept through it.  That was not nice.  That was a horrible, horrible game.  Jorja had softball practice today.  Her last one.  She is so sad.  When I came to pick her up she was pitching.  I had never seen her pitch before.  She did pretty well for her first time. She loves trying out all the different positions except outfield.  Outfield is not her favorite.

Jorja

Jorja and I met Mike and the kids at Chuck-a-rama.  Scoop and Cori had given us gift certificates there for Christmas.  At least I think it was for Christmas.  We never had a chance to go before today. Thank you Scoop and Cori.

Preston had a birthday party to go to.  It was at a place with laser tag and arcades.  Preston came home with a fake security camera.  He loves it.  I asked him how many tickets that cost.  A lot.  How did you get so many tickets?  He hit the jackpot on a game and earned 1,000 tickets. When Preston told me he hit the jackpot I heard Stockton yell, "Of course he did!"  Stockton thinks Preston is the luckiest person alive.

Maysen, Jorja and I watched General Womens Conference downstairs in the movie room.  It was really good.  It was also really nice to watch it at home.

Apple Cider Press

I had a meeting at the school about Maysen's high school graduation and college applications.  This is crazy.  I wonder what her life is going to be like a year from now.  Starting a new chapter in our lives.  I'm not ready for this chapter to end.

Our neighbors invited us over to a apple cider party.  He bought a cool cider press and we got to try it out.  They ordered a giant crate of apples.  Megan and I washed the apples and brought them to the press. Mike and some friends used the press.  Mike was very impressed.  The cider was so delicious! They are planning on doing this every year. Sounds like a fun tradition to me!

Special Needs Mutual

I was asked to lead the music for the special needs mutual.  I was asked a few days ago.  Sister Murphy said she would call and talk to me.  I hadn't heard anything, so I texted her about it today.  Was I supposed to wear a dress?  Was it at the stake center?  Those kinds of questions. I'm glad I asked because it was not at the stake center, it was over by Buttercup park.  I was supposed to wear a dress because it was in the chapel.  She asked me to text her a picture so she could send it to Jill. Jill is the piano player and she wanted her to find me.  Sister Murphy told me she usually leaves her house at 6:30 and gets the numbers in the chapel changed.  I got a little turned around finding the chapel, but I did find it.  I sat in the front of the chapel for awhile hoping Jill would find me.  She never did, so I finally went and changed the numbers. When I finished a man in a scouts uniform came up to me and told me I was in the wrong place.  I told him I was filling in for Sister Murphy. He said that the Young Mens and Young Womens were not combined today.  It only happens a few times a year and today was one of them. Of course.  I was embarrassed even though I did nothing wrong.  I wasn't sure where to go.  I wandered around looking for where I should be.  I heard someone say they were meeting in the chapel.  I said that I had just been kicked out of the chapel, so I didn't think the Young Women were meeting in there.  They went and asked and found out that we were meeting in the chapel.  I did not want to go back in there. I stood by the door for a long time hoping Jill would find me.  Soon the scout guy that had kicked me out saw me.  He said that he guessed he was wrong and we were meeting together.  Finally I saw a lady walking up to the piano, so I figured that had to be Jill.  I went up and talked to her.  She tried to introduce me to a guy who was walking by, the same scout guy who kicked me out.  He said, "Oh, we've met."  Yep.  Anyway, I was leading the first song in the chapel, right where I was supposed to be.  Two special needs kids came on the stand while I was doing that.  I didn't notice them right away.  I didn't notice them until I hit one of them in the face and one in the arm.  Oh my gosh.  I was so glad when that was over!

Stockton went with Josh to diving.  Allison took them to the store to get measured for their suits.  Looks like Stockton is going to have to break down and get a speedo.  They are required to wear team suits and warm ups.  Josh loved diving today.  Stockton didn't like it as much. He liked it the first time he went to BYU, so hopefully he has a better experience later.  Goodness gracious, this has been so stressful.

BYU for Diving

Jorja had a softball game today.  She sure loves it.  She played catcher and 2nd base.  The girls are allowed to steal home now, and Jorja did a great job keeping them in line.

It looks like Stockton will be diving at BYU now.  Josh checked out the U yesterday and didn't like it much.  Stockton has friends at both places, but once in awhile we will get to carpool with Josh.  One problem is, Josh moved.  He only lives a mile away, but he is in a different stake.  His Young Mens is now on Wednesday.  Josh can't go do diving on Mondays because of piano and Wednesdays because of Young Mens.  Stockton can't go on Tuesdays because of Young Mens. It looks like Stockton is going to try for Wednesdays and Thursdays. I'll need to take Stockton every Wednesday.  Thursdays I'll be able to switch off with Josh's mom.  It sure is going to be a lot less convenient than just going to Cottonwood.  I think they are going to take practices more seriously too.  Stockton will progress a lot faster, I hope he has just as much fun.

American Ninja Warrior

Stockton got to play American Ninja Warrior for Young Mens today. Seth had set up an obstacle course around the gym.  Some things required strength, some balance.  Stockton was the only one to complete it, and he was able to do it twice!  I tried it.  I made it past the first obstacle, hopping across the room on chairs of different heights.  I fell when I tried to swing on the rope from one table to another.  I'm not a ninja.  Stockton is.

Spirit of the Water

For scouts today we worked on the Spirit of the Water adventure.  We talked about water safety, exercise and I had them practice doing a rescue.  I had the boys jump off the diving board and swim to the other end of the pool.  They are supposed to swim 25 feet.  Most of the boys are on swim team, so this is no problem.  The rest of the time they just got to play.  The boys loved it.

Jorja had a softball game today.  She loves softball.  Scoop and Cori came to the game.  Cori took pictures, which is nice because I keep forgetting to bring a camera.

Jorja as catcher

 Jorja as first base

 Jorja as batter

Leo's Blessing

Derek and Melissa blessed Leo today.  Mike and I went to it.  The blessing was about an hour from our house and it was the same time as our church.  Maysen was teaching a lesson, Stockton had meetings and Preston had primary program practice.  We decided to have the kids go to church without us.  They were all ready when we left.  They walked to church and sat by themselves.  I'm glad that worked out okay.

Leo's blessing was great.  Derek did a good job.  He held Leo up like Simba afterwords.  Leo looked adorable.  We went to Derek and Melissa for crepes afterwords.  Melissa had quite the spread. Everything you could imagine.  They were delicious.

I asked the kids who spoke in sacrament meeting.  I couldn't believe it! Payton's mission president!  Payton is serving in the Salt Lake City East Mission.  We are just out of the boundaries, but Mike's work is in them. I would have asked him if there was any way we could take Payton out for lunch.  Payton is serving around Murray right now.  I can't believe I missed my chance!  (Maysen grew up with Payton.  He was in her primary class in Georgia.  His mom is one of my best friends.)

Stake Fair

Mike has been working a lot of our stake fair that was held today.  He managed to get an extra internet box put in the cultural hall for this event.  There was a huge family history thing going on.  No one had any problems with the internet, so that was a win for Mike.  We came inside for a drawing.  We had one ticket for our entire family.  We saw a lady put in a bunch of tickets.  Oh well.  Stockton was holding the ticket.  I laughed and said, "We won't win for sure with Stockton holding it." Stockton is not a lucky person.  Stockton quickly handed the ticket to Preston.  Preston is a lucky person.  Anyway, Preston won the prize! He was pretty excited.

The fair was pretty fun.  They had water games, pie eating contests, bouncy houses, all sorts of games with prizes, hot dogs, a car show. The list goes on and on.  There were some pretty fancy cars there.  I think Mike took pictures of some, but I forgot to get them.  I had to take Jorja to softball practice.  I hurried and dropped her off so I could get back to the fair.  I convinced Matt and Sam to bring Anne up here.  We had lunch.  I sat next to Alex Boye.  He is not in our stake.  He said his family comes here every year because they like it so much.  How fun is that?

Sam, Anne, Matt

 I had fun taking pictures of these guys as they were walking away

Anne loved the bounce house.  At first she didn't want to go in.  I climbed in there with her.  She jumped and jumped like crazy.  We went down the slide twice.  She was not happy at all when it was time to leave.

 Anne

 Inside the church there was this giant tree picture.  It was pretty cool.  I took a few pictures of it.

 Top of the tree

 Middle of the tree

Jorja had a friend come over today.  Her name is Katlyn.  They had a great time.  They took off on scooters.  The only problem is we had no idea where they went.  We are not use to any of our kids leaving to play around the neighborhood.  It's good, we just need to get use to it.  Mike and I drove around until we found her a few streets up.  They had found Melissa.  Melissa was Jorja's stand partner in orchestra and she really likes her.  Melissa came back to our house with the other girls. They decided they wanted to do a snow cone stand.  Melissa brought a cooler that they filled with ice.  They made a sign and stood on the street corner for an hour.  They managed to make $6, which was quite impressive because it was pretty cold.  We had to track them down and tell them it was time for Katlyn to go home.  Jorja came with us when we dropped her off.  We hurried back, dropped Jorja off and then Mike and I headed to Steve and Shannon's house.  They have Fox Sports 1, so we were able to watch the BYU game with them.  It was a great game until the last three minutes.  It would have been amazing if they could have pulled it off.  Oh well.  This is now two games in a row that Mike has watched the entire game.  I can hardly believe it!

State Fair

Maysen only had her vet class today.  They had a field trip to the state fair.  Maysen was pretty excited about going.  She had never been before.  I don't think I have either.  I was thrilled that this field trip was on a day she didn't have her other classes.  It's nice not to have to make up work later.  Maysen seemed to have a lot of fun.  She was a little nervous when they were leaving.  Most of the kids were on trax, then their teacher stepped off right as the door was closing.  I guess he realized not everyone was there, so he needed to find the others.  The kids left on trax were stunned.  Anyways, she made it back to her high school just fine.  I picked her up there and then took her to the scrub store.  Her scrubs we had ordered for her were in.  She was really glad to have them.  She will need to wear them every Tuesday and Thursday. Tuesday she just wore the top.  Her teacher laughed when he saw her.  She didn't do her matching very well.  I still thought she looked cute.

I took Stockton, Jorja and Jazzie to the temple today.  They didn't have school.  A lot of people seemed to have that same idea because we were there for two hours.  When we finished I stopped by the house to pick up Preston and took the kids to Chick-Fil-A.  Jazzie stayed most of the day.  Jorja was so happy about that!  My dad brought pizza and we watched Max tonight while my dad was at dinner club.  Days off are fun.

Calendars

This was weird.  Maysen has no school for the vet program today, but she goes to her high school today.  Tomorrow she doesn't go to her high school, but she has her vet program.  Maysen's vet program is in a different school district, so she goes there according that districts calendar.  I asked Shannon why they don't have school on Thursday but they do on Friday.  Shannon said that the 10th graders are taking the PLAN test today.  Okay, that makes more sense.  Our school will do that next month.  The 10th & 11th graders will need to go, but the rest of the school gets the morning off.  Maysen had a pretty easy day.  Early morning seminary.  Then home for a long time.  Physics, then back home.  Statistics for her night class.  Weird day.

I picked up Maysen from early morning seminary and dropped her off at the temple to do baptisms.  I told her to make sure dad saw her so he would bring her home.  Mike works in the baptistry every Thursday morning.  He didn't know Maysen was coming.  Mike actually saw her as he was walking out.  He went back and got changed so he could baptize her.  Maysen thought that was really nice.  I'm glad they passed each other so she wasn't stuck at the temple all morning.

Mike and I went to the bank and signed papers for our new loan.  We should be able to have the money to buy the cabin by next week. We filled out the paperwork for the official offer on the cabin today. Exciting and scary at the same time.  We signed the offer with a sparkly pen.  Well, the ink wasn't sparkly, just the pen was.

Mike

 Stephanie

Walk in Their Shoes

We ordered some of Maysen's graduation stuff today.  Cap and gown etc.  Weird.  Mike finally had his root canal.  I really hope this stops his pain.  I took Stockton and Josh up to BYU for diving.  They are trying to decide which program to go to.  Josh wants to go to BYU.  I'm hoping they pick the U.  It will be so much easier for us to get them to the U. Josh likes the coach better at BYU.  I really like Stockton and Josh diving together.  I'm not sure what we are going to do.  Both of the boys seemed to like diving today.  They did conditioning for about an hour before they even got in the pool.  I thought Stockton would hate it, but he didn't seem to mind.  One thing, if they choose BYU they are going to be in great shape.  They tried to go to BYU yesterday.  Josh's mom drove them.  They were gone about thirty minutes before they turned around.  Traffic was so bad.  I hope that doesn't happen often.

I missed Jorja's softball game because I was gone with Stockton.  This is the first game I missed.  I don't like that.  Mike said Jorja did great and had a lot of fun.  Not surprising, she is still loving softball.  I took the girls to Young Womens.  It was stake standards night.  The speaker was great.  She teaches nursing at BYU and once a year takes her students down to Guatemala to do service.  My favorite part of her talk was actually a video she showed.  It was put out by The Cleveland Clinic.  There was no talking.  Words came on the screen talking about how you don't know what people are going through until you have walked in their shoes.  It is really good.  If you want to check it out, here is the link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cDDWvj_q-o8 That is my first time trying to put a link in my blog.  Not 100% sure if it will work.

Preston's Pinewood Derby

It rained so hard today.  Rain like this was common in Georgia.  I tried to take a picture to text Mike.  The road kept flooding over.  Luckily all of the water stayed out of our house.

There was a parent meeting at the middle school for the Chinese Immersion kids.  They showed us their current pathway plan.  It looks like Jorja will have a year and a half of Chinese again next year.  I thought it would be down to just one class period.  Hopefully we won't have the same problem with her orchestra.  At the meeting they talked about the field trip to China they are hoping to take the kids on.  That sounds crazy!  They want to take the kids to China at the end of their 8th grade year.  They are basing it on schools in Oregon.  If they follow Oregon's plan, the kids would spend 10 days in China after their 8th grade year and one month in China after their 11th grade year.  Wow.

Maysen came with me to the Chinese meeting.  We had to leave a little early in order to get Maysen to her statistics class.  Mike helped Preston get to the pinewood derby.  I was late, because I needed to bring Maysen home.  That's okay.  The pinewood derby guy was still talking about rules.  Thirty minutes he talked about rules.

 My family is sitting across the way

 Preston LOVES his puppy!

 Preston

These next two pictures were blurry.  I put them on anyway.  Preston's puppy got second in the race.  He was so surprised.  He thought his puppy would be really slow.  He said, "That wasn't supposed to happen!"

Preston

Mike let Preston record the races on the GoPro.  Preston LOVED doing that!  He followed almost all the races with it.  Sometimes he would run with the cars.  He had so much fun!

Preston with the GoPro

 Preston's reaction after taking first!

 Mike and Preston

 Mike was asked to pull the lever for every race.

 Griffin...also, look how cute Jorja is.

 Preston liked to wag his dogs tail at the end of each race.

Preston ended up taking 6th overall.  He was very excited with how his puppy raced.  He had such a fun day.

Making the Dog

My brothers and I have been playing Beat the Streak.  It is a game where you pick one or two players to get a hit during their game.  If they get a hit, you get a point.  If you pick right 57 times in a row you win 5.6 million dollars.  MLB.com has been doing this for several years and no one has won.  (Joe DiMaggio's hitting streak lasted 56 games. That is the streak we are trying to beat.  Except we are not playing.  We can pick any player on any day.  My brothers are pretty impressed with DiMaggio.)  Anyway, my previous best was 4.  Then I got on a roll.  I really wanted to beat Brett.  His longest streak this season was 20.  I got to 21!  Then I messed up.  I picked Bryce Harper.  He didn't get a hit on his first at bat.  Then he was injured in the outfield and out the rest of the game.  Boo!  I couldn't believe it!  Luckily Lorenzo Cain also didn't get a hit, so I didn't have to feel too bad. It was fun while it lasted.

Mike and Preston have been working on Preston's pinewood derby. Preston wanted his car to look like a dog.  Mike was pretty relieved that he didn't care about winning.  Took a lot of the pressure off. Preston did most of the work himself.  Isn't he adorable?

Preston

 Preston wanted me to get the spray in the picture.  I tried.

 He's so happy!

 The finished product.  Preston is in love!