Finished with the Cider

Today was officially fall break. Mike was planning on going to the cabin tonight, but changed his mind. Mike and Preston are going to leave first thing in the morning. I am happy about this plan. Mike finished all the apple cider for the year. The final total was in the 50s. Nice.

First Zoom

We were able to go back to church today for good! Sort of. We are going to have sacrament meeting every week at 1:00. They asked that everyone tries to make it 50% of the time. They don't want to assign weeks, just try to come according to each families' schedule. We aren't supposed to have more than 100 people at one time, I think. Mike is in charge of doing the zoom for sacrament meeting, so we will be there every week. Right now we do the sacrament meeting with the actual sacrament at the end. The zoom feed is turned off before the sacrament and those watching at home are asked to do the sacrament in their house. The zoom feed went pretty well. There were a few hiccups. Mike didn't see the mute all button and there was one family who didn't mute themselves. Which wasn't a big deal until the wife started to do the dishes during the prayer. Haha. Today was also fast and testimony meeting. Mike got up and shared his testimony. It was really good. He talked about dog racing and how the most important thing is to hold on. That is how life feels like right now, sometimes you just have to hold on. Anyway, it was really good and so nice to be back.

We spent a lot of the day working on cider. Good Sunday activity. The only pictures I have of today are from Jorja's phone. She had a picture of her Ella and Giselle from sometime this week, and her collage of the week picture.

Jorja, Giselle, Ella

Maysen's 23rd Birthday

Maysen is getting old! Holy cow. I'm sad... and happy... and proud of her... Anyway, this morning Jorja got up bright and early to take the ACT an Juan Diego. I spent the morning baking Maysen's cake. Maysen spent the morning connecting with her online friends. She is a mod at a website called Creature Crossing. She released a huge event this morning, so she has had fun watching people enjoy that. Mike spent the morning picking apples. We were able to borrow Al Clark's truck that allows Mike to get to the high branches, but we didn't want to keep the truck too long. I was helping Mike back up when he was finished. I looked carefully at a stump with the back tire, but then got distracted by a branch. I didn't want to truck to get scraped up, so I worried about pulling that out of the way. The front tire hit the stump and the tire immediately went flat. It was awful. Mike looked up the tire and it is a $600 tire. Mike looked around some more and ended up finding a used tire that would work for $150. Al said that would be just fine. Mike is going to go get that taken care of Monday morning. 

View from Al's truck

Mike's duck pond

Jorja called us around noon to let us know she was done. We met her at OHP for breakfast. She had gotten us a table, so the wait was pretty short for us. That was nice. We had delicious crepes for breakfast and were stuffed to the brim. Maysen and I watched a few episodes of Avitar when we got home. Then Maysen played a computer game with the other kids. They did that while I watched the BYU football game. That was nice of them! Maysen wanted to do a birthday craft of making terrariums. That was also Jorja's gift to her, getting the supplies. Maysen loved doing that!

Preston and Maysen

Maysen & Mike

Maysen wanted to go roller skating, but the terrariums took a lot longer than we thought they would. Everyone was so tired when they were finished that we decided to go roller skating another day. We finished the day with presents/cake and ice-cream. My dad came up just in time. He was able to watch Maysen open her presents and blow out her candles. He was also with us when we read a chapter in The Book of Elder Smith. He thought it was hilarious. He is right.

Jorja, Maysen, Bear's head, Mike, Preston's foot

The big present is Maysen's mixer she chose. The smaller present is from Preston. It is a tennis ball launcher. He thinks she will have fun using that with Bear. I do not know why Jorja is eating chips and guac.... Maysen's favorite cake is a plain cake. Yellow cake with chocolate frosting. That is what she asks for every year. I did stop by Cold Stone and get some cake batter ice-cream. I got sparkler candles and she thought that was ridiculous. Haha. Oh well...

Kind of blurry picture, but I love Maysen's smile

Preston's Pie

Last night I made Jorja put everything she needed for school in her backpack. Today, I asked her again if she had everything. I told her I didn't want her to call me and I have to run to the school and bring her what she forgot. Welp... of course she forgot something. Today is Gabby's birthday and she was supposed to bring a KitKat for her. She told me if I didn't want to do it she could ask her teacher if she could leave math early. Why would I want her to leave math? Still, kind of annoyed that she forgets things so often. This is why she should write things down! I couldn't find the spare key to Jorja's car, so I just put the candy bar on her tire and sent her a picture.

Preston had dinner today. He asked if he could make an apple pie from the apples on our tree. I picked up pizza and Preston and Mike made pie together. It was super delicious.

Preston and Bear

Preston

Stockton's friend Ryuhei received his mission call. I sent these pictures to Stockton. I thought he would be interested.

Jorja asked if she could go and ask Jake to the Halloween dance tonight. She texted me around 8:30 to say that they just got the stuff at the store. They are going to go kill someone in assassin and then ask the boys. An hour and a half later, they are still trying to kill the person in assassin! Jorja called to tell me that she was going to be late because their car was blocking off Kenzie and Kenzie refused to get out of her car so she was stuck. I was annoyed. I told her that was fine, but she wouldn't be able to go to breakfast tomorrow like she planned if she was too late. Jorja found someone to take her to her car she left at Walmart and then made it back home. She will have to ask Jake tomorrow. I'm glad she has friends, but I get annoyed with how much time she spends out and about. She needs to remember to do her homework, her family and most importantly, she needs to get sleep! I think that is the biggest thing that will help her eyes. This time last year we were worried she would be going blind. I don't want to press our luck!

Indiana

I had a dentist appointment today. While I was waiting Gavin's mom came in for her appointment. That was kind of fun to wait with her. My brother Mike's friend is my dentist. I asked him if he saw the Dodgers game last night. He didn't. He asked if I saw the Yankee/Indiana game last week. I about died laughing. (Except I didn't laugh, I just smiled. I was laughing so hard inside though.) He was telling me about the grand slam, but every time he said 'Indiana' instead of Indians. I didn't correct him, but I thought it was the funniest thing I had heard in awhile.

I took the boys diving today. While I was there Hailey's mom called. I haven't been able to get ahold of her for the last few days, so I was excited that she called me. I went outside and talked to her. She said Jorja could stay with their family while we are in Australia. I'm so happy! Jorja is going to have the best time with Hailey. What could have been a miserable experience will now probably be one of Jorja's favorite memories. I feel much better now.

On the way home, Stockton got this text from Maysen with the caption, "Can you guess which slice is mine?" Haha! I laughed so hard. Today has been a good day for laughing.

Mike was in the middle of making cider when I got home. Becky, his friend from work, came over. The missionaries stopped by too. Apples spray everywhere when they are put in the garbage disposal. It's kind of fun, but also surprises you. I don't think Sister Hutchinson was expecting that.

Sister Argo & Sister Hutchinson

 Sister Argo

 Becky

 Jorja & Becky

Jorja told Shay she would catch for her during her pitching lesson today. Matt borrowed my car, so I ended up taking Mike's car to diving. His car had all of Jorja's softball stuff in the back. Whoops. Luckily Mike found his mitt, so Jorja used that. I would have felt awful if Jorja had to bail on Shay at the last second.

I also got my haircut today. My entire family makes fun of me for not noticing things. Not one of them noticed I got my haircut. The first thing Sister Hutchinson said to me when I walked in the door was that my haircut looked nice. I told her she was the first one to notice. She was surprised because I cut off quite a bit.

Mike stayed up late dancing with Jorja and joking with Stockton. I love, love, love it when they have fun together.

Bananas and Apples

Mike's dad stopped by this morning. We don't get to see him very often, so it was great having him come over. I woke up Jorja so she could see him. She went right back to bed after he left. Stockton and Preston were already up. Luckily he came before Stockton left to the Bishop's house this morning.

Today was our primary program. I talked Mike into helping me get Mr. Banana ready to teach today. We did this once before. I thought it would be a perfect day for this because after the program, they would need something fun like Mr. Banana. I was up on the stand before sacrament meeting with my class. Andi turned to me and started jumping and squealing and said, "Your husband brought Mr. Banana!" They were so excited. Dane and Kortney both went home after sacrament meeting, so I just had my original three in class today. I love this picture. I love how serious Natalie is with the wand and how Andi's face is lighting up.

Natalie & Stephanie

Alex & Andi

One time Mr. Banana said my name. The girls couldn't believe it. "How does Mr. Banana know your name?" I should have had Mike program their names into the lesson. They would have been shocked to pieces. I love the innocence of these kids. The rest of the day was spent with apples. Preston and I were having a contest to see who could get our apples chopped first.

Preston & Stephanie

Jorja wanted to make some apple dessert thing. I asked her to make this for me on Friday. I brought it to our apple party. She wanted to make it again, since we had so many apples. She made a few plates and dropped it off at Hailey, Evan and Isaac's house.

Jorja being a nut

Jorja didn't know if she should drop a plate off at Isaac's house because she thought it might be weird. She decided to do it anyway, because she would have done it if they had never even started liking each other. While she was at his door I was watching the the Dodgers/Cubs game on my app. Not watching like seeing the video, but just seeing what was happening. Like "swinging strike". Anyway, Jorja came back right as Turner did..... something. I knew it was a hit, but was waiting to find out what happened. Walk-off homerun! WOW! I was so excited. Jorja thought I was weird. I will probably always remember being on the side of the road in front of Isaac's house when that happened. Kind of annoying because I don't remember lots of things anymore, but I'm sure I'll remember that.

Apple Press

Preston and I had the primary program practice this morning. As we were walking there we saw Issac Bingham drive by. Mike had asked him what he was going to do with all the leftover apples from his cider party. He was looking for a way to get rid of them. Mike volunteered our house. This year was supposed to be an apple year for our trees, but we didn't get many. I don't know if that is because of the early frost or from the trimming we had done in the spring. Anyway, Isaac gave us plenty this year.

Apples from the Bingham's

We spent most of the day making apple cider. Preston LOVES it. He loves everything about apples. I have never been an apple juice fan, but pure apple juice with nothing added to it is just delicious. I have boring pictures to document how we spent our day.

First, rinse the apples ~ we figured one sinkful makes 14 jars of cider

 Second, cut apples and get rid of gross parts. No picture of that.

Third, put apples through the garbage disposal station ~ loud, but Preston loves it.

 The apples come out like this.

 Mike has some kind of mesh bag catching the apple goop.

 Fourth, tie up the bag.

 Fifth, put the bag on the press station with a wood circle thing on top.

 Sixth, have a bowl to catch the deliciousness.

 Mike stacks about five mesh bags with wood circles in-between them.

He uses a car jack to really get the juice pressed out.

 Preston loves catching the juice as it is running down.

Stockton, Preston, Mike and I went outside to pick whatever apples we could find from our tree. We were out there longer than we anticipated. Mike had jars of apple cider boiling on the stove to can them. When we came inside the smoke detector was going off. The smoke was everywhere. At least we didn't burn down our house.

Preston pretending he is Joseph Smith seeing a vision.

You can't see all the smoke here, but he made us all laugh.

 Burnt jars. Boo.

My dad came over today. Mike and I are going to Australia in a few weeks. My dad was going to sleep at our house so the kids wouldn't be alone. He came up to tell me he didn't want to do that. He will be close to his phone and the kids can text him if there was a problem, but he wanted to sleep in his own house. I don't feel good at all at leaving Jorja home alone. I'm not worried about the boys, but Jorja has never done well if I'm gone for a long time. Mike and I were talking about what to do. Mike came up with the idea of asking Hailey's mom if Jorja could stay with Hailey. I love that idea. Not only does Jorja adore Hailey, but Hailey has such a calming influence on Jorja. I really hope Melanie (Hailey's mom) says yes. I'm not sure what to do if she says no.

Speaking of Hailey, Jorja spent the day at a DFY conference. Day for Youth. She has been excited about this for a long time. It was a conference with all the stakes in our area and the Lone Peak stake. There were speakers, musical guests, a service project, dinner and a dance. Jorja went with Hailey. They didn't get back until midnight, but Jorja was pretty happy when I picked her up from Hailey's house.

Hailey and Jorja

I talked with Jorja until about 2:30 in the morning. She seems to be the most talkative late at night. Usually I am sound asleep at this time. I went to bed early today and had a few hours of sleep before I picked her up, so I was able to stay awake with her tonight. We talked about lots of different things. I told her that I thought it was important for her to date lots of different people when she turns 16. She said, "I know, it's just that that means Isaac will date other people and that makes me sad." I told her that she needed to let him do that. She said, "I just hope that he doesn't ask (girl's name that I don't want to say), she is so pretty. Sometimes I wonder why he even likes me." Really Jorja? It's not like you are some charity case. Another example of how oblivious Jorja is.

I actually talked to Mike a lot today about sending Jorja to Holly. Holly was Maysen's therapist, and I love her. I think Holly would be able to help Jorja a lot with her anxiety. The sad thing is Holly is no longer at the same place I took Maysen. She has started her own clinic in Bountiful. Great for her, sad for us. I don't think I want to commit to driving up to Bountiful, even though I would love for Jorja to meet with her. 

Short side note. A few weeks ago I was walking with Becky and she was talking about Isaac (her son) and his girlfriend named Lauren. I asked if it was Lauren Mitchell. It was. The name just seemed so familiar. I had no idea why I knew it or where I heard it from. It wasn't until a week later that it dawned on me. Loren Mitchell was my best friend my first year at college. That made me laugh so hard. I haven't thought about him in years. I remembered he was studying psychology, so I looked him up. He practices in Utah. Mike thinks it would be weird to have Jorja go talk to Loren. I go back and forth. He was so nice to me in college and I know how kind and understanding he is, I think he could be great for her. Mike thinks it would be better for her to talk with a girl. Maybe, but Jorja feels more comfortable around boys. Anyway, not sure what I'm going to do. I think Jorja would benefit greatly with having someone trained help with her anxiety and panic attacks. She doesn't get many, but wouldn't it be great to not get them at all?

(I just realized that I talked about three different Isaacs in this post. Who knew that name was so popular?)

Numb Mouth

I had my cavities filled today. Luckily Fabrizio was the one to do it. As he was sticking the needle in my mouth he said, "I wish your brother was doing this part." When he got his hand out of my mouth I said I would have kicked him! I did not like that at all. My lips and tongue was numb for several hours. My bottom lip felt really dry. I kept trying to lick it but it felt like I couldn't get my tongue to work. I looked in the mirror and my tongue was halfway to my chin, I couldn't even feel it! I tried to drink water out of my water bottle, kind of a straw thing. Didn't work out so well.

We had a tree guy come and look at pruning our apple trees. They were supposed to come at 8:00 this morning, but didn't show up. I called at 10:00 and left a voice mail. He called back. He felt so bad. He remembered talking to me, but the appointment didn't get into the system. He came over at 7:00 tonight. He was really nice. It is going to be expensive, but the tree branches are out of control and we don't want our trees to die. They are going to come and do the trimming on April 6.

Cider and Pumpkins

We have a lot of apples!  What to do with them?  Well.....Mike and Preston worked on the apple cider press today.  Mike still wants to stain it, but right now it is functional.  The apple cider was delicious and so much faster to make than with the food processor.  That is how we did it last time.  The kids like it better because there is less bits.

Mike's newest contraption

Mike and Preston

The apples go through a garbage disposal and are caught on a mesh rag thingy.

Mike ties up the mesh rag thing and puts them at the bottom of the laundry basket he cut off.  This time he tried it with only one rag, but he really wants to have about four different rags so he can do a ton of cider at once.  Once in this contraption you press down.  Not as Preston is doing here, but with a car jack.  That really makes the juices flow!

Preston

 Mike & Preston

 The final product

 Preston approved

We headed down the street for the annual pumpkin and chili party.  I love it when someone else takes care of dinner!  Usually someone else does because I'm horrible that way.  Stockton decided to carve Gargamel as we were walking down there.  He did a great job!  He even won 2nd place.

Stockton

 Jorja & Katlyn

 Stockton with a glowy jacket

 Much better.....Stockton with Gargamel

Stockton won a bowl, towels, pumpkin spatula, pumpkin bread mix, Halloween chocolate chips and a harvest bread tin.

Stockton with his loot