Clark Kent

I feel A LOT better today. By this afternoon I was ready to get out and do some errands. I took Preston to find his classes at Alta today. We met his advisory teacher, Coach Webb. I was worried because I had never met her and had no idea what she is like. She was so nice to Preston. I think she will be great. It is so crazy that my baby is about to start high school. I wish he was able to have Jorja here with him. 

Stairwell up to his first class ~ math

Preston

I took this for Jorja. Memories....

We found all of his classes, even his AP Computer Science class that wasn't on the map. We also found his locker, but it isn't working yet. They still have to program the combinations. We left the high school and went to pick up Preston's glasses. He looks so different and so much older with them on. I think he likes them. They are not super strong, so he won't have to wear them all the time, but they will be nice to have. His prescription is -1 in both eyes.

Preston

Alia came down and picked up his truck. Stockton loved seeing him. President Grisel also texted Stockton today. What an amazing text! Val is his son who has just started his mission to South Africa.

In weird news, you can not see the mountains outside. I wish I had taken a picture. We got a call from the school that all outdoor events were cancelled because of the dangerous air quality. Today was supposed to be the first day of football season. The air is so bad because of fires that are in California and Oregon. The smoke has become stuck in the valley. So that's fun.

Jorja went out with friends. She brought them over after awhile and we played Jackbox with them. Ella, Megan and Lily were here. It was a lot of fun. 

Ella, Jorja, Lily, Megan

Shady Facebook Guy

I did not feel well at all today. I don't have a temperature, but I have a cough and feel awful. I kind of feel like I have allergies, but I don't have allergies. Cori was texting me and kind of got me worried. She said Scoop felt like he had allergies before he tested positive five days later, same with Melissa. I thought that if we were going to have to be quarantined I wanted to do it now before the kids needed to leave to college. I also didn't want to ruin Jorja's ambassador retreat. She would be devastated. Stockton came with me to Overstock to get tested. Luckily I was negative. It is nice knowing that. Stockton snapped this picture on the way home. 

We got the news that I was negative and then went straight to the bank. Stockton's mission buddy transferred $6,000 into his account so Stockton could go pick up a truck he had bought. Stockton contacted the guy to ask him when to come and let him know he had the money. Jaye Alia was $500 short. Whoops. He agreed to let Jaye venmo the rest of the money.

I went with Mike and Stockton to pick up the truck. They went to the door. They said the guy was super nice. Turns out Jaye bought a snowplow. Haha. That made Stockton laugh. He is planning on making extra cash in Rexburg with it.

Jaye's truck

We left with the keys and the title. Jaye is planning on picking it up tomorrow. On the way home we drove by my elementary school. Alta View. It has been knocked down and rebuilt. It is huge! Two floors. It looks beautiful. We then drove by my house, the way I would walk home everyday. This was a great place to grow up.

I saw Phil and Kathy outside as we were driving by. They came to our car and chatted with us for a bit. Then we drove by Mike's old elementary school. Sunrise. It is close by but I had never even once driven by it. I spent the rest of the day watching movies/olympics not wanting to move. Super exciting.

The World has Gone Crazy!

Utah State cancelled all classes until Tuesday, then they will be online after that. Today was Maysen's last day of going to a college class in person. At least for undergrad. She also picked up her graduation stuff. Her gown and tassels, things like that. Maysen was going to see if she could just check out and come home, but Utah State sent a message asking people not to leave. So, I guess she'll just be doing online classes up there.

Jorja is sad. Prom in cancelled. Elections are maybe going to be online. Not sure how that is going to work. Jorja said hardly anyone is at school today. She sent me this picture of the lunchroom.

 Jorja made a 2020 yearbook just in case

 Dawson, Riley, Jorja, Kelsey ~ not practicing social distancing

 Random picture of Jorja and Ben

Mike flew out to Universal Studio's in California with Larkin for her birthday. Disneyland also announced they would close in a few days. Luckily Universal was open today, even though it was raining hard. Mike sent us these pictures. Larkin LOVES Harry Potter, so glad her birthday trip wasn't ruined! There was hardly anyone there and Mike got a little sick going on the rides quickly. He would have loved that as a kid!

Larkin & Mike drinking butter beer

 Larkin in the Harry Potter ghost town

The NCAA announced they cancelled March Madness today. So sad! BYU and Utah State were both heading to the tournament this year. BYU has not been good at basketball for years, but this year they were amazing! This was the only year the seniors had made it to the tournament, and now they don't get to go. Sad that this happened on a year when BYU was really good! Charles made this bracket. Pretty accurate.

I picked up Audrey from Alta and took her to the bus stop. I had just gotten home when Sherry called me and told me to go to the store and get milk and anything else we needed. She said it will probably be gone if I waited until after work. I hurried to the store. It was a madhouse in there! It looked like Black Friday. The lines went halfway through the store. I was able to secure milk and other items. So that's good.

Elder Alia came over today. He texted yesterday and said he would be in town. Stockton loved having him as a companion. It was awesome to meet him!

Jorja, Preston, Jae Alia, Stephanie

 Mike got home right as Elder Alia was leaving, so we got a quick picture with him

Jorja went on a hike with Ivan. She told me Ivan's friends would be there too, but they ended up not coming. I wasn't too thrilled about that. She had a good time, but got home way after dark.

Ivan & Jorja

Church was also cancelled today. Now that is weird!!! Home church. I do love home church. I think that is actually going to be pretty fun.

Bye Alia, Hello Iwaniec

I got to talk to Stockton today! He is getting a new companion tomorrow named Elder Iwaniec. I hope they get along as well as he did with Elder Alia and Elder White. Stockton also is the new district leader. Good luck with that! Elder Alia is being transferred to the area where the 

Swahili family moved! That's pretty cool.

I was talking on the phone with Stockton when Jorja left to the Homecoming Pageant. She is escorting Abram Berry and looked so beautiful. I asked Madison to take a picture of Jorja for me, but she forgot. She did manage to leave these gems on Jorja's phone. So, I will post these pictures of Madison instead.

Madison

Jorja said she and Abram had an awesome handshake that they did when they got to the stage. This pageant was a lot less stressful because all Jorja had to do was escort. Last year she was on the pageant committee and had to do a lot more. She went to Leatherbys with student government after. She hasn't felt super connected with the other kids in student government this year. Hopefully she will feel more like she belongs by the end of this week. They do spend a lot of time together during homecoming week.

Person I don't know and Jorja

 Jorja & Carter

Jorja late at night when she finally got home

 I love her

 Cute info post Jorja made

Lazy Fourth

We had the laziest fourth of July and it was amazing. Mike made crepes this morning. I worked on Mina's stocking that came yesterday. Mike is making all sorts of crazy contraptions around the house. We went swimming in the backyard with Quacky Chan. Maysen and Preston watched fireworks on the roof. As we were eating dinner I got this text from a random lady. Yay! That made me so happy!

Two Elders, Elder Alia, Elder Smith

Jorja said her day was crazy. After she got to the school, super late, she ended up having a wild class. One kid climbed out the window. Haha! Still, she said she has LOVED this trip. I asked her if it was worth missing student government camp for. She said YES! Still wish I could have gone tho. True. I wish she could have gone to both, but this experience....this is something else! Jorja said this same organization does this in the fall, except students from Taiwan come over and are hosted by Corner Canyon kids. Abi told Jorja she would send her the information to sign up. Jorja REALLY wants to host someone. She also wants to go to Zupas with Abi and her dad straight from the airport. Haha. Jorja went to the batting cages today. She said she was awful, but it was still fun. She hasn't been in one of those for a long time.

Preston Passed!

Mike took the week off of work. We wanted to take a quick trip to Yellowstone, but it has been hard to plan because of Preston's math. We were able to sign him up to take his test on the first day it was offered, which was great. We just didn't know if he would pass. We assumed he would, but it wasn't a certainty. He would get one more chance to retake the test, but would have to wait 24 hours and would have to sign up again. There might not be any slots until Thursday. This morning I dropped him off for his tests, crossed my fingers and hoped for the best. While Preston was busy with math, Mike and I were busy getting things ready for the trip. I got the kids beds all set up and Mike replaced the skylight in the shower.

 Mike

I didn't need to worry because Preston passed! Yay! Preston doesn't need to take 7th grade math. It is so good to have that over with. It was a lot of work for Preston, but I'm glad he did it. Mike took us to the new IHOP to celebrate. I sent this picture to Jorja. This is her favorite thing to get at IHOP.

 Not too crowded today.

Speaking of Jorja, she is having a great time in Taiwan. She said it would be really hard if she didn't get along with the other nine kids in the group, but they have loved being together. Yay!

 Mia ~ Jorja's host sister

I was able to talk to Stockton today. He is still companions with Elder Alia and was very happy about that. Elder Alia is the new district leader as well. When the next six weeks are over, Stockton will have been companions with Elder Alia for half of his mission! I'm glad they get along so well. Being able to talk to Stockton once a week is awesome. Best policy change ever!

Mike and I were able to get everything ready for our trip. We plan on leaving early tomorrow. Maysen and Preston are sleeping outside. We aren't leaving crazy early like we would when we would drive from Georgia to Utah, just regular early. Only a few things to do in the morning. That will be nice.