Van

Mike and I dropped the van off at the shop this morning. It has been limping along for awhile. We just put $3,000 into it six months ago. I hope it can pull through, I really don't want to buy a car right now.

The counselor at SLCC called me today. I have an appointment set up for Stockton and I to talk to her the middle of February. Too bad that is after course requests and applications have to be submitted. I did find out that Stockton can't take the English 2010 class this summer. SLCC won't have his AP test results, so he needs to wait until the last semester of his senior year. I was hoping Stockton would have all of this behind him by that point. That was discouraging.

I called and talked to Stockton's counselor at Alta. I had a lot of questions about their new Step to the U program. She didn't have any answers for me. In her defense, the questions I were asking were pretty unusual. She said, "One day you are going to call me up and I will actually know the answer." I told her I was just keeping her on her toes.

I went to a Taiwan trip meeting at Lone Peak. I'm not sure what to think about that. I wasn't able to stay for the entire thing. Mike texted me and said the car was done. If we hurried we could get it today, if not then tomorrow morning. I didn't want to get it tomorrow morning because I'm going on a field trip with Preston.

I left the meeting and picked up Mike. The car ended up costing us another $1,000. Hopefully this will fix the problem and we can get several more years out of it. It will be nice to drive it and know you are not going to get randomly stranded somewhere.

Stockton and Jorja went to their youth activities. Stockton played dodge ball and Jorja watched a comedy show thing. Mike, Preston and I played Colt Express. Preston ended up winning. He was the marshal. If he hadn't met all of his goals, I would have won. Too bad I didn't rescue a prisoner. I did manage to punch him in the face, I wasn't expecting that!

Fractions

I sent a giant long email to the contact at SLCC who is supposed to help with concurrent enrollment. I spent literally an hour working on it. Stockton's situation is unusual and I wanted to get the official names of all of his classes right. I didn't know which email to send it to, the one on the voice mail, or the one on SLCC's website. I carbon copied the one on the website and sent the email away. Too bad it wouldn't send because the email on the SLCC site was invalid. No problem, I will just delete that email from the list. Easier said than done. I tried to delete the email, but it deleted my entire message. I couldn't believe it! I finally texted Mike. He called me back and walked me through finding it on my computer. Thank goodness! I was able to send the email right before I went out the door to take Stockton to diving.

About two minutes after I dropped Stockton off I got a text from Allison saying the person I had been emailing has a new job and there is a new contact now. Great. Luckily the old person emailed me and said she sent my email to the correct person. Man, this gets complicated!

Mickey found out it was Stockton's birthday on Saturday. I'm guessing he asked him why he didn't come to the meet. That led to the traditional birthday throwing of shammies. I didn't know they would do it if it wasn't your actual birthday. Anyway, here is Stockton dodging all the shammies coming his way.

Preston decorated a cake at scouts today. He was so proud of it. I think he did a great job. We had it for the treat for our Family Home Evening tonight.

I had to laugh. Preston was complaining about homework. Stockton laughed and laughed. He told Preston he had no right to complain. Preston said, "We have to do hard stuff, like fractions!" Stockton laughed and laughed. I told Preston he missed his chance. He could have said that he had to do hard stuff, like Chinese. Preston told me that Chinese was easy. Haha! Easy for him, but not for Stockton!

Game of Life

We had stake conference and got a new stake presidency today. President Hunt has been called to be mission president of the San Jose mission. That is where Nathan and Lisa will be going. I didn't know the new president or any of his counselors. The new president is Robert Clark, 1st counselor is Paul Clayton and 2nd counselor is David Morton. At least that is what I think I heard. It was funny because when President Astile was giving his testimony he called David Morton by a different name. He got made fun of that by several people afterwords. Mike snuck away during conference to fix a computer at the stake center. He was hoping the intercom would work while he fixed it, but it didn't.

Mike and I made fajitas as soon as we got home. After dinner we played Colt Express with all of the additions. We had the horses and stagecoach on this one. Maysen ended up winning this game. It is so hard to keep track as to what is happening. It was fun though. Stockton really wanted to finish his rpg game he had been working on. Maysen packed up while he was finishing. She was able to play it and defeat his final boss: Professor Quigley. Mike and Maysen left for Logan the same time Jorja, Audrey and I headed to New Beginnings. As soon as we got there Jorja became covered in orange.

Jorja

The theme for this year is ASK. The young women introduced this to the new beehives using the game of Life. I'm so glad I'm not in charge of these events anymore!

Rachel, Hannah, Kelsee & Hudson or Sawyer, Nichole, Riley, Ebony, Jorja, Presley, Audrey, Zoe, Paige

New beehive, Cora, Olivia, Ashley, Majena, Whitley, Presley, Eliza, Quinn, Abby

I talked to the Liu's about efy with Jorja. Stella mentioned that she was hoping to go see her mom in Hong Kong this summer. Ebony kind of groaned. Without thinking I said, "Maybe you could take Jorja with you." Ebony's face lit up. Ebony is the only one at home right now. She is the youngest of five, I think. Who knows what will happen with that. The problem is, in Hong Kong they speak Cantonese. I want Jorja to have experiences with Mandarin. I don't want her to get more confused if she goes there, I want her to come back more confident.

I hurried and wrapped Chelsea's pictures I had bought for my primary kids. I dropped it off at Natalie's house first, then went to Alex and Andi's house. As I handed the box to them I said, "This is not a toy, so don't be disappointed." Ha! The girls are so sweet. I love them.

Mike got home while I was in Jorja's room talking with her and Stockton. I had already gotten Preston to bed. We were talking about schedules for next year. Should Jorja take AP Geography? Honors math? She will be taking AP Chinese, although I think the official name is DLI 5H Chinese. I want her to stretch her self, to be successful and to not overwhelm herself. We'll see what happens.

Stockton's 17th Birthday

Today is Stockton's 17th birthday! I celebrated by getting up and going to my super hard exercise class this morning. I hurried home and picked up Maysen for her laser appointment. Mike texted me and said Stockton would love Kneaders pumpkin bread and chocolate bread for breakfast. I picked those up while I was out. We had presents after the bread breakfast. I gave Stockton a nice jacket that I hope he will like. Mike got him expansion packs for Colt Express. There were two. Marshals & Prisoners and Horses & Stagecoaches. Maysen gave Stockton another ping pong paddle and a chocolate bar. She gave him a ping pong paddle for Christmas. Now he has a set. He also opened a birthday card from Scoop and Cori. It had an American Express card inside with money loaded onto it. Nice.

Stephanie & Stockton

 Stockton

 I asked Jorja to take some pictures

 Mike took some of Stockton and I

My dad came over and made milkshakes for Stockton and the others. Stockton loves to say, "Milkshakes!" whenever my dad comes over. He also gave him a card with cash inside. Mike made hamburgers for us and then we played a game of Colt Express with the Marshal and Prisoners expansion. Jorja was the marshal and ended up winning the game. I was surprised. I thought it would be way too hard to win as the marshal, but she did it first try.

As soon as the game was over we hurried to the Hodson's for their annual Chinese New Year celebration. We asked Stockton if he would like to go on his birthday or not. He decided yes. I was glad because while we were there we found out Lisa and Nathan are going to be moving to California. Nathan got a new job over there. I am sad about this, but trying to be happy for them. They are both hoping this is a temporary job and will allow them to move back to Utah in a few years. He will be a VP at Fidelity. Fidelity has several branches in Utah that he might be able to come back to once he gets established in the company.

Taylor and Mike lighting the cake

Stockton and Jorja working on their roosters

 Stockton and Jorja

 Maysen, Stockton, Preston, Derek

 Stockton's traditional birthday cake

Nathan has a contest every year to see who can draw the best Chinese New Year symbol/character. My kids usually end up being in the finalist. Especially Jorja. I think. She does have an advantage. Stockton won a prize (a bag of candy bars) this year and was pretty shocked. He spent a lot of time on the colored in part, but kept getting called away. He finished the rest in a few seconds and just entered it as a joke. Nathan like the calligraphy look of his. I think it was birthday luck.

Stockton

 Stockton and Jorja

 Preston, Stockton and Jorja

 Preston didn't win a prize this year,

but look how adorable his drawing is.

Jorja took first place again this year. But, let's be honest, that rooster is pretty amazing. We will have to email them our creations next year. Sure going to miss them!

Jorja

 First place

Jorja won $20 for her rooster. She was quite happy with that. Someone won $10 by making the Chinese character into a snowflake. That was cool!

Stockton wanted to watch some weird video after he got home. I can't even remember the name of it, but he made a computer game around this cartoon that he was so excited to show Maysen when she came home. The cartoon was made in 1996 and was so weird! The kids thought it was hilarious. My grandma Parry had something with this cartoon picture on it at her house. Stockton thought it was so funny. I just looked it up. The cartoon's name is Bruno the Kid. Google is great. Anyway, we let them stay in the movie room watching other episodes of the cartoon while we went to sleep. I can't believe my boy is 17. Time is moving like crazy!

Maysen!

Jorja had an orthodontist appointment this morning. She doesn't need to go again for another six months, but she needs to keep wearing her retainer at night. I love late starts for appointments. It makes it so nice not to miss school. I dropped Jorja off at school and went straight to Utah State. I got to see Maysen! We went grocery shopping, then we took the shuttle up to campus. We ate at the TSC, which was delicious. Maysen wanted to get Stockton a small birthday present. We picked that up before we headed back to her apartment. Maysen packed up and we were off. I love having all my kids under one roof. I strong armed everyone into watching a Doctor Who episode. We then played Colt Express and Code Names. Both were games the Hodson's taught us to play up at the cabin. It was a lot of fun.

Jorja painted her nails for her Chinese field trip on Thursday. They had started to chip by the time I got a picture of them, but they are perfect for Chinese New Year tomorrow!

The Nerd

I again spent most of my day trying to figure out if it was possible for Stockton to graduate with his associates. It is looking promising. I called Holly, the lady at SLCC and left a message. She never called me back. I'll need to send her an email. The only problem is the email listed on the SLCC page is different than the one on her phone message. Maybe I'll send one to both.

As soon as Stockton came home we headed out the door. We checked Preston out of school then went to pick up Jorja. We had play tickets for The Nerd that started at 4:00. It was at Hale Center Theater in West Valley City. I left in time to be a half hour early. Too bad there was an accident on the freeway. I was frustrated. It seems that no matter how hard I try I am always late! We ended up getting there about five minutes before the show was supposed to start. Mike was walking to the front as we pulled in the parking. I dropped the kids off and they were able to get tickets at the box office. Stockton used his two Keys to Success cards for tickets to this show. We bought three more tickets.

The show was weird. It was funny and random. I think the kids enjoyed it. It was fun to go to. Maysen would have liked it. Poor Preston was so hungry. I didn't think to bring snacks. I forgot he usually gets something to eat as soon as he comes home. I grabbed some licorice and mentor at intermission. Not much, but it helped.

We dropped off Stockton and Jorja at home and hurried to pack meeting. Four wards are now combining to do scouts and this was the first pack meeting. Poor Ashley. She is now in charge of this huge group. Judy now has about twelve Webelos. At least she has Brother and Sister Breen as her assistants. I am so happy to be with my three little primary girls. I can't even imagine doing this. I don't think Judy can either!

Pack meeting lasted until 8:30. We were so exhausted when we got home. What a day! A fun day, but a long day.

Jorja's High School Registration

I talked to Allison Holmes today. She had been asking me about Stockton going to EFY. We have never done EFY before. Ebony has asked Jorja to go with her this year, so I had started looking into it. We missed the early sign ups, so we can't register until February 10th. Hopefully there will be a spot for Jorja when that date comes. Allison had asked me about Stockton going with Josh and Josh. When I was looking at the information I was confused because I thought it said you could only pick one roommate. I asked her about that. She said that Stockton would need to find a roommate, but this is the week that Josh and Josh were going. Oh. That makes more sense. I told Allison I wanted to wait and find out if Stockton would be accepted in the Step to the U he was planning on applying for. If accepted, Stockton would be taking three college classes during the summer and they start the same week the Joshes are planning on going to EFY. Allison said that Josh was doing summer school too, but was going anyway. She said he was planning on graduating with his associates. I asked if Josh had done summer school last year. He hadn't. I was under the impression that there was no way you could graduate with your associates if you didn't do summer school for two summers. I started looking into this because it would solve our Regents math problem. If you graduate with your associates you automatically get the New Century scholarship. Pretty much the same as Regents. You can't get both. Anyways, this might be something Stockton could pull off if he passes all FIVE of his AP tests this year. Hopefully I'm looking at things right. I want to contact the person at SLCC in charge of concurrent to make sure I understand correctly.

That's pretty much how I spent my time while the kids were at school. Trying to figure out if it was possible. I drove Stockton to BYU and headed straight home. Mike drove Preston. Jorja and I had a few hours before we needed to go to her high school orientation. I was also getting weighed in at the end of the day. This was my last meal - kind of. I had been thinking maybe I could go to Cheesecake Factory with Mike for lunch. I decided that it would be fun to go somewhere with Jorja before her orientation. I ran downstairs and told her my plan. I guess I should have mentioned it earlier because she did not want to go. She wanted to do her nails. I was disappointed. I ended up getting Cafe Rio and bringing it home.

Jorja and I picked up Katlyn and then went to the orientation. Jorja is so excited about high school. She is going to have a lot of fun. We also found out that the Chinese program will be at BOTH Alta and Corner Canyon. YAY! YAY! YAY! YAY! YAY! On top of that, we ran into JAZZIE! She will be going to school with Jorja next year! Happy! Happy! Happy! We are both beyond thrilled about that! I am kicking myself that I didn't get any pictures of Jorja at school today.

I took Jorja to my weigh-in appointment with me. It was weird. I had to lay on this metal slab and was scanned. It took about six minutes. Hopefully I'll be able to do as well with this program as I did a year ago. I'm excited to get back in the game. I need something like this to get me out of my bad eating habits. Granted, this is a little extreme - but it works for me. No sugar, no dairy, no grain. At our class this morning Michael Banks even said to go one step further. He said no fruit and no carrots. BOO! He is very clear that this isn't how you want to live your life, but it is a way to get crazy results. Once you have the results you want, then you add some things back in. Although he thinks you should never have sugar or dairy. Last year when I did this I was surprised how my taste buds changed. Foods actually tasted better when I was off of sugar. Tomatoes started tasting like candy. It was weird. Hopefully I can get to that place again.

Janaisa

I finally got around to sending pictures in for Stockton's yearbook. These pictures were taken back in December. Stockton's English teacher is in charge of the yearbook and asked him about them yesterday. He said he thought they had been sent in. Whoops. I hadn't even looked at them on my computer yet. I did get them sent in before school started. I hope they work out okay.

Gavin and Stockton

 Stockton & Gavin

I have a lot more diving pictures I'm going to put on here one day. Maybe. We'll see. I decided to do a mini-birthday celebration for Stockton today. Super mini. I am in another no-sugar contest which starts tomorrow. That means I won't get to have any of Stockton's super delicious birthday cake. I stopped and picked up these Cold Stone cupcakes. We waited until Preston came home from school before we sang 'Happy birthday' and dug in.

 Stockton

Jorja's hiding in the background because I told her to stop dabbing in the picture. I hurried Jorja and Preston in the car as soon as we finished. I took them to diving today. I stressed over and over to Jorja how we needed to leave as quickly so I could get back in time for splits with the missionaries. We made it just fine. Jorja and Stockton were able to go to their combined activity, which was serving at DI. Mike and I couldn't get ahold of the sister missionaries. They were supposed to contact us. Mike called Brother Brown about fifteen minutes before we were supposed to be there. He was surprised we hadn't been contacted. I tried to convince Mike that we should go to the church and find them there. Mike did not want to do that. Partly because he wasn't sure where we would meet them and mostly because he was feeling awful. Brother Brown called us back about five minutes after we were supposed to meet with the missionaries. They had gone on splits with another couple in the ward. All that unneeded stress. It was nice to go to bed early tonight. We didn't want to fall asleep until the kids were home, so we just watched tv. That's a lot easier than going on splits!

Mike did have a cool missionary story he would have been able to share. One of his favorite people he baptized on his mission contacted him through Facebook today. Her name is Janaisa. She was a very smart 17 year old when he baptized her, and was one of the first people that he worked with after becoming the more senior companion in Foz do Iguacu. They had exchanged letters once about 15 years ago when she married a guy she reactivated into the church. He had been trying to find her on Facebook for several years unsuccessfully. She is doing very well, still very active in the church and is totally grateful to Mike for serving a mission and totally changing her life for the better. Anyway, he was excited that she found him and they chatted online in Portuguese for awhile about some of the other people he worked with in that area. It's crazy that the people he taught are married with kids of their own now. I guess that was over twenty years ago. Mike was pretty happy after that conversation.

Jordyn and her Tacos

I talked to Maysen this morning and got her registered for the Storymakers conference. I hope she will love it. I had lunch with Becky and Jenny today. We went to Pizza Limone, or something like that. It was nice to visit with them for a little while. Before Becky picked me up, I checked Skyward to see if Stockton's physics grade had been posted. He has had an F in that class since Christmas, but there was no way he would finish the class with an F. The teacher doesn't put hardly any information in Skyward. It is very frustrating. Anyway, imagine my surprise when I saw Stockton's PHYSICS grade was now an A. I clicked for more information. There was none. No grades had been added, but the teacher changed his grade to an A. This teacher is so bizarre, I can't figure him out. I know it is his first year teaching. Maybe he got in trouble for not giving anyone in the class an A last quarter. He ruined 4.0s for many super smart kids.

When I came back from lunch I saw another Jordyn taco sign. On my way to diving I stopped the car in the middle of the road, got out and took a picture while it was snowing. Jorja and Mike both texted me later asking if I had seen the sign. I wonder who this Jordyn is?

Stockton worked on platforms today. Tyce had them hold themselves up by their arms and then do a back dive. No one had done that before. Stockton said it was super freaky at first. The sound you hear when Stockton enters the water on the first video is a very good sound. Judges love to hear that.

Jorja also had diving today. Mike brought her and took Stockton home. Preston had scouts, so he did not come. Jorja and I stopped by Target on the way home. Jorja wanted more hair and makeup things. How many products does one person need? I don't understand. At least I was able to get the Krazy Glue Stockton needed for his Engineering class.

Wow. I just realized how hard these videos are to see. So small, but full screen mode is so blurry. Stockton is always the one on the platform on these videos. Wish I had a better camera, but this is all I got.

Boys Are Home

I told Jorja to prepare to walk to church. I did not want to drive. It finally dawned on me that I need to get out and shovel or we are going to be freezing walking through the snow in our church shoes. I used the snowblower for over an hour before I called it quits. I didn't finish, but I made it 'good enough'. That is how Mike and I always do things. We get them to the 'good enough' stage. It was weird sitting on the bench with just Jorja. Mike took the boys to 9:00 church. I was surprised at that. Usually he goes to church on the way home, and I didn't think there was any way he would have the cabin all closed up that early! He didn't. They ended up leaving the cabin around 3:00.

Stockton, Preston, Mike

 Mike said that this picture was taken when the roads were good.

The roads ended up being horrible on the way home. Mike said he hadn't seen roads that bad since he and Ty came up to Idaho to see me when I was at Ricks. They had to pull over at a rest stop and sleep because the roads closed. Unbeknownst to Mike, my mom and Kris slept at that same rest stop. They were on their way up to see Sue and got stranded as well. Anyway, Mike kept pointing out wrecked cars to Stockton as they drove home. I was so relieved when they finally arrived! It was bed time, but Preston wasn't tired. I wonder why? Jorja and I watched another Stranger Things and we were watching Sherlock when the boys arrived. We played Code Names with them a couple of times before they were sent to bed at 10:00. I texted Maysen a bit before bed. Signups for LDS Storymakers starts tomorrow. I wanted her to pick the classes she wanted. We decided to talk after I send Preston to school tomorrow. It is nice to have almost all my family under the same roof. At least I know all my family is safe.

Scary Roads and Iceskating

I woke up early to go to my exercise class. I set my alarm, but rarely am I still asleep when the alarm goes off. I was up really early today and headed to the gym much earlier than I was planning. That was a great idea, because there was a ton of snow outside! I drove in 4 wheel drive the entire way. I still slid turning from 114th to 13th. My gym class was hard. I am not in shape like I used to be. At least I finished, but it wasn't pretty. The jeep was buried in snow when I came out, I couldn't even see my footprints. I was hoping the roads would be okay on the way back. It was now around 8:30, surely the plows had been out. No such luck. I slid turning out of the gym onto 123rd. I slid on 13th. I slid on 106 and I slid the entire way up Pepperwood drive. I fishtailed back and forth. I screamed and screamed, "Help me!" It was so scary. Once I was back home I did not want to leave again. I'm annoyed at myself for not going to the dollar store yesterday. I want a few things for my primary class. Mainly cheep frames so I can give the girls Chelsea's picture. Anyways, once I arrived home I called Jorja a few times hoping to wake her up. She did not wake up. I had to run through deep snow in my exercise clothes to get to the front door. I was hoping Jorja would open the garage door for me.

Stockton's dive meet was cancelled. Stockton is in Idaho anyway. I thought it would be because of the snow, but it was another issue with the pool. I texted Stockton pictures. Even with these pictures it is hard to get an idea of how deep it actually was.

I kept hoping Jorja's ice skating activity would be canceled. I was not going to drive, but it worried me that she was out on the roads. She promised me over and over that she was not going to die. Still, I worried. Natalie's dad drove them. He had a car that looked like it could handle the weather. I told Jorja she should wear her boots to the rink. She didn't listen. I watched her run down the driveway in her Converse. The snow was to the middle of her shins. She slipped right before she got to the car. I laughed. Listen to your mom Porge. Jorja seemed to have fun. Here are a few pictures I managed to convince her to text me.

Jorja, Natalie, Kate, Hailey, Katlyn, Evan, Isaac, Shafer

 Kate, Katlyn, Jorja, Hailey, Natalie

 Shafer, Evan, Hailey, Jorja, Katlyn, Kate, Isaac

They asked this random guy to take their picture. I think it looks like Josh Elsmore, but my brothers disagree. It would have been hilarious if it was him. This is Mike's favorite thing to do, so I wanted to document that it was done to Jorja.

Random guy

I spent the day cleaning bathrooms and being lazy. It was wonderful. When Jorja came home we watched shows. I wanted to show her Veronica Mars, but apparently you have to pay for that on Amazon. We watched Stranger Things, then I showed her an episode of Sherlock. Then more Stranger Things. I could not keep my eyes open one second longer. Jorja kept putting her face inches from mine to make sure I was still awake. It was fun to have Jorja to myself.

Cousin Lunch

I had my cousin lunch today. I was so excited about it. We usually meet at City Creek because Heather and Jordyn can meet us during their lunch break. Jorja has the day off of school, so I asked her if she would like to come with her friends. They love going to the mall, so I thought they would have fun hanging out at this gorgeous place. Jorja invited three friends. This morning it dawned on me that I only have the jeep! There are four seat belts in the jeep and we had potentially five people going. Whoops! I called my dad but he was taking Gayle to the doctors. I called Matt and Sam. They said I could borrow their car. That was so nice of them! After talking to Sam it dawned on me that we could just ride trax. That was my plan. I was worried I would be late, but I didn't know what else to do. Luckily for me, one of the girls couldn't go. I drove Jorja, Hailey and Katlyn up to Salt Lake. We got lunch at Chick-Fil-A. I sat by my cousins and they sat by themselves. Jorja did give Jordyn a clear jelly stamper we had got for her awhile back. I hope she has fun with it!

Meanwhile, at my table was Heather, Jordyn, Derek & Kendra and their two kids - Evelyn and Paisley. Lunch went by way too quickly, as it always does. It was wonderful to have this brief moment with my cousins. I walked Jordyn back to her building then hurried back to the food court. Kendra was still in the play area. I sat and talked with her while Evelyn and Paisley played. I think Paisley and Millie look exactly alike. It is crazy. I had brought my dot-to-dot book to do if I had extra time. I hate shopping so this sounded wonderful. Luckily I didn't need to resort to that and was able to spend time getting to know Kendra better. As we were leaving I ran into Jorja and her friends. Talk about timing! We went and picked up some frozen yogurt at Farr's before we headed home.

Funny I have a picture of yogurt, but nothing of people. Not my cousins, not Jorja or her friends. Oh well. Jorja and I spent the rest of the day watching movies. Well, tv shows. She wanted me to watch Stranger Things with her. Then she watched A Series of Unfortunate Events. I fell asleep while she was watching that. Since Mike was gone, she slept upstairs with me. It was really fun to have one-on-one time with her. Mike had the boys to himself for most of the day. Jeff's kids had school, so they got up there this evening. It sounds like they are having a great time so far. Days off are the best.

Larkin and Rennie

I watched Jeff for a lot of the day today. Well, not a lot of the day, but a couple of hours while the kids were gone. He was great. We played legos and watched some Leapfrog shows. I was hoping to find the Letter Factory, but I could only find the updated ones. They just aren't as cool as the old ones. Matt picked up Jeff and I headed to the school to pick up Stockton. I dropped off Stockton at diving and went to the Chick-Fil-A down the street. I met Larkin and Rennie there. We talked and watched Rennie come in and out of the play place for about an hour. I was glad I could see Larkin. She can't make it to the lunch tomorrow, so it was nice for me to snag her. Poor Rennie was so sick over Christmas. She was in the hospital twice with the croup. I don't miss those scary times of wondering if your child can breathe. Stockton liked to pull that trick the most. We haven't had to rush him to the emergency room for breathing issues for about twelve years.

Mike brought Preston to diving and picked up Stockton. We hurried home as soon as Preston was done. Mike took the boys to the cabin tonight. I was really nervous about them leaving so late. Mike texted me in Evanston, Cokeville and when they arrived at one in the morning. He promised me he would, even though he knew I would be asleep. It was perfect though because when I woke up early I saw the message that they were safe. That's all I needed to know.

Oh Tacos

I laughed so hard when I saw this sign. I stopped the car, rolled down the window and made Jorja take a picture of it. Classic Jordyn.

I survived my first exercise class. Barely. This class is crowded. I'm not a fan of that.

I dropped Stockton off at diving. Mike took him home after Preston's class. I went to the Advanced Academic's Night at the high school. My main purpose was to find out if the Chinese program will be here. I talked to the vice principal and then the principal. Both think it is coming but are not 100% sure. I guess we will go forward assuming Jorja will go here. New freshman orientation is next week. That will be Jorja. Bizarre.

Maysen called and we were able to get her signed up for a writing conference this summer. I think she is excited about going. We are going to sign her up for another one next week. Hope she loves them! Jorja's hopefully going to EFY with Ebony. We have never done EFY before. We missed early sign ups, so fingers crossed there is still a spot when we are allowed to sign up. Josh's mom called to see if Stockton wanted to go to EFY with Josh and Josh. He really does, especially since there will be no dive camp this year. The only problem is he wants to apply for The Step to the U, which will be summer college classes. I think they start the same week as EFY. Who knows if Stockton will be accepted, they would be crazy to not take him though.

Maybe?

I spent the day doing laundry, of course. That is how the day after the cabin always goes. I thought I would be able to get it all done. That did not happen. Preston came home from school and told me I needed to go to a Chinese meeting at his school. I had totally forgotten about it. They wanted to talk to us about the AAPPL results, which is basically the foreign language standardized test. The person in charge of the Chinese program for the district was there. When they opened up the floor for questions several parents started asking her about where the Chinese program will be for the high school. She told us they were having a board meeting right now to decide. (What?) It is being recommended that the Chinese program be at both high schools. Wow! This is news to me. I have heard several things from the schools and from other parents who have called the superintendent. I even talked to this lady back in December. I think I was one of the first, if not the first person to call. She was surprised and didn't have any answers when I talked to her. The plan keeps changing. Parents are upset. Especially to put your child in a program in first grade and have it taken away after investing eight years. Anyway, we will be so happy if the program is at both schools! Jorja is funny. I picked her up at Hailey's house after the meeting. I told her Chinese might be at Alta and they are deciding right now. Jorja threw up her arms in celebration and then turned to Hailey and said, "Let us pray." Hailey's mom had no idea Jorja might go to another high school. She didn't like that idea at all.

Matt and Sam came over for a bit tonight. Stockton and Jorja were at their YM/YW activities. Stockton had pizza and planning. Jorja had a get to know you activity with the new presidency member over the mia maids. (She seems awesome!) Jorja had to bring three things that represented herself. She brought the Chinese wall hanging Willy's family gave us, a catchers mitt and nail stamps. Stockton came home early and Anne was so surprised. She smiled so big and said to Sam, "Mom, look behind you!" Stockton and Preston played with Anne for a bit. Mike helped Matt to cut off the legs of his crib. Anne now has a bunk bed and they want to put the crib under the bunk. Hope it works out for them. I haven't seen the final result left.

I start my crazy hard exercise class tomorrow. I'm nervous. I'm more out of shape than I usually am. I missed the first two classes, so tomorrow might be harder. Yikes!

Back to the Stress

Stockton finally felt well enough to sled! Mike took a group of kids to the springs. Steve took Erica out snowmobiling on the reservoir. Erica ended up walking back after Steve had gotten the snowmobile stuck. Taylor went with Erica to try and help him. Shannon took a 4-wheeler up to the springs to get Mike. Steve ended up getting the snowmobile unstuck by himself and the kids were able to continue their demolition derby at the springs. Jorja hurt her leg pretty bad. She crashed in front of Jacob and he had no way to avoid her. Brandon crashed into Preston, but Mike did penguin racing a couple of runs with Preston and that fixed everything.

I took my kids and Erica home around lunchtime. I was hoping we would leave in enough time to stop by the square ice-cream store, but we didn't make it. I got Erica home ten minutes before six o'clock. She had a reunion thing in Provo with her Nauvoo group at seven that she wanted to attend. We stopped at JCW on the way home and got milkshakes. Mike left the cabin about the time we arrived home. He got home while I was talking to Maysen. I think it was around 11:00, but I'm not sure.

Jorja's leg was hurting her pretty bad by the time we made it home. I called Brother Bingham to see if he was home and could look at it. He was working all night long. Jorja decided to try just icing her leg all night and see how she feels in the morning. We wondered if it was broken for awhile, but now we are leaning toward it being a sprain. Hopefully she'll feel better in the morning.

I got on Skyward tonight. Stockton's physics teacher still hasn't updated anything, and it still shows his grade as an F. I know it is not an F, just like I knew when it said he had 100% at this point last quarter that it wasn't correct. This teacher is frustrating on so many levels. I am glad I got on Skyward, because I noticed Stockton's physics homework was due today. He always has online assignments and they are all due at the end of the quarter. Stockton had them all finished except one. He stayed up until 10:30 to get that one finished. I hope he at least pulls a B in this class. We have no idea where he stands.

A Cold, Cold Drive

Mike made French toast and I woke the kids up so we could make it to 9:00 church. Jorja was not happy about that, but she knew it was coming. The 9:00 ward is the closest, and we figured it would be better to start the day with church than have it break up the day. Mike took people down on 4-wheelers. We were the last family to leave the parking lot. Mike rolled down the window so he could see better as he was backing up. The problem was, the window got stuck. Yes, that's right. It was STUCK open. We drove in the freezing cold with the drivers side window rolled down the entire way to church. It was so cold! We were laughing so hard. The wind started blowing snow into our car. Then we passed a skunk! It just kept getting better and better. I had tears streaming down my face, it was so funny. Luckily Mike was able to get it back up after we arrived at church. I was not looking forward to driving home with the window down.

The rest of the day was spent eating and playing games. We had such a great time. Stockton felt better today. He went to church with us and managed to do some homework. He still slept most of the day, but at least he stopped throwing up. That's progress. We played many, many games. Cover Your Assets was fun. Mike did awesome the first round and got almost half of the points he needed to win. It was a crazy good hand for him. Too bad Nathan and Steve declared it a practice round and started over. Nathan had said it was a practice round when he wasn't doing well, but it was obvious he was kidding. I argued that there was no way Nathan would have restarted the game if he had done as well as Mike. (I also had a great round, but nothing close to Mike.) Anyways, we started over. Mike would have won the entire game if we didn't start over. Instead Preston ended up winning. We had ten people playing, so that was impressive. Another game we like was Code Word, or something like that. Taylor also taught us this weird train robbery game. Steve (and Jacob) and I destroyed Nathan and Lisa in Canasta, or as they like to call it, 'Hand and Foot'. One game we didn't play was Dominion, that was weird. Matt would find that unacceptable.

Taylor, Jorja

Shannon, Sherry, Miah

 Cover Your Assets

Matt, Steve, Lisa, Nathan

Xander, Mike, Preston

(Connor, Jacob and I also played)

 Jorja painted Lisa's nails ~ butterfly wings

 Jorja being a Porge playing Code Word

Sherry's family left a little before dinner. Matt has to work tomorrow, they need to feed their horses, Connor is going skiing with his friends and Tage was coming home. All those reasons. I'm so glad they came up here. I think Miah and Jorja had a lot of fun together. Everyone seemed to have fun together. We don't have many opportunities to hang out together. We have quick dinners and things once in awhile. We were trying to think of the last time we went on a vacation together. Steve thought it was the Disney Cruise when Maysen was a baby. It wasn't. There were several winters we went to Daniels Summit. That was fun. The great thing about the cabin though is there is a meeting place where we can hang out together. Seriously, we played games all day long today. It went by so fast. I hope we can do this more often. We missed Maysen, Tage, Spencer, Michael, Aimee and Jessica. They were definitely not forgotten.

Jorja, Preston and Weston were the last kids standing. They were playing a game, but I can't remember what one. Maybe Exploding Kittens? Anyways, I finally had to tell them they needed to go to bed. It was about 12:30. I had a hard time sending them to bed because they were having so much fun. I just couldn't keep my eyes open any longer.