Free Pancakes

I forgot to mention that Gavin slept over last night. Today is 'free pancake day' at IHOP. Stockton really wanted to go at 6:00, right as IHOP opened. Jorja wanted to go at 9:00. I went with Stockton's choice because he needed to be at school for Academic Decathlon at 9:00. Plus, this way Preston was able to come with us. Anyway, Stockton, Preston and Gavin had diving yesterday. When they were dropping him off they thought it would be a better idea to just let him sleep over. Worked for me! Anyway, we made it to Drew's house at 6:00 this morning and then made it to IHOP shortly after. I asked the server how the free pancake day worked. He said, "Well, it starts at 7:00 and finishes at 7:00." Oooof! I am so glad I didn't make Mike come with me. He wouldn't have been too happy. He is on call and was up until 3:00 working on an outage. It ended up being fine. I ordered two pancakes and asked if we could have plates to share while we waited for 7:00. Chocolate chocolate chip and red velvet. The fancy pancakes are not free, so this way they got to have something different first. It was a really great time and the pancakes were delicious!

Jorja and Gavin

 Drew, Stockton, Gavin, Jorja

 We finally have the free ones!

 Preston was there too.

Everyone came back to our house. I talked them into watching Mystery Men. For some reason I had wanted Jorja to watch this when Drew was here. I thought he would like it. I think I liked it the most because I laughed through most of it. Especially when it reminds me of times my brothers have used the quotes. It is always awkward when there is an embarrassing part that you wish wasn't there, then you watch it with your kids and the bad part is amplified by 1,000. Why do movies have to be ruined! Stockton was able to watch the first half hour with us before he left for Acadmeic Decathlon. I dropped Gavin off after the movie. Drew stayed until about 2:00. Jorja and Drew are goofballs. They spent most of the day laughing. They made a cake but we didn't have eggs, butter, or oil. They used random stuff instead. Like mayonnaise. Weird. Stockton got home around noon and fell asleep on the couch for a few hours.

Stockton

You can see The False Prince in the background. John texted me pictures of finishing the book with Mallory. I grabbed the book to send a quote to him. I'm so happy Mallory loved it! The False Prince is one of my very favorite books. Mike sent me a picture last month of Skye with her book. Jennifer Nielsen came to her school and she was able to get her book signed. That made me so happy! I loved it!

John and Mallory

 Finished!

Skye ~ I love this!

Jorja had the second half of her softball tryouts today. She came home a bit disappointed. She didn't do as well today as she did yesterday. It was hitting. She is a much better fielder. We hurried home from tryouts so Jorja could go to a movie. Jorja and Carter had been trying to see The Greatest Showman with Stockton and Addie. They finally made it there today. While they were waiting for the show to start Jorja found out that she didn't make the softball team. She is disappointed. Raina and Tayleigh both made the team. She is happy for them but sad that she won't be able to experience this with them. She did have a great time at the movie. She liked it more than Stockton. He is not a fan of musicals. He loves his sister, that is why he came.

Addie, Jorja, Carter, Stockton

Parent/Teacher conferences were also today. I had Jorja come with me to talk to a few of her teachers. I wanted to meet with her Chinese teacher while Jorja was there. Jorja is scared of her. She started tearing up during the conference. I'm still glad I  brought her because her teacher was able to explain some things to her that she didn't understand. Hopefully she will get that grade up. We also made it to Jorja's woodshop teacher. Jorja's grade dropped because she accidentally turned in her digital photo fee receipt to woodshop and her woodshop receipt to the photo class. We got that straightened out too. I'm feeling a lot better about her grades now than I was this morning!

Softball Tryouts

I checked Jorja out of school so I could take her to get a sports physical. I had no idea you needed to have one done before tryouts. Tryouts are today, so typical Stephanie, I'm getting it done today. I really liked the doctor. Mike told me I would. Clear back in November, while I was in Australia, Jorja had a weird attack. Kind of like a panic attack, but weirder. Hailey videoed it. Jorja had no control over her left arm. It was going crazy, it was jerking everywhere. Jorja was crying out, "What is happening?"  If I remember right, Hailey said that lasted for about 45 minutes. She also said that her heart felt like it had a lot of pressure on it, her vision was going spotty and she was dizzy. Later when we got home, I found this picture on her phone that she took right after her spaz attack. Her right side of her face is droopy. Anyway, I have been worried about this for awhile, but she didn't have any symptoms after we got home. I thought that since I was at a doctors office I would ask her about it. The doctor said she wanted to research a few things. It might be nothing, but because it was her left arm and her right side of her face it might be something on her brain. Well, that's just lovely.

Jorja

The doctor gave us a school excuse, but there wasn't a time written on it. Jorja and I took advantage of that and went to brunch at The Original Pancake House. I really enjoyed that. Jorja had softball tryouts today. She was so nervous! She came home pretty happy though. She felt she played well. Yay! I'm so happy for her!

Looking for Andrew

My sleep schedule is still a mess. I didn't set an alarm, but I was up by 5:00. I decided to go to the temple. I made it to the 6:00 session. I was glad I made it this week, but a little bit into it I regretted forgetting to eat breakfast.

A boy in Jorja's Sunday school class named Andrew went missing yesterday. He got in a fight with his parents and ran away from home around 10:00 in the morning. We were sent messages yesterday night to check our yards and see if he was hiding somewhere. He is autistic and hides frequently. He was still missing this morning. Mike went to the stake center to help with the search party.

Andrew

I took Maysen to her laser appointment and then we went to Katie Larson's bridal shower. I know Katie was glad Maysen was there. Especially since Maysen was the only person her age. Well, Katie is about a year older than Maysen, but they were friends growing up. Katie was really happy and it was fun to see her.

Maysen & Katie

Mike left the search party to go get Jorja from softball. She got hit in the eye while she was warming up the pitcher. She had her catcher gear on, but not her mask. The ball hit Jorja's knee pads and took a nasty bounce into her eye. She couldn't open her eye for about ten minutes. We had her put ice on it when she got home. She didn't like that too much. Jorja made me laugh. She said something like, "Just because everything else in my life is going so well right now . . . ." I laughed and laughed. While Jorja had ice on her eye, we got another message for all the search parties to meet back at the stake center. Jorja and I decided to go on down there. Jorja was pretty worried about him. We were put in Ron Henderson's group. We then drove down to Draper and were split up again. Jorja, Darby and I were assigned to go to stores starting around Cafe Rio in Draper and working our way up to 7th East. We only were given a few flyers though. One of the first stores we came to was a copy store, so I asked for thirty more copies. It was nice to be able to leave his picture at every store instead of just asking random people if they had seen him. I sent Jorja and Darby off on their own after awhile. Darby was making Jorja laugh and said she could tell everyone he gave her the black eye.

Jorja's black eye

Mike, Stockton, Jorja and I went to Village Inn. Maysen and Preston didn't want to go. Traffic was horrible! We were kind of close, but hadn't moved for awhile. I told Mike I could get there faster running. I hopped out of the car and ran the rest of the way there. I did get there before them, but not by much. Stockton and Jorja were so cute together. I wish I had a picture of them. Stockton had his arm around her, and she looked so safe. Tonight was so much fun. The real Jorja was back! My happy, happy Jorja. I have missed her! It has been so long since she has been herself. At least a month. The four of us laughed and laughed and laughed. She is healing. This is good.

Maysen's classes have been so hard and time consuming this semester. She has told me she falls asleep in her clothes with her lights on doing homework. Well, this is what I found when I came back from dinner. Exactly as she described.

Maysen

Originally we were planning on taking her back to Logan tonight. I think we'll wait until morning. Luckily both of us have 1:00 church. I closed Maysen's laptop and put it away. When I turned off the lamp it woke Maysen up and she freaked out. Her eyes were wide and she looked so scared. I guess she is used to living alone now.

Andrew was found tonight. Someone saw a flyer in a store in Draper and called the police. He was at a friend's house. I wonder if the flyer was one of the ones put there by us? Could be.

Jorja's FIFTEEN

Happy birthday Jorja! She is now fifteen, but wishes she were twenty-one. She is in such a hurry to grow up. Today was crazy. Crazy busy. Mike skipped going to the temple this morning so Jorja would be able to open a few presents with all her family except Maysen. She loved the Hank Smith CDs. She's kind of iffy on the jacket. She said that it doesn't really look like her. Hopefully she'll get used to it and like it. I just want something she will be willing to wear that will keep her warm. We also gave her a note saying another birthday present is her student government sweater. She doesn't know when that will come in, but thinks it will be in November. I asked if I could get a picture of her before school that I could post on Instagram. She told me to wait until after school for better lighting. Haha. The girl that only cared about frogs is officially gone.

Jorja ~ 15 years old

Jorja's friend sent her this super funny video that I will post later. While I was looking for that video I spotted these messages that her EFY friends sent to her.

Jorja, Maggie, Brooklyn

 Jorja

Maggie, Jorja, Brooklyn

My car died at Walmart. I have no idea what happened. It felt like a battery issue. I went to Walmart and everything was fine. It stopped working when I left. Right as I was videoing the problem so I could send it to Mike I saw my friend Jacqui. I jumped out of the car and asked her if she could give me a ride home. I couldn't believe the timing! I didn't even have a second to worry about what I should do before Jacqui showed up. Yay!

Jorja had an okay day at school. Not the best and not the worst. Yesterday I brought Ashley doughnuts to bring to student government. Mr. Packer talked most of the time, but right at the end Baylor interrupted him and started singing "Happy birthday'. (Baylor is in charge of recognizing the birthdays throughout the year.) Jorja's friends were all super nice to her, but she came home with tears in her eyes. She said Isaac didn't talk to her all day, and that he was always with another girl. She said today was the first time Isaac didn't sit by her at lunch. She had been looking forward to being with Isaac on her birthday for a long time. The first thing she said to me when Isaac told her he liked someone else was, "And right before my birthday." Isaac texted her after school. He thought Jorja didn't want to talk to him. Those two! We were so busy the rest of the day that they kept missing each other and she never got to talk to him. She was quite disappointed. She'll survive. Jorja, please just enjoy this year! Try not to worry about boys! Just have a fun non-stressful year. Easy, right?

Jorja ~ 15 years old in better light

Hailey gave Jorja this shirt. Jorja had tried it on at the mall yesterday, but didn't end up buying it. Jorja doesn't know when Hailey went back for it. I told her maybe Hailey was sly and bought it when she wasn't looking. Anyway, it was super nice of Hailey and the shirt looks adorable on Jorja. Allison also got Jorja a purple hippo stuffed animal with a balloon and candy. The hippo is soft!

Jorja wearing Hailey's birthday shirt

Speaking of Hailey and the mall... Yesterday Jorja found a 'racing attire' outfit that reminded her of the elections. Of course she had to try it on. Doesn't she look adorable?

Stockton and Gavin went to diving right after school. Preston skipped diving today so he could do his last pinewood derby. He wanted to make his car look like a mouse. Actually, he originally wanted it to be a slice of carrot cake, but while they were trying to make that they thought it looked like a mouse. Preston loved it.

Preston's mouse car

 Mike & Preston loved Chase's Oregon Trail car

While Mike and Preston were at the pinewood derby, I took Jorja to her softball banquet. Her coaches were so great. They have worked so hard with these girls. They talked about each one of them too. When they started talking about Jorja (or Ya-Ya, which is one of her softball nicknames for weirdness sake), Marty said that she is by far the most emotional member of the team. Ha! That is true! Let's try and reign that in a little bit this year Porge! They talked about how super nice she is to everyone and how she makes everyone feel special, that she did an awesome job as team captain this season. They talked about the spunk she added to the team and how she was a big reason they went to competition ball this year. I took a video of them talking about her, but it is too long to post. Marty said that Jorja was the core of the apple, the person everyone loves, she's crazy and has a fun spunk that no one else brings. "Jorja with a J - they spelled the state wrong." Haha. That's my girl!

Jorja and Jana

 Jorja and Marty

 Megan, Jorja, Paige

 Jorja and Paige

Let's take a second here to celebrate Paige's weirdness. Paige goes to a different school, but she is in 9th grade as well. She sent Jorja this birthday video. We couldn't stop laughing. I see why Jorja gets along with her so well.

Shay & Jorja

 Jorja & Kamryn

 Jorja & Oakley (Jana's daughter)

 Jorja & Tayleigh

Everyone sang Happy birthday to Jorja while we were there. Jorja loved being with her softball friends on her birthday. This worked out perfectly. Raina left before I was able to get a picture of her with Jorja. Mike stopped at Cold Stone on the way home and just picked up a random cake for Jorja. She liked it. I didn't have candles, so I held up my fingers and she blew them out. Hopefully her wishes will still come true!

We gave Jorja her last present, which was the CD player. It finally arrived right before we left to the softball banquet. I think Jorja is really going to like it. Well, that's a wrap for this birthday post. Jorja is awesome. I love her. I hope her fifteenth year is her best year yet!

Kristin Chenoweth

Jorja had a long day today. She finished her softball tournament, and her softball season. Her first game was pretty early and it was cold! Mike and I took Jorja to Dunkin Donuts during her break between games. The temperature was much better for her second game. I love how much Jorja has improved. Her catchers stance is amazing. Look how flat footed she is. I can't believe she finds this comfortable. She can stay like that for a long time. Her legs are pretty strong.

Jorja

I like this one. Jorja's catcher stance and lovely catch by Raina in left field.

Evan and Hailey came over this afternoon. Evan was here first, then the other people they invited said they could not come. I made Jorja, Evan and Preston watch a Chinese soap opera while they waited for Hailey. I watched it with them. I had no idea what was going on, but I did not fall asleep. How can I stay awake through this and not be able to stay awake during any other movie in existence? Just kidding . . . but I do fall asleep a lot. The show was about 45 minutes, and Hailey watched the last bit with them. Mike and I went to see Kristin Chenoweth down in Provo. I let Evan and Hailey stay here. After talking to all three of them and getting them to promise me that I wouldn't regret this. The line was so long to get into the Marriott Center. The phone rang right as I was sitting down. Luckily because of the lines they started the show late. Jorja was on the phone asking if Isaac could come over. I wasn't sure what to do. I told her it would be okay as long as his parents were aware that we weren't home. Stockton and Preston were both home. I asked to talk to Evan and made him promise me to keep Jorja and Isaac in line. I told him to be as annoying as I would be if I were there. He promised me he would do his best. I regretted not talking to Hailey and asking her the same thing. Jorja said Hailey did a good job helping Evan out. The kids were gone by the time Mike and I got home.

Kristin Chenoweth was amazing! Her voice was incredible, she was so kind and gracious. And funny! So funny. We were laughing and cheering all night. I can't believe someone that small can sing like that. Her voice is powerful, and she has such control. It's funny that a lot of popular singers now use computer generated software to make them sound amazing. Then you hear someone like Chenoweth. I loved it. Plus, she is 'Itty Bitty'. I loved that character on Pushing Daisies. I loved Kristin Chenoweth before this, but I really love her now. I'm so glad Mike got us tickets to see her.

Feathers

I had Preston's parent teacher conference today. That kid is adorable. He has already reached all his benchmarks for where he should be at the end of this year. His teacher said that the Chinese program was meant for kids like him. Yep. Preston loves Chinese. It makes me happy. I love the end of parent teacher conferences in elementary school where they have the kids come out and the teacher talks to them in Chinese. I love listening to their conversations. It's the best. Preston's teachers asked if there was anything he would like them to know. He said that he can't see in the back of the class when they put him behind tall people. I feel his pain.

The art teacher at the elementary school is awesome. It is Dallin's mom. Jorja's friend from elementary school. This is her second year and she does such a great job. The kids made feathers that were decorated with their hobbies. Preston's is orange. They look pretty cool all together.

Preston

Jorja had to stay after school to decorate for homecoming. I was hoping to make it to Aimee Roth's wedding, but I wasn't sure when Jorja needed to be picked up. By the time she finished it was too late to make it to the wedding. (It was down in Springville.) Stockton took Gavin and Preston to diving. Jorja missed her first softball game, but was able to make it to the second one. The weather was great and the sunset was beautiful.

Jorja at catch

The third baseman got hit in the face. It was awful.

I just liked the catch by Jorja. She looks like a frog.

Rainy Day at the Field

I spent the morning moving sticks to the front yard so they could be picked up next week. I saw my neighbor Paul leave his house and I waved to him. We live on a cul de sac, so he usually wouldn't pass my house. When he turned my way, I knew he was coming to talk to me and I knew what he was going to talk about. I walked up to him when he stopped and we talked for a long time. Paul is Audrey's dad. He has decided to be a woman. He has had the surgeries done to become a woman. He told me his name is now Whitney. We talked and talked. I told him that I would do my best to call him Whitney, but to not be offended if I accidentally call him Paul. Sue and Jim walked by why I was talking to him. I introduced them to Whitney. It was a little awkward because I wasn't sure what to call him. I said, "This is Audrey's ____" I looked at Paul/Whitney. He said, "Mom". When they walked away I told him I was sorry if that was awkward, but I'm a big believer in getting the elephant out of the room. I asked how Audrey and Elizabeth were doing. Elizabeth is his wife. I told him that all three of them would always be welcomed at our house. He seemed very relieved when he drove away. I called Sue up afterwords to explain who Whitney was. She was super nice about it and was completely shocked. She had no idea that she was talking to someone who used to be a man, he looked so much like a woman. I know she will be super nice to Paul/Whitney, because that is the kind of person she is. I figure that I don't have to agree with this, but I want Paul/Whitney to know that if Audrey is ever over at our house that this is a safe place for her. He won't need to worry about us saying bad things to his daughter. She is safe and she is loved.

Jorja met some friends at a park for a late breakfast. This is good. She needs to be around lots of different friends right now. I picked her up from the park at about 12:30. She has a softball tournament today. She was a little sad before the game. Luckily Raina came to the rescue. Raina brought a loud speaker where the girls were able to dance to music. Jorja lit up. She can be so silly. One time she was was dancing and singing on the way up to the plate. She is freaking adorable.

Raina & Jorja

 Jorja waiting to do the coin toss

 Joe tying Jorja's shoe

It started raining hard for the third game. Shannon called me and I was talking to her under my blanket. Jorja took a picture and sent it to me. It was hard to watch the game with the umbrellas in front of me, but I didn't want to move because I knew I would get sopping wet if I did. I was able to see Jorja get an awesome hit though. Then she stole second. Then she scored from second when the girl behind her got a base hit. Jorja also did an awesome bunt earlier that got an RBI and she made it to first. Perfect!

Later tonight I dropped Jorja off at the bowling alley where she bowled with Raina, Shay and Taylee. They also played laser tag. Jorja had a lot of fun. I texted her after 10:00 and said I was tired and was picking her up. I brought her home and then she got sad again. We laid on my bed for awhile listening to old music. Jorja does great when she is busy, it is just when things slow down that she gets sad. It will be a rough few days, but then I think she will be able to handle things and be back to her regular self again. I sure love that super sensitive girl.

Hike with My Friends - Yay!

I woke up Jorja early to go to the temple. She had already planned on going before Isaac broke up with her last night. The problem was, we couldn't find her temple recommend this morning. She went to the temple with Dessa on Saturday, and we had no idea where her recommend ended up. We decided to go to the temple anyway. Mike was waiting for us there and when Isaac forgot his recommend, they just looked it up. When Jorja and I got there the temple was packed! She filled out the paper to have her recommend looked up, but the guy ended up calling Bishop Waddoups anyway. Whoops. But, she got in. There were two different church groups that came from American Fork. Lots and lots of people. Last week when we went Jorja was done by 6:08. This time she finished at 7:15. Which made her late for school. We were in the waiting room and Jorja had been confirmed. I asked her if she would just like to go, but she adamantly shook her head. Well, we'll hope for the best. This was also the first time Jorja didn't bring her stuff so I could take her straight to school. Lesson noted. Mike left the temple the same time as us. Jorja looked at her phone when she got home. There was a message from Isaac that said something like, "We did not break up last night". Drat. When Jorja came upstairs Mike had a song playing and was dancing. It was Katy Perry's 'Hot and Cold' song. That made Jorja laugh. Mike has told her several times that this song describes Isaac, so Mike was lip syncing the song to her. Specifically "You change your mind like a girl changes clothes...and you over think always speak cryptically......cause you're hot then your cold, you're yes then you're no, you're in then you're out, you're up then you're down......You don't really want to stay, but you don't really want to go...." Anyways, it was super funny to see Mike dancing and it made Jorja laugh, so that's a win.

Jorja was nervous about walking late into Chinese. I guess when you are late you have to go in, salute and bow. She had fun with it though. She was pretty happy when she went to school, even though she knew it was going to be a hard day. I told her to just hold her head high, be kind and to not force things.

I went hiking today with Becky, Stephanie and Jacqui. It was really nice. I'm so glad they asked me to come. I was able to talk to Jacqui a lot, which was very needed. I wore shorts and Becky was worried I would be cold. I told her my legs are usually fine, but I had a long sleeve shirt, a sweatshirt and Stockton's warm jacket on. It ended up being perfect. It was also very beautiful up the canyon.

Becky, Stephanie and Jacqui taking a picture

I was anxious to hear how Jorja's day had been. Isaac officially broke up with her at lunch. Isaac is not mean. It would almost be easier for her if he was, then she could just move on. He told her that he knows he is hurting her with his indecisiveness, which is true. He didn't want to hurt her anymore. He wants to get back to being best friends, even though it will be hard. Jorja was sad, but she knows he is right. The thing is, both of them have been super nice to each other, so she is hurting, but it is a different kind of hurt. It might be awkward, but I really believe it is for the best. I'm proud of them for being kind to each other and I'm proud of Isaac for letting go of Jorja. I really hope this breakup sticks. At least for a few years, they are just way too young to be getting so attached to one person.

Jorja had her softball game today. I really wanted to see it because she doesn't have many more games left. She ages out at the end of this year and probably won't play again. I'm hoping she tries out for the high school team. If she doesn't make it, then she will have no regrets. If she does make it, she might love it. Or not, but then she wouldn't need to try out next year and again would have no regrets.  Because of this, Stockton drove to diving at the U for the first time. He took Gavin and Preston with him. I was so nervous! I had Stockton text me with the parking stall number so I could pay for parking. For some reason the app doesn't work on his phone. As an added bonus, it let me know he was there. Stockton and Preston are both happy with the decision to switch to diving at the U. That makes me happy.

Back to Jorja's game. It was freaking cold out there! I was still in my shorts, but this time it was not okay! We even had two blankets around us, and we were both shivering. Jorja's team won their first game. I think the score was 4-8 going into the last inning. Jorja's team was losing, but ended up winning when someone stole home. The girls were so happy and it made sitting through the freezing cold much more tolerable. The girls played one inning of the second game. Jorja had just gotten into her catcher gear and settled into her crouch when the game was called. Yay! I have never been so happy! Well, I'm sure I have, but I was so glad to go home. It was so cold!!! Plus, it was funny because it looked like Jorja called the game.

Jorja & Raina with the ump and their coach.

They are the two captains waiting to do the coin toss.