Day Two

Jorja had another successful day of campaigning. She was able to leave her third period class (theater) and campaign during both lunches. Jorja and Stockton have opposite lunches on both days, so she was able to see him. Stockton told me that he finally found Gavin during lunch. Gavin asked him if it was his sister that was campaigning. Right as Stockton said yes a huge mosh pit (is that how you spell it?) broke out with tons of people jumping up and down yelling 'JORJA-JORJA'. Stockton said, "There is no way she isn't going to win." Haha. Glad people are enthusiastic about her. The freshman had an assembly. Drew still had Jorja's sign. Before the assembly started Drew ran to the front and waved Jorja's sign chanting her name. Soon other campaigns joined him. Jorja is really nervous. She is happy with how her campaign has been going, it is just terrifying. She thinks she will be able to make it to the finals though. Fingers crossed! Voting is tomorrow!

Raina & Jorja

Jorja was able to pass the time today by playing two softball games. Her team is getting a lot better. Jorja played catcher for every inning but one. She sat out that inning. She needed it. She was pretty exhausted, but had her energy back after that. The coaches have been playing Raina as shortstop instead of catcher. Not because Jorja is better than Raina, but because Raina has an amazing arm. There were many balls that came to her and she rocketed the ball to first. Many outs that way. It is so fun to watch these girls improve!

Jorja had another late night tonight. She did Chinese until it was time to leave for softball, but realized she still had biology tonight. She was up studying when I went to bed. Hopefully her grades don't suffer with all her extra activities.

Day One

Today was the first day of campaigning. Mike and I got up early to make Jorja's campaign shirts. She asked us to get her up to help, but we decided against it. Sleep is more important right now. She hasn't gotten enough sleep for a few days. Stockton took her to school with her posters and shirts. She was terrified. Mr. Packer did get mad at her for changing to public relations though. He said he had just spent hours getting the ballot to look right. In the information handed out, the kids had until this morning to change, so I don't know why he was working on the ballot before everything was final. Jorja told him she texted him yesterday. He looked at his phone and kind of grunted. Luckily it was in  'writing'. I had warned Jorja that Mr. Packer is not nice to girls. I guess she is already being initiated. Anyway, here is Jorja's platform that will be posted in the hallway at school.

Jorja came home pretty excited. I guess the first day went well. She was able to hand her signs off and hand out her shirts. Drew held a sign for her. One of his teachers got pretty mad at him and said she would get whoever he was campaigning for disqualified if he didn't tone it down. I guess he went up to the front of the class and started waving around Jorja's sign chanting "J0RJA-JORJA" or something like that. Someone else took her sign and was marching around the lunchroom with the Jorja chant. They got a bunch of people to follow them. So....it looks like things are going pretty well.

Jorja posted her tire hula hooping video on Instagram tonight. I was laughing telling Mike that it looks like her campaign is all about tires. Who knew? Jorja's loving it though. She went to school dressed in her racing outfit. She's having fun. I'm so proud of her.

Public Relations

I dropped Jorja off at school this morning. We saw Bode walking into the school. Jorja said, "That's not a good sign." I sent her with my phone, hers has stopped working. Sometimes these elections are won and lost on Instagram now. Jorja texted Mike during the election meeting this morning. Her text said, "I can't win against these people." Yikes! Mike told her to try anyway, the worst thing that could happen is that she will be able to have Struiksma for advisory. Jorja signed up to run for vice president, even though Bode was running. She did not want to do that. She originally wanted to run for public relations, but thought Brenton was running for that. He is in our ward and she did not want to run against him. Brenton is running for president. Jorja decided to switch to public relations. She texted Mr. Palmer and told her she was switching, and sent him her campaign posters to approve. These are her posters. Mike, Jorja and Stockton did a great job on them.

Jorja tried to get them printed out at school, but there was too long of a line and she wouldn't get them back until tomorrow morning. Too late to turn them into signs to carry. She has a $50 budget and posters were going to take up the entire thing now. Until my cousin Jason became a hero. Jason works at Overstock. Mike texted him and asked if he could help. Jason hooked Mike up with someone who was able to print out the posters for free. W-O-W. Talk about coming through in a clutch! Thank you Jason!

Mike also filmed her so she could put it on Instagram. I think Stockton came up with the 'racing attire' puns. (In case you can't watch this video, Jorja says something like, "Hey Alta, I'm in racing attire, racing a tire." She then drives the tiny jeep after a tire Stockton has rolled down the road. It was pretty funny. Jorja wasn't quite sure, but Mike and Stockton convinced her to post it.

Here is another video she did that she can post later if she wants.

Jorja was so emotional today. She is super worried about the elections and stressed about everything right now. I got kind of annoyed with her. For the record, today I hate boys. Except mine. They are awesome. Jorja stayed up late working on her campaign and doing homework. I had Stockton help her with math. I keep telling her that school is super important now, more important than student government or softball. Hopefully she'll be able to juggle all the balls in the air. Stockton was really funny trying to explain math in terms Jorja could understand. Something about the exponent has a shield so it blocks one order of elevation . . . That kid cracks me up. All. The. Time. He also is able to make Jorja happy, which I am loving right now.

Pictures of the Porge

Jorja has wanted to run for freshman class officer for about a year now. We thought she would be unable to run because she was in the Chinese program. The student government class was held at the same time as her Chinese class. Stockton's counselor called me and by chance I was told that only the Freshman President has to change their schedule. Now, Jorja has thought about running again. Her main two she is thinking about are vice president and public relations. She's worried that Bode will go for vice president and worried that Brenton will go for public relations. She doesn't want to run against either of them. I'm super happy with her advisory teacher, so it's a little scary to have her run. She will have Struiksma for all four years as it is now. I can't think of one other teacher better than Struiksma to watch out for Jorja during high school. Perfect teacher for her personality.

Anyways, Jorja finally narrowed down her campaign and we took pictures of her for the campaign. She looks so grownup to me, it's kind of scary. This first picture is my favorite.

Jorja

Jorja didn't really want to do anything with her name, she thinks no one would get it. Mike figured out how to personalize a Georgia license plate. He had it say things like JRJA4VP. We started thinking of things that she could use to go along with the license plate. It is turning out pretty cute. Here are different random pictures we took of Jorja today.

 I think she's trying to make an 'A' with her fingers, it looks more like a backwards 'P'

 Now with an old racing costume we've had for years. Barely fits, but whatever . . .

 She barely fits into the jeep too, so it's all good

Jorja trying to hula-hoop a tire ~ it did not go well.

Mike helped Jorja make files of posters. Because she didn't know exactly what she would end up running for, Mike made a file for each position. Hopefully Jorja will get it printed out at school tomorrow. I told her to hurry and get in line, because it will get backed up fast. Jorja's pretty nervous, but I'm proud of her for going for it. She will have no regrets.

Ideas

Tonight we worked a lot on campaign ideas for Jorja. Mike, Stockton and I have suggested so many good ideas, but Jorja doesn't seem to like any of them. She is stressing out big time. It doesn't help that she is sad. Boy problems. GRRRRR.

We also watched Bubs kids while Bubs and Ange went to a family event. This is a huge deal for Ange and it was pretty brave of her to go. She ended up having a great experience, so that's a win!

Avalanche

Mike, Maysen and I went to a huge Smith Family Reunion event. Two brothers, George and Thomas, and their posterity. They have this reunion every other year. Maysen received a scholarship from it, so she was asked to give a super short presentation. We were able to put our fingerprints on this tree posterboard. We were one of the firsts. Ours is at the very top. One of George's daughters is named Georgianna ~ that is close to Jorja Ann!

Mike's uncle, Brent, is the chairman. We had the meeting in 'The Rock Chapel' in Farmington. It's cool how the podium is off to the side, and look at that mural!

Brent

 Brent & Maysen

We left at the first break and went to Freddy's and then home. Jorja had just arrived home from softball practice. I took Maysen to her laser appointment, but she was unable to have it because she started medication for her bronchitis yesterday. (Her inhaler) I waited all day for the BYU game to start. 3:00. Maysen's appointment was at 3:00. I turned on the radio and they were just beginning the 3rd quarter! WHAT! I can't believe that Eastern time messed me up. Boo!

Mike took Maysen back to Logan. She is staying for awhile this time. Although I will need to get her for her appointment once she is off of antibiotics for five days though. Maysen getting bronchitis was my evil plan.

Stephanie & Maysen

 And she's gone . . .

I'm so glad Mike took her up this time. Logan Canyon was closed and he had to find a different way there. That would have stressed me out, plus it took him a long time. I found this information about the closure.

Mike got home late and exhausted. I dropped Jorja, Isaac, and Raina off at Alta's stomp. Jorja had a blast. Apparently it was all HYPE songs. They jumped up and down for three hours or so. Jorja's legs are pretty sore. No slow songs. That surprised me, but I was a teensy bit relieved. Jorja said she danced with Drew for a long time before the others joined her. The other kids seemed to enjoy themselves just as much as Jorja. It looks like this is going to be a fun year for her.

Internship

As soon as the kids were out the door I jumped in the car and headed to Logan. Maysen and I walked around a bit and found her classes. She gets to go over a bridge from one building to another, so that's cool. Maysen changed her schedule yesterday. She got an email from the zoo in Logan saying she could intern there this fall. She had tried to get an internship a long time ago. They told her they were filled and wouldn't be adding more until December. The stressful this is she needs an internship class for her psychology major. Maysen wants to do a animal behavior internship. She met with her psychology counselor and the counselor suggested she drop neuroscience and take the internship now. So, that is what Maysen did. I hope it all works out. It should, I just always worry about things until they are a done deal. It will be nice to have this class over with. It will make scheduling a ton easier. Anyways, Maysen and I drove from Logan and I dropped her off at Mike's work. I was starving, so we grabbed something at their cool cafeteria. Maysen stayed with Mike so he could take her to the doctor they have onsite. She has bronchitis and needs an inhaler for a bit. That's not good. Mike walked me most of the way out and then explained the rest of the way. I thought I understood it, but I ended up back in the cafeteria. Apparently the building is one giant circle. Literally, it is a giant circle. I eventually found my way out and hurried to Alta to pick up Jorja and her friends. Isaac, Evan and Raina came over. They played baseball out back, but didn't play as many board games with me as I was hoping. They were having so much fun that they were late to the football game though. I picked them up when it was over. They seemed to have a great time. I'm glad Jorja has been able to make such good friends.

Deer

I went visiting teaching early this morning. I met Megan at her house and we walked until Jacqui met us. Javita cancelled at the last moment. It was really fun and nice. I saw Stockton and Jorja at the bus stop. Glad they made it off. I got home before it was time to wake Preston up. I choked on my way home though. At the crosswalk there was a family of deer. They waited patiently until I stopped walking and a car stopped. Then the entire family crossed the street right in front of me. Why didn't I get a picture? It was so cool! They looked like a human family out on a walk. This same family made it into our backyard. The little baby deer was on our pool cover for awhile drinking water. I snapped a picture as it was getting off. They don't like for me to get too close. The mom and dad were at the back by the fence.

Baby deer on pool cover

Jorja had two softball games today. She got to play catcher, so she was pleased with that. She is getting better at throwing off her helmet when there is a foul ball. She also got her first hit in this league. Granted she hadn't been up to bat for a long time. She did great. It is so much fun to watch her play.

Jorja and Raina are the team captains

 Jorja

 Jorja catching

Jorja's first hit of the season

Mike, Jorja and I met Shay and her dad at Cold Stone. It was fun and delicious. We were pretty exhausted by the time we got home. School is tomorrow. Yikes!

First Day of School

Today was the first day of school. AHHHHH! It seems like we didn't even have a summer. Well, Stockton basically didn't have a summer. Like it or not, it is starting today.

Stockton ~ 12th grade ~ I'm going to cry

 Jorja ~ 9th grade

 Jorja & Stockton ~ I'm thrilled they will be at the same school this year

 There they go

 I couldn't help following them . . . barefoot and everything

 At the bus stop

 They were not amused. They made me go away. :(

 My super secret photo taking skills of them getting on the bus . . . yeah, my skills need work

 Preston ~ 5th grade

 Now I'm all alone.