Macbeth's Last Day

There were a ton of deer running across our front lawn today. I think Dash on his skateboard coming down the street freaked them out. I wasn't fast enough to get really cool pictures.

We got to Macbeth early. I wanted to get great seats. Turns out that for some reason the entire front row was reserved. Our seats were not great at all, despite arriving an hour early. Oh well. I called Ange and asked if she wanted my dad's ticket. She wanted to go with Bubs. We were able to get them a standby ticket. That was so nice of them to come! I was glad I told the boys what the story was. It is pretty hard to follow along without knowing. I think Preston would have had a really hard time sitting through it if we didn't have that conversation. He was great today. Stockton hung out with Gavin and some other diving friends for most of the day. They went hiking and then played games at Gavin's house. I told him to meet us at the school at 6:45. He did. I was waiting for him with his ticket. He barely looked at me as he grabbed the ticket because he saw Acea waiting for a standby ticket. Acea is his good friend from last year. He was the math sterling scholar last year. He is up at Utah State right now. Stockton loved seeing him!

Acea, Stockton, Nate (Macduff)

 And Mike trying to photobomb

 Mike, Jorja, Stephanie

 Jorja & Drew ~ Jorja was SO EXCITED Drew came!

 Ange, Jorja, Bubs

Mike, Preston and I headed home. Stockton stayed to talk with his friends and wait for Jorja. Jorja convinced them to go get ice-cream. Stockton, Acea, Nate and Jorja went to McDonalds. They had an ice-cream cone that lasted two minutes, then sat and talked for an hour. I asked Jorja if she felt like a third wheel. She said, "Only when they talked nerd." Hahaha! Stockton, Acea and Nate are the biggest nerds in the best way. Both Stockton and Jorja had a fantastic day.

Speed

I am behind on my blog once again. Blame my computer. It likes to crash. All the time. I find that very annoying. Okay, on to important information. Stockton navigated like a champ through super slippery roads early this morning. He said the roads were awful going to SLCC. Glad he made it without incident despite slipping a couple of times. Also, Stockton and Preston have been having a battle with my blocks.

I was scheduled to do the concessions for Macbeth today. I was telling Stockton how boring it was going to be. He suggested playing Colt Express, "You will have service, won't you?" We can play Colt Express with each other on our phones. When he said 'service' I got excited. "Stockton! You can come with me and get service hours!" Stockton was in his jammies, but I convinced him to come. We had a great time! Once the play started we played Speed until intermission. It was so much fun, even though we accidentally tipped the cooler which caused a giant puddle right at the entrance to Struiksma's room. Whoops!

Jorja went out to Chili's with the cast after the show. I found these blurry pictures on her phone. I think she had a great time. She does look happy.

First Performance

The roads were pretty bad this morning, so I took Stockton to his English class. His heater has stopped working in the jeep. It was pretty cold on the way back home. Jorja had her first official Macbeth performance today. I decided to come down and see if I could get in. All the performance are sold out. A lady at the door had an extra ticket that she gave to me. That was awesome! It was a lot of fun watching Jorja. I was glad I had read up on Macbeth and knew what was going on. It would have been hard to understand it otherwise. I decided I need to make sure Preston knows what is going on or he will be miserable the entire play! Jorja looked beautiful on stage! She has loved this play, which is great because it has taken up all of her free time for the last two months!

Jorja and Sophi

Best Friends

Stockton had another Academic Decathlon competition today. It lasted all day long. All day. He sent us a text saying most events were going okay, but he nailed his speech. He ended up getting a gold medal for his speech. Nicely done! Jorja spent several hours at school learning stage combat techniques. She loved that! Carter sent her a picture of his sweater with the Jorja face pin she gave him. That girl makes me laugh.

Carter's sweater, Jorja's face

Bubs texted me this morning and asked if they could have Brett's kids over today. Marie had talked about the main thing she wanted to do when she was here was to see Ella's house. I drove the four kids down and left them there. They were so happy when I left. Bubs and Ange have a great playroom with a ton of fun stuff to do. Mike and I went shopping for Stockton's birthday. We ended up deciding to get him more bowling stuff, but we needed him there to pick it out. Stockton didn't get home before the shop closed, so we will have to do that sometime next week. I went back and got the kids around 5:00. They were so happy. Ange wanted to get a picture before we left. We gathered all the kids but couldn't find Mina. She was asleep on Ella's bed. She wasn't feeling well. NO!!!!! Mina was the only one who didn't get sick. She came home and slept until bed time and then slept some more. She came up late at night saying her stomach hurt. I got her a bowl just in case. As soon as she had the bowl in her hands she threw up. It was so sad. Although then immediately she said, "I feel better now."

Lincoln, Amelia, Abby & Grace, Eve, Marie, Ella, Mina

Here is a picture of Eve. She is super funny. One thing to know about her is she is terrified of Stockton. She always has been. It is really weird because every other little kid loves him. I mean L-O-V-E-S him! He is so great with kids. The second Stockton comes in a room Eve will run away, or look down and pretend she doesn't see him. It is kind of funny.

Eve

Well, that all changed today. Out of the blue Eve decided Stockton was her best friend. She hung around him constantly. She played with him. Yay! On the last day before her mom comes home she finally decided Stockton was worth interacting with. It was a good decision because Stockton played with the little kids for over an hour. They were having so much fun. I got a few videos, but none of my pictures turned out. They were all blurry from someone always moving.

Eve and Stockton

 Stockton walked around for awhile like this.

Stockton playing with Eve, Grace and Anne

Eve & Stockton

 Mike wrapping Stockton's birthday present under a blanket. Preston helping.

Marie and Eve in the background. Stockton trying to make Mike's super sly attempts invalid.

 Eve and Jeff

Jorja went to see a movie with Hailey and Areesha. They saw The Death Cure. It is the second Maze Runner movie. Jorja has never seen the first movie or read the books, so she had no idea what was going on. She had a great time anyway though. I picked up the girls at the movie theater and dropped Areesha off at home. I then dropped Jorja and Hailey off at the mall. Jorja brought her gift card Papa had given her for her birthday.

Areesha, Hailey, Jorja

 Jorja bought this dress.

 Jorja, Hailey, Areesha and a super weird poster

 Jorja and Hailey ~ I love this picture!

Eve fell asleep on the way home from Bubs, so she had no desire to sleep tonight. Mike went and slept in the guest room and I slept with Eve in our room. I put a show on for her for awhile and the ended up going to sleep okay once it was over. She loves the LEGO Elves show for some reason.

I was kissing the boys on their cheek while they were sleeping before I went to bed. I thought, "This is the last time I'll see Stockton when he's 17." Then it dawned on me that this is the last time I'll see him while he is officially a child! That made me so sad! I hugged him for a long time while he was sleeping. It's hard to watch your babies grow up. Better than the alternative though.

Sleds

Back to real life. The kids are at school. Nice that it was late start for Stockton and Jorja. Except Stockton had to go early for Academic Decathlon. I took Maysen to her laser appointment. While she was there I went to Deseret Book to look for things for my Gospel Essentials class. I'm not really sure exactly what to do, but I think I teach from the Gospel Principles book. Maysen and I stopped at Walmart to pick up bananas. We found 7 of my favorite sleds. They were on sale and we bought all they had. When we checked out the lady said, "Oh, you're the one who is buying all the sleds. Someone just bought two sleds and pointed out that you had the rest." They're lucky they got there first, I would have bought those two too!

Maysen and I went out to lunch at OHOP. I tried their veggie crepe (with chicken - ha!) I wasn't a fan. I was stuffed afterwords though. Stockton went to diving today and Jorja stayed after school for her first Macbeth rehearsal. I wasn't sure when she would be done. Turns out it was 6:00. Yikes! She came home with her rehearsal schedule. She will be there until 6:00 most nights. Holy cow! I hope she loves it! She didn't have much time at home. She had Young Womens tonight as well. She did have time to play the piano for awhile. Jorja has written a few songs that she plays. I have heard her play the You Are My Sunshine quite a bit. She changed the lyrics to the song and I love it. This was the first time I heard her play another song she wrote. I love listening to her. I think she sounds beautiful.

Student Government

Well, last Tuesday Student Government had a Christmas breakfast. Jorja had to miss Chinese for it. She had so much fun at this breakfast. She also found her secret Santa was Carson. He gave her lots of chapstick. It was funny because when Jorja and I were at Seagull book we saw him there. I swear Jorja asked me for chapstick and I joked about how I always had chapstick and wouldn't be without it.

Caden, Jorja, Sam, Carter, Bode, Marshall

Mackie, Finn, Luke, Ellie, Eliza, Brenton, Sydney, Abby

Isaac, Clayton, Kenzie, ?, Liz, Jack, Rachel, Darby, Travin, Baylor, Mr. Packer

Drew, Noni, ?, Carson, Morgan, Kaylen, Cade

Maysen and I took my dad out to breakfast for his Christmas present. Kind of lame, I know, but I don't have anything wonderful for him this year. We went to OHOP, but it was super crowded. We left and went to Bruges. We were the only ones there and it was delicious.

Jorja had a therapy appointment today. Her next one will be a month from now. When we were scheduling the appointment her therapist told me that Jorja is doing so much better than when she first started coming. I can see that as well and it makes me so happy! I took Jorja straight home and she slept most of the day away. She wasn't feeling super good and wanted to be able to feel better for the student government party later that night. I woke her up at 8:00 pm. That is when the party started. She wasn't sure she wanted to go. I convinced her to walk around and see how she felt. She ended up going and having a great time. She told me that Kenzie, the SBO president, talked with her for over an hour. She gave her advice and really made Jorja feel important. That made me happy.

Jorja, Kenzie, Drew, Liz

Jorja also found out she was cast as an ensemble member for Macbeth. There are only four ensemble members. She said she is glad she doesn't have a speaking part for her first play. Pretty cool that she got in. Lots of people tried out and there are not many parts. I hope she loves it and it doesn't interfere with school or softball. It should be fun!

Hailey's Pin

Jorja had a super busy day today. There was the Christmas assembly at school. She didn't need to do anything specific for that this time, but the assemblies are always busy. She had to dress up and wear her government sweater. I think she was one of the people with buckets trying to get donations. Seminary was after the assembly. They were having a program as well. Everyone in 2nd period. Jorja was asked to speak. I snuck down and listened outside the door. She did a great job. She started by asking if anyone knows someone who just glows. They just make people happy and you love being around them. Jorja said that she used to be one of those people. Lots of people would tell her that she glowed. She loved it and it was her favorite complement. She then talked about how she has really struggled these past few months. She has gone through some hard things and she felt like she lost that attribute about herself. She talked about working on becoming happy again, and although her problems didn't go away she is able to feel herself coming back. Anyway, it was really cute and she did a great job. She ended by saying she wanted to thank someone who is always a light to her in her world. Someone who is always there for her and someone she can always count on. Stockton. Stockton has seminary 2nd period as well, so he was there. Jorja said that Stockton is a senior and will be going on a mission soon and that is really scary to her. He has been there her entire life and it is scary to think of her life with him gone. Jorja choked up when she was talking about Stockton, which made my eyes water. It was adorable.

Jorja was not thrilled when she found out that I was there. I told her after school. I think Stockton, Gavin, Preston and Jorja were in the kitchen when I was talking to her. When Jorja asked why I would do that I said, "Is there anyone in this room that thinks I wouldn't do that?" Haha! Stockton drove Gavin and Preston to diving. I stayed behind so I could take Jorja to her Macbeth audition. She did her monologue for me before we left. I was shocked at how good she was. She didn't want me to come inside, so I read a book in the car. She thought it went well. She doesn't expect to get a part, since she is just a freshman and really doesn't know what she is doing; but she told me she thought it would be good experience to audition. I love that about her. She is just trying everything, wether it makes her uncomfortable or not.

Jorja finished making Hailey's birthday present tonight. She wanted to bring it over to her so she wouldn't have to bother her on her birthday tomorrow. Jorja got her a scrapbook and filled a couple of pages with pictures of them. Hailey loved it. She also brought her a Christmas present. She gave her more stuff for her scrapbook. Paper and sheet protectors.

Jorja & Hailey

Hailey gave Jorja a pin for her government sweatshirt. Jorja and I laughed so hard. It is the dinosaur from the "All My Friends are Dead" book. Hailey said she saw it right after she read the book at our house. Best pin ever!

Hailey also gave Jorja a notebook that says "Throw kindness around like confetti". Hailey's mom always laughs about Jorja screaming "Confetti!" at an Indian Hills fun run years ago.

Jorja & Hailey

Jorja got back pretty late and still had a math test to prepare for. I think she called Evan and he helped her for awhile. Hopefully they won't be too tired tomorrow.