First Day of School

Today was the first day of school. AHHHHH! It seems like we didn't even have a summer. Well, Stockton basically didn't have a summer. Like it or not, it is starting today.

Stockton ~ 12th grade ~ I'm going to cry

 Jorja ~ 9th grade

 Jorja & Stockton ~ I'm thrilled they will be at the same school this year

 There they go

 I couldn't help following them . . . barefoot and everything

 At the bus stop

 They were not amused. They made me go away. :(

 My super secret photo taking skills of them getting on the bus . . . yeah, my skills need work

 Preston ~ 5th grade

 Now I'm all alone.

Collin Jeffrey

My brother John texted this picture this morning.  His newest baby was born at 5:55 am.  5 pounds 10 ounces.

Collin Jeffrey

WHAT?????  He is a tiny little guy!  Stockton was 5 weeks early and weighed 5 pounds 9 ounces.  Collin was 5 DAYS early and weighed 5 pounds 10 ounces.  John said the doctor told him it might be because his umbilical cord was super twisty.  I hope he is okay because that is way tiny.  I wish I could hold him!  I can't wait to find out more about him.  Stockton is disappointed that they didn't name him Kyle.  That is the name he was rooting for.

I watched Millie today.  I went and picked up Ange and Millie and dropped Ange off at her doctor appointment.  Millie and I watched ponies.  It was great.  She let me work on Cassie's Christmas stocking while the show was on.

After school I took Jorja to the dermatologist.  She has been begging me to get an appointment for awhile.  I have procrastinated because that is what I do best.  Also, her breakouts aren't even close to being bad.  Anyway, the doctor gave her some prescription face washing stuff. When we went to get it filled the lady said, "It would be $500 without insurance, let's see how much your insurance takes off."  My heart dropped!  There was no way I was going to pay $500.  I was trying to think what I would be willing to pay when the lady said that the insurance took it down to $5 a piece.  I was okay paying $10.  I wonder how much the medicine really costs.

Eleventh and Fourth

My boys started school today.  Stockton humored me with a first day of school picture but would not hold up one finger on both hands to make 11.  Oh well, I'll take what I can get!

Stockton

Stockton did not think he needed more than one picture.  He hid around the corner, but I chased him down!

 Refusing to put on his backpack for me

 Stockton finally agreed because he didn't want me

to follow him all the way to his bus stop!

Stockton had finance, AP Stats, AP physics with Calculus and AP US History today.  Lots of disclosures!  The physics teacher is new, I was kind of worried.  The old teacher was great!  He won teacher of the year for the entire district two years ago.  When I asked Stockton about his physics teacher his reply was, "He's amazing."  When I wondered if he was being serious he laughed and told me all about how funny he was. Let's just hope it stays this way!  There are only 12 people in the class, so that is another added bonus.

Here is a picture of Jorja leaving to school.  I had to chase her down too.  At least I got pictures yesterday!  Jorja didn't have as good a day as Stockton.  She doesn't like a lot of her teachers.  Her math teacher she had last year, Jorja didn't like her at all.  She complained about her all year.  The only thing keeping her in that class is Katlyn.  Oh boy. Her English teacher is the one that hated Stockton.  Jorja is intimidated of her because of that.  Most people seem to like her, Jorja does not want her to find out that Stockton is her brother!

Jorja

Preston had a great day.  He is going to love this year.  I am not worried about him at all!

Preston

 Preston doesn't understand why I want him to hold up 4 fingers

 Fine Mom!  That doesn't look creepy at all!

 He did let me follow him and get as many pictures as I wanted.

 There he goes!

 Still using Jorja's backpack.  He's so low maintenance.

 My boys!

Stockton & Preston

Jorja had her first softball practice today.  I dropped her off and was so thrilled to see her talking to a few different people.  She knew two girls from softball camp and one girl who was on her team last year.  (Not last spring, but last year)  I couldn't stay, but I got back a few minutes before practice was over.  Jorja cried on the way home.  She is so scared and nervous.  This coach yells.  She has never had a coach that yells before.  Jorja's scared of her already.  She wants to play catcher, but is afraid the coach will yell at her and tell her she is a bad catcher.  Jorja doesn't think she's going to like it.  I told her this is probably a good stepping stone to see how much she likes softball.  She really wanted to be on a competitive team, but hasn't played long enough to be able to make one of those.  If this coach makes her hate softball, I'm sure the competitive teams would be worse.  If she still loves softball after this then she'll probably love it forever.  I guess we'll wait and see what happens.  I wish Jorja had a better day.  It didn't help that I got frustrated with her at the end of the day.  Right at bed time she mentions that she wants to redo her summer math homework.  She had all summer to do this, so it was pretty annoying.  I was sitting by her ready to explain things if she needed and she submitted it without asking me.  That kind of frustrated me, especially since she couldn't understand why she got some answers wrong.  She always complains about not understanding math, but she will never ask me for help. Right now I can totally help her and I would love to help her.  I can not help at all when she gets to Stockton's stage!  I wish she would listen to me instead of feeing she needs to do everything on her own.  I love that she's independent, but sometimes asking for help is not a bad thing.  I snapped at her which made her cry, which annoyed me because she can't handle any type of redirection.  That makes me frustrated which gets me upset and I really snap at her to stop crying because there was no reason for her to cry in the first place.  By snapping at her the second time it gives her a reason to cry and on and on it goes.  In conclusion, Jorja didn't have a great day.  I didn't handle it well at the end.  She'll survive.  Hope I can survive her teenage years.  I think she is going to make this a lot harder than Maysen did!

Speaking of Maysen, I miss her!  I texted her and asked how her day was.  She said, "Long and frustrating."  I asked what was frustrating and she texted back, "Blog".  This blog is going to be a blessing and a curse!

Meeting Teachers

Jorja's first day of 8th grade was today . . . kind of.  She is part of the WEB program.  The WEB program is an orientation for the new 6th graders.  Jorja went twice last week getting ready for today. She was given a group of 6th graders to be in charge of.  She did a tour of the school, played games, did question and answers . . . she basically worked with them for 1/2 the day.  She was a bit nervous, but it all worked out.

Jorja

 Jorja & Hailey

Stockton went to school to get his ID picture taken.  We also walked around and found his classes and locker.  He has a pretty good setup, so that will be great.  Preston had his 'Meet the Teachers' night.  His English teacher is Mrs. Mickelsen -- so excited about that!!!!  His Chinese teacher is Mrs. Chung -- also excited about that.  Mrs. Chung was Preston's 2nd grade Chinese teacher.  We love her!  Preston is in the 'Red Utes' class.  The other class is the 'Blue Navajos'.  He will be with Brian and Able, but not with Burke and Griffin.  In the past, the kids go to English first for a month, then Chinese first for a month. This time they will switch every day.  I think that is great!  Preston will start in English, around lunch he will switch to Chinese.  They won't have to switch at the end of the day because they will just start in the Chinese class the next day.  Mrs. Mickelsen said they figured it saved over an hour in class time per week.  I am excited for Preston's school year!  It's going to be great!

Mrs. Mickelsen & Preston

 Preston & Mrs. Chung

We watched Anne and Jeff today so Matt and Sam could go to the temple.  Jeff was not happy about that!  He cried and cried!  After I fed him dinner he seemed to warm up to me.  He didn't want to be put down, but at least he wasn't crying!  When Mike came home I asked if he could hold Jeff so I could fold the last load of laundry.  Jeff didn't like that!  He calmed down once Mike held him in the football hold and even fell asleep for about three minutes!  The kids had fun playing with Anne.  She freaked out when she saw the toy snake in the kitchen. Stockton had fun teasing her with it.  He videoed it, but I haven't gotten a chance to see it.

Jorja blew up an air mattress for Stockton to sleep on.  The first two days Maysen was gone Jorja slept in the boys room.  The next two days they slept in her room.  Stockton was uncomfortable but told Jorja if she got a bed ready for him he would sleep in there.  Jorja does not want to sleep alone.  Hopefully she will get over that.

I texted Maysen last night and asked her to text me a first day of school selfie tomorrow.  She called me a crazy lady.  Haha!  Man, I miss her!  I hope her year is the best she's ever had!

First Day of School

And so we begin...... I got Maysen up bright and early at 5:00.  Her internal time clock is completely messed up right now.  She had to hurry and get ready so she could leave by 5:45.  She is doing early morning seminary this year.

Maysen ~ 12th grade

While she was gone we got Stockton and Jorja up.  Mike gave each of them a father's blessing.  I was able to go back to the school and pick up Maysen before I needed to leave with these guys.  This is going to be a crazy year figuring out how to get everyone to the places they need to be.

Stockton ~ 10th grade

 Stockton was very glad

this is the last year I will make him hold up fingers.

 Jorja ~ 7th grade

 Haha!  I get a few more years to torture this one!

 Jorja's school project ~ a banner about herself

Mike gave Maysen and Preston a father's blessing after the other two left for school.  I'm grateful Mike is able to do this for them.  I think lessens the kids anxiety as they start a new school year.  We had to hurry to get Preston out the door.  I drove him down the street so he wouldn't miss the bus.  We didn't make it.  The bus is suppose to pick up the kids at 8:20.  It drove away at 8:15.  What's up with that?

Preston ~ 3rd grade  

 Many years left of torturing!

He does his threes weird.  Although that might be the

official way to do 3s in sign language....(?)

 My babies!

It's weird that this is the last year of regular life with them.  I hope it doesn't go by too fast.  I'm going to miss having them all live under the same roof as me.  Maysen got to hang out with me this morning since her vet program doesn't start until Monday.  By hang out I mean she wrote stories on her computer.  Maysen only had only one class at high school today.  She will be taking a night math class at the college campus since they dropped the class she needed.  Still annoyed at that.

Jorja had her first softball practice of the season today.  She was so excited and happy to see her softball friends.  Although there is one girl who is not playing this season that Jorja really, really wanted to play with again.  That's too bad.  We got back pretty late for a school night. Mike made the kids scones for dinner.  Happy, happy children!

First Day of 11th Grade, First Day of 2nd Grade

Maysen and Preston started school today.  I let Maysen choose the breakfast.  She chose crepes.  Maysen tolerated my picture taking, Preston loved it.  Stockton loved not being in any pictures.  I didn't get around to taking them school shopping, whoops.  Both Maysen and Preston chose shirts we got on vacation.  Glad they like them, we sure have had a lot of fun together!

Maysen's a junior!

 Preston's first day of school!

 2nd grade!

 He was really excited about that.

 There goes my baby!

I spent most of the day getting ready for John and Cassie.  They drove from Oregon today!  Mike did such a good job with the guest room. Adorable.  My family might recognize the comforter.  It is from the cabin.  One day someone called me up and asked if I would like it.  I think it looks great in this room.

Preston got to pick dinner tonight.  He picked fish, carrots, pineapple and homemade bread.  I didn't have time to make the bread (and still haven't found all the parts to my mixer), so he settled for some store bought rolls.

John and Cassie came in time for dinner.  Funny this is the only picture of them that I got!  We made a smoothie and put it in the pineapple. That was a hit!

Mallory & Preston

Mallory slept in the girls room and Trevor slept in the boys room.  My kids all slept in the motorhome.  It worked out really well.  Preston loved sleeping there on a school night.  Something he never got to do before.  John and I got in a quick game of Dominion before bed.  It is wonderful having my brothers over!