Moving In

Jorja had a long fun day. She was at school for a few hours doing whatever Packer needed her to do. On her way home she called me in a panic. She wanted fake pumpkins and couldn't find them at Michael's. She didn't have time to look at any other store. I was in the middle of exercising and super sweaty, but went to Hobby Lobby anyway. I was embarrassed about how I looked, and that is really saying something! I did find Jorja some pumpkins she could use for her date. The girls threw a Halloween dance tonight. The day date was at Ella's. They did a carnival. They bobbed for apples, had a face painting station, painted pumpkins and lots of other things. Jorja had a great time.

Jorja

Jorja & Jake

Jake and Jorja

Today was moving day for the ducks! Mike got his duck pond to a spot where the ducks can finally enjoy it! Mike was so happy. He grabbed Cream, the duck who has a severe limp, and brought her to the pond. I tried to get Angel, but she would not come to me. I cornered her toward the pond and she eventually flew in. The ducks loved it. Mike is happy.

Mike & Cream

Angel

Angel and Cream

Bear watching the ducks splash like crazy

Jorja getting ready for the dance

Layla ~ old lady, Ella ~ Isabella (Phineas and Ferb), Jorja ~ Margo (Despicable Me 3)

They took pictures at a pumpkin patch, had dinner at Pizza Limone, had a dance in someone's backyard.

Jorja & Jake

Layla & Bode

Jake & Jorja

Margo and Antonio

Jake & Jorja

Jorja & Ella trying to recreate a picture from their Halloween dance sophomore year

Sophomore Ella & Jorja ~ they got it pretty close!

Layla & Jorja

Balloon Car

I was pretty frustrated with Jorja today. She had asked if she could go to breakfast with Riley. I am not a Riley fan, and she missed curfew last night. She did keep me posted and when I wouldn't let her stay out extra late she hurried home as fast as she could. The kids don't have school today and the plan was for her to study the ACT all day. I thought that her having breakfast with Riley would get her up early so she could start studying in the morning. Riley picked her up at 8:00. She didn't get home until ALMOST 11:00! Three freaking hours. She told me she would just go to breakfast and back and then start studying. I was furious. Jorja studying most of the day and then went to get hot chocolate with Ella and Giselle. That was the plan from a few days ago. While she was out she asked if she could ask Jake. She said it would be fast, so I told her okay. She texted me that message at 7:30. She FINALLY asked him at 9:00. She had worked on the poster yesterday, so I believed her when she said it would be fast. I admit, it looks cute, but she has the ACT tomorrow! Then she came home and had to do government homework that she had put off doing. Something like a giant assignment and four quizzes. WHAT? So, when I ask her if she has done all her work, she says yes because it isn't due until a long time from now. That is not what I meant and she knows it! So, instead of getting a good nights sleep before the ACT she stayed up until 11:30 working on her government. I think I'm going to lose my mind.

Jorja & Giselle

This did turn out adorable

Jorja & Jake

Kaylee's Handprints

So....Jorja was sick again. She missed the entire day of school. She probably would have tried to get the last classes, but she was supposed to go on a field trip for PLT anyway. She also missed the Valentine party in student government. Ever since Jorja had mono last year, whenever she gets sick, she gets really sick and has a hard time shaking it. Still, nothing has compared to the awful days when she first had mono.

Mike had work off. He gets every other Friday off, except during crunch time ~ Black Friday and Christmas season. It was perfect timing because Sherry came down from Highland to do Kaylee's handprints. Super nice of her to do that! She had the day off of school today and spent it doing us a favor. It was awesome. I have a lot of pictures of Kaylee getting her handprints, but none of her footprints. Weird. Also, I couldn't help but put every picture with Amy watching in the background. Haha

Mike wandering, Sam holding Kaylee, Matt watching, Sherry creating

 Kaylee

 Taking the oxygen sensor off to get Kaylee's footprints

 Matt, Kaylee, Sherry

 Amy's watching

 She's concerned

 And adorable

 Matt & Kaylee

 Kaylee

Poor little girl. You will love the handprints when you are older though. If you notice all the Enfamil in the background, it is because Matt and Sam are stockpiling it. This is the only thing Kaylee will eat and it has been discontinued. Matt searched every store from Provo to Layton yesterday getting as much as he can. Sam has a lot of writer friends around the country. Some of them are sending her some. Bad timing for this. Hopefully by the time they go through it all her little body will be able to tolerate something else.

Mike and I went to lunch at Sizzler after the handprints were done. That was nice, fun and relaxing. We tried to convince Jorja to go with us, but she wasn't hungry. She hasn't been hungry for a long time. Jorja had her ACT camp today. She picked Drew up at school and they got to Provo for the 3:00 check-in. Evan and Gabby were also there. She said it was a lot more fun that she thought it would be, which was great. Evan and Drew were in one group. Gabby and Jorja were in another. She is hoping that she will be in a group with someone she knows tomorrow since it is all day. Fingers crossed for that one!

Aubrey, Gabby, Drew, Evan

 Ben

Once she got back she picked up Ben and they stopped by Crumbl. Jorja had a coupon for free cookies. Then they went to Smiths before Jorja came home. Hopefully she isn't sick tomorrow! Also, Mike finally finished the Sweethearts video. It is awesome. Here is the link to it: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gEYgVkgdzzA 

What Would be Sick?

Jorja was sick today. I was sick today. Jorja slept until noon. I cancelled her exercise with Kerity and I called Chick-Fil-A and told them she wouldn't be able to come in. Jorja found out Joe was planning on asking her to prom at work. She was so disappointed that she was sick. She said she always wanted to be asked to a dance at work. Joe ended up asking her today anyways. She was happy about that. Joe is the junior secretary. The junior class officers are in charge of junior prom. They have to be there at the beginning. Jorja is the only girl. She said she would be the only one not to be able to have control over when to show up and she didn't want to get in trouble. With Joe asking her she doesn't need to worry about that because he has to be there at the beginning too. Plus Joe is her friend. He has been nice to her for years. She's pretty happy to be going to prom with him.

Joe

 Joe & Jorja

I got to talk to Stockton today. It's so good to be able to talk to him. He has been having an interesting time. He is trying so hard with his companion. He overheard his companion today talking to his family about how he doesn't like Stockton and he hopes he finishes his training with someone else. Stockton was kind of sad, annoyed and frustrated with that. Stockton told me his companion loves to talk about magic and musicals and gets his feelings hurt if Stockton doesn't want to talk about that. Stockton says it is exhausting trying to pay attention. He has tried to explain how he knows literally nothing about those subjects... This transfer has been hard.

Mike was not happy when he came home from work. His bosses bosses boss, or something like that got fired today. Nate. Mike LOVES Nate. He has said many times that he is happy working there because of Nate. Mike isn't satisfied about the reason they gave at the company meeting. Mike is not happy about the person who is now going to take over being in charge of the non-software tech side. Hopefully things go okay, but it is kind of scary at the moment. It's sad to watch someone put so much time and energy into a company, be so respected by his employees and to be blindsided and out of a job in about fifteen minutes. Wow.

Amazing Race Sweethearts Edition Season Two

Stockton! I apologize! We have been 'all hands on deck' the last few weeks getting ready for the Amazing Race. Mike has taken four full days off of work to work on this. On sad consequence is I am super behind on the blog. So.... I'm skipping some days. Hopefully I'll be able to go back, but until then.... we finished! Last year the teams in the Amazing Race finished one hour faster than we thought. So, this year we added more challenges and made it harder. It took FOUR hours to finish! Ahhhh! I think the kids loved it. One team didn't seem to enjoy it, but the rest seemed very happy. We had several people tell us it was their favorite day activity they have been on. Marshall told me that he would never forget this. One big thing I didn't anticipate was a giant line for the Ferris wheel at Scheels! They had to wait in that line for twenty plus minutes. Whoops. I have some random pictures of the race. Mike is working on a video now. He hoped to have it done to show at the after activity, but that didn't happen. He worked on it nonstop, but just couldn't pull it off. With the longer activity and more challenges, he had a lot more footage to go through. Also, he is a perfectionist. He would rather have a video that he was proud of done in a few days than rush through one that wasn't as great. Anyway......

The kids met at our house. Chloe brought her cousin Mia because her date had a soccer scrimmage he couldn't miss. Parker's date got sick and wasn't able to come. The girls were able to convince Parker to come anyway. She brought her little sister Reese. Mike had each of them pick a character. The race started with them being given ten minutes to build a vegetable car to race down a track Mike made. Kind of pinewood derby style, but with vegetables. Mike had a timer programed in the track. The kids were sent to their next locations based on the order they finished that race. Jorja and Bode got ninth place. There are eleven teams.

Jorja & Bode's team picture

They ran to the Okerlund's house where they had a fashion show. Megan had gathered sooo many different clothes. The kids had a set amount of time to put together an ensemble, then walk the catwalk. They had to do a hair flip, turn, blow a kiss, wink and a few more things before they were given their next clue. That sent them to the church. It was a detour. We had sticker by number books set up and Just Dance. We estimated the stickers would take about eight minutes and Just Dance about four. But most people chose the stickers. I think because they came to it first.

Reece & Parker, Bode & Jorja, Kate & Race

We had a quadruple U-Turn station. Autumn, Chloe, Aysha and Jorja were all U-turned. I'm glad I did four though so there were more people in the same boat.

They then ran back to our house where they had a bomb challenge. Mike and Preston designed a digital bomb. There were about six colored wires and codes to know which wires to cut. They wrote the bomb defusing manual in very bad English. (Green wires do not cut) Also, there were corrections made after the printing. (Green should say white) If the serial number on the bomb was even you had to cut the wires when the light was off, odd and cut when the light was on. There was a button that had to be pushed down when you cut the white wire. It was super confusing, but also really cool. And I don't have any pictures..... Mike has them all on his phone. Mike and Preston made four different bombs. (When it 'exploded' it just made a sound and the bomb would need to be rewired.)

This is a picture from a few weeks ago before Mike got the wires in.

The teams next went to Ellie's mom's house for a Tetris puzzle. Ellie's mom was so nice. She was throwing a baby shower a few hours after the kids came. Nice that she was willing to host the kids. The answer to the Tetris puzzle was a combination for a lock that they were going to use later in the game.

Mia & Chloe, Helam & Autumn, Bode & Jorja

The next place was Gavin's house to do a silks challenge. They did a 'candy cane roll' on the silks. Some teams hated it. Most teams LOVED it. Bode said it was his favorite challenge. Gage said that too. I know others did as well, just can't remember. Shannon had Nate taking pictures to send to us. Zoe was helping her mom as well. They were soooo great. Shannon was throwing a birthday party for Sammy, her little girl, after we left. So nice of her to do this for us!

Shannon helping Jorja, Zoe helping Bode, Nate getting ready for the pictures

The teams then went to a park where the combination locks were. Mike had 3D printed some cases that had tokens for them to ride the Ferris wheel at Scheels. Megan Okerlund was there to give them their next clue.

Bode & Jorja, Kate & Race, Guy in black that got super mad at Bode & Jorja

Which was to take a selfie with Abraham Lincoln and text it to a number. That number happened to be Maggie's number. She won the Amazing Race last year and is now at Utah State. Once she got a picture from them, she texted back a picture of herself that gave them the next clue.

Bode, Abraham, Jorja

I was waiting at Chick-Fil-A to give them their next puzzle (and $5 so they could buy something and we didn't feel bad by using their tables) This puzzle was a LINE puzzle that was super hard to make and quite confusing; but once you understood it, it was pretty cool. Ella & Devin didn't like the puzzle at all! Ellie & Jorja both said that was their favorite challenge. Anyways, once you put the papers in order, they spelled out ALTAFH. They had to figure out to go to the Alta Field House. We had a sign on a gate telling them to look for an old man wearing Alta swag. Teach him how to video on their cell phone and have him video them singing the school song. Here is Jorja & Bode's version. They kind of speed through it - haha

The next challenge sent them to Chloe's house where they learned to make sushi! Chloe's mom was so amazing! They finished the tile to the entry way to their house the night before. She was super nice and just perfect for this challenge.

Jorja & Bode

The next stop was the Okerlund's to play Operation. Mike had made a giant size operation board and 3D printed the pieces. He put metallic tape around the edges and wired a salad prong to it. He had a sensor that would beep like a heart rate monitor. If the edges were touched it would go faster. If they were touched too many times it would say DEAD. (When they were touched it would say OUCH) Megan got lab coats, face masks and gloves for the kids to wear. If they messed up they went to the back of the line. I think Jorja & Bode and Aysha and Abram were the only ones to get it on their first try, but I'm not sure about that.

Bode & Jorja

Jorja and Bode ended the race in 4th place. That was pretty great considering they started in 9th, got U-turned, and there were 11 teams.

Jorja & Bode

 4th place

Once the race was over, Mike worked non stop on the video. I ran down to the flower store to pick up Jorja's boutonnière. I had given them a piece of ribbon and told them a white flower with some sparkles. It turned out soooo pretty! I hurried home and started sewing Jorja's dress. I had already sewn the ribbon down the middle of her dress vertically, but Jorja decided she wanted it around her waist too. It did look much better that way. I took the dress with me when we went to Camee's to get her hair done, and I finished the dress about five minutes before she needed to leave. Cutting it close, but she looked great.

 Jorja at Camee's

I wanted a picture of Jorja before she left, but was only able to stop her in the hall. Haha. It's hard to tell how beautiful she looked in these pictures, but the ones later will make up for it.

Jorja

 Bode & Jorja at Bode's house

 Jorja & Bode

Mia took the pictures of the kids. She takes amazing pictures and is also Chloe's cousin. They took pictures at the same place they had dinner. I think it was above some store Parker used to work at. The lady made the food for them and had it all decorated.

Bode & Jorja

 Bode & Jorja doing the robot ~ I bet it was Jorja's idea Haha

 Autumn, Parker, Chloe, Aysha, Seurette, Annie, Kate, Ellie, Jessie, Ella, Jorja

 Autumn & Helam, Parker & Gabe, Kate & Race, Aysha & Abram, Ella & Devin

 Ellie & Carson, Annie & Marshall, Chloe & Joe, Jorja & Bode, Seurette & Gage, Jessie & Jack

Next stop....dance. It was in the gym and then there was clean up after it. Then they went to a gym that Aysha's parents own and played around there for a few hours. Jessie drove Jorja and Seurette and their dates. They stopped at In and Out on the way home. Jorja was tired when she got home, but she had a lot of fun. I couldn't stay awake. I started to feel sick after she left. My throat hurt very bad. Glad I made it through the race before I got knocked down! Glad the race is over. It was so much fun to work on and put together though. I'm happy the kids loved it and appreciated it. I'm thankful for all the help of the other mom's. And Gavin's mom who just did it to be nice! People are awesome.