Rats

Jorja did her dance post on Instagram. I got a kick out of her photoshopping. She cracks me up. I was too lazy to crop them, so.....

Mike is so happy with his ducks. He has a camera set up in their house and checks on them all the time. He sent me this picture.

Quacky Chan and Quackletta enjoying their front porch

 Mike has also been catching rats that like to eat the duck food and pond liner

We had dinner today with Steve Lovell. He was a high counselor speaking in Jordyn's singles ward. She went up to him after and said, "I think we're related." Yep. Uncle Ray's son, I think. Anyway he invited us over for dinner. They are doing remodeling on their house, so I wasn't able to invite my brothers. Heather had already invited her brothers before she found out, so they left their kids home. It was so fun to be with my family. I just love them.

Nathan, Bobby, Devin, Jordyn, Steve's daughter, Stephanie, Heather, Maysen, Steve, Preston, Jorja, Mike

Russell and Kevin

Mike has been so happy that Quackletta is laying eggs again. He has dreams of baby chicks hopping around. Soon Quackletta will gather these eggs to her nest. She is such a good mommy. Hopefully her eggs will hatch this time.

Mike spent the day getting things ready for Jorja's after dance party. They are going to go night swimming while watching Megamind. They also have stuff for smores.

Jorja and Emily spent most of the morning getting everything ready. They planned on painting at the park, but it was cold and kind of rainy. Instead they set everything up at Emily's house. When Jorja and Emily were at Smith's Jorja saw Hadley-Kate. Emily was supposed to assassinate her. Jorja pointed her out. Emily jumped out of the car before she completely stopped it, ran up to Hadley-Kate and assassinated her. Emily said it was the best moment of her life. Haha!

Spencer & Jorja (Katlyn and Emily as well)

Jorja and Spencer

The theme for Sadie's was 'Night at the Movies'. Jorja wanted to be Kevin from Up and convinced Spencer to be Russell. She looked adorable, as always. Jorja went with a group of close friends. This is Jorja's 7th school dance. The crazy thing is that out of all 7 dances, every girl and boy has been different except one. Ellie Anderson was in her Sadie's group last year and in her Sweethearts group this year. I love that Jorja has such a wide variety of friends and that she feels comfortable with so many different people.

Spencer (Russell) and Jorja (Kevin)

 Madison & Jorja

 Jorja and Spencer

Spencer and Jorja

Chick-Fil-A friends

Josh & Madison (Ken & Barbie), Jorja & Spencer

The girls . . . Emily, Madison, ???, Jorja, Sami, Hailey, Katlyn

Jorja went to Pizza Limone for dinner. She has been carrying around her nerf sword religiously. Well, wouldn't you know it. When she went to dinner she forgot and left her sword in the car. While she was in line she saw Jordan coming up to her with a big grin on his face. She backed away saying, "No! No! No!" But there was absolutely nothing she could do. She is glad that she didn't get out on the first two days though, but she wishes she would have lasted a bit longer.

I helped Mike get ready and then snuck down to Thanksgiving Point to Paige's wedding reception. Paige is my first beehive to get married. Wow! Her reception was beautiful. There was lots of dancing. I hung out with Ron and Javita Henderson. It was a good time. Paige changed her first name when she was changing her last one. She is now Samantha Paige. Her mom convinced her to keep Paige as a middle name. She told her how much of a pain it would be to try and get birth records/transcripts or whatever if it was gone. Her husband has always known Paige as Sam. That is what she was introducing herself as in Hawaii when they met. I hope my kids like the names Mike and I picked out for them.

Stephanie and Paige

This dance was the last dance that will be held in the Commons. Next year all the dances will be in the gym while the commons is under construction. Jorja had such a good time. The kids then came here and watched Megamind. It was so cold outside, but Mike had the pool at 98 degrees. They did not get out of the pool until they were ready to go! The firepit was untouched. That's okay. Fun to see so many kids enjoying the pool.

 Jorja & Spencer

Stunned

Jorja was so nervous going to school today! She knew she could be assassinated, but Sydni wasn't going to be there. She would be at physics Lagoon day. At least Jorja assumed she would. Hailey got killed at lunch. They were staying in the English room because it was scary. Emily wanted to go get lunch. Hailey didn't want to. She said she had a feeling she was going to get killed at lunch. Emily told her she wouldn't and convinced her to go. She got killed at lunch. Jorja found out who had her name and was looking for him when she left her last class of the day. She was so nervous because she had to stay after to decorate for Sadie's. As she was leaving theater, a different person tried to assassinate her! Jordan Robinson. Luckily Jorja stunned him. He gave her a fist bump and told her good job. I guess Ian Valentine had her name first. Then another kid that tried to kill her after her advisory class, but Jordan killed him as he was trying to get to her. Now she knows who is after her, but he has said his phrase so he can be sneaky. It did make decorating a lot less stressful!

Jorja with her weapon

I drove Jorja's car down to the school and Maysen picked me up. Jorja had brought her keys. I had all of Jorja's work clothes in there so she could go straight to work. She had to leave decorating early and ended up being twenty minutes late to work. She left early enough, there was just a ton of traffic that isn't normally there. She was not happy about that. She said she got in trouble for leaving early, then in trouble again for arriving late.

I finished all the cross stitch parts on Marie's stocking! I love it! Now all I have is outlining left. There is a lot of that though. It's going to be so pretty!

UP

I took Maysen to Provo early this morning. I walked her into the LDS Storymakers conference. They gave her a bag and her ID, which was actually Kathy's ID. Kathy was Sam's old boss. She signed up for the conference but wasn't able to come. Maysen got to go to the classes she preregistered for and also got her lunch. Pretty neat deal. I picked her up this afternoon and we went to Village Inn together. Mike texted me this picture of Preston when we were there. He told me he was going to have Preston mow the lawn. I just didn't expect this! Mike brought this lawnmower back from the cabin. It is smaller than the one we brought from Georgia. Still, Preston didn't weigh enough to make it go uphill, so Mike needed to help him out.

Preston

Jorja went to the temple and did baptisms with Spencer this morning. They were supposed to go with a group, but everyone else couldn't make it. Spencer even asked Emily to go and she said yes. He didn't realize that Emily isn't a member. They went to breakfast after and went shopping for their costumes. Emily and Tyler were with them by that time. I think Hailey too, but I'm not sure. Spencer and Jorja are going to be characters from UP. Spencer is going to be Russell and Jorja is going to be Kevin. Russell is the scout and Kevin is the snipe bird that Russell is searching for. Jorja found stuff to make her costume. I don't think Spencer had any luck this trip.

Jorja & Spencer

Fish in the Sea

Mike woke up to a snowy surprise that he wasn't too happy about. Hard to work outside with that white stuff everywhere. He did bring in our old trash compactor that has been sitting outside the cabin. He decided against tearing up a cabinet right now. Thought he would see how useful the trash compactor is first. It's really hard getting all the trash out of the cabin. Everything has to be packed out and usually cars are already full. It would be cool if the compactor helped this situation.

I proctored an AP psychology test today. Jorja had work. We went to the bank before work and ordered Jorja checks and a new debit card. She had lost hers a few days ago and we couldn't find it anywhere. Turns out the card was already cancelled. Someone must have found it and cancelled it. Jorja's hoping she will have her card for Sadie's. Speaking of Sadie's, Spencer answered her tonight. I can not believe I didn't take a picture. I can't find one anywhere. His poster said something like, "Of all the fish in the sea, I'm glad you picked me!" He had Swedish fish and gold fish with it.

Stephanie & Jorja

IHOPE

I checked Jorja out of school to go to therapy today. This was the first day her therapist from last year was back from maternity leave. It seemed to go well. She asked if she could see Jorja next week or in two weeks. We decided to go again two weeks from now. I dropped Jorja back at school to go to theater, but then waited to pick her up the second school got out. We hurried home grabbed her work clothes and she was off again. She was meeting student government to go to a retirement home. She got a little lost, but eventually found it and had a great time.

Mia, Jorja, Aysha

Jorja picked up Luke after work and brought him here. He was helping her ask Spencer to Sadie's. She had an IHOP sign and a stack of pancakes that said her name. Turned out really cute. I was super annoyed with her though. I thought she was just dropping it off and would be back right away. That is how it has happened every other time she has asked or answered a boy. Not this time. She was gone for at least an hour! I guess they hid and watched him get the poster. All of his family came out and took pictures. They were out there for fifteen minutes according to Jorja. She then texted him and asked him to come and say hi. He invited her inside and they stayed for a long time. I was so frustrated. And tired. Mike has the temple in the morning and it is hard not to sleep when she isn't home. Mike usually gets up at 4:30 on temple days. Anyway, she is back now. I'm glad she had fun, but I wish she would be aware of the time.

Luke

 Jorja & Luke

First Date

Preston had his piano recital today. He is my fourth child and is parented like it. I can honestly say I have never heard him practice either of the pieces he played in his recital. He either practiced while I was gone, practiced on Stockton's piano downstairs or is an excellent sight-reader!

Preston

Preston's first song was too long to upload, but here is his second one.

Preston, Taggart, Hadley-Kate, Liam's brother, pretty girl, boy, Liam, Sister Newman, Liam's other brother

Ava, two boys, three pretty girls

Today was Jorja's first official date. Technically she went out with Mackie yesterday as part of the date today; but yesterday I wanted to put the title as Engineering Project, so I'm claiming her first date as today. Jorja spent all day getting ready. I would never have the patience to spend that much time on hair/makeup. She was trying to get her hair in a weird 50s updo. She got frustrated. I think she looks great like this. Clair picked her up first. I snapped a few quick pictures before she walked out the door.

Jorja

 For some reason I snapped a picture of the car as it drove away.

Fifteen minutes after Jorja left we got a call from her. She had been in a car accident. Claire, Jorja and Mackie were in the car. They were driving to pick up Claire's date. A lady ran a red light. She was also speeding. The car was totaled. We are so lucky that the three kids in the car were just bruised. This could have been so bad. The lady wasn't hurt either. Jorja said she was acting pretty mad at them. Jorja was looking down at her phone. When she looked up the car was right there. She said everything went in slow motion. She vividly remembers watching the car hood crumple up. They spun around. She felt like she was in a movie. All three kids were super quiet while this was happening. Mackie threw out his arm to hold Jorja in. He wasn't wearing a seatbelt, so glad he stayed in the car! Claire's leg started bruising up right away. Jorja has had chest and neck pain for a few days since the accident. Mackie's back was pretty sore by the end of the day. Still, so lucky! To think, I had been so worried about her being in a car accident the night before when they were driving up the canyon in the dark. I didn't worry about it in the dry daytime!

Jorja said Claire was crying. She felt so bad. She kept apologizing for ruining Jorja's first date. Claire's parents came down and were with them while they dealt with the aftermath. They had to stay at the crash site for a good hour. I am so glad that Jorja called us. One of our neighbors called us and asked if Jorja was in an accident. They had driven by. So glad we found out from Jorja and already knew she was okay! Claire has a twin sister, Sydney, she went and picked up Claire's date. The group was meeting at the football field. The other kids waited there for Jorja and her group to arrive. They were able to snap a few pictures before they hurried off to dinner.

Jorja and Mackie

 Maggie & Maggie's date, Jorja & Mackie, Liz & Darby, Sydney & Max, Hasti, Finn & Ellie, Christian & Brinley, Jared & Kenzie, Griffin & Claire

Hasti is by herself because her date got sick. At least she was able to go with him last night. She was a pretty good sport to go to the dance and not let that spoil her night.

 Jorja, Sydney, Kenzie, Brinley, Liz, Claire, Ellie, Hasti, Maggie

The kids then went and ate at Sonic and were able to be at the dance for about an hour. Claire's parents took them to the football field. They were split into different cars after that, so Jorja and Mackie were no longer driving together. Jorja had fun being there at the end of the dance. They do this weird circle/cheer thing. The student body and class officers all get to lead the cheer from the middle of the circle. She loved it. After the dance everyone went to Kenzie's house. They wrestled and played games and then came home. I was so happy to have her home! Overall, Jorja had a great first date. She could have done without the car accident though. She'll never be able to say her first date wasn't memorable!

Liz, Jorja, Ellie, Hasti

Stockton meanwhile had a fun time of his own. He went downtown and hung out with his diving friends. They played Mario Kart, ping pong and one other game. Stockton never lost a game. He got home shortly after Jorja did. Stockton, Jorja and I stayed up talking until 1:30 in the morning. We are going to be tired tomorrow!