Kate's Wish

Kate's wish was granted yesterday. Her backyard makeover. Jorja was able to be there for the reveal. She was so excited. She has loved this family. I am so proud of her. I am thrilled she was able to have this experience. I sure hope those two girls get healthy. Twins with leukemia. That family has had a rough few years.

Paige, Grace, Jorja, Packer, Bode, Riley, Alex, Kate, Kate's mom

Lisa is in town for a few days and we were able to get together. Mike doesn't get to be together with all of his siblings at the same time. I'm glad Steve and Shannon were able to have everyone over. We just had pizza and played games. It was a blast. I made s'mores, that was our contribution. The college kids were busy dealing with finals and end of semester projects, so we didn't see any of them. It still was so fun. I'm glad this happened.

Steve, Sherry, Mike, Lisa

Bananagrams: Weston, Jorja, Preston, Stockton, Leo, Melissa, Nova, Maysen

Skull King: Lisa, Stephanie, Derek, Jacob, Steve

Jorja took all the kids home in her bug. Mike and I stayed later to hang out with his siblings. It was a nice, relaxing evening. I wish we could do this more often.

Reindeer

A few days ago, Jorja found out that Corner Canyon was doing a spirit night at Zupas the day after Alta was doing a spirit night there. She reached out to the Corner Canyon president and asked if they wanted to do a contest. Something like the sbos at the school that loses paints their face or sings a song. Something mild, but make it more fun. The president never replied to her. Shortly after Sadler sent a message in the sbo chat saying that the Corner Canyon president contacted him about a contest. He literally took Jorja's idea and passed it off as his own. Kind of irritating. Anyway, Jorja told Sadler that she could do a video anytime after 3:00. So, Sadler set up the video at 1:00. Jorja was so annoyed. This was her idea, she is in charge of the fundraiser, and she felt like she was being kicked out. Jorja had plans to go iceskating with her friends. She made the plans over a week ago. I tried telling her that they weren't trying to keep her out, that was probably the only time Corner Canyon could do it. Too bad the president didn't go through her because then she would know that was what was happening. So, Jorja isn't going. Four of the sbo boys are going. She told me she hoped they wouldn't do anything stupid. Welp....that turned out to be a valid fear.

Anyway, Jorja's plans with her friends fell through. Jake refused to go iceskating because he didn't have a girlfriend, so what was the point. The other girls got sad because the boys were being jerks. Jorja came home sad last night because Riley kicked Jorja, Ella and Giselle out of their group chat. Jorja hates that. The boys think it's funny. So everyone dropped out, but Riley still went with Jorja. I was a tad bit annoyed that by being kind of rude to Jorja's friends he was able to finagle a one-on-one date with Jorja. Feeding reindeer and iceskating.

Jorja & Riley

Jorja

I Can See His Face!

I was so excited today when the BYU/Costal Carolina game was announced. BYU is playing in South Carolina on Saturday. Wow! Spoiler alert... it doesn't end well. The hype up to this game was so fun. Wish BYU would have played better and gotten one extra yard.

Preston got a haircut today! FINALLY! He had a haircut at the beginning of August, but it wasn't as short as I was hoping, and was soon in his eyes all the time again. I missed seeing his face! Not a problem anymore!

Dylan and Preston

Preston

Jorja had a spirit night at Village Baker. We stuffed ourselves. Jorja ate with us then headed off with her friends. They went to see the Draper Christmas lights I think. It was supposed to be all their friends, but it ended up being just Jorja and Riley. Oh well, at least they tried. This picture isn't from Village Baker, but it is the only other picture I have. Pretty sure she's in student government.

Ella, Jorja, Vivian

On a side note, Stockton didn't call today. I walked around with my phone by me the entire day, but he didn't call. I wondered if he was too busy. Turns out that he is no longer allowed to call home on Thursdays anymore. Too bad they didn't tell the missionaries earlier so they could let their families know on Monday. Haha. Oh well, it was a great run. He still gets to call home on Monday though! Crazy to think when he left we thought we would only be able to talk to him four times in two years! So glad that changed, so no complaints here!

Up on the Housetop

Peggy sent me this picture of my Grandpa Millburn from when he was on a trip with them in Hawaii. He looks so happy! He was always so funny. Crazy to think he would be 107 now. Grandpa and Grandma Millburn travelled the entire world. They were always traveling when I was growing up. I don't think they would enjoy corona world much.

Grandpa Millburn

Bear

I talked to Rachel for awhile today and it was so nice. I sent her a picture of the progress on her stocking. Not a chance it will be finished in time for Christmas, but it is coming along!

Jorja had a busy day. She had her district meeting which I forgot to excuse her for. I think it is weird they want me to call every month when it was McGill that asked her to go. I had to call later and fix the whole thing. Luckily the attendance ladies are nice and most know me pretty well. Haha. Jorja didn't go back to class when she got back from her meeting. Instead she talked with McGill, the counselors, Miller and Kemp. She has been soooo busy. 

Student government went caroling for the fundraiser today. They were popsicles when they got to our house. They made over $1,000 cash. People also donated using venmo, but Jorja doesn't have access to the account so she doesn't know how much was made. They came over here after for hot chocolate. It is bizarre seeing this many people in our kitchen. Preston and Jack were downstairs. Jack's mom messaged me that she would be there in fifteen minutes to pick him up. They came up for hot chocolate before Jack left. They kept calling it corona chocolate. Haha. Luckily no one got sick. 

Autumn, Bode, Alex and Jorja counting the money

Brenton, Ella, Carson, Riley, Ryan

Ella, Jorja & Giselle ~ and one of the new freshman officers. I think his name is Landon.

Jorja left and went and got some food with a few of the other people. While she was gone, Jordan stopped by our house to drop off five more dollars. He said he went to his friends house after caroling and they made him sing and then gave him five dollars. Haha. Super nice of him to come all the way back here to drop it off too.

Jordan

Noodles and Company

Preston had a doctor's appointment in Bountiful at 8:00. Mike had an eye doctor's appointment at 7:45. When Preston and I got to his doctor's appointment I had a message from Mike. His eye appointment is next week. Hahahaha. He said he didn't know how he got the day wrong, he wrote it down right away... although the 7 an 1 look so much alike and his eyes are so bad he just read it wrong. Funny that it happened with an eye doctor appointment!

Mike got the outdoor video thing working at the cabin. He was excited about that. There has been new snow since we left on Sunday. Hopefully we will have great snow over Christmas.

Ugh. The pictures uploaded wrong again. Whatever Blogger did when they changed everything has been super annoying. It used to upload pictures in alphabetical/number order, then it went by time stamp, then back to the alphabet thing. Today it put all my pictures backwards again. Also, they have made it super hard to move the pictures around...so we will just be talking backwards today.

Jorja had her first fundraising spirit night. It was at Noodles and Company. They gave Alta 50% of their profits from a few hours during the day. Jorja ended up making almost $1,000 towards the Make-a-Wish charity. She was excited about that, and excited that it turned into a big success. She said that Alta hasn't done Spirit nights while she has been there and it took a bit of convincing to be able to pull this off. Nice she was allowed to do these since all of her other events have been cancelled. Anyway, Jorja was excited to see my dad there. That was nice of him to come. Preston ate with Jorja and her friends for a bit. I love that she includes him when he is around. We left Jorja there and she stayed for awhile. She said it picked up quite a bit when we left. Looks like we got there at the perfect time! Jorja took Paige out for ice-cream afterwards. She has fun with Paige and tells me that Paige is exactly like her two years ago. Haha. She must be pretty awesome then!

Paige

Jorja and Paige

I'm guessing PLT. Dessa, girl I can't recognize, Jorja

Bear ate Jorja's sock. Boo!

Dog Bear

There were a lot of eggs for Mike to collect this morning!

I got to talk to Stockton today. He has been out 22 months today. Only two more to go! Yay! Yay! Yay! Yay! Yay! Stockton sent us this blurry video over text, but it is so funny. Man I miss that kid!

Jorja went back to in-person school this week for the first time in several weeks. She went early to school to talk to Packer. Her fundraiser video showed in the advisory classes today, but she wasn't sure if anyone really saw it. She said 33 teachers were absent. She isn't confident the subs would have shown the video. Too bad because she worked really hard on it. She stayed after school to decorate for the fundraiser. They did a Cinderella theme. Kate's favorite princess is Cinderella and her original wish was to go on a Disney cruise. Corona changed that.

Jorja & Riley

Jorja

Riley took Jorja on a date to Build-a-Bear. Jorja got a bear and named him Dog. They also got a small lego Star Wars kit. She didn't have time to finish her Baby Yoda before curfew, so she finished him at home.

Jorja & Riley

Preston

Christmas Past and Present

We had church at the cabin. We talked about priorities and making room for the important things. It was a really good discussion. Zoom church is great. Nice that we can be here and still go to church. This week was the primary program. They had prerecorded it. Mike had it and was able to share the program after the bishop and primary president talked. I was a bit worried we would lose track of time and miss the program. That would have been horrible. There were so many families watching. Would have been so embarrassing if Mike didn't show! The program was cool. They did this mixture of Christmas past and present. Several years ago the ward had the primary record part of the Christmas story for part of a Christmas party. They mixed videos from kids years ago with the kids now. Little Jorja and little Preston were on it. It was so cute! They did a great job on the entire thing.

We were able to leave the cabin pretty quickly after church. I drove Maysen and we listened to the False Prince again. Mike drove the rest of them. Jorja and Preston have spent hours playing together this trip. Lots of Super Mario Bros. They are cute together. Jorja wanted to keep playing games with Preston on the way home.

Giselle, Riley and Riley's sister came over once we got home to help Jorja make bracelets. She is hoping to sell them for the fundraiser. I am so impressed with how hard Jorja is working on this fundraiser, even when most of her events keep getting cancelled. Corona is dumb. What a weird year.

Eclair Rankings

Jorja and I had fun dealing with no water. We managed though. Jorja was at school a lot today. Not for her actual classes, but to work on the fundraiser. She spent a lot of time filming the video introducing the fundraiser. They borrowed a prince costume and had Zach dress up as a prince looking for princess Kate. Kate's mom sent a video of Kate in a Cinderella costume. She was in a toy house and her mom called for princess Kate. Kate came out and in the cutest, sweetest voice ever said, "I'm right here!" It was adorable! Jorja has done such a fantastic job on this. I'm so proud of her!

Prince Zach

After they finished filming the video, student government put up flyers around about the fundraiser. It took a long time because only about six people showed up. They don't usually do this, but it is hard to figure out how to get the word out during this socially distant time. While Jorja was doing that, I hurried to Smiths, Kneaders and Schmidts and bought eclairs. I numbered them and dropped them off to Bubs at Hunter and to my dad for a taste test. They all picked mine as the best. Woohoo! I'm the winner! Hahaha

I got to talk with Stockton today. He hung out with his mission president yesterday. The president came to his district council and then worked with Stockton and Elder Radley the rest of the day. The mission president loves Stockton. Stockton had a great time.

I let Jorja go to Julia's wedding. Julia sent out a thing saying that the governor's mandate didn't cover weddings and she had a list of all the things they were doing to be safe. Julia was Jorja's favorite manager at Chick-Fil-A. Jorja went with Riley. It was at Larkin and Jorja said it was beautiful. I don't doubt that, it is so pretty there!

Jorja & Riley

Riley & Jorja

Ice Bucket Challenge

Jorja worked hard on her fundraiser again. She finished all the folders for student government to take around and talk to the different businesses. These re not even all of them. There are so many! I actually think this is the first half of the alphabet.

Jorja did an ice bucket challenge today. She is starting an ice bucket challenge as part as an advertising campaign to get people to follow the alta.silverush account on Instagram. Her video turned out darling. Not hard, because she is nothing but darling.

Jorja ~ the aftermath

Also... ducks

Current Map

Well... no president yet. It looks more like Biden is going to pull this thing off. This is what the map looks like today.

I went shopping with Maysen today and it was so fun. We went to the kitchen store downtown and then grocery shopping. Pretty simple, but I loved spending time with her.

Jorja had a busy day. She had the student leadership district meeting again. Which means she missed volleyball again. The one day a week she can go to that class. I hope this doesn't come back to haunt her. Jorja has been working so hard on her fundraiser. She stayed after school and talked to Packer. They are trying to plan a Christmas lunch instead of the dance that got cancelled. Ethan is on the committee and just texted her that he got the Backseat Lovers to help. That is exciting! Jorja was super pumped.

Ella, Jorja, Ethan, Jake

Voldemort

Jorja was gone all day. She went to school to help Packer and to work on the fundraiser. Then she went to Kate's house with Bode, Brenton and Dawson. She brought Kate a cute gift basket. (About two weeks later Kate's mom sent Jorja a video and Kate was holding a stuffed Dog that was in the gift basket. Kate talked about how much she loved it. I can't remember what she named it, but it was a super cute video and made Jorja very happy.) Jorja came home for just a second and we ran to the store and got some flowers for Ella. Jorja, Bode and Jake went to Ella's Harry Potter dance show. Ella was Voldemort. I also found out that BYU applications are due Monday. How did I miss this? Usually I'm on top of things, but this slipped through the cracks. There is no way Jorja can get teacher recommendations and interviews with the Bishop and Stake president in time. I'm so sad. I still am trying to convince her to apply, although it will be harder to get in when she missed the priority deadline. Jorja says to me that she has no interest whatsoever in going to that school and that every fiber of her being doesn't want to go there. Still, I want her to apply and have choices. When she sees the cost of the other schools compared to BYU she might change her mind. Fingers crossed she gets the Ambassador scholarship at Utah State. On a side note, Stockton has been out on his mission for 21 months. I miss him.

Jorja

Bode & Jorja

Jorja, Jake, Bode

Ella & Jorja

Bode, Jake, Jorja

Jake, Bode, Jorja

Jake, Bode, Jorja