Sink Cleaning

Maysen asked Preston how to make a bot. They have had fun working with coding for hours. Preston is just so dang amazing. Stockton had his honors conditioning class this morning. He said it sounds like it is going to turn into a weight lifting class. It will be interesting to see how much Stockton likes it. He had his statistics and calculus classes too. Jorja had biology, Chinese and her ambassador class. The ambassadors went to Angie's to Clean the Sink. They had six different sinks to clean. Jorja looks like she is having a ball. I called her today. I was anxious to hear about her Chinese class. She was nervous about that one. Didn't know what to expect. It's official title is Third Year Chinese. She says it is all return missionaries with a handful of immersion kids. Jorja is the only one from Alta. She is still nervous but felt like she held her own today. Sounds like it was a great day for both kids. Yay! I love my family! I miss them.

Jorja with the sink

Jorja sent me these next two pictures

Ping Pong

Today was Jorja's first official day of college and Stockton's first day in 2 1/2 years. I think it is so hilarious that Stockton's first class in that long is a 1:00 ping pong class. Gotta ease back into it! He is taking that class with Jorja and I think it's awesome. I did get to talk with Stockton for quite awhile and it felt like old times. Long conversation over the phone on a Monday. Haha. Stockton had ping pong and computer science methods today. Jorja had public speaking, ping pong and her institute Book of Mormon class. I think they both had good days. I should have asked them to send me a first day of school picture. The only picture I ended up was this one. A random Jorja contact I found.

I stole this one off of Stockton's blog

No picture of Jorja. Oh well. We played Gloomhaven tonight. Preston retired his character last night and was anxious to try this one out. The game went long and Preston was up until 11:00. After I tucked him into bed I remembered it was late start. Hallelujah! I ran down to tell him so he wouldn't wake up on his own and panic that he was late. Perfect timing for a late start day.

Come What May

Maysen went to the singles ward this week, so it was just Preston with Mike and I. Crazy how fast life goes. Church was really good. Preston went over to the Christensen's house for their lesson. Sister Park and Sister McHenry talked about trials they have gone through and learning to be happy through them. Come what may and love it.... Joseph B. Wirthlin. Learning to dance in the rain... that was either Hinckley or Monson. Anyway, they were really good. Sister Park talked about her 9 year old dying from spinal meningitis twenty plus years ago. Sister McHenry talked about her husband's battle with chronic CRPS. (Complex regional pain syndrome) She showed pictures of him before and talked about everything he did. That blew me away. A few years before we moved into the ward he fell while ice skating. He ended up with CRPS and lost a lot of quality of life. Going from being a brain surgeon to being in intense pain if a fan blew on his arm. Crazy. Anyway, she gave us an update of his current progress. She showed a video of him writing for the first time in 13 years. Also, a video when Rachael came home from her mission. He picked up her 50 pound suitcase. The look on Rachael's face was pure shock. Then he took of his glove that he always wears and was able to shake her hand. Wow.

I noticed Preston's text asking us to pick him up about five minutes after he sent it. He was almost to Rollingwood by then. Mike, Bear and I went to meet him. He came home with a green paper. The youth are doing a Book of Mormon challenge and this was a schedule. They want them to read the Book of Mormon by April. It's pretty doable. We haven't been good at reading scriptures together as a family for the last few years. We used to be great at it. We decided to do this for family scripture study. I'm excited.

Mike, Maysen, Preston and I played Gloomhaven. We played one game yesterday too. We used to play this all the time before Stockton came home from his mission. Right before he came home we covered up the table and haven't gotten it out sense. Six months later we are back at it! While we were playing I noticed a Jorja contact. Grrrrr She leaves these things everywhere!

Jorja has been trying to figure out which picture to use as her USU ambassador picture. This picture will be hanging in the hall always, I think. At least while she is at Utah State, but I seem to remember pictures of every ambassador. Anyway, this is the one she chose. She is beautiful.

Jorja

Tractor on the Lake

Jorja looks like she is having fun at college! :) 

I had a lot I wanted to get done today. Maysen helped me make a class schedule for Stockton and Jorja. I love it. She did such a great job. We are going to send it to them and hope it helps them with their new semester. I know I will love looking at it and just knowing where they are. While we were working on that, Javita texted me and asked if we would want any hand-me-downs. Hand-me-downs are my favorite way to shop. Haha. Ron and Javita are moving. I'm going to miss hearing about Damian! And I'm going to miss knowing Darius is with Preston. Anyway, Maysen and I went over and got a ton of clothes. It took forever. There was so much! Maysen was a great sport.

Mike shooting moths with his salt gun

The pet stores still have no crickets. I brought home mealworms the other day, hoping for the best. I asked Maysen to feed Jorja's frog. She put lots of worms on his head. Haha

Stockton had a fun day. I stole some pictures from his blog, because how often do you see a tractor pulling a boat? His friend John Lyon invited him to Bear Lake. He spent a few hours tubing and learning to wake surf. Sounds like he had a great time.

Stockton had plans to go out to dinner with his roommate Austin. The jeep wouldn't start. Mike and I had given the kids their own jump starting battery thing that helps you jump start a car without needing any help. I meant to have Mike show them how to use it, but we ran out of time and I forgot. Stockton seemed to figure it out no problem. Then he got to enjoy a delicious dinner at Texas Roadhouse.

Austin

Stockton & Austin

Lobby Closed

Well....Stockton's gingerbread house had a good run. 2 1/2 years. We think the moths have been eating it so it has to go. We have to get rid of Mike's gingerbread duck house and Maysen and Preston's gingerbread boat. They were fun, but now they are done.

Bye bye diving house

Preston got his first covid vaccination today. He didn't seem to be bothered by it at all. He wanted Little Caesars pizza. Usually Mike orders it on the app, but he is at the cabin. I decided to just go and order it in person. Big mistake. The lobby was closed! I ended up ordering it on line and waiting in the parking lot. The round trip was over an hour. Ugh. Mike was even home before I got there. Preston said the pizza tasted great, so at least that was good!

Stockton sent me this picture. He was too tired to try this shirt on when we were looking through the clothes he got with Cori, but he said he would send me a picture when he wore it. Glad he remembered!

Stockton

Stockton & Jorja ~ love seeing them together!

Guess I Didn't Want to Go Home

Mike spent the day at the cabin. Working and other random things he found to do. He sent this picture on our family group chat.

Bear

Within seconds Maysen responded with a Tom & Jerry picture. Haha. She was so fast! I took a screenshot with the time stamp on it. For some reason that made me laugh so hard.

Bear (he's usually not on the couch...guess he thinks he rules the place)

Jorja had to get tested for covid. One of the ambassadors on the retreat got it. She got her results back today and she is negative. Love those results! Now to news at our house. It has a moth problem. We have had a couple of moths for a few weeks. Bear loves to chase them. Now it is a problem. They are everywhere. There were seven in the pantry. At one time. It is disgusting. Maysen and I spent today throwing away anything that had been opened. We took everything out and bleached everything. Maysen found some scents that moths supposedly hate. We have been diffusing those and it has helped a ton. We got lots of things put back, but we are pretty beat now. I have a couple of containers I want to buy before I put some of the stuff back.

I also spent forever scrubbing the garbage cans and their cabinet

Preston had a rough time getting home from school today. I picked him up from a random street. I made the mistake of hitting go on the map he sent. I didn't realize that is not where he got off. What would have been about five minutes away ended up being more like fifteen. Whoops.

Sunset at the cabin

College Jorja

Jorja sent me this picture after I was asleep last night. She has been having a blast living the college life! She had her first class today. Connections is a three day/two credit class. It is kind of an orientation for freshman. Her college career has officially begun!

Jorja and friends

Mike is up at the cabin. He took Bear to the hardware store yesterday for his newest project. I think it was installing an outdoor thermometer. Maybe some kind of wind sensor.

Racoon lady and Bear dog

Stockton had to order a new debit card today. Right now his is lost. It has been a long time since he had it out, so who knows where it could be. Luckily no one has gotten anything out of his account and he doesn't have any subscription things, so it was easy to replace. Nice he doesn't need it to eat at the food court!

One annoying thing I forgot to write about yesterday. The pet stores in Utah are all out of crickets. Apparently there is a cricket shortage. They said to call on Friday. I bought mealworms for Jorja's frog. I hope he eats those. Not really sure what to do.

Bad Call

Jorja's friend Brenton is on a mission right now, doing home MTC. He is in our ward and was a student body officer with her. His mom posted a video of Brenton goofing around during his break. I thought it was so funny.

\

Dang it! These are sold out!

Dali Crepes

Mike and Bear left early this morning to go to the cabin. There is not a lot of water in the reservoir right now. Mike sent me a picture of the view from the cabin. Later he went and checked out the boat ramp. Doesn't look like he will be able to take the boat out this trip.

Lonely boat ramp

I talked with Jorja for a bit today. She is signed up for 18 credits right now. The plan is for her to take 15 credits. We were waiting until her Step2theU transcript arrived before she decided which class to drop. It looks like her biology class is transferring as a physical science credit, so she still has to take biology. I kind of wanted to wait and see if that was actually the case before she maybe ends up taking biology twice for no reason. I called the registrar's office about it. We had sent Jorja's transcript Monday. Well, turns out the transcript had all four classes on it, but only three grades. Can you guess which grade was not on the transcript? Yep. Biology. Ugh. I reordered the transcript and fingers crossed, Jorja decided to take biology again. (The registrar also told me her class would be a physical science class. Maybe it had more physics or chemistry in it than we realized.) Anyway, after talking with Jorja, she ended up dropping her interpersonal communications class. She was originally planning on dropping public speaking, but several people told her what a great teacher she has and how it is so hard to get into his class. She wants to take biology right now while all the information is fresh in her mind. The downside is both of those classes are online and Jorja thrives on in-person classes. Although all of Step2theU was online this summer and she earned a 4.0. She will still have in person for her ambassador class, Chinese and ping pong. And institute. I think she signed up for one today, but I'm not sure. Pretty good mix. Should be a great year for her. I think she is mostly nervous about Chinese. This is 3rd year Chinese. We will see how much the immersion program prepared her for that. I think she can do it. (I do not know why it is not letting me justify this paragraph, but it is extremely annoying.)

Maysen, Preston and I went out to dinner at a crepe place Jorja told me about. It's called Dali Crepes. It is in South Salt Lake and it was delicious. I got a chicken alfredo crepe and a raspberry land. Maysen got a biscoff-rose crepe and Preston got StrawNana. They were so good! Maysen even loved the chicken crepe! We took half of that one home and split the other half between us. One day I'm going to try one of their breakfast crepes. They look so good!

Dali Crepes 

Raspberry and Chicken Crepe

Preston

Maysen

I helped Preston with math when we got back. By helped I mean I sat by him while he explained what he was doing and everything went over my head. It was a tough assignment. It took him awhile to figure it out. We were up late working on it. I had asked Preston if he had any homework and this is what he pulled out. He said it was a bit late. Already? We can't go down that road again! Turns out it is due in September. Hahaha. I'm so glad he isn't waiting until the final due date this year. He would be absolutely miserable in a few weeks! Preston was so exhausted when he finally fell into bed. Days are getting long now that he is back in society again!

Opposable Thumbs

Mike and I went to church by ourselves today. Preston had a sore throat, so we left him home with Maysen. Just to be extra safe. They watched church over zoom. It was Luke Johnson's mission farewell today, so his grandpa was there on the stand. His grandpa is a general authority. He spoke after Luke. It was pretty cool.

The rest of the day was pretty simple. We played games and took Bear to the dog park. Family planning was weird and empty without Stockton and Jorja. This is going to be a bit of an adjustment.

Needed to buy a province to win the game and this was my hand.

Bear looks like he has opposable thumbs - haha

Maysen trying to get Bear to do the obstacle course

Bear will do anything for Mike

Two New Aggies

Well, technically Stockton isn't a new Aggie, but he has been gone for 2 1/2 years. Mike made the four of us Toad in the Hole. We packed up three cars and left around 9:30. We woke up Maysen and Preston so they could say goodbye. These kids are going to miss each other. I'm going to miss them. Change is hard. And exciting. And sad. And hard. And happy. All the things.

Stockton, Jorja, Preston, Maysen

Jorja, Stockton, Maysen, Preston, Stephanie, Mike

Stockton & Jorja

Jorja tried to say goodbye to Bear, but he just wanted to tuggle

Mike drove the pilot, Stockton drove his jeep and Jorja drove her bug. We parked and waited in a long line to get their keys. Stockton's mission buddy, Max Ramsdell, came and hung out with Stockton all day. He helped move boxes and everything. Stockton and Jorja are down the hall from each other. I'm so excited for them to have this experience! Brett and I lived a few buildings apart when we were here. I could see his window out my own. This would have been so cool! Of course the LLC didn't exist when we went there. Once we moved everything in we headed over to the TSC to get their ID cards. They closed at 4:00 today, but the meal plan is on the cards, so I wanted this done before we left. The line was sooooo long! We met some cool people though. Stephy Johnson owns a ranch in Montana. We talked to her the entire time while Jorja talked to her girl. The kids got their pictures taken and got fingerprinted. Supposedly they can use their fingerprint and the Marketplace/Junction to eat instead of their card.

Stockton

Jorja

They were giving away Utah State shirts and had places to snap photos.

Jorja & Stockton

Ramsdell & Stockton

We went to eat at the Marketplace but their fingerprint thing isn't working yet. Only about half of the food was open. Too bad it wan't half price! After filling our bellies we went downstairs to the bookstore and picked up a few books for Jorja. Stockton already has his. Both of the kids only have two textbooks, the rest is online. Next stop was Walmart. That place was crazy! Who would have thought it would be so packed on the same day a ton of college kids are moving in? We also stopped at Lee's and picked up a few groceries. It was raining when we left Walmart and it rained for the rest of the night. 

Mike teasing Jorja that he is bringing in Barbie's dream house

Bethany (Jorja's roommate) & Jorja

Mike, Jorja & Stockton

Jorja's bed

Stockton's bed

We said goodbye to the kids around 8:00 at night. Mike and I drove home in the rain. We pulled into an empty garage. So weird. So sad. Excited for them though.

Stockton, Stephanie, Mike, Jorja

Stockton, Stephanie, Jorja

There was one picture I didn't get, but the kids promised me they would take it. I wanted to get a picture of them outside their windows. I also just realized that I didn't get a picture with them on the A, and I didn't show them their classes like I always did with Maysen. Dang it! That makes me so sad!