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I had lunch with Teresa today!!! And we both forgot to take pictures. Boo. We met at JCWs at Thanksgiving Point. Teresa wanted to go somewhere with fry sauce and cherry coke. Haha. We ate outside and talked for hours. It was awesome. I wish she would move here. Both of her boys will be going to BYU in the fall. Weston is there now. That is why Teresa is in town.

Jorja came back from Trek tonight. Emily came back from her mission on Wednesday. She was in Taiwan. Ebony missed picking her up from the airport because of Trek. Emily was released over FaceTime because all of the members of the stake presidency were on Trek. Ebony got to be there for that, on the trek side.

Emily

 Emily & Ebony

 Seonora & Sephora

Ebony, Emily and Kevin

 Ebony & Emily

Jorja said the trek was pretty easy. I remember Stockton saying the same thing. They did eat like kings. I need Mike to find the trek video he put together years ago. I'm pretty sure the youth in Georgia had a completely different experience, at least with the difficulty level.

Gavin's family came over to swim today. They seemed to have a lot of fun. Stockton and Gavin were even able to do back doubles off of our board. What! They can't get to bounce to work for a lot of things, but for some reason backs worked a lot better.

Zoe, Lila, Nate, Sammy, Gavin 

Stockton's back double

Mike and Preston went on a campout today. They were told they would be sleeping in an old barn. Mike was worried about this. He started taking his allergy medicine a few days ago to prepare. Well, turns out he didn't need to worry. The old barn turned out much different then we anticipated.

 No hay in sight.

 Preston

I think they are going to have a great time. This is Clint Okerland's family cabin. I think it was about four hours away. A tiny town in Utah called Loa.

Trek

I dropped Jorja off at the stake center this morning. The kids all met there and had breakfast before they loaded on the buses to drive to Wyoming. We tried to find pioneer clothes for Jorja, but they were ridiculously expensive. We found some shirts and a skirt that kind of worked at Savers and I sent her with some random skirts of mine. Mike mentioned that Jorja's Savers skirt looked way too nice for pioneers. I said, "Well, this skirt was three bucks, the pioneer ones are forty." We also ordered Jorja a bonnet on Amazon that never came. I tried to find her a different hat. This was the best I could come up with.

Jorja

 I should have taken a picture from the other direction so the girls could actually open their eyes.

Grace, Ebony, Eliza, Jorja

I saw the mom of the boy that had the text messages sent to Jorja from his phone. We ended up talking for a long time. She again apologized over and over and told me how mortified she was. I also saw her brother there. I knew him in high school. He came up to me and apologized as well. I'm glad I saw the messages before Jorja did. Mike and I were able to half way control this situation. Still, looking back I probably should have deleted the messages and just told her some x-rated messages were sent. Although, I have no idea if kids talk like this at school. Does she hear things like this all the time? I don't know. Anyway, things are good between me and the other parent. She asked that I send the messages to her husband because the screenshots didn't come through on her phone. I thought that might be awkward, but her husband was nice and apologized for the whole situation. Even though their boy didn't send the messages he is still in major trouble with his parents. He should have given his phone to his aunt and uncle, he should have never let his phone be used by his friend and he should have shut his friend down and made sure he didn't get out of control; even though he wasn't aware of the extent of the messages. Man, being a parent is hard.

Stockton had some diving friends come over to swim with ducks. They played with them until it was time to go to actual diving. Stockton is so happy that he convinced Gage to come back to diving. He has been having a lot of fun with him this summer.

Stockton, Preston, Gage, Noelle, Dani

 Preston, Dani, Noelle

 Stockton, Gage, Noelle, Dani

Diving ducks

Mike and Preston had the ducks test out their duck house.

Stockton's friends came over and played the WiiU after diving. I had to laugh when I saw this pile of shoes by the door. I sent the picture to Stockton. He didn't think it was funny. Come on! They all have the very same shoes!

Soccer Playoffs

Jorja got sent in the hall during Chinese today. The first time her teacher has ever sent someone in the hall. Jorja said it was the first time she has talked in Chinese. (She doesn't feel super comfortable around some of the other Chinese kids. Weird because they have been in the same class since 2nd grade. Jorja was so shy back then and she feels trapped with how she used to be when she is in that class.) Anyway, Jorja asked someone why there was so many bagels. Mrs. Peng got super mad and sent Jorja into the hall. Jorja asked her after class why she sent her out. Mrs. Peng told her that she "was too happy". Only three more class periods of Chinese. Jorja's grade did drop from an A to a B- after today. Let's hope Jorja can pull that up because it would be so annoying to lose her 4.0 because she was too happy one day.

Alta soccer had a playoff game during school. Jorja was so excited to miss school for this. Stockton did not think that was a good idea. He did have lots to do in his Engineering class. Jorja missed seminary, lunch and English. She had the best time. 

Heather & Jorja

 Raychel, Abbey, Jorja, Heather

Alta was down 3-1 against Skyline at one point. They ended up winning 3-4. They play for the state title on Thursday. Alta won state in soccer last year, so that's pretty cool.

Raychel, Jorja, Abbey, Heather

Jorja, Madison and I hurried down to Chick-Fil-A after school to drop off Jorja's paperwork. The kid there said she was supposed to bring it to orientation on Thursday. Hope that's right. I took the girls to Walmart to pick up pictures for Jorja's scrapbook. It took FOREVER to get someone back to help us. We went to Zupas and then home. Jorja also had trek dance practice today. She seems to be having fun with that. Talon is her partner. He is tall, so she has a hard time when they are back to back and she is supposed to kick her legs while on his back. Anyway, I'm glad she gets to do the dance. She likes it.

Be an Example of the Believers

Stockton and Jorja

Jorja gave a talk in church today. It was fantastic. She was poised and articulate. Sister Christensen told me afterwords that Jorja just glows. That made me laugh because that is Jorja's favorite compliment. I snapped a picture before church started. Josh came and talked to Jorja while she was sitting on the stand. He ran for a class office for the first time this year. He will be the Junior class public relations officer. He was so excited he looked like he was going to pop out of his skin!

Bishop Waddoups, Bro. Mogensen, Jorja and Josh

I recorded Jorja's talk on my 'voice memos'. Here is the transcript:

I was asked to give a talk on how I can be an example of the Savior at school and among my friends. Now keeping that question in mind, I'm going to take a minute to go over the apostle Paul's epistle to Timothy when he says, "Be thou an example of the believers, in word, in conversation, in charity, in spirit, in faith, in purity." (1 Timothy 4:12)

The first two mentioned kind of go together and that's word and conversation. Words have the power to lift people up, but they can also be used as destructive weapons to tear people down. In this day it's hard to go about your life avoiding profanity. It surrounds the air and when it's so commonly used around us all the time it can be hard not to fall into that habit ourselves. We can be an example of the Savior as we choose only to use clean and loving language which will lift up those around us. That's the first one. Being an example of the believers in words and conversation.

The second one is charity. Charity is defined as the pure love of Christ. We can gain and practice charity by choosing to see others through Christ's eyes. For the past couple of months I've been praying each morning to see others through Christ's eyes and to gain a portion of his love for them. Sometimes I have to spend a couple of days or a week on a certain person trying to gain a true love for them and other times it's just recognizing what Christ sees in everyone that we aren't able to see through our eyes. Even though there are still those people that get on my nerves sometimes, I can truly say that over the months I've been able to come a lot closer to my peers and I can honestly say that I feel a deep love for everyone that I know and I'm so grateful for that. I've always thought of charity as pure and sincere kindness and I think one of the best ways we can show pure and sincere kindness in school and anywhere else is just reaching out to those who need it. I'm sure most of us know highschooll can be a dark and lonely place and there are people all around us who we don't realize need a helping hand. I know that I've had my days where I go to school and I feel lonely and I hope and pray for someone to come up to me and include me. It's just made me realize that we don't know what everyone's going through and even the kid who might seem the most popular or cool at your school might just really need a true friend. My mom always tells me that it never hurts to be kind and I really think that those are words to live by because you'll never regret being kind to someone, you just never know who needs it. So that's the second one, be an example of the believers in charity.

Third is spirit. When you are an example of the spirit you radiate light around you like a lighthouse. How cool is it to be the person that people come to when they have a bad day. I know for me when my friends come up to me and open up to me I just feel really touched that I'm someone that they feel safe around and I try my best to be a good listener. When we live as examples of the spirit, people will be drawn to us in their times of darkness and through Christ's help we can bring them safely to shore. One important thing that I think separates us from other churches is our ability to not only feel the spirit but that we can keep it with us. Other churches, they can feel the spirit. It comes in and out of their lives like air comes out of a balloon. It goes in and out, inflates and deflates; but for us, the spirit surrounds us like the air surrounds us. At times that can make it hard to recognize the spirit just like we don't recognize the air around us unless we really think about it; but as we live worthily of the spirit, others will be able to feel it surrounding us. So that's the third one, be an example of the believers in spirit.

Next is faith. We must trust in the Lord and his word. Our faith, or lack of it, influences all we do. Our faith brings us courage to make hard decisions. Communication with our Father is vital and we can't take it for granted. If we pray and read the scriptures regularly we will have increased faith in Him and can be more confident following his plan, even if it doesn't involve what we want at the time. Search diligently, pray always and be believing and all things shall work together for thy good. I promise that as we choose to live our lives in faith we will receive blessings that we can't even begin to comprehend. That's the fourth one, be thou an example of the believers in faith.

Now last is purity. We must treat our bodies as a temple and fill our minds with clean and pure thoughts. Live the commandments and the teachings in the For the Strength of Youth packet. Staying pure allows us to receive his blessings. Blessed are the pure in heart for they shall see God. That's the last one, be an example of the believers in purity.

I'm just going to close with a quote from Thomas S. Monson that says, "As we follow the example of the Savior, ours will be the opportunity to be a light in the lives of others." I promise that as you live as an example of the believers you will light a path for others and bring blessings to not only you but to those around us.

I say these things in the name of Jesus Christ, Amen.

In other non-important news, I was spotlighted on the wall outside of the relief society room. I think this paper stays up for a month. 

 Jorja relaxing after church

We have 9:00 church, so I was able to watch the Jazz/Rockets game. Not the best game this year. The game was on ABC. We have an antenna so we can get that channel. It worked great at first, but once kids started going in the kitchen above me I couldn't see anything. After they left the kitchen it still wouldn't work. Mike was able to move the antenna in a spot where the tv came through. He spent the last part of the game holding it there, even though we knew the Rockets were going to win. That's a nice husband.

Mike helping me watch the Jazz/Rockets game

Stockton picked up Gavin and went to Nate's house to see him opening his mission call. He is going to Arkansas, Marshallese speaking, or something like that. Mike and I went to the trek fireside with Jorja. She had a speaking part in it. She was one of the narrators and did great. Today was a busy day for her. She has had a busy week. She is glad it is over.

Singing in Sacrament

We made it home this morning.  No problems.  Yay!  We were even on time to church.  Maysen, Stockton and I sang in sacrament meeting with the rest of the youth and their leaders.  The song is Our Savior is Pulling Too.  Someone in our stake wrote it for Trek.  Actually he grew up in our stake, but I think he is at BYU now.  I have grown to love that song.  I think it is beautiful.  These are the words, but it won't be nearly as beautiful without the music to go along with it.

Our Savior is Pulling Too

They traded comfort for a cart.
Left their homes with aching hearts.
They must have felt alone out on the plains.
Mothers watched their babies die.
Fathers must have wondered why.
They left a trail of tears and so much pain.

Through the storms and bitter cold they didn't let the past
Or the unknown future quench their flame of faith.

He was their light.  He walked their path,
When their burdens seemed too hard to carry.
They chose to look up and with strength from above
They kept their promise made to Him.
They were true and they knew He was pulling too.

Though the cart I pull today
Is different in many ways
I often need to stand for him alone.
Temptation tries to lure away
My focus from a future day
When he'll trust me with a family of my own.

Through my test and trials I will look back to the past.
And know their counting on my flame of faith.

He is my light.  He walks my path
When the future seems too hard to carry.
I'll choose to look up and with strength from above
I'll keep my promise made to Him.
I'll be true 'cause I know He is pulling too.

I'll stand as a witness every hour.
I will stay worthy of his power.
I won't forget what he's done for me.

And soon I'll leave behind my home
And bear a witness of my own
To a world who needs to feel his loving hand.
Not long from now I'll serve and teach
Pioneers who will choose to be
The first to follow him and leave their past.

Through the storms and lonely roads I'll help them see the path
And light the future with their flame of faith.

He is our light.  He walks our path.
When our future seems too hard to carry.
We'll choose to look up and with strength from above
We'll keep our promise made to Him.
We'll be true 'cause we know He is pulling too.

I'll have to admit.  When I first heard the title I was a little worried and thought the song would be extremely cheesy.  The first time I heard the song my opinion changed.  I think the name of the composer is Michael Murri.  He played the piano and I think his siblings sang the song. That was a long time ago, so I can't remember exactly, but it was sure beautiful.  Michael's mom came and played the piano for us today and his sister played her violin while Joshua Yauney played his cello.  It was lovely.

Tired of Trek

We had dinner with my family here today.  My dad made delicious french dip sandwiches.  Yummy!  I played Matt in two games of Dominion.  I lost to Sam by one point on the first game and won the second game.  Yay!  I let Stockton skip out of the Trek fireside.  When he heard about it he turned to me and said, "What?  No!  That was two months ago.  Nobody cares!"  We had family over, so that was a good excuse not to go.  He had a great experience, don't want to ruin it now! Speaking of trek, here are two pictures of Stockton at trek.

Stockton & Johny

 Stockton pushing (with his head down)

Meeting Parker

I got a text from Mike about 7:00 this morning.  He said he was going to take a quick nap.  Up all night.  Crazy, but he is really excited about how his team's project is going.  I went and cleaned the church.  Mike was supposed to be in charge, but he switched with Jeff at the last minute.  He was worried no one would show because of trek.  Turned out a lot of people thought the same thing.  People not even assigned came to see if they were needed.  We were done in an hour.  Our ward is awesome.

I met Mike & Christen at Sherry's house to get Parker's handprints done.  This is the first time I met Parker.  He is so sweet!  He looks so much like Blake.  Hopefully he won't have Blake's allergies.

Stephanie, Parker & Sherry

 Parker's not too happy about this

Didn't like the feet much either

 Stephanie and sweet Parker

 Stephanie, Parker & Mike

I hit Mike about twenty times as soon as I saw him.  I am SO MAD at him for not letting me know he was in town the last time he came.  I found out when he posted a picture of himself at the BYU game.  What! My brother Matt was at the game.  They could have at least have seen each other if Mike had let us know.  Mike said, "The lame thing was I had great seats and an extra ticket.  I took Christen's sister's boyfriend, and they aren't even dating."  Mike, that did not make me feel better about the whole situation.  How could he not think of asking me?  I told him, "I drove twice to see you in Virginia, flew to Virginia once, flew you to Georgia twice, drove to Arizona to see you, and drove to New Mexico to see you, how could you not know I would want to see you when you are literally thirty minutes from me?"  Okay, rant over. Hopefully he NEVER does that again!  It really hurt my feelings.  I sometimes feel like I am the only one trying to keep this family together.  Man I wish my mom were alive.  Anyway, I am excited to see him again this week.  All my brothers will be at the cabin.  Now that I have given him a piece of my mind I can just enjoy him again.  I sure do love my brothers.  Hopefully they want to hang out with me as much as I want to hang out with them.

The most exciting news of the day is STOCKTON IS BACK FROM TREK!!!  He got back around 8:00 at night.  A few of the leaders came up to me and told me he did great.  One said, "I wish you could have seen him, you would have been so proud."  Someone told me that he bore an awesome testimony.  Twice.  I had been so worried about him. I am thankful that this went well.  I asked Stockton what he thought of trek.  He said, "It was alright."  He did tell me about what they did each day.  How they pulled Johny and how it rained on them.  I love that kid!  We went to Brother Covington's to pick up his stuff.  (Sleeping bag, clothes, pajamas, things like that.)  His bag was not there.  We looked everywhere.  We raced back to the stake center where most of the other wards had unloaded their stuff.  People were pulling away.  I chased down every trailer and asked if they had an extra bag of stuff. No luck.  Hopefully we will find it in a few days.  That is a lot of stuff I really don't want to lose.

Stockton

Mike and I ran out and got pizza for Stockton.  It ended up being 10:00 at night before we were able to eat.  Life sure gets crazy busy sometimes.  At least it is with all good things!

Trek

Stockton left on Trek today.  I am so proud of him.  Maysen really, really, really, really, really didn't want to go.  We had many discussions with her and a few months ago decided we would let it be up to her. We asked her to pray and fast about it.  She did and still really, really, really, really, really didn't want to go.  She said, "I know the pioneers had it hard, why would I want to do that?"  and "I go to EVERYTHING. I just really don't want to do this."  So we let her miss it.  We told her that she wouldn't be able to be on her computer, because that wouldn't be fair to Stockton.  She was fine with that.  The Bishop called me a few days ago and asked if there was anything he could do to convince Maysen to go on Trek.  I told him all the reasons why she wasn't going. He said, "For some people, trek is the most amazing experience.  For Maysen, the fact that you are honoring her wishes is probably more important than her going on trek."  I'm glad he saw it that way and didn't make us feel guilty for not sending her.

Anyway, I am SUPER proud of Stockton for going.  He knew Maysen was not going and could have used that to try to get out of going himself.  He didn't.  He never complained even though he does not enjoy camping.  I am really worried about him though.  Especially the bus ride.  It will be long.  I hope he doesn't get sick.  I gave a car sick bag to him and some more to his leaders for the ride home.  I know he will be in the Trost's family.  I talked to them about some of my concerns.  Johny Waddoups will be in his group.  I'm happy about that. (Johny is the boy with Down Syndrome who lives on our street.) Johny makes everyone comfortable around him.  He is funny.  Stockton really loves him.

Everyone was asked to trek for an ancestor.  Stockton chose Stillman Pond.  That is his great-great-great-great-grandfather.  His wife and most of his children died along the way.  I can't even imagine.  Stockton had a part in the primary program when he was little where he talked about Stillman Pond.  That is why he wanted to trek for him.  Anyway, he is now off and I sure do miss him.  I hope he is having a wonderful time!

Stockton

Spencer

Spencer is in town.  He has been studying in China this year.  He will be in town a week and go back on Valentine's Day.  Steve and Shannon invited everyone over.  We also had a big trek fireside for the kids.  It has been on the schedule for months.  I didn't want the kids to miss it. I wasn't sure what it was going to be, but I thought they would explain a little bit about trek and what to expect.  Hopefully it would get my kids excited about trek.

Anyway, we decided to run up to Steve and Shannon's right after church.  We were able to see Spencer for awhile before everyone else came.  Preston walked right up to Spencer and whispered something in Chinese in his ear.  I think it was,"What kind of fruit do you like to eat?"  Spencer said something in Chinese and Preston laughed, "You like apples?"  Spencer then asked Preston something, which he answered and then said, "You like strawberries?"  It was so cool!  I wish I could get Jorja to talk to Spencer, but she refuses.  

I ended up leaving with Maysen and Stockton right as the Hodson's arrived.  Erica and Brandon also had a trek fireside that they had to leave for.  The fireside was disappointing.  I wish we didn't go.  Maysen said, "Now I want to go to Trek even less than I did before."  Great. That was not the reaction I was hoping for.  The fireside was disappointing because it was really long and not much information was given.  It would have been fine if we weren't missing something in order to go to it.

We got back to Steve and Shannon's right as the Hodson's were pulling out of the driveway.  Drat!  We stayed for about twenty minutes, which really annoyed Stockton.  He wanted to stay a lot longer, but Jorja and Preston were ready to go.  And it was way past bedtime.  Long day.