Anne's Invitation

Anne's birthday is tomorrow. She can't have a traditional party, so she is having a zoom party. Look how adorable the invitations are.

Jorja's thankful post

I posted yesterday about being thankful for my birthday season kids. Maysen, Jorja and Preston. I never did a birthday post for them so that worked out. Their pictures were pretty recent, so I'm not going to worry about adding them here. I posted today about Stockton. This was the picture I used. I am so proud of him and the missionary he has been. He has truly put his entire heart into his mission. Even though he has loved his mission so much, I can not wait to have him home! He thinks he comes home February 3rd, but we haven't had any official communication yet. That is going to be a great day.

Elder Stockton Smith 

Cotton Candy Cotton Candy Lollipop

I was trying to help Preston with some school work and this is the parent help guide. I think something slipped through the cracks there. As informative as "Oat cake wafer jelly...", "Pudding gingerbread pastry" and "dummies sweet roll ice-cream chocolate bar" is, it didn't help me out at all.

I found this picture. It technically was taken today, but it was from yesterday. Taken at 12:04, just past midnight. I let Ella and Giselle come over. Giselle was waiting for callbacks on the musical and was really nervous. This mandate thing is super hard. We try, but it is killing the social child. Not a problem at all for Maysen or Preston though. Giselle ended up getting the part of Jetsam in Little Mermaid and is really excited. Turns out there was something that happened yesterday.

Jorja, Ella, Giselle

The prophet spoke at 11:00 today. He challenged everyone to post on social media about what they are thankful for for the next seven days. That will be fun. Jorja had her sterling scholar interview today. It was over zoom, but the Chinese teacher didn't show up. She talked to the other teachers. They gave her the questions in English and recorded her speaking in Chinese. Her teacher will watch it later. Don't know if she will make it, but I'm glad she gave it a shot!

Jorja went on her second date with Riley. We told her she could go on two dates during the mandate. They went hiking, then got a bit lost coming home. She was a bit late for dinner, but not too bad. Preston made yummy broccoli and chicken.

Riley & Jorja

Lauren's Plaque

 Wow! I am struggling to remember what we did today. I really need to get caught up! December gets sooo crazy, so good luck with that! Yep, I am in December and writing about the middle of November. I do know that the kids all did online school, and that I got Lauren's missionary plaque sent in. She gave her farewell a bit ago and did amazing. She was one of my beehives. I can't believe they are all grown up now!

Lauren

Loud Chomper

Jorja was eating chips downstairs while she was talking with me. She put the chips away and went somewhere else. About five minutes later I hear loud chomping coming from the kitchen. After awhile I decide to go and join Jorja. It wasn't Jorja.

Jorja & Bear

Jorja also found out today that she will have her sterling scholar interview on Friday. I'm glad her application made it in time!

Financial Freak

Jorja spent a long time filming the introduction and other speaking parts of the fundraising video. There were many, many videos. Most of them were like this.

This next video is more normal. Jorja put together a compilation of all her mix ups, or all the times she said FREAK! I wish I had that, but just know it was many, many times.

We told Jorja she could hang out with Riley twice during the quarantine as long as it was at our house or Riley's house. She went to Riley's house today. They made forts with his sisters. Riley didn't fit in the fort though.

Meili, Jorja, Abby

Right before Jorja went to bed, she noticed that Packer's canvas meeting was still open. She got on and somehow got others to join. Then she read them a bedtime story. So random. Anyway, that has lead to her reading a bedtime story on Instagram several nights a week. It is pretty funny. She makes me laugh.

Love from Khush

Jorja and I are back to the land with no water. It hasn't been too bad though. Luckily we can turn it on for short bursts of time when we need to. School is online until after Thanksgiving. Student government decided to dress up in Hawaiian for Packer. They thought he would like that, but Jorja said he just felt left out. They couldn't see anyone else because Packer doesn't use zoom, he uses canvas. Oh well... at least they tried.

Jorja

One thing Jorja is really good at is collecting friends. She loves meeting people and she keeps in contact with lots of them. When Jorja went to Washington this summer to buy the boat with Mike, she met this girl named Khush. She is the student body president at Inglemoor I think. They have bonded about how hard this year has been for student government. At least that is what I imagine they have bonded about. Anyway, Khush sent Jorja a package. She made Jorja a bracelet that said WA and UTAH. How cute is that!

Khush's bracelet

I talked to Rachel for a bit today. Marie had eye surgery! Rachel said it went really well. They have known for years that Marie would need this surgery, so it is nice to finally get this behind them. It is supposed to help with her double vision and hopefully make it so she doesn't need bifocals anymore. What a trouper Marie is! So glad the surgery went well.

Marie

I talked to Stockton today. Transfer calls were on Saturday. He is staying in Sierra Vista as the district leader. Only one more transfer left for that boy! Woohoo! Jorja went and grabbed some Swig to drop off to people in between her classes. She stopped and brought me home an açaí bowl, which was delicious. Our cups the kids designed came today. They look cute and are super light. I think this will be perfect, especially for the little kids at the cabin. I sent a message to my family asking if they would make some. Hopefully they will!

In other random news... this is how far I am on Rachel's stocking

Mike, Maysen and Preston came home today! They got here just in time to go to bed. Glad they made it safely! I sure love my family. I am so lucky.

Cabin Church

Today was our last day at the cabin. Well, I brought Jorja and her friends home. I was kind of hoping we could stay longer and they could do school up here, but Ella has dance tomorrow. She says her dance never gets cancelled. She is a fantastic dancer and is hoping to get into the dance program at BYU. We did church this morning. We had four different Sunday school classes going on zoom. Preston and I were on one, Mike and Maysen on another, Jorja on one and Ella on another. Glad Mike got better Internet a few months ago! We had a short break and then sacrament meeting. We watched online. Mike showed Mike Masters how to do it, and it worked like a charm. Except for the few moments when one of the speakers was on mute and Mike had to unmute them manually from here. Glad we were watching! We had a chance to sled before we left. The snow actually was pretty good and the sledding was great! We all played out front and then decided to go to the springs for the last few runs. Maysen was starting to feel sick, so she took Bear inside while we went up there. The girls had a blast. Wish we could have played longer, but I'm glad for what we got!

Ella, Giselle, Jorja

Poor Giselle!

Jorja, Ella and Giselle at a random rest stop on the way home

Jorja texted Bode when we dropped Ella off. She lives across the street from him. He came outside and they were able to say happy birthday to him. What a fun weekend! Glad we made it home safely. What a wonderful life we have!

Two Tracks

Today was fun. It is so beautiful here. Mike was able to get the other set of tracks on the 4-wheeler, so now we have tracks on both! This is going to be great! Especially when my brothers are here over Christmas. Tracks makes such a difference when we are pulling sleds. I didn't expect much snow here yet, but there was enough to go sledding. Mike, Preston and I went out for awhile. It was so fun! Mike also brought the projector downstairs and made a movie screen on the wall. I took blurry pictures to send to my brothers. I think the kids are going to have a great time sleeping here and watching movies. Hopefully it will make it easier to play games with my brothers!

Stephanie ~ new tracks at the top of the Springs

The girls had a Mama Mia marathon

Kids will be able to watch from their bunks... or in Jorja's case, the floor

The girls made taco haystacks for dinner. It was delicious. When they went out for ingredients, they wanted to stop by the taco bus, but it was closed. I have no idea why Preston thought it would be a good idea to feed Bear at the table. I am not a fan of this idea.

Stephanie's arm, Maysen's face, Giselle, Ella, Jorja, Bear, Preston

Girls in Parrydise

Jorja and I left for Idaho this morning. We brought with her two of her friends. I know there is the statewide mandate, but we are going to Idaho and that is out of state. Loophole? Yes, but this year has been hard! Jorja and her friends agreed not to post anything because people can be very mean if you are not perfect. Although Giselle told Luke she was going and he ratted them out to their entire group chat. I have gotten very behind on my blog, but now, two weeks later I know that none of these girls got corona, so we're good. I'm frustrated with myself for getting so behind. This year has been crazy and I wish I would have been able to write while things were fresh in my mind. Especially with corona and the elections. Jorja has been through a lot and it has been hard. There are people who are angry and take it out on student government or the cheerleaders. Jorja has had many mean messages sent to her. If anyone in student government steps out of line, the entire student government gets blamed. This has been a hard year. Anyway, this weekend was great! Giselle came to our house and we picked up Ella. The freshman elections were today, so Ella was on a zoom chat with Packer and the senior/freshman class officers right up until we picked her up. Hailey's brother Caleb is going to be a senator, so that is awesome! On the way up to Idaho, Ella casually mentioned something about sterling scholar. I had been talking to Jorja about getting her application in. I asked Jorja if she had done it. She said no, but she would look at it when we were at the cabin. Ella said that applications were due at 3:00. Yikes! Glad she mentioned that! Jorja worked on her application on the way up to Idaho and was able to make it just before the deadline. I accidentally took a wrong turn going to the cabin! I couldn't believe it! I missed the turn off to Idaho Falls and was heading to Boise. I have no idea how long I was on the wrong road. I saw signs for Snowden or something like that and wondered what in the world that was. I hadn't been using my gps, because I know how to get there and didn't want my battery to run out. So, I turned it on. It told me to get off at the next exit. Then drive 12 minutes through these back roads. I thought after that it would get me on the freeway. Nope. I ended up driving almost an hour through back roads. It was ridiculous! I don't know why it didn't have me get on the freeway. Had I really driven that far before I noticed my mistake? Anyway, we made it safe and sound. So glad to get here. It is beautiful up here!

Bear and Mud

Ella, Giselle, Jorja

Eclair Rankings

Jorja and I had fun dealing with no water. We managed though. Jorja was at school a lot today. Not for her actual classes, but to work on the fundraiser. She spent a lot of time filming the video introducing the fundraiser. They borrowed a prince costume and had Zach dress up as a prince looking for princess Kate. Kate's mom sent a video of Kate in a Cinderella costume. She was in a toy house and her mom called for princess Kate. Kate came out and in the cutest, sweetest voice ever said, "I'm right here!" It was adorable! Jorja has done such a fantastic job on this. I'm so proud of her!

Prince Zach

After they finished filming the video, student government put up flyers around about the fundraiser. It took a long time because only about six people showed up. They don't usually do this, but it is hard to figure out how to get the word out during this socially distant time. While Jorja was doing that, I hurried to Smiths, Kneaders and Schmidts and bought eclairs. I numbered them and dropped them off to Bubs at Hunter and to my dad for a taste test. They all picked mine as the best. Woohoo! I'm the winner! Hahaha

I got to talk with Stockton today. He hung out with his mission president yesterday. The president came to his district council and then worked with Stockton and Elder Radley the rest of the day. The mission president loves Stockton. Stockton had a great time.

I let Jorja go to Julia's wedding. Julia sent out a thing saying that the governor's mandate didn't cover weddings and she had a list of all the things they were doing to be safe. Julia was Jorja's favorite manager at Chick-Fil-A. Jorja went with Riley. It was at Larkin and Jorja said it was beautiful. I don't doubt that, it is so pretty there!

Jorja & Riley

Riley & Jorja

Broken Shower

Our shower broke this morning. The hot water handle broke and won't turn off. Mike had to order parts to fix it, but they won't get here until tomorrow... Mike is leaving today to go to the cabin. So, it has been interesting. Mike, Maysen and Preston went up to the cabin today. They played the glow in the dark golf and had a great time.

We decided to still let Jorja bring Ella and Giselle to the cabin. I will be taking them up on Friday. Today is Veterans Day. This has been one of Jorja's favorite days of the year. Student government goes early to set up flags. Then they have a breakfast with some of the veterans in the community. Then there is an assembly. Then student government is excused for the rest of the day to clean up and bond. They go and have lunch at Harmons. Jorja has loved this day. Too bad corona happened. It wouldn't be a good idea to get a whole bunch of veterans in a room with a bunch of school kids. The only tradition that still stayed was Jorja went very early to set up flags, then took them down after school. She went with the kids that did the flags to OHP though, so that was nice. Mike left while Jorja was gone. It is now just the two of us with no water. When we need to use the bathroom or take a shower we turn on the water to the house and hurry real quick. Although once Jorja forgot to turn it off, so the shower was running at full blast for two hours. At least we didn't forget to turn it off before we went to Idaho!

Preston's 14

I almost titled this Negative Again. Jorja got out of quarantine yesterday evening, only to find out this morning that Jake tested positive for covid. Jorja spent several hours in the car with Jake on Friday, and she also had dinner with him and his family. So, back to testing she went. Luckily it is a weekday, so there are more options. She went to the Overstock clinic and was able to do a rapid test. That came back negative as well. The other sad thing for Jorja is she found out Dancing with the Hawks has been cancelled. She was so excited for this. She has hoped for years she would be asked to do this. Her entire senior year has been one big cancellation, except it comes in drips. Little by little everything gets cancelled. The big fun things were cancelled in one swoop, but the little things that they had a chance to participate in have been getting knocked off one by one. Jorja sent me this screenshot and then texted, "I hate my senior year." I have to agree. Her senior year has been very hard.

Jorja consoled herself by putting a hat on Bear

We did have a great day with Preston though! Despite a rocky beginning. We had plans to all go to OHP. We went there for Maysen and Jorja's birthdays. Jorja is online on Monday and Tuesdays, so it was a perfect plan. Right as we were walking out the door we found out Jake tested positive. I told Preston we could bring Jorja back food, but he was so sad. He got tears in his eyes. I asked him if he would like me to order all the food and bring it back so we could eat together. That made him happy, so that is what we did. I asked for the birthday crepe, but they don't do that for take out orders. I told them I would be willing to pay for it and explained the situation. She had to go ask, luckily they said okay. I can't imagine they wouldn't give it to us if we were paying for it anyway. But... the crepes were delicious.

I had spent several weeks talking to Preston about what he wanted to do for his birthday. We let the kids have a party every even year. This was Preston's party year. I told him he could take Jack to do something fun. Like indoor skydiving, or zip lining. Preston didn't want to go anywhere. He said it wasn't a good idea with covid, this was even before the governor's mandate. All Preston wanted was for Jack to come overland to have homemade eclairs. Luckily Jack was still able to come. Jack is immune right now so his mom felt it was okay. Thank goodness! What a weird time to be alive!

Stephanie, Mike's head and Preston

Preston got a giant game called Gloomhaven. He also got a glow in the dark mini golf set, a new water bottle and headphones. Maysen gave him a gummy worm making kit and Jorja gave him a duck egg/pancake maker.

I managed to pull off eclairs

Birthday eclair

Preston & Mike

Jack was able to stay over for a long time. Preston had a lot of fun. His birthday ended up being a great time, even though it was super low-key. I mean, what's not to love about birthdays?

Negative

I wasn't sure what to do about the girls' doctor appointment. It was in Bountiful at 8:00 in the morning. The place opened at 8:00. So, I got the girls up and we drove the 45 minutes to the appointment. I called from the parking lot, but still no one was answering their phones. I went inside and asked the lady what I should do. She ended up rescheduling our appointment for an hour and set it up to do virtually. So, we headed back and the girls got to do a super easy appointment today. This is for their acne. Both of the girls had been on accutane and finished the regular time, but both of them have started to have acne again. So, this was just a quick appointment. They are very strict about girls because if they got pregnant the child would have problems. So, they just took a pregnancy test today. I stopped by the store and picked one up. The girls just had to show it to him. It was super easy. They get to do it virtually next time too. Wow. That will be a lot easier than before. Anyway, Jorja's test did come back today. Around 5:00 she found out she is negative. Yay!

The presidential election still hasn't been called. It looks like Biden will win though. There are still four states who are counting their votes. Arizona, Alaska, Georgia and North Carolina. Crazy that Georgia might go democrat. Biden is leading by .2%. 

I was able to finish Preston's eclairs, so they will be ready to go tomorrow. Sure love that little boy! Can't believe how fast he is growing up!