Negative

I took Jorja to the doctor today. Her strep and flu test both came back negative. They said that her immune system was so compromised because of the havoc the mono has done to her that she is just getting super sick now with things that would just be a blip to her before. Jorja and I watched a lot of Chuck today and she slept a lot too. She did not want to eat. At all. Not even a little bit.

Jorja wanted to go to her math class, but we were at the doctor. I ended up taking her to fourth period and not checking her in. Instead of going to theater, she went to math. Hailey is in that class. She was able to listen to the review and get the review packet before their test on Friday. She took lots of weird pictures on her phone. I only grabbed a few. She sure doesn't look sick. She can hide it well because that girl was miserable all day long.

Jorja & Marshall

 Jorja & Chad (math teacher)

Jorja called in sick to work today. She was disappointed because she was suppose to close for the first time. It would not have been a good idea for her to go to work today. Preston had a scout merit badge class tonight. While he was there Mike and I took advantage of the extra time we had with Jorja. Mike made Jorja a test for her to take. She had to rank what was most important to her in life. He had situations where she had to explain what she should do. There were true and false questions. Lots of stuff. Then we went through the test with her. We talked to her about boys and what is okay and not okay. Mike was very blunt. Jorja kept covering her face with the clipboard. She would not give that up. Still, it was a conversation that needed to be had... again... Jorja is very different than my other children.

Jorja's streaks today made me laugh

Four Times

Jorja was crazy busy today. She had plans to hang out with Gavin and Connor. Gavin wanted to go to a trampoline place. Jorja hinted that she didn't want to go there, but didn't tell him no because she thought it would be rude. I told her to just tell him and he would understand. When Stockton was here he would always try and get Jorja to hang out with him and his diving friends. She would always tell him she would feel stupid because they would be doing flips and stuff and she wouldn't be able to do anything. She knew the same thing would happen here but didn't feel she could tell him she didn't want to go. Anyway, Jorja looked super cute when she was heading out the door. She didn't look like she was going to a trampoline place. I saw her put shorts into her bag so I just figured she was changing there. Nope. That was for her date tonight. She texted me and said, "Apparently I was supposed to bring clothes to change into???" She thought you wore normal clothes there. She texted me on and off while she was there. She did not have fun. The boys, who are both divers and both have taken trampoline classes, had fun showing off their flips for Jorja. They didn't realize that she was not enjoying watching them, she just felt completely embarrassed. One thing that Jorja is super good at is she is hyper aware of making the other person feel comfortable. Whenever she is planning an activity she is always talking to me about who she should ask and what she should do based on the comfort of the other person. Take Sweethearts for example. For a year and a half she had talked to me about wanting to take Evan to Sweethearts. When she was at student government camp she texted me that Sweethearts would be on Evan's birthday. I asked her if she was still planning on taking him. She texted back 'Absolutely'. Then when it came down to asking the boys she changed her mind. She was going with the student government girls. She said Evan wouldn't know anyone and he would feel uncomfortable. She talked to me about the personalities of the people going and Evan's personality. She didn't ask him. Not because she didn't want to go with him, because she knew in this situation he wouldn't feel comfortable. I love how she does that. Most people don't. Gavin certainly didn't think about if Jorja would be comfortable in this activity. But he is learning. He felt bad that Jorja didn't have fun. Later Stockton told her that he always avoided going to the trampoline places with Gavin and Connor because he knew he would feel stupid around them. If there isn't water, he doesn't feel comfortable with the flipping. If Stockton feels that way imagine how Jorja felt.

Jorja

They were only able to be at the tramp place for a little under two hours. It was up in Provo and Jorja had to be to work by 4:00. She was a little stressed she would be late. She hates not being in control. I understand that feeling. They did have time to stop by Panda Express. I thought Jorja's fortune was awesome and accurate. Your sense of humor is a joy to all.

Gavin & Jorja's fortune

Jorja texted me about her grades while she was there. She found out she got a B+ in Packer's class, which is a lot better than the D+ she had awhile ago. It stinks because if she hadn't had mono she would have had an easy A in this class. Not as bad as the B- she got in chemistry, which also would have been an easy A for her. When will mono end? Jorja changed into her work clothes in the car in Gavin's driveway. She told me not to worry, Gavin wasn't there. Haha. Jorja asked if I would pick up some bright pink leggings for her at Zurchers for her date tonight. I decided to do that because I saw the pink shorts she put in her bags. I would really want her to wear leggings under those shorts. I did that and stopped by Chick-Fil-A. Jorja was driving the pilot because she was going straight to her date where she would need more seats than her bug has. I drove the jeep, but forgot to bring the pilot keys. I ended up putting her bag on the windshield. I then went through the drive thru and ordered a frozen key lime drink and chicken soup. Jorja was on headset when I ordered my food. I told her where I put her stuff. She didn't like that. She told me she would give me keys when I was at the window. Haha.

Anyway, Jorja coordinated a disco skating night with her friends. She has wanted to have a date with Drew for a long time. He is awesome and so funny! She got Emily and Madison to come. Madison asked a boy named Isaac. Emily had Jorja find her a date. When Jorja was at Madison's birthday party she asked a boy named Cinco if he wanted to go on a triple date with her. He had never met Emily before but said it sounded like fun. He is a football player and yesterday was the first day that Jorja had ever talked to him. That girl is fearless. (Jorja told me she really wanted Madison to go on this date so Cinco would feel comfortable. Also, she knew Cinco was extremely good at roller skating, so he would be a great person to ask.... Another example of her always being aware of how others will feel. I love her!) Unlike the activity this morning, Jorja was super excited about this. I was excited for her too. I knew she would have the best time. Jorja changed into her bright pink clothes and then picked up Drew, then Emily and Cinco. Next was Madison who had to work a bit longer than Jorja. Madison's date couldn't come until 10:00 so they went to Iceberg first.

Isaac who wasn't there yet, Drew, Cinco

Cinco, Drew, Madison, Jorja

A little before 11:00 Jorja send me a message that she threw up. She told me that they had just arrived at Classic and gotten their skates. She was putting on her skates when she felt sick. She hurried to the bathroom and threw up. She said she felt so sick. A few minutes later she told me she was in the bathroom again. "It just happened again. Like a lot. I can see my Panda Express. I feel so bad for everyone." Then about thirty minutes later, "I thew up again. Is it okay if Cinco drives home? I'm not sure I can. He's a junior. He'll be very safe." So, the date Jorja coordinated and was super excited about ended up being a bust. Lame! I hope the other people had fun. Jorja was out of it when she got home. She was posting videos and sounded just like she did when she had mono. I sure hope the mono isn't returning. Jorja ended up throwing up four times at the roller skating rink. I had the guest room ready for her when she got home. She likes to sleep close to me when she is sick. She crawled into bed as soon as she walked in the door. She asked if I would take off her makeup for her. So, I sat on her bed and took off her makeup while she talked to me. I felt so bad for her. Definitely not waking her up for church tomorrow morning. Jorja has rarely been sick her entire life. She had pneumonia once, but that didn't last long. When she was a baby she had to be taken in an ambulance with a high fever, but still that was over after a few days. A couple of times we had to do the nebulizer for her breathing, but not as much as Stockton. The mono has been absolutely awful! It feels like it is never going to end. Jorja hasn't been healthy in a long, long time. We are almost at the four month mark of her being diagnosed. I have heard it lasts 6-8 months. This is ridiculous. Crazy how Jorja has been effected so much more than Preston. Huge difference in getting mono at 12 instead of 16.

Dizzy Day

Jorja had a hard day today. She texted me at lunch saying she was dizzy, her head hurt and it was hard to see. She decided to stick it out through the day because she couldn't afford to have another absence in theater. Her teacher told me at parent/teacher conference that if Jorja was struggling with her health she could lay down in the back of the class. Jorja said that never is the case though. Jorja ended up doing her final scene performance today. Hope that went well.

Jorja also had to work from 5-9. Except she didn't get home until close to 11:30. Other people wanted to go home so they asked Jorja to stay. She is too nice to say no, she is struggling and she needs sleep. It is also getting so close to the end of the quarter and she has a lot of making up to do. I sure hope she can do this.

Despite being sick, Jorja has started loving her job. She loves all the people she works with. She feels like she is friends with all of them except one person. She comes home from her job tired, but happy.

Today is Burke's birthday. I dropped a jar of apple cider off at his house. It was funny, when his dad said I was at the door his mom said his eyes lit up. He knew I was bringing him cider. It is hilarious how much Crew and Burke love that stuff. This is my fourth year giving them cider on their birthday. I am determined to carry on this tradition for as long as I can. It was funny this morning. When Preston woke up he said, "Don't forget to bring Burke cider today." Hahaha. I love it.

Prom Dress

I was able to successfully donate plasma today. Towards the end I was super worried I was going to faint in the chair, but I did not. Now next time Matt goes they will give him $50 extra. You're welcome Matt.

Jorja had a hard day today. She struggled waking up this morning. She didn't get much sleep after staying up so late with the service project. I was wondering if I should let her sleep, it looked like this time it was mono related. It is always a million times harder to get her up when the mono has a grip on her. I decided to make her get up anyway. She was definitely not herself when I dropped her off at school. The mono was really bad, she is anxious/scared to talk to Packer about her sophomore roller skating idea, she is trying to pull up her grades because the quarter ends in three weeks. Basically she is overwhelmed and stressed. When Jorja gets stressed she cries. She hates it. The first class of the day was student government. They have assigned seats. Jorja sits by Kylie and Cade. Cade noticed Jorja had tears in her eyes and asked her if she was okay. That made Jorja cry. I think it was that he noticed her and reached out to her combined with being super stressed; she couldn't stop the tears from rolling down her cheeks. Noah noticed that Jorja was crying and he called out for her to come over to him. Noah gave her a hug. Jorja said it was an awkward hug because he was sitting down and Jorja was standing. She tried to pull away after a bit, but he kept hugging her while he was talking to her. Noah spent a lot of time making sure Jorja was okay during Morp when she was super stressed, so this wasn't unusual for him to reach out and make sure she was okay. After talking to Noah, Jorja went back to her seat and immediately received a text. The only problem was, the text was accidentally sent to her from someone else in student government. The text was really meant for Kylie. The text said, "do you think that j could ever stop being so touchy with noah" The girl that sent the text is one of Jorja's good friends and immediately realized what she had done. She called Jorja to come to her, so Jorja got up again and went to talk to this girl. The girl said, "Sorry, that text wasn't meant for you." Jorja told her that it was okay and not to worry about it, but her voice cracked while she was talking to her. Jorja turned around burst into tears. She cried at her seat. Ugly cried. Jorja is always worried that people don't like her and they are just pretending to be her friend. Then when she is having a really hard day she got a little proof of that. I was crying when Jorja was telling me about her day. It was so sad. Jorja is one of the nicest people anyone could ever meet. I hate that she feels this way about herself and I hate that people aren't always nice to her. She definitely deserves to be treated better. Luckily the rest of the day went better.

Jorja's prom dress arrived today. It fits her great and she looks adorable.

Jorja had a busy day after school. She worked for a few hours and then went to the lacrosse game. After the game student government went to In-and-Out. That was the go-to place for student government last year. I think this is the first time they have gone there this year. This time the go-to place has been Chick-Fil-A. Haha

Text from Maysen. I love it when others love my kids!

Cactus Mug

Preston stayed home from school again. He was feeling a little better towards the end of the day, and was starting to get stir crazy, so we went to Walmart. We were looking for a new game. We didn't find anything wonderful, but he did find this cactus mug. We are all cactus all the time. Boy do we miss Stockton!

Preston

I have been after Jorja for awhile to write an essay for a contest. She always had homework she needed to catch up on, so she kept putting it off. The essay was due today at midnight. She was able to get it done about ten minutes early. Not her best work, but it is done. Hailey also submitted one. This is for Mormon Heritage. They have a teen essay contest every year. This is for a trip to Nauvoo with my dad as the tour guide. Hailey wasn't able to go to EFY this year. Hailey and Jorja were hoping to room together. Wouldn't it be awesome if they could do this instead? Still a long shot, lots of things would have to go just right; but I'm glad they tried for it.

Sick Family

Jorja and Preston both stayed home from school. They both slept until almost noon. Have I mentioned that I hate mono? Mike is sick too. He went to the doctor today. They tested him for mono and the flu. He was negative on both. His texts were funny. One said, "I was going to have them test cholesterol but inhale tomcats for ten hours for that test apparently." By 'inhale tomcats' he meant 'I have to fast.' Haha!

I finished parent teacher conference today. It was nice to talk with all of Jorja's teachers. Especially since she has been so sick. Hopefully she will get her grades up before the quarter ends next month. This year has been rough on Jorja. Last year it was emotionally tough, this time it is her health that has been the challenge. I can't wait until this mono is behind her for good.

Preston One Upped Jorja

So, Preston was sick again this morning. His temperature was down to 101, but I called the doctor's office anyway. I have been wondering for a long time if Preston had mono like Jorja. I told them he had a temperature for three days and they said to bring him in. I asked if we could have a mono test done while we were there. They said no problem. I was not a fan of the nurse that helped us. When she took Preston's temperature she said it was 97 degrees. No way that was right. I'm not an idiot. Even kissing his forehead you can tell he is burning up. I told her that he was 101 at home and she condescendingly said that some thermometers aren't accurate. Still, that is a big difference. She asked if she could give Preston a flu test. I said sure. I asked if he could have a mono test too, she said we would have to talk to the doctor about that. They had to stick a swab up Preston's nose for the flu test. The doctor came back later and told us that Preston tested positive for the flu. That surprised me. I didn't expect that. Then she came over and felt him. She said, "Oh, he's burning up. You can just feel the heat coming out of his ears." I told her that he was only 97 on her thermometer. She said that some thermometers aren't accurate, but instead of insinuating that I was wrong, she made it sound like theirs was wrong. Which it was. I asked the doctor if we could have a mono test too. She said that we would have to wait fifteen minutes while they ran it. Fine by me. The doctor came back fifteen minutes later with a look of shock in her eyes. Preston has mono too. Double whammy. I asked if he could have gotten it a long time ago and it is still in his system. She said it was active mono, so he has it now. Poor sick little boy.

Preston

Preston's mono is nothing like Jorja's mono though. Jorja was slammed hard, still is, while Preston feels a bit under the weather . . . and that is probably because he has the flu!

Mike met Preston and I for lunch. We just went to Roxberrys and got smoothies since Preston didn't feel like eating anything. Jorja went to Arbys after school with Madison, Spencer and Isaac. They went to Madison's house after. I finally had to call and tell her I was coming to get her. I needed her home. I didn't want to leave Preston when I went to parent/teacher conference. It was nice that I was able to talk to Preston's teachers and let them know he wouldn't be in the rest of the week. Didn't need to make a special trip for that. Mike felt awful by the end of the day. Once he came home from work he and Preston had a sick party. Glad I wasn't invited.

Savannah was discharged from the hospital today. I couldn't believe it! Less than 24 hours after major surgery. I was in the hospital for FIVE days! Although I did have a hysterectomy at the same time. And I got a temperature. Still. Crazy to be sent home this fast. She had to drive all the way to Idaho Falls too! She said she slept most of the way, that's lucky.

Sick and Sleepy

Jorja didn't make it to school on time today. I could not get her up. It is easy to tell the difference when the mono is the problem and when she just doesn't want to wake up. Today was 100% mono. I think she overdid it on Saturday and is now paying the price. I called and talked to my best friends at the attendance office. I told them she is going to try and check in at the end of 5th period. Well.....she missed all of 5th and all of advisory. She did get there in time for math, but I had to call the attendance office and change her time.

I finally finished Stockton's brownies and MAILED them! Yay! He will get one package from us while he is at the MTC! Even though I started working on the brownies last Monday, they still tasted great. They are Stockton's favorite.

Jorja's seminary teacher is quite excited she showed up for seminary!

Preston came home from school sick today. His throat is pretty red and hurting. Hopefully he'll be able to sleep it off. It feels like he has been sick a lot lately. Mike made me laugh today. I took a picture and sent it to Jorja. This was our conversation:

Mike: It's so late. I'm super tired.

Me: Alexia, what time is it?

Alexia: It's 8:23 pm

Hahahahaha! We are old!

Sleepy Mike

I was up really late talking to Jorja. She wrote me this long letter asking if she could go out with Mitchell on Valentine's Day. I am very anti Mitchell. Mostly because how things started with him, which involved Jorja lying to me. I can not stand being lied to. Instead of grounding her from everyone, I just grounded her from Mitchell. She begged me to let her go out with him on Valentine's Day. She promised to keep her room clean, get her grades up, talk to me about everything, not kiss him, and do anything I want her to do. I actually prayed about this. I still don't feel good about Mitchell, but I felt it was okay to let her go out on this date with him. I hope I don't regret this.

Snow Everywhere

Our front yard

Snow is pretty, just not super fun to drive in. Jorja couldn't get up again today. I am so sick of her being sick. She is sick of it too. She hates it. Mono is awful. Jorja missed Chinese but was able to make it through the rest of the day. I picked up her and Madison after school. The plan was to drive to e-bay, but Jorja had left the address home. Jorja is going there next week for a job shadow thing. We ended up getting Jorja's car washed and then the two girls hung out at home. Jorja had young women tonight and was finally able to go to it. They went hot tubbing. She wasn't excited about that, but ended up having a great time.

Perfect Dress

Jorja was so sick today. I could not get her up. This morning when I tried to wake her up she was moaning, "I can't feel my body." I let her sleep a little longer and came back in thirty minutes. No luck. One hour later, no luck. An hour after that, no luck. Finally she mumbled, "Can you just let me sleep until I wake up?" I tried that. She slept until 1:00. I finally made her get up. She didn't want to, but I really didn't want her to miss chemistry again. She has a D right now. The quarter ends next week.

Jorja making breakfast at 1:30 in the afternoon

I took her to school. She said the office ladies were watching her MORP video when she walked in. She got to chemistry and they had a sub there. Oh well. Jorja stayed after school to work with two other girls on her theater scene. They are auditioning for Region and State next week. The girls asked Jorja to be with them clear back before Jorja got sick. Jorja regrets it so much right now. She is so overwhelmed. This is one thing she doesn't want to worry about. But, she isn't going to back out on the girls right now. I picked her up when she was finished. We dropped off one of her Alta basketball jerseys she got last year at Mia's house, then we headed down to Provo. (We dropped one off at Hailey's house on the way home.) Jorja wanted to go to this dress rental place to look for dresses. They have very weird hours and this was the first time we could make it.

Jorja

 This one was Jorja's second favorite.

Jorja fell in love with the very first dress she tried on. When I zipped her up it just felt perfect. Her dream dress for this dance was lacy, short and one that could twirl. She wanted either light pink or sea foam green. This dress was exactly what she wanted, although she said she wishes it was a bit shorter. I do not. I think it is a perfect length.

Jorja

We had brought her dress we bought on New Years with us. It was in the car, so I ran back to get it. Jorja wanted to try on both together to see which one she liked best. She liked the pink one a lot more. I think the pink one looks more like her too. We are going to take the white one back. Even renting the pink one is expensive though. It is more to rent this pink one than it was to buy the white one. Jorja's going to pay for half and I will pay for half. Then it isn't so bad. Here are two pictures she sent to her friends. Almost all of them picked the white one. Haha.

In person I think the pink one is much better. She was very happy with it. As we were leaving I asked if it was okay if we went home. We were planning on going to the Dillards up there and seeing if they had the white dress in a size zero. I figured she had picked the pink, so we didn't need to do that any more. For some reason she got really grumpy. This annoyed me to no end. I had been wanting to have a serious discussion about a few things with her on this trip. I didn't want to do it before we tried on dresses in case it made her cry. I needed to have this discussion and she had shut down the second we left the dress shop. I told her that I would do anything she wanted. She was antsy and short. It was so out of character. We ended up going to the mall across the street so she could look in a store she wanted to. We then went to Village Inn. I was hoping to talk to her here. I didn't have the chance. We were seated next to an obnoxious loud guy. I couldn't even hear myself think. I thought that it would be okay because we had a long drive home. The second we got in the car Jorja asked if it would be okay if she slept on the way home. I was pretty disappointed. I kind of talked to her a bit, but I didn't get to have the conversation I felt I needed. I have been feeling so anxious about this.

When we got home we watched a Goldbergs and played Jackbox as a family. Jorja worked on her English project while we were doing this. She had to make a soundtrack for the Secret Life of Bees. She had to pick songs that fit the story and write a paragraph about why that song would be included in the soundtrack. She finished, but it looked miserable. Although she probably enjoyed that project. At least she enjoyed it more than any of my other kids would.

Jorja had told us that her favorite hug is when she is hugging someone and they put their head on her head. Here is Stockton trying to give her her favorite hug. I'm pretty sure she regrets telling him that. Ha! The kids would not sit still for me to get a picture, so this is the best I have.

Jorja, Stockton, Preston

Reverse Mono

Stockton and I were planning on going down to Provo to pick up his suits today. Jorja texted me and said, "I might need you to take me to lunch again if that's okay. I've cried 3 times already so we're off to a great start." She also said the the Morp video she made was supposed to be seen in advisory, but they ended up having a fire drill. She thinks she did good on her math test though. Stockton and I picked her up and took her to Provo with us. I thought Stockton would need to try on his suits, but we just walked in and picked them right up. Too bad I didn't know it would be that easy. I could have just picked them up when Jorja and I come back down here tomorrow. We stopped by In & Out Burger not he way back to school. Jorja was late for her theater class. Hope that doesn't come back to haunt her. She had work today, but got off at 8:30. We played games once we got home. It is really hard to get the kids to bed right now. I know our time with Stockton is extremely limited, so I have been letting the kids stay up way too late. That has not been a good thing for Jorja. We did have so much fun though. Here are some of the inventions we came up with. I think Jorja's problem was: Jorja has mono. She came up with 'Reverse Mono ~ two negatives make a positive' She was so funny when she was making her pitch. Apparently in her invention, if two people have mono, but hold up the reverse mono card while they kiss, the mono will go away.

The second invention half of us  have the same thing. The problem was: I wish I knew more about girls. All three kids had this prompt. Jorja made the 'Hypnotizenator ~ Because girls like to play games.' Stockton made 'The Brain Swapper ~ You'll never forget.' That was funny. Preston's was so funny and a might bit creepy. His was 'Camera ~ Watch them in their natural habitat.'

Jorja

 Stockton

 Preston

Preston's pitch was hilarious. When the girls walk by, the camera will start following them so they can observe their behavior. Hahahaha! Oh boy. That's a little creepy. We had so much fun. I'm going to miss days like today when Stockton leaves at the end of the month.

He's Not Stockton

Jorja had to work all day today. Well, straight from when she got home from school until closing. She is getting tired and overwhelmed. These next two weeks are going to be rough. I hope she can get her grades up. Mono has been horrible. She posted this while she was at work. Super cute. She has definitely done her best to advertise this dance. I hope she is happy with the result. She did stay after school today to talk with Packer. The DJ hadn't emailed him the invoice, so they were worried that he pulled out. Jorja was able to confirm with him that he was still planning on doing it. She asked that he send his invoice. It takes three days to process the check and they can't get it started without the invoice. Plus, she would feel better once that is done. She only asked him to send it a month ago. She is feeling so much better about the DJ situation now.

Jorja

Jorja's poor cactus is dying. She has tried so hard to save it. The one Conner gave her is the shriveled skinny one. A couple of weeks ago it had fallen over. She was wondering if she clipped the top if it would grow again. She pointed to it and said something like how the cactus represented her birthday. That is the day everything got ruined between her and Conner. I'm not explaining it right, but how she said it was so funny I burst out laughing. I love her. She cracks me up all the time. It will be so nice when she is back to her regular Jorja self. She is always so sick and tired right now.

Preston had young mens tonight. They were playing dodgeball. He did not want to go. I said, "Stockton always loved it when they played dodgeball." He looked at me with such an annoyed expression and said, "Well, I'm not Stockton am I?" Something about older kids hurling balls towards his face did not appeal to him. Mike had Preston help him work on fixing our sink that has been broken for a month. They didn't get it fixed, but they had fun together.

Stockton went to diving today. He brought Gavin home afterwards. We played more Jackbox games. Too bad Jorja wasn't here. We kept laughing about her invention of cutting of her nose. We didn't play the invention game today though. We did play rap battle and the drawing game. It was fun. 

Secret Code

Jorja had a rough day. She was so tired this morning. It probably doesn't have anything to do with staying up super late to talk to Stockton. She checked in during Chinese. I didn't call the office because I thought they told me not to if she checked in during 1st or 5th. I was wrong. Luckily the office called me and we were able to get it straightened out. Jorja felt awful all day though. This mono is sure annoying. I was taking Maysen and Stockton out to lunch, so we checked Jorja out of school and had her come too. We went to OHOP. Maysen's favorite. Jorja came home to sleep after lunch and Stockton took her to school in time for chemistry. She has missed seminary so many times. It's hard because she is behind in all of her classes, when she is struggling, that is the best class to miss. My dad would not be proud of me. Anyway, Jorja texted me during chemistry and said that she was one of the only people that understood what was going on and she has been gone for a week! She even helped other people. That made her feel good. Jorja doesn't realize how smart she is. It's hard for her sandwiched between Stockton and Preston. Those two are crazy smart, so it makes Jorja feel inadequate. She says Maysen has her writing, but there is nothing she excels at. If only she realized how smart she was across the board. Right now it is hard though when she is so behind. I hope she can pull up her grades. This quarter has been rough.

Maysen and I went to the temple today. We got there at 12:30 and hoped to do a 1:00 session. Nope. It was booked. The earliest we could get in was 2:00. We decided to do initiatories instead. Maysen hasn't done those before. That worked out perfectly. This is also the reason why Stockton took Jorja to school. I'm glad she was able to go back in time for chemistry. Jorja stayed after school today to make posters for MORP next week. Jorja is the chair for that dance and it is stressing her out. The theme for MORP is Jerseys. I think it will be a lot of fun. Carson, Joe, Marshall and Traven stayed after to work on the posters. Look how adorable they turned out!

Jorja

Jorja had a date today with Collin. He works with her at Chick-Fil-A. She was pretty excited to go on a non-dance date. She likes Collin a lot as a friend. I am so glad she isn't interested in him as a boyfriend though. He would not be good for her. I think if she liked him he would be too controlling. He uses guilt a lot in my opinion. He is really nice to her though. Madison helped him plan the date. First they went ice skating....except it was closed. So, they ended up going to Zupas and then to a movie. They saw whatever was playing, which turned out to be Homes and Watson. Jorja said it was the worst movie she has ever seen. She knew it would be bad going in though, because we had talked about it at home. Anyway, Jorja has been on two non dance dates. They were identical dates in reverse. One was movie and Zupas, the other was Zupas and a movie. Same movie theater, same Zupas. Jorja texted me at 9:40 and said, "We're at a movie, is it okay if I come home after it finishes or do you want me home by 10:30?" I told Stockton that I thought Jorja wanted me to say she needed to come home. I told her that I wanted her to get some sleep because she is working nine hours tomorrow. I guessed right. Jorja wanted to come home. I didn't realize that this would have been the second movie they would be seeing. Jorja and I have now come up with a secret code that she can use when she wants to come home. Jorja does not like to use periods at the end of sentences when she texts. She says it makes the sentence too aggressive. So, if she is out with friends and she uses a period, I know that is the signal that she needs to come home. I will text her a message with two periods.. Like that. That way she is knowing I'm asking her if she meant to use the code. If she writes back and uses a period again, I know she wants to come home. Anyway, that is our plan. It would have been helpful today.

I did have every intention of having Jorja go to sleep when she got home....except the kids all wanted to play a game. (It did make me happy that Jorja came home from a date and wanted to spend time with her family. I love how much my family loves being together.) We played another escape room game. Maysen is going back to school tomorrow, so this was our last chance. This game was HARD! And so much fun. The puzzles were crazy, but pretty awesome. I fell asleep for the last bit though. I did wake up about five minutes before the puzzle was solved. I am not a night person.

Mike, Preston, Maysen, Stockton, Jorja

 I finally got a family gingerbread picture!

Maysen, Preston, Mike, Stockton, Jorja

I didn't decorate one this year. I was burnt out just making them. I can't believe Christmas break is over. I'm going to miss having all of my family together. These few weeks went way too fast. I have loved every second of it though.

Duck Eggs

Jorja was supposed to have a dentist appointment this morning. I called yesterday and told them she had mono at the beginning of the month and is still contagious. Given that they are working in her mouth around saliva they decided postponing her appointment until next month would be the best idea. I did take Maysen there though to get molds for her mouth. It wasn't too much fun. At least they will be ready for her when I take her to the dentist in a few weeks.

Mike was so excited to find that Quackletta had laid an egg this morning. Jorja had already gone to school, so Mike cooked it up for dinner and we each got to try a bit. It was really good. I liked it better than chicken eggs, that surprised me.

Mike

My cousin Jordyn posted about going to China over Thanksgiving. She went through Groupon. She went to Rome and Paris that way and has had awesome experiences each time. She mentioned that she was looking for her next trip over Thanksgiving. I sent her this flyer and told her to come to Israel with me. She is going to do it! She is also recruiting many of our family members. I'm so excited! This will be so much fun!

Jorja had to go to school early to take her AP World History test that she missed while she was sick. She had to stay after school to take her math test. She has been working so hard to catch up. I'm so proud of her. I remember getting upset with her because she didn't turn in some math assignments. She was saying she couldn't understand anything. Looking back it is obvious that the mono was the reason she was struggling. It's weird how it messed with her brain. Jorja took her math test after school while Chad, her teacher, teased her the entire time. He teased her about being sick, about having a boyfriend, about how he wants to pick her out a boyfriend.... He said he was going to pick out one boy from each class for Jorja to choose between. Brenton was there. Chad picked Brenton for her. Brenton shut that down. Chad found out they lived close to each other. He told Brenton that he needed to knock on Jorja's house one day and ask to play video games. Anyway, despite all the distractions, Jorja managed to score a 92% on that test. Yay! My Porge is coming back!

Jorja and I stayed up way too late together. I am not a night person and don't function well at night. Jorja loves to take videos of me. I can't figure out how to get both videos centered and I am giving up. Anyway, here are some random videos of me with my Porge.

Wizard of Oz

Stockton and Maysen both had their last final today. They are finished. Stockton is finished for about 2 1/2 years. Wow. Maysen called and talked to me after her final. I think we talked for about two hours. I'm so excited for them to come home tomorrow!

Jorja did okay at school today. Kind of. She crashed around seminary. She fell asleep and then had a really hard time in chemistry. She said she couldn't even think and begged me to check her out. I picked her up and took her to Zupas to get some food inside her. I bought her a big water bottle and told her to drink the entire thing. I dropped her off at school right as it ended. She needed to be there to set up for the Christmas dance. She definitely got some of her energy back though. She went to Arby's with student government after and seemed to have a great time. I have been so grateful for student government; being a part of it has been such a blessing in Jorja's life.

I went to Kanani's house tonight. The idea was I would stop by her pop up store and pick up a bib for Anne. I ended up talking to her for a long time. Then Darby got home. He asked to talk to me. He ran something downstairs from a girl answering him to the dance. I thought he was talking about Sweethearts, because a lot of people have already been asked. Nope. He asked a girl a few days ago to the dance Saturday. He said that he's learned that a lot of the times way cute girls don't get asked, and if you wait you will hear about it the week before. Haha. It made me laugh. Darby wanted to talk to me about gingerbread houses. Specifically the icing. We went to his kitchen so I could show him the best bowl/beater to use. It was funny because he had no idea that I showed his mom how to make the houses or that I gave her a mold the day before. He thought making gingerbread houses would be a fun date and was wanting to know the best way to make the icing. I ended up talking to Darby and Kanani for a long time. It was very interesting to hear what goes on in student government from Darby's perspective. While I was talking to them I glanced at the clock and saw it was almost 7:00. Yikes! Mike and I had a play at 7:00. I looked at my phone and saw that Mike had been texting and calling me. I had it on silent and hadn't noticed. I busted out of there so fast. When I got home Mike told me that play tickets were for 7:30. Thank heavens!

I was hoping Jorja would go to the play with us, but Madison was over. She was super sad and crying. She is dealing with some hard things with her family right now. Anyway, Jorja was out for the play. I had talked to Preston this morning and told him if Jorja was unable to go we would be taking him. I let him know he was up when I got home and ran downstairs to talk to Jorja. I guess Preston started crying to Mike and telling him he hated The Wizard of Oz. Oh geez. Mike and I ended up going by ourselves and letting the extra ticket go to waste. I am not a Wizard of Oz fan at all, but this play was fantastic. Lexi Walker was Dorothy and she was sooooo good. My favorite was probably the scarecrow. He was doing flips everywhere. Preston would have loved it. I had a great time alone with Mike though.

When Mike and I came home Madison was asleep in our bed. Jorja was watching The Grinch while writing Christmas cards. We woke Madison up and I drove her home. I really like that girl. I hope things with her family get better.

Microphone

Jorja wasn't feeling well this morning. I was pretty worried about her. The doctor said that she would start to feel better then get sick again for quite awhile. Her stomach was hurting her. At least it wasn't her throat. Well, Jorja ended up being just fine. She has math second period. Someone came in to talk to her teacher, so Chad asked Jorja to teach the class. She said he does that all the time because he thinks it's funny. Jorja even got to use his microphone. When he came back, Jorja sat down, but didn't give the microphone back. While Chad was teaching Jorja would softly whisper sing, "Chaaaaaddddd" in the microphone, and other random things. Then she got out her phone and turned "All I Want for Christmas is You" on full blast. She was singing along with it being completely obnoxious as Chad came to take the microphone away from her. Yep, I think she is getting better. Maysen would be so annoyed if Jorja was in her class.

Jorja stayed after school for the Smash Brothers tournament. She didn't get to play though. She got called into work at 4:00. She wasn't supposed to work until 5:30. I think today is the first time she stayed at school the complete day. She went straight from school to work and finished at 9:30. I was worried she would be extremely exhausted when she got home, but she seemed to handle today just fine. Thank heavens! She also came home with her secret Santa present that was given to her. A Symphony chocolate bar, strawberry lemonade and a bath bomb. She sent me a text to tell me what she was given. She said, "Chocolate lemonade and a bath bomb." Really Jorja? Commas are important.

I spent the day making gingerbread. Kanani came over and helped me. She has asked me several times to teach her, so I told her if she wanted to stop by I would show her. It was fun to have someone to talk to while I did this. She helped me with the molds and it went a lot faster. As she was leaving I gave her a mold I had ordered for her. She was so surprised. She cried and gave me a hug. Didn't expect that.

Becky, Stephanie and I went to Melissa Yauney's bridal shower today. She is marrying her high school sweetheart. I asked how old they were when they started dating. She was 16. That's Jorja's age! It was right before her senior year and she has an August birthday. I guess Mike and I were 15 when we met, but we didn't start dating until we were 17. Man, that seems like it was forever ago. I am so lucky.

Duck Time Out

This morning Waddluigi charged the white ducks twice. He was swimming in the pool, then out of nowhere came quickly up the ramp and herded the white ducks in the corner. Quackletta then came and ate. Mike didn't know what to do. He didn't want the white ducks to spend the day behind the duck house. So, he kicked the mallards out of the duck area. Mike did not realize how much it would snow though.

I went to school for Jorja's CCR. It was snowing pretty hard and the car slid several times on the way to school. I don't have snow tires on this car, but it does have 4-wheel drive. I talked to Karity, Jaren's mom, for awhile after the meeting was over. She is so nice. I really like her a lot. I found Jorja and checked her out of school. She was pretty tired. We went to lunch at Zao and then went and found Tally a present for the secret Santa. Jorja picked out a camera Christmas ornament she found. It was really cute. I should have taken a picture. We went back to the school and Jorja and I slept in the school parking lot. Jorja woke me up to let me know she was going back inside. She made it for the end of her chemistry class. She needed to stay after for math again. Chad had fun teasing her about her 'special friend'. Every time Jorja tried to shut him down she made it worse. She was pretty embarrassed. Jorja had work today until 9:00. I hope her body heals quickly. She is getting worn out.

I came home after Jorja went back to class. I checked on the ducks. The poor mallards were just standing outside in shame.

Waddluigi and Quackletta

 I watched them walk around the backyard

 Kiki and Quacky Chan enjoyed the peace

 I felt bad for the mallards and thought they had stayed out long enough,

so I herded them back inside.

 They went straight for the freezing pond.

 I don't think these two ducks were very happy to see them.

I went inside and climbed into bed. I took a nap. I usually set an alarm for ten minutes, this time I didn't set one. I slept for an hour. Me. That is so out of character. I have been really tired lately. After I brought Jorja back from school I started working on the dairy free gingerbread houses. I wanted to finish those today. The first house went great, but the second house was burnt! I have never burnt a house before. I had no idea what I did wrong, until we noticed that the oven was set to 450 degrees instead of 350. I think Mike bumped the temperature thing while he was cooking dinner. I was so annoyed! Sam said not to worry about it. Of course it was a dairy free one, those aren't as easy to make.

Burnt house

 What it should have looked like

I went to a relief society activity. It was really fun. We had a delicious dinner and I got to sit next to Sara Henderson, Camee Clark, Ashley Jansen, and Megan Okerlund. I loved it. We watched a video Sister Covington put together about Emery. Joy narrated the video. It talked about Emery's life so far, her struggles, the surgery, the complications, the tree we made and the Festival of Trees. It was really cool. Karen Trost made 80 mermaids so we could each have one for our tree. We made these for Emery's tree and they took forever! I can not believe she made 80 of them!

Jorja is excited about the Smash Brothers tournament at school tomorrow. She signed up for it, but I don't think she has ever played the game. Also, the kid she signed up with she doesn't really know. I love how she just throws herself into things and how she makes friends easily. She is such a joy.

Jorja