Card Reader

We got to talk to Stockton today. On Mondays we get to talk to him for as long as he wants pretty much. On Thursday we get to talk to him for thirty minutes. It is great! He sounds so happy. They are going to be getting a ton of missionaries really soon. It will be interesting to see how that shakes out.

Jorja got sad at work. Someone took one of the card readers home. They made her come back when she figured out she had it. She wasn't too happy. Instead of taking it to the window, she gave it to Jorja. Jorja was outside doing the card reader thing. She called several times to the window asking what she should do with it, but no one answered. She wasn't able to leave her spot and it was too hard to hold both card readers. She put it down next to her and a huge rush hit. Then she forgot it was there. Her manager got mad at her. Jorja was in the bathroom and she could hear her manager telling everyone how stupid Jorja is. Jorja sent me a picture of her crying. Even if the manager is mad, that is not a way to handle it. Lame. Riley was working today too. He knew Jorja was sad and asked if she wanted to get ice-cream after work. I told Jorja is was okay. They got ice-cream at McDonalds and ate it in the parking lot and talked. They stayed there way too long and didn't get back until midnight. I wasn't too happy about that, but at least Jorja felt a lot better by the time she got home.

Double Major

If corona hadn't happened... Mike and I would have driven Jorja and Preston up to Logan. We had reserved a room at the University Inn, right in the middle of campus. I was excited about that. We reserved it back in January. Her graduation would have officially been tomorrow, but since she is 100% finished, we thought we would celebrate today. Jorja was on call for work, but luckily they didn't need her. She helped me make cupcakes. Maysen was very specific. She wanted yellow cupcakes with chocolate frosting and sprinkles. She chose a yellow cake from a box and homemade frosting. Last time I was in Logan with Maysen we tried out a new pizza restaurant by her apartment. She decided that would be the perfect place for a graduation dinner. Welp, that didn't happen. She ended up wanting a grilled cheese from Leatherbys, but they weren't making that. So... we ordered ice-cream and food from Leatherbys and Zupas.

Maysen ~ I put this picture first because I love it

 (The candles say 'celebrate')

 Maysen & Mike

 Stephanie, Maysen, Mike

 Maysen

 Maysen, Preston, Mike, Jorja

 Maysen, Preston, Mike, Jorja, Stephanie

 Maysen, Mike, Preston, Stephanie, Jorja

 I asked Maysen to throw her hat. She kept throwing it too high I couldn't get a picture. Haha

 Nice little toss for me

We watched a Fairly Odd Parent episode in the movie room to celebrate. School's Out ~ the musical. Then relaxed for the rest of the night. Maysen had 18 credits this semester. Luckily three classes were half semester classes, so she only had 12 credits to end with. They were hard classes though. She is so glad to be done! She officially graduated with a major in psychology, a major in English with a creative writing emphasis and a minor in marketing. What an amazing accomplishment!

FINISHED!!!!!

Maysen submitted her final final essay! She is 100% completely done! She is a college graduate! Woohoo! Her graduation ceremony would have been Thursday. Oh well. So nice to be done! She worked most the day Monday on a paper and all day today on the last paper. She doesn't have any finals, so this is it. So proud of her!

Utah announced a timeline to get back to outside life. We are almost finished with the urgent faze. Looks like it will be a looooong time until recovery.

We were downstairs doing scripture study when Jorja started laughing. She showed me a message her friend Cade sent to her. Hahaha Cade was in student government with Jorja for two years. I think he sat by her both years. (They have assigned seats) Cade was the financial chair. Braque was the senior Vice President. Cade came home from his mission early because of corona. He has been a good friend to Jorja.

Braque & Cade

Mail

Jorja mailed the first batch of her letters today

 Maysen and Bear are friends

We got to talk to Stockton today. He sounds so happy! They had another successful baptism on Saturday. His name is Austin. Stockton says the best thing to do during the coronavirus pandemic is to be on a mission. I am so happy he is able to see the good. He has a virtual lesson planned with a family of 12 tomorrow that he is really excited about. Hope it works out for him! They have also spent many hours doing service. He has learned so much. I am so proud of him!

Stockton, Austin, Elder Jenson

 Stockton

Rolls

Today was a fun day. We made rolls as a family and they were delicious. Mike made ribs. For church we decided to watch the afternoon session of Saturday's conference. The kids had missed that session because they went to get Bear. My brothers texted right as we were starting to do a Jackbox game session. Sad we had to miss that though. We also watched Gold Rush, a Charlie Chaplin movie. That was fun. We are so lucky that we have a nice, safe place to stay and Mike hasn't lost his job. Actually he got a promotion and a raise a few days ago. My heart hurts for so many people who are suffering with this crazy coronavirus and all the challenges it has brought. I'm so very thankful that so far we have been okay.

Letters and a Cage

Jorja has been working on her handwritten letters. They are adorable. She even decorated the outside of them. They are adorable.

Jorja

I was able to get the back part of our backyard mowed. We also got the batting cage set up. I climbed into the treehouse and yelled over the fence at the Bradley girls. That sounded mean. Haha. No, I heard them outside and yelled, "Hello girls!" The twins came running! They climbed on our fence and I showed them Bear. They hung their feet over so he could lick them. Gross! I'm glad he didn't bite them. I talked to the twins for a bit, then talked to Zoe for quite awhile. It was nice.

Salt Flats

Jorja and Riley went to the Salt Flats today. They took lots of pictures and even more videos. Riley brought scooters that they tried to ride around on. He also brought his guitar. One of my favorite pictures is on the fancy camera, but I'm too lazy to find it at the moment. So, here are some pictures I swiped off of Jorja's camera.

Jorja & Riley

 Jorja edited Riley out of this picture

 And edited herself inside herself

Jorja is such a crackup. She makes me laugh all the time. My kids are great at entertaining themselves and I love it.

My cousin Heather sent me a tiktok that was trending. It was a little kid going down a huge slide and falling off the slide half way down. The slide was Uncle Georges! Never, never, never wear shorts on that slide! No good will come of it. Of all the ways we got hurt on that slide, I never saw anyone fall like that kid did. Ouch!

Deer

Bear does not like deer. Well, I guess Bear does not like deer in our backyard. It scared him. He was outside playing by himself today when all of a sudden he starts freaking out. I opened the door to see what was wrong and he ran to me as fast as he could. It took me a bit before I saw two deer in our backyard. Bear was shaking so bad.

Bear and Preston

Ivan came over today and brought Jorja a package. They took Bear on a walk while they were six feet apart. I did feel the need to text her and remind her of the 6 feet distance. This quarantine is hard on Jorja, but she did get a dog out of it.

Chicken Chunks

Mike and I ventured out to get some supplies. We stopped by Chick-Fil-A to spy on Jorja. She was working the window. She was standing outside handing things from the window employee and giving them to the drivers. They have to have everything on trays right now. She looked adorable though. We ordered mac and cheese for Maysen. When we got home they had given us chicken chunks instead. AKA grilled chicken nuggets. If anyone's order is messed up it is usually Maysen's. Jorja brought home Maysen her order a few hours later when she got home. Bear loved the chicken chunks.

Pick a Hand

Jorja had her first official student government meeting today. She was super excited. They met in the field house with Packer. He had desks set up six feet apart. She came home disappointed. He told them they wouldn't be able to go to camp this year. Utah State is moving the camp to July, but Packer told them Canyons School District wasn't going to let them go. Packer also told them they probably wouldn't have a homecoming and would have to cancel the hello assembly. He didn't know really what to plan, because usually at this meeting they are planning those things. He also told them football games probably would be played without an audience. Jorja said, "I went to the meeting looking for hope and came home with the little hope I had crushed." I feel so bad for her. She has waited her entire life for these moments. I know people have it much worse, but it is hard and disappointing to her.

Jorja did get to go to young women's today. Becky Bingham had the girls over. They put their blankets six feet apart and had a picnic. It was good for Jorja to be out of the house. While she was gone, Preston taught Bear a pick a hand trick. The genius of this trick is it is a 50/50 chance every time. We do need to trim Bear's nails though.

Bear & Mike

Baptism!

Stockton did have a baptism on Saturday! I think this is the first baptism in this area in over two years A 17 year old girl named Victoria got baptized. Only ten people were allowed to come because of social distancing. But, they were able to live stream the baptism and something like 150 people tuned in to watch! Victoria had been going to seminary and a lot of her seminary class watched. Her Grandma who lives in California watched. She is not a member. She called Victoria's parents and told them she felt the spirit so strong during the baptism that she would like a Book of Mormon and to meet with the missionaries. The mom called up Stockton and said this needs to happen ASAP! Haha. The mom didn't want to risk her changing her mind. Stockton figured out what mission she was in and called the mission office. They got a recording that said they would be back in the office on Monday at 10. Stockton didn't like that. He did some more digging and found a phone number for the ward she lives in. Stockton thought he was calling the bishop, but the missionaries answered! Stockton was super happy to give them a referral and they were equally happy to receive it.

Stockton, Victoria, Elder Jenson

Maysen and I ventured out and went to Harmons. There is a post office there. She was able to mail her final project to her teacher. One week early and she is done with that class. So close to finishing!

Jorja worked today. We talked for a long time after work. Until about one in the morning. It went really well. Hopefully things will be better from now on. I love her so much.

Blessing and Homecoming

Kaylee was blessed today. Over zoom. It was pretty cool. All of my family was on there, and a lot of Sam's. Matt and Sam's bishop was on there too. It was awesome that my brothers that live far away (and their families) still got to be there. It was weird seeing Matt as the only one in the circle as the blessing was being given. Weird times we live in now. Kaylee is exactly four months old today. She is still on oxygen a lot of time, but is getting stronger and healthier. Definitely don't want her to get the coronavirus. After the blessing we were able to talk to my brothers and their families for a bit. We even played some Jackbox over zoom. Not as easy to do it that way. We had to say goodbye so we could get on our next zoom call.

Brandon is home from the Chicago Illinois mission, Spanish speaking. We had a 'homecoming' with all of Mike's family. Pretty much Brandon told us about his mission and we asked him some questions. It was fun. Aimee was there with her brand new baby!!! Jonathan Levi. He was beautiful. Spencer even got on. And his wife! I'm not sure how to spell her name. I know it starts with an X. She is so beautiful! Anyway, it was great to be able to connect with both sides of the family today!

Jorja also got to do another meeting after that. They had a zoom presidency meeting with the young woman's president. Busy day but so nice.

Hidden Email

Stockton was supposed to have a baptism today. I kept checking google photos all day to see if a new picture had shown up. It never did. I did get this picture from a lady who said Stockton helped them build a wall for their trampoline and their kids love his puppet. Haha. Hopefully the baptism happened too.

Stockton

This morning when I went to see if there was a picture from Stockton I stumbled onto something. I have to switch to Chrome to see this. Jorja's email is there in a file as well. When I switched to Chrome a message popped up saying something about Ivan. What? I switched over to her email to see and there was no message there. I went to her sent items and there were 28 messages between her and Ivan. TWENTY-EIGHT! I went to her deleted folder and they were all there. What the??? Didn't she just get in trouble for deleting messages? And she knows she isn't allowed to contact him right now because of it. So... today didn't go well. What is annoying is she still thinks we are the strictest parents and all of her friends get to have adventures and no one wants to be her friend after they find out how strict her parents are; yet we STILL let her have the Chick-Fil-A get together for the A team that she had planned. Yep, we sure are horrible. Anyway, only Madi and Riley showed up. They ended up watching Toy Story in the movie room. Riley had to watch that for his film studies class, so two birds...

Jorja trying to look like a boy

 Madi & Riley enjoying grilled cheese after the movie

White Team

Jorja finished up her PLT interviews today. They got put into teams. Jorja is an officer and two officers are on each team. She is on the white team and is paired up with one of her friends named Luke. She was so excited about that. He was the last one to try out. Their advisor started taking about officers yesterday. Jorja said she really thinks Luke should be an officer. Her advisor was a little skeptical, but after his audition the first thing she said was Jorja was right. I can't remember how many people are on the white team. I know there is only one other boy. Jorja has a few good friends on her team. Emily and Gabby. I know Grace, the daughter of a girl we went to high school with is on her team. That's about all I can remember. Jorja is pretty excited. I hope things can go back to normal soon. Jorja is going to have such a great senior year!

Friend Quiz

Today was a hard day. Last night Jorja told me she needed to finish an assignment after work. Preston has been sleeping in Maysen's bed, so Jorja went into Preston's room so she wouldn't bother him. I asked her if she would plug in her phone when she was finished. Right before I fell asleep I thought about going downstairs to make sure her phone was put up. I didn't. I figured she knew the rules by now and I trusted her. Jorja woke up before me, which never happens. She was playing with the dog. I saw she had her phone with her. I asked to see it and it was almost out of batteries. I asked her why it wasn't charged. She told me she plugged it in and wasn't sure why it didn't charge. Jorja said she was tired and went back to sleep. I looked through her phone, which is something I do at least once a day. I learned the hard way that this needed to be done. Anyway, as I was looking through her phone there were a few things that didn't add up. I had a thought to check her phone logs. I rarely do that. Nothing was there. I just knew I was missing something. I went and prayed. I was 100% convinced that she had talked to Ivan last night. I had no proof, I just knew it. This would be against two of our rules. She wasn't supposed to talk to anyone that late at night and she is never allowed to delete anything. I knew she had deleted the phone log. When Jorja woke up I asked her about it. She denied everything. I told her I knew she was talking to Ivan and that she had deleted the log. Eventually she admitted that she had. She said she fell asleep on FaceTime talking to him and he must have fallen asleep too because she woke up at 5:00 in the morning and the call was still going. She didn't want me to think she had been talking to him all night long, so she deleted the call. I was furious. Every single person in my family knows how important honesty is to me. They know this is my love language, even though it isn't an official one. They all know that when they lie to me it is like they are purposely telling me they don't respect me and that they don't care how much they are hurting me. We have had this conversation many, many times. Things did not go well this morning. Jorja was mad. I took her phone away until it was time for her PLT interviews. I told her she could contact returned missionaries and seniors, because they are sad right now. I also let her contact the new SBOs in their group chat. Everyone else she just needed to ask me first. Pretty lenient. I'm trying to figure out what is the best way to have her feel the consequences of these mistakes without messing up her mental health. Quarantine has been hard on her. Ugggg.

One of Jorja's friends made up a silly quiz. It had questions like favorite food etc. After about ten questions it would tell you which 'friend' you were. Emily, Hailey, Alison or Jorja. Jorja had us all take it and I got Jorja. This is the message that popped up. Pretty cute.

Yearbook Pictures

Jorja had PLT interviews for several hours today. Her English teacher asked them to send selfies of themselves for the yearbook. The English teacher is also in charge of the yearbook. So... this is what Jorja came up with.

Jorja

 This one was my favorite

 This is the one she sent

I'm still going through pictures from our filing cabinet. Found pictures of Matt before his mission and this picture I sent to my friend Cheri. It is from Maysen and Raigan's 4th birthday party. (Their birthdays are one day apart.) This was a few weeks before me moved from Washington to Georgia. Two of Cheri's kids are in the picture. Emily and Carter.

I can't remember the names of the first two kids. Whoops.

Raigan, Maysen, Emily, Carter

 Missionary Matt

Bear gets so excited when Jorja comes home from work. Maybe it is because she smells like chicken? Jorja loves cuddling with him when she comes home.

Jorja and Bear, Preston, Maysen, Mike

Red Couch

Welp, school is officially cancelled for the rest of the year. Online will still continue. This is sad. Jorja had the best junior year. It was her favorite year by far. Sad it has to end this way. Preston and I actually had a reason to leave the house today. We drove to Indian Hills to pick up his math books for the rest of the year. Jorja had PLT interviews for several hours again today. She wrote notes to her senior friends and then went hiking with Riley. The place they were planning on going didn't work out. There was an ambulance there and they were looking for an injured hiker. They decided to hike at a random place. Jorja pulled off the side of the road and they headed up. Too bad she got a ticket for parking where she did. Hopefully it won't be too expensive. They seemed to have a lot of fun. They found old foundations of a building, a red couch and a rope swing. Jorja sent me two pictures, but I took screenshots of videos that she had taken. It was a lot colder today than it had been last week. Both of these two knuckleheads are wearing shorts. Not a wise move.

Riley

 Riley & Jorja

Jorja

Once Jorja got home we hurried to Crumbl. She wanted to drop off a cookie and a note to her senior friends. Also she had a gift for her friend Sophie, whose birthday is today. Jorja dropped me off then picked up Madison who went with her to drop off her gifts. Long day for her, but she seemed to have a good day.