Valentine's Day

Right after Stockton left for his mission I saw this pillow at Smiths. Wow! How perfect! Now every cactus reminds me of Stockton. When I came back from dropping Jorja off at school, this was on my bed. What a perfect Valentines Day present.

Stephanie

Today was also Stockton's p-day! Yay! Yay! Yay! He got our brownies package and loved it. He also got a package from Preston that made him really happy. For scouts they made missionary packages and Preston left him a nice note in it. Stockton sounds great. He says the MTC has flown by. He really likes his companion, Elder Womack. One funny thing is Elder Womack hates elevators. They make him lightheaded. Stockton takes the stairs with him to their classroom. On the 5th floor. Which is 120 stairs each way, so about 1000 stairs a day. His math makes me laugh. Especially when he was talking about taking a knife and figuring out the volume of the cereal dispenser and the bowl then converting cubic knives to bowls. Hahaha. That kid cracks me up! We also got an email from the mission in Arizona. It had Stockton's schedule for the first two days he will be here. I loved that! Mike said that is much better than being dropped off in the middle of Brazil and having to sleep on a church floor for a week while looking for a place to stay. Yikes! Stockton sent this picture of him and his friend John. The guy in the middle is the choir director. He has also directed the Mormon Tabernacle Choir before, as a guest director I think. Stockton said he and John were taking a picture when this guy stepped right in between them. Haha! Stockton is going to miss running into John. I'm glad they had each other up at Utah State. They really got along well.

John, Choir director, Stockton

Jorja went with some of the student government kids after school to a retirement home. They had a dance. She got to dance with old people. She said it was so much fun. When she came home, Evan's mom pulled up right behind her. Evan, Drew and Shafer had brought her flowers and a blanket. They had a card that said they hoped she started feeling better. Jorja has missed a lot of school with her mono. Student government with Shafer is the first class of the day on A days and Chinese with Evan is the first class of the day on B days. The first class is for sure the hardest for her to make it to. I think Jorja vented to Evan a few days ago about how tired she was of being sick. She told me that she doesn't even remember what it feels like to be healthy anymore. Drew called her when we were driving to Wicked yesterday to check up on her. These boys are really good to her. Especially Evan and Drew. Drew is a huge reason why Jorja was elected her freshman year. He campaigned for her so hard. He was not shy and is hilarious. He made a big difference. Evan was Jorja's rock last year. Especially when her heart was broken. Evan was there for her. Evan is my favorite. He is such a good kid. They made Jorja's day today. She absolutely loves the blanket they brought her, but I didn't get a picture of it.

Jorja, Drew, Shafer, Evan

 Tulips from the boys

Jorja had a date with Mitchell today. This is the kid she wrote me a long note about begging me to let her have a date with him. She told me that they talked and agreed they would just be friends so they could hang out together. Mitchell brought her flowers, chocolate and a card. Hmmmm. Very friendly. Just kidding. It is Valentines Day, so that was nice of him.

Mitchell's flowers

Mitchell took Jorja to get sushi and then they went to a movie. She seemed to have a great time and Mike and I were both very happy that she made her curfew.

Mitchell

Jorja came into our room and was telling us about her date. I asked her a question, which I can't even remember what it was now. (I'm about two weeks behind on the blog. Ugh.) Anyway, we ended up getting into an argument. I don't even know how that happened. I didn't want it to happen and it wasn't my intention. I made her sad after she had had such a good day. Jorja asked if she could talk to Mike alone for awhile. I left them alone for about 30 minutes. I wish Jorja and I could get our relationship back. I just need her to be 100% honest with me. I know she hides things because she thinks about Mitchell because she knows I don't like him. I don't like him because she isn't honest with me about him. Which makes her hide things, which makes me mad. It's a vicious cycle. We are both tired of it. I really didn't mean to make her mad today.

Fishes, Diving, and EFY

Today was a crazy busy day. Lots of things happening at the same time. I will break things up into three different sections. First, Maysen and Preston. Maysen is taking an Oceanography class at Utah State. They had a field trip at the aquarium by our house. Maysen asked if Preston would want to meet her here and go with her. He was SO EXCITED! Preston is the most vocal about missing Maysen and jumps at every chance to see her. Maysen told them they would have to be at the aquarium at 9:45 at the latest or Preston might not be able to in with her. Mike was there right on time. Maysen was driving through Bountiful. Oh boy. Once the bus arrived they wouldn't let anyone off of it because one more bus was still coming. Preston could see Maysen, but couldn't get to her.

Preston waiting for Maysen

 Maysen and Preston! Preston's much happier now!

 Preston eating lunch.

Mike picked up Preston around 2:00. He said Preston loved the field trip. Maysen headed back on the bus to Logan. How fun that he got to see her for a few hours. I wish I did! I couldn't see Maysen because Stockton had his regional diving competition. It was held at the U, so I needed to volunteer. Gavin's dad picked up Stockton at 6:30 this morning. Warm ups started at 7:00. Stockton and Gavin weren't scheduled to dive for a few hours, so Gavin's dad took them to breakfast. I was assigned to put the scores in the computer. It is an easy job, but I got soaked. The computer got soaked. Too bad for me, my cross stitch bag got soaked. I forgot it was under my chair. Once I realized I hurried and pulled everything out. I had all the papers and the fabric drying on the giant foam square thing behind me. So glad the red didn't bleed! Stockton did great on one meter. He placed high enough to go to Nationals in Florida. Yay! He actually wanted to go this year. Stockton has earned a spot to go to Nationals on other years, it just never worked out. Regionals are usually on Saturday and Sunday. They will have 3 meter on Saturday and 1 meter on Sunday. Then Nationals will have 1 meter on Saturday and 3 meter on Sunday. It is quite annoying. Anyway, this time they had one and three meter both on Saturday. It made for a really long day, but yay! 1 meter will be on Saturday at Nationals. 3 meter will be on Sunday, so Stockton will only compete in 1 meter. Here are a few of his dives.

Front 1 1/2

Front 2 1/2

Back 1 1/2

Inward 1 1/2

Mike dropped off Preston at the aquarium and then hurried up to the U to watch Stockton. He was able to watch him dive most of 1 meter. He had to leave to go back and pick up Preston and take Jorja up to Orem. He dropped Jorja off in Orem and raced back to Salt Lake to watch Stockton. He got to see the end of his 3 meter competition. Yikes! That's a lot of driving! Stockton also earned a spot to go to Nationals in 3 meter, but he is going to decline it because of the Sunday thing. I also worked the computer during this event. Stockton texted me after one of his dives and said that Gavin wasn't going to do his 205 (back 2 1/2). I showed the text to Gavin's dad who was announcing next to me.  Then Gavin failed his 107 (front 3 1/2). You can't fail two dives and make it to Nationals. He had to do it and land it, but he did not want to. His mom wasn't very happy with him. They had already bought tickets and everything. Stockton got Mickey to talk to him. I watched Mickey try to calm Gavin down, which raised my opinion of Mickey. Gavin went up on the board. He turned around like he was going to go for it, then he turned back around like he was just going to jump off, then he turned around again. He threw it and landed it. That was a lot of pressure. He was so scared. I don't know why he signed up for that dive. He hadn't even tried it for six months I guess. He was always too scared to do it in practice. Anyway, he made it to Nationals too, so that is great. Now we just have to find some cheap plane tickets!

Stockton ~ reverse tuck ~ there is a maximum degree of difficulty,

so Stockton had to lower some of his dives to meet that qualification.

Inward 1 1/2

Front 2 1/2

The dreaded back 2 1/2 ~ Stockton landed it!

Inward 2 1/2

Jorja got to go to a mini EFY today. It was held in Orem. Mike dropped her off, but she ended up hanging out with several boys. She loved that!

Evan, my favorite, and Jorja

 Isaac and Jorja

 Evan, Shafer, Jaren, Jorja, Dallin, Isaac

Jaren moved here from California at the start of the year. Jorja was so excited he was able to come. His family just bought a house in our neighborhood, although they won't be in our ward. They are staying in a rental house at the moment. I drove up to Orem to pick up Jorja. She tried to get some of the boys to ride home with us. They weren't allowed to. She found out later they went to In and Out. She was a bit sad. She says that sometimes she wishes she was a boy so she could hang out with them. She has more close friends that are boys than girls. Jorja would not enjoy being a boy. She is way too girly for that!

Biking

I was so sad this morning. I was talking to Preston when it dawned on me that I hadn't picked up the pinwheels from my mom's grave. I meant to do that on Sunday, I even wrote it on the calendar. I have no idea why I forgot. So frustrated! After Preston left for school I hurried down there, but all the pinwheels were gone.

Jorja had such a great day today. She was invited to go biking with some of her friends. She has never rode a gear bike, so she was a little nervous. Her friend Isaac lent her a bike and taught her how to ride it. When I dropped Jorja off I asked to speak to Isaac. I told him that I was really nervous about this. They were planning on biking to Wendys. I wasn't nervous about the biking, I was nervous about the cars. For some reason when I agreed to let Jorja do this I pictured them biking around a parking lot or in deserted roads. Anyways, I asked Isaac to make sure he didn't let Jorja go if he didn't think she was ready. Make sure she could bike in a straight line without wobbling. I was worried she would panic and swerve in front of a car. Jorja was quite embarrassed. I told her not to worry, Isaac has a mom; he knows how moms get. I talked to Isaac's mom for a bit afterwords. I found out that Isaac's little brother is in Chinese with Preston. That's fun. They family seemed really nice and it helped me not worry so much. It also helped that I spent the next few hours in the temple. Anyways, a group of seven rode to Wendy's. Jorja, Isaac, Shafer, Drew, Natalie, Evan and Jonah. It turned into a group of eight when Jorja asked if they could stop at Hailey's house on the way. Hailey lives on a corner and they rode right by her house. The kids biked to Wendy's, then Indian Hills. Somehow they took different ways back and four of them ended up at Natalie's house. Jorja, Isaac, Shafer and Hailey ended up at our house. Hailey had to go to soccer practice and didn't stay long. Isaac and Shafer stayed for most of the day, until it was time for Jorja to go to softball practice. I kept going outside and bothering them. I'm sure they loved it.

I did get super confused when my brother Mike texted me asking me what I put up on Instagram. This was the picture he was referring to.

What the heck is that? I have no idea how that got there. I assumed Jorja or one of her friends put it there, but they claim innocence. Shafer said he thought I was hacked. Super weird. I did notice that the last picture I took on my picture roll was this one. I took it of the dirt in front of Indian Hills with the intention of sending it to Bubs. Bubs was looking for dirt a bit ago. Hmmm. Now that I think about it, I took that picture when I picked up Jorja, Isaac and Drew. Looking mighty suspicious that one of them put it up.

Jorja got to play catcher a lot at practice today. She was so tired after biking for several hours this morning. Too bad that when she gets a chance to play catcher she is not at her best. She had a fun day though.

Preston and Mike worked on a present to make for Mrs. Chung. It turned out super cute! The horse was a little tight, so Mike adjusted it and printed it again. Preston loves it. They are printing a bottom to put the pieces in tonight. It will say Mrs. Chung and Preston. He loves it.

 Extra horse

Tonight was the Pepperwood party. Stockton decided not to go this year. When I brought Jorja back from softball practice I went through the East gate. So glad I did. The West gate was completely blocked with kids lined up to get into the party. They were early, so weren't allowed through the gates yet. It was weird because a police car was blocking the residents entry into the East gate. We are always asked to go through the East gate on the graduation party night. I went to the guest and told the guard that I was a resident. Which was obvious because the resident gate automatically opened because of the sensor in my car. He wouldn't open the guest gate for me but made me do this weird maneuver to get around the police car and through the resident gate. Bizarre.