Success!

Stockton had to be at the pool early in the morning.  They were able to warm up for a long time.  We had to wait until around lunch time of his event.  His best dive was his 2 1/2, mostly 7s on that one!

Stockton landed his front 1 1/2 full twist, or as Stockton calls it: 5132D. He didn't get high marks, but he didn't fail this dive.  Considering he hadn't ever successfully finished this dive before we came to Colorado, I think that's amazing.  What guts he has!

Stockton finished in 6th place.  The top 6 qualify for nationals. Nationals are held in California around the end of May.  He won't qualify for nationals in the 1 meter since he isn't competing tomorrow. He could do 3 meter and platform.  I'm not sure what we are going to do.  I guess we'll wait for more information before we decide anything.

Micky, Matt, Chris, Ashley, Tasha, Stockton

Lizzie, Marie

Maysen spent the day volunteering at a pet place.  She seemed to enjoy it and sent me pictures of her with dogs.

 Maysen

Mike, Stockton and I took off shortly after Stockton finished.  Mike drove the entire way and I was able to read in the back for awhile.  That was nice!  We got home around 6:00.  The kid did great without us. They are at a really great age.

Egg Drop

I took Maysen up to Orem to volunteer at a pet clinic.  She cleaned out their cages for a couple of hours.  She needs to get 80 hours in by the end of the school year.  Right now she has 2.  Oh boy.  I had my scouts meet me to deliver fliers.  Only two scouts were able to come.  It started snowing pretty hard.  Luke and Eli were troopers and got both of our streets delivered.  They were panting so hard!  We had pack meeting right after delivering the fliers.  The boys got to do an egg drop with recyclable materials.  Mike and I had been collecting for this for a long time.  We brought a giant bucket.  We did not bring the packing peanuts.  That was a disaster!  It is all cleaned up now.

Eli & Preston

 Preston & Eli

I was too slow to get a picture of Ashley dropping Preston's contraption.  Their egg did not survive.  At least it didn't spat everywhere!

Ashley

Stockton's 16th Birthday

Stockton is now 16 years old and I can hardly believe it.  We have been incredibly blessed to have him as part of our family.  I managed to get this picture of him before he rushed off to school.

Stockton

I was looking through some old pictures today so I could post a collage on Instagram.  Here are just a few.

Stockton with the Reading Bowl trophy

 Stockton & Stephanie

 Stockton holding Preston

 Tiny baby Stockton

 Maysen & Stockton ~ I LOVE this one!

 Stockton and his bird arms

Stockton had diving today and I was a big fail at taking videos.  Here is a picture of the first time he did a reverse off the platform.  Well, I'm not positive that it was his first time, but I wanted to video it. Especially since he ripped it and everyone cheered.  By the way, ripping is way good in diving.  If you hit the water just right it makes a loud thunking sound.  Not sure the best way to describe it.

Stockton

I did get a video of Stockton doing a 2 1/2 off the three.  I just hope I can figure out how to get the videos on the blog.  Sometimes I can do it, sometimes I can't.  It might just be a big empty screen.  If it is, I'm sorry.

There is a tradition in diving where on your birthday you jump off the platform while everyone throws their shammies at you.  I'm not sure if this is a BYU tradition, a Utah tradition or a diving tradition.  Anyway, Stockton managed to make it through diving without anyone knowing it was his birthday.  As he was drying off I walked by Tyce and told him it was Stockton's birthday.  Tyce said, "Stockton!  Up on 5!"  Everyone sang Happy Birthday to him before he jumped.  Here is his jump.  Once again, I apologize if the video does not work.

Stockton and I picked up his cake and nuggets on our way home.  We had ordered both previously so it was easy.  I cheated on my 'no sugar' diet today and enjoyed his extremely delicious cake.  That will have to hold me over until March.

 Stockton

We gave Stockton a lot of shirts because he keeps growing.  The kids gave him a Paper Mario 3DS game.  Mike wrapped up his lettermans jacket and told him he could pick out one.

Seth and Isaac came over tonight to talk to Stockton about coming into the priest quorum.  That is going to take a bit of time to wrap my head around that one!

Really Jorja?  Again?

My dad came tonight with ice cream and a card.  He walked downstairs and said, "Milkshakes!"  Stockton likes to say that when he sees my dad.  He had digested enough after cake and nuggets that he was more than happy to have my dad make him a milkshake.  He also gave him cash.  Mike's dad called and talked to him for a bit as well.  He received a card from him with a check in it today also.

In non-Stockton related news, Maysen had her very first job interview today.  She feels like she did really well and they have asked her back for a working interview.  They said they would call in a few days to set it up.  Hopefully she gets this job.  She would love it.  It is at an animal clinic.  I think she cleans the dog cages and plays with the dogs.  Not sure.  She needs 80 hours working with animals for her vet class, so we have our fingers crossed for this one!

Spawn of Satan

Jorja is anxious to play softball.  She is nervous because she is now 13 and can't play with her old coach anymore.  She has been looking into different options.  I was trying to figure out something for her when I ran into a board that posted information about teams who need players or players who need teams.  I read a post that sounded exactly like Jorja.  It said, "My daughter is 13 and has done rec softball for two seasons.  She's extremely passionate for the sport and is looking for a competitive (for amateurs) team to join.  She's a catcher but will play any base.  Please text me at ***-***-**** if you're interested."  I then noticed that the person who posted this was Jorja!  I have no idea what number she used because it is a number I am not familiar with.  She's awesome.

Speaking of awesome.  Maysen.  She is amazing.  I love her.  Maysen was in her vet class today.  Dr. Frampton was giving a lecture on what to write down on paperwork.  Write down facts, not opinions. He wrote, "This dog is the spawn of Satan" on the board as an example of what not to write on the paperwork.  Some people then showed up with a dog for Dr. Frampton to work on.  One girl has told her entire neighborhood to bring their dogs in.  Today is not a clinic day, so they weren't supposed to come.  The girl came in and said it was an emergency and the dog needed to be seen right away.  They think the dog has worms!  Dr. Frampton told her it wasn't an emergency, but he went out in the hall to talk to them.  Soon after he took them back into the clinic area and the entire class had to wait. While he was back there a girl came up to the board and erased 'This dog' and replaced it with 'Frampton'.  The sentence now read 'Frampton is the spawn of Satan. Maysen was mortified.  After a few minutes she couldn't take it and went up and erased Frampton.  Then she turned to the class and said, "I'm erasing this because he's in there right now trying to help these people unexpectedly with their dog.  He's taking his time, interrupting his class to help them.  He's trying to be selfless and we wouldn't want him to come back to this.  Why would you do this?  This is hurtful." Then she sat down.  Wow.  I would never have been brave enough to do that.  Maysen said that the reaction wasn't positive or negative, it just was an awkward silence.  I'm so proud of my girl.

I took Stockton to diving today.  We forgot to bring a towel.  I walked to the BYU bookstore hoping I could find a BYU beach towel.  They didn't have one.  I was able to get a blue bath towel for $7, so that worked. Stockton and I went straight from diving to the advanced academic night at the high school.  They have changed some programs and added some.  More decisions.  They are now partnering with the University of Utah, the only public high school to do that.  Thirty five students will be accepted to the program.  Stockton's grade is the first that this will be offered to.  They can get two years done while they are in high school, but I don't know if that means they need to finish up at the U.  The 35 kids all will take their classes together.  I asked how they would do that with math.  If you have already taken calculus then do you go back and take whatever math is assigned?  Or have to retake calculus?  The principle didn't know the answer, but thought they would have to take whatever math was assigned.  I asked how that would affect the regents scholarship.  Four years of math are required, but the math has to be progressive.  He wasn't sure but he said this plan was better than going the regents way.  I need more information.

Our next stop was the physics classroom.  There we talked to Stockton's robotics teacher.  Stockton has been following the technology pathway. It is now changing to an engineering pathway.  It doesn't seem too different though, so that's good.  We talked to Maysen's physics teacher.  There are three physics choices for Stockton to take next year. Physics with technology, AP Physics or AP Physics with calculus.  I explained that math has always been easy for Stockton and he is now taking calculus as a 10th grader.  This year has been hard.  So far he has still managed to get As, but he has had to work for it.  I asked him what class should Stockton sign up for.  Mr. L told Stockton he should sign up for AP Physics with calculus.  He said the calculus was easy.  He then said a lot of words that I didn't understand, but Stockton knew exactly what he was talking about.  Stockton seemed happy with the information, so that is one worry off my chest!

Mike got a haircut today.  It looks great!  I like his hair a lot better like this then the crazy long haircut he has had lately.  Jorja loves his long flowing locks.  Ha!  Don't encourage him Porge!

Jazz Suite

I spent most of the day looking for sleds.  I thought I could just walk into Sheels and pick up several. Nope.  All sold out.  All sold out at Big 5, Sports Authority and Walmart.  We broke a lot of sleds over Christmas and I don't think we have many left.  Mike ordered three on Amazon and paid for one day shipping.  I hope they get here tomorrow.

I checked the mail when I got home and found a big fat envelope for Maysen. She has now been officially accepted to the University of Utah. Yay!

Maysen

Maysen was able to scrub in for her vet class today.  She helped with the surgery, so that was pretty cool.

Sam, Anne, Jeff and I went to Sherry's house today for Jeff's handprints.  Jeff wasn't a big fan, but he's over it now.  I mentioned to Sherry that Maysen got her acceptance to the U today.  Tage got nervous because that is the only school she applied to.  On the way home I got a text from Sherry with a picture of Tage's acceptance letter. Yay!  Sherry also let me borrow several sleds, those will be put to good use!

I had about five minutes at home before it was time to leave again. Mike got tickets to the Jazz game.  We got to watch the game in a suite. They had a crazy amount of food.  Prime rib, chicken, salad, rolls, cheese rolls, vegetables, shrimp, cookies.....we ate and ate and ate. That was perfect because the Jazz were getting stomped for most of the game.  They only scored twelve points in the first quarter.  Twelve.  I couldn't believe it when they tied the game with seconds to go.  Too bad the Kings were able to make a clutch shot at the end to win it.  If only the Jazz scored more than twelve in the first!  I was pretty excited to see that BYU won Gonzaga though.

Mike brought his laptop to the game because he was on call.  Good thing because he had to fix something during the game.  We were about to cross the street when Mike realized he left his laptop in the suite. Yikes!  We ran back as fast as we could.  There were still a ton of people in the suite.  When they saw him pick up his laptop they wasted no time mocking him.  Mike didn't care, he was just happy to have it back.

Jorja ~ Clothes Swiper

Breeeeeeett......Jorja stole my shirt.  She does look adorable in it though, so I can't complain too much.

Jorja

Maysen picked up a job application from a vet place in town.  She needs to have 80 hours of working with animals for her vet class.  She asked if she could volunteer, but was told that for insurance reasons they don't do that.  She then asked for a job application.  Who knows if she will get the job, but I really hope she does.  I think it would be so good for her.  Plus, then she can get her 80 hours done.

Stockton and I went to diving today.  I sat next to Lizzie's mom.  Lizzie is a junior and is really, really good.  She is hoping to make it to the olympics in 2020.  I was under the impression that we were the only ones traveling far to diving.  Lizzie's family lives just a little farther out than we do.  I asked her mom how they handle coming out here four days a week.  She said that this is the first year that it has only been four, usually it is five.  She said it was their life.  Then she told me about all the different injuries Lizzie has and that she sees a sports chiropractor frequently.  Made me just a bit grateful that this isn't Stockton's life.  He loves it for two days a week, but I can not see him wanting to do this all the time.  Lizzie's mom said that it was her ticket to college.  I would love to see Stockton diving in college, but I'm grateful he has other ways to get there.

The Last Conferences

I finished the last of my parent teacher conferences!  I went to Preston's this afternoon.  He is doing awesome.  My favorite part of the elementary conferences is when I get to listen to them speak Chinese. Jorja and Preston refuse to let me hear them speak Chinese. Frustrating and annoying!  Anyways, at the elementary conferences I always get to listen to him.  I tried to record him speaking, but it didn't turn out very well.  This time he read for me things he had written in Chinese.  Adorable.

I also went to parent teacher conferences with Maysen for her vet class. Her teacher said, "One thing I've noticed about Maysen is she is very, very smart."  True.  What I didn't expect him to say was, "I think she would be bored being a vet.  She needs something to stimulate her mind."  What?  I didn't see that one coming.  I wonder how being a vet wouldn't work her mind?  Well, Maysen loves this class.  It is her favorite.  I'm glad she is able to participate in it, she feels very blessed.

I took Stockton to diving today.  I had a errand to run, so I just watched the last part.  While I was gone, Stockton got to work on the trampoline with the harness.  I have always wanted to watch him do that!  I can't believe I missed it!  They were working on back one and a halves, which Stockton HATES!  That would have been fun to see him try that on a trampoline!  Stockton said that Tyce would pull on the harness at the end so he wouldn't break his neck going head first into the tramp. Man, so disappointed I missed it!

House, Scrubs, and Swimming

Our house is sparkly clean right now.  I love it!  We had house appraisers come this morning.  We need to borrow some money from our house in order to buy the cabin.  We never had our house appraised when we bought it almost five years ago.  The guy said he could come out and do it, but the land alone was worth the price we were paying for our house.  The appraisers asked us if we had done anything to our house since we bought it.  (They asked us this over the phone.)  I started listing things and was surprised at how much we had done. New kitchen with new cabinets and appliances.  New floors through the entire house.  New windows through the entire house.  Completely redid the upstairs and downstairs bathrooms.  Awesome painting in the girls room.  Cool wood paneling in the boys room.  Moved the laundry and made it a room instead of a hallway.  Added a door to the pool bathroom.  Made a small shed out back.  Made a pool shed to cover the pool equipment.  Redid the pool wall.  New pool lining, pool cover and winter pool cover.  Replaced all of the old pool equipment (heater, filter etc.)  Put an intercom system in the house.  Wow.  We have done a lot. Hopefully the appraisal comes back with good news.  We won't know until next week.

I took Maysen to the scrub store after school.  She needs scrubs for her vet class.  They have to be a solid color and they can't be orange. Apparently her teacher hates orange.  I thought it would be super easy to get the scrubs, but it ended up taking forever.  She finally found some that she liked.  She chose a pretty green color.  She was able to take the shirt home today, but the pants have to be special ordered for her.  Even when they do come, we might have to hem them anyway.  I wish I was more handy with the sewing machine.

Jorja organized a little get together with some of her friends.  Natalie, Kate, Katlyn and Hailey all came over.  They had pizza, played games and went night swimming.  Jorja ran in dripping wet and asked if I could turn the pool light on.  It was pitch black outside.  Mike was in extreme pain, so I went to get the light plugged in.  It's pretty easy in the daytime.  It took me forever to find the cord.  I finally went and found a flashlight, that worked much better.  Jorja was so happy today. I'm glad she was able to have such a good day with friends.

Good News and Bad News

I got up a little before five and went to the gym.  It's been a long time since I've exercised!  I'm going to be sore tomorrow.  The rest of the day was spent catching up on the blog, reading and worrying about things. Yesterday I received some good news and some bad news.  The good news was Jorja didn't need any new shots.  I received many messages through e-mail and the phone that she was not current on her immunizations.  One was a tetanus shot, but I was pretty sure she had that.  Jorja was definitely sure she had that.  I thought we would need to figure out where to get her the other shot.  I haven't found a new doctor since the insurance changed, so I wasn't sure what to do about these shots that needed to be done quickly.  It dawned on me to ask for immunization records from her old doctor.  I called and was able to request them.  I was cut off shortly afterwords, so I'm glad it went through.  I can't remember where we were driving when I did this. Anyway, yesterday I went and picked them up.  Jorja had had both of the shots she needed!  Yay!  I dropped off the form at the school and she is good to go.  Jorja was thrilled with this news.

The bad news is I just found out that Maysen will not be bussed to her veterinary program this year.  I am completely annoyed with this information.  The entire time we were signing up the busing information was listed.  She would be picked up at 7:10 by the flagpole. The bus would stop at CTEC and let those kids out, then it would continue to JTEC where she would be dropped off.  I found out yesterday that they are only busing to CTEC and not to JTEC.  That does me no good.  I asked what happened.  The school said that Jordan School District changed their policy to only let kids from their district into the program.  If there were any spots left other people could try and get them.  As a result, hardly anyone from our district will be going there, so they decided not to bus the few that got in.  I guess it makes it that more amazing that Maysen was able to get into this program, but I'm totally annoyed because school starts soon and I have no idea what I'm going to do.  I think they should have bussed the kids this year, even though there are only a few of them.  I think they should have done that because we made decisions based on that information. Grrrrrr.  If I take Maysen it is going to make my life ridiculous. Somehow I need to get her to early morning seminary, then go pick her up and take her to CTEC, which is probably thirty minutes away.  I would need to go back and pick her up and bring her to high school. On A days she only has one class, so I would need to pick her up and bring her home early.  Then take her to her night class two days a week. Also, I need to get the other kids to school.  Obviously that will not work.  I have no idea what I'm going to do.  I could let Maysen take my car and drive herself.  I would need the other kids to take the bus and I'll be without a car.  That is probably the best solution.  I'm also going to check into Trax and see if they stop at SLCC.  That seems a logical place for them to stop.  I just don't know how long it would take to get there and back.  Not sure what the best plan is going to be.  I wish I had more time to think about it than a few days!

Vet Tour

Yesterday Mike, Maysen and I were able to go to the school where Maysen will be doing her Vet program.  We were able to meet her teacher.  I think she is going to really like him.  He seems a little quirky, hopefully it is a good quirky.  We also got to take a tour of the place. Pretty exciting.

Jorja had a softball game.  I asked her if she would rather go to Young Women's.  They were having a big 'camp kick-off' party.  Inflatable slides and the whole nine yards.  Jorja wanted to go to her game. I'm glad that is the choice she made, especially since they were short on players anyway.

It started storming pretty hard around 8:00.  Sure glad Jorja didn't have that game!  No way did it get finished!

Veterinary Science

So happy!  Maysen really, really, really, really, really wanted to do the veterinary science program at the technical center.  The problem is, it is not our school district.  She would be allowed to take the program if there were slots still available and she was chosen.  This year they allowed the students in the home district to add the class with arena scheduling.  Basically they just had to click a button to get in.  Maysen had to write essays and send her grades and different information over. Today I got a phone call from the technical center asking if she was still interested in the program.  I told them she was a thousand percent still interested.  They said they had a slot available for her in the morning. The afternoon slots had filled up.  That was okay.  We are completely fine with morning classes!  I am so happy for her!  I know it is a hard program, but it will be a great way to spend her senior year. The vet program will take up four classes the entire year.  We had to change her schedule around a bit.  Good thing the arena scheduling is open and now the remove button is there.  We were able to get statistics, AP government and AP English.  The only class that we couldn't get was physics.  The class is full.  Maysen is going to talk with her counselor tomorrow and see if she can get in that class. The other option is to do physics online during the summer.  It will be interesting to see what Maysen decides to do.

Maysen

Jorja and I went and watched Erica play softball today.  Jorja has been really excited about softball lately.  Erica is a freshman and is the starting catcher for the varsity team.  She is really good!  It was so fun to watch her.  Mike was excited about Maysen getting into the vet program and wanted to get Maysen a cake.  Jorja and I surprised Mike at the store to help him pick it out.  I hope Maysen loves this!  Even if she ends up hating the vet program I think taking this class will be a good thing.  It would show her that isn't what she wants to do with her life.  She is not planning on being a vet, but she loves working with animals.  It will also be nice to only be on the high school campus for half a day next year!