No Piercings

Today was crazy! Jorja had drivers ed at 6:00 - 9:00 this morning. She had to drive on the range from 9:00 - 11:00. We picked up Hailey on our way home. Stockton and I then hurried down to Gavin's house. We picked up him and his dad. I dropped them all off at the airport. Stockton is going to Texas without me! I'm going to cry! I miss him so much already. Nate (Gavin's dad) sent this picture. Glad they arrived safely in Texas! They had to run to at least one gate I know, but they made it!

Nate, Stockton, Gavin

I took Maysen and Jorja downtown to get their ears pierced. Jorja really wants them pierced and is terrified. I read a lot of reviews and decided on a placed called Koi. They do piercings everywhere! It is in Salt Lake. They don't take appointments and it was so crowded when we got there. The wait was an hour. As I walked up to the receptionist I realized I forgot Jorja's birth certificate. I was kicking myself! Maysen also didn't realize she needed her drivers license. Jorja's eyes filled with tears when we entered. She frantically whispered to me, "I don't want to do it. I don't want to do it." Maysen wasn't nervous at all. Too bad Maysen didn't have her drivers license because I think it would have helped Jorja calm down and not be so scared if she saw Maysen go first. Anyway, we left and found an ice-cream place that Jorja wanted to go to. It was called d-Bar. We shared one. It was really cute, although you can't tell with all the marshmallows on it!

We then went to Red Robin for dinner. It was yummy. We drove home and picked up Shay on the way. It's been a long time since Jorja has hung out with her softball friends! Jorja and Shay swam with ducks and then started watching a movie. They didn't get very far before Raina came over. Yay! More softball friends. Jorja was so happy!

Jorja & Shay

 Shay's head and Jorja

 Jorja

Still in the middle of our backyard tree project, but this is the movie screen set up this way. The nice thing about this way is we can put the stakes into the grass. It is hard to anchor the screen on concrete!

Mike and the movie screen

 Jorja

Not as easy to pick up the ducks as it used to be!

Raina loved the ducks.

Knibble

Jorja & Raina

 Raina

What a fun, fun, busy day! Shay's mom came and got her shortly after Raina arrived. It was fun to talk with her mom for a bit. She is super nice. Raina stayed until close to midnight when I took her home. I love it when Jorja and Raina hang out together. Too bad they didn't have any classes together last year. I don't think they have any together this year either. Hopefully they have lunch or their lockers are semi close to each other.....

Softball Friends

We spent the day listening to conference. It was great. Mike went and got Jorja from softball practice after the first session. She was so tired she fell asleep during the second session. I'm going to watch those with her later. I did find this picture on Jorja's phone. She loves her softball friends.

Raina, Jorja, Shay

Hailey came over tonight. After the priesthood session Isaac showed up too. He rode his scooter down. They made cookies. They all seemed to have a great time. Jorja sure was busy this weekend. I get tired just thinking about it.

Rainy Day at the Field

I spent the morning moving sticks to the front yard so they could be picked up next week. I saw my neighbor Paul leave his house and I waved to him. We live on a cul de sac, so he usually wouldn't pass my house. When he turned my way, I knew he was coming to talk to me and I knew what he was going to talk about. I walked up to him when he stopped and we talked for a long time. Paul is Audrey's dad. He has decided to be a woman. He has had the surgeries done to become a woman. He told me his name is now Whitney. We talked and talked. I told him that I would do my best to call him Whitney, but to not be offended if I accidentally call him Paul. Sue and Jim walked by why I was talking to him. I introduced them to Whitney. It was a little awkward because I wasn't sure what to call him. I said, "This is Audrey's ____" I looked at Paul/Whitney. He said, "Mom". When they walked away I told him I was sorry if that was awkward, but I'm a big believer in getting the elephant out of the room. I asked how Audrey and Elizabeth were doing. Elizabeth is his wife. I told him that all three of them would always be welcomed at our house. He seemed very relieved when he drove away. I called Sue up afterwords to explain who Whitney was. She was super nice about it and was completely shocked. She had no idea that she was talking to someone who used to be a man, he looked so much like a woman. I know she will be super nice to Paul/Whitney, because that is the kind of person she is. I figure that I don't have to agree with this, but I want Paul/Whitney to know that if Audrey is ever over at our house that this is a safe place for her. He won't need to worry about us saying bad things to his daughter. She is safe and she is loved.

Jorja met some friends at a park for a late breakfast. This is good. She needs to be around lots of different friends right now. I picked her up from the park at about 12:30. She has a softball tournament today. She was a little sad before the game. Luckily Raina came to the rescue. Raina brought a loud speaker where the girls were able to dance to music. Jorja lit up. She can be so silly. One time she was was dancing and singing on the way up to the plate. She is freaking adorable.

Raina & Jorja

 Jorja waiting to do the coin toss

 Joe tying Jorja's shoe

It started raining hard for the third game. Shannon called me and I was talking to her under my blanket. Jorja took a picture and sent it to me. It was hard to watch the game with the umbrellas in front of me, but I didn't want to move because I knew I would get sopping wet if I did. I was able to see Jorja get an awesome hit though. Then she stole second. Then she scored from second when the girl behind her got a base hit. Jorja also did an awesome bunt earlier that got an RBI and she made it to first. Perfect!

Later tonight I dropped Jorja off at the bowling alley where she bowled with Raina, Shay and Taylee. They also played laser tag. Jorja had a lot of fun. I texted her after 10:00 and said I was tired and was picking her up. I brought her home and then she got sad again. We laid on my bed for awhile listening to old music. Jorja does great when she is busy, it is just when things slow down that she gets sad. It will be a rough few days, but then I think she will be able to handle things and be back to her regular self again. I sure love that super sensitive girl.

Labor Day

Jorja practiced her video over and over today. She has to do an election video tomorrow morning. It is 30 seconds, one take, no editing. That sounds scary. She worked on it all morning. The rest of the day she had fun though. I picked up Evan and Drew and dropped them off at the mall. Evan and I were asking Jorja what you even do at the mall. I don't get it. I think they had fun though. Jorja had my phone so I found some pictures and weird videos.

Evan, Drew and half of Connor's face

 Jorja's eye and Isaac, no idea what they are doing here

I picked the kids up from the mall. There were four extra kids that I brought home with me. They played in the 'Jorjamobile' for a long time. Raina came after awhile. Mike made homemade bread and we forced them to eat it, even though some of them (Isaac) really didn't want to. Once everyone had left by Raina we practiced Jorja's videos some more. I love Raina. Just saying.

Raina & Jorja

Five deer came into our backyard. One of them kept standing on their hind legs to eat the leaves off of one of our trees. It totally reminded us of a kangaroo. Raina tried to get closer, but the deer freaked out and ran away. I knew where they would exit, so I tried to get pictures of them leaving.

Deer and Raina

Here is Jorja's election video. She has to do it for real tomorrow. AHHH!

We talked Jorja and Raina into watching a movie. Draft Day. That's a great movie. Mike downloaded it through VidAngel to cut out all the cursing. The movie had just started when Raina got a message that Marty's sister had just died. Marty is Jorja and Raina's softball coach. They went and sat on the porch to call him. Isaac also called and said that he and Evan were running to our house. Everyone was outside when I peaked out there. I asked Evan how long it took them to run here. He said about three minutes. Haha! Isaac said it was more like twenty. That's pretty good if running that far only feels like three minutes. The kids hung out for a couple of more hours until I loaded them up in the car to take them home. It is a school night after all.

Chocolate Therapy

Jorja and I talked a lot yesterday. I tried to show her how things probably looked from Raina's perspective. Jorja felt so bad and she texted Raina an apology this morning. They talked for quite awhile on the phone and made plans for Raina to come here this afternoon. When she came she brought Jorja flowers and ice-cream. Raina's the best! I usually reserve that for Evan, but Raina has been such an amazing friend to Jorja these last two weeks.

Jorja

I dropped Jorja and Raina off at Isaac's house around 5:00 or so. I watched the BYU/LSU game until I couldn't stand it anymore. That game was torturous. I had been trying to text Jorja from Mike's phone, but she wasn't responding. Turns out that none of the texts went through to her. I decided to just knock on Isaac's door. I talked to Isaac's mom for a bit. When I saw Evan come upstairs I said, "Hello Evan, my favorite". Isaac's mom said, "I thought Isaac was your favorite." I told her, "No way! Isaac scares me! Well, Isaac doesn't scare me, the concept of Isaac scares me." I did tell Isaac I would try and be nicer to him. I'm not mean, I probably make him uncomfortable a lot. I mentioned to Isaac's mom that Isaac has learned that I have a tendency to be blunt. She laughed and said, "I knew that the first time I met you when you were lecturing Isaac about keeping Jorja safe biking." Haha! Oh gosh, I forgot about that. I've given that poor kid a hard time since day one.

The Highs and Lows

Jorja has been in high school for about a week and a half. In that amount of time, I have dealt with more drama from her than Maysen and Stockton have given me in their entire life. A lot of it has to do with the election, and a lot has to do with boys. First, the election. Voting was today. Jorja was nervous. They met after school to find out who made it to finals. Jorja made it. She was happy, but also terrified. Apparently there is a really popular friend group at her school. Every other candidate is part of that group except for Jorja. She was feeling a bit over her head. She doesn't give herself enough credit.

Jorja wanted to go to the away football game. It was being held at Taylorsville. She knew this was something she should go to, because she is still running for public relations. Most of her friends didn't want to go, but she was able to convince Isaac and Raina to go with her. This was super nice, because I don't think either of them are that into football and they really didn't want to go. They went for Jorja. Anyways, I guess at the game Jorja crashed. I think the stress of the elections and the lack of sleep caught up to her. I also don't think she ate anything at lunch or home, so a lack of food was involved there too. She just kind of zoned out and wasn't acting like herself. This made Raina feel bad, because Raina thought she had made Jorja mad by joking around with Isaac. This then made Isaac feel bad. When I picked the kids up from the game they were not themselves at all. Raina had gone home early and Jorja and Isaac seemed pretty sad. We dropped Isaac off and then Jorja cried to me in the car. She was worried she had messed things up with everybody. We talked for a long time before she went to bed. I could not sleep. Usually I have a hard time making it past 9:30, but today was different. I was alert and worried about Jorja. I kept praying for her, that Heavenly Father would watch over her tonight. Jorja came into my room around 1:00 in the morning and asked if she could talk with me. We talked and cried for a long time. I ended up convincing her to sleep in the guest bed with me. It is hard to like a boy so much this young. Isaac is a great kid and he is so nice to Jorja, it is just hard . . . for both of them . . .

Day Two

Jorja had another successful day of campaigning. She was able to leave her third period class (theater) and campaign during both lunches. Jorja and Stockton have opposite lunches on both days, so she was able to see him. Stockton told me that he finally found Gavin during lunch. Gavin asked him if it was his sister that was campaigning. Right as Stockton said yes a huge mosh pit (is that how you spell it?) broke out with tons of people jumping up and down yelling 'JORJA-JORJA'. Stockton said, "There is no way she isn't going to win." Haha. Glad people are enthusiastic about her. The freshman had an assembly. Drew still had Jorja's sign. Before the assembly started Drew ran to the front and waved Jorja's sign chanting her name. Soon other campaigns joined him. Jorja is really nervous. She is happy with how her campaign has been going, it is just terrifying. She thinks she will be able to make it to the finals though. Fingers crossed! Voting is tomorrow!

Raina & Jorja

Jorja was able to pass the time today by playing two softball games. Her team is getting a lot better. Jorja played catcher for every inning but one. She sat out that inning. She needed it. She was pretty exhausted, but had her energy back after that. The coaches have been playing Raina as shortstop instead of catcher. Not because Jorja is better than Raina, but because Raina has an amazing arm. There were many balls that came to her and she rocketed the ball to first. Many outs that way. It is so fun to watch these girls improve!

Jorja had another late night tonight. She did Chinese until it was time to leave for softball, but realized she still had biology tonight. She was up studying when I went to bed. Hopefully her grades don't suffer with all her extra activities.

Avalanche

Mike, Maysen and I went to a huge Smith Family Reunion event. Two brothers, George and Thomas, and their posterity. They have this reunion every other year. Maysen received a scholarship from it, so she was asked to give a super short presentation. We were able to put our fingerprints on this tree posterboard. We were one of the firsts. Ours is at the very top. One of George's daughters is named Georgianna ~ that is close to Jorja Ann!

Mike's uncle, Brent, is the chairman. We had the meeting in 'The Rock Chapel' in Farmington. It's cool how the podium is off to the side, and look at that mural!

Brent

 Brent & Maysen

We left at the first break and went to Freddy's and then home. Jorja had just arrived home from softball practice. I took Maysen to her laser appointment, but she was unable to have it because she started medication for her bronchitis yesterday. (Her inhaler) I waited all day for the BYU game to start. 3:00. Maysen's appointment was at 3:00. I turned on the radio and they were just beginning the 3rd quarter! WHAT! I can't believe that Eastern time messed me up. Boo!

Mike took Maysen back to Logan. She is staying for awhile this time. Although I will need to get her for her appointment once she is off of antibiotics for five days though. Maysen getting bronchitis was my evil plan.

Stephanie & Maysen

 And she's gone . . .

I'm so glad Mike took her up this time. Logan Canyon was closed and he had to find a different way there. That would have stressed me out, plus it took him a long time. I found this information about the closure.

Mike got home late and exhausted. I dropped Jorja, Isaac, and Raina off at Alta's stomp. Jorja had a blast. Apparently it was all HYPE songs. They jumped up and down for three hours or so. Jorja's legs are pretty sore. No slow songs. That surprised me, but I was a teensy bit relieved. Jorja said she danced with Drew for a long time before the others joined her. The other kids seemed to enjoy themselves just as much as Jorja. It looks like this is going to be a fun year for her.

Incoming Freshman

Stockton and I went to Alta this morning. We had been putting together paperwork for Arete. In order to get the Arete token, or whatever it is, Stockton needed to have 8 quarters of a 4.0, at least a 28 on the ACT and no more than 2 absences and tardys in each quarter. Stockton met those qualifications. Once he is awarded the token he can get into any Alta event for free, gets $25 off his yearbook, gets a hoodie and gets to park in a special area. We might let Stockton drive this year, so he is pretty excited about the parking space. We also walked around for a bit to find his classes. He knows where pretty much everything is anyway, so it didn't matter much but it was fun to do.

It was time for me to leave with Jorja as soon as Stockton got home. I was taking Jorja and her friends to find their classes and lockers. Jorja had them send her their schedules and I color coded maps for them. I love doing that. They were good sports about it. I picked up Evan and Isaac first. {Quick side story . . . I won't go into too much detail here, and this is just what I gather, so hopefully it is accurate. Anyways, Isaac has liked Jorja for awhile. Jorja didn't want to let on that she liked him because she didn't want to ruin their friendship. She caved and let Isaac know she liked him. They liked each other for about two seconds before Isaac went to EFY and was in a class where they talked about how they shouldn't date until they were 16, but also they shouldn't have emotional attachments this young. Isaac, trying the hardest to do what he is counseled to do, broke up with Jorja. Jorja was sad, but she thought it was the right thing to do. She was terrified that Isaac wouldn't be her friend anymore. Today was the first time they had seen each other since then. . . ~ how's that for background?} Okay, so Isaac and Evan hop in the car. I say hi to them and ask them how they are doing. Then, for some unknown reason I look at Isaac and say, "So. You broke up with my daughter." Several things happened simultaneously. Isaac's eyes about popped out of his head and he said yes. Jorja screamed, "Mom!" and turned and buried her head in the seat. Evan broke out laughing and gave me a high five. Oh gosh. It was so funny. I laughed and laughed. Evan kept saying that was the funniest thing ever. Jorja and Isaac didn't appreciate it much, but it sure did break the ice. By the end of the day they seemed to be back to their best friend status. (Although, I need to keep my eye on Isaac, sometimes the way he looks at Jorja you can see complete adoration in his eyes. I'm going to have to pay attention and notice if he looks at all girls this way or just Jorja.) Jorja is going to laugh when she finally reads this post. It will probably be years from now, she never reads my blog. Haha! Jorja! I love you! Thank you for putting up with me!

Okay, back to today. I picked up Hailey and then Raina and we headed to Alta. They humored me for a picture before we walked in. This one was my favorite.

Hailey, Raina, Jorja, Isaac, Evan

 Okay, this made me laugh. This was my first picture. One of the kids said to read their maps.

 I then said to look up. I laughed at Hailey! She cracks me up! I realized later she wasn't looking down, still it was so funny!

Drew met us after we had been here for awhile. We spent several hours walking the halls. Finding lockers, classes, trying to make note of the best way to go to classes. Poor Isaac, every class is almost as far as possible from each other. Hailey's classes are nice and tightly together. I dropped Raina off when we were leaving, Hailey's mom had picked her up earlier. We brought Drew, Evan and Isaac home to play games. (Jorja made Drew and Isaac a corn dog. Drew and Jorja then tried a hot red pepper from Kristen. First few bites were fine, then they were dying!) We tried playing One Night Ultimate Werewolf with Stockton and Preston. Evan picked up on it pretty well. Next we played Apples to Apples Bible edition. That was funny. Stockton got a quick lead, then I was able to tie him. I had several cards in a row that were perfect. For example: I had 'Hidden Treasures' for FANCY, 'flood' for WET and 'The Lamb of God' for Good. All in a row. Ping Pong and foosball were played before we finished with Code Names. Jorja was looking worn out at the end. She doesn't like playing games for hours like I do. Anyways, we dropped Evan and Issac off before I took Jorja to softball practice. She said she felt pretty sick for the first part of the practice, but was still glad she went. I can't believe summer is almost over! Time is moving way too fast.