Poor Stockton

It's cold up here. Cold and beautiful. Mike took this screenshot last night. We were up pretty late.

Most of us had a fun day. Stockton did not. He threw up and slept all day long. He looked pretty miserable. It was so sad. He would have had a great time today. Mike went sledding with the kids for a long time. I stayed inside with Stockton. Lisa and Nathan stayed inside as well. Preston came in before they went to the springs. He had snow all down his boots. Preston played with Lisa for a long time. She taught him different strategies for 2048. About one minute after everyone came back from the springs, Stockton threw up again. A lot. Later he told me that he thought he was fine, but then everyone was talking about lunch and the food they were going to eat. They were saying words like 'taco' and 'cheese'. That did not sit well with his stomach.

Lisa and Nathan taught me a game called Cover Your Assets. It was pretty fun. When everyone came back we played a game called Code Name or something like that. Lots of fooseball was played and Mike was pretty happy he decided to bring it upstairs.

Shannon, Erica and I took a 4-wheel drive to see Steve and Sharon. Mike thought he saw lights at their house last night. I texted them this morning and asked if they were there. They weren't and no one was supposed to be there. Mike said, "Maybe I was looking at the wrong cabin?" Whoops. We probably made them paranoid. Mike drove by and it didn't look like anyone was there. I texted Sharon and let her know. They came up tonight so I stopped by and said hi. I hope they didn't come up because I freaked them out that someone might be up there. Sharon told me there was a hall light left on. I wonder if that was what Mike saw. We were just really excited that they might be here. We stayed and chatted with them. It was really nice.

The rest of the day was spent playing games, figuring out when/where to go to church and talking. Stockton went to sleep early. I hope he is feeling better tomorrow. Sometimes after a lot of stress his body just shuts down when it is over. We have a few days left in the quarter, maybe his body couldn't handle it anymore.

I realized towards the end of the day that I hadn't taken any pictures again. I got a few of Taylor playing with Jorja, but Jorja would not cooperate.

Jorja & Taylor

 Weston & Xander

 Xander & Weston

Matt & Connor

Taylor and Preston were arguing who should be able to put their cup in holder number 10. Preston's birthday is on the 10th of November and he is 10 years old. Taylor's birthday is on 10-10 and he is using Maysen's cup whose birthday is also on 10-10. Made me laugh and miss Maysen. I hope she is having fun being alone in her dorm. We had a pretty fun day, minus Stockton. Oh! I almost forgot! It was Spencer's birthday. He is 26. We sent him birthday texts. Both Jorja and Preston wrote happy birthday in Chinese to him. I love that they can do that. He wrote back with a Chinese message to them too. I love my family.

Good Morning from Parrydise

Well, Mike was at Parrydise this morning. We are with him now. These are a few pictures he sent me. So beautiful and peaceful.

There is a lot of snow here. It was up to Mike's thigh when he walked up the hill last night. He had to dig out the garage in order to get the 4-wheelers out.

Mike spent the day working up here. He loved it. He also changed the floor heater in the downstairs double bed room. He made it smaller. It works great. I bet it is a lot more efficient than the 40 year old long heater that used to be there. We want to put a door where the curtain is, so this is the first step. Mike couldn't put a door up because the heater was where the door needed to be. I'm glad he was able to figure it out. He moved the old heater to the downstairs bunkbed room. Hopefully the kids will be warm tonight.

I wanted to leave as soon as the kids came home from school. Jorja would be the last one coming home today. I had the car all packed and ready to go. I was doing dishes and started wondering why Stockton wasn't home. I went looking for my phone which was on silent. He texted me and said he was staying after to finish his CAD final. Whoops. I texted back and said I just saw his message and was leaving to get him. He answered, "Don't." When Stockton didn't hear from me he got the great idea to RUN to Indian Hills. He thought he could catch the bus with Jorja and get a ride home. There were two problems. Stockton didn't have enough time to make it to Indian Hills and he got lost. He ended up at Sprucewood Elementary. That is where I picked him up. At least he passed his CAD final and scored high enough to receive 100% on the test. This is a college class, so that is much appreciated.

We finally pulled out the door at 4:00. After we were on the road Mike texted and said it might be faster to go through Idaho Falls because the Wyoming roads were bumpy so you needed to slow down. I wish he had sent that text earlier. I usually go through Idaho Falls because I like it better. Mike likes Wyoming better so I thought I'd try his way. I wish I didn't. The roads were fine until about Cokeville. Then the roads were so bumpy and it was really foggy. We had to go super slow. We arrived at the cabin at 9:00, just a few minutes before Sherry.

Mike sent us pictures on the way. He replaced the orange rocking chair with my Grandma Millburn's rocking chair. Matt had it and ran out of room because he replaced the chair with children. Mike is taking the orange chair home and hopefully going to fix the bottom.

He sent this picture to Jorja asking if he should pick people up like this. Fancy.

All of Mike's brother and sisters are here now. It was so amazing! We were trying to remember the last time we were on a vacation all together. I know it hasn't happened since we moved back from Georgia six or so years ago. I don't have any pictures of people for some reason, but we played games and talked. Finally about at 1:30 this morning we headed off to bed. I have a feeling this weekend is going to go by way too fast.

Driving

I drove to Provo today and dropped Stockton off at diving. One hour. I drove home. One hour. I drove back to Provo with Jorja and Preston. One hour. I drove them all home. One hour. I could almost be at the cabin right now. We did stop at Pizza Pie Cafe and stuffed ourselves silly. Well, I did. The rest of the kids have more self control. Mike left for the cabin today. He made it there right before midnight. He said it was a rough ride but a fun and pretty drive. He also said, "I don't think I have ever seen this much snow here. Or anywhere." It should be a fun weekend.

LAURA

Laura! Laura! Laura! Laura! Laura!

I had lunch with my childhood best friend. I was pretty excited to see her. We were more like sisters growing up than friends. It has been way too long since we have seen each other. We went to Wild Zucchini and were there for three hours! It felt more like thirty minutes. I didn't even get a picture, but she looks great! We definitely need to do that more often.

I took Jorja and Preston to diving. Preston found Stockton's speedo. We realized Monday he left it in the locker room. I called and they were saving it for us. Good thing to because those are expensive! It is fun to watch Jorja and Preston together.

Lisa

Lisa came over tonight. She brought presents from Scoop and Cori. Socks and gift cards. We will have to get Maysen hers in a few weeks. Lisa stayed and talked with us for awhile. That was nice. We don't get together with Mike's family very often. Lisa and Nathan might be moving out of state soon. I sure hope that doesn't happen. If we have a hard time getting together now when we live next to each other, will we ever see them again? Hopefully Nathan finds an amazing job nearby. Job hunting is the worst.

Monkeys on Beds

It has been so windy today. The top of our light flew off. This light has been here for probably forty years, but it was no match for today's wind. Garbage cans were strewn all over the street. I was glad I could spend most of the day inside.

 Poor light, we probably will never get around to fixing you.

While I waited in the carpool line to pick Stockton up I called various Fresh Market stores hoping for sleds. The store in American Fork said they had nine. I was so excited! I asked them to put all of them on hold for me. I dropped Stockton off at diving in Provo, then turned around and drove to American Fork. Unfortunately they did have the same brand of toboggan sleds, they were just much smaller than the ones I wanted. I bought two to try them out but I was super disappointed. Mike called on the way home from diving. He stopped by Big 5 where they had sleds on hold for me. He ended up buying four of the sleds Preston likes. There was a Harmons nearby, so he stopped there. He asked and was told they didn't have any sleds. Mike decided to look through the store. He wandered down the seasonal isle which was now filled with valentine stuff. In the middle of the valentine paraphernalia he saw FOUR sleds! Yay! Four of the exact sleds we were looking for. Now we have six of the good 'Harmons' sleds and five of the sleds Preston likes, plus two smaller sleds that I bought today. Hopefully that will be good enough for our trip with Mike's family.

Stockton was bugged awhile ago about a quiz he took before Christmas. It was in his statistics class and was about ten monkeys jumping on a bed. When the teacher passed out the paper Stockton raised his hand to ask a question. The teacher said he wouldn't answer any questions. Stockton did the following question, but he did it wrong. Stockton assumed that because there were ten monkeys jumping they would each have a 35% chance of falling off of the bed, the same with the kangaroos. Apparently it is possible for only one monkey and one kangaroo to fall off the bed. Stockton argued his case for a long time, but the teacher wasn't swayed. Stockton told me, "I guess you can just make the problem easier if the way it is written is too hard." Because of this quiz he has an A- in the class. Hopefully with the make up quiz doing it the easy way he will be able to get his grade up. Stockton knows this teacher really well, he is his advisory teacher; at least Stockton feels comfortable around him.

John called me tonight. Their car they had shipped has never made it. Cassie has been dealing with horrible customer service. She finally was able to talk to a manager and they admitted to her that they had no idea where the cars on that truck were. The big company that John and Cassie hired hired a little company that is super sketchy. It looks like they just drove off with all the cars. John and Cassie filled their car with moving things. Their tent and their bikes were stuffed in there. The big moving company gave Cassie the number of the smaller moving company and told her she could try and find them. John and Cassie called the police to ask for help, but were basically told there is nothing they can do. John called me because I had pictures that were texted to me from the neighbor who kept the keys until the guys picked up the car. I also sent him a text of the invoice. Hopefully they can find the car. They wanted to sell the car, but ran out of time.

Guy getting a free car with goodies inside

To make matters worse, John and Cassie's van has stopped working. They are across the country where they don't know anyone and have a brand new job with no vehicle. Hopefully this will make a funny story one day. I think a lot of time will need to pass before that happens. It will be a funnier story if they can find their car!

I watched the Alabama/Clemson National Championship game. I loved it! Last minute scores from both teams with Clemson pulling ahead with one second on the clock. I was cheering for Clemson, so this was awesome.

Zebra Nails

I am loving our 1:00 schedule so far. Mike, Preston and I finished our first Seafall game. We are not 100% sure we played it right. We are trying to figure out all of the rules and how the game is played. We didn't want to 'scar' the board. This meant we couldn't see what we were officially supposed to do on a exploration or raid. This game is a lot more confusing than Pandemic. Hopefully we will get the hang of it.

I taught my primary class today. I have three little girls. It was awesome. I pulled the table in the middle of the class and we all sat around it. The topic was My Heavenly Father's Plan. I taught the lesson while the girls colored the crowns I had made. It was great! I ordered them a picture of Chelsea's newest painting. I'm so excited to give it to them. I only had to order two since I have a set of twins. I'm loving this small class.

Mike made me laugh. He was telling me some Elders Quorum stories. The guy teaching said, "When I was in my twenties and made my first million . . . " Haha! We live in a crazy ward. Mike and I are definitely at the bottom of the money pool. We actually love it.

We had family dinner tonight. My dad made lasagna and Mike made spaghetti. The kids loved the dinner train, although all we had on it was Parmesan cheese and paper towels. Jorja painted the girls nails. She is getting really good at it and doing fun things. I only got a picture of Jorja and Ella's nails. They have zebras. Abby got a snake on hers. Anne just got hers pink. I can't remember if Millie had her nails done.

Jorja's zebra nails

 Ella's zebra nails

Matt, Mike and I played a game of Dominion. It ended up being a fast game and Mike won. What? Matt is quite proud of his new Dominion box setup. It is quite impressive. I tried to put a picture here from Matt's blog, but because it is private it won't let me.

That's about it. Maysen starts school tomorrow. I hope she loves this semester. Stockton has two weeks left in his quarter. Hopefully he can pull his physics grade up. I can't stand seeing an F next to his name. His teacher is driving me crazy! Josh's mom and dad are planning on talking to the principal about this physics teacher tomorrow. I wonder if they will and I wonder how it will go. They have an appointment with the counselor, but I told her all my frustrations and she just nodded and looked sympathetically. I wonder if they will have better luck.

Jorja Leia

I love Saturdays. Even busy Saturdays. It is nice to have a day to try and pull everything together. Mike, Preston and I tried to figure out Preston's new Legacy game, Seafall. It is pretty confusing. Preston is crazy at how he can remember obscure rules. Stockton had a diving competition in Herriman. They changed the time so we arrived thirty minutes early. I wrote down all the times on my calendar. The email that came out on Monday had the new time, but I didn't double check-it. I wish there would have been a note about this being a time change. This made for a long diving day. Oh well. Stockton did great. He took 4th place. His first four dives were the best. He made it through his twist and he over rotated on his 21/2. He was spinning so fast it looks pretty cool.

Stockton 1 1/2 pike  

Inward

Laurel told me Stockton's a ninja when it comes to competitions. For example, on his back 1 1/2, he comes out way too early. At one point he is horizontal with the board. That is not supposed to happen. Usually this results in a smack. Stockton's able to somehow "slide it in" as Laurel said. His teammates have teased him with how often he has pulled it off.

Back 11/2

Reverse 11/2

Twist that Stockton hates

Front 2 1/2

We left Stockton's diving bag home. Stockton thought I had it and I thought he had it. We had two towels packed inside. Instead Stockton had to shiver with no towel. This facility doesn't have showers the divers can stand under while they wait. Sometimes they hung out in the pool. Stockton was ready to go by the end.

Mike was given a gift card to The Cheesecake Factory. We were planning on going yesterday, but Mike got home too late from work. Stockton said that sounded good even though we were a ways away from it. I tried to make a reservation while we were driving there. Apparently they only do reservations before five on weekdays. Boo. It was so crowded. The wait was one hour and fifteen minutes to one hour and forty five minutes. I bought a cheesecake slice and we ate at Chuck-A-Rama. It was also super crowded. We ate the cheesecake while we waited.

Jorja held down the fort while we were gone. She fixed macaroni and cheese for Preston and her. I laughed when I saw Jorja. She reminded me of Princess Leia the way she pulled up her hair. I have been talking to her about makeup lately. She loves to put it on. I still want her to look like a fourteen year old. I don't want her to get to the point where she won't go out of the house without makeup. I met several people like that in college and know a lot of people like that now. She said she wants to practice so she will be good at makeup when she goes into high school. Even before my girls' personalities were evident, I have always thought Jorja would want to wear makeup when Maysen might not. Jorja has such light features that she tends to get washed out. She also has dark circles under her eyes that she has had her entire life. She hates them. I just don't want her to hate them so much that she always needs to cover them up. Anyways, make up or no makeup, I sure do love this little girl.

Jorja

I dropped Jorja off at Katlyn's house and went on a late night sled hunt. I stopped by Big 5 hoping to get another two sleds that Preston liked. They didn't have backs on them. The employee was sure they had them because they had just received a huge shipment. Turns out a manager took all of those sleds up to Logan. Boo! They put the sleds on hold for me at a West Jordan store. I was annoyed that they wouldn't send them down to this store for me to pick up. Oh well. Hopefully Mike will get them after work on Monday. I then went to Fresh Market where the sled distributor told us we could find sleds. I can't remember if I wrote about it, but Mike called the distributor of the 'Harmons' sleds hoping to buy ten or so. The minimum order is $1,000. Too bad. He said we would find them at Fresh Market. I stopped by two today and struck out at both stores. Hopefully we can manage to find enough sleds for the cabin trip with Mike's family.

Dropping Game

I hurried to the temple after the kids were out the door. Jorja was the last one to leave because she has late start on Fridays. I got there right as people were leaving the chapel, so I just snuck in line behind them. I saw Sister Bird working there. Sister Yauney was in the session. I asked her about math. Her older son, David, was in the same situation that Stockton is in now. She was going to ask him what math he took senior year, because she was pretty sure it wasn't Calculus 3. Turns out that David ended up getting his associates degree which gave him the New Century scholarship. He didn't need to take an additional math class. I think in order for Stockton to do that he would have needed to take classes last summer. Frusterating. I also saw Janelle Leatherwood. We talked for a bit. I don't think I have actually talked to her since her wedding. I don't know if I even talked to her then. I see her on social media though; plus Laura has had really good things to say about her. It was nice to connect with her for a bit.

I left the temple and went to Preston's class. Maysen had sent me a text asking me to call her. Actually this morning I sent her a text telling her good luck. She was planning on talking to the English department about a creative writing minor her psychology counselor told her about. Maysen texted back, "It is neg 13 degrees and I'm outside." Haha! That made me laugh! Anyways, I called Maysen when I got home. She had a disappointing meeting with the English department. They told her that there was not a creative writing minor. I guess that was too good to be true.

Preston came home and we hung out for the next several hours. We played games, tried to play games and ended up dropping things into each other's mouths. One of us would lay on the floor with our eyes closed opening and closing our mouth. The other one would try to drop something inside. Once success was reached the person on the floor would try and guess what was dropped. Mostly we did it with sixlets and would try to guess if it was a black or orange one. We were terrible at that game!

Katlyn came over and played with Jorja. Mike and I made ribs in our Instant Pot. Mike loved serving the ribs on the train. I fell asleep early and the kids put themselves to bed.

Just Stuff

I went downstairs early to exercise. I turned on the lights and noticed Preston was laying on the couch. Yikes! I ended up exercising in the boys room. When I walked back he sat up and asked for a blanket. Later I asked him why he was sleeping there. He said he didn't remember going there. I wonder if he was looking for Stockton.

I was able to see Mike for a few minutes before he left for Matt Burnham's funeral. He called when I had just arrived at BYU with Stockton for diving. He had a few hours. The only problem was he was in Salt Lake and I was in Provo. Too bad it didn't work out, but I'm grateful I was able to see him for a bit. I'm also grateful for the health our family has had recently.

Stockton and I took Lizzie home from diving. That ended up adding an extra hour to our trip. I was surprised it took that long. She lives as far off the freeway as we do, but in the opposite direction. Her dad was planning on meeting us at the freeway exit, but he wasn't able to get there in time. No way was I leaving her in some random spot. We also found out that there is not going to be a dive camp this year. The pool will be under construction starting in March. Too bad because this is Stockton's last year for dive camp. It will be interesting to see what happens. They have no idea where they are going to practice. Hopefully it is closer to us.

Digging Out

I had a hard time sleeping last night with the chirping from the smoke detector. I hope they get that fixed soon. This morning I laughed as I watched students dig out their cars. I was thinking that they must have left their cars over Christmas because they were covered!

It wasn't so funny when I discovered that it was from just one night. Luckily I brought my snow boots, but I didn't have any gloves. Also, my long scraper was missing. I bet Mike has it in the jeep. It took me awhile, but I was able to do it. Maysen and I wanted to go to the pet store to get Maysen fish. Once we started driving there I decided it was a horrible idea, but by then we were committed. Maysen came back with two water frogs and a fish. I was annoyed with the employee that helped us. I am not judging her by her nose ring and various piercings, I'm judging her by her attitude.

 It's hard to see the depth, but I was slightly worried I wouldn't be able to back up.

I dropped Maysen off with her fish, grabbed my things and headed back home. I was worried it would take me twice as long to get home. It was so nice when I finally got to the freeway. It was pretty rough before that. (Maysen's school is at least 45 minutes from the freeway. 45 minutes on a good day.)

Mike has been working on a video game thing with the boys. It's looking pretty good. He has almost every Nintendo game on there and several other games. Should bring fun times.

We found out BYU was having dry land for one more day, so Stockton decided to go to the U with Gage. Too bad Gage stood him up. Gavin wasn't here either because he hurt his hip last night. Ted is a great coach though. Stockton likes that Ted tells him a correction he can make and why he should make it. He will also ask him to do things that are easy to understand and he knows he did them right when he hit the water. Ted was asking him to extend his arms on his inwards. He said, "If you can wiggle your thumbs and see them before you hit the water, you are doing it right." That works for Stockton.

Stockton ~ inward 1 1/2

Jorja has been enjoying her new vanity. She does look cute sitting there. She straightened her hair before bed. I don't know why.

Jorja

Stockton slept in Maysen's bed. I guess he did last night too. I'm glad those two get along. Actually all my kids get along, it makes life so wonderful!

My dad called me while I was driving Stockton to diving. He asked what I was doing. I told him and asked what he was doing. He said, "Sitting at the kitchen table talking to Matt, Mike and Sam." What?!? Mike is in town? Mike came in town for one of his really good friends funerals. Okay, Mike gets a pass on this one. Funerals are hard to plan in advance. Matt Burnham died of colon cancer. He was in our ward growing up and I'm pretty sure his mom was my beehive leader. I remember being at her house for a sleepover and everybody hated me. Laura had moved up at this point. Sister Burnham was nice, but that night was miserable. Anyways, Mike slept at our house last night. The viewing was far away in Roy. The roads were terrible on the way home. Mike met up with some childhood friends and had dinner with them. I told him I would leave the door unlocked and the guest room ready, that way he wouldn't have to hurry home or worry that he was keeping us awake. I'll get to see him for a few minutes in the morning, but that is probably it. Short time is better than no time. Glad it wasn't Mike's funeral. 37 is way too young. 11 years earlier than my mom and that was horrible. Matt has a wife and three kids. Poor family.

Sending Maysen Home

I woke up this morning early for Stockton.  Shortly after I woke him up I received a text saying that schools would start two hours late because of the snow.  I hurried back downstairs and told him he could keep sleeping.  About 30 minutes later I got another text that said all schools would start two hours late except Alta.  Whoops.  Back downstairs.  This time you really need to get up and now you are behind schedule.

Maysen and I had planned on leaving for Logan first thing this morning.  We weren't able to leave until after 10:00 because Preston didn't leave until after 10.  Leaving that late made me nervous because I figured there would be no way to do all the things in Logan I wanted to do and get back through the pass before it was dark.  I decided to stay over a night with Maysen.  I knew Demetria wouldn't be back, so it sounded fun.  And it was.

The only problem with my plan was that when we arrived back to Maysen's apartment, her batteries were almost out on her smoke detector.  This made a loud chirping noise that would go off every 45 seconds.  We went and talked to the office lady and she filled out a maintenance report. They were supposed to come between 5-8:30, or something like that.  They didn't come.  All night long that smoke detector went off.  Every 45 seconds.  All night long.

Okay, starting now I'm going to try and single space after my sentences. This is going to be a tough one for me. When I was in typing in 8th grade it was very clear you always double spaced after your sentences. Blogger doesn't like that, so I have to fix my sentences all the time. I'm going to try and retrain myself. Whoops. Just double spaced there and had to fix it. Sam says Covenant doesn't like it either. If an author submits a story with double spaces after the sentences she needs to go back and fix it. Maybe this single spacing thing started to save more book printing money. I don't like it. I like the look of double space. I'll try my best though.

Anyways, back to Maysen. After we got situated a bit we went down to the office and asked for a temporary overnight pass. This morning they started construction on the place where I'm supposed to park. She sent me to the parking office and I was given a pass (for $5) to park across the street in the football stadium. After we finished that we headed up to campus. Luckily parking was free because so few people are here now. You win some, you lose some.

Maysen and I found all of her classes. All the buildings were opened so we were able to find the exact rooms as well. That was nice. We figured out the bus schedule and I'm pretty sure the red bus is going to become her best friend. She only rode that one once last year and immediately regretted it. We'll see how this year goes. After lots of walking, we made it back to the car and headed to the grocery store. I got Maysen all stocked up for a little while. It is always nicer to go with someone who has a car - (and someone who will pay!) Once we were back in Maysen's apartment and my car was parked across the street, neither of us had the desire to go outside again. We were planning on going out to dinner and a few other errands. We skipped that. At least we went to OHOP for breakfast this morning. That place fills you up! We spent the rest of the day talking and relaxing until I couldn't keep my eyes open. Too bad we couldn't find a fun movie to watch on TV. The closest we came was some random Sponge Bob episodes.

It was fun to spend today with Maysen. I'm glad she loves it up here. It will be nice to have a few days off before school starts on Monday. I will end this post of a picture Cassie texted me of Brett with Collin. I'm so jealous! I hope Brett lives next to me next. He finds out his new orders in February. I wish all my family lived next to me. All on the same street. That would be amazing.

Brett & Collin

Disaster Averted

Maysen helped me update the look of my blog.  I have wanted the pictures to be bigger and the margins to be smaller.  It seems ridiculous to have two large white strips running down the entire thing.  I have been worried that by changing something it will ruin the previous eight years of my blog.  Hopefully that didn't happen, but now is as good as time as any for a little change.  I don't think Stockton liked it at all though.

Mike and Christen gave us an Amazon Dot for Christmas.  Maybe it is called an Echo?  Maybe both. I can't remember.  The voice is called Alexia. Anyway, Mike set it up yesterday.  I think Alexia is quickly becoming Preston's best friend.  He spent forever saying, "Alexia, tell me a joke." With a few "Alexia tell me a dog fact" and "Alexia tell me a random fact" sprinkled in.  I think he's in love.

Maysen, Stockton and I went to a movie.  We picked up Hailey and Katlyn and dropped them off at the mall on the way. We went and saw Sing. Maysen loved it.  Stockton liked it.  I thought it was long.  I didn't hate it though.  It was different than we all expected.  Different in a good way. We were glad it wasn't just an American Idol competition with animals.

Mike, Preston and I finished Pandemic.  We played two games this morning and one before bed.  We solved all the puzzles and ended with the 'Disaster Averted' status.  This was the second highest score.  We did not make 'Legendary Achievement'.  Anyway, we loved this game.  I'm not sure how to play it now that we finished all the objectives.  Maybe how we did at the beginning when we were just learning?  Almost seems too easy now.

Maysen and I signed her up for an Institute class.  She picked New Testament.  She picked it because this is Demetria's teacher from last semester.  Demetria and Maysen both had the same class.  Demetria loved her teacher.  Maysen did not. Maysen wanted to give Demetria's teacher a try.  This is the only other class that he teaches.  Maysen decided to take a night class once a week.  I think that will work out really well for her.

Maysen was also quite happy to find out that her college year will end the start of May.  We looked at different writing workshops she might want to attend when she moves home in the spring.  She has an exciting life ahead of her.

We played Smart Mouth before bed.  Stockton had been wanting to play that all break.  It was getting late, so we only got one round in.  Stockton won, of course, but at least I had a decent showing.  I'm usually horrible at those games.

2017

And so it begins.  2017.  Katlyn left early this morning.  Jorja was still asleep and had no idea she had left.  I was awake and saw her out the door. Katlyn has 9:00 church this year.  We have 1:00 church. I am teaching CTR 5 this year. I have three girls.  Alex and Andi (twins) and Natalie. Megan told me they wouldn't be at church, so I was planning on only teaching Natalie.  When I got to class, I realized I had two visitors.  Whoops. I hurried and made copies.  Sister Trost teaches CTR 6s.  Only one of her students showed up.  Drew.  We decided to combine classes.  It worked out great. Brother McHenry talked in sacrament meeting today about hope.  Eight years ago he was diagnosed with CRPS - complex regional pain syndrome.  He had a freak iceskating accident.  He was a heart surgeon and ended up breaking his right wrist.  Wind can't even blow on his hand without intense pain.  He talked about his life changing in an instant.  Going from someone so respected to someone who couldn't even tie his own shoes.  He has had several surgeries and even been put into a coma three different times I think.  I can't even imagine the struggle he and his family have been through.  We sure are a lucky family.  Knock on wood.

We had grilled cheese and tomato soup for dinner.  Mike loved serving everyone on the dinner train.  He had all of the sandwich halves in one car. He drove the train around and everyone would take a sandwich as it passed.  The tomato soup was more difficult.  They can't all be winners.

Mike, Preston and I played two games of Pandemic.  We lost both.  We are so close to curing the disease.  Hopefully we can do it before time runs out.  We have four more official games left.  Preston was so disappointed yesterday when the character he loves playing with ended up being the traitor.  We had to tear up his card and kick him out of the game. Preston just put a sharpie X over him because he couldn't stand ripping up that character.

We were up pretty late but ended the game with scripture study and a short family council.  We are going to try and do that every Sunday. Mostly talk about what is going to happen the week ahead.  That way there are no surprises.  Well, fewer surprises.  My kids do much better when they know that plan.

That is it.  First day of 2017 in the books.  I should have at least gotten a picture of my family to start the year.  Especially since we were all in our church clothes.  Fail.

Goodbye 2016

I'm still feeling the mommy guilt, so we took the kids to Leatherbys. Jorja had been wanting to go for awhile and was disappointed that she choked on the choice of dinner place after her violin concert.  Jorja and I shared a french dip sandwich and a giant ice-cream.  Mike had brought all of the broken sleds home.  We returned them to Scheels. They refunded our $140.  Excellent.  Our last stop was D.I.  Mike wanted to look for a computer screen for the video game thing he is making with the boys.  Jorja found some cute dresses for super cheap. Success.  We stopped at Walmart so Mike could get another computer thing.  Something he screen at DI needed.  I let the kids each pick out a treat for tonight.  We ended up with chips, cookies, chocolate milk and pizza.  Perfect.

Jorja, Preston, Maysen, Stockton

 Stockton defeating 'cookie clickers' for Preston

John and Cassie made it to their home in Virginia!  What a way to start the new year!  I'm glad they are there and no tragedies occurred on the road.  Cassie sent me this picture of them in their new place.

Trevor, Brandon, Mallory, Collin, John, Cassie

Mike, Preston and I played a few games of Pandemic.  We lost the first game and won the second one.  Our game ended right as Steve and Shannon came over.  We talked and played games.  The new year was here before we knew it.  I choked and didn't get a picture of my family. BOO!  Jorja had Katlyn and Hailey over.  Hailey left after midnight and Katlyn slept over.  Jorja was pumped about that!  I took some blurry photos of Jorja with her friends.  I should have used my nice camera, but I was too tired.  And I don't know how to use it very well anyway.

Katlyn, Hailey

 Jorja, Katlyn, Hailey

The biggest change we had in 2016 was Maysen graduating high school and moving to Logan.  It has been so much fun to have her back these last few weeks.  It's sad not having her here all the time, but she is loving her life in Logan and that makes me extremely happy.

I Broke My Porge

Matt woke up early to play Dominion with me.  Too bad his kids woke up early too.  It was fun to watch him juggle them.  At least I destroyed him this game.  A nice way to end the trip to the cabin.  Most of the morning was spent cleaning up.  Matt and Sam wanted to be on their way as early as they could.

I saw this picture Chelsea posted.  Holy cow!  She's amazing!  I have a picture I want her to paint for me so bad!  I was hoping I could win the exercise contest last year and use the money to have her do it for me. Too bad I came in second or third place.  So close!  By the time we have enough extra funds I'm worried she will be too famous that she will be out of our price range or too busy.  Her pictures sure are amazing though.  The model she used for this picture is Iriel. Courtney's daughter.  How cool!

The cabin was pretty much cleaned up except for our snow clothes.  We all went sledding one last time, except for Maysen.  She said she had a great time at the springs and wanted to end it on that one.  Jorja probably wishes she had done the same.  Everything was going fine until I decided on a whim to pull the kids up the big hill at the end of the cabin.  I almost instantly realized what a bad idea it was when it was too late.  I thought the only thing I could do was speed up so the sledders wouldn't catch the 4 wheeler on the way down.  When I did that one of my boys lost control of their handle.  I think it was Preston, because Stockton fell off earlier.  Anyways, it whipped around and nailed Jorja in the face.  I felt so bad.  I looked back and there was carnage everywhere.  Jorja was crying with a bloody face, Preston was stunned laying there a few feet back, Stockton was on his back at the top laughing.  Not the best mom moment.  Jorja was able to use it to her advantage.  I am so against letting anyone under 16 drive the 4 wheelers by themselves.  Jorja has been practicing with Mike.  She was able to use this exact moment to get me to let her do a solo run.  She made the point that she would obviously do a better job than I did.  She did great.  I'm not planning on letting her drive often, but she did a good job this time.

Jorja

 The hill - it's hard to get an idea from this picture though

 Preston

 Stockton

 Cabin views and Preston's head

Mike loves to take the kids penguin racing.  He usually does it with Preston or Jorja.  They love it!

Mike & Preston penguin racing

 Stockton

 Here comes the Porge!

Mike taking a pile of broken sleds down.  Hopefully we can return all of them and buy the awesome Harmons sleds.  Or the backless Torpedo one.  Or another long black H2O one that has somehow made it several seasons.

We left the cabin at about 4:30.  Jorja can't talk very well.  Her lip is swollen.  She says she can't feel it.  I imagine it feels like she has been to the dentist.  I'm glad it didn't knock her teeth out.  Especially right after she got her braces off!  I agreed to stop somewhere for ice cream on the way home and take them to Leatherbys tomorrow.  Jorja is quickly learning the advantages of a mother's guilt.

Jorja's broken face

We got home around 9:30.  I am exhausted.  It feels so good to sleep in bed!  Nice to be home.  Lots to catch up on tomorrow.