Warrior of the Month

I messaged Brian this morning asking a few questions about Jorja's scholarship. He was so nice and answered all my questions. We were very happy to find out that if Jorja went to school for a year and then went on a mission, she could start again in January. Originally we thought she had to commit for year blocks at a time. Brian said that she needs to go one full year and then after that they have more flexibility. Yay! Great news. Lots of decisions coming Jorja's way.

Jorja didn't have school today. They juniors are taking the ACT test. She was able to come with me to Preston's Warrior of the Month ceremony. That was nice because Mike had a meeting and wasn't able to go. They had the room set up all fancy. There were four students receiving the award, but only three of them were there. Preston knew Paxton from Chinese. He didn't know the other girl. It was very socially distant. It was really nice. Well done Preston! (The pictures are kind of out of order again, but I am very tired.....)

Preston & Jorja

Mrs. Merket taking pictures of Paxton, Preston and another girl

Principal Graham & Preston

Action shot. Mrs. Merket sent me these

Jorja, Preston, Stephanie

Preston

Preston needed a yearbook picture taken. Mrs. Merket was doing that here.

Stephanie, Preston, Jorja

These were surprisingly good

Preston's yearbook photo

BYU played Gonzaga today. The first half was AMAZING! Couldn't pull it off though. I had to laugh when I saw this on the screen. I didn't know you played college basketball Justin!

Fudge

I got a phone call from Indian Hills Middle School today. It was Kathy Leatherwood! She asked if I received a letter about Preston. I told her no, but then looked in my pile of mail and found it. It was sent a few weeks ago. Whoops. Kathy told us that the letter was to inform us that Preston was chosen as 'Warrior of the Month'. He was nominated by one of his teachers, then all of his other teachers had to sign off on him. Pretty cool, especially since he had two Fs at the time. (Don't worry, he brought those up. Online school has been weird.) Anyway, I was able to talk with Kathy for awhile. It was so fun! I found out Leslie is moving from Tennessee to Oklahoma. Hope they love it there.

My brothers were talking about fudge in our group chat. My dad makes the best fudge. Bubs has mastered it too. Brett is working on it. I need to learn to do this. It was my favorite growing up. Mike doesn't like rich deserts very much, so I never made this often. It is so good though!

Bye-Bye Village Inn

I took Preston with me to parent/teacher conference. They have had student led conferences for the past several years, which I HATE. They didn't do that this time, so we went around to all of his teachers. Preston begged me not to go to his Chinese teacher, but I went anyway. The teacher was kind of a jerk to him and I felt bad. I had asked Preston if he wanted to go out to dinner afterwards, but when we finished he was so sad he just wanted to go home. I told him tacos were for dinner at home. (Leftovers from last night.) Preston is not a taco fan. I expected Preston to just want to get something simple, but then he asked if there was anywhere he could have steak. Mike and Preston went shopping on Saturday of the taco stuff. They got some steak and Mike had it out for the girls. There was plenty. Mike and I both had some, but somehow Preston missed out. He was disappointed. So, today we got to make it up to him. We went to Texas Roadhouse. It was Preston's first time there and he LOVED it. Jorja was at work and Maysen never wants to go here again. She had a bad experience once. On the way to the restaurant we passed Village Inn. It looked dark. I got out and ran up to the door. There was a sign that it is permanently closed. NOOOOO!!!! That restaurant opened when we were in highschool! So many good memories there. Although it was a lot nicer twenty-five years ago. Wish we had known it was closing so we could have gone one more time.

Maysen texted me this afternoon. She applied for a job at the Friend. Today they contacted her for an interview! She made it past the first two steps! There are about 80 people applying for this job, so it is a long shot, but wouldn't it be soooo cool??? Maysen would be amazing at that job. Anyways, this means we get to see Maysen tomorrow! She is coming down after class. She has one class on Wednesday and one class on Thursday. She was able to contact both of them and they let her turn in her stuff early and wished her luck. Next week is Spring Break for her, so she gets to start it early!!!

Arduino

Preston had a book report project due today. They were supposed to read a 'how-to' book, then make a locker and decorate the locker as if what they learned was a person. Anyway, Preston chose to read an Arduino book. Mike and Preston had fun working on his locker. The locker would open when you pushed a button. They 3D printed something that looked like a locker combination lock. When the button was pushed it moved back and forth like it was unlocking itself. It was quite amazing. Too bad that something went wrong in the transfer and the button stopped working. Preston is going to try and fix it tomorrow. They think it just needs something to support it. Like if they duct tape a knife behind it, or something so it doesn't fall in too much when the button is pushed. Anyway, the entire project is amazing.

Preston

Chief Ouray

It was history day at Preston's school. Mike and I went down there to see Preston's presentation. He made a website and had information about Chief Ouray. He did such a great job. His teachers told us how impressed they were with him. I guess they asked the students to use a certain program and it didn't work very well at all, especially the layout. Preston figured out workarounds and made his look much better than the program was letting them. Haha. That's my boy!

Mike

 Stephanie

I went to book club at Stephanie Waddoup's house. The book was Atomic Habits. I had tried to buy it awhile ago, but I guess I only got the Cliff's Notes version. Whoops. I talked to Javita a long time after it was over. Sounds like things are looking really well for Damian.

I drove up to Logan today to bring Maysen home. We had her car because of using it to take people to the cabin. Maysen and I checked out the new pizza place by her apartment. She liked it so much she decided this is where she would like her graduation dinner. It was very yummy.

Maysen

Saturday at 11:00

It's official. Stockton is going to open his call at 11:00 on Saturday at the cabin. All of his diving friends are going to make the trek. Stockton got Madison to cover for Jorja at Chick-Fil-A. I think the plan is Mike and Preston will take Stockton's diving friends up. Gavin, Gage, Dani, Noelle and Connor. I am going to a play with my dad on Friday. Luckily it starts at 4:00. I will take Jorja up with me after the play. I don't know if my dad can go. Bubs and his family might be able to go. Matt and his family can't. Not easy when you are about to have a new baby! Hopefully we can figure out how to do an Instagram live or a Facebook live thing. That way my family can still see it! Mike sent a message to his family, I'm not sure if any of them will be able to come. Stockton's diving friends have to be back by 6:00 on Saturday, so this will be a super quick trip. For Stockton and Maysen the drive time home or to the cabin is about the same though.

Jorja was gone all day today. She told me she was going to hang out with Aysha. Finally I had to call her and tell her it was time to come home. I thought it would just be a few hours, not all day! They made cookies to drop at different houses. She also brought soup to Connor (the kid that gives her a ride home from school) because he was sick. I love her heart. I love that she likes to make people happy. I just miss her and want her to make her school work a priority. Preston helped her for hours the other day making an app for the Homecoming pageant. She was funny and kept saying how Preston was so much smarter than she was. Well, the audio visual people only want her to use a flash drive and not the connector she has to make her phone work. She needs Preston to redo it. I was frustrated because if she wants him to redo it, she should work with him and not expect him to be able to do it last minute. I made her come home and talk to him about it.

Preston was supposed to go to diving today. He came home from school really stressed. I guess he has a giant project due tomorrow. Six parts to it. He has to do marketing for a place in Utah. A newspaper article, a slideshow, a pamphlet, a brochure and a poster. I can't remember what the other one was. This was a group project, but Preston was working alone. He still had the pamphlet and poster to do. He kept saying that it was worth 100 points and he didn't know how he would be able to finish. So, he stayed home from diving. He worked straight until 9:00 at night on it. He chose Bridger Lake to be his subject. Everything turned out great and he was much less stressed going to bed than when he came home from school.

First Official Day of School

The first thing we did this morning was see if the ducks would fly to the pool. Wow. They are getting much better. I wonder if they are going to fly away this winter?

Jorja and Preston had their first official day of school today. Preston has seven class periods every day. Jorja has A day and B day, four different classes on each day. Jorja had to be to school at 6:50 this morning. All the student government kids were stationed at different doors to welcome the kids back to school. She had to wear her student government golf shirt. She hates it. She ordered extra small and it is big on her. She always has to pull it up while she is wearing it. That's too bad, she loved the shirts from last year. I got a quick picture of the two kids before Jorja left.

Preston & Jorja

 Preston

 I finally bought Preston his own backpack. He has been using Jorja's pink frog backpack for years.

When we signed Preston up for classes last spring, we were told that there was no honors math or English classes for sixth grade. At back to school night I introduced Preston to his math teacher. I said something like, "I know there is no honors math classes this year . . ." Ms. Oglesby interrupted me then and said there was. I was stunned. How is Preston not in the honors classes? She said they added the classes and sent home a different form. The parents had to sign it to request they be put in the honors class. I don't remember seeing any form like that. I talked to one of my other friends who had a child in Preston's class. She never saw anything like that either. I couldn't believe Preston fell through the cracks already. I told Ms. Oglesby that traditionally my kids have a really hard time in the regular classes. She assured me he would be fine. I could tell that she thought I was just a mom who thought too highly of her kids. Anyway, when Preston came home from school today he said, "Ms. Oglesby says you can put me in honors math." Preston thought she remembered us from a few days ago. After talking to him awhile I found out that they did a pretest that they were supposed to finish at home. He was the only one to finish and he finished five minutes early. At least it didn't take her long to agree that honors math was the place he should be. Honestly, I don't know how he is at math. I have no idea if he'll be like Stockton. I do know that he never struggles in math and honors is the place he should be.

Preston at the bus stop

Jorja's classes today were student government, math, English and theater. I don't know who I am anymore. I actually checked Jorja out of school, on the first day, to get her hair done! What the heck???? I couldn't believe it myself! I checked her out after lunch, so she just missed theater. Kelsee put highlights in Jorja's hair at the beginning of the year. Kelsee only has one week left of beauty school, so Jorja begged me to get an appointment with her. Jorja wanted to have her hair touched up and she wanted to ask Kelsee questions about how to take care of her hair. Kelsee is putting her mission papers in on Friday. I tried to get an after school appointment, but she was completely booked. Jorja talked to Struks (the theater teacher) yesterday and she told Jorja she would be fine.

Jorja

 Jorja & Kelsee

 Kelsee & Jorja

 Kelsee does a fantastic job. Jorja's hair turned out beautiful.

 Jorja wanted more pictures with Preston after school.

 I love these two!

Last year was the first year that everyone in student government got the same sweater. Previously each grade would design their own. Now there are so many different people with sweaters. The theater team has sweaters, the band team, the voice teams, the art group. Lots of different people. Packer didn't like it. He is the student government advisor. He wanted people to know who they could ask questions to. If someone new asked a question to someone on the art team, they might be rude and it would reflect badly on student government. That was his reasoning anyway. I love it because these sweaters are expensive. We had to pay $140 last year. This year Jorja turned in her sweater after the election. They got it cleaned for her and she now has it back with her new office written on top. She was hoping that they would write out sophomore, because she thought it might look weird since public relations is so long. They put Soph. but I think it turned out great.

Stockton also started college today! Ahhhh! It's not his real first day. He has a connections class that will last three days. It is basically an orientation to Utah State class. He gets two credits out of it too. That is nice. Especially since he needs to take fifteen credits for his scholarship, it's great to get two knocked out of the way before school even starts.

Preston's 1st Day of Middle School

Preston had his first day of middle school today. It was a half day. He only needed his schedule and locker combination. Today was a day just for sixth graders, to orient them to the school. I walked Preston to the bus stop. It's a little closer than the Kindergarten bus stop, which is nice. It is right on the end of our street. It comes pretty early though.

Preston

 Preston's bus driver's name is Mike, he is really nice.

 Preston exhausted after his first day.

Jorja had to be at school all day long for Hawk Flight School. Preston came home at lunch time. Preston was disappointed because he was asked to be in a carpool, but I took too long to respond and someone else got his spot. (I didn't even take 24 hours) We decided that I would let him take his ds on the bus, it is about a 50 minute ride I think. He really wanted Wario Ware, so we went and bought him a copy. I then took him to OHOP. It was delicious.

Preston

The ducks are getting better at flying

Ribbon Cutting

Jorja had school today. She had to be there at 7:45. I think they were working on Hello Week. She was there all day long, but she loved it. She was supposed to get her school picture taken today. That didn't work out at all. The line was always super long. There were only two photographers. Hailey waited for three hours. So many people had crazy stories like that. Jorja said that they (I'm not sure if they is the school or the photographers) didn't think that many people would show up. Really? I get getting emails, text messages and voice mails that this was the only picture day. Guess Jorja will be doing make up day. They got to have one.

Jorja

I have been trying to get Stockton in a marketing class. It has been a long process with emails and wrong information. This morning I woke up to an email from someone in the marketing department. The only way Stockton could take this class was if marketing was his major or minor. Now he has a double major of Engineering and Marketing. Neither of those is what he is actually thinking of. I called Stockton this morning to let him know. I woke him up so he wasn't thinking too clearly. He has an appointment with the honors advisor this morning. Later he told me that during the appointment the counselor was wondering why he only had 12 credit hours. He needs 15 for his scholarship. She spent most of the time trying to find a class for him and trying to convince him that he should take Calculus 2. Stockton spent most of the time wracking his brain to figure out the class that was missing. He said he felt pretty dumb when he walked out and it dawned on him it was the marketing class. Stockton and I have only been talking about that for several weeks.

Preston will be going to Indian Hills Middle School starting tomorrow. They remodeled the building last year. All the kids went to Crescent Middle School for a year. The one year I don't have any kids in middle school was the one year that they went to my old middle school. Oh well. Anyway, today was the ribbon cutting for the remodeled Indian Hills. This was also the first time we could get in the school to find Preston's locker/classes. It was super packed. Mike missed the ceremony because Jorja went to a movie with Madison. I told her how important it was to me for her to support her brother and be there. She called as we were driving to the school and asked if we could pick her up. Mike dropped me and Preston off and went to get her. They were at Zupas when he got there. Then they were eating outside while the open house was going on. I was so annoyed. Come on. She came in once she realized I expected her there. I don't know how I can be so clear about my expectations and she is still confused about what I want. Going to the open house to support your brother is not the same as staying outside the open house eating with your friends. She had fun once she was inside though.

Big scissors

 Preston is thrilled with his new Chinese class

 Mr. Wu (Chinese) and Preston

 Look at the windows in his Chinese classroom! This is definitely a big change!

 Mrs. Butcher (science) and Preston

Preston hasn't been excited about pe. . . that is until Mike pointed out the scooters. We got them down to play with. Mike convinced Preston that they wanted us to play with them or they wouldn't have them in the corner. So, play we did.

Preston & Mike

 Madison

 Preston

 Jorja

 Preston

Jorja and Madison's dance

Preston

The last thing we did is find Preston's locker. We had actually found it first, but a girl was there who has the locker directly to the left of Preston. She had her locker all the way open and was decorating it. It looked like she would be there for awhile. Oh boy. We did it at the end of the day instead. Preston figured it out pretty quickly. He then tried 'hard mode' where he put his schedule with his combination inside his locker. Haha.

Preston

Preston's locker is pretty close to Griffin's. Griffin's dad is a high school principal. Bubs knows him. I laughed when I saw his dad writing on the locker to help him out.

Griffin, Griffin's dad, Preston

 Griffin's locker

 Preston

The last thing we did tonight was Mike gave Jorja and Preston a father's blessing. Wow. We are all ready to start a new school year. Hope this one is amazing.