Clark Kent

I feel A LOT better today. By this afternoon I was ready to get out and do some errands. I took Preston to find his classes at Alta today. We met his advisory teacher, Coach Webb. I was worried because I had never met her and had no idea what she is like. She was so nice to Preston. I think she will be great. It is so crazy that my baby is about to start high school. I wish he was able to have Jorja here with him. 

Stairwell up to his first class ~ math

Preston

I took this for Jorja. Memories....

We found all of his classes, even his AP Computer Science class that wasn't on the map. We also found his locker, but it isn't working yet. They still have to program the combinations. We left the high school and went to pick up Preston's glasses. He looks so different and so much older with them on. I think he likes them. They are not super strong, so he won't have to wear them all the time, but they will be nice to have. His prescription is -1 in both eyes.

Preston

Alia came down and picked up his truck. Stockton loved seeing him. President Grisel also texted Stockton today. What an amazing text! Val is his son who has just started his mission to South Africa.

In weird news, you can not see the mountains outside. I wish I had taken a picture. We got a call from the school that all outdoor events were cancelled because of the dangerous air quality. Today was supposed to be the first day of football season. The air is so bad because of fires that are in California and Oregon. The smoke has become stuck in the valley. So that's fun.

Jorja went out with friends. She brought them over after awhile and we played Jackbox with them. Ella, Megan and Lily were here. It was a lot of fun. 

Ella, Jorja, Lily, Megan

Interviews and Goodbyes

Stockton woke up early to coach diving at Pepperwood. Jorja woke up early to go on a hike with Riley. He was set apart today as a missionary, so Jorja had a happy/sad day. Maysen had a job interview over zoom that went really well. It is a technical writing job. They asked her to come in person on Friday. Preston and I had an eye doctor appointment. We got glasses for Preston. His first time. His vision is -1 in both eyes, so not bad but enough glasses will be helpful to see the board at the front of the classroom. His plan is to keep them in his backpack and pull them out when needed. Mike still loves his ducks. That is today in a nutshell.

Ducks 

Riley & Jorja

New Glasses

I got to have lunch with Heather and Jordyn today! Lunch with those girls is one of my favorite things! It was so great to see them. We met at Chipotle in Murray, kind of between both of their offices. It's amazing how fast time flies with them. As we were packing up I realized I couldn't find my keys. I looked everywhere. Even around the trash can and I asked at the front. Heather and Jordyn walked with me to the car and helped me look there. Jordyn was looking through the windows and I was looking under the car. That was when Heather pulled my keys out of her bag. Hahaha! She had absentmindedly picked them up off the table and put them in her purse. I'm so glad she didn't drive off with them!

I finally got around to taking Jorja to get glasses. Her old glasses are kind of broken and the prescription is really wrong. She has been wearing daily contacts, which she loves. The only problem is her eyes start to hurt at the end of the day. It would be so nice for her to be able to take them out and still see. Also, if she had glasses she wouldn't need to wear her contacts every day. She picked out some giant frames. I hope she likes them.

Jorja

 Jorja's new glasses

 This picture of Olivia hugging Jorja makes me laugh.

Jorja made it to young women today, which is where this picture was taken. I'm glad she is feeling more comfortable with the other girls in the ward. Everyone sure adores her, it's weird that she isn't aware of that.

Eye Test

Everyone in the family got their eyes looked at today except me.  Mike came home early from work and took Maysen, Jorja and Preston.  I took Stockton straight from dive practice and met Mike there. Preston's eyes are fine right now, but one eye is starting to go bad. Jorja has the worst eyes of the kids.  Maysen and Stockton's eyes both improved. That surprised me.  Mike's eyes are horrible.  No surprise there.  He is getting glasses and hopefully that will help with his headaches.  He can't get contacts because there is so much scaring on his eye.  He had radial keratotomy seven times twenty years ago.  About ten years ago he had PRK surgery.  He has another surgery scheduled for next Friday.  There is a weird bump in the corner of his eye.  He tried to pop it with a needle the other day. I couldn't even watch. Anyway, looks like it needs to be surgically removed.

Jorja had a friend Hailey come over and watch movies.  She wanted Hailey to come over at 1:00 and come to the eye appointment with us. I tried to convince her that she would be incredibly bored and feel awkward.  Finally we just told her there was not going to be room in the jeep.  Don't know why we didn't realize that before!  Mike took my van and picked her up on the way home while I stayed with Stockton.  They seemed to have a lot of fun.  Jorja made red velvet cream cookies for the event. They were quite delicious.

Glasses

My beautiful Porge needs glasses. At the start of the school year she kind of complained that she couldn't see that well. I was wondering if she just wanted glasses like Maysen. They were about to have vision screening at the school, so I waited. I didn't hear anything from the vision screening, so I did nothing. She would complain once in awhile, but nothing I took too seriously. This week she said, "Mom, I can't see the board. I have to walk to the front of the classroom to see." Hmmm. That is a little more specific. I guess it wouldn't hurt to get your eyes checked. Well, my Porge was right. She needs glasses. The doctor said she needs to wear them all the time . . . except when reading or at the computer. He even said, "At this age, sometimes the kids will think glasses are cool and try to trick their parents into getting them. That is not the case here, she needs the glasses." Oops. Sorry that you couldn't see the board all year! On a side note, our vision insurance is a joke. It covered (I'm not kidding) FIVE DOLLARS. That was it. Pathetic.

Jorja

For Valentine's Day I got Mike tickets to see Zorro at the Hale theater. We took Stockton with us. I was really excited to see it. We had great seats. I thought it was a lot of fun, but it was a little slow moving in parts. There was a lot of dancing and singing. Stockton was a trooper and handled it well. It was fun to have him with us.

Mike, Stockton, Stephanie

The is the only picture I took while we were there. I couldn't see in the view finder, then the flash was so bright . . . oh well.

Mike, Guys Legs, Stockton

One funny thing was Zorro threw his hat and cape to land on the platform right by us. He missed with his cape and it landed on one of the girls front of us. As he was making his exit off stage, he grabbed it and whispered (kind of loud) 'sorry'. I don't know how to explain it, but it was really funny. Louise who was still on stage worked hard to keep a straight face on that one. The Hale Theater is really cool because it is an amphitheater. The stage is really small, which makes it quite fun. I'm excited to see more plays here in the future.

Broken to Pieces

I broke the lid to Maysen's pot today. I had washed it in the dishwasher, and as Maysen and I were unloading the dishes - I dropped it. I was so sad. Maysen was so proud of this pot, and I love all of the pieces she was able to make. I couldn't believe I dropped it. Everything happened in slow motion. I was crying telling Maysen how sorry I was. That bothered Preston. He kept looking at me and saying, "It's easy to fix, you can tape it . . . you can glue it." I don't think he liked to see me cry. Mike meanwhile was dancing around singing, "Blog, blog, bloggedy blog" and "I'm glad it wasn't me! I'm glad it wasn't me!"

I took Maysen to the doctors today for a check-up. I needed to get a hearing and vision form signed. Long story short, we are going to the eye doctor tomorrow. Besides telling her that she will most likely be 4'11" (which we pretty much knew), she will most likely need glasses. She was pretty upset about that. It came as such a shock to her that she couldn't see. She doesn't want to have braces and glasses. The good news at the check-up was the doctor said Maysen's back was looking great. I told Maysen to look on the bright side. I'm sure she would rather need glasses than have to wear a brace for scoliosis.