Campaign is Over

I dropped Stockton and Jorja off at school this morning. Stockton and I went and talked with someone about his physics class and I payed Jorja's class fee that was due in psychology today. Jorja was busy campaigning, but our deal was I would put the receipt in her locker. I picked the kids up from school and asked Jorja if she turned in her psychology receipt. She forgot. Grrrr. I sent her back to turn it in before we left. She did remember to turn in her financial paper (what she had spent on her campaign) this morning. Mr. Packer called her the queen of puns. Stockton and I talked to Ashley for a bit after school. She said the student government class loved Jorja's video. They were talking about it afterwords and would say things like, "That Smith kid, I think she's going to win." I hope so! None of those guys get to vote! The videos were shown during advisory. I think Jorja's was the best. I'm not biased at all. :) It is nice to be all the way done with campaigning though!

I finished Greg's Christmas stocking today. Perfect timing because the one I ordered for Eve arrived today. I think this turned out cute. Hopefully Matt and Sam like it!

Tiny Handprints

Early this morning I drove to Sherry's house to pick up Greg's handprints. Sherry was at a hair appointment, but she had left Greg's handprints wrapped in bubble wrap in a box in her front porch. I stopped by Matt and Sam's on the way back to drop it off. I wish I would have had my dad's pillow with me that he left at the cabin. Oh well. I love how this one turned out!

My brothers and I played Beat the Streak in One Day. At one point I was in 3,631st place. I ended the game in 218th place. I was quite proud of myself. If only I had gotten the last 14 right! John and Matt were frustrated because for some reason they weren't able to submit their choices. It takes longer than you think to do this, so that would be annoying. This time I actually checked the lineups to make sure all my choices were playing. The Indians and the As submitted their lineup about five minutes before 5:00. One of my guys wasn't playing and I was able to get someone in fast before the game locked. Anyways, it was pretty fun. I got 43 correct. If I had gotten one more correct I would have been in the top 100 and made it on the leaderboard.

Brad is at the cabin today with some of the youth from his ward. I hope everything works out for them. On Monday Brad texted me this message: "Stephanie - my kids floated the river this weekend and stayed at Steve & Sharon's cabin. We came up and brought them lunch. I drove past the cabin and see that the tree in the front has split and needs to be removed. Is this something we can do as a service for the young men when we go up this Friday?"

Wow! This was my reply: "Oh my gosh! That would be amazing! We were hoping to get that done while we were there, but found out the lid to the septic tank was missing. That occupied the rest of Mike's time. The septic tank has now been pumped and the lid secured, but the tree is still a mess. I would just cry from happiness if you guys were able to do that. Thank you! Don't feel like you need to finish the entire project, but anything you can do would be appreciated."

Hopefully it's not too big of a job. I thought it was super nice of Brad to ask.

Greg Didn't Like It

Maysen and I took my dad out to lunch today. We love The Original Pancake House. They have delicious crepes. There is one so close to my dad's house, but he has never been. We told him when Maysen moved back we wanted to go there with him. We did today and it was delicious. We also dropped off Maysen's text books while we were out. Good-bye Spring semester!

Maysen, Dad

Maysen and I stopped by the store to pick up a few groceries. Look what delicious goodness we found!

 These oreos were so good! I'm not a big oreo fan, but I loved these!

Sam and I took Gregory to get his handprints today. He did not like them. Sorry Greg, you will like them later! Well, at least your mom will like them!

Sam, Gregory and Sherry

Jorja had a softball game tonight. She is doing so well. I love watching her play! She is getting better at pitching, which is wonderful; but I love watching her play catcher best. Probably because I know she loves it. She did get hit in the face with a bat today. The girl let go of the bat after she swung. Ummm, I don't like that part of her catching. Thank goodness for face masks!

Jorja

Jorja's frog Horizon died a few days ago. Mike and Jorja weren't able to bury him until today. Her last frog. Jorja's not nearly as devastated as she would have been a few years ago. She's not obsessed with frogs anymore. I kind of miss that.

Gregory's Blanket

I went to Logan today to pick up Maysen. We packed up a few of her things. Mostly her closet and random knick-nacks. I'm so excited that she will be moving home in two weeks! I'm happy she has loved college. It will be wonderful to have summer with all of my kids at home. Maysen and I stopped at Angie's on the way home. I got a soup and sandwich, Maysen got a grilled cheese. We also shared a giant scone. We were both stuffed.

Stockton convinced Maysen to watch a few episodes of Bruno the Kid with him. Grandma Parry had something with Bruno the Kid on it down in the room the kids used to sleep in. Stockton found out what cartoon character it was and thinks it's funny to watch the show. I took that opportunity to finish Gregory's blanket. I made several mistakes, but when I give the blanket to Matt and Sam I am going to force myself not to point out the mistakes to them. I picked the same fabric that I made Stockton and Preston's blankets from. Grandma Parry made their comforters from this fabric too. Sharon gave us a box of cabin fabric a few years ago, and there was a lot of this fabric. I thought it would be perfect for Gregory. I hope the blanket looks okay with the back I picked out. I found fabric with lots of words on it. Things like: be happy, be yourself, forgive quickly, dream big. Tons of things like that. It made me think of Sam, especially since she likes words. Hopefully they will like this blanket.

Rained Out

I worked on Gregory's blanket most of the day. I have no idea how my grandma made so many blankets. She spent the last few healthy years of her life making blankets for new grand babies. She knew she wouldn't be able to make the blankets soon, so she made as many as she could. I think she made about 70 blankets for soon to be born kids. When she died I think there were around 40 left. This one is taking me forever, I wonder how my grandma did it?

Jorja had a softball game. We thought it was probably rained out, but Jorja got a text saying the game was on. We hurried down there, but Jorja's team was the only one that showed up. I don't think it was a forfeit though because Mike said the automatic thing you call to see if games are cancelled said all games were cancelled today. Maybe Jorja's coaches were hoping they would change their mind? They ended up practicing. I watched from the car. Mike came straight from work, so we hung out in the car together. We did get out of the car and watch behind the backstop towards the end. We were able to see Jorja pitch and bat. The weather app says it will be a sunny weekend and rain all next week. Jorja is not happy about that possibility.

Gregory's Home!

Matt and Sam were able to bring Gregory home today! Matt called and I hurried over with the kids. Mike wasn't able to come because we were feeding the missionaries in an hour and hadn't started dinner. That's okay, I'm sure he'll see him soon.

Stephanie & Gregory

 Gregory

 Gregory & Stockton

 Jorja & Gregory

 Gregory

 Preston & Gregory

My brothers and I were texting back and forth today. Mike sent pictures of his new house, I think I'll save those for another day. John texted a picture of his family having dinner with Brett's family. I think they are at Brett's house, but I'm not positive. How fun to see each other so often. I bet both families are going to miss this when Brett moves.

Cassie, John & Collin, Brandon, Marie, Mallory, Mina, Brett

Grace, Eve, Trevor

Rachel must be taking the picture. Preston went shopping with me today. He is going to make crepes with Mike tomorrow. He wanted to pick out everything. Dinner with the missionaries was delicious. Mike made tacos. We have two sister missionaries. Sister Enderle and Sister Shimizu. Sister Shimizu asked Stockton if he was a diver. Stockton looked down at his shirt to see if he was wearing a diving shirt. Nope. He said yes and asked her how she knew. She had gone to the BYU dive camp a few years ago and recognized Stockton. That's a crazy good memory!

No Clothes

I went to the temple today. I have been trying to go to the temple once a week this year. Mike, Preston and I were playing a game this morning. We hurried to finish, get Preston out the door and then I hurried out as well. I got my session card for 9:30 and was shown to a locker room. It wasn't until I was in the locker room that I realized I had left my temple clothes at home. Whoops! I asked a nice older lady if they rented clothes. She laughed and said, "I was wondering if you just had really big pockets." They don't rent clothes, but they do have some people can borrow. She took me down in the elevator to the laundry. I was able to get everything I needed down there. Crazy, I have been going so often - how could I have forgotten? The person helping me through the veil was Leigh Gunnell. That was cool. I can't remember seeing him since my mom died. I'm sure he was at my brother's weddings though. He was my stake president when I was growing up and was a counselor to my dad in the bishopric when my dad was Bishop.

After the temple I stopped by the hospital to see Sam and Gregory. He is still in the NICU, but his IV has moved to the top of his head. That will stop him from pulling it out! He looked cozy wrapped up in the blanket. My kids loved being wrapped up like that. Sam said she is feeling a lot better today. She was worried about Greg, but the doctor came in and checked on him and said he has improved. He's not breathing as fast for as long as he was before. His oxygen level is normal and they want Sam to try nursing him a couple of times to see how he tolerates that. If he does well, they can take his IV out tomorrow.

Gregory

 Gregory with the blanket Matt & Sam made him

I dropped both of the boys off at the University of Utah for diving. I then went to Kendra's house. She lives right across the street from the capitol. It is awesome! Their view out of their front window is the capitol. Anyways, she was giving a few things away, one of them being a Christmas tree with lights. Mike has wanted a Christmas tree that already has the lights attached for awhile now. I stopped by to pick it up. Worse case, we can give it away. Sharon was at Kendra's house. I talked to Sharon for awhile. She called the Regents people for me, looking for what the actual wording of the law is. She is encouraging me to call my representatives about it. I'm a little nervous, but we'll see. She also talked to me about different scholarships. When Matt Parry went to BYU, in order to be considered for the Hinckley scholarship you had to have a 33 on your ACT. My how times have changed! I bet now you need a 36! Matt got a 31 the first time he took the ACT. When he heard 33 was the magic number he studied and took it again. That was worth his time because he got a 35 and was awarded a Hinckley scholarship. Anyways, it was fun to talk with Sharon. We set up a time to go river rafting with my family on the 4th of July. That should be fun. Hopefully we don't knock Sharon into the water this time!

Maysen was able to register for her classes and she got everything she wanted, including the fiction writing class! Yay! A lot of the classes she registered for are only offered in fall, so it was nice to get them. She will have sixteen credits, four psychology classes and one writing class. Neuroscience sounds the hardest to me. She will also be taking Scientific Thinking, Psychological measurement and Behavioral assessment.