Pool Cover

Jorja's mouth was hurting her. She does well the beginning of the day, but when the medicine starts to wear off it will hurt again. She asked if she could pick up Jamba Juice and do Chinese from home, so that is what she did today. As awful as this year has been, it has been wonderful to have the online option when you need it!

Jorja

Froggie ~ Jorja loves it when his eyes are open

Mike and I took the winter cover off of the pool today. This year we were smarter and enlisted our children. It made it so much easier! They were great helps. The pool always looks disgusting the beginning of the year. I'm glad Mike knows how to take care of everything. We had trouble closing the summer cover. It has given us trouble the last little bit. Mike figured out that it was winding up crooked, so I would turn the key as Mike would pull the cover. It took forever, but we got it. When we replaced the cover the guy asked if Mike would like to upgrade it to a nicer cover. Thinking that would be the best we went for it. Too bad it is too thick and makes winding up such a chore. Never would have thought of something like that. The pool cover pictures went in randomly... but here they are! 

Maysen & Bear

Mike & Stockton carrying away the winter cover. That sucker is heavy!

Mike figuring out why the summer pool cover is having problems. Bear keeping watch.

Mike, Preston, Stephanie working on the pool cover

We went to dinner at Italian Village. It was one of Grandma Honey's favorite restaurants and Mike had wanted to take the kids there for awhile. It is so cool to be able to hang out with my entire little family. I'm just soaking up every second while I can.

First Batch

Preston's mouth is feeling better, so I was excited to try out the waffle iron. I texted my dad several times during the making of the waffles, just to be sure I didn't mess up. Not about how to make the batter, but how to use the waffle iron. Turns out the light at the top that my dad still uses doesn't work on mine. Three minutes ended up being the perfect amount of time. Took us a bit to get there though.

First batch

Perfect

We invited Riley over for dinner today. Jorja has been upset with me that I haven't embraced Riley like his family has embraced her. So, I was trying to be a good sport and had Jorja invite him over for dinner and games. He ended up not being able to come through. His dad was sent to the hospital around 3:00 in the morning and he was there most of the day. Jorja brought them cookies and talked to Riley's mom for a bit. Jorja's dinner turned out so delicious. Her taquitos reminded me of No Names from Ixtapa in Washington. Delicious. She also made pizookies. Cookies in a dish with ice-cream.

Preston & Bear

Jorja did try and play Pandemic with us. Mike, Preston and I have been playing it a lot. It is kind of complicated to just jump into. She was completely distracted though and while we were playing realized that she had to turn in all her NHS hours and write about her service. At least she kind of tried to play with us. We will take what we can get at this point. Mike, Preston and I had fun though.

Giselle and Officer Ballard

Lunch: Jorja, Giselle, Sophie, Ella

Jorja went to Swig with Giselle after school. Dessa asked Jorja if she would want to go to Swig after school, but she already made plans with Giselle. Jorja invited her along, instead Dessa wanted to go tomorrow. That ended up being a super good thing for Jorja. Late, late, late today Dessa found out she was exposed to someone who had corona. Dessa was in Lake Powell last week and someone on that trip tested positive. Dessa skipped school on Tuesday and was tested. Wednesday she found out she was positive. Thankful Jorja wasn't closer than six feet to her for more than fifteen minutes or she would have to be quarantined now. Anyway, Jorja went to Swig with Giselle after school. They had stayed late helping Packer. Seniors in student government have their own parking spot in the faculty parking lot. Giselle is a senator, so she parks back there. When Jorja and Giselle were leaving she accidentally backed into one of the school counselor's car. The school officer was there and saw the entire thing. Neither car had a mark, but Giselle was freaked out. Although they got some fun pictures out of it.

Giselle 

Giselle & Officer Ballard

Ellie and Grace had a combined birthday party today. They rented out Classic skating. Jorja went with Bode and Ella, but I don't have pictures of that. I only have a picture with her and Riley. Grrrrrr. I do not like that she is hanging around with him again. Riley is nice, but I do not like him with Jorja. I don't want her to get attached to him again. I am not a fan.

Riley & Jorja

Dessa was at this party. It was before she found out she had been exposed to corona. Jorja spent most of the time skating. Dessa spent most of the time talking with people on the benches. That worked out well for Jorja. We are so lucky she was in a move around mood that night.

In other news.... Preston made crepes tonight and they were delicious. We were able to talk to Stockton. We talked for three hours. I loved it. I am so thankful I can hear his voice often during his mission. I did not expect that when he left. It has made the biggest difference.

Who's Kissing Me?

Mike sent a picture of the cabin snow this morning

 I sent him back a picture of Utah Snow

Cabin snow looks more fun to play in. Mike also sent a picture of the new thermostat he put it. It can be controlled by our phone so it won't be freezing when we get up there. I love that idea! Problem is it won't let the temperature get below 41 degrees. Which is a bummer when we aren't there. Let's hope this doesn't make a huge jump in our heating bill.

Jorja and I went to church alone together. I taught my Sunday school lesson and it went okay. We had dinner at Matt and Sam's house. The kids loved playing with Jorja. She had them wrapped around her finger. They loved making silly pictures on her phone. 

Jeff & Jorja

 Anne, Jeff & Jorja

 Jeff, Jorja, Anne

 Greg, Jeff, Jorja, Anne

 Anne & Jorja

Anne used a filter similar to this one that put lips on their cheeks. That made her laugh and say, "Who's kissing me?" Haha. She's a crack up!

Jorja had a prom meeting at Dallen's house tonight. After the meeting she drove up to the Draper Temple. She has been praying and praying to know what position to run for for student body office. She wants to run for financial chair, which is in charge of the fundraiser, but she is worried that she isn't supposed to run for that. She just wants a clear answer like she got when she prayed about sophomore president. The one she keeps thinking about and having ideas about is financial chair. I keep telling her that maybe that is how Heavenly Father is answering her. Anyway, this is going to be a super stressful month for her. In happy news, Mike and the other kids came back from the cabin today. It is always nice to have them home! I don't like worrying about them as they are driving. Everyone is now safe and sound. I love it.

New Ducks

Marie has to get shots every other week. She has juvenile rheumatoid arthritis. Poor girl. Not getting enough sleep, dancing all day yesterday, eating sugar and dairy have not helped her this week at all.

Rachel & Marie

 Church ~ Stephanie and Grace

Mike has been talking to a duck rescue person. He told her if she came across a girl pekin duck that he would love to take care of it. While we were at church he got this text from her and was quite excited. She came this afternoon and brought two new girl ducks. We let Maysen and Jorja name them, since Preston's duck is Quacky Chan. Jorja named her duck Angel. She was deciding between Angel and Kiki before, and now Kiki is an Angel. Maysen named her duck Cream. Maysen's duck has a hole in his foot. Poor little duckie.

 Cream, Quacky Chan, Angel

 Behind the duckhouse

Scoop and Cori came over after church and brought presents! Bubs and his family and Matt and his family came over for dinner. My dad brought lasagna. It was delicious. We had fun. We ate. The kids played together. We played games. My dad even brought cake for my birthday! Well, a big cookie and brownie. I didn't expect that and was so surprised!

Eve, Brett, Grace, Marie

I had four gingerbread houses waiting for Brett's girls. They had a great time!

 Marie ~ she made a Great Wolf Lodge cabin, complete with waterslide!

 Mina

 Grace

 Eve

I couldn't find pictures of Eve for some reason, so I took a screen shot of Eve from this video Brett sent me. Haha.

Birthday cake!

Puppet Plaque

We finally sent in the information to get Stockton's mission plaque done. For the last few years this has been part of my calling. Stockton's been out almost five months and we finally got it done. The hard part was finding a picture. Stockton didn't shave until right before he got set apart. Most of the pictures he sends home are of sunsets. This picture though... this is Stockton. Totally his personality. He told me that if he is going to be doing this for two years he might as well have fun with it. The puppet Stockton is holding was given to him by a member in Safford. He had dinner at her house and she made him a puppet. Stockton loves it.

 It will be nice to see Stockton's plaque move up! I sure do miss my boy.

We had a ward parent missionary dinner tonight at the Clark's house. It was so much fun. I think all the parents were able to come except Severine's and Jordan's. Landon comes home in six weeks. Wow! Soon the Maxfield's will be kicked out of our club! Jaxson is the next one coming home. Suzanne said, "No worries about me! I'm circling around!" Haha! She also has Dylan out who comes home in January and Noah has his call and will be leaving this summer. Noah actually leaves one week before Jaxson gets home. Wow. She had three missionaries out earlier too, when Indy was out. I guess that is what happens when you have lots of boys and two of them are twins.

Blake had his championship All Star game today. They came through the loser bracket, so they have to win this team twice. Mike gave us his login and password for the Game Changer app and we were able go get updates on his game. Blake's team won, so they will play tomorrow for the official championship. Fun!

Texts

I taught today. It went okay. Despite the fact that the fire alarm went off during my lesson. We ended up finishing it outside. I studied hard for this one, but ended up teaching something completely different. The kids paid attention though, so that's a win. Ian came to church today. I saw him walk in and knew he would be looking for Jorja. I walked with him to the Sunday school class and knocked on the window. Jorja came out and gave Ian the biggest hug. They ended up talking for two hours after church. Jorja is fearless and so kind.

We had family dinner at Matt and Sam's today. We brought apple cider and it was delicious. It is nice getting together and someone else's house once in awhile. A lot less stressful on us! It was easier for Sam too. Hopefully Bubs and Ange will be able to come to the next dinner though.

Mike wants to give Jorja's old phone to Preston and have Preston use Stockton's phone number while he is on his mission. I think it's crazy for Preston to have a phone this young, but Mike really wants to save Stockton's number for him. If we are going to be paying for it, we might as well be using it. Everything transferred to Jorja's new phone except her texts. I went through a lot of them and took screenshots of some she might want to save. My absolute favorite texts were the ones between her and Stockton. Here are a few of them, in random order. These two crack me up!