Three Tries

When Stockton called today I was on the phone with the doctor and I couldn't switch over. Stockton then called Mike who was in a zoom meeting with his boss and couldn't answer. Next he tried Jorja who was in class and couldn't answer. I texted Stockton as soon as I was off the phone and asked him to call back. I'm glad he did! He called three of us and no one answered, dang it! Mike has been feeling very sick. He scheduled a video appointment and they wanted him to come in and get a covid test. So, Mike did that today. His test came back negative. Yay! Although he does have bronchitis. Boo! Mike now gets to have an inhaler.

A funny thing happened today. I texted a few of Jorja's friends to set up a 'birthday party' for her next week. We are going to the Labyrinth. It is in South Jordan. I have never been there, but I'm hoping Jorja and her friends will like it. Anyway, Sami texted me today to tell me she was there. AHHH! I panicked a little and told her it was next week. I worried I never told her the date, just told her Monday. Luckily I did have the date in the text. Sami said she just got excited and she laughed about it. Whew.

Jorja finished her homework so she could hang out with Sophie. I'm not sure exactly what they did, but here are random pictures I found on Jorja's phone.

Jorja

Sophie

Sophie & Jorja

Run Away Boat

Mike and I made my dad's waffles this morning. They were delicious. We had church where Mike told a lot of Wyoming church stories. Bugs on the windshield, pulling the snowmobile motor, and the 'Moroni popped up' favorite. He added a new one.... sometimes you need to slow down and make sure you are in park. Haha. After church Sophie told us that this was the first time she was able to have sacrament since March. What? She lives in my dad's stake, but her ward doesn't allow sacrament at home. The nursing home is in her ward boundaries. Residents there weren't allowed to have people come in to bring the sacrament, so the bishopric decided no one in the ward should be able to do it. That seems insane to me.

Anyway, Maysen left the cabin today. She went to visit some friends that live in Rexburg. She has never met them, but has been good online friends for over a year. Although they did not know Maysen's real name until yesterday. Haha. Maysen was pretty excited to meet them. She knew the girl really well and kind of knew her husband. A few days ago her husband said they were having game night and everyone was welcome. Maysen asked them where in Idaho they lived. Turns out they were serious on her coming.

This afternoon Mike was looking out the window and said, "Is that my sailboat?" He grabbed some binoculars and discovered it was indeed his boat. Not where it had been anchored. I rushed him down on the 4-wheeler. I dropped him off close to the water. He thought he could just walk to it, the water had been so low. He told me to head home. I wasn't back long before he called me and asked to come back. The boat was farther than either of us thought. He couldn't make it. There were a group of people that had a lot of paddle boards. Mike asked if one of them could take him to the boat. They said no. Booo. Anyway, I hurried back and picked up a soaking wet Mike. We drove through lots of mud around to another spot where we thought Mike could get to the boat. This time I watched him until he was safely on. Craziness! Mike has now ordered a new anchor. Anyway, we decided to join Mike. We drove down to the dock and he picked us up there. We had fajitas on the boat. Mike drove to the other side of the water and the girls and I got out to explore. And Bear. I asked Mike to hand him to me. Mike keeps laughing and saying he couldn't believe I carried Bear to the shore. Well, Bear LOVED it. He was running around like a maniac. There was a cute little stream and he would run up and down the thing, super fast. He is usually such a timid dog, but he was so brave here! Until he got stuck in the mud with Jorja. He sunk down and almost all of his body was under. Jorja tried to get to him and kept sinking. Bear would claw his way out of the mud only to sink again. He did get himself out before Jorja got to him though, but was not nearly as brave as he was before. We had fun exploring too. Jorja and Sophie took a million selfies. Here are a few of them, along with some cool Sophie gymnastic pictures.

Jorja & Sophie

Sophie

A few videos

Sophie & Jorja

I sent this picture to Stockton. The Crawford life vest came with the boat.

Stockton's companion when we got the boat was Elder Crawford. Haha

Jorja & Sophie

Bear

Picture Maysen sent

Maysen brought her friends a copy of Pillage and Plunder. She had fun teaching them and playing games all night. They played Colt Express and a couple of new games that they taught Maysen. They fed her crepes for dinner and now she is sleeping over. She is having the best time.

Jorja and Sophie really wanted to make cookies. Problem was we were out of butter. Terry has been up here a lot lately, so I wondered if he would have some. He didn't answer, Debie didn't either. So, we decided to drive over and see. It was dark and no one answered the door. Right as we were about to leave Terry called. Tyler and Missy were up here but were in Jackson at the moment. He had called them. They said they had butter we could use and the door was unlocked. Wow. That was awesome. I love having family cabins nearby! Love my family. Jorja and Sophie made no-bake cookies and they were delicious. The rest of the night was spent talking and playing games. The cabin is the best.

Park

Jorja got up early to help paint. I thought they were painting more mountains, but maybe they made this rocket ship? I'm not sure.

Layla & Jorja

We had a fun/relaxing morning. We played Colt Express. Pretty sure Maysen won, but I can't remember. Mike and Preston changed the oil in both of the 4-wheelers.

Preston

Jorja left Sandy around 10:30. She drove up with Sophie. They took random pictures along the way. At one point, while we were playing Colt Express, Jorja called us. She said the car broke down. I had asked her to drive Maysen's van. They were about two hours away from us. Mike took the phone and asked her what was wrong. He asked her to see if the steering wheel could move. She said she already tried that. He then asked if the car was in park. Jorja started laughing and then said, "I fixed it." Yep. That was the problem. The car was not in park. I'm glad it was such an easy fix!

Jorja & Sophie

Sophie & Jorja ~ they sent this picture to Packer. He loves Jack in the Box for some reason.

Jorja and Sophia

After the girls rested a bit, they headed down to the water. Mike was out there on the boat. They just played on the beach though. The beach was very muddy. The reservoir was extremely low, so there was a lot of beach! At one point Jorja did a head first slide in the mud. She was covered in that stuff! She had a blast though!

Jorja

Jorja & Sophie

Porge

First slide

Second slide

Jorja ~ this one makes me laugh

Mike anchored the boat a little off the shore and was able to walk back. I did pick him up at the beach. Jorja showered after she got back, obviously. Jorja and Sophie had the basement and we were had the upstairs. Jorja and Sophie finished the night watching a movie. Mike offered to bring the tv down, but they watched it on their phone like weirdos. Haha

No More Wrapping

I took Jorja to the dentist this morning. She might have to get the same surgery Maysen and Stockton had when they were in 4th grade. They both had gum surgery. Eric wants Jorja to be seen by a periodontist, so we will have to figure that out. Jorja had a meeting with Packer and some of the other student government people. We didn't get out of the dentist office as early as we hoped, so we asked for a school excuse that she could give them. Haha

Bode, Jorja, Sadler

I took Maysen out to lunch to OHOP. While we were there I got several text messages from Jorja. She got her Step to the U grades. Two As and two B+s. She was shocked. She thought she would have three As. She had a 98% in the class she got a B+ with one assignment and final paper to go. They were both graded today. She got a 200/200 on her final paper and a ZERO on her assignment. That zero dropped her from a high A to a B+. Jorja spent three hours on this assignment and there was no explanation as to why she got a zero. If she even received 50% she would have an A in the class. I'm positive this is a mistake and have asked Jorja to write to her teacher. She is scared. She sent the email but says that Jose has never responded to one of her emails the entire semester. Great.

Maysen had an appointment at the burn unit today. Her wounds are healing up SO WELL! She doesn't have to wrap them anymore. It looks like she will only have minimal scaring. The burn doctors were awesome. They spent a lot of time with her and answered all of her questions. It was great. It is crazy going to hospitals now. They had guards before the parking lot asking why you were there. They had people stopping you at the entrance asking where you are going. They said Maysen had to go alone. I told them that I needed to be there to see how to wrap her. They said, "Oh, you need training. Okay." Then they let me in with her. I was glad because her appointment was pretty long and I think Maysen would have been a bit nervous alone.

Jorja and Sophie hung out today. They went to dinner and then came over here to make cookies and then delivered them to random people. Well, people who slid up on their stories when they asked who wanted cookies. This is the only picture I have of their adventures. I'm always after Jorja to take pictures, but I forgot to bug her about them today. I'm always after her to do it because she is the only one who usually does anything different. When I get behind on my blog it is easier if I have pictures to jog my memory. Although, I took zero pictures with Maysen at the burn unit, so I can't get after too much today.

Sophie

Mike finished the cinder blocks on the duck pond. It's looking so good!

More Paint

Mike and I got up when Bear woke us up, which is always really early. We drove to Idaho Falls to pick up the cabin lawnmower Matt borrowed. My dad was there. Sam made waffles. Nice way to start the day. We were back at the cabin by 9:00 for Mike's first meeting. He spent most of the day in meetings and then we painted the cabin. We got the back/bottom/railings done. We ran out of paint for the deck though. We did paint the picnic table with the little bit we had left. Anyway, it is not perfect, but it looks a lot better than it did before.

Jorja spent the day working on a final. She now only has one final left and she is DONE! Woohoo! She has worked so hard. I'm extremely proud of her. Jorja is planning on coming up to the cabin tomorrow with some friends. A few of her friends dropped out at the last minute. She called some boys to see if they wanted to come on her girls trip. Now Lucas and Jake are coming too.

I called Jorja tonight to talk about the cabin trip. Ellie and Aysha were at our house. They were working on some pictures that were taken on inauguration. Jorja was driving somewhere with them when they passed Alta. Some people were there so they stopped to say hi. Turns out it was her friend Sophie. Also JJ and Ian. Jorja tried to get them to come to the cabin. JJ called his mom and even had Jorja talk to her, but no dice. Jorja wants to do a sophomore adventure sometime. Haha

Jorja

Jorja and Sophie

With the weird disposable camera filter Jorja likes so much

Halloween

Preston had a presentation for a monster school. I wasn't sure what to expect, but it was awesome. Their teacher was teaching them about the different kinds of essays. Informative, persuasive, narrative etc. Instead of just assigning these essays over the quarter, she had the kids design a school for monsters, and each of these essays were focused on this project. Then the kids presented them to us. They also designed school uniforms and sung a school song. They also had a table where we could look at things and ask them questions. Preston did the powerpoint for his class. It was adorable.

Jorja took Conner's sister out for ice-cream. She had a great time with her. Later today she went out with Cameron for a bit. He dropped her off and hurried to a party. We had just turned off all the lights because Mike we finished our candy. Apparently Jorja couldn't get in the house and thought she was locked out. I don't know why she didn't text us. She said she thought we were gone because the lights were off. Oh silly Porge.

Jorja & Sophie

Maysen came home today! Preston was so so so excited! He adores her. Preston got Luigi's Mansion and played it while he was dressed as Luigi. Haha! Maysen took Preston trick-or-treating. Preston would put his candy into his Luigi costume vacuum and lift it up. The candy would fall into his backpack. It was funny and Preston loved it!

Preston

Also, one more cool thing about the World Series. Mattress Mack texted my brother Mike today to tell him congratulations on his team winning. Wow! That is the coolest thing ever! Gives my brother free tickets and thinks of texting him congratulations! Especially since he lost over $11 million on bets! He would have lost more if the Astros won though. He had a promotion going throughout the season that he would refund any purchase over $3,000 if the Astros won the World Series. Haha! He has done that before. Astros won two years ago and he had to pay back millions. Last time he had insurance to help cover the cost. This time no insurance would do it because the Astros were supposed to win. Anyway, how cool of this guy to reach out to my brother and tell him congratulations. If I ever had that much money, I hope I would be as kind and generous as Mattress Mack.

Creepy Ben

Jorja and Sophie on a yogurt adventure

Jorja cleaned her room today! It looks so good. She had a date tonight with Spencer Langston. They went bowling and watched a movie. She FaceTimed her friend Ben after she got home. For some reason she had a screenshot zoomed in on Ben's face. I think it was this picture, but it was super close. After she got off the phone, Jorja and I talked a bit and then she got ready for bed. She was getting dressed and had her shirt off when she looked down. She saw the zoomed in picture of Ben and about died. For a second she thought she was still FaceTiming him. Hahahaha. Glad it was just a picture.

Ben

Seize the Day

Today was crazy busy. I laughed when I looked at the calendar. There were so many things crammed into the space. Tomorrow is completely blank. Haha. Oh well. I started the day early at the gym. On Wednesdays Mike gets the kids up for me. I came home and Mike was super happy. It was weird to see him with that much energy in the morning. He isn't usually a morning person. Things were going great. Until I walked into the computer room and saw Preston on his computer still in his jammies. I asked if he had eaten yet. Nope. We went into speed mode at that time. Preston and I had to chase the bus down, but he made it at the second stop. It was funny.

I checked Jorja out of school today. She was frustrated when I picked her up. She had talked to her Chemistry teacher on Monday after school about her grades. She was told she could do some test corrections to get her grade up to a B. Today her teacher told her she never said that. She also asked why Jorja didn't turn in a project that was 10% on her grade. Jorja had no idea the project even existed. It was assigned when she was gone and she was never told about it. It wasn't even listed on Skyward. It was listed on Canvas, but Jorja usually doesn't check that unless she has something assigned. She just didn't realize she had anything. She is so sad. It looks like she will get a C+ in her class that has been so easy for her. Have I mentioned how much I hate mono? Jorja thinks she is getting better. She is still tired, but not as much and she doesn't get as sick as often. Let's hope this never comes back! Jorja's plan is to retake this chemistry quarter. That should be easy for her. Jorja has been picking up science super quick. I'm crossing my fingers that Packer is just freaking Jorja out with her D- in his class. I can't believe my straight A student has grades like this. Hopefully once her health is under control everything else will fall into place.

I checked Jorja out of school so we could go watch Preston perform a Newsies number. Preston has loved his musical theater class, which has shocked everybody. He was so dang adorable. I recorded the show, but it was too long to put on here, and not done very well. (My recording, not Preston!) Anyway, it was so stinking cute! I'm so glad we were able to see him and I'm glad Jorja was able to come with me.

Preston

 Preston

Preston and I went and got smoothies after the show. He looks grumpy in the picture above, but he wasn't at all. I love him! Jorja didn't come with us because she met one of her friends that still goes to Indian Hills. Her name is Sophie. They were in the same orchestra class when Jorja was an 8th grader and she was a 6th grader. She was the first person Jorja told that she wanted to run for student government. Anyway, they met in the commons and then went to get food. Jorja asked her where she would like to go and she picked Chick-Fil-A. Hahahaha! Jorja just can't get away from that place! The went to the dollar store afterwords and Jorja sent me a picture of a cactus cup. Awe!!! Stockton! I love him!

Sophie

I met Mike at Mimi's Cafe down in Midvale. Chris and Jane were in town. Gayle and her kids were also there. Gayle had called me last week to ask if I could come. I was in the car, but remembered the details when I got home. Jane asked if I had contacted my brothers and asked them to come because Gayle didn't have their numbers. Whoops. I had no idea I was supposed to do that. Sorry Bubs and Matt! My dad is in Israel right now, so he couldn't come. It was so fun to see Chris and Jane! I adore them. Mike and I had to hurry so we asked if our food could come out early. We were eating while everyone else was ordering. We left early so we could see Weston play lacrosse. He was playing against Alta at Alta. This had been on my calendar for a long time and I made sure Jorja got it off of work so she could go. Alta won by a long way, but it was fun to see Weston play. He starts as a sophomore, which is pretty impressive. One of Jorja's friends nailed him at the end of the game though. Knocked him down flat. Pretty sure a penalty should have been called on that one because Weston didn't have the ball. Mike and I sat next to Steve. He brought blankets and a heater so we were quite cozy. Jorja sat next to us instead of the student section. Wow! She was with Emily and then Traven found her at half time and watched the rest of the game with us.

Weston & Jorja

Jorja went with Emily, Hailey and Madison to answer Gavin to prom. Then they went and picked up stuff for Madison to answer her date. She came back later than she planned. She was hoping to get to bed early enough to be able to go to the temple tomorrow. That didn't happen. It was quite the busy day.

Jorja & Gavin