Balloons & Plates

We woke up pretty early so we could go to the balloon festival. Jorja was up even earlier because she was at the Chick-Fil-A booth. Today is her last day working and they scheduled her to go to the festival in the morning and a few hours in the evening. The balloon festival was coolish. Nothing compared to the one in Albuquerque. That one is crazy amazing. I told the kids that I thought there would be vendors there where we could buy breakfast. There wasn't. It was still pretty watching all the balloons rise. There was more like 10-20 balloons instead of hundreds. Still cool though. At least this one was free and I didn't need to get up at 3:30 in the morning to make sure I could get a parking space. Haha. Fun times. I'm so glad I did that.

Jorja

Hannah & Jorja (Hannah is the daughter of my childhood friend)

The Chick-Fil-A cow went up in the balloon

What the heck lady??? Get back in the basket!!! That is NOT SAFE!!!!!

Melissa! My childhood friend & Hannah's mom

Jorja got her hair dyed even darker today. It looks really pretty. Kind of like Snow White. When I was her age I thought people with that kind of hair color were so lucky! Jorja had a quick nap before work. She went straight from work to the balloon festival with Collin. He is someone she met at work. She said the balloons were all lighted up and they had food trucks there. 

It exciting news.... Stockton finished his plates! Well, technically he finished them after midnight. He was still working on them when I took this picture. I can not believe he finished! He worked so hard on them. It is awesome. I'm so thankful for Sam who said she would help us figure out how to get them printed. (Not to sell, but so we can have a few.) It's pretty awesome.

Stockton

Mike's 47th Birthday

Happy birthday to Mike! Too bad Preston couldn't play games all day with him. He spent the entire day doing Chinese. He was able to finish, which annoyed me. How does he do a half a semester of Chinese in a day when every time I asked him about Chinese during the year he said he was working on it. Obviously not. Anyway... the rest of the day was great. Jorja is back at Chick-Fil-A. She was able to get off by 8 for Mike's birthday.

Jorja

Mike and I went to Schmitt's Bakery for lunch. We picked out his birthday cake there. Perfect. We had steak and corn on the cob on the grill for dinner. Mike opened his presents by the fire. His big present was a jet ski he put money on several months ago. He keeps calling to see if the jet ski is in with no luck. Today the jet ski place called him and told him it was in. Perfect timing! We gave Mike an expansion to Bunny Kingdom and a card game called Taco, Cat, Goat, Cheese, Pizza. I totally forgot we played this over Christmas with Brett and Rachel and their family. Haha. After presents we went swimming. It was so fun. Maysen wasn't feeling super well, but she stayed outside with us. We ended the night with cake. Perfect day.

 Stockton, Jorja, Mike

Mike

Jorja, Mike, Stockton, Preston (behind the board) This sequence with Preston makes me laugh.

Not a great picture but you can see Maysen by the pool.

Happy birthday Mike! We love you!!!

School Representative

Jorja and Sadler were called out of student government and asked to see Principal McGill. Jorja said they calmly walked out of class, but when they turned the corner both of them freaked out. They were wondering if they were getting in trouble. They were not. Mr. McGill asked them to the be two representatives from Alta that meet with district heads. Jorja was pretty excited. Especially since Mr. McGill chose her and not Packer. It made her happy that he has noticed how hard she works and would want her to represent the school.

Jack came over today and hung out with Preston. He had to leave early to go to Young Mens though. That worked out okay. Riley came over so we could talk to him. I did not want to have that conversation when Jack was here. Preston does things once a week with one friend, I don't want anything to ruin that. Mike and I had told Jorja that we didn't want her hanging out one on one with Riley. We didn't want her hanging out with him at all until we could talk with him. We had some real concerns. Jorja didn't go with her friends after school to celebrate Giselle's birthday because Riley was going to be there. I appreciated that. Giselle is one of her best friends at the moment. Anyway, Riley came over and we talked with him for about an hour. We were very blunt, but not mean. Jorja was super embarrassed and kept covering her face with her sweatshirt. Riley was a trooper for going through that. It meant a lot to Jorja. I am still not a fan and I really hope they don't start dating, but it was good of him to support Jorja like that.

There was a Chick-Fil-A party tonight and Riley had invited Jorja. She really wanted to go to see her old friends and she wanted to talk with Troy. He owns both the Draper and the South Towne Chick-Fil-As. She is hoping he will be willing to help with the fundraiser and she wanted to talk with him in person before she messaged him out of the blue. We let her go so she could do that, but made her drive separately from Riley. While she was there she got a strange phone call from someone she barely knows. He was asking her weird questions and then told her he was transferring to Alta because Ivan and his friends were being mean to him. Jorja talked to me about that when she got home. She said the entire phone call was strange. He asked if he could come painting on Thursday, which is Jorja's girls night, and he asked to be added to her group chat. Jorja was so confused. How did he know about that stuff. She told him that she couldn't add anyone because there were no more spots and painting is just with the girls. Anyway, Jorja found out the reason he called the next day, and it was not a good one.

Last Day at Chick-Fil-A

Today was Jorja's last day at Chick-Fil-A. I'm excited to have her home more. I know she wants to get a different job, but I'm trying to talk her out of it. We have one more year with her and I don't want to miss a thing. Mike and I went and saw Jorja one more time. She is beautiful.

Jorja

Usually she has her mask on, she just took it down because it was us. We grabbed Jorja's keys when we went through the line. I waited in the car with Bear while Mike took her car and filled it up with gas. Bear was not happy to see Mike drive away. Jorja stayed after for about an hour saying goodbye. She has made some really good friends here.

Jorja and Abby

 Note Jorja left

 Goodbye presents

Mike declared victory as he was able to get the giant stump out of the duck pond

Layla came over and hung out with Jorja for awhile. Layla seems really nice and I'm thrilled Jorja will get to know her better this year as they serve as student body officers together. Later Alex and Paige came over. They went swimming. I didn't get a picture though. I talked to Alex for a long time when she was leaving. I'm glad she will be in student government again. Jorja picked up Hailey and they went to Jake's birthday party. Jorja had a very good day.

Jake and Jorja

He's Getting Transferred!

Stockton called me first thing this morning. Usually he calls in the late afternoon. I answered the phone and he said, "Mooooom! I got transferred!" He was in shock. Stockton had been in Sahuarita since October. It's crazy to think how many missionaries have left and come home since then. His mission president basically told him he would be staying, so this was such a shock. Especially because they were dropped off an extra bed for Elder Nelson because they would be a trio for awhile. Elder Nelson came on Thursday, so Stockton was with him two days before he found out he was leaving. Elder Nelson had been serving in Brazil. Stockton is headed to Casa Adobes, which is the smallest area in the mission. Now, instead of working with four wards, he will be working with half a ward. Two other Elders take care of the other half. One is named.... Elder Smith. Stockton choked up a little when he said that he wouldn't be able to see Sheila get baptized. Maybe it will be broadcast and he can watch it that way. Stockton and Elder Kelly whitewashed this area about seven months ago. They decided to make a wall and whenever someone left a cat in a hat would knock them out of the area. After three pictures with the bat, it was his turn to get sent away. 

 Kind of hard to see, but this is the cat in the hat wall

It is Memorial Day today, so Chick-Fil-A had shorter hours. Jorja worked from open to close. She was not happy about that. She was the only one to work those hours. While she was at work we spent a lot of time working in the duck pond. Mike wants to dig it to about six feet. He wants to line it with cinder block then put some rubber coating on it and install a new pump. Hopefully the rats can't chew through cinder block! It was so much fun to be out there working with everybody. Stockton called toward the end of the day and we were able to talk to him real quick again. He said it was not a prank and he really is leaving. He leaves tomorrow. I hope he likes his new companion. He has loved Elder Jenson. He just met Elder Nelson, but really liked him. I think getting along with your companion is a necessity during quarantine. Fingers crossed for a good one!

Preston

 Preston and Bear

 Maysen

When Jorja came home we roasted hot dogs and marshmallows. I love my family. I miss Stockton, but I'm happy that he is happy and I'm so proud of him. I have an amazing life.

Bear and Jorja

 Jorja