Bear Escapes...Again

Mike had a better time on the lake yesterday than today. There was no wind or fish today. He is all packed up and ready to come home tomorrow. Yay! Bear dog escaped again when he was going to the lake. Mike had no idea how he did it, but he left his bone at the top of the deck. Mike was really worried he jumped that entire way. Turns out he just ran through the rails. He had never done that before. Maybe his new haircut gave him super skinny powers. Haha

Bear

Mike was worried Bear jumped from here

This is where Bear really got out

Jorja slept most of the day. She picked up her FSY friend, Riley, from the airport and hung out with him. At 9:30 pm she started not feeling good again. She felt her fever come back. She decided not to go to Denver tomorrow. I think that is a good decision. You know Jorja is really feeling sick if she is deciding not to go visit a friend and she paid for the ticket herself.

Stockton took his physics test today and got 100%. Alyssa picked him up from Snow College and they hung out in Mapleton. They watched fireworks and enjoyed the festivities that Mapleton put on. Stockton stayed over at Alyssa's house tonight. I'm glad he feels comfortable with her family and I'm glad they are so welcoming to him.

Alyssa & Stockton

Robber

So....the Nationals won Game 4 tonight! They swept the Cardinals and are headed to the World Series! How awesome! The seven runs in the first inning sure took a lot of stress out of the game, but still! Super excited about that.

Jorja scored a 94% on her physics test, so that is awesome as well! After school she went shopping with Brynlee. They went looking for a costume for the Halloween dance. The boys are being cops and the girls are being robbers.

Brynlee & Jorja

I don't know how Jorja's room got messy so quickly! It was practically spotless a few days ago.....I thought Jorja looked super cute in the picture though, so messy room it is!

Robber Jorja

Jorja and I made a late night run to the store. She wanted to get some things to do her 'act of kindness' for the music department. They kids in student government are all assigned a group to do random acts of kindness throughout the year. No one ever does it. This was Jorja's first time. This year she is assigned to the choir (a cappella, lyrica, men's and women's choir) there are a few other officers assigned with her. Anyway, she made a poster to give to Ms. Iund, bought her flowers and filled up a pumpkin with candy so she can give it to her students. It turned out super cute.

Corner Canyon

Stockton took his physics final after school at Corner Canyon today. He could only miss one in order to get an A. That's what he did, he only missed one. He has now submitted his grade. Mr. L said it should take 48 hours to go on his transcript. This should get his 4.0 back. I hope so. He needs to submit his application to the University of Utah by November 1st.

Jorja had me drop her and Evan off at Corner Canyon too. I ended up driving to that school four times today. Considering I had only been there twice before, that was a lot. Jorja and Evan went to the volleyball game. They seemed to have fun.

Jorja & Evan

We had our ward Chili and Chocolate party tonight. Jorja is the only one of my kids that likes that activity, and she didn't go. She did ask me if I brought her any chili home. Whoops. That didn't cross my mind. We stopped by on the way home from the game, but it was too late.

I talked to Becky at the activity and asked if she could have her sister recommend a therapist for me. Her sister was how I found Holly. Becky texted me with a name. Mike wants to look into a group approach, more for cost sake. I'm not sure what to do, or really how to find a group that would be perfect for Jorja.

Orange Pen

Today was college day at the high school. Parents were invited, but not many came. I'm glad Stockton let me hang around with him. He was able to pick three schools to listen to. We went to BYU, Utah State and University of Utah. We did find out that the University of Utah has a video game program. It is under the Engineering and Entertainment major. That's cool!

Stockton stayed after school today to take another physics pretest. He scored 95% on it, but the computer didn't take any of his assignments away. The lady in the lab said if you score over 65% assignments are supposed to be taken off. He has to call the district tomorrow. When he was leaving from his physics test he saw a napkin on the car. It said, "U R DUM". Literally every word is spelled wrong on the note calling Stockton dumb. Nice. I'm annoyed because when I was leaving school from college day I noticed that napkin, but thought Stockton put it there for some unknown reason. I should have looked closer.

While Stockton was waiting for the testing center to open he heard a group of girls talking about Jorja. One of the girls said something like, "Her family is in my stake. When they were signing up for swimming Jorja's mom told the lady she liked the pen. She said, 'You don't need it? Can I have it?' " Stockton said he was so mad. He wanted to go up to them and said, "Seriously? Those are the skeletons in my family's closet?" This happened two or three years ago. I was talking to someone I knew from high school and mentioned I liked the pen. She told me I could keep it. I said, "You don't need it? I can have it?" Or something like that. Weird that someone would remember that conversation. Of all my awkward conversations that I worry about afterwords, that one didn't even register. The pen was orange by the way and I used it until the ink ran out.

Mike and I were asked to judge the homecoming pageant tonight. I was really worried about this. I didn't know what to expect. I didn't want to have to come up with witty comments. Mike was also asked to judge along with another girl that graduated about five years ago. The pageant ended up being really fun. We just needed to put our score on a paper. There were three girls and three boys. We judged on the catwalk, the lip sync, minute to win it games and questions. My favorite girl lip sync was this girl that did it to the Fresh Prince of Bel-Air theme song. She was so funny. My favorite boy lip sync was this kid that did his to I Just Can't Wait to be King. His answers were also the best to the questions. Anyway, it was pretty fun.

Jorja came to my bedroom tonight and asked if I could sleep with her in the guest room again. She cried and cried. She is so confused. Isaac wants to get back together. I was so frustrated. I told her not to do it. I told her he will break her heart in two weeks. Just be friends. Jorja didn't like hearing what I had to say. I wish he didn't have such a hold on her. It is driving me crazy. He is not mean to her at all, but I wish they would just be friends for several more years. Jorja actually has no idea if they are back together. It is going to be a long four years.

Sick Day

I felt awful today. Jorja and Preston had the day off of school. I didn't get to enjoy them. Luckily school will be out for the summer soon. I love it when my kids are home. Stockton was annoyed today. He checked his grades in the morning. All As. By lunchtime he had a C+ in physics. What? He added in a random pre AP test that Stockton took in April and did poorly on. He said Stockton could get his grade up with test corrections. Why does he wait until now to put it in? Stockton could have worked on this for over a month. I am not going to miss this teacher at all. He has been awful. The sad thing was Stockton had a test in Engineering today. He thought that was the last thing he needed to do and then he would be all the way finished. Nope. Now he will need to work on physics all weekend.

Mike and the kids went to our ward dutch oven bbq. I stayed home sick. Later one of my primary kids told me they were looking for me. That's sweet. I'm glad I didn't go because she had a cough and I would have felt guilty thinking I gave it to her.

Physics Train

Stockton had his Physics with Calculus AP test today. I started a fast after dinner yesterday and ended it around 6:30 tonight. Stockton had an afternoon test and I was praying for him like crazy while he was taking it. Stockton has worked so hard, but he has really struggled with this class. I know without a shadow of a doubt that he would have understood the concepts, passed this test and still have his 4.0 if he had Mr. Leininger. He was such an amazing teacher. He is also the teacher we thought we were signing up under. Stockton's physics teacher has been awful. He is a first year teacher. He is really smart and understands physics, he just doesn't do a great job teaching. At all. I can't believe he came in here and ruined everyone's gpas. It was like he was holding their gpas hostage. I'll give you your 4.0 back if you get a 5 on the test. Except I won't help you get there. I'll only give you super hard questions that are ridiculous and other physics teachers won't be able to figure them out and make you feel totally inadequate. I won't teach you building blocks so you can understand what you need to do. ---Anyway, although we would love for Stockton to get a 5 on the test so he can get his 4.0 back, we are really hoping that he passes. Stockton can fail one of his AP tests and still graduate with his associates, it just would be easier and nicer if he passed them all. While Stockton was taking his physics test I was working on this puzzle while praying for a miracle. We know if he did get a 5 on this test it would be a miracle. Of course if this is a lesson that would help Stockton, like teaching him he doesn't need to be perfect, I understand. But, if it doesn't matter at all in the grand scheme of things, could he just have this miracle?

One annoying thing about this test is they made it harder a couple of years ago. The problem is, they didn't make the test any longer. Stockton is a slow test taker. These kids have only a little bit more than a minute to solve the multiple choice problems. They aren't given the formula they need to use, so if they pick the wrong formula the first time, it really hurts. The statistics test Stockton will take later in the week is tons easier and the test is 45 minutes longer. Stockton finished his test and was able to stop by his history class to pick up the project that was handed out while he was taking the test and he still made the bus. That means this test was even shorter than psychology last week. So weird! Stockton said the test was awful. It was hard for everyone. Man, am I glad this test is over for him. Hopefully he will sleep well tonight! 

Mike has been having fun working on his dinner train again. Preston is always the most excited about his dad's crazy ideas.

Preston, Jorja, Maysen

 Preston, Mike, Jorja, Maysen

 Maysen & Stockton

(I have no idea what they are laughing at, but I love seeing them together again.)

 Preston, Jorja, Maysen

 Preston is so much like his dad. I love it!

Jordyn and her Tacos

I talked to Maysen this morning and got her registered for the Storymakers conference. I hope she will love it. I had lunch with Becky and Jenny today. We went to Pizza Limone, or something like that. It was nice to visit with them for a little while. Before Becky picked me up, I checked Skyward to see if Stockton's physics grade had been posted. He has had an F in that class since Christmas, but there was no way he would finish the class with an F. The teacher doesn't put hardly any information in Skyward. It is very frustrating. Anyway, imagine my surprise when I saw Stockton's PHYSICS grade was now an A. I clicked for more information. There was none. No grades had been added, but the teacher changed his grade to an A. This teacher is so bizarre, I can't figure him out. I know it is his first year teaching. Maybe he got in trouble for not giving anyone in the class an A last quarter. He ruined 4.0s for many super smart kids.

When I came back from lunch I saw another Jordyn taco sign. On my way to diving I stopped the car in the middle of the road, got out and took a picture while it was snowing. Jorja and Mike both texted me later asking if I had seen the sign. I wonder who this Jordyn is?

Stockton worked on platforms today. Tyce had them hold themselves up by their arms and then do a back dive. No one had done that before. Stockton said it was super freaky at first. The sound you hear when Stockton enters the water on the first video is a very good sound. Judges love to hear that.

Jorja also had diving today. Mike brought her and took Stockton home. Preston had scouts, so he did not come. Jorja and I stopped by Target on the way home. Jorja wanted more hair and makeup things. How many products does one person need? I don't understand. At least I was able to get the Krazy Glue Stockton needed for his Engineering class.

Wow. I just realized how hard these videos are to see. So small, but full screen mode is so blurry. Stockton is always the one on the platform on these videos. Wish I had a better camera, but this is all I got.

Back to the Stress

Stockton finally felt well enough to sled! Mike took a group of kids to the springs. Steve took Erica out snowmobiling on the reservoir. Erica ended up walking back after Steve had gotten the snowmobile stuck. Taylor went with Erica to try and help him. Shannon took a 4-wheeler up to the springs to get Mike. Steve ended up getting the snowmobile unstuck by himself and the kids were able to continue their demolition derby at the springs. Jorja hurt her leg pretty bad. She crashed in front of Jacob and he had no way to avoid her. Brandon crashed into Preston, but Mike did penguin racing a couple of runs with Preston and that fixed everything.

I took my kids and Erica home around lunchtime. I was hoping we would leave in enough time to stop by the square ice-cream store, but we didn't make it. I got Erica home ten minutes before six o'clock. She had a reunion thing in Provo with her Nauvoo group at seven that she wanted to attend. We stopped at JCW on the way home and got milkshakes. Mike left the cabin about the time we arrived home. He got home while I was talking to Maysen. I think it was around 11:00, but I'm not sure.

Jorja's leg was hurting her pretty bad by the time we made it home. I called Brother Bingham to see if he was home and could look at it. He was working all night long. Jorja decided to try just icing her leg all night and see how she feels in the morning. We wondered if it was broken for awhile, but now we are leaning toward it being a sprain. Hopefully she'll feel better in the morning.

I got on Skyward tonight. Stockton's physics teacher still hasn't updated anything, and it still shows his grade as an F. I know it is not an F, just like I knew when it said he had 100% at this point last quarter that it wasn't correct. This teacher is frustrating on so many levels. I am glad I got on Skyward, because I noticed Stockton's physics homework was due today. He always has online assignments and they are all due at the end of the quarter. Stockton had them all finished except one. He stayed up until 10:30 to get that one finished. I hope he at least pulls a B in this class. We have no idea where he stands.