Feels Like Georgia

I got Preston off to school this morning. He has been great at getting up at 6:00 and taking a shower every morning. Considering the last year he stayed in his pajamas and showered a couple times a week this is amazing. Haha. I hurried to the store and bought sunscreen for Jorja. I got home right as she was leaving. Shelby was already there. They are going up to Bear Lake for an ambassador retreat. I'm excited for her. I think she will love it. Today felt like Georgia. I was so lucky to be able to go with Janet and Teresa to breakfast. Janet was in town from Georgia because of Tracy's 40th high school reunion up in Idaho. She stayed for education week. I found out that on Friday Tracy and Janet were jet skiing at Palisade Reservoir. Ahhhh! How funny would it have been if we happened to run into them up there? Teresa was in town from Texas because she drove Weston up to BYU. Anyway, the stars aligned perfectly and we were able to have breakfast together in Orem. On Janet's birthday. How cool is that? The other reason it felt like Georgia was because it rained like it does in Georgia. It was pouring buckets and buckets. I drove so slow and was nervous for Jorja. Luckily she and Shelby made it there just fine. I did love listening to the rain all day though.

Teresa, Stephanie, Janet   

We were talking about how Teresa keeps going lighter and lighter with her hair. I told them that Jorja kept going darker and darker. I texted Jorja and asked her to send me a picture. I got these back. Haha. Love that girl!

Jorja

Teresa is going to help Payton and Kinsie move into their new apartment later today. Their apartment is attached to the place we ate breakfast. TruReligion. Kind of fun!

Mike and Stockton made dinner today. They made omelets in the waffle iron. I just had a lazy rest of the day. Today would have been my mom's 74th birthday. It's crazy that her mom lived 43 years longer than she did. I'm jealous. My dad sent us a message on our family group chat. I loved it. I sure do miss her.

Payton's Wedding

Wow! What a crazy day!!! Jorja has been studying so hard for her statistics test. The kids could choose whether to take it in class or at home. They could take it any time today if they took it at home. If they took it at school they would only have the class period. Jorja has had a substitute for months in that class. Chad got in a motorcycle accident and hasn't been back. Last class the substitute talked for twenty minutes before they were able to get to work. That would be awful on a test day. Jorja told me she wanted to take the test after school. I asked her if she would like to take it during class, but at home. Her class is the first period of the day and advisory is after. I figured she could miss advisory today and be able to finish her test. That is what she did. She was disappointed. She ended up scoring 89%. She only missed two questions though. Anyway, she couldn't believe it when she got to school. She got there right at the end of advisory. When she was in the parking lot Lucas called her crying. She hurried to her class and tons of people were crying. Packer quit today. He came in and gave a speech and then left. I feel so bad for talking Jorja out of going today. Packer has been the student government advisor for years! I can't believe today was the day he quit! Shay is going to be the new advisor. She is the PLT advisor. Jorja likes her a lot. She is actually aiding for Packer and Shay next semester. Anyway, this will be quite a change. It will be interesting to see how it all plays out.

On an unrelated note, I ordered this waffle maker from Ebay. It is from the 60s and I think it is just like my dad's. My dad's waffle maker makes THE BEST waffles! My brothers and I haven't found anything like it on the market now. I'm excited to try it out!

Preston got spacers in today. He will be getting braces next week. We weren't sure if he could eat popcorn with spacers. He LOVES popcorn. We know he can't eat them with braces. He will have braces for about two years. We found out he can eat them with spacers, but so far his teeth have been too sore for him to do that.

Preston

Our 19 year old neighbor, Ethan, was baptized today. So crazy! They had the baptism on zoom. It was really cool because he has tons of great friends on missions, and they were all able to zoom in. It was cool to see Race on there. Race is serving in California and ended up teaching Ethan when he was at his dad's house. Something like that. Awesome that he could see the baptism! We watched the baptism while we drove to Lindon. Payton Myers got married today! Wow! I was so excited to see Teresa. I wish she lived two doors away from me like she used to! Today was a mini Georgia reunion. We were walking in and Maysen whispered, "Is that Brother Montgomery?" It was! He was sitting on the couch. Then a few minutes later Jeremiah walked by. Sooo crazy and fun! I wish I would have gotten a picture of Maysen, Payton, Jeremiah and Thomas all together. They were all there. Those four were in the same primary class for YEARS! Crazy to see them in the same place again. And Thomas is getting married tomorrow! Wow!

Teresa & Stephanie ~ she looked so beautiful!

I had a mask, just took it off for the picture

Maysen and Payton ~ they have been friends since they were four

Little Payton and Maysen

Jerome, Teresa, Payton, Kinsie

Jennifer, James, Maysen, Mike and Stephanie ~ the Montgomery's moved to Utah and we had no idea!

Teresa is photobombing Hahaha

Mike, Maysen and I had a great time at the wedding. We left Preston home alone with Bear. Bear enjoyed my birthday chocolate while we were gone. He took the entire thing out to his "treat spot" I had at least three full candy bars there. Hope he doesn't get sick!

Jorja went on a date to the ice castles. She said it was beautiful and so much fun. I wish she would have had that much fun when we took her there years ago! Haha. Here are two pictures I stole from Jorja's phone.

Riley & Jorja

What a busy, fun, crazy day! The only thing that would have made this day better was if Gonzaga hadn't destroyed BYU in basketball today. Hahaha

Posts

Teresa's moving to Texas! I can't believe it! Jerome got a new job out there. At least it is closer to me, but it is still soooo far away. How I wish she lived here. I hope she loves it out there. She's the best!

I got frustrated with Jorja today. She had the day off work and was assigned to go to a basketball game down in Provo. Mr. Packer ended up not making them go. Instead of going to Young Women's she chose to take Gabe's shift. I know he needed it covered, but Jorja has only made it to two Young Women's activities since she turned 16. It frustrates me. Jorja got really upset that I was asking her to think before she switched things. She said she was a terrible daughter etc. etc. I wish she would let me correct her without getting so upset. How is she going to know that I don't want her to do this if I'm too afraid to tell her? Anyway..... grrrrr.....

Jorja also was humiliated over an Instagram post. Jorja's sweethearts date has a girlfriend right now. One of this girl's friends commented on Jorja's post and she felt a little awkward about it. Then someone sent Jorja a different Instagram post. Conner's girlfriend goes to a different school and they ended up having their dance the same day. She went with someone and this boy posted about it. He thanked the 'random Alta girl' for asking Conner before she had a chance to ask him.... it's kind of hard to explain and I don't want to put the screenshot Jorja sent me here, she was just really embarrassed. It's too bad too. She had a great time at the dance. Those two are good friends and everything stayed that way. Which is what they both wanted. Now she kind of feels embarrassed about something she shouldn't be embarrassed about. I know these people were trying to be funny, but it hurt my little girl. Probably bothered her more than normal since she already was upset because of me. Highschool is fun.

HOME

I had lunch with Teresa today!!! And we both forgot to take pictures. Boo. We met at JCWs at Thanksgiving Point. Teresa wanted to go somewhere with fry sauce and cherry coke. Haha. We ate outside and talked for hours. It was awesome. I wish she would move here. Both of her boys will be going to BYU in the fall. Weston is there now. That is why Teresa is in town.

Jorja came back from Trek tonight. Emily came back from her mission on Wednesday. She was in Taiwan. Ebony missed picking her up from the airport because of Trek. Emily was released over FaceTime because all of the members of the stake presidency were on Trek. Ebony got to be there for that, on the trek side.

Emily

 Emily & Ebony

 Seonora & Sephora

Ebony, Emily and Kevin

 Ebony & Emily

Jorja said the trek was pretty easy. I remember Stockton saying the same thing. They did eat like kings. I need Mike to find the trek video he put together years ago. I'm pretty sure the youth in Georgia had a completely different experience, at least with the difficulty level.

Gavin's family came over to swim today. They seemed to have a lot of fun. Stockton and Gavin were even able to do back doubles off of our board. What! They can't get to bounce to work for a lot of things, but for some reason backs worked a lot better.

Zoe, Lila, Nate, Sammy, Gavin 

Stockton's back double

Mike and Preston went on a campout today. They were told they would be sleeping in an old barn. Mike was worried about this. He started taking his allergy medicine a few days ago to prepare. Well, turns out he didn't need to worry. The old barn turned out much different then we anticipated.

 No hay in sight.

 Preston

I think they are going to have a great time. This is Clint Okerland's family cabin. I think it was about four hours away. A tiny town in Utah called Loa.

Payton's Home!

I knew Payton was coming home this week and was thrilled to watch a video Jerome posted of Teresa meeting him. I cried. I was about to text Teresa a message when I got these three pictures from her. I was so happy! I couldn't believe she thought to send these to me. She knew how much I'd love them.

Elder Payton

 Weston, Payton, Teresa

 Jerome, Weston, Payton, Teresa

Look at that complete family! Isn't it awesome! My friend Alisha's boy, Cameron, is going into the MTC tomorrow. Wow. So excited for these families.

I wanted to take Maysen shopping and we were about to leave when Stockton mentioned something about his bowling class. Whoops! I had completely forgotten. Good thing he said something. Instead, Maysen and I waited until he came home. We were still able to make it to the store before it closed. We went bra shopping at a store called Lace by Louise. Shannon told me about it on Sunday. I loved it. I felt really comfortable with the owner and I'm so excited to get Maysen a bra that actually fits. Her rib cage is so small that her bras need to be special ordered. Her chest is too big for her to go to youth sizes. Anyways, she has never had a bra that fit properly. I have tried, but the people I had taken her to had no idea what they were doing. I wasn't impressed, so the next time we just went to Kohls and that experience wasn't great. Anyways, I'm really excited about this. I think it will help Maysen a lot. I will need to take Jorja there some time as well. Now that I trust someone, that will be my go-to.

Speaking of Jorja, I got this picture from her today. Doesn't she look happy? She said her day was good and they had a dance today. I asked her where Ebony was in the picture. Ebony was in a different class, but they met up with her later. That surprised me that they would be separated, but I guess they aren't mission companions.

Random boy, Random boy, Jorja, Random boy, Random girl, Random girl

Mike and I met with the sister missionaries tonight. That was good. They were able to help Mike with a few things he didn't know about. Like how when our ward has splits, they are supposed to meet with Mike for fifteen minutes before. Something called RTL (?) We had never heard of such a thing. It was great to talk with them and form a connection. Mike has a lot of work ahead of him, but he will be great at this calling.

Lunch with Elder Payton

Mike and I took Elder Payton and his companion out to lunch.  It was transfers today, so I had been crossing my fingers they wouldn't be transferred.  We took them to Longhorn Steakhouse and it was delicious.  So much fun to see Payton.  Even more fun to text Teresa while I'm at lunch with him!  As we were leaving we were talking about where to go next time.  Mike mentioned that there was a Waffle Love across the street.  They told us they couldn't do that because it was out of their district.  Ha!  That's crazy!  Utah boundaries for you!

Elder Payton, Stephanie, Elder Farnsworth

I know I wrote Payton's first name and Farnsworth's last name, but I don't know Farnsworth's first name and I like calling Payton 'Elder Payton'.

Jorja had a double header today.  Mike brought camping chairs which made everything a lot better!  Jorja played catcher, left field and shortstop.  Mike and I had a good laugh at the generic words on the umpire's back.  "Sports Official"  We liked that.  He is nice and Jorja has fun with him while she is catcher.

Sports Official & Jorja

I forgot to put these pictures in yesterday.  While Maysen and Stockton were at the ballroom competition Jorja was mowing the lawn.  Looks like she was happy about it!

Jorja

Neither Mike or I have green thumbs as you can tell by our crazy bushes.  One day we will figure it out.  Right now we are just trying to keep our heads above water!

Elder Payton

My very, very, very, very good friend from Georgia is named Teresa.  I miss her so much.  She has a boy Maysen's age.  His name is Payton. They were both born in 1997, so they were always in the same primary class.  Maysen met him when he was 4.  Anyways, Payton is now on a mission.  He is serving in the Salt Lake City North Mission (I think). Whatever it is, it is just miles from our house.  I think our house is officially in the Salt Lake City South Mission.  I have been telling Mike for months that we should call up the mission president and see if we could take Payton out to lunch.  I have no idea what the rules are about this.  A few months ago Mike and I went to see Melissa's baby Leo blessed.  The kids went to church without us.  (They all had something they couldn't miss.  For example, Maysen was teaching her Sunday school class that day.)  Payton's mission president spoke in sacrament that day!  I couldn't believe it!  I felt like I missed my chance to find out if we could take Payton to lunch!  Well, a few weeks ago Mike went to the bank to open up a checking account for Maysen.  While he was there he saw Payton's mission president!  Mike started talking to him and asked him if he knew Elder Myers.  He did.  Mike told him we lived next to Payton in Georgia and asked if we could take him to lunch.  His mission president said, "You live close enough, that will be fine."  Yay!!! I have been so excited!!!  We met Payton and his companion at Hires Big H.

Elder Farnsworth & Elder Myers

Mike wanted to take him to Braza Grill, but that is out of his area right now.  Payton told us that his trainer was Brazilian, so he has been to Braza Grill about 50 times already.  Missionaries eat free there.  How cool is that?  When kids eat free the restaurant is hoping to make money on their parents. With missionaries eating free, there is no hope with that.  Just doing it out of the goodness of their heart.  Mike says we need to support that restaurant more often.

Stephanie, Elder Payton :), Mike

Payton's birthday was on Saturday.  We were originally supposed to meet last week.  Teresa wanted me to bring him balloons.  Payton had to reschedule, so I brought him a late birthday present instead. I got him a pound of assorted See's chocolates and a 1/2 pound of truffles.  I also got his companion a 1/2 pound of assorted chocolates because I'm sure he has a birthday sometime too.

I went to diving later today.  I was looking through my phone for some information I needed.  I came across this picture I had randomly texted to myself a few months back.  I have no idea why I did that. This snow is from the snow machine Maysen made with Mike.  Wow.  That was a long time ago.

Payton & Maysen

I texted Josh's mom why we were at diving.  I asked her when Josh was going to come back.  It has been three months now.  She said in the summer with Mike.  I asked if he was ever going to come back to BYU. She said she didn't think so.  That made me sad.  Stockton loves diving with Josh.  It is such a struggle to get to BYU twice a week.  Carpooling made my life so much easier!  Stockton picked BYU 100% because Josh wanted to go there.  We were trying to convince him to go to the U.  It would be closer and Gage and Gavin were going there.  Plus Stockton could ride trax if he needed to.  I have really liked BYU though.  I feel like Stockton has improved a lot.  I just with Josh was with us for the ride.

Leo's Blessing

Derek and Melissa blessed Leo today.  Mike and I went to it.  The blessing was about an hour from our house and it was the same time as our church.  Maysen was teaching a lesson, Stockton had meetings and Preston had primary program practice.  We decided to have the kids go to church without us.  They were all ready when we left.  They walked to church and sat by themselves.  I'm glad that worked out okay.

Leo's blessing was great.  Derek did a good job.  He held Leo up like Simba afterwords.  Leo looked adorable.  We went to Derek and Melissa for crepes afterwords.  Melissa had quite the spread. Everything you could imagine.  They were delicious.

I asked the kids who spoke in sacrament meeting.  I couldn't believe it! Payton's mission president!  Payton is serving in the Salt Lake City East Mission.  We are just out of the boundaries, but Mike's work is in them. I would have asked him if there was any way we could take Payton out for lunch.  Payton is serving around Murray right now.  I can't believe I missed my chance!  (Maysen grew up with Payton.  He was in her primary class in Georgia.  His mom is one of my best friends.)

TERESA!!!

Teresa and her family came over today!  I was so excited!  I miss her so much!  I keep trying to talk her into moving here.  That would be awesome.  Teresa was here visiting her family.  She was able to squeeze in a bit of time to visit us.  I am so grateful for that!  I know how hard it is to visit friends when you are with your family, especially if you don't see them very often.

Before they left, I took a lot of pictures.  Most of them are the same, but I love these guys so much I decided to put all of the pictures here!

Jerome, Teresa, Weston, Payton

 Jerome, Teresa, Weston, Payton, Jorja, Stockton, Maysen, Preston

 Stephanie & Teresa

 Not a good picture of me, but I love it!

I miss you Teresa!!!

Mike wasn't able to make it home in time to see them.  Luckily he had seen Jerome last week when he was in Georgia.  Mike worked his entire schedule around coming to see them, but there was a problem at work and he was unable to leave.  I think that is the first time that has happened.  Too bad it happened today.  I also took Teresa and Jerome up to Mike's old house.  Man the driveway was beautiful with all of the leaves changing colors.  I am going to miss that place.

Changing topics.  I got a letter from the middle school today.  It said that Stockton had been selected as CITIZEN OF THE MONTH.  Yes, it was in all caps.  I was pleasantly surprised.  If I hadn't just gone to conference and listened to most of his teachers tell me how amazing he was doing I would have been completely shocked.  Stockton does not enjoy school and isn't shy about making his opinions known.  I am glad he is able to do such a good job, even though he would rather not be there.  That is quite a good skill for him to learn.