Bloke

Jorja has been in contact with one of the counselors at Alta trying to pull together a Utah State thing. She has made invitations and wants the advisory teachers to hand them out. She asked the counselor if she could get a list of students names who have been accepted to Utah State. They didn't have that information, so Jorja got it from Utah State. She asked if I could look up the advisory teachers, luckily I knew how to do that. She made about 100 invitations. She is going to mail them to me and I need to get them out next week. Hopefully I do a good job.

Matt and Sam are at the cabin. Kaylee left her baby at our house last time they were down here. I brought it up to the cabin and left it on the dresser in the lava room. Matt and Sam found Kaylee like this. On top of the dresser holding her baby. Hahaha. I should have known she would climb up there!

Kaylee

Mike and I went to this candy store in the mall and got some things to use as prices for the dance tomorrow night. We also stopped by Zurchers to get a thing that will make the disco ball turn. Mike spent a lot of time tonight working on a trivia game. Sure will be nice when this dance is over!!!

I was proud of figuring out the Wordle with only having this information

Tin and Beans

Stockton is doing great! We got to talk to him today. There is a mountain on fire near him. Hope they get that taken care of and hope no one gets hurt. Today is Sam's birthday. I dropped off Kaylee's stocking today. I even got to hold her! She is all the way off of oxygen now! Woohoo!

Stephanie and Kaylee

Jorja had a mostly good day. She got up before 5 to go watch the sunrise with Hailey and Allison. She also started Step to the U. It was long. She had zoom calls from 9:00-3:30. Long day, but after she had a date with her friend Ben. Ben lives in Alta boundaries, but goes to Jordan for the Spanish Immersion program. They have been friends for years, but became close friends when they had drivers ed together. They had talked for years about having a Webkinz date. So, today was the day. Unfortunately they could not find anywhere that sold Webkinz. So they just had to play with the ones they already had.

Ben and Jorja singing Hunk of Tin ~ throwback to Drivers Ed

I asked Jorja to send me pictures of her day... she sent these videos...

Jorja showed me this cute tiktok she is making to the song Fine. Jorja is lip syncing the first line that says 'I'm going to be fine.' She is crying as she said that. That was from yesterday. Now, as she videos other lines with her friends that she has been hanging out with. She showed me how much she has and it is super cute.

Jorja got added to a group chat the day Bode and Luke found her. Jorja has wanted to be in this chat for years. She even asked if she could be in it in 8th grade but was told no. (I'm guessing the person she asked maybe didn't know how to add people. I can't imagine them not letting people in, but that was the impression Jorja got.) Then she was afraid to ask to be in it again. Anyway, she is now in it and is so happy. One of the girls, Ella, asked if anyone wanted to get Bahama Bucks with her. Jorja said yes and she was off on another adventure. It ended up being Ella, Luke and Aiden I think. They filled a piñata with beans and destroyed it. Weirdos. Jorja loved it though.

Riley and Jorja had planned on talking today after he got off of work. They met at our church parking lot and talked for over an hour. Jorja was able to ask him about the different things she had found out about. It was good closure for her. She ended up telling Riley she didn't think she could be friends with him anymore, that it just hurt too bad. Maybe one day they can be friends again, it will never be like it was though. Jorja told him that she wished they were never more than friends. This is exactly what Jorja was worried would happen. She will be fine though. Just like her song.

Kaylee's Stocking

Jorja went out this morning with her friend Kiana. The plan was to go painting in the park. She brought the picnic blanket my grandma gave me and a lot of paints. Too bad it ended up being cold and rainy. Instead they just talked.

Kiana and Jorja

Jorja left her wallet in Brenton's car on Thursday. She picked him up today and he gave it back to her. I think they ended up going to Walmart and maybe somewhere to eat. It's funny because Brenton usually would sit in front of us at church. There was a good long stretch that when Jorja and Brenton sat next to each other, from behind they looked exactly the same. Then Jorja cut her hair a bit. I wonder if it looks like that again. Brenton's cutting his hair soon, maybe they should try and get a picture from behind before he does that.

Jorja and Brenton

For Jorja's last adventure today, she went with her friend Jake to Dessa's birthday party. She sure had a great day today and was so happy. It was awesome.

Jorja and Jake

Mike, Maysen and Preston worked in the duck pond today. It is looking really good. Matt and Sam bought a house and are moving to Rigby, Idaho. Sure going to miss them living close by. They have five kids now and have outgrown my dad's basement. Five kids in one bedroom. Wow. Sam is working her dream job as the head editor at Covenant Communications. With all the problems with Kaylee and then corona, she has been working at home for the last eight months. Well, this week Sam got permission to permanently work from home. So, they are going to move to Idaho. They will be close to Sam's sister and Sam's mom is also moving there. The housing prices are cheaper and they think the air will be better for Anne. It makes sense, just going to miss them. Luckily they will still be relatively close by. It's not like they moved to Virginia or Ohio or New Mexico. Anyway, I got obsessed with finishing Kaylee's Christmas stocking. I wanted Matt and Sam to be able to pack it away with the rest of their stockings before things got chaotic. I had been splitting my time between Kaylee's and Rachel's stocking. I was so close to finishing Kaylee's though. I spent a few hours and finished it today. I am happy with it. Hope Kaylee will like it too!

Kaylee

Blessing and Homecoming

Kaylee was blessed today. Over zoom. It was pretty cool. All of my family was on there, and a lot of Sam's. Matt and Sam's bishop was on there too. It was awesome that my brothers that live far away (and their families) still got to be there. It was weird seeing Matt as the only one in the circle as the blessing was being given. Weird times we live in now. Kaylee is exactly four months old today. She is still on oxygen a lot of time, but is getting stronger and healthier. Definitely don't want her to get the coronavirus. After the blessing we were able to talk to my brothers and their families for a bit. We even played some Jackbox over zoom. Not as easy to do it that way. We had to say goodbye so we could get on our next zoom call.

Brandon is home from the Chicago Illinois mission, Spanish speaking. We had a 'homecoming' with all of Mike's family. Pretty much Brandon told us about his mission and we asked him some questions. It was fun. Aimee was there with her brand new baby!!! Jonathan Levi. He was beautiful. Spencer even got on. And his wife! I'm not sure how to spell her name. I know it starts with an X. She is so beautiful! Anyway, it was great to be able to connect with both sides of the family today!

Jorja also got to do another meeting after that. They had a zoom presidency meeting with the young woman's president. Busy day but so nice.

Kaylee's Handprints

So....Jorja was sick again. She missed the entire day of school. She probably would have tried to get the last classes, but she was supposed to go on a field trip for PLT anyway. She also missed the Valentine party in student government. Ever since Jorja had mono last year, whenever she gets sick, she gets really sick and has a hard time shaking it. Still, nothing has compared to the awful days when she first had mono.

Mike had work off. He gets every other Friday off, except during crunch time ~ Black Friday and Christmas season. It was perfect timing because Sherry came down from Highland to do Kaylee's handprints. Super nice of her to do that! She had the day off of school today and spent it doing us a favor. It was awesome. I have a lot of pictures of Kaylee getting her handprints, but none of her footprints. Weird. Also, I couldn't help but put every picture with Amy watching in the background. Haha

Mike wandering, Sam holding Kaylee, Matt watching, Sherry creating

 Kaylee

 Taking the oxygen sensor off to get Kaylee's footprints

 Matt, Kaylee, Sherry

 Amy's watching

 She's concerned

 And adorable

 Matt & Kaylee

 Kaylee

Poor little girl. You will love the handprints when you are older though. If you notice all the Enfamil in the background, it is because Matt and Sam are stockpiling it. This is the only thing Kaylee will eat and it has been discontinued. Matt searched every store from Provo to Layton yesterday getting as much as he can. Sam has a lot of writer friends around the country. Some of them are sending her some. Bad timing for this. Hopefully by the time they go through it all her little body will be able to tolerate something else.

Mike and I went to lunch at Sizzler after the handprints were done. That was nice, fun and relaxing. We tried to convince Jorja to go with us, but she wasn't hungry. She hasn't been hungry for a long time. Jorja had her ACT camp today. She picked Drew up at school and they got to Provo for the 3:00 check-in. Evan and Gabby were also there. She said it was a lot more fun that she thought it would be, which was great. Evan and Drew were in one group. Gabby and Jorja were in another. She is hoping that she will be in a group with someone she knows tomorrow since it is all day. Fingers crossed for that one!

Aubrey, Gabby, Drew, Evan

 Ben

Once she got back she picked up Ben and they stopped by Crumbl. Jorja had a coupon for free cookies. Then they went to Smiths before Jorja came home. Hopefully she isn't sick tomorrow! Also, Mike finally finished the Sweethearts video. It is awesome. Here is the link to it: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gEYgVkgdzzA 

46 Years Old

That is how old I am. It is also how old my mom was when she got cancer. I can't even imagine getting cancer this year. Especially cancer that her older sister had just died of a year before. I don't like thinking about it, but it is always in the back of my mind.

Today was fun. Stockton called me early this morning. I got to talk with him for an hour. That was nice. It was different than talking to him on p-day. He was by himself while his companion was getting ready for the day, so he was able to be more open. I love him so much! We went to Seussical the Musical. It was weird. I thought The Cat in the Hat did a great job though. Fun to see something different and fun to be there with my family. We tried to go to Cheesecake Factory before the play. We thought we left in plenty of time to beat the crowd. We got there at 5:20, but the wait was an hour and fifteen minutes to an hour and forty five minutes. That wasn't going to work. We ended up getting something in the food court at the mall and going to Cheesecake Factory after the play. There was no crowd then! It was a perfect plan, except Brett and Rachel came while we were gone. They had our garage code so they were able to get in and get settled. They were all sound asleep when we got home. Exhausted from their two day drive.

Kaylee

 Stephanie, Maysen, Preston, Mike, Jorja

 Jorja & Stephanie

 Stephanie & Jorja

Mike took our picture. The lighting is weird, but still proof we were all there. I got annoyed with Preston for the faces he was making. Come on! It's my birthday. You can give me a good picture! A guy next to us asked us if Mike wanted to be in, so Preston behaved himself for that one.

Jorja, Stephanie, Preston, Maysen

 Come on Preston! You look ridiculous!

 Mike, Jorja, Stephanie, Preston, Maysen

 Stephanie

It's hard to tell what is going on in this fork/salt picture, but those forks are holding up Salty. I think she is the Queen salt shaker. Or at least a princess. Too bad their tower broke and Salty became a casualty that spilled salt everywhere. 

Stockings Were Hung

Matt and Sam got to hold Kaylee today. Just for a few moments, but yay!

Rachel texted me pictures of the finished stockings. They look so good! I do not trust myself to put these stockings together. I'm glad Rachel has this talent. Eve had her stocking last year, so I only have pictures of the three other girls with their new stockings.

Marie

 Mina

 Grace

 Rachel made Brett's stocking. They look so good together! I'll get Rachel one for next year!

 Grace

I had my job interview this morning. It went well. We'll see if I get it. Who knows. Mike, Maysen and I went to the Bountiful Temple today. Mike's friend from work was taking his endowments out and asked Mike if he would like to come. Maysen and I tagged along. It was really nice. The Bountiful Temple is huge! I asked Mike if we could stop by the University of Utah hospital on the way home. Mike and Maysen waited in the car while I went up to see Kaylee. She is in the NICU. Matt met me and took me to see her. She has jaundice and needs help breathing, but other than that she is going great! Then Matt took me to see Sam. Sam talked about all the miracles that happened yesterday. One of the big ones was how little blood she lost. The doctor told her she would lose gallons of blood. They had a blood transfusion team standing by. Sam ended up losing less than a regular c-section. Incredible! They didn't let her hold or see Kaylee at all after she was born. They started her surgery right away, probably one of the reasons she lost so little blood.

Kaylee under lights

While we were gone, Jorja texted me a picture of Shiver. He has been lost for over a month. We have looked and looked for him. Preston has missed him. Mike had given Preston 'spare Shiver' and 'spare spare Shiver' but Preston wanted the ratty real thing. Jorja found him today! He had fallen behind her headboard and between her wall. The headboard goes all the way to the ground, so we couldn't see him when we looked under her bed. Preston slept in Jorja's bed one time when Maysen came home. Jorja hadn't moved back down from the guest room after having her wisdom teeth out. I told Jorja not to tell Preston and we should wrap Shiver up for Christmas. She texted me this picture and said, "Too late." Preston said that would have been mean because he would have thought we hid Shiver the entire time.

Preston & Shiver

Jorja had a gift exchange with a few of her friends. Hailey, Emily and Allison. Jorja made these blankets and little puzzle keychains. She found four interlocking pieces and painted them. She had a great time with these girls tonight.

Jorja

Maysen had the idea of giving gingerbread houses to the missionaries serving in our area. We haven't ever met them, but I texted them and asked if we could drop off a Christmas present at their house. I looked up their number on LDS Tools and was glad I did. That is how I discovered they were in a trio. Would have been sad to not have enough houses for them. I put together candy, frosting and got three houses. Mike and I dropped them off. They were excited. I hope they have fun doing them. I also dropped off a house to Yolanda Veerlander. I love her! She is so nice. She wants Jorja to do caroling at the pavilion next year for the fund raiser. She said she would help Jorja figure everything out. That would be cool! Hopefully Jorja is in student government next year and hopefully Packer will let them do something like that!

When Jorja came home we read a little of Christ's birth from the scriptures. We are having part one of Christmas tomorrow. Opening presents Mike doesn't want to bring to the cabin, or we want to be able to use at the cabin. Santa isn't coming, so they won't have their stockings tomorrow. I hope Stockton is happy. I hope he has a great Christmas this year. It is going to be so weird without him.

Kaylee's Birthday

Kaylee Lyn Millburn was born today! Yay! The doctor said she is doing as well as a 32 week old would do. She was born at 5:31 pm, weighed 3 lbs 14 oz and is 16 1/2 inches long. What a tiny little thing!

 Kaylee Lyn Millburn

Sam's surgery went better than expected too. The doctor was able to detach the placenta from her bladder cleanly, so she didn't need bladder surgery at all. That was great news! Matt has been able to touch Kaylee, but not allowed to hold her. Sam has seen pictures of her, but is really tired right now. Today went better than anticipated. What a blessing!

Bad News Day

Mike texted us this picture saying he was all ready for the World Series tomorrow

Today was a long day. Jorja felt miserable and she ended up staying home the entire day. I texted her teachers and they were all really nice about it. Just kind of scary since the quarter ends on Friday. Still, wisdom teeth are not fun. Jorja slept until noon. I hung out with her after that and we watched Kim's Convenience. Sam found out that that she has placental abruption, placental prevue AND placental accreta. Not good. She is only 23 weeks along. They are hoping she makes it to 28 weeks. If she happens to make it to 34 weeks that will be amazing! They will deliver the baby then and Sam will have a hysterectomy. One piece of good news is Sam's doctor is one of the top 2 placenta accreta doctors in the nation.

Maysen had a huge paper due today that she finished and turned in. 40 pages in her long form fiction class. She was super proud of it, so yay!!!

I got a call from Jorja's eye doctor today. Last week when we saw him he said everything was fine. Well, not fine, but the same and we didn't need to see him until December. He called back today and said he had been worried about Jorja and decided to send her file to a neuro-opthomoligist at the University of Utah. He said if they were worried about anything they would probably call and schedule an appointment in a month. Anyway, a couple of hours later they called and said they wanted to see Jorja as soon as possible. Their first available appointment was next Tuesday. She has to go in for 3-5 hours of eye tests. They said her nerves were swollen and causing pressure on her brain. I think they said that they were surrounded in spinal fluid, which I don't know what that means or if I even got that right. I told them I was confused because just a week ago the doctor told us that everything was okay. I asked if they were just being extra cautious with these tests and if she really needed them. They told me that this was a big deal. They are worried that if she gets even one more headache things could escalate quickly and she could permanently lose her vision. What - the - heck??? I don't know if that means losing some of her sight or becoming blind. I'm hoping we go to all these tests and the diagnosis comes back as 'the doctors are big fat worry warts' - because that is a real diagnosis.

Jorja had to work today. She was on call in and thought they wouldn't need her. They ended up having her come in from 5-9. She survived but it wasn't fun. I drove her there because she is on medication where she can't drive right now. When I picked her up we stopped at U-Swirl to get Mallory a yogurt. Mallory got her wisdom teeth out today. I waited in the car outside of Mallory's house while Jorja went in to talk with her. They will be wisdom teeth buddies now. Fun.

Too Hot for School

I watched Matt's kids today while Matt and Sam went to their ultrasound appointment. They are going to be having a little girl! Her name will be Kaylee Lyn, unless they decide otherwise. Best news though was the baby is healthy! This pregnancy has been touch and go with several scares, so yay for being healthy. 

With the BYU/Utah game tomorrow, I laughed at Jeff's shirts. Matt says they only wear hand-me-downs, so their favorite team is what they are given. Haha.

Jeff and Stephanie

Alta got out early. The air conditioner broke. It was so hot. 100 degrees in the classrooms and hallways, especially upstairs. They let the kids go home at 1:00. That meant Jorja missed Chinese. That is her least favorite class this year, so she wasn't disappointed one bit. We took advantage of that time and went dress shopping. This was her favorite of the day, but she likes the one from yesterday more. I'm going to try and get it tomorrow. The shop wasn't open today. I hope I can just call because with the BYU/Utah game....I don't want to deal with traffic. The shop is in Orem.

Jorja

Jorja worked from 4:30 until close. It was super busy and she got home around 11:45. While she was gone Mike put the TV from our room in her room. She has been having a lot of anxiety and can not fall asleep. The last six months or so she has taken my laptop to her room and fallen asleep with it. Either Nexflix or conference talks she finds on YouTube. That is another reason I am so behind in my blog. My laptop is always missing. Anyway, Mike hung this up in the girls room. He tried to stay awake so he could see her reaction, but he couldn't do it. Jorja was so happy! I taught her how to use the sleep timer and she was good to go.

 View from Maysen's bed