Thank

Jorja slept over at Brynlee and Chloee's house last night. She went to the concert with Brynlee. She went straight from their house to a hair appointment. She wanted a trim and a touch up on her color. This is the picture she sent me after she was done.

Jorja

Jorja also got together with some of her friends from Taiwan. They had lunch together and she was so happy to see them again. She went straight from lunch to work. So, we didn't see her today. Mike and I went down to work and sat at our 'stalking table' so we could see her for a bit. She closed today, but came home and played Minecraft with Maysen and Preston.

I put together a missionary binder for Jorja. She is going to have lots of friends going on missions and their emails get buried. I printed out all the letters she has been sent. She has some great exchanges with Stockton. For example, one email she sent just said 'Hey'. Stockton wrote back, 'Johnny Johnny is a good meme." One email she just wrote 'Thank' and Stockton wrote back 'Sure.' Weirdos. They do have some longer ones too. Anyway, I made page dividers for Stockton and Mackie. This is what they look like.

Reddish Pool

Jorja was disappointed that she forgot to get a picture with Mackie yesterday. He told her to stop by after school. Jorja ended up staying late to work on posters for Homecoming. Connor took her to Mackie's house after they were finished.

Jorja and Mackie

I took Preston to diving and was surprised to see they renamed the pool. I think up until this point they have just called the building HYPR. It makes sense they would name it the Don Reddish pool. Reddish was the swim coach at the University of Utah for over fifty years.

I forgot to mention what happened to Jorja at work on Saturday. Her Chick-Fil-A name tag says, "Jorja - Public Speaker" Well, Public Speaker is written under Jorja. Anyway, she was helping a customer and they asked why her tag says public speaker. She told him that was what she wanted her future career to be. Turns out the guy she was talking to is a public speaker. His wife is putting together an event for high school suicide awareness and they are looking for high school kids to speak at it. He gave her a card and told her she should contact his wife. Wouldn't it be funny if Jorja's big break came from working at Chick-Fil-A?

First Date

Preston had his piano recital today. He is my fourth child and is parented like it. I can honestly say I have never heard him practice either of the pieces he played in his recital. He either practiced while I was gone, practiced on Stockton's piano downstairs or is an excellent sight-reader!

Preston

Preston's first song was too long to upload, but here is his second one.

Preston, Taggart, Hadley-Kate, Liam's brother, pretty girl, boy, Liam, Sister Newman, Liam's other brother

Ava, two boys, three pretty girls

Today was Jorja's first official date. Technically she went out with Mackie yesterday as part of the date today; but yesterday I wanted to put the title as Engineering Project, so I'm claiming her first date as today. Jorja spent all day getting ready. I would never have the patience to spend that much time on hair/makeup. She was trying to get her hair in a weird 50s updo. She got frustrated. I think she looks great like this. Clair picked her up first. I snapped a few quick pictures before she walked out the door.

Jorja

 For some reason I snapped a picture of the car as it drove away.

Fifteen minutes after Jorja left we got a call from her. She had been in a car accident. Claire, Jorja and Mackie were in the car. They were driving to pick up Claire's date. A lady ran a red light. She was also speeding. The car was totaled. We are so lucky that the three kids in the car were just bruised. This could have been so bad. The lady wasn't hurt either. Jorja said she was acting pretty mad at them. Jorja was looking down at her phone. When she looked up the car was right there. She said everything went in slow motion. She vividly remembers watching the car hood crumple up. They spun around. She felt like she was in a movie. All three kids were super quiet while this was happening. Mackie threw out his arm to hold Jorja in. He wasn't wearing a seatbelt, so glad he stayed in the car! Claire's leg started bruising up right away. Jorja has had chest and neck pain for a few days since the accident. Mackie's back was pretty sore by the end of the day. Still, so lucky! To think, I had been so worried about her being in a car accident the night before when they were driving up the canyon in the dark. I didn't worry about it in the dry daytime!

Jorja said Claire was crying. She felt so bad. She kept apologizing for ruining Jorja's first date. Claire's parents came down and were with them while they dealt with the aftermath. They had to stay at the crash site for a good hour. I am so glad that Jorja called us. One of our neighbors called us and asked if Jorja was in an accident. They had driven by. So glad we found out from Jorja and already knew she was okay! Claire has a twin sister, Sydney, she went and picked up Claire's date. The group was meeting at the football field. The other kids waited there for Jorja and her group to arrive. They were able to snap a few pictures before they hurried off to dinner.

Jorja and Mackie

 Maggie & Maggie's date, Jorja & Mackie, Liz & Darby, Sydney & Max, Hasti, Finn & Ellie, Christian & Brinley, Jared & Kenzie, Griffin & Claire

Hasti is by herself because her date got sick. At least she was able to go with him last night. She was a pretty good sport to go to the dance and not let that spoil her night.

 Jorja, Sydney, Kenzie, Brinley, Liz, Claire, Ellie, Hasti, Maggie

The kids then went and ate at Sonic and were able to be at the dance for about an hour. Claire's parents took them to the football field. They were split into different cars after that, so Jorja and Mackie were no longer driving together. Jorja had fun being there at the end of the dance. They do this weird circle/cheer thing. The student body and class officers all get to lead the cheer from the middle of the circle. She loved it. After the dance everyone went to Kenzie's house. They wrestled and played games and then came home. I was so happy to have her home! Overall, Jorja had a great first date. She could have done without the car accident though. She'll never be able to say her first date wasn't memorable!

Liz, Jorja, Ellie, Hasti

Stockton meanwhile had a fun time of his own. He went downtown and hung out with his diving friends. They played Mario Kart, ping pong and one other game. Stockton never lost a game. He got home shortly after Jorja did. Stockton, Jorja and I stayed up talking until 1:30 in the morning. We are going to be tired tomorrow!

Engineering Presentation

I found this picture on Jorja's phone. She said it was her president picture. These kids have been so nice to Jorja. Jorja will be sophomore president next year. Travin will be student body president next year and Kenzie was student body president this year. I really like both of these two friends of Jorja. They are incredibly kind. Great role models for her.

Jorja, Travin, Kenzie

Stockton had his huge engineering presentation today. He has worked on this for most of the semester. They are presenting their projects to a bunch of engineers. Stockton and Abby worked so hard yesterday finishing the last minute details. Stockton was so happy for about three minutes. He had everything perfect and was ready for bed. Then he accidentally broke the on switch. The piece flew off onto the floor. We searched and searched for it, but could not find the piece. Mike went to Best Buy and bought some bluetooth headphones and dropped them off at school. Stockton and Abby frantically rebuilt their project. They said they liked the new design even more. Stockton and Abby designed a watch that a deaf person could wear to hear the beats to music so they could dance. It is pretty darn cool.

Stockton

Stockton's friend, Acea, opened his mission call at 5:00. Stockton hurried to that. He is going to Manaus Brazil. Two friends called to Brazil this week. Stockton raced back to Alta for his presentation. It went really well. That is Stockton's last big school project of his high school career.

Stockton & Abby

 Stockton's engineering journal

 Abby's engineering journal

Jorja had her 'day date' for the dance tonight. It's weird how kids do day dates now. They ended up going to a cabin up the mountains. One of the girls' mom is an event planner. They use this cabin to host events. Jorja said it was pretty cool. They went on a hike and roasted hotdogs. I was super nervous letting Jorja drive up a canyon at night with someone I didn't even know. Jorja was great and texted me as soon as they got there and again before she left. I was really glad when she was home.

Jorja

 Ellie & Jorja

 Jorja & Mackie

Brett's Home

Today was a good day! Brett came home from UAE. He's been gone six long months. Rachel checked the kids out of school to meet him at the airport. The girls knew he would be coming home soon, but didn't know it would be today. Rachel told them they had to pick up a bag Brett had to send home early. How cute is this video! Doesn't Marie look like she is going to hop outside of her body? Isn't Eve awesome? Dad's home, but trains are cool! Yay! I'm so glad he's finally home. We will get to see him on Wednesday!

I would have been an overbearing sister-in-law and driven up to Boise to watch Brett walk off that plane if it weren't for one thing. Jorja's elections were today. I couldn't leave her today! The kids voted in advisory, which is after first period, then they found out after school who made it to finals. There are five positions for each class. The top two candidates are able to move on. I went to school and waited in the car for her. I waited for about 45 minutes. It's good to wait long, because if you don't win they send you out early. I didn't want her to have to wait for me if she didn't make it, so I just waited. I saw Stockton after. He ended up waiting to see Jorja's results. I saw him in the parking lot. He would NOT tell me anything! Anyway, Jorja made it! She will be running for President of the sophomore class against Brenton Valentine. Brenton is the current president. He is super popular, in our ward and one of Jorja's friends. Brenton told her that he wished they could be co-presidents. Jorja said, "No way! That is what I'm hoping for too!" It has happened before, so you never know. Jorja doesn't think she'll win against Brenton. The person who loses by the smallest margin gets to be senator. Hopefully if Jorja doesn't win she will still be able to serve in student government as a senator. We shall see. This will be a stressful week!

I took Jorja to Bahama Bucks after the results. She said that I took her there after she won public relations and she doesn't know if she will win president, so she wanted to go today. I picked up something for Stockton and Preston too. Forgot Gavin would be at our house until it was too late. Whoops. Stockton was waiting for us so Jorja could tell Preston and Gavin that she made it, then they headed off to diving. While they were gone Jorja and I met Mike at an all-you-can-eat sushi place. I could not eat a lot. That place was filling!

Jorja spent time tonight working on her skit. Tomorrow they go early for a 30 second one take skit. Talk about pressure. She has an idea about what she is going to do, but isn't sure about how all of it will flow together. She toyed with using a piano, a ping pong ball, or decks of cards. Hopefully she'll figure out what she wants to do by 7:45 tomorrow morning!

Jorja also got answered to her first dance tonight. She was practicing her skit, Stockton was timing her when the doorbell rang. I was a little quick getting to the door because I saw them hopping into a car. I don't remember exactly what I saw because I panicked when I realized what was happening and quickly shut the door. Unlike what I did when Mike asked me to our first dance. Homecoming. I was outside taking a walk when I saw his jeep drive by. It passed my house and I thought that was weird. Soon, I saw Mike sneak up to my porch, put something on it and run around the house to hide. I followed him around the house and surprised him. Haha. Probably shouldn't have done that, but it was pretty funny. I remember it was a basketball hoop that said, "I finally got the NERF to try and SCORE a date with you." His name was inside the nerf ball in the hoop. Although I obviously knew who it was already. Anyway, this is what Mackie dropped off.

I thoroughly enjoyed watching the Jazz destroy the Thunder in Game 4. The Thunder looked like they were falling apart. They were getting so mad. This Jazz team is awesome and so much fun to watch. I haven't enjoyed watching Jazz games this much since Stockton and Malone let them to the finals. I hope they keep this up!

Busy Day Off

Stockton was not looking forward to today. At all. The kids didn't have school today, but Stockton was still super busy. First, he had his English class down at Salt Lake Community College. It starts at 7:00, so he had to get up early on his 'day off'. He wasn't thrilled. I remember when he used to hate to sleep. Ha! Anyway, he came home and said English was great! Stockton also had an Academic Decathlon competition. Today they were doing speech, essay and interview. Stockton did a cold read of his speech to Jorja and me. I was laughing so hard. He was so good! Stockton got home pretty late tonight. He said the speech competition wasn't what he was expecting. He thought he would be giving his speech to a crowd. Instead it was two judges. Both girls. Stockton's speech was about the speedo. They didn't react at all, although I think they aren't allowed to, so he has no idea how that went. Stockton said he nailed his interview. That's good. Ochoa sent them home before they announced awards because it was snowing pretty hard. He has no idea how he did. I think he is so glad today is over.

Jorja was busy today as well. She had play practice this morning. She was disappointed a bit. She isn't able to be in the scene they blocked yesterday because she was at therapy. If she had been able to go she would have had a chance of being picked as the person that got stabbed. Ha! This next picture is random, but Jorja takes pictures like this all the time. She then texts them as an answer to a question she thinks is weird. Or something like that. She wants an emoji like this. She took this picture at therapy yesterday. I tried to photobomb it, but she didn't like that at all.

Jorja

Jorja went to the girls basketball game at Alta, then the boys basketball game at Corner Canyon. Alta lost both. The boys got creamed. By more than 20 points I think. There was a disco night at the roller skating rink Jorja was planning on going to. We stopped and bought glow bracelets. Jorja ended up not going to the disco night. She went to the twins house. Claire and Sydney. Mackie and Finn were there. That is all I can remember. I sent Mike to get her around 11:00. It was snowing a lot and I did not want to go out in it, or have a teenager bring her home. It scared me at first when she texted that Finn would give her a ride home. What? I didn't know he was old enough to drive. He's not. Mike brought Finn home instead. A much better plan. Jorja was pretty happy when she got home. She had a great time today.

Carter, person I don't know, Jorja

 Kenzie, Mackie, Jorja

 Jorja & Mackie