Checklist

I washed Jorja's work clothes early this morning so she could have clean clothes for her early shift. She came home super happy because she has finished everything off of one of her checklists, and she is the first person to do so. Jorja brought her yellow notebook and was taking notes with her meeting with Taylor. Taylor commented about it and asked to see her notes from the training meeting. Jorja told her she didn't go. Taylor asked her why and Jorja told her she wasn't invited. Jorja was super sad about this when it happened. People that only worked at there a few months were invited, but Jorja wasn't. She had no idea why. She thought maybe it was because she was gone most of the summer. Taylor was shocked and said she thought she invited her. She looked through her phone and found the message she sent to Jorja never sent. That made Jorja feel so much better. Taylor felt bad and told Jorja she would meet with her one-on-one to go over what she missed in that meeting.

Jorja, Brynlee, Chloee and Hailey all went to the Backseat Lovers concert today. Jorja said she had the best time and Hailey got along so well with Brynlee and Chloee. She was very happy. I was happy because she came home thirty minutes before her curfew!

Maysen and I went to the temple this afternoon. It was nice, even though I messed up on things I have not had a problem with for years! Haha. We went to OPH after. I love taking Maysen there. It was also good timing because I wanted to start my fast after lunch, so I was able to have a perfect meal to fast on.

Maysen and Jorja had a movie night in their room. They watched Emperor's New Groove. I'm sure they fell asleep during the show. I love having Maysen home.

Please Not Again

Jorja was so sick this morning. Her throat hurt and she was terrified her mono was coming back. We heard that it can come back in rare cases, when it does it is worse than the first time. She was scared and upset and really doesn't want mono to ruin another year of high school for her. There was no way she could go to school this morning. She asked if she could have her phone and some medicine. She took Advil and then different essential oils hoping something would help her feel better. I also brought down her phone. Conner had sent her a message. That made her happy, even though she felt too sick to open it. Nice timing on that one. I called the school to tell them Jorja wouldn't be coming. The attendance lady said she refused for Jorja to have mono again. That lady is so nice. I have called so many times she recognizes my voice. Man, Jorja had a rough sophomore year.

Jorja slept until lunch time. She was feeling a lot better when she woke up. She asked if we could go to lunch at the Japanese place. If she feels good enough to eat I will take her anywhere she wants! Mike had the day off today so the three of us were able to go together. We dropped Jorja off on the way back. I walked in with her. I checked her in and had to get her a check out slip for the end of the day too. This was planned in advance. Jorja worked 3:00 - close. Usually she doesn't work starting at 3, but her manager called and asked if she could come in earlier. I have to check her out in order for her to get there in time. Luckily that doesn't happen often. Anyway, she was able to make it to Chinese. At least she got one class in.

I had to run to the store real quick and saw this ice-cream. It reminded me of Blake and Parker. I took a picture of it and was going to send it to Mike, when I realized this ice-cream would kill Blake. Poor kid. How awful to be allergic to everything.

Maysen came home today! I love having her home. Preston LOVES it when she is here. She gives him so much attention. Maysen and Preston had a sleepover in Maysen's room. Preston slept in Jorja's bed. They watched Total Drama Island together. Preston loved being with her. I had Jorja sleep upstairs. I knew she would come home super late because she was closing. She was planning on going to the temple with one of her friends. Too bad they cancelled at the last minute. When I took her phone for the night she asked me to check it before I woke her up to see if they were still going. That is how last minute the cancellation was. Anyway, I think she needs to get lots of sleep anyway, so this is probably for the best.

On a side note. Stockton has now been on his mission for seven months! I am so proud of him.

Got the Dress

I was able to get the dress Jorja wanted for Homecoming. I thought about driving up to Orem, but the shop doesn't open until 3:00 and I was worried about traffic. Today was the BYU/Utah football game in Provo. Driving up there did not sound like fun at all. Luckily I had taken a picture of the tag and was able to order the dress over the phone. This time I will have to pick up the dress in Orem though. For Sweethearts they had a pickup in Riverton, which was so nice. Oh well. The dress is beautiful and she will love it.

Jorja talked us all into going to get frozen yogurt today. It was fun. We drove separately. Mike took Preston and they went to the fish store after. I took Jorja and we went to my dad's class after. My dad teaches adult continuing education classes on Thursdays. I have always wanted to go, but was never able to. For years I took Stockton to diving on Thursdays. Anyway, my dad was starting a new class today titled Truth Will I Send Forth out of the Earth. It is about the coming forth of the Book of Mormon. Jorja and I sat in the front row. My Aunt Gayle was behind us. The problem was... Jorja got sick in class. I thought she was getting a migraine. She hasn't had one of those in years. We left class early and I took her home. I got her medicine and she went straight to bed. Hope she feels better in the morning.

I stayed up and watched the BYU/Utah game. Mike watched it with me. He was a good sport and didn't fall asleep or make fun of me. Haha. BYU lost for the ninth time in a row. The first half was kind of close with a lot of bad breaks and mistakes for BYU. Utah dominated the third quarter. I think BYU only had the ball for two minutes the entire quarter. Hope they play better than this the rest of the season!

Too Hot for School

I watched Matt's kids today while Matt and Sam went to their ultrasound appointment. They are going to be having a little girl! Her name will be Kaylee Lyn, unless they decide otherwise. Best news though was the baby is healthy! This pregnancy has been touch and go with several scares, so yay for being healthy. 

With the BYU/Utah game tomorrow, I laughed at Jeff's shirts. Matt says they only wear hand-me-downs, so their favorite team is what they are given. Haha.

Jeff and Stephanie

Alta got out early. The air conditioner broke. It was so hot. 100 degrees in the classrooms and hallways, especially upstairs. They let the kids go home at 1:00. That meant Jorja missed Chinese. That is her least favorite class this year, so she wasn't disappointed one bit. We took advantage of that time and went dress shopping. This was her favorite of the day, but she likes the one from yesterday more. I'm going to try and get it tomorrow. The shop wasn't open today. I hope I can just call because with the BYU/Utah game....I don't want to deal with traffic. The shop is in Orem.

Jorja

Jorja worked from 4:30 until close. It was super busy and she got home around 11:45. While she was gone Mike put the TV from our room in her room. She has been having a lot of anxiety and can not fall asleep. The last six months or so she has taken my laptop to her room and fallen asleep with it. Either Nexflix or conference talks she finds on YouTube. That is another reason I am so behind in my blog. My laptop is always missing. Anyway, Mike hung this up in the girls room. He tried to stay awake so he could see her reaction, but he couldn't do it. Jorja was so happy! I taught her how to use the sleep timer and she was good to go.

 View from Maysen's bed

Dress Shopping

I took Jorja and Madison dress shopping today. We went to the dress rental place up in Orem. Jorja's favorite dress was one she tried on for Sweethearts at the beginning of the year. Haha. She thinks she wants this one, but you can't put anything on hold. She wants to go to at least one more store. We'll see what she ends up with. My guess is whatever she chooses will be adorable.

Short hair Jorja

 Long hair Jorja

Funny she was wearing her glasses in both pictures. Her eyes have really been bothering her lately. She thinks it is the contacts, but we aren't sure what to do about it. She has daily contacts and they are pretty nice ones. The super cheep ones hurt her eyes. I called the eye doctor today. They were wondering if it is allergies. Jorja decided to try eye drops before scheduling an appointment. Hopefully they will stop hurting soon. Jorja says that every day she has been asked if she is high. Drugie Jorja is not what she is going for. Anyway, Jorja and Madison had a great time as always. I'm glad we were able to bring Madison along.

Jorja & Madison

We went to Bowl of Heaven after and it was soooo good. Madison has never had an açaí bowl. Poor girl. I took Jorja to Walmart after she got back from Young Womens. It was fun to have her to myself and talk about real things. We were talking about boys and she said that although she is sad about lots of the things that have happened, she is grateful for all the things she has learned. We talked about ghosting and how big of a red flag that is. At least when you are in a 'relationship'. We talked about how you should always try to talk about things that might be bothering the other person, even if it is uncomfortable. Ghosting is never the answer.

Burned Out Bowling

We got to talk to Stockton today. After awhile we switched to Google Hangouts, which we have never tried before. I know that is how Shannon talks to Brandon and Erica. Elder Alia still needed to call his parents, so Stockton wanted to try this. It worked great! There was some lagging, but we were able to video chat with him for the first time. It was amazing! It was soooooo good to see him! He was very disappointed in me when I told him I had lost motivation for my blog. His exact words were, "NOOOOOOOO!!!!!" I think Stockton loves the blog the most out of my family. I was just telling Mike that I had to get it back on track for Stockton. Right now I am twenty days behind. Ugh. I decided to just start where I am and catch up when I can. If there is always a twenty day hole, then what can I say? I just gave up.

Anyway, other things that happened today. Maysen had her first day of her senior year of college. She had two classes today. They were both writing classes and she was happy with both of them. It was nice to talk to her and hear her so positive.

We had a family bowling day. My first game was my worst game in thirty year....maybe ever. I was dominating the next game, but time ran out on us. Still, I was so far ahead it... and the last game is the one that really matters, right? It was nice being with my family, even though it is only a family of four now. Going to enjoy Preston having a sibling at home while I can!

Preston

 Jorja ~ uses the bowl from way behind the line method

 Mike in the middle of his strike dance

 Jorja

 Mike

 Jorja...one pin...

Jorja met us at Firehouse Subs and then we went to the bowling alley. She was with Kate before. She went straight to Joe's house. She was helping him ask a different Kate to Homecoming. He was so nervous he made Jorja get everything set up on the porch while he hid around the corner. Then he was too nervous to make it back to her car so he made her hop three fences. She came home with what looked like a giant rug burn on her arm. Glad she had fun though. She is excited Joe is going with Kate.

Bear Lake and EFY

So.... turns out I got super burned out on the blog for awhile. (Stockton was NOT happy with me.) I'm now twenty days behind. I spent forever getting pictures from Preston's Bear Lake trip and saved them all, but I can't find where they went. Anyway, I'm going to try and catch up now, but I feel bad because there were a lot of great days that I have now missed documenting. I will have to rely on pictures and text messages between my family. We'll just cross our fingers and hope for the best.

I woke up this morning to this lovely site on the porch. I don't know what animal got into this, but it was everywhere. Brett and I were going to pick it up the old fashioned way when Mike came showed up with a shovel. I don't know why a shovel didn't cross my mind, but it sure went faster cleaning it up this way! Not nearly as gross either.

I took Jorja and Madison to EFY at BYU-Idaho this morning. Mike took Preston to Bear Lake for Scout camp. It took us about an hour and a half to get to Rexburg. The girls got checked in and then we had lunch at Frontier Pies. It wasn't as good as I remembered. I dropped them off at their apartment and hoped for the best! I stopped at a lookout spot on the way back. I couldn't get a good picture, but it sure was beautiful.

 Amy

 Greg

I got to talk to Stockton today. Transfers were Saturday. He and Elder Alia are still together. They were shocked! Well, kind of. Their mission president called and talked to both of them earlier in the week. He had them each write him a letter about their feelings with staying together for another transfer and also about the Swahili family. Thank goodness Stockton loves Elder Alia! When this transfer is over, he will have been with him for half his mission! One funny story. A family in the district invited three sets of missionaries over. They speak English and Spanish, so they invited the English and Spanish Elders. Their daughter is in the YSA, so they invited the YSA missionaries. There happens to be three missionaries from Alta serving in this district. All three of the Alta missionaries ended up having dinner with this family. Stockton from the English side. Another Alta guy that I can't remember from the Spanish side and Sister Liljenquist from the YSA side. Stockton thought that was so funny. Super random. Also, Stockton got a new ward, so they will have three wards now. Hope that goes well for them.

Mike is staying with Preston tonight. They are staying at the Henderson's cabin. It is right on the lake and super amazing. Kids don't know how lucky they are. Mike and Preston went boating with Burke and then played Colt Express with some of the other kids. Mike also got Preston to come on a giant stand up paddle board with him. 

Jorja seems to love EFY already. She was worried that the dress she brought was too short. Cori bought it for her and it was shipped to our house. There were two exact dresses of different colors. She wore one on Sunday and it was shorter than she thought. We called up Hutch and she met us at a clothing shop. Everything was super expensive and nothing fit Jorja. It was great to see Hutch though! Hutch is planning on going to Idaho Falls tomorrow, so she said she would pick up something for Jorja. I spent a lot of time once I got back to the cabin looking for dresses at Target. I wanted to order one and have Hutch be able to just walk in and grab it. Later tonight I got a text from Jorja saying her counselor approved her dress. Yay! Yay! Yay! I think those two are going to have a great week!

 Madison & Jorja

Jorja & Madison's company

Pie Face Code

We went to church in Idaho this morning then spent the rest of the day playing games. I love being at the cabin. I think these pictures of Colt Express are funny. The first one is a candid picture. Mike looks silly as he's trying to explain the game. The second one is a posed picture. Mike looks . . . hahaha. I love him.

(clockwise) Mike, Abby, Bubs, Matsen, Ange, Ella, Marie, Lincoln, Preston's hand

 Posed picture

Preston and Lincoln decided to take Pie Face apart and see how it worked. They discovered it was one long gear. It wasn't random at all. They figured out the code. I don't know if each Pie Face is different, or if this is the code to all of the original versions. But these guys loved it.

Preston and Lincoln

 Code

Schedules

I got up Jorja at 7:00 to start packing and was at my computer and ready to go fifteen minutes before 8:00. The window to change schedules was supposed to open at 8:00. I had my list of what I needed to do so I could win the scheduling race. Problem was....the window didn't open at 8:00. I texted my friend who works in the counseling office and asked her why it wasn't working. She said she was seeing one of the counselors in about 45 minutes at a soccer game and would ask her about it there, but I shouldn't worry about it. Jorja should be able to get all her classes. I texted back that I needed to leave to Idaho and Jorja hasn't gotten the classes we have wanted in the past, so I was worried and afraid to leave the computer. She called the counselor and the counselor called the registar. It was a district problem and they were having a hard time getting ahold of anyone. Why would they do this on a Saturday? Anyway, it finally opened at 8:45 and I was able to get Jorja's first choice of classes. Yay!

 Final schedule

It took forever to finally get out the door, but we did it. Madison came up with us. We stopped at Zupas before we went. When we were about to leave my dad called and asked if we could stop by his house on the way up to pick up something. Matt and Sam had ordered binkis and wanted them. We had an uneventful ride up, which is the best kind of drive. We stopped and got square ice-cream cones before we made it here. That place was crowded.

I went on a walk almost to Big Rock with Rachel. That was fun. We turned around when we got to the aspen trees, and I'm so glad. It was dark by the time we got back to the roads. Jorja took Madison on a 4 wheeler ride. Madison's phone fell out of her pocket, so they stopped the 4 wheelers to look. Then Jorja couldn't get it going again. They walked to a cabin that was having a huge party with music blasting and managed to get boys to give them a ride back to our cabin. Mike went with Jorja and Madison on the 4 wheeler to find the other 4 wheeler. I drove Brett and Matt to help if needed. Madison's phone still was missing and it was D-A-R-K. We started walking on the path. Brett was walking toward them, bended over and pulled up Madison's phone. Quick as that. It was amazing. Both 4-wheelers got back just fine. We played games the rest of the night until we couldn't keep our eyes open anymore. I sure do love it here.

Winter Quarters

Jorja is home! She had her last day of the trip today. They spent the morning at Winter Quarters and she arrived at the airport around midnight. I'm so glad to have her back! I stayed up until 2:00 in the morning washing her clothes. I'm hoping to leave early tomorrow to go to the cabin.

 Jorja

Ebony came over and talked to me for a couple of hours. She had questions about her schedule. She is adorable. I have to change Jorja's schedule around quite a bit. I got my ideal schedule all figured out when Evan's mom texted me telling me they switched his Chinese class to 8th period. I opened Jorja's schedule, which I had just been looking at five minutes before and sure enough . . . she now has no 4th period class and 8th period is scheduled as Chinese and Physics. Oh boy.

Mike sent me several pictures today. My favorite one was this first one of Maysen feeding Amy. Awe. Look at these two cute cousins.

Maysen & Amy

 Games at the cabin ~ Amelia, Mike, Ella, Lincoln, Preston, Ange

 Mike is planning on a wand station up here. Looking adorable so far.

 Mike spent time mowing until the kids got super antsy and wanted the 4-wheelers

 Cabin life

 Somehow this picture got on here, but I thought it was funny because it still is at the cabin

 Preston and Lincoln are hosting this event

Mike, Maysen, Preston, Matt, and Brett stayed up until 3:00 in the morning playing pirates. Brett was mocked for not selling his fruit when he ended his turn with $24,950. Haha

7th Grade Shots

I took Preston to get his 7th grade shots today. The nurse was great. She asked him if he wanted the shots in his arm or his thigh. He picked thigh. He didn't flinch at all. After she was finished he asked her how long it would be until it started hurting. Way different than getting shots with Jorja! Preston had a full checkup with Dr. Pritchard. He still has 20/20 vision, but his right eye is way better than his left. Preston hasn't been bothered by his shots all day. Tetanus shots are usually much worse than that!

Preston's first shot

 2nd shot

Mike took Maysen and Preston to the cabin today. I'm waiting for Jorja so I can bring her up on Saturday. They stopped in Evanston on the way up. THE McDonalds is gone! The one where you can sit on the saddles! What? That is weird and sad. Everyone stops there. I wonder what is there now. I never asked.

Meanwhile in Jorja land. They have left Nauvoo. They stopped by Carthage before traveling across Iowa. This is the picture Jorja posted for today.

Nauvoo Temple