The Flying, Flipping, Twisting Turkey Classic

Yes, that is the actual name of this diving event.  I got the kids up at 6:00 so we could get there in time for warm-ups.  Jorja didn't want to wake up.  I told her she needed to go or she should have stayed overnight at her young women's activity.  I let her come home early in order to go to this.  Preston really wanted her there.  Mike came later. He went to our exercise class first.

This meet seemed to last forever!  I thought it would end at 1:00 at the latest.  It didn't end until after 2:30.  I felt bad.  I should have packed some food.  Stockton was starving by the time it was his turn to compete.  He had eaten half of a protein bar, so I thought that was all he wanted.  In the middle of his meet he came and found us and asked for the rest.  I had just eaten the rest of it about thirty seconds before.  I felt so bad!  I had nothing else to give him!

I did the paper scoring for Preston's competition, so I was able to video his jumps from the deck.  I didn't bother videoing Stockton's because I was up too high.  Mike took pictures though.

Preston back dive 

Preston front dive

Preston front jump tuck

Preston falling front dive

Preston back jump

 Preston got 1st place on 1 meter

and 2nd place on 3 meter

 Stockton front dive pike 101B

 Stockton inward pike 401B

 Stockton 1 1/2 pike 103B

 Stockton inward 1/2 tuck 403C

 Stockton 2 1/2 tuck 105C

 Stockton back dive pike 201B

 Stockton 1 1/2 pike 103B

 Stockton 2 1/2 pike 105B

Look how folded over Stockton is on that last dive.  Amazing!  I absolutely love watching him dive.  It just took way too long today!  I hope Preston loves it as much as Stockton does.  There were a couple of reasons this meet lasted so long.  They were planning on having two judging tables.  One for three meter and one for one meter.  They couldn't do this because they didn't have enough judges. If they had this both three meter and one meter could be diving at the same time. The other reason it took forever was they had the Junior Olympic divers (Stockton) dive 11 dives on each board.  There were also at least twice as many divers at this meet then there were last year at this same meet.  Anyway, we survived.

We went to Sizzler after the meet to stuff our starving selves.  That food tasted delicious!

Preston's Gingerbread Party

Hooray!  We survived!  Preston's party is over and it went flawlessly.  I think I'll sleep for a week now!  Preston ended up having about twenty kids show up.  They decorated their houses for about an hour.

 Preston

The kids went outside and played around after they finished their houses.  I sent Jorja and Hailey outside to watch over them.  I found this video on my phone.  Jorja and Abel with a little bit of Paxton.  Silly Porge.

Preston was excited to pick out a Cold Stone cake.  We only went through half of the cake.  They will be eating the rest over the next week.  Pretty delicious.

Most of the kids were from Preston's Chinese class.  I think there were only two kids here who didn't know Chinese.  After singing Happy Birthday they asked if they could sing in Chinese.

Here are random houses.  I didn't take a picture of the kids with their houses this time.  This time we were all about survival.

 Paxton

Preston had a great time.  He also got a ton of presents.  Matthew was jealous because he only received gift cards at his party.  He said, "This is way better!"  Matthew had his party when we were in the cabin for the Cabin Temple open house.  Anyway, Preston was super happy with how everything turned out.  I am super happy that this is over!

Jorja had a young women sleepover indexing activity tonight.  She did not want to go.  I made her go and told her I would pick her up at 10:00.  Stockton and Preston have a diving competition we need to leave for early tomorrow morning.  Mike, Preston and I played Pandemic.  It was a lot of fun.  In this game everyone works together. Everyone wins or everyone loses.  We won.  We played another game with Stockton and we lost that one.  We haven't started playing 'for real' yet.  Once you do there are things that happen that change the game.  We want to have a solid foundation before we start doing things like that!

Other things that happened today:  I volunteered in Preston's class.  Maysen called me and we talked for awhile.  She thinks she figured out her schedule for next semester.  She is able to register on Wednesday I think.  She met with her counselor to make sure everything would work.  Her counselor encouraged her to go for a Creative Writing minor.  We didn't even know that existed at Utah State.  Apparently both a Creative Writing major and minor exist, they are just not listed. Wow!  That would be perfect for Maysen.  A Psychology major and Creative Writing minor.  That was the only thing I was disappointed about her decision for Utah State.  How amazing that this is offered! Fingers crossed and hoping everything goes smoothly!  My dad also came up to see Preston today.  He gave him a birthday card with a dollar bill for each year.  My dad also wrote to him in Chinese.  That was pretty cool.

What a day!  Fun to have days like this and fun for them to end!

Preston's Magic Birthday

Is that what it is called?  Preston turned 10 on the 10th.  I remember being so excited to turn 27 on the 27th.  I had to wait a lot longer for my magic birthday than Preston or Maysen.  Now all of my kids are double digits.  Weird.  Anyways, Mike and I woke up early this morning and assembled 32 gingerbread houses.  We have no idea how many kids will show up for the party tomorrow.  We want to be prepared just in case.  It does smell so good in our house right now.  Preston is really excited.

Gingerbread factory

I took Preston to school today.  I had forgot that we needed to bring birthday treats for school.  Preston understood.  After all, I had spent most of the last week and a half up to my elbows in gingerbread. Preston and I went to Smiths.  He got his free birthday cupcake and some mini cupcakes to hand out to his class.  He was a little late.  I walked him to his class.  The kids were so excited to see him and several yelled out, "Happy Birthday!"

Preston ~ 10 years old

Becky called and asked if I would like to go on a walk with her.  It was perfect timing.  It felt so good to destress and talk to her.  She bought tickets to Hong Kong this morning.  Becky and Bryce are taking their family there for Christmas.  Becky's parents live there on a church assignment right now.

Preston wanted crepes for dinner.  We haven't had those since Maysen left.  We had the rest of his mini cupcakes for his birthday cake.  He is getting a gigantic cake for his party tomorrow.  Preston received Webelos stuff, a game called Pandemic, a Mario Uno game, balloon rockets and an Amazon gift card from Papa and Cori.  Preston had Mike help him order Dominion Empires.  I had forgotten he really wanted that.  Oh well.  This worked out perfectly.

Preston had a pretty relaxing birthday.  We watched a little tv before everyone headed to bed.  Preston was excited to get to bed on time.  He is looking forward to his birthday party tomorrow!

Busy and Tired

Today was a long day.  Mike and I woke up super early to exercise.  All of the kids went to diving today.  I brought Stockton.  Mike brought Jorja and Preston.  Mike took Stockton home.  I took Jorja and Preston home.  Stockton had a frustrating end of diving today, so he was a little upset on the way home.  Preston takes forever to take his shower afterwords.  Jorja is faster than him!  Our plan was to put the gingerbread houses together tonight, but Mike and I were both so exhausted that we had no energy to pull it off.  Bed felt so good tonight!

Ugggg

I can't believe Donald Trump just won the presidential election.  This country is crazy.  I really hope he isn't going to be as horrible as I think he will be.  I'm worried that he will turn this country toward a dictatorship.  I also wish Evan McMullin would have won Utah.  Trump would have still won the presidency, but it would have been awesome for McMullin to win one state.  I wish he would have had a better showing in Utah.  I think people were too scared to vote for an Independent when it came down to it.

Okay.  Back to today.  I went shopping to get things for gingerbread.  I was hoping to start putting the houses together today, but we ended up glued to our tv.  I really hope I can get all these houses done.  I bought 36 pieces of cardboard that can be used for bases.  I hope they work okay.

I took Jorja and Preston to diving.  Preston loves having Jorja there. Jorja has been enjoying herself too.  Preston took forever in the shower after class was over.  We didn't get out of there until 7:00.  The parking lot was crazy.  I think there was a BYU game.  Basketball?  Volleyball? I'm glad we were leaving instead of coming.

The tv was on when we got home and results were starting to come in. Preston loved watching and convinced Mike to let him sleep on the couch with the tv on.  Mike put the sleep timer on the tv, but he let him do it.  We went to bed before anything was decided.  I woke up around one in the morning and couldn't believe Trump won.  279 electoral votes.  It was crazy because all of the polls said Clinton was going to win big.  I think it ended with Clinton 228 and Trump 279.  Well, three states are not reported yet.  Arizona, Michigan and New Hampshire....I think....not enough to change the result.  Right now it looks like Clinton won the popular vote.  The next few years are going to be interesting, hopefully they are not catastrophic.

First B

I had a hard time sleeping last night.  I woke up around 1:30 and couldn't get back to sleep.  Super annoying, especially when you are planning on waking up at 4:15 to exercise.  I was really tired this morning, but at least I didn't faint during class.

Stockton's grades were posted on Friday.  I saw them after he left for Idaho.  Stockton has a 4.0.  This year he has five AP classes and two concurrent enrollment classes.  I have been sick about his AP Physics with Calculus class.  Until Friday afternoon it said he had 100%.  All that was in was his disclosure statement and lab contracts.  I had no idea what his grades were.  This is a new teacher so I have no idea how he grades.  Anyways, on Friday I finally saw Stockton's grades.  He had all As except an A- in AP Psychology and a B in Physics.  I wasn't sure if the A- was final because there were things that weren't in.  When Maysen had this teacher he would take forever to put the grades in. This morning we looked at Skyward.  It still said Stockton had an A-, but his grade was 98%.  Yay!  I think the teacher has to fill out some paper to get his grade up to an A.  The physics grade is so disappointing.  Stockton worked so hard in that class.  The teacher grades the tests like the AP test will be graded.  I think this will help them in the long run, but the short run ruined his gpa.  Another thing that was frustrating was the last test Stockton took only had three questions.  They were super hard questions.  Stockton said he thought about just setting them all up, but he ended up skipping the second question completely and spending half of the class on question three. When the teacher graded the test he decided to only grade the first two questions.  As a result Stockton got five out of twenty five.  I'm sure he has never had a test so low.  That is why he got a B in this class. Frustrating!  Stockton still does have a small chance to pull off a 4.0. This teacher said that if they score a 5 on the AP test he will go back and fill out the paperwork to change every grade to an A.  Now Stockton needs a 5.  Talk about pressure!

Tomorrow is election day.  My vote went to Evan McMullin for president.  I received a lot o flack for that, but I am excited about voting for him.  I did not want to vote for Donald Trump and I did not vote for Hillary Clinton.  I was told many times that I was throwing away my vote.  I thought that voting for Trump or Clinton would be throwing away my vote because it would be a vote for Trump or Clinton.  I would love McMullin to win Utah.  I'm worried that too many people are going to be scared and vote for Trump anyway.  That will make Utah completely irrelevant in all future elections.   Best case scenario would be McMullin wins Utah, neither Trump or Clinton reach 270.  Then the House of Representatives would pick out of the top 3.  McMullin would have a real shot there.  I doubt the house would vote for Clinton because it would most likely still be controlled by republicans.  I bet Democrats would be more likely to vote for McMullin than Trump.  I doubt this scenario would happen, but it would be awesome.  Plus, it would be fun to read about in the history books.  Even if McMullin wins Utah, Hillary Clinton most likely will be well over 270.  Donald Trump is that bad.  He is an embarrassment to the republican party. Hopefully McMullin's showing will be enough to start a new political party.  One that is not lead by corrupt politicians.

Awhile ago the vice president of the Utah republican party shared an offensive satire on Facebook.  He compared McMullin supporters to the Zoramites saying their prayer on the Rameumptom.  I was so offended.  I rarely post when I don't know the people, but I posted on this one.  I said, "What facts are you giving?  Comparing the McMullin supporters to the Zoramites is ridiculous and offensive."  This guy, Phill Wright, wrote back with very anti-Mormon stuff.  I couldn't believe it! He is the vice president of Utah's republican party?  I want OUT!  I tried to show it to Matt, but couldn't get ahold of him.  By the time I did the idiot had deleted the post.  I wish I had taken a picture of it. Anyways, it will be nice to have the election over.

I have been talking to Maysen lately.  We are trying to get her schedule figured out for next semester. We have a plan that will work, but hopefully she can get all of her classes.  One of the classes only takes twelve people.  Luckily that is not one that she needs this semester. Her two psychology classes she needs to take so she can be admitted to the program.  She can't take anymore psychology classes without taking those two.  (Psychology as a Profession and Psychological Statistics) Anyways, each class has 100 spots, but they are only offered once. Hopefully she can get both of them!

Church with the Porge

Jorja, Audrey and I went to church today.  It was almost Jorja's first time as a miamaid.  It would have been except the classes were combined in young women's.  It was Kristen's last time in our ward. She will be going to a single's ward.  She said now that Jorja's moved on it is time for her to move on.  She was so fun to serve with!

Mike and the boys came home from the cabin today.  They arrived home about an hour before family dinner.  I asked my dad if we could do dinner at his house.  I was overwhelmed with gingerbread, Mike gone jury duty, then California, then Idaho.  I just didn't want to do it. We went over there and it was yummy!  Meatloaf.  I love it.  We then went downstairs and played Dominion.  Matt won.  Boo!

Preston was upset when it was time for bed.  We read scriptures at 9:00 at night and then he went to his computer!  When we told him it was past his bedtime he started crying and said he didn't have time to do anything.  That boy is a little too attached to his computer!

Changing to Tracks

I went to my exercise class today.  Half way through the class I started getting dizzy.  I thought it must be because I gave blood yesterday.  I decided to just take it easy and try my best.  Michael Banks looked over at me and asked me to come outside with him.  He asked if I was okay. He said he was watching me and I turned white as a ghost.  He yelled down to the front desk and asked that someone bring him a protein bar.  He got me a wet towel.  He made a lot of fun of me when he found out I gave blood yesterday.  They place said you could exercise 12 hours after giving blood.  It was fourteen hours after.  I'm thinking that it is because I'm little that it affected me more.  Also, his class is crazy hard.

I rested when I got home and then made some gingerbread.  Hailey came over to be with Jorja and I went to watch the BYU game at Matt's house.  Mike sent me texts during the game.  Mike and Stockton were able to load the snowmobile so they can take it to the shop.  Not an easy task.

Mike spent time figuring out how to put the tracks back on the 4 wheelers.  He wanted to put the tracks on the one with power steering this time.  Because of that he also switched the back rack/seat.  The pictures looked like a nightmare!

He did it though.  He says it will be easier next time.  So glad he knows how to do these things.  Also glad he likes to do them and I don't have to help!

Jorja and I planned on going out to eat tonight.  I was really excited. Except that is not what happened.  Melissa needed a babysitter. Melissa has only asked us one other time to babysit, so I knew she was desperate.  She texted Jorja and worked everything out.  I came home and no one was there.  Soon Jorja came home with Nova and Leo.  She had taken them to the park.  I helped Jorja feed them and then she took care of them until Melissa and Derek came back.  I made another batch of gingerbread.  Derek paid Jorja really well.  Jorja was pretty excited because she wasn't expecting anything.  It was nice though, because we did change our plans to do this.  I'm glad we did.  Melissa wanted to go through the temple with one of her friends that was going through for the first time.

I convinced Jorja to sleep in my bed tonight.  I wanted to watch a movie with her.  Too bad Netflix wasn't working.  I fell asleep while Jorja was changing the channels.  I am not a night person.

Boys in Idaho

I took Jorja and Preston to the dentist today.  Mike then took the boys to Idaho.  I stayed home to make gingerbread.  Jorja wanted to be with her friends.  I woke up at exactly 110 pounds this morning.  You need to be 110 pounds to give blood.  I haven't been this heavy for several years. I decided I might as well donate blood.  While I was gone, Jorja's friend came and picked her up to go to the mall.  Jorja has a gift card from Papa that is burning a hole in her pocket.  Matt came by and put a McMullin sign in our yard.  I also got these beautiful pictures from Mike.

 Stockton & Preston @ Big Rock

I picked up Jorja and Kate and brought them here so Jorja could do Kate's nails.  Jorja showed amazing restraint and bought 1 jacket and 2 shirts.  It came to $30.  She has about $70 more on her gift card.  Many fun outings for Jorja are in her future.

Boo to Cancer

I spent most of my day making gingerbread.  I took Jorja and Preston to diving today.  There were more people than yesterday.  I think Jorja had a great time again.  Preston loves having her there.  I was wearing my McMullin shirt today.  This lady told me she liked my shirt.  We then talked the rest of the time.  Her husband is in medical school down in Georgia.  She will be moving there after she finishes her cancer treatment.  She just turned 30 and has a fast moving breast cancer. She is so positive and filled with hope.  She kept talking about tender mercies.  For example her baby boy was a preemie.  Her water broke early, just like mine with Stockton.  Her boy was a few weeks earlier than Stockton.  I think at 32 weeks.  I can't remember.  Her doctors told her to wait a year and a half before she became pregnant.  She had wanted to get pregnant right away, but she was waiting for the year and a half to end.  In that time she was diagnosed with cancer.  She said it was such a tender mercy not to be pregnant when she was diagnosed because she would have died for sure.  She is having her last taxol tomorrow.  My heart aches for her.  I can't even remember her name, even though she told me a couple of times.  I kept asking.  My memory is shot.  Anyways, she thinks she will be able to make it to the diving competition next Friday.  Hopefully she will be healthy!  At least as healthy as possible.

When we came home, Stockton had Jorja's game set up like this.  He has been working on a few adjustments.  He's adorable.

I left to pick up Mike at the airport.  Hooray!  I asked the kids to put themselves to bed if we weren't back by 10:00.  They don't have school tomorrow which is a welcomed break.  The kids were downstairs when we arrived home.  Hopefully asleep, but that's doubtful.  It is nice to have Mike back for one day before he leaves again tomorrow.

Cubs Win!

We finally succeeded in talking Jorja into diving.  A long time ago she went with Stockton for a couple of months up at the U.  I think she was in 2nd grade.  She did just a bit this summer, but this is her first real time diving.  There weren't many people at lessons today.  Just Jorja, Preston and one other person.  Perfect way for the Porge to start.  I think she enjoyed herself and liked it more than she thought she would.

Preston on one meter, Jorja on three

 Jorja and Preston both on three

Keyka teaching Jorja to dive off of three

We listened to the World Series on the way home.  Jorja needed me to take her to the library, so I was able to listen to it again.  I frantically searched for Fox when I got home.  I was in the piano room and went through every station.  We didn't have it.  I had to resort to watching the pitches come in on an app.  Not the best way to watch game seven of the World Series.  When my brothers realized what I was doing, Brett gave me his code to watch it on my phone.  The only problem was the app wouldn't download.  Probably too many people using it?  I wonder why.  Mike called me from California and wanted to know if I was watching the World Series.  I explained my predicament and he FaceTimed me and I was able to watch it from his TV.  At this point we are in extra innings.  I was able to watch the Cubs get two runs.  Then I was cut off.  I guess the hotel blocked the phone because of data.  Mike asked me why I couldn't get it on tv.  I told him.  He asked if I tried it on our bedroom tv.  Why would our bedroom tv have different stations?  I have no idea, but we had Fox in there!  I was able to see the last out of the World Series, but I could have watched the last few innings.  Weird.  Teresa, my friend in Georgia, is so excited!  She is from Chicago and has been a life long Cubs fan.  I texted her while I was at the pool.  I said, "I bet you are so happy right now!  I'm rooting for your team.  (Although that was after the Nationals/Blue Jays/Dodgers.)"  My favorite of the game was Rizzo.  He gets the last out at first and slips the ball into his pocket before he runs to celebrate.  That's thinking ahead!  That ball will be worth a fortune!

Mike's Gone

Mike went to California today.  I dropped him off at work, then towards the end of the day Jeff took him to the airport.  I took Stockton to diving today.  We got back in time to go to Evening in Excellence with Jorja.  This is going to be a busy week!