Waffle Joe

Maysen and I went to lunch today. She picked Waffle Love. To my surprise Joe was working there! Joe was in student government for three years with Jorja. He is leaving on his mission soon. He will be going to Stockholm Sweden. Pretty awesome.

Joe

Stephanie & Joe

Stockton texted me this morning and told me that someone in his honors conditioning class mentioned that the honors registration starts tonight at midnight. What??? I had been asking Stockton to figure out when registration was, but I had no idea it would be this early. Or how to do it. While Stockton was in class I decided to call the honors department. The lady was super helpful and so nice. Honors registration does start today. Stockton was emailed a code a few weeks ago. They emailed it to his A# email address, which he rarely checks. She resent the email so it would be at the top. He was able to find it easily. Now we also know where to look, so that is great. Stockton and I stayed up until midnight. Stockton took a test and finished it right before. We got all the classes he needed but couldn't figure out how to sign up for the calculus recitation class. Hopefully we can figure that out, but right now we are happy with what we have. I can not believe how early he was able to register. One week before even the graduate students. Best perk of being in the honors program.

Fake Prom

 Jorja woke up super early to go on a hike and see the sunrise with friends. They went to a park after the hike. Carter brought his new-for-him moped. He was letting people drive it. Jack crashed into Giselle's car. Jorja said the moped was in pretty bad shape. She brought Jack to our house because she knew we had tons of bandages right now. Jorja and I got Jack patched up then someone came to take him home.

Jorja, Lucas, Tommy

Jorja wasn't able to bring him home because she had an SBO meeting at our house that was going to start soon. They are trying to figure out the 40 minute hello video. She had fun working with them on it though. They have a long ways to go! Mike has been working hard on the duck pond. This is the current state.

One of my former beehives has come home from her mission. She served in the Indianapolis, Indiana mission. Just like my brother Brett and my cousin Paul. Anyway, she cut all of our hair and did Jorja's hair fancy for her 'fake prom' tonight. Jorja put on some fake nails while Kelsee did her hair. Multitasking. Haha.

Jorja & Kelsee

I left Mike at Kelsee's house and hurried Jorja home as soon as her hair was done. Joe was going to be there real soon. I helped Jorja get into her dress and then pinned it up with safety pins. We meant to get the dress altered, but corona shut the world down and we never got around to it. The top layer is still too long, but at least she won't trip on the heavier fabric. She is planning on wearing this dress to senior dinner dance, if they are able to have it. We will get it altered for that one. Joe and Jorja doubled with Drew and Janelle. They dressed up for pictures and then immediately changed. That was the compromise. Joe did not want to stay dressed up. Jorja wanted pictures. They went to the Flight Park and watched hang gliders and talked. They painted rocks and went to a pizza restaurant. Then they watched JoJoRabbit at Janelle's house. I'm not sure about the order of everything. Here are pictures from the prom.

Joe & Jorja

Jorja & Janelle

Janelle & Jorja (Drew & Joe's heads)

Joe & Jorja

Joe, Jorja, Janelle, Drew

Joe & Jorja

Janelle, Joe, Jorja & Drew checking out the photo hahaha

Janelle and Drew ~ hahahaha I love this!

Jorja & Janelle

Jorja & Janelle

One more photo of Joe and Jorja

What Would be Sick?

Jorja was sick today. I was sick today. Jorja slept until noon. I cancelled her exercise with Kerity and I called Chick-Fil-A and told them she wouldn't be able to come in. Jorja found out Joe was planning on asking her to prom at work. She was so disappointed that she was sick. She said she always wanted to be asked to a dance at work. Joe ended up asking her today anyways. She was happy about that. Joe is the junior secretary. The junior class officers are in charge of junior prom. They have to be there at the beginning. Jorja is the only girl. She said she would be the only one not to be able to have control over when to show up and she didn't want to get in trouble. With Joe asking her she doesn't need to worry about that because he has to be there at the beginning too. Plus Joe is her friend. He has been nice to her for years. She's pretty happy to be going to prom with him.

Joe

 Joe & Jorja

I got to talk to Stockton today. It's so good to be able to talk to him. He has been having an interesting time. He is trying so hard with his companion. He overheard his companion today talking to his family about how he doesn't like Stockton and he hopes he finishes his training with someone else. Stockton was kind of sad, annoyed and frustrated with that. Stockton told me his companion loves to talk about magic and musicals and gets his feelings hurt if Stockton doesn't want to talk about that. Stockton says it is exhausting trying to pay attention. He has tried to explain how he knows literally nothing about those subjects... This transfer has been hard.

Mike was not happy when he came home from work. His bosses bosses boss, or something like that got fired today. Nate. Mike LOVES Nate. He has said many times that he is happy working there because of Nate. Mike isn't satisfied about the reason they gave at the company meeting. Mike is not happy about the person who is now going to take over being in charge of the non-software tech side. Hopefully things go okay, but it is kind of scary at the moment. It's sad to watch someone put so much time and energy into a company, be so respected by his employees and to be blindsided and out of a job in about fifteen minutes. Wow.

Burned Out Bowling

We got to talk to Stockton today. After awhile we switched to Google Hangouts, which we have never tried before. I know that is how Shannon talks to Brandon and Erica. Elder Alia still needed to call his parents, so Stockton wanted to try this. It worked great! There was some lagging, but we were able to video chat with him for the first time. It was amazing! It was soooooo good to see him! He was very disappointed in me when I told him I had lost motivation for my blog. His exact words were, "NOOOOOOOO!!!!!" I think Stockton loves the blog the most out of my family. I was just telling Mike that I had to get it back on track for Stockton. Right now I am twenty days behind. Ugh. I decided to just start where I am and catch up when I can. If there is always a twenty day hole, then what can I say? I just gave up.

Anyway, other things that happened today. Maysen had her first day of her senior year of college. She had two classes today. They were both writing classes and she was happy with both of them. It was nice to talk to her and hear her so positive.

We had a family bowling day. My first game was my worst game in thirty year....maybe ever. I was dominating the next game, but time ran out on us. Still, I was so far ahead it... and the last game is the one that really matters, right? It was nice being with my family, even though it is only a family of four now. Going to enjoy Preston having a sibling at home while I can!

Preston

 Jorja ~ uses the bowl from way behind the line method

 Mike in the middle of his strike dance

 Jorja

 Mike

 Jorja...one pin...

Jorja met us at Firehouse Subs and then we went to the bowling alley. She was with Kate before. She went straight to Joe's house. She was helping him ask a different Kate to Homecoming. He was so nervous he made Jorja get everything set up on the porch while he hid around the corner. Then he was too nervous to make it back to her car so he made her hop three fences. She came home with what looked like a giant rug burn on her arm. Glad she had fun though. She is excited Joe is going with Kate.

Writing on Puzzles

Mike was excited to find three duck eggs

A girl in Jorja's Sweethearts group keeps asking her what we are spending the $20 for the day date. If we are just doing things around town, why would it cost that much? Mike and I had asked each couple to contribute $20 to offset our cost. We did end up cutting out Nicklecade, and the Ferris wheel didn't work out. Still.....we are spending way more money than $20/couple. I told Jorja she could knock it down to $15. When you think about it, $15 is a great price for a date that you don't have to plan at all. Oh well. Jorja's just really embarrassed because she is the youngest. She feels intimidated. The original place where the girls were going to do dinner didn't work out. They were going to have it catered at a fancy airplane hangar. That would have been cheeper and super cool. The girl who was setting it up wasn't able to pull it off though. Her sister secured it first. Now the kids are going downtown for dinner and it will be $50/couple. I think that is why Jorja is getting grief for the price of the day date activity. Anyway.....Mike and I finished writing on the back of all of the puzzles. This is what they look like, and now you know my phone number.

I took Preston to diving today. He hasn't been for awhile and didn't want to go after Stockton left. He ended up having a great time today. I hope he starts to love it again. I don't think he will ever like it as much as Stockton did though. The life guards were kicking the parents off of our regular seating area and making them sit up high in the bleachers. Usually that door is locked. They never asked me. I guess I look official? Turns out this is a new policy because some idiot parent got into a fight with a swim coach. Boo for swimming! Boo for idiots!

Preston trying out Ted's new platform. Haha!

The parking at the U is absolutely atrocious now. The entire thing is under construction. I was able to find one spot and was super proud of my parallel parking job. I took a picture when we finished diving. I'm pretty sure the white car in front of me is different, I think it was an even tighter fit when I parked.

Jorja had to go to the girls' basketball game today. I let her drive Joe and Traven. They also went to Chick-Fil-A before and after the game. Ummmm, Jorja.....don't you have enough of Chick-Fil-A as it is?

Day with Maysen

Maysen made a wise decision and didn't come home for Thanksgiving. She would have most likely just gotten sick anyway. She was able to get a lot of work done during the break and doesn't feel as overwhelmed. I didn't want to go the entire break without seeing her, so this morning I got up early and drove to Logan. The first thing we did is we went to see a movie. We saw Coco. I didn't like the movie at first, it took awhile to get interesting. I ended up loving it though. I keep thinking of the song Remember Me. It is interesting how the song sounded different depending on who was singing it. After the movie, Maysen and I went to the zoo. She had some paperwork she needed to pick up. She was able to find Troy and get her papers. She is now done doing the internship. That's awesome she was able to do her psychology internship at the zoo. It is also great that this class is over with. Kind of stressful to have to find your own internship, and leave enough time in your schedule to do it. Especially with no car. Anyway, it is done now. Maysen and I then had lunch at The Waffle Iron. It was delicious.

Maysen

 Tables

 Our waffles

Stockton and Jorja hung out with Gavin for awhile. Mike picked up Jorja to before she was planning on meeting her other friends. Stockton stayed at Gavin's house the rest of the day. Mike took Jorja driving while I was gone. She is absolutely loving being behind the wheel. My other two kids didn't care as much. Mike even started teaching her how to drive a stick shift. He said she did great. They just worked on the stick shift in the church parking lot. They used the van to drive on the road.

Jorja

Mike also got the front room under control. We have had things stuffed in here for a long time. Things from Mike's house that we haven't known where to put them. Random wand stuff. Weird things. Anyway, it looks much better now. We still have to finish the rock wall, but this is tons better.

I took Maysen grocery shopping and then I headed home. I walked into the kitchen and found Jorja will her friends. Evan, Hailey and Drew. I haven't seen Drew in a long time. Jorja asked if I would take them to Temple Square to see the lights. I agreed. As soon as we left Jorja's friend Joe texted saying he just got back into town. We swung by and picked him up too. The traffic to the lights ended up being horrible. I guess there were a ton of things going on in downtown Salt Lake. The parking where I always park at was full. I finally let the kids out of the car while we were stopped. I drove around for awhile looking for somewhere to park. I finally found a lot that cost $10. Even though I was going to be there for less than an hour I was willing to pay that. I pulled in and talked to the parking guy. They would only take cash. I didn't have any. This is where I used my female privilege for the first time. I was so frustrated. I said, "My daughter begged me to take her to the lights, we haven't been in years. I'm never doing this again." My eyes started to tear up. He told me I could just park for free. Thank heavens! I hurried to find Jorja and her friends, luckily I found them quickly.

Evan, Hailey, Joe, Drew

 Evan, Drew, Joe, Jorja, Hailey watching the nativity show

 Drew, Evan, Joe, Jorja, Hailey

 Hailey, Joe, Evan's back, Drew

 Evan & Jorja

 Hailey, Joe, Drew, Jorja, Evan

 Evan, Jorja, Joe, Hailey, Drew

 Evan, Jorja, Joe . . . Hailey

 Hailey & Drew

 Joe, Drew, Evan

 Joe & Evan ~ I'm pretty sure Evan is giving Jorja a secret code. I just can't remember what it means anymore.

Jorja

 Evan & Jorja ~ This picture is blurry, but I love it. Evan has been a great friend to Jorja. He's my favorite.

 Joe & Jorja

We needed to drop Drew off at a movie theater at 8:30. We made it just in time. I was quite impressed. I took the rest of the kids back to our house. It was funny because Mike walked into the kitchen and said, "Hmmmm. Looks like someone was replaced." Joe was now there instead of Drew. The kids joked around until I was tired and took them home. I did find weird videos of people filling their face with whipped cream. The things they think are fun.