Living Ordinance

It was so nice and fun to have all my kids home. I'm going to miss this part of my life. We played Mario Party downstairs and Preston dominated. Stockton and Alyssa got their marriage license. So nice that you can do it online now. Stockton had a bishop's interview for to get his living ordinance recommend. The only problem was the bishop had no idea he was supposed to do that. He was wondering what Stockton came to talk to him about. We didn't realize that Stockton would need a stake president interview too. Don't know why we didn't think of that. All of the stake presidency is out of town. Stockton is trying to figure out how to get that taken care of.

Jorja and a Crumbl hat for some random reason

Jorja, Stockton & Preston playing Mario Party

My BeReal looked funny on my phone. Talk about perfect placement!

I texted Heather a bit today. The news today is MUCH better than it was yesterday. Fingers crossed Glade keeps progressing in the right direction!

Bachelor Party at the Bungalow

I picked up Stockton at Alyssa's house in Mapleton this morning. He had taken the shuttle from Snow College to BYU. Alyssa picked him up at BYU. Stockton took his physics test while I was driving down there. He didn't do as well as he had hoped on this test, but he has enough of a cushion that he should still be able to get an A. I was telling Stockton about Glade on the way back to our house. Once he got to our house he looked at the list he had been compiling from the wedding invitation Venmo. Second name on the list was Glade Powell. He sent Stockton and Alyssa a wedding gift probably hours before he got sick. And now he is so close to dying. What a bizarre situation. I texted Heather throughout the day. I'm just going to post the thread because it will be easier than explaining. I only took screenshots of the relevant Glade information.

In happier news, Stockton went down to Logan for a bachelor party the Bungalow boys were throwing for him and Ezra. Ezra gets married three days after Stockton. Gavin went down with Stockton. Stockton was happy about that and had a great night out with the boys.

Ezra, Jaye, Spencer, Morgan, Jacob, Clark, Nate, Ezra's old companion, Max, Stockton, Gavin

Prayers for Glade

I randomly saw a post on Instagram from Andrew asking for prayers for his grandpa. What? I didn't' know Glade was sick. I texted Heather and wow oh wow... he is a little more than sick. I feel so bad for Heather and her brothers.

In other news... Stockton finished his last day of FSY for the summer. He will be coming home tomorrow. Jorja is feeling better and drove to Preston, Idaho to go to Hannah's house. She left late and didn't put Hannah's address in her gps until she was far down the road. I think she did it with her voice commands because she was driving. When she put the address in she was told to turn around. She was surprised because she didn't think she had passed the exit. So, she drove back 30 minutes until she started recognizing stuff and realized she was going the wrong way. Soon after she realized she had accidentally had the gps send her home instead of to Hannah's house. So, back around she turned. Jorja was supposed to arrive at Hannah's at midnight. Instead she will now get there at 1:30 am. That's frustrating.

Lost Job

Wow. Today was quite the day. I had two back to back zoom meetings scheduled. The first one was a National AP Back-to-School meeting. It was 2 1/2 hours long. At the beginning of the meeting they were talking about AP coordinator eligibility. This came up and I took a screen shot. My heart dropped. You can't be an AP coordinator if you have a child that will take an AP test. I have Preston. I sat through the rest of the 2 1/2 hour meeting stunned. We had a break and I went downstairs where Mike was working. He was on a zoom call. He muted it and asked me how my meeting was going. I said, "Not good. I think I just lost my job."

Anyway, as soon as the meeting was over I went straight to Alta. I only had a short window before my next meeting. I wanted to see Christine Astle because she is who asked me to apply for the job and really pushed for me to get it. She wasn't in her office. I went to Paula's office and asked her if Christine was there. She said they were all in a counselors' meeting. (Christine is the head counselor.) Paula asked me what was up and I said, "You know what I keep saying about chickens?" Paula answered, "What happened." Paula had been asking me how come I wasn't moving into my new office. I told her I didn't want to count my chickens before they hatched. Everyone kept telling me I had the job. I knew I had the job, but something was holding me back. I never thought it would be this though. I told Paula and Cindy what happened. Cindy walked in in the middle of our conversation. She was the counseling secretary that just retired. When I left I told them goodbye, I had to go lose my job. I walked out of the office and Jarod Tucker saw me. He was the one that officially offered me the job. He asked to speak with me. We went in his office and he started telling me stuff about talking with the district and HR and things like that. I said, "Let me stop you right there. I am interested in what you have to say, but......" I showed him the screenshot I took and his jaw just dropped. He wanted to make sure that I knew that no one was aware of this policy. That does not surprise me. It is so random. Shannon Kershaw was single and didn't have any children, so that would probably have never been on her radar. The entire administration is newish here, so they just didn't know. At the end of our talk Jarod said that he had called me in because the district wanted me to renew my teaching certificate, but then I would get teacher pay. Ugh. The timing really stings! He then left to go talk to the principal and I left to try and make my next zoom meeting. 

As I was leaving the school Shannon Kershaw texted me and I asked if I could call her before our meeting. I talked to her on my way home. She couldn't believe it. Shannon had also advocated for me to have this job. Anyway, we cancelled our zoom meeting until we found out if I still had the job. I walked in the house and Christine texted back. In between our texts Jarod Tucker called and asked if I wanted my job with Paula back. So... looks like I officially lost this one. I thought I was losing a job that would have gotten me $25,000 a year. Instead I ended up losing a job that would have gotten me $55,000 a year. Luckily I got my job that gets me a little more that $12,000 a year back, but dang it! Those numbers are rough to look at. They actually offered my old job to someone yesterday, but luckily she turned it down. I would have been so sad to finally get a job at Alta, and one that I really enjoy, to lose it this way. Especially since I was asked to apply for this job. Christine wasn't too happy. This was our text thread today.

Jorja and I went to the fabric store and then out to lunch. We went to Blue Lemon. It was nice to be with her on this weird, weird day.

Jorja

I went over to Megan Okerland's house today and talked with her for awhile. Megan would have been my assistant in my new job. I was so excited to work with her. I wanted her to hear what happened from me and not anyone else. Later today we went over to Lance & Angie Anderson's house. They bought Fred Anderson's house after he died. (No relation) Fred had this beautiful giant pond in his backyard. People would come and take tours of it. It is stocked with fish and ducks live there. Anyway, Lance and Angie are filling in the pond. Their grandson died at their house last month. It was awful. He was down for his nap and his blanket got wrapped around his neck. I wonder if they wanted to fill in the pond to prevent another tragedy. Lance asked Mike if he wanted to come over and move the fish and ducks to our pond. The pond was still too high to get any fish. Mike tried to get the ducks, but they did not want to be caught. Hopefully they will find a nice new place to live, but Mike gave it a valiant effort.

Mike & Preston

One random bit of news, I saw this pop up and sent it to Stockton. Sam went to elementary school with Stockton. Now he is on the USA Wheelchair basketball team. Pretty cool. Stockton was surprised he is in a wheelchair now. I wonder if he always has to use it or if he just uses it when he needs to. Sam has spina bifida and was actually famous before he was born. Funny that we didn't realize he was the 'Hand of Hope' baby until years after we knew him. Traci Fuller posted the picture on her Facebook page with Sam's name. Anyway, today was a weird day. That is all.

Haircut and Dresses

Jorja is starting to feel better. Thank goodness. She just has a stuffy nose now. I took Maysen to get a haircut and then we went to Zupas. We brought home some soup for Jorja. Maysen and Jorja also tried on the dresses I bought from Amazon. We found one that will work for Stockton's wedding. I'm happy they both liked the same one. I ordered another one, now I just need to figure out a dress for me.

Bear loves going to Home Deopt with Mike

Shower and Slides

I worked this morning. Ms. Wu was able to help me get access to all the AP scores. She was Preston's 3rd grade Chinese teacher and now she works for the Utah DLI program. They wanted to know the scores awhile ago and I didn't have them. Friday she asked if I wanted her help in getting them. I told her I did. She was able to have someone high up email the College Board about how Alta needed their Chinese scores. Magically on Monday they were released. Anyway, there was an email from someone at College Board giving me the access code. Yay! Now we can move the kids into the classes they need to be in. What is absolutely crazy is there are 18 students in Preston's class. Only 3 of them passed the test. 50% of them got 1s. WHAT? I know they had major computer problems during the test, which is why our scores were so late; I wonder if the computer problems affected the results. That is a crazy low passing number. In other news, I got these Alta slides today. I picked the brown ones.

Becky Johnson threw Alyssa a bridal shower today. I forgot to take pictures though. It was really nice and I'm glad she did it. Alyssa and her mom came down. Maysen and I went. Too bad Jorja couldn't go. She is contagious until she is without a fever for 24 hours. Jorja got Alyssa a cute little travel jewelry box that says Mrs. Smith. Maysen got Alyssa several geometry towel. I love those. I got Alyssa the bedding she had picked out on Amazon. I wish I had gotten them the dishes they picked out though. I did the bedding because that is what my mom got me, but I kind of wish I had done the other. Oh well.

Jorja is starting to feel better today. She went outside and ate ice cream with Bear. That was pretty much all she had energy for, but it is nice to see her smile again.

Bear

Jorja & Bear

Jorja

I remember when Jorja didn't like pop. It's so weird that she likes it so much now. I think these cute soda shops made it fun for her. Kind of crazy how tastes can change like that.

One Cent

So.... Jorja is not feeling better. She threw up a lot this morning and she is very dizzy. I was supposed to have a zoom meeting with Shannon Kershaw about 504s. She had my job last year and now lives in Denver. I had been looking forward to this meeting, but it ended up being at the same time as the only time I can get Jorja in to see the doctor. We rescheduled to Thursday after my AP zoom training meeting. It will be a day of zooms for me! The doctor had Jorja take tests in our car before we could come into our office. They gave her a covid test, a strep test and a flu test. Covid and strep came back negative. Unfortunately flu came back positive. Jorja has the flu and has been SICK! She says it has been worse than when she had covid last year. Today was the day Jorja was supposed to start her mission. She would have been miserable. Hopefully her body will start functioning properly soon!

Jorja being tested for all the things

The AP Chinese scores for Alta were finally released. Preston got a 2. I was really surprised. He felt like he did a great job on the test. He usually says he did horrible, but this time he said it was easy. Today he told me that he thought everything was really easy except for the culture presentation part. He wasn't able to review it like the rest of the class because of the BYU presentation he was forced to do. (We definitely tried to get him out of that.) While these kids were working on this, the other kids were given six paragraphs to memorize that could help with the cultural presentation part. Preston ended up only getting one. Two days before the test he was given the others, but by that time he couldn't do it. Too much too fast. Anyway, that is disappointing. Preston did get a 4 on his computer science AP test. Preston definitely likes computer science more than Chinese. Hahah. Mike took Preston out for hamburgers and Brooker's Ice Cream. Preston drove. Mike sent me this picture of Preston's awesome parking job.

Stockton is starting his last week of FSY. He really likes this group of boys he has and thinks it will be the perfect group to end on. I hope he loves it! Stockton and Alyssa's wedding invitations are out. Alyssa's Venmo is on the invitation. Stockton told me that Ethan Scott venmo-ed them one cent. Hahahah

Unruly Tile

My dad gave a talk in his ward today, so I went to listen to him. I sat by myself in the back. About a year ago, Mike put a tile on my keychain, but we never got around to setting it up. So it is there for no reason. Jorja has a tile on her keychain and uses it ALL the time. She can locate her phone with her keys or her keys with her phone. I think my tile is running out of battery, because it will randomly go off when no one is touching it. I bet you can see where this story is going. I was sitting in the back when all of a sudden, during the prayer, the tile started going off. TWICE. I sat in the foyer for the rest of sacrament meeting. How embarrassing! While I was there a lady came in and asked if the bishop was there. I told her I didn't know because I was just visiting this ward. She put an envelope on the table next to me and said, "This is my tithing. It has money in there." Then she walked out. That was totally weird. I gave the envelope to my dad after his meeting ended and figured he could track her bishop down.

The kids watched zoom church. Jorja still feels really sick. So glad she didn't go to Colorado this morning. Her ticket was for 3:00 in the morning, or something insane like that. Jorja's mission farewell was originally supposed to be today. That would have been a disaster. Anyway, Maysen, Preston and I watched the zoom in the computer room. We had the intercom on so Jorja could listen to it from her bed. Preston did sacrament. That was pretty cool. He blessed it and passed it around, including going downstairs for Jorja. Mike came home from the cabin today. It is nice to have him back! I'm glad he was able to enjoy himself at the cabin.

Bear Escapes...Again

Mike had a better time on the lake yesterday than today. There was no wind or fish today. He is all packed up and ready to come home tomorrow. Yay! Bear dog escaped again when he was going to the lake. Mike had no idea how he did it, but he left his bone at the top of the deck. Mike was really worried he jumped that entire way. Turns out he just ran through the rails. He had never done that before. Maybe his new haircut gave him super skinny powers. Haha

Bear

Mike was worried Bear jumped from here

This is where Bear really got out

Jorja slept most of the day. She picked up her FSY friend, Riley, from the airport and hung out with him. At 9:30 pm she started not feeling good again. She felt her fever come back. She decided not to go to Denver tomorrow. I think that is a good decision. You know Jorja is really feeling sick if she is deciding not to go visit a friend and she paid for the ticket herself.

Stockton took his physics test today and got 100%. Alyssa picked him up from Snow College and they hung out in Mapleton. They watched fireworks and enjoyed the festivities that Mapleton put on. Stockton stayed over at Alyssa's house tonight. I'm glad he feels comfortable with her family and I'm glad they are so welcoming to him.

Alyssa & Stockton

Jorja Finishes FSY

Mike spent the day sailing on the lake. Bear dog got out of the gate and tried to follow him. Mike isn't sure how he escaped. Mike was able to get him back and go sailing. Mike doesn't want to take him out on the boat when he sails alone because he is worried Bear would get scared and jump in the water. Mike wouldn't be able to leave the boat to get him. Mike did leave Bear with a big bone to occupy his time. Also, Mike found out he can officially work from Idaho if he wanted to. Even full time. Mike was happy about that.

Bear & Mike

Bear

Alyssa's shower invitation

I got a haircut today. I wish I had picked the Blue Jays for survival baseball. They won the Red Sox 27-5. Hahahaha That's nuts! The game was played in Boston. Double nuts! Jorja still felt miserable today. At 8:00 am she texted me letting me know she was feeling better except her throat hurts so bad. She has a ticket to go to Denver on Sunday and was wondering if she should change it. She looked into it. It would cost $10 to change the ticket with $120 extra dollars in fees. That is more than the original ticket cost. Around 9:00 at night Jorja called me and asked if I could pick her up. She said she felt so sick and got permission to go home. She didn't think she could drive home. So, I picked her up in Provo. Just to recap. Mike and I drove two cars down to Provo on Sunday because she wanted her car and didn't think she could drive. We left Jorja and her car there and we drove home together. Jorja didn't drive her car the entire week. I drove down today and picked her up, leaving her car there. Somehow we got to get that back. Ugh. I wish she wouldn't have insisted on having her car, but oh well. Too late now. Anyway, I got to the dorms and texted Jorja that I was there. While I was waiting for her to text me back someone came and knocked on my window. I rolled it down and they told me my tire was flat. I went and looked and sure enough it was. Great. I found Jorja. The health counselors took her temperature on the way out and it was back to 100 degrees. What a way to end her FSY experience. This was her last week. Lame way for it to end. I got Jorja in the car, made it to a gas station and was able to get air in the tire. Jorja slept most of the way home. She sure looks miserable. I can't believe how long she has been sick. Hopefully this will go away soon.

My phone made this video and Preston liked it.

Utah/Seattle/South America

Mike has been having fun with Bear dog at the cabin and getting a lot of work done. There was a data temperature issue at work and he ended up being on a call for hours, but other than that it was great. Mike found Bear's purple ball that we lost up here last time. He got the drive belt back on the giant mower. Now he needs to replace one of the big tires on it. The water level is starting to go down on Palisades, but it is still pretty up there.

Bear 

Flat tire

Purple ball!

Parrydise

Sara Henderson called me and I was able to help her and Benny with transcripts they needed so he can apply to BYU. Benny is on a mission somewhere in South America. Sara and Ray are now Mission President and Companion of the Seattle Washington Mission. Crazy that Sara is already gone. They live on Mercer Island now. I'm glad I was able to help her. Benny had his P-Day while I was helping and sent me a thumbs up picture. Haha.

Elder Benny and tiny Sara

Stockton is loving FSY and said this is the easiest week so far.

Jorja still feels really sick. The health coordinators say it isn't strep, she doesn't have any white spots. By 11:00 pm she said she feels a lot better. Not perfect, but better. Hopefully she is done with this!

These are actually surprisingly good.

Maysen the Editor

I got a lot of pictures from Mike today. Sounds like he is having a great time at the cabin. He has worked a lot on his boat. He added a fishing pole holder, a gear hammock and a sink drying rack. These are pictures from the last two days of work. Mike said Bear did really well on the boat and the auto pilot is so cool.

Bear

Jorja is still pretty sick. At 10:00 this morning she sent me texts about how she still feels dizzy. She's not feeling good. Her throat isn't hurting but she feels so dizzy, like she is about to pass out. The FSY people are letting her take naps during class now, even though she isn't on break. She has been going outside and sleeping on the grass. I hope she starts feeling better soon. Too bad she can't fully enjoy her last week at FSY.

Stockton texted us about he was conducting a class where the general YM president and wife were in attendance. He got to shake President Lund's hand. Stockton is really liking his group of boys this week. I'm so glad he got a great group after the rough time he had last week.

I got locked out of the house today while I was running to the mailbox. The door shut behind me and for some reason the handle doesn't work. Preston was still asleep and Maysen was on a work call. I had to hop the fence and find a way inside. Preston and I both had eye appointments later today. Nice to get that done.

Maysen is being moved to the editing team at her job. She is super excited about this. A few weeks ago they asked the content writers to turn in 3,000 words a day. Maysen was asked to try to turn in 2,000 when she was hired. Trying to get to 3,000 has been so hard for her. Mostly because she turns in quality work and it takes awhile to research about whatever topic she needs to write about. Somehow she doesn't know the banking or real estate practice in Malta at the top of her head. She has been working almost non stop during the week. From the time she wakes up until the time she goes to bed. It is just not sustainable to keep doing this. When one of the editors left Maysen reached out and asked if she could become an editor. Well, she had a training this morning and she is starting today. She is really excited about it. I think this will be a much better job for her. Hope it is!