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Jorja had her first student government activity with the new officers. The results for the election were posted yesterday. There are two girls in each category this year. Two girl sbos, two girl senior class officers, two girl senators, two girl junior class officers and two girl sophomore class officers. Weird. Jorja is excited to not be the only girl anymore. She told me today that it is weird that she is the only senior girl that has been in student government before. Six senior girls, thirteen boys. Wish it was a bit more even. Anyway, she went down there for an hour this morning to work on putting together signs for the seniors. She had to hurry back because her AP English text was today. It's weird having them take their AP tests at home. Instead of a three hour test, it is a 45 minute free response test. We kicked everyone out of the computer room so Jorja would have no distractions. I'm glad I let her drop AP US History at the beginning of the year. This year is so weird. After the test Jorja and I helped Preston learn a dance for Chinese. Jorja filmed Preston and I dancing. Sending that video in was a difference between an A and a B in Chinese. Crazy that it was worth so much. After the dancing Jorja went out with Layla for yogurt. Layla is the other girl sbo. They wanted to talk about initiation. Jorja told me this morning that she texted Aysha and told her she didn't want to kiss anyone. She said that even though Riley said it wouldn't bother him, she didn't want to risk it. She didn't want another Conner/Traven situation. She has felt guilty about kissing Traven for so long. She met up with Layla and said they had a great time. Layla didn't want to kiss any of them either, even though she is kind of dating one of them. She didn't want to kiss Marshall in front of anyone. So, at least they are agreed on that. They are both looking forward to tonight. Should be super fun.

Switching gears... my mom died 24 years ago today. I posted this picture with this caption: Best person in the world died 24 years ago today. This was our last family picture. My brother Brett was leaving on a mission. My mom knew she would die while he was gone, but sent him anyway. Her faith was unmatched. Oh how I miss her.

Mike, Mom, Stephanie, Brett, John, Dad, Matt, Bubs

Mike commented that Matt was wearing a 6T jacket. Haha. My cousin Jeff mentioned something like he was having a tender moment remembering mom when Mike made him laugh. After I said, "See what I have to put up with?" Mike said, "At least I didn't mention how you are wearing a size 2X!" Hahahaha. I love my family. When Jorja was helping me go through some filing cabinets she found some twenty question things. I sent this to my brothers today. This is what my mom answered when I was 17 I think.

I brought my blanket and puzzle book and hung out at my mom's grave. It was such a nice day! Right as I was leaving Matt and Sam and their family showed up. They brought dinner to eat at the grave. They brought my mom's peanut butter cups in bar form. Why have I never thought of making them that way? Tons easier. It was delicious too.

Stephanie

 Sam & Kaylee, Matt

 Anne, Jeff, Greg and Amy in the distance

 Random picture of Preston

My family played rummy with me. I grew up playing that and canasta with my mom. Soon it was time for Jorja to head out. The outgoing sbos picked her up at 10:30. She is so excited. I hope she has the best time!

Jorja

 Ellie, Jorja with red eyes, Kate, Aysha

 I tried to edit Jorja's red eyes. Not sure how good I did so I'm leaving both pictures in.

Free Flower

Late last night Jorja's friend Drew called her to tell her her name was on the flower shop sign. Jorja was so happy she almost started crying. Hahaha. The two of them went together after school so Jorja could pick up her free flower. They let her go in the back and pick out whatever she wanted. She picked a yellow rose. She was so happy. It's the little things.

Jorja

It's weird looking at Jorja being spelled like the state. It doesn't even seem like the same name to me. I am so glad we spelled her name the way we did. It fits her so much better. She was such a tiny thing when she was born. She was NOT my smallest baby. Both of my boys were smaller than her. She just didn't grow the first year. I think she weighed 16 pounds at a year. I know she was 19 pounds at 18 months. Her doctor would tell me to put butter on everything! She was such a good eater too, just nothing stuck to her. I think 'Georgia' would have drowned her. It just wouldn't feel right. The name 'Jorja' is just perfect for her. I love it.

Anyway, that was a tangent. Jorja and I went down to American Fork today to a 'Lift Our Planet' meeting. She had randomly applied for a scholarship to do a service trip to Costa Rica. She got it! She also got $1000 scholarship to go toward a service trip to Bali or Peru. It will still be expensive, but it drops the Costa Rica trip to $1500 instead of $3000. We still need to pay for airfare though. Jorja was leaning toward not going, even though she has always wanted to go to Costa Rica because of frogs. She was worried there wouldn't be any teenagers on the trip and it would just be families. Well, the second we walked in there the first person Jorja saw was Ellie from student government. Jorja whispered to me, "If Ellie goes, I'm 100% in." I love Ellie. I hope this trip works out for them. It sounds amazing.

Visitors

Jorja spent all of the day in bed. She had some friends come and visit her, which made her so happy. The place that took out her wisdom teeth sent her flowers. They were so pretty. Too bad later in the day they got knocked over and spilled water all over her friend Cam.

Jorja

 Cam

 Cam & Jorja

Jack and Ellie stopped by from student government. Jorja LOVED that. They brought her a smoothie from Jamba Juice. They were so nice and talked to her for a long time. Jack got his wisdom teeth out a few months ago. He did it as a part of a study. Half of the participants get pain medication as they are recovering, half of them get a placebo. Jack is positive he received the placebo. The recovery was awful. He said he's glad he did it now, but he wouldn't want to do it again.

Jack & Ellie

 Jack, Ellie, Jorja

Her friend Mallory stopped by super late at night. Around 10:00 I think. She stayed until 1:00 in the morning. Jorja wasn't tired and had slept most of the day. Me, on the other hand..... I have been sleeping with Jorja, so I just crawled into bed and fell asleep while Mallory was here. She had just come back from Lake Powell, which is why she came so late. She is getting her wisdom teeth out on Monday.

Mallory

BYU played Boise State today and WON! BYU has only won three games this year, and all of them have been against teams in the top 25. They lost two games to teams they should have destroyed. Anyway, I was watching the game by myself and BYU scored on an amazing trick play. I was cheering and Mike was walking down the hall. I said, "Mike! Hurry you got to see this!" He kept walking at his same speed and said, "I'm good." It annoyed me so bad. I couldn't pause the game, so I couldn't show him the play. It made me so sad. I went from cheering to being really sad in a matter of seconds. I hate that I am alone and no one will enjoy this with me. Mike didn't like that he made me feel sad, but he doesn't understand that he makes me feel like he thinks he is better than me because I like sports. I gave up watching sports for years when the kids were little, but it was such a big part of my childhood and it has been fun getting back into it. This is how I bond with my brothers. We have a group text that we use and text during the games. It is my main interaction with my family. I love that, but sometimes I want to enjoy with someone in the same house as me. It did prompt me to ask Jorja if she would marry someone who liked sports just a little bit so I would have someone to talk to. She would not agree to my stipulation. Anyway, I was watching the football game and following the baseball game on my phone. I didn't have the channel of the Astros/Yankees game. If the Astros won (which they did) they were going to the World Series. I had walked into the guest room to check on Jorja. Mike had spent most of the day with her. I looked down at my phone and said that Altuve was up. He's my favorite player on the Astros and I thought it would be amazing if he hit a walk-off. Which he DID!!!! Anyway, Mike said, "Is he the one that throws the football?" Hahahahahaha Oh my gosh! I hate it that no one enjoys sports with me, but sometimes you get gems like this that will make me laugh for days. BYU scored a touchdown and Altuve hit a walkoff homerun as I was leaving the room. Wow! What a fun day for sports!