Cindy's 50!

My friend Cindy invited me to her 50th birthday party. I couldn't believe it when I saw the invitation. I haven't seen Cindy for a few years. We were great friends in our 20s when we lived in Washington. We served in the primary presidency together. Cindy was the president. Cheri Bennett and I were the counselors. Our presidency meetings were so fun. We would laugh and laugh and laugh together. It was the best time and we worked great together. Cindy now lives in Alpine, Utah, but I haven't had a chance to get together with her. I was nervous when I walked into the house. I didn't know one other person. Cindy saw me and ran to me and gave me the biggest hug. Then she didn't let me out of her sight. She introduced me to everyone and kept me nearby. She made me feel so great on her night. Classic Cindy.

Stephanie & Cindy

Jorja got together with her friends who have mission calls for pictures by the temple. I think they are all ambassadors, but I'm not sure. The pictures turned out great. I'm glad Jorja has had such a wonderful group of friends. She sure has loved her freshman year!

Chinese Marketing Presentation

The day for the Chinese presentation finally arrived. Preston spent so much time working on this! The school ended up letting the kids ride on a bus. I rode down with them. It was Chinese kids, Spanish kids and French kids. There were two groups of Chinese kids. They both had to give two presentations. I was in the room when Preston's group gave their first presentation. I thought they did great. I couldn't understand a thing, but I thought it was awesome. I stayed with the backpacks during the second presentation because both groups were going at the same time.

Yikang, Ty, Greyson, Brian

Preston, Emery

With Ms. Peng

Stephanie & Preston

Emery was at the Jazz playoff game last night. (They lost and are out. It was sad.) It was a close game though. She had floor seats and spent every spare second studying for this Chinese presentation.

Brian, Emery, Preston

The prompt was marketing AirPod cases.

Emery, Brian, Preston

The presentation

Question and answer portion

Ms. Peng's son, Preston, Emery, Brian, Ms. Peng

Serious faces

One funny thing that happened is while I was videoing Preston the Bishop called. I didn't answer. Timing was crazy though. He was calling to say he got Jorja's letter of recommendation written. We also found out Jorja needs shots. Hopefully we can find a time to get her them!

Ambassador Board

We were down to one car today. Mike dropped me off at work. My dad had to drop off Max's Crome book, so he came around lunch time. I went with him to the library. The sticker was off of his Crome book, so they had to wait until the supervisor could look it up. My dad and I went to lunch at Penny Ann's Cafe while they did that. Lunch was delicious. We went to the library and found out that my dad didn't return Max's Crome book, he returned Max's best friend's Crome book. Hopefully that kid has Max's.

Stockton got 100% on his physics final. Nicely done! Stockton and Jorja went to the temple today. Jorja wore her new dress and said it fit perfect. Yay! Jorja's mission picture is also up on the ambassador board.

We were able to get Jorja's car back today. Mike was right. It needed a new alternator. Mike made pizza for dinner in the pizza oven. Everyone got pizza except Mike. Bear enjoyed it though.

Bear eating Mike's precooked pizza

Ginza

Jorja asked me to pick up some mission flags for her friends. Clara - France, Hannah - Virginia, Emily - Cambodia. I first grabbed a Croatia flag and it was the last one. Once I had found France and Virginia I was ready to check out. I told the lady I wanted to double check I had the right flags. Luckily I did and went to change Croatia for Cambodia. While I was doing that an old man walked in and asked for a Croatia flag. A different lady went to look for one. I handed her the one I was holding. Lucky for him I didn't need it! I spent some time steaming Jorja's Hong Kong flag. That took longer than I expected. I wanted to steam all the other flags, but ran out of time.

I had a meeting at Alta today at 1:00. Jorja was coming down from Logan and we were going to get food and go shopping after my meeting and before her eye appointment. Didn't turn out that way. Jorja's bug broke down in North Salt Lake. She was able to get it off of the freeway and into a random parking lot. She called me right as my meeting finished. I hurried home, picked up Mike and we drove to get Jorja. Mike said he thought it was the alternator. We had the car towed to a shop down here. Jorja ended up waiting by her car for an hour. She was so hungry by the time we picked her up. We dropped Mike off and I made her a pita sandwich that she could eat on the way. We hurried to the eye appointment and got there about five minutes late. Not too bad for breaking down on the freeway. Jorja was struggling though. On the way there she started crying. She had such a long day. She kept saying that she just wants to see. I asked her if she was doing her home therapy and she said she is, but she feels stupid doing it. It feels so babyish. I told her to trust her doctor and keep trying. This appointment was a two hour appointment. After her therapy Dr. Davies met with us to have Jorja try on contacts. He had ordered her special stigmatism contacts. Too bad she couldn't see out of the ones she ordered. He gave her more sample contacts and they are going to try another brand. He says that Jorja's corneas are big. Most are 11-12 mm and Jorja's are 13 mm. (I think I got the numbers right, but not positive.) He said that while that gives Jorja beautiful big eyes, it makes it hard for contacts to cover them completely. Soooo many eye things......

Mike has fun ordering things for the wand stations.

Mike and Preston met us at Ginza Japanese Shabu Shabu. Jorja said people in her Chinese class told her it was really good. They bring out broth and a hot plate for you to cook your meat and vegetables on. Jorja said she went to places like that in Taiwan. I think she really liked it.

Jorja & a baby octopus

Preston & Jorja

I was hoping Jorja would stay tonight, but she was anxious to get home. She drove the Pilot back to Logan. I'm glad she made it there safely. It was a long day.

Magic

I worked today. One of the things I did was add all the people who won their election to the student government class. I sent the list to Jorja because I thought she would be interested. She is going to be the counselor for these kids at USULC. Five of the kids are in our ward. That's pretty cool. There are only six girls in the entire student government next year. They aren't having senior senators or head cheerleaders. Without those the small girl ratio would be similar to when Jorja was in student government. When she was a freshman there was one other girl named Eliza. Her sophomore year she was the only girl. Junior year she was the only girl. Her senior year there was one other SBO named Layla. There are more seniors officers. Janelle and Ella were senior class officers. It is so hard for girls to win. Kind of sad. Glad Jorja was able to have this opportunity though. I asked Shay what Jr. Tech Officer was. They are going to help the AVO officer. Basically help put together videos. I think that is a great idea. Poor Dawson was run ragged Jorja's year, especially because of Covid...most of their assemblies were online.

Cindy (the head counselor secretary) asked me how my weekend was. I told her it was great. My brother and his family are staying with us. The only problem we had was when one of the potion bottles broke and Jeff couldn't add unicorn tears. I told him I didn't know how to fix it. He said, "But all the potions I want to make need unicorn tears." I just kind of stared and though, "I'm not really sure how to answer that question." Then I realized how weird that sounded to Cindy, so I showed her the video of Preston making potions. During my lunch break I ran home and took videos of a few more things. I'll just stick a couple on here. My friends at work were quite impressed with what Mike has going on.

I posted this a few days ago, but this is the video I showed Cindy.

These I hurried and videoed during my lunch break.

I did not realize how many interactive things we have at our house. I tried to get them all. Later I realized I forgot about the knight statue. I also didn't get the puzzle wall and the enchanted forrest, but I wasn't sure those were working at the time. Mike sure knows how to make life fun! 

Matt and Sam and their kids packed up and headed to another house tonight. They are staying with one of Sam's authors. Sam needs to go into work the rest of this week and she is a little closer than us. Matt and Sam also try to spread their love so no one gets too overwhelmed. Haha.

Three Columns

I called the distribution center today to see if they had a Cantonese Book of Mormon. Specifically the language study edition. It has three columns. One is English, the second is pinyin, the third is the Chinese characters. I guess Chinese characters are the same as traditional Chinese. Jorja knows simplified Chinese, which is what they use in mainland China and Taiwan. At least that is what I understand. Anyway, they put the book on hold for me. I grabbed my credit card, my drivers license and my temple recommend. The distribution center is about a half an hour away. When I got there I saw signs on the doors saying cash or check only because the internet was down. UGH. I guess the internet went down ten minutes after I called. I told them I would wait. Gas is so expensive right now so I didn't want to drive back. Also, the book I wanted was the last one they had, so I really wanted to get it today. I was saying a silent prayer that the internet would come back and I could buy this Book of Mormon. I sat there for about 15 minutes. Then I got a tickle in my brain. I started thinking of being in the car on the way to Cameron's wedding. I took out this cupholder thing and put it in the middle console. We rarely ever lift that up. When I put it in I saw my check book in there. Mike and I had a discussion if we should leave the check book in the car in case of an emergency. I couldn't remember what we decided. The lady at the checkout counter started talking to me. She said she could buy the book and I could pay her back later. I told her that was super nice, but there was a slight chance I had a check book in my car. I ran out there, looked in the console and I saw it! It was kind of hidden the way it was on it's side pressed against the side. I was so happy to see it! I got Jorja the study edition, a Cantonese hymn book and a small Preach My Gospel book.

Jorja wanted a picture and I sent her those. She wrote back that it was so wild. She could read some of the Chinese characters, but she had no idea what the pinyin said. Good luck to Jorja!

Amy fell asleep coloring by the front door.

 

Sabbath Pirate

Today was fun. Matt and Sam went to church with my dad at 9:00. It also happens to be their old ward, so that makes total sense. Later today my dad, Cathy and Max came over for dinner. My dad brought Hawaiian Haystacks. Cathy and Max left after dinner. My dad stayed and played for awhile. Mike was excited to show him Sabbath mode for the wands. He gave all the wand stations a scripture. My dad thought that was pretty cool. He would tell us the reference for the scripture when it came up. We also had my dad play the oculus. We had him miniature golf. He liked that. He liked golfing much more than Beat Saber. Today was a fun day.

Jorja's friend & Jorja

Anne & Kaylee

Dad with the magic mirror

Sabbath pirate

Amy Can Play

We had a fun lazy day here. The kids played with the wands and loved the oculus. Beat Saber was a hit. It's an awesome game. It can be made super hard for the adults. It can be modified for the kids. Even Amy was able to play it. You can put it on no fail and no arrows. Matt's kids had great fun with it.

Amy

Anne brought a friend over. A girl she knew when she lived here. Mike set up a wand quest for her. Those two girls were running around the entire house. Fun. Matt brought them to my dad's house so they could play with more friends. Matt watched the Jazz game with my dad. I watched it with Sam. It was awesome! Jazz were losing with 40 seconds left and were able to pull off a win. Mitchell threw it to Gobert for a game winning dunk. It was so great! Now the series is tied 2-2. Hope they can pull it off!

Anne came home from playing with one of her other friends. She went straight to the bathroom and cried. Anne and the girl were drawing. (This is not the super sweet girl that was at our house.) The girl wrote on her paper, "Loser - poop on Anne" WHAT? How are people so mean? Anne had wanted to play with that girl so bad. She comes into town and the girl treats her like that? I hope Anne doesn't want to play with her in the future. She doesn't deserve to be treated that way.

Cameron's Married!

Today was such a fun day! The kids had online school, but I worked today. It is weird working there with no students, but also kind of fun. When I got home Matt and Sam and their family was here. Matt called me yesterday and asked if they could stay for a few days. Mike had them playing with wand stations that he had set up. They loved it. They also had so much fun with the cauldron.

Jeff & Greg

Cameron Molen got married today. Cameron and Maysen were best friends when we lived in Georgia. They were together every day. Their imaginations were awesome and they had so many adventures. It was so fun to have them together. Every week Alisha would watch my kids one day and I would watch her kids one day while we did date night. The rest of the week Alisha and I were almost always together, either at my house or hers. When we were at church Maysen would often leave us and go and sit with Cameron and his family. I had the best time living close to them. It was so sad when they moved back to Washington. I was crushed. We have seen them a couple of times since then. Maysen and I flew back to Washington for different things twice when she was in Kindergarten and 2nd grade. When Matt and Alisha moved to Arizona they stopped at our house on the way and we got to have a swimming party with them. That was the last time Maysen had seen Cameron. I'm guessing that was 8 years ago.

Cameron & Maysen

Anyway, Cameron got married today. He got married in the Timpanogos Temple and had his reception in Provo! Yay! It was soooooo fun to see Alisha! I was so excited! We were talking and we looked over and saw Cameron and Maysen talking to each other. I hurried to get a picture. I heard Cameron tell Maysen that he recognized her but didn't know where he knew her from. Maysen said, "I'm glad you remembered when I said Maysen." Cameron said, "Of course I remember you! You were my childhood best friend!" It was so sweet. I loved it. I'm glad I was able to come and I'm glad Maysen was able to too. 

Cameron (Rachel) and Maysen

Maysen & Cameron

Alisha & Stephanie

Matt, Mike, Alisha, Stephanie

Rachel & Cameron

Alisha

Cameron & Rachel

Alisha & Cameron

It was awesome to be with Alisha again. It's like no time has passed. Sure wish she lived closer, but glad Cameron got married near us! Mike, Maysen, Preston and I stopped to get food on the way home and then got to play with Matt! (My brother, not Cameron's dad) We had Matt try the oculus and he was a fan. Such a great day.

Golden Bones

I spent forever trying to find a good gift for Cameron Molen. He is getting married to a girl named Rachel tomorrow. Cameron was Maysen's best friend in Georgia for over a year, until they moved to Washington. Alisha was my best friend during the same time frame. I haven't seen Alisha for years. I still wanted to get them a good/useful present. I decided against this dinosaur skull.

I ended up getting them a nice air mattress. Hope they like it. I had book club tonight. The book was Tatoos on the Heart. We met at Becky Johnson's house and it was really fun. It was during the Jazz game. Game 3. I kept checking the score. The Jazz had a chance to win, but they lost... at home... sad.

Shirt Size

Preston texted me today asking what his shirt size is. Looks like he is signing up for the language competition. I know he is not happy about it, but he will be great. We had KFC for dinner tonight. The one we were planning on going to closed at 7:00. How weird is that for a food place? Preston really wanted it though, so we were able to go to another one and survived.

Waldo

I exchanged Jorja's temple dress this morning. I had bought her 2XS and we wanted to exchange it for 2XSP because it was too long and I didn't want to pay to have it hemmed. They had one there, but it had a big snag on the back. They called every store and their warehouse, but no one had that size. I FaceTimed Jorja to show her. She still wanted it. They did give me 20% off, so that was nice.

Tonight was the Where's Waldo for our ward. Mike was one of the Waldos. He sent me pictures of other Waldos. Jorja's dress picture got uploaded in the middle and I don't know why, but I'm not going to change it.

Waldo Mike

Waldo Tony Antonelli

Oh! And Rachel sent me this picture of Marie wearing Maysen's old shirt. Adorable!

Dress snag. One day I'll get a picture of Jorja in it.

Waldo Heather Callister (Bishop's wife)

Waldos Bryce and Gordon Johnson

Waldos Tom and Pam Smith

Waldo Ray Henderson (future Seattle Mission President)

Waldo Daryl Back (former Sydney Australia mission president) Hahaha