Passes and Shot

I woke up early this morning to get parking passes for Stockton and Jorja. They have underground parking right where they live and it will be perfect for them to be able to park there. I wasn't sure if they would get an assigned spot or not. Turns out it is just a pass. Glad to get that done though!

I took Stockton to get his second corona shot today. Now everyone has had both shots except for Preston. He wasn't old enough to get the moderna shot that Overstock was giving out. The nurse told Stockton to massage his arm and it will help it not feel as sore. Wish I had known that trick! Stockton's arm barely even bothered him.

Jorja & Stockton 

1st Dose

I was so tired today. I don't know if it was staying up until 3 am or the corona shot. Overstock was giving the vaccine and Mike really wanted to get it. I was worried and on the fence, but so far so good. We got the shot and the most uncomfortable symptom was our arms hurt. Hopefully the second shot goes as well. Mike had an even earlier morning. He had an eye doctor appointment this morning. His eyes are horrible. One eye is super bad and one isn't great. The contacts he wears now hurts after a few hours and then he has trouble seeing for a few days. They are going to try different contacts for him. Really nothing they can do for him except a cornea transplant. Scary. He meets with two different doctors. The contact guy said it would be worth trying glasses. The eye surgeon guy said he would throw up if he tried to wear them. It's frustrating for Mike because he used to do a lot of projects, but now can't see enough to do them. Mike met us at Overstock after his appointment. We brought Preston, but he wasn't old enough to get the shot.

Mike

Maysen

Stockton

We splurged and got Pizza Hut pizza. Haha. Usually we stick with Little Caesars. Jorja was at work most of the day today. She had fun with her friends and they went to breakfast around noon. Jorja also found out she will be in charge of Hillcrest High School at the Utah State Leadership Camp. Too bad Alta isn't there at the same time. She would have been able to work with them. She would have loved that! I also noticed Sam has a new book out. I'll have to go and pick it up. Sam said she would get a collection for the cabin. Sweet!

All Negative

We are all officially done with quarantine! Jorja got out of quarantine this morning and was able to go to school. She was so happy! I spent the day bleaching all the things. I washed Jorja's sheets, bleached doorknobs and light switches. Bleached the downstairs bathroom. Everything, including walls and ceiling. I probably spent two hours cleaning the downstairs bathroom. All should be well now. We had our covid tests this afternoon. We drove down to Mike's work and then went to different drive thrus, just like last time. They called us and said everyone was negative, except my test was inconclusive. I had to go back and retake the test. I was a little nervous. Everyone would have to restart quarantine if I was positive, except Jorja. Also, all of my bleaching would be pointless if I actually had the disease. So, about thirty minutes later we got word that I was negative also. My second test they made me do to nose swabs, so I had three in total today. Not horrible, but didn't like it.

I'm also annoyed. I know covid has been horrible for many, many people. Our experience with it has been different. Jorja was sick. Sick enough I would have kept her home from school for at least one day, probably two; but not sick enough to take her to the doctor. Also no one in my family got this super contagious disease that shut down the world for an entire year. This is after being at the cabin, Stockton sleeping head to head with her for three days, Michael driving us to Utah, bringing her food....all the things. No one at the cabin got it, and no one here got it. I know Jorja isolated herself once she started feeling sick, but still. I can't believe Jorja lost her high school experience to this disease. So frustrating. Jorja is excited that she has the 90 day immunity. She won't get quarantined again for the rest of school. She thinks the immunity is longer for other things, but our school district says 90 days. 

Jorja had a periodontist appointment today. Maysen and Stockton both had gum grafts when they were in fourth grade. Jorja has avoided it. Until this year. She will need to get one. We have it scheduled for April, after spring break. We have to go to the office in Sugarhouse because the first appointment available at this one would be the week of her high school graduation. It might have even been the same day. Don't want to do that.

Jorja got to go to the last day of the musical tonight. It was The Little Mermaid. She has two really good friends in it. Sami was a mermaid and Giselle was Jetsom the eel. This was performed in the new fine arts center and Jorja said it was super cool. Ursula was hanging from the ceiling with her tentacles dangling. Boats were able to float around. I think the robotics team designed those. I'm glad she was able to get out just in time to be there for this. I'm glad she had fun. I'm glad quarantine is done!!!!!

Sami & Jorja

Giselle & Jorja

Not Stockton's Homecoming

Today was supposed to be Stockton's homecoming. We had to postpone it because he is quarantined. Today is also Jorja's last day in quarantine and she can hardly stand it. She is feeling healthy now, but we won't let her come out until tomorrow. I caught Stockton in her room with his mask on sitting on the other side of the room and I made him come out. I don't want to trip at the finish line here! We have played a lot of Jackbox with Jorja, and a lot of Among Us. Still, it will be good to see her for reals again tomorrow. We played the ghost game with everyone but Jorja. Maysen was the ghost and had a crazy story she had to convey. She did it though! These are two of her clues she gave. The first one she held onto Stockton's hand and couldn't let her marker leave the paper. The second one was the wire clue. Maysen was so good!

New Kayak

Today started frustrating for me. Jorja ordered something from Michaels and wanted me to do curb side pickup. She asked if I could get Chick-Fil-A breakfast. I got orders from the entire family for what they would want at Chick-Fil-A. On the way down there Jorja called and said breakfast might be over. She wanted me to go and check. I asked her to call. She said she was scared. So annoying! She does student government, which is super scary to do, but is afraid to call Chick-Fil-A and ask what their hours are? She told me to drive where she used to park and I could see the back of the menu to see if the breakfast had changed. Ridiculous. I did that and felt stupid. The workers were looking at me. I saw the regular menu up, so I assumed it had changed. I told Jorja we missed it. So, she wanted me to go to McDonalds. I had to get new orders from everyone. I went to Michaels and did the curbside thing. Jorja called me and asked what the menu looked like. I told her. I assumed the menu was the same on both sides. Nope. Since it was the regular menu that meant breakfast was still going. How was I supposed to know that? Jorja begged me for Chick-Fil-A because McDonalds makes her sick. Why did she want me to go there then? I now had to go to both drive thrus because people wanted different things now. Soooooo annoying.

Mike ordered a kayak for Christmas and it came today. He is planning on strapping it on the 4 wheeler and then being able to kayak out to the boat. He thinks it will be easier than the blow up raft we have now. Plus, people might have fun with it when the sailing is super slow. Should be fun.

Preston & Mike

Three Things

First, Jorja felt good enough to clean her room today. Progress! Second, there is a lot of snow at the cabin. Third, it is so fun being a Jazz fan right now!

Ambassador Interview

Jorja has her ambassador interview today. She looked so cute! I didn't get a picture though. She wore her yellow dress and got all dolled up. I didn't really get to see her because of corona. We keep a roll of paper towels right outside her door. When one of us goes inside we use the paper towel on her doorknob. Jorja had her two minute presentation of something she is passionate about first. They told her this would last 6-8 minutes. Hers lasted 15. Her book turned out so cute. I can't believe she did this so fast. Especially when she felt awful!

Jorja got out of her dress, into comfy clothes and fell straight asleep. She slept until I woke her up for her next interview thing. This time is was an hour and a half. She got back in her dress, put on her best face and nailed it. Stockton said he was walking by her room and could hear the other kids on the zoom call. He heard something like, "My name is so and so. I'm the student body president...." He said they sounded dull and boring. Then he heard Jorja talk and she was much more engaging. Here's hoping that translated! Ahhhhh! So scary! Over 800 people applied for this scholarship. The first cut was about 130 people. Now there are 71 left. We thought they were taking 30 people, but Jorja found out today they are only taking 24. Fingers crossed for her! She would be perfect for it.

Mike bought a ghost detective game that we played tonight. Everyone except Jorja. She slept and slept. We played for a few hours. It was pretty fun. One person is a ghost. We have to figure out who killed them, how they died, the motive, the location, and the weapon. The ghost communicates to us using a talking board, pipe wire things that they mold into shapes, drawing on backs, tarot cards, 3 second pantomime, and a ghost scream. I might have forgotten something, but it was really fun. Can't wait until Jorja can join us again!

Adults Blowing the Game for the Kids. Classic.

Bear dog loves the snow. He also loves his ball. And Mike. And food. Those are his favorite things. The order probably goes Mike, ball, food, snow. Three of Bears favorites collided today and he was so happy. I don't know how Mike can stand being out there so long not bundled up. Half the time he goes out there without shoes. Thankfully not today. Bear was one happy dog.

Mike & Bear

Bear

Snow duck ~ they have loved their private pond

When it is snowy outside our house gets covered in snow puddles. From the dog. This is how it happens.

The result

The rest of our family went for our corona tests today. If anyone of us was positive they would be banished with Jorja. The pros would be Jorja wouldn't be lonely. The cons would be our quarantine would start over. This lady came to our car and gave each of us these long q-tip looking things. We had to put it up each nostril and go around about five times each. They then took it back and called us in 20 minutes. They told us not to go home in case any of the tests were inconclusive. We drove around to different drive thrus and got different stuff. It was kind of fun. They called and we are all negative! Woohoo! Jorja finishes quarantine on Monday the 22nd. We finish on the 25th. We can get out Monday too if we come back and have negative tests that day. That is our plan. Mike has us scheduled for it.

Stockton and testing lady

Jorja has been feeling sick. She has lost some of her taste, but not all of it. She spent the entire day working on her story. Drawing and coloring pictures. She won't show it to me yet though. I'm glad she felt good enough to work on it. Jorja has also wanted to hear Bear howl. We have been telling her how funny it is when he thinks everyone is gone. While we were at the corona test she texted us that Bear dog was howling. He sounded so sad. Then she said he came down and found her. He came and sat on her. He loves Mike. The rest of us are poor substitutes.

We got the funniest text thread from Bubs this morning. He was reffing a game last night and the game had quite the ending. This is the story in his words. Gotta love it.

Quarantine Day 1

Today I bleached all the things. I spent forever cleaning. Deep cleaning. Not my talent, but I did it. Especially the upstairs bathroom. I bleached everything. I washed the bathmats and the shower curtains. The upstairs bathroom should be corona free. I deep cleaned the downstairs bathroom too. Jorja has hated the downstairs bathroom. Well, taking showers in it. When we first lived here Mike took out the 70s green flooring. It took longer than we expected to replace it. So, it was concrete for awhile. Jorja hated it. She said spiders were there. We got everything redone years ago. Maybe seven, I'm not sure. Jorja still refused to take a shower down there. Actually no one used it, even though I thought it was a nicer shower than the one upstairs. Jorja will have to get over her fear this week.

I got annoyed at Jorja today. We had to call the school to tell them she was positive. She wanted to be the one to call them. She is 18, so I guess that would be okay. I brought her down the phone and stood back from her. She asked me to leave. I told her I wanted to be there when she called. She told me she didn't want me there. I was furious. I left. A few minutes later she texted me and told me the school said I had to be the one to call. Too bad she didn't let me stay. Jorja said she didn't want me to get sick. I told her that if I was going to get sick I have already been infected by taking care of her, riding in the car with her, cleaning all the things. I wanted to be there to hear what the school said so I would know the rules. Now I felt like an idiot calling the school. So anyway, we had our moments today. I felt bad because I know Jorja felt awful, but at the same time I want her to stop pushing me out of her life.

Jorja slept most of the day. Her throat is sore. She aches. She has a cough. Pretty much every symptom but loss of smell and taste. She is breathing fine, so that is nice. The thing that is bothering her the most is she has a canker. That is not a corona thing, but it is driving her crazy. Jorja was able to get ahold of the Utah State people and let them know she can't come up on Wednesday. They told her she could do a virtual interview on Thursday. She is disappointed and relieved at the same time. Disappointed that she misses out on yet another thing. Relieved that she can still go forward with trying to get this scholarship. She has to give a two minute presentation on something she is passionate about. Like baseball or shoelaces. It could be anything. I told her to do it on service. She was so passionate about the Make-a-Wish thing. Jorja said that wouldn't stand out with the people she was interviewing with. She said there is nothing unique about her. (Not true) She has been messaging Kengo. She met him outside a Pizza Limone when he was playing the ukulele. He was a Utah State ambassador in college. He told her to do something to stand out during the presentation. Like he brought in his ukulele and sang his presentation. He then gave her the idea to do a story book. Jorja would do these bednight stories for awhile. Just read books on Instagram live. Like Green Eggs and Ham. Things like that. They were so funny. Kengo said she should do her presentation like that. Jorja loved that idea. She was too sick to really work on it today, but said she got all the words to the book down and she will work on the book tomorrow. Well, she will have the time to do it, so that's good I guess.

The rest of us are quarantined until Thursday February 25th. If one of us gets corona our quarantine starts over. We are getting tested tomorrow to see if anyone else has it so we don't start an infinite quarantine loop. This will be fun. The only picture I have today is Preston in a dog cage. No idea why he is there, except I think he missed his dog.

Preston & Bear

Positive

Jorja woke up feeling awful and asked if we could get her a corona test. She is paranoid because she has a huge interview at Utah State on Wednesday and is worried that she won't be herself if she doesn't know she is negative. She also starts a new job tomorrow. Mike called and they wanted her to come in today before 4:30. I asked Michael if he would drive us down. We had a nice drive and got home in plenty of time. Jorja and I went to the Overstock clinic. They come to our car and we have the results in about twenty minutes. They came and tested Jorja, then we drove to my dad's house to pick up Bear. Maysen texted asking me to video picking him up. This is the video and a picture my dad sent. He is watching Brittney's dog too. Lots of dogs. Hope Bear had fun.

Phineas, Milo, Chet (Brittney's dog), Bear

Picking up Bear

I brought Bear to the car and saw that Jorja was on the phone. She whispered "I'm positive" as I put him in the car. Yikes! I hurried back to my dad to grab the rest of Bear's stuff. I told him Jorja is positive for corona so I wasn't going to stay and chat. Luckily I wasn't close to my dad at all and was in and out of there pretty quick. I got Jorja home and situated. She has to be in her bedroom by herself and has to have her own bathroom. Hopefully no one else gets it. (They didn't) I was worried about Michael. He was nice enough to drive us all the way down and now he has been exposed. (Michael tested and was negative. Sherry was negative also. No one caught corona from Jorja. Thank goodness!) 

Mike and the kids came home around 11:30 tonight. We all need to be quarantined now. This is going to be an adventure!

Cotton Candy Cotton Candy Lollipop

I was trying to help Preston with some school work and this is the parent help guide. I think something slipped through the cracks there. As informative as "Oat cake wafer jelly...", "Pudding gingerbread pastry" and "dummies sweet roll ice-cream chocolate bar" is, it didn't help me out at all.

I found this picture. It technically was taken today, but it was from yesterday. Taken at 12:04, just past midnight. I let Ella and Giselle come over. Giselle was waiting for callbacks on the musical and was really nervous. This mandate thing is super hard. We try, but it is killing the social child. Not a problem at all for Maysen or Preston though. Giselle ended up getting the part of Jetsam in Little Mermaid and is really excited. Turns out there was something that happened yesterday.

Jorja, Ella, Giselle

The prophet spoke at 11:00 today. He challenged everyone to post on social media about what they are thankful for for the next seven days. That will be fun. Jorja had her sterling scholar interview today. It was over zoom, but the Chinese teacher didn't show up. She talked to the other teachers. They gave her the questions in English and recorded her speaking in Chinese. Her teacher will watch it later. Don't know if she will make it, but I'm glad she gave it a shot!

Jorja went on her second date with Riley. We told her she could go on two dates during the mandate. They went hiking, then got a bit lost coming home. She was a bit late for dinner, but not too bad. Preston made yummy broccoli and chicken.

Riley & Jorja

Negative

I wasn't sure what to do about the girls' doctor appointment. It was in Bountiful at 8:00 in the morning. The place opened at 8:00. So, I got the girls up and we drove the 45 minutes to the appointment. I called from the parking lot, but still no one was answering their phones. I went inside and asked the lady what I should do. She ended up rescheduling our appointment for an hour and set it up to do virtually. So, we headed back and the girls got to do a super easy appointment today. This is for their acne. Both of the girls had been on accutane and finished the regular time, but both of them have started to have acne again. So, this was just a quick appointment. They are very strict about girls because if they got pregnant the child would have problems. So, they just took a pregnancy test today. I stopped by the store and picked one up. The girls just had to show it to him. It was super easy. They get to do it virtually next time too. Wow. That will be a lot easier than before. Anyway, Jorja's test did come back today. Around 5:00 she found out she is negative. Yay!

The presidential election still hasn't been called. It looks like Biden will win though. There are still four states who are counting their votes. Arizona, Alaska, Georgia and North Carolina. Crazy that Georgia might go democrat. Biden is leading by .2%. 

I was able to finish Preston's eclairs, so they will be ready to go tomorrow. Sure love that little boy! Can't believe how fast he is growing up!

Alone at Church

Jorja and I went to get her covid test done today. Last time we had to wait for two hours. Now they only do appointments and we were done in five minutes. We didn't get her results back today though. I'm not sure what to do about her doctor appointment she has at 8:00 tomorrow morning.

Mike and I went to church by ourselves while the kids watched it online. It was good because Mike was able to ask them how the sound was and things like that. Damian sat next to me, which was so cool. I got to talk to him about going to spring training for the Reds. This is going to be so exciting to watch. Hopefully things work out for him. We played some Jackbox with my family. That was fun. I started Preston's eclairs. I worked on the cream today. That is now in the fridge outside. The eclairs take so much work, but I'm glad there is something I make that he loves so much.

Everyone got an alert on their phone that the governor was going to issue a mandate. Welp, now we have to wear masks everywhere in Utah and we are asked to just stay home. They said we weren't quarantined again, but they want us to remain with our own families. The kids can still go to school though. All before school and after school events are cancelled. Sports are cancelled, except football. College kids have to get a covid test once a week. The mandate lasts until November 23rd. Ugh. I don't know what to do. We have a lot of things planned, and we have already missed a lot of things. Jorja is sad. We have some decisions to make. I'm not sure what to do.

Week 11

First quarter

Back to Hybrid

Welp. We are back to hybrid learning. A-L goes to school on Mondays and Tuesdays. M-S goes to school on Wednesdays and Thursdays. So, Jorja was doing online school today. Packer actually did a zoom class and spent most of the time having Jorja talk about the fund raiser. She loved that! She ended up going over to Riley's to work on statistics. They have a huge test tomorrow. She didn't do well on the first one, so she is really nervous for this one. I'm proud of her for taking the test honestly. Lots of Jorja's friends FaceTime through the entire test and they are planning on doing it again. 

Jorja trying to make Bear pretty