Halloween

I took Jorja and a few friends to the temple this morning. Yesterday when they were planning it on a group text, someone asked who could drive. Jorja responded that I could because I get up way early. It is rare when I sleep until my alarm. True to form, I was up at 5:00. The temple wasn't super crowded, so that was nice. I saw Renee Murphy there. She introduced me to a Guiterriez boy. I can't remember his name right now, but I think he graduated with Matt? I graduated with his brother Mike, I think. I'm sure I spelled his name wrong too. Renee asked if he remembered me or any Millburns. She said that she thought we were in the same ward. He laughed and said he hardly went to church at all back then. Nice to see him in the temple. I told Renee how much I loved her daughter's talk on Sunday. It was a great talk. Also, Renee told me that the rules to handing the towels to the kids had changed. I no longer needed to dress in white. I was able to go in my dress with my shoes off and hand it to them. I was wearing a super long dress, so the bottom got soaked, but it was still cool. I dropped the kids off at Joe's house and he made them a giant breakfast. I love late start days.

Joe, Evan, Jorja, Hailey

Preston is our last kid going to his last Halloween parade. We found a hat for him. He found a mustache and double stick tape. Mike gave him one of his shirts to wear. Done! He was happy with it though, and that is what matters. Jorja made this hat with Mike back when she was five. She searched for a pattern, printed it out and brought it to Mike and asked if he could help her make it. Haha! That is my Porge.

Preston

 Proof I made it to the parade.

Jorja dressed as a sunshine again, but her headband broke at school. She reglued the triangle things when she got home and was able to wear it with her friends trick or treating. I didn't get a picture, so here is a slightly different picture from Saturday. Jorja didn't wear her yellow eyelashes or lipstick though, and Hailey braided her hair in two braids. She looked really cute.

Brooklyn, Maggie, Jorja

Maysen called me today. She had a hard day. She is worried. I asked her if there was anything I could do to help her. She said to just keep the blog up to date while I'm in Australia. I will do my best. I'm glad she can look at it and get some connection to home.

I dropped Jorja off at Evan's house and a group of people were going trick-or-treating. I started watching Game 6 of the World Series the second I came home. Preston was getting ready to go trick-or-treating himself. I thought Mike would take him because he could care less about the World Series. I'm not 100% positive he even knows who is playing. He does know that there will be free tacos tomorrow because a base was stolen. Anyway, Mike was on call and couldn't leave home. I took Preston around by myself. He was so cute. He talked the entire time about what he wanted to do for Halloween next year. He said if we started working now we could do it. He wants to set up a projector and have a game like pong on it. Then he wants people to play the game and the winner gets two pieces of candy and the loser gets one. He also thought a stacking game would be good. Depending on the levels of how high you stacked, that would be the candy you received. Seriously, the entire time we were walking he was planning this. He is 100% his dad's child. I love it.

As I was stepping inside I got a call from Jorja. She asked if I could come pick up her and her friends and let them hang out at my house. They were at the top of Pepperwood. After a little sleuthing to make sure we had everyone we made it back home. One of Jorja's friends was a little sad. I sat with them in the kitchen while everyone else was watching the Incredibles. I think that is what they were doing. The World Series was still going on and my phone kept dinging with my brothers texts about the game. I mentioned to this friend of Jorja's that they were more important than the World Series. I hope I helped. I hope they didn't feel so alone. We didn't talk much, I just sat next to them. I think they needed space. I just wanted to stay nearby so they would know they were important. I read in my book I reviewed that sometimes being nearby is enough.

Stockton spent his Halloween applying for the University of Utah. He texted me questions while I was out trick-or-treating. I helped him off and on until close to midnight. He was quite spent at the end of the night.

Stockton

I also stayed up late talking with Jorja. I'm going to miss these kids when I leave tomorrow. I hope they do okay while I'm gone. I'm so anxious about it. I don't feel like I'm being prompted to stay home, I feel like I should still go to Australia. I'm just anxious that they will be okay without me. So many things could go wrong. I'll be praying for them hard while I'm away. My family is everything to me.

Pumpkins

Bubs sent us this picture of the umps strike zone from yesterday's game. I laughed and laughed.

Stockton and I went to the courthouse today to pay his ticket. Hopefully we can get him signed up for the four hour class at the police station so he doesn't get any points on his record. Maysen sent me this picture with the caption, "Food I own right now." Should I be worried? Looks like she is officially a stereotypical college student.

Maysen's fridge

Evan and Hailey came over and hung out with Jorja. Evan had extra tickets to Cornbellys. Jorja could go, but they couldn't find anyone else to go with them. (Hailey had to leave to soccer practice in the middle.) They ended up carving pumpkins at Evan's house. This was great because Jorja wanted to invite friends over to carve pumpkins. I did not want to deal with that. I have so much to do to get ready for Australia, I couldn't add one more thing. Jorja had a great time. She tried to carve 'scary' in Chinese on her pumpkin.

Evan, Jorja, Hailey

I took Stockton, Preston, Gavin and Janelle to diving today. Stockton did the best twist I have ever seen him do. I love that he is working with Ted now. Ted speaks in a way Stockton can understand. Plus, he gets to dive with Gavin. Perfect. I spent my time at diving writing my book review that is due tomorrow. I was asked to review More Than Enough. I really loved it. Usually non-fiction is not my favorite, but there were so many good things that spoke to me right now. I loved her analogy of glass balls verses rubber balls. You can't juggle all of the balls all of the time. You have to focus especially on the glass ones. The rubber ones will bounce. The trick is to make sure the rubber balls don't turn into glass. She talked about how God says no to us all the time, so it is okay for us to say no to things too. There was a great chapter on dealing with hurt and one about sometimes being nearby is enough. I loved the chapter on shame and guilt as well. I will have to buy this one when it comes out in the stores. I think I want to highlight some things and look at them often. I did get the review sent off tonight! Yay! The rest of my day was spent on laundry.

Long Awesome Game with the Wrong Team Winning

The doorbell rang this morning. I was still in the bathroom combing Preston's hair. I was also still in my bathrobe. I made Preston answer the door. It was the missionaries. I went out and talked with them. They stopped by to pick up bread Mike had made. Mike makes four loafs at a time and usually gives the missionaries a loaf. Sister Arco hadn't seen Jorja's room, so we took her down to show her and to bother Porge. Sister Hutchinson loved seeing that Jorja had hung up her poster already. It was nice that Jorja finally cleaned her room yesterday too! The missionaries were teasing me because we had to be to church at 9:00. It was 8:45 and I was still in my bathrobe. I told them not to worry. I was good. We pulled into church right at 9:00. I'm very low maintenance.

My family sung with the ward choir in Stake Conference. We sang two songs. One of them is called Believe in Christ and it is one of my favorites. So beautiful. We also sang Abide With Me. I was next to Sister Carpenter who was the soloist. She was so nervous! Her voice is lovely though. One thing I didn't realize was that we would be sitting on the stands the entire time. The problem was Preston was sitting in the audience. I asked Preston if he wanted to sit on the stand with us. He didn't. Sue Beaudoin said she would sit by Preston and watch over him. Sue is awesome. She was Preston's scout leader years ago. Everyone loves Sue. I kept trying to look at Preston all during conference, but sometimes he was hard to find....

Conference was great. All the talks were so good. Anna and Harry spoke. I love listening to them. Jack and Renee Murphy's daughter spoke and was amazing! President Clark gave a great talk that I felt was an answer to our prayers. He talked about praying to find someone to serve. Now, this is nothing new, but I felt that he was speaking straight to Jorja. If she can change her mindset when she gets sad or anxious and immediately start thinking, "I feel myself starting to crumble, I need to find someone to serve right now." I think that would help her so much. I bet if she tried, every time things got too hard for her to handle, she could find someone else to make happy. I hope she tries to do this. I really do think this is Heavenly Father's answer to her right now.

Mike and I will be gone next week, so we had our family dinner today. Mike made more apple cider. He has now made over 100 jars of that delicious goodness. My dad brought Papa Murphy's pizza. Stockton said it was the best family dinner ever.

My brothers and I texted throughout the Dodgers/Astros game. It was a crazy good game. Too bad the Dodgers ended up losing. It was the second longest World Series game ever. Over five hours. Mike thought I was crazy for watching the entire thing. Stockton watched the end with me. Walk off single. Drat. John commented that this was the best game ever. So many good plays. (Just a way bad strike zone as Bubs would want me to point out.) It is fun to watch two teams play really well. I think Bellinger has become my favorite. I love being able to text my brothers and read their texts during the games. It reminds me of being a kid.

Sister Hutchinson

Stockton took the ACT test this morning. He was surprised how many people he knew were taking it.  Yesterday one of his friends asked his other friend why in the world he was retaking the test when he already got a 32. Stockton was thinking, "Please don't ask me what I got, please don't ask me." There were tons of cars there when I dropped him off. He felt really good about the test. He practiced for this one. I'm not sure how much, but I know he did some practice tests that he said helped him. Anyway, I'm glad he took it again. Even if he doesn't score higher than a 33, nothing bad is going to come out of this.

This missionaries stopped to see Jorja today. Jorja was sound asleep when they came. Sister Hutchinson gave Jorja a birthday present and a cute card.

Jorja, Sister Hutchinson (from Georgia), Sister Arco (from Tennessee)

 Jorja & Sister Hutchinson

 Jorja was so tired she couldn't open her eyes very well

 I loved this card

 Jorja already has hung both the poster and the card up on her wall

Jorja loves this song. She used to listen to it over and over when she was four years old. She has recently started playing it on the piano a lot. Grandma Honey sang this song to her mom while she died. I gave Grandma Honey a music box with this song in it afterwords. I think it is the only present I ever gave her that she really liked. Perfect present from Sister Hutchinson.

When I woke up Jorja this morning she had a startled expression on her face. She said, "Mom! I forgot to turn in my current event for biology!" The quarter ended yesterday. Shoot! Jorja has a 106% in the class right now, so I hope it won't bring her down lower than a 93%. Still.

I took Jorja shopping for some things for her Halloween costume. We stopped and picked up Hallie on the way. I brought the girls back home and they hung out in Jorja's room for a few hours.

Jorja & Hallie

I took Jorja down to Lehi so she could go to a stake dance with her EFY friends. Jorja was a sun and she looked adorable.

Brooklyn, Maggie, Jorja

I watched the World Series while texting my brothers. John likes A-Rod as a commentator. I'm still bitter about the way he left the Mariners when I lived in Washington. At least Dodgers won tonight. I picked up Jorja around 11:00. I am tired.

Black Bear Diner

On Wednesday the missionaries asked if I could help them drop off their car at the shop. Yesterday I let them know my car wasn't working. This morning Mike and I finally went to Walmart to see if we could get the car started. We did, barely. I texted the missionaries and they hurried over. I was in a rush because I had my visiting teaching appointments at 8:45. I was a little late, but everything got done. The missionaries love, love, love Jorja. Specifically Sister Hutchinson. I love it.

Jacqui and I went walking with Megan and Javita for our visiting teaching. It was great. We dropped off Jacqui and were standing in front of Javita's house when Damian pulled up. I went to talk to him. Damian is Maysen's age. Damian is hoping to be a professional baseball player. A few days ago he actually hit the light at batting practice on the UVU field. Lots of scouts were there, so it was good timing. I was teasing him saying he had to make it to the majors so he could get my brothers and me awesome baseball tickets. We then talked about the World Series for a bit. Damian said he could help Jorja out with softball in a few weeks. I hope that works out. That would be amazing!

Damian's broken light

A few hours after I got home Javita texted me telling me that the White Sox just contacted Damian. AHHHH! I screamed so loud! I was hoping to go watch his last game this fall up at BYU. I thought it was Saturday. It was today and I couldn't go. Instead Javita texted me every time he was up and how well he was doing. That was so fun! Damian had to fill out a lot of information to send to the White Sox. His trainer told him that means Damian is on their radar to watch in the spring. I hope he has an amazing season!

My brothers, my dad and I have this group text that has been going on for more than a year. Mostly we talk about sports. I sent them this text when I saw it.

Mike's texts were so funny. "Sweet . . . now I only have to feel guilty once a year for missing it instead of twice." "Can't wait for the next announcement where church will be reduced from 3 hours to 1.5 hours in 'the spirit of reducing and simplifying the work of the church'...that way everyone can get to their softball/baseball/soccer games/practices on time." Matt then texted, "Sounds good Mike. Let's vote for Mike to be prophet." Later Bubs let my dad know when Lincoln would be getting the priesthood. (Lincoln's birthday is the same day as Jorja's. He just turned 12.) My kids always joke with Lincoln that he is forever seven years old. It used to irritate him so much, but now he just goes with it. Kind of how Bubs hated his nickname we gave him while he was on his mission, but then he finally decided to embrace it. Anyway, I asked how Lincoln could get the priesthood when he's seven. Bubs said it was because he is super righteous. Mike said, "Church is changing Dad...priesthood session once a year. Lincoln gets priesthood at age 7... I'll make sure I head up to Utah though when Steph gets the priesthood." Oh man, I laughed so hard. They love to tease my dad. I love my brothers.

Stockton had to stay after school for Academic Decathlon. He thought he would be there until 3:30, so Jorja decided to wait it out. I started texting them asking if they were ever coming home. Stockton's meeting went longer than he thought it would. Jorja was stuck at school. (School ends at 2:25) At 4:00 I headed down to get her. I was almost halfway there when she told me Stockton was finished. That was a long wait.

Jorja invited some friends to celebrate her birthday with her at Black Bear diner. She is always planning things. Mike and I are just along for the ride. We told her it would be okay as long as her friends paid for themselves. Our deal is the kids get a birthday party on their even number birthday, so we didn't want to get tricked into giving Jorja a party. Ha! It ended up working out really well. All the kids got to sit together. Mike, Preston and I sat at a different table.

Paige, Jorja, Isaac, Evan, Sami, Camilla

Allison, James, Kenzie, Grace, Hallie, Hailey

 Hailey, James, Isaac

Grace, Jorja, Camilla, Evan, Hallie, Paige, Allison

Kenzie, Sami

 I made them take another picture with Hailey in the front because I couldn't see her too well....

James, Isaac

Grace, Jorja, Hallie, Camilla, Evan, Allison, Paige

Kenzie, Sami, Hailey

Hailey is so funny! She makes me laugh. I am glad Jorja is going to be with her while I'm in Australia. She will take good care of her. Hailey and Paige had to leave, but the rest of the kids came back to our house. They played some weird game while I watched the World Series.

Evan, Jorja, Grace, Sami, Camilla, Isaac, James, Kenzie, Hallie, Allison

The kids then watched Napoleon Dynamite and I was reduced to watching the World Series play by play on my phone. Dodgers lost. They weren't really in this game. Disappointing. One by one people were picked up until it was only Hallie. I had told her I would give her a ride home. I was talking to Jorja after we dropped Hallie off. It is pretty late at this point and I am not a night person. At all. Not even a little bit. Jorja gave a one word answer to one of my questions. I said, "Oh, I think you are done talking to me." Or something like that. It was the wrong thing to say. I didn't mean anything mean, I wasn't even mad, just stating what I thought was happening. Jorja started crying. I grew up with brothers and I don't understand girls at all. I was so confused. I had no idea what was happening and I don't think well that late at night. I kept asking Jorja why she was upset. What I did wrong. She started crying saying things like she is such a burden. I'm thinking, "How did we get here? Two seconds ago I thought things were fine and you had a great day." Jorja stayed crying in the car when I went inside. I got Mike up and told him I needed help with Jorja. I went out and asked her to come inside. She started crying on the couch. I could see a panic attack coming. Mike was with her and I went and got a glass of water and made her drink it. Shannon told me to do that next time. It worked. Swallowing made her breathing break out of the cycle it was in. She was able to bring herself back to normal before things got out of control. Okay, good to know that trick. Mike asked if she wanted to sleep in the guest room with me. She wanted to sleep in her own room. That is a good sign. I think she was okay when she went to bed. She had her Hank Smith CDs to listen too. I'm so glad.

Jorja's FIFTEEN

Happy birthday Jorja! She is now fifteen, but wishes she were twenty-one. She is in such a hurry to grow up. Today was crazy. Crazy busy. Mike skipped going to the temple this morning so Jorja would be able to open a few presents with all her family except Maysen. She loved the Hank Smith CDs. She's kind of iffy on the jacket. She said that it doesn't really look like her. Hopefully she'll get used to it and like it. I just want something she will be willing to wear that will keep her warm. We also gave her a note saying another birthday present is her student government sweater. She doesn't know when that will come in, but thinks it will be in November. I asked if I could get a picture of her before school that I could post on Instagram. She told me to wait until after school for better lighting. Haha. The girl that only cared about frogs is officially gone.

Jorja ~ 15 years old

Jorja's friend sent her this super funny video that I will post later. While I was looking for that video I spotted these messages that her EFY friends sent to her.

Jorja, Maggie, Brooklyn

 Jorja

Maggie, Jorja, Brooklyn

My car died at Walmart. I have no idea what happened. It felt like a battery issue. I went to Walmart and everything was fine. It stopped working when I left. Right as I was videoing the problem so I could send it to Mike I saw my friend Jacqui. I jumped out of the car and asked her if she could give me a ride home. I couldn't believe the timing! I didn't even have a second to worry about what I should do before Jacqui showed up. Yay!

Jorja had an okay day at school. Not the best and not the worst. Yesterday I brought Ashley doughnuts to bring to student government. Mr. Packer talked most of the time, but right at the end Baylor interrupted him and started singing "Happy birthday'. (Baylor is in charge of recognizing the birthdays throughout the year.) Jorja's friends were all super nice to her, but she came home with tears in her eyes. She said Isaac didn't talk to her all day, and that he was always with another girl. She said today was the first time Isaac didn't sit by her at lunch. She had been looking forward to being with Isaac on her birthday for a long time. The first thing she said to me when Isaac told her he liked someone else was, "And right before my birthday." Isaac texted her after school. He thought Jorja didn't want to talk to him. Those two! We were so busy the rest of the day that they kept missing each other and she never got to talk to him. She was quite disappointed. She'll survive. Jorja, please just enjoy this year! Try not to worry about boys! Just have a fun non-stressful year. Easy, right?

Jorja ~ 15 years old in better light

Hailey gave Jorja this shirt. Jorja had tried it on at the mall yesterday, but didn't end up buying it. Jorja doesn't know when Hailey went back for it. I told her maybe Hailey was sly and bought it when she wasn't looking. Anyway, it was super nice of Hailey and the shirt looks adorable on Jorja. Allison also got Jorja a purple hippo stuffed animal with a balloon and candy. The hippo is soft!

Jorja wearing Hailey's birthday shirt

Speaking of Hailey and the mall... Yesterday Jorja found a 'racing attire' outfit that reminded her of the elections. Of course she had to try it on. Doesn't she look adorable?

Stockton and Gavin went to diving right after school. Preston skipped diving today so he could do his last pinewood derby. He wanted to make his car look like a mouse. Actually, he originally wanted it to be a slice of carrot cake, but while they were trying to make that they thought it looked like a mouse. Preston loved it.

Preston's mouse car

 Mike & Preston loved Chase's Oregon Trail car

While Mike and Preston were at the pinewood derby, I took Jorja to her softball banquet. Her coaches were so great. They have worked so hard with these girls. They talked about each one of them too. When they started talking about Jorja (or Ya-Ya, which is one of her softball nicknames for weirdness sake), Marty said that she is by far the most emotional member of the team. Ha! That is true! Let's try and reign that in a little bit this year Porge! They talked about how super nice she is to everyone and how she makes everyone feel special, that she did an awesome job as team captain this season. They talked about the spunk she added to the team and how she was a big reason they went to competition ball this year. I took a video of them talking about her, but it is too long to post. Marty said that Jorja was the core of the apple, the person everyone loves, she's crazy and has a fun spunk that no one else brings. "Jorja with a J - they spelled the state wrong." Haha. That's my girl!

Jorja and Jana

 Jorja and Marty

 Megan, Jorja, Paige

 Jorja and Paige

Let's take a second here to celebrate Paige's weirdness. Paige goes to a different school, but she is in 9th grade as well. She sent Jorja this birthday video. We couldn't stop laughing. I see why Jorja gets along with her so well.

Shay & Jorja

 Jorja & Kamryn

 Jorja & Oakley (Jana's daughter)

 Jorja & Tayleigh

Everyone sang Happy birthday to Jorja while we were there. Jorja loved being with her softball friends on her birthday. This worked out perfectly. Raina left before I was able to get a picture of her with Jorja. Mike stopped at Cold Stone on the way home and just picked up a random cake for Jorja. She liked it. I didn't have candles, so I held up my fingers and she blew them out. Hopefully her wishes will still come true!

We gave Jorja her last present, which was the CD player. It finally arrived right before we left to the softball banquet. I think Jorja is really going to like it. Well, that's a wrap for this birthday post. Jorja is awesome. I love her. I hope her fifteenth year is her best year yet!