NINETY-THREE

Jorja's had her statistics final this morning. Her final started at 9:00 and she was excused from her first two period classes. Jorja studied a little more this morning before she went to take her test. She had her laptop charged and everything she needed. Welp, her laptop wouldn't connect to the internet when she got to school. She had to use one of the schools. She texted me frantically wanting to know her SLCC username. It is saved on her computer so she never needs to type it in. Luckily I saw that message and was able to give her the information. A bit later the called me. Jorja's teacher was in a motorcycle accident at the beginning of the quarter. The substitute just told them they were allowed to use notes on the final. Jorja left all of her notes home. So, I gathered up all the notes as quickly as I could and met her outside the field house. Jorja said she only looked at her notes once and would have been fine without them. She got a 93 on her final! Nicely done Porge! All of that studying sure paid off!

We went to Leatherbys tonight to celebrate Jorja's statistics being over and Preston's last day before he gets braces. We let Preston pick where he wanted to go. Jack came over after school and he came with us. Preston and Jack both got French fries and ice-cream. It was fun. Preston is not looking forward to tomorrow.

Back to Hybrid

Welp. We are back to hybrid learning. A-L goes to school on Mondays and Tuesdays. M-S goes to school on Wednesdays and Thursdays. So, Jorja was doing online school today. Packer actually did a zoom class and spent most of the time having Jorja talk about the fund raiser. She loved that! She ended up going over to Riley's to work on statistics. They have a huge test tomorrow. She didn't do well on the first one, so she is really nervous for this one. I'm proud of her for taking the test honestly. Lots of Jorja's friends FaceTime through the entire test and they are planning on doing it again. 

Jorja trying to make Bear pretty

Yearbook Pictures

Jorja had PLT interviews for several hours today. Her English teacher asked them to send selfies of themselves for the yearbook. The English teacher is also in charge of the yearbook. So... this is what Jorja came up with.

Jorja

 This one was my favorite

 This is the one she sent

I'm still going through pictures from our filing cabinet. Found pictures of Matt before his mission and this picture I sent to my friend Cheri. It is from Maysen and Raigan's 4th birthday party. (Their birthdays are one day apart.) This was a few weeks before me moved from Washington to Georgia. Two of Cheri's kids are in the picture. Emily and Carter.

I can't remember the names of the first two kids. Whoops.

Raigan, Maysen, Emily, Carter

 Missionary Matt

Bear gets so excited when Jorja comes home from work. Maybe it is because she smells like chicken? Jorja loves cuddling with him when she comes home.

Jorja and Bear, Preston, Maysen, Mike

Red Couch

Welp, school is officially cancelled for the rest of the year. Online will still continue. This is sad. Jorja had the best junior year. It was her favorite year by far. Sad it has to end this way. Preston and I actually had a reason to leave the house today. We drove to Indian Hills to pick up his math books for the rest of the year. Jorja had PLT interviews for several hours again today. She wrote notes to her senior friends and then went hiking with Riley. The place they were planning on going didn't work out. There was an ambulance there and they were looking for an injured hiker. They decided to hike at a random place. Jorja pulled off the side of the road and they headed up. Too bad she got a ticket for parking where she did. Hopefully it won't be too expensive. They seemed to have a lot of fun. They found old foundations of a building, a red couch and a rope swing. Jorja sent me two pictures, but I took screenshots of videos that she had taken. It was a lot colder today than it had been last week. Both of these two knuckleheads are wearing shorts. Not a wise move.

Riley

 Riley & Jorja

Jorja

Once Jorja got home we hurried to Crumbl. She wanted to drop off a cookie and a note to her senior friends. Also she had a gift for her friend Sophie, whose birthday is today. Jorja dropped me off then picked up Madison who went with her to drop off her gifts. Long day for her, but she seemed to have a good day.

Interviews

The kids started back at school today. Well, Jorja and Preston did. Maysen has been going strong for awhile now. We had lists ready for them of tasks they needed to finish before they got free time. Both of them did really well. Jorja also started PLT interviews today. She is a PLT officer this year, so she gets to be a part of the interview process for the people trying out. It was sooo cute to hear her during the interview. We couldn't hear the kids trying out because she had headphones in, but it was fun to see her interact with her peers. She is amazing.

Jorja

Chick-Fil-A started their two teams today. Today was the A teams first day. Jorja will be working exclusively with these people. Luckily she is very happy with who is on her team. Jorja was anxious to quit before quarantine. Now it is one of the only places she is allowed to go, and she is only allowed to hang out with the people she works with because we figured they are together so much anyway. Jorja has enjoyed it though. The pace is much slower. So... she gets to make tiktoks while at work.

Behind the scenes ~ haha

We talked to Stockton today! It was super quick, but I didn't think we would hear from him at all. He and Elder Jenson got Elder Wells dropped off and ready to go home. Elder Jenson is now his companion. They cover Elder Jenson's two wards and Stockton's two wards. Mission life has sure changed. Stockton said, "The grand total damage done by the coronavirus in this mission was 19 closed areas and 75 missionaries gone home." Wow. Stockton is also district leader again. Luckily Stockton enjoys Elder Jenson. That makes a big difference. Stockton sounds happy and they are still planning on having a baptism on Saturday. Hope they can pull it off!

Stockton Goldberg

We got to talk to Stockton today! They are asked to stay in their apartment unless they have a scheduled appointment and they are not sick. And the people aren't old. Stockton made me laugh when he said that some missionaries clearly haven't mastered the art of amusing themselves. Especially when we saw the Rube Goldberg machine he made with his companion. Hahaha

Elder Wells and Stockton

My favorite part was the bicycle tire. They have a full water bottle at the top, so when the cereal hits the flyswatter it moves just enough that the water bottle falls down, moving the tire, which moves the flyswatter, which hits honey Bunches of Oats. Hahaha. I LOVE him! I'm so happy he is happy.

Maysen had her last dermatologist appointment today. I'm glad they didn't cancel. She has been taking accutane. There is a 100% chance of birth defects if someone gets pregnant while taking accutane. Because of this, girls have to be seen in a certain time frame and they have to take a pregnancy test every time. This is Maysen's last time. She has one more month of pills, but doesn't need to go back. Yay!

Maysen and I went through the drive thru of Jamba Juice to pick up Jorja an açaí bowl. Jorja worked 13 hours today. She took someone else shift and had a two hour break before hers started. The dining room is closed, so Jorja brought her homework to do and we gave her the açaí bowl to eat. Jorja was very tired, but happy when she came home. She even brought us food. :)

The sad thing that happened to Jorja and the happy thing that happened to Preston today was the schools are not going to be reopened until May 1st. Preston is loving life and Jorja thinks she will go insane. I am so thankful that my family gets along and loves being together. I'm thankful that Maysen is home with us. I'm thankful that Stockton is happy and bringing joy to others in the mission field. Life is good.

Snow Day

School was actually cancelled. In Utah. It was weird. There was a lot of snow, but it didn't seem like a crazy amount. I was nervous to go to my exercise class since I wasn't sure if the plows would be out that early. I decided to take Jorja's car because she has the best tires, but then I couldn't find the keys. I looked and looked and looked. I even woke Jorja up. She told me they were on the piano. Nope. Turns out they were in her student government sweater in her room. I didn't check there. I ended up missing my class. Maybe that was for the best since they ended up cancelling school. Too bad I was up by 4:00. I hope the weather is better for Saturday!

The snow let up for a bit in the afternoon and I decided to try a locksmith place to get Jorja's key re-keyed. When we bought her car they gave us a blank key thing. We couldn't find anywhere that would do it. The VW place wouldn't even do it. I called a different VW place today. They recommended Bob's locksmith. They were able to do it! It ended up being around $40, which is a ton better than over $200. That is what the VW place quoted me as. He did have to call in a specialist to do it. I waited about twenty minutes for him to get there. It took awhile, but they were able to get it done. The snow started up again while I was there. The bad thing was, I had to push back Jorja's seat so they could get in there and mess with things. Then the seat would not go forward. It wouldn't latch. I tried to drive home, in a snowstorm, like that; but there was no way. The locksmith guys were super helpful. They worked with me for 45 minutes on it. They tried everything from putting boxes behind the seat to wedging an iron bench in there. Finally they came up with a cool padlock they were able to put in the latch. It took them forever and the seat was too close. He tried again. It was still a little close, but I told him it was fine. Jorja had to get to work, my phone died, the car was out of gas, and they had spent forever helping me as it was. I was ready to get home. The guy didn't even charge me for the $11 lock he used. They were so nice.

Jorja's car at the locksmiths

Jorja was stressing when I got home. She didn't know how she would get to work. I got home about ten minutes before she needed to be there. I drove Jorja to work because I was not sure the car would make it. At least Jorja had a cell phone that we could call from if we got stranded. Luckily that didn't happen. On the way down we passed the flower sign. I made Jorja take a picture so I could send it to Jordyn, then I forgot. Too bad Jordyn's name came up during the biggest snowstorm. Canyons School District has never closed for snow before. This was the first. I think they've been around for 10 years.

 Flower Kanani gave me...we haven't killed it yet!

The worst thing to happen today, by far was this.....Brett sent my brothers' and I a text that was not happy. Here is our message thread....

Stephanie: So happy for you Brett (sent on Monday)

Brett: Haha. Just kidding. They messed up and told me I was promoting. Turns out I'm not. Weird turn of events. So this just in...not promoting.

Dad: Foot

Matt: Seriously? The military is dumb.

Dad: Door

Brett: Foot is right.

John: That's lame.

Stephanie: Wait! What?

John: It's like when Slytherin won the House Cut in Year 1 and then all of a sudden Dumbledore just gives a bunch of points to Gryffindor for the win.

Brett: First, my boss brought the whole office together to tell me I was promoting. Then, the vice commander of the base brings the whole office together to congratulate me on promoting. Then, the wing commander sends out a congratulatory email to the whole base that me and one other guy are promoting. Then I go to the official list today to see what my line number is to see when this promotion happens and I don't see me on the list. So I dig deeper and now it turns out I'm not on the promotion list.

John: Maybe the list is wrong. Has anyone confirmed to you that you are not promoting?

Brett: We called the lady at the personnel center that has a pretty official list. I'm confident the list is correct and somewhere along the way the messaging of the list derailed.

John: Crazy. Does your boss, vice commander and wing commander know about this?

Brett: Yeah. My boss just said they are upset. He gave me the heads up that the wing commander is probably going to call me.

John: Hope he can maybe pull some strings for you.

Brett: I wish, but he is pretty powerless against the Air Force promotion machine.

Stephanie: I'm not a fan of that machine.

John: Two thumbs down. Glitchy machine.

Bubs: So I just got all these messages out of order, but did the Air Force really just jerk you around like that? That's ridiculous. Who's in charge of promotions over there, Steve Harvey?

Brett: It's cra cra. I forgot about that Steve Harvey thing. Yes, like that.

Bubs: So in effect, they decided to tell you in the most painful way possible that you didn't get it.

Brett: Correct.

Bubs: We were in Vegas the night that happened, so I feel connected to it.

Brett: No. They feel super bad. It wasn't their fault. I saw the email notification they got and it looked official and exactly like they usually see.

Bubs: Well, that's terrible. Sorry they did you like that.

Brett: Not sure where the messaging went wrong though. It's super embarrassing to them so I have no doubt they are finding out how this happened.

Matt: gif image of the host taking the crown off of the announced Miss America and putting it on the actual Miss America

Bubs: Seems like these promotions are kind of random anyway. Did they give you a reason why you weren't promoted?

Brett: No. Not being promoted isn't a big surprise. I figured I had a 50/50 chance on it.

Bubs: They told me I didn't move up in reffing last year because I'm too fat. The guy who told me, who's one of the highest ranked refs in the state, is a huge sloth of a man that is at least 70 lbs. heavier than me.

Brett: Weird. Who cares about competence.

Bubs: All about perception in reffing. They like guys that can "sell" calls better than guys that make good calls. It explains a lot.

Mike: I'm really sorry Brett....that really sucks.

End of Quarter

Today is the last day of the quarter. I checked Jorja's grades before I got her up. She wasn't doing too well. She had a C+ in math and a lot of her grades had dropped. I told her about it when she woke up. She was devastated. When she went to bed she had all As and a B+ in math. She checked right before midnight. Jorja finally got up and was able to get to school after first period. She was sad to miss student government. I am so tired of her being sick. I know she doesn't like it either. Mike was worried she is going to make this a habit. I told him that today was obvious that she was sick. She has just been sooooo sick for sooooo long. It is sad. I texted Jorja around lunch time to find out how she was feeling. She said, "Sad mostly." Dang it. This quarter has been rough!

I went to lunch with Jacqui Scott and Megan Okerlund. It was great. I picked up Megan and then we headed to Treehouse to pick up Jacqui. Ashley is working there, so she dropped off a car for her. We talked and talked and talked. It was nice to be with them. It seems like it has been so long! Jorja texted me to let me know that her math teacher is going to let her retake a math test that she took at the beginning of the quarter. That is so nice! He gave her a review sheet that will help her. She was also planning on going on a date with Traven, but he had to change it until later in the day because he had a soccer game. I got worried that she wouldn't be able to study for her math test. No worries. There was actually a Corner Canyon/Alta girls basketball game that he needed to go to. That was nice because he cancelled, not Jorja and she was able to study for her test. Stockton helped her for a long time. I'm going to miss that. He is so good to her. I tried to get a picture, but it didn't work out. I did get a picture of baby Amy though. Mike and I ran down to Matt and Sam's to pick up some of the cabin sheets they had. Amy just got out of the bath as we were leaving. She's adorable.

Amy

Jorja stayed after school today to audition for Region and State in Theater. She was supposed to perform at 3:45. I was almost to the school to pick her up when she texted that she hadn't even gone yet. I waited in her car until my toes were frozen. She was finished almost an hour later than she thought she would be. She thinks they did okay. They couldn't perform their entire scene because of how late the auditions were going. Right when Jorja and her two friends got up, they told them that the rest of the auditions would be shortened. Jorja had a few lines, but her two big ones were cut. She wasn't too disappointed with that, especially since she just memorized them last night. Anyway....after studying math until close to 10:00, Jorja left to go to a student government sleepover. I hope she doesn't stay up too late. She promises she will be home by 8:00 to take her math test. Let's hope. Today was super hard for her to get up. The exhaustion that comes with mono is no joke.

I found the picture! Mike had it on his phone.

I love how close Jorja and Stockton are. Best friends. We're going to miss him.

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.

NO MORE ELEMENTARY SCHOOL

Today was officially the last day of school. It was also Preston's last day of elementary school . . . ever. No more elementary school for my family. I can't believe it. That's so sad. Preston was not amused that I wanted to take pictures to document this occasion.

Preston

 There he goes!

Preston's last walk around the school.

We all went to see his promotion ceremony. We decided to stand in the back, we could see better that way. The entire fifth grade sang a song together. Mike and the kids were dancing in the back. It was so dang cute! Preston kept laughing at them.

Maysen, Stockton, Mike, Jorja

In these next two pictures the kids are holding up signs of what they want to be when they grow up. Preston was having a little bit of problem with his paper. Haha! You can't see what is on his sign. He is next to the dentist. His says 'programmer'.

Preston was on the end in the front. He snuck down during the other skits to be with us. Then we snuck out the back door while the show was still going on. What are they going to do? Keep him from graduating elementary school?

Stockton & Preston

 Mike, Jorja, Stockton, Preston, Maysen

 Stephanie & Preston, Stockton trying to sneak back for the photobomb

 Sure love this boy!

 Preston & Mike

 Preston

 Good-bye Lone Peak!

 What a beautiful setting.

I thought Preston would want to go somewhere to celebrate, especially since he wasn't able to come to Stockton's graduation celebration. Nope. He just wanted to go home. Well, that was easy. Mike headed to work, the rest of us came home. I took Jorja to a dermatologist appointment. Stockton went to diving. Preston isn't going to dive this summer. Jorja, Hailey and Julian all hung out downstairs. Ping pong, fooseball and a movie. They watched World War Z. I watched the end with Jorja and Julian, after Hailey had to go home. I had no idea what was going on. Then I sat on the couch while Jorja and Julian played Uno. Jorja didn't like that. She said, "Are you just going to sit there mom?" Yep. That is exactly what I'm going to do. Do you want me to go into detail about why I'm not leaving you alone downstairs with a boy? Do you really want me to go there? If you think I'm embarrassing you now, do you really want me to answer why I am sitting here? Anyway, Julian's dad came and picked him up right before midnight. I was so tired!