I'm Not Tickleable!

That is what Preston told me when I asked him to pick up his blocks. Random, but it did make everybody laugh.

Mike had the day off. I love it when that happens! He actually was scheduled to have Tuesday off, but I asked him if he could switch it to Friday. I had two places to be at the same time and no idea what I was going to do about it. Luckily they said that Friday was even better than Tuesday.

Mike and I took Jorja to The Old Spaghetti Factory for lunch today. She had a free kids meal award that she was given when we first moved here. It expires in a few days, so we decided to live it up! We were able to eat in the trolley, and both Mike and I enjoyed our time with the Porge.

Mike took Maysen and Preston to Maysen's orthodontist appointment while I took Stockton and Jorja to meet their teachers. All of their teachers seemed really nice. I think Stockton's teacher, Mrs. Ramey, will be perfect for him . . . I hope. She loves math, although she won't be teaching math to Stockton. She didn't seem to be bothered at all with the fact that Stockton will be late every day because of his math class at the middle school. He won't be too late on Monday - Thursday, just about 45 minutes. But on Friday the middle school has a late start, so Stockton will be at least and hour and 45 minutes late. There were two names on the class list that Stockton recognized. At least he will know a few faces the first day of class. Also Josh is going to be in his math class at the middle school. He lives one street up from us and is in Stockton's primary class. He also is a 6th grader, but goes to a different elementary school. I'm excited Josh was put in the same class as Stockton.

Jorja is officially in Mrs. Wu's class. That is because she has Chinese the first half on the day. She will go to Mrs. Redd's class for English. Every month her English and Chinese class will be switched. Luke and Will are in her class, but Ashley and William are in Mrs. Redd's class. At least Jorja will be able to see them at lunch and recess. I was really hoping she would have class with Ashley.

Jorja & Mrs. Wu

Mrs. Redd & Jorja

Stockton & Mrs. Ramey

Mike ordered a Dominion trophy. He has spent quite a bit of time adding sound to it. As we were playing today, every minute it would say, "All hail Lady Yakama! Current Dominion champion!" Lady Yakama is Maysen's 'name'. We were teasing Mike that his voice sounded like Kermet the Frog. Too bad Maysen won the game again, so she gets to keep the trophy. I got to get it back from her! Wait, I never owned it . . . but I will, oh yes, I will.

Happy Birthday Mom!

My mom would have been 64 today. That is hard to imagine. It would have been awesome. Jorja wanted to make a dessert pizza, so we decided to make this lovely creation instead of cupcakes.

The recipe called for peanut butter, but we put nutella in instead. In retrospect, we should have let the pizza cool a lot longer before we ate it . . . it probably would have stayed together better. I'm guessing I would have liked it a lot better with the peanut butter. I'm sure my kids liked it better this way. Weird that none of them like peanut butter. The younger two can stand it, it just isn't their favorite.

Anyway, it was a lot of fun cooking with the Porge. We ran to the store to get nutella and she wore her apron and hat. So cute.

Jorja

Jorja, Stockton, Maysen, Preston

Mike made the most delicious hot dogs for dinner. He grilled tomatoes from our garden, pineapple and the hot dog of course. It was fantastic. Grilled tomatoes are my new favorite.

After dinner we watched Gnomeo and Juliet. Once the kids were in bed, Mike and I ran to my mom's grave. It was pretty dark, so we took Maysen & Jorja's finger lights. Worked perfect. I carried flowers and a small balloon, Mike carried a water bottle for the flowers. I like being able to run to her grave when ever I feel like it. I wanted to have a picnic at her grave, but that didn't work out. It was very relaxing to lay on the grass, listen to the crickets and look at the stars. Although I would prefer playing Boggle with her instead. I guess I'll just take what I can get.

Frog - Dog - Cat - & Outlet Cover?

I took the kids to a ceramic painting studio today. Jorja chose a frog (surprise), Preston a dog (surprise again), Maysen a cat and Stockton chose an outlet cover. He said we needed one - which is true. We spent two hours there, and the kids were great. I was worried at first, but I ended up being worried over nothing. Thank goodness.

Jorja

Preston

Maysen

While we were at the studio, the middle school called and said they approved Stockton to take math there next year. I just needed to come in and fill out some paperwork. I did that and he now is officially on the schedule. He has the same math teacher as Maysen - just at different times. The plan is for Stockton and Maysen to ride the bus together, then after first period I will pick up Stockton and take him to elementary school. He will be a little late, but it shouldn't be a problem. I hope this works out and is a good decision to do his schooling this way. I guess only time will tell.

I also got Maysen and Stockton's CRT results. They received 4s on everything. I wasn't sure what that meant, because a 4 out of 10 wouldn't be the greatest result. I asked at the office and was told that 4 is the highest. I expected them to score high on language arts and math, but I have no idea how they pulled a 4 out of science. I'm 100% positive they get their test taking abilities from their dad.

Maysen and I made dinner for Bubs & Ange today. We made macaroni & cheese, stuffed peppers (thanks Stouffer's), and a fruit pizza. We spent the most time on the pizza because it was fun. I wish I had taken a picture of it, I even mentioned this in the car as we were driving up there. Just now when I was looking for my camera, guess where I found it . . . in the car. I am very intelligent.

After stopping at Bubs', I wanted to take the girls to Red's Yogurt. I remember loving it when I was in high school. We followed my gps to their location, but there was no yogurt store. I guess I have to update my maps. We decided on Iceburg instead. Jorja got a cookies & cream milkshake. She didn't like it because there was a slight peanut butter flavor. I asked at the counter if that was normal. They made her another one. She got mint and HATED it. She said it tasted like toothpaste. Oh well. You win some, you lose some.

Walk Through

Maysen and I were able to walk through her school today. We had her schedule, her locker & combination number and a map. At Maysen's old school, they received their schedule on the first day, and their lockers at the end of the first month. Let me just say that I like this way better. We also found out that they have a pizza option every day. Stockton is going to be jealous! We have a few more things we need to do before school starts, but we are getting there. My main task is to figure out Stockton's math. I talked to the Vice Principal of the middle school today. I had Stockton's CRCT results from 4th grade (perfect score) and his AI test from earlier this year. I don't have his CRTs he took this year yet. I called and asked if they could send them right away. Hopefully I'll have those results soon, but I would prefer to know what options I have as soon as possible. I guess I'll just wait and see....

Park City

Wow! Today was long and wonderful. It started off kind of weird though. Mike had spent several days getting rid of the rocks and weeds that border our grass and the street. He then put a weed blocking tarp (or something like that) down and filled this space with bark. It looked much better. Today when we woke up, almost all of our bark had washed down the street. Not just a little way down, it was scattered four or five houses down. Great.

But we couldn't worry about that today. First, Mike dropped Stockton off at diving while I got Preston ready to go to my dad's house. We then gathered the girls and went to pick up Stockton. I was hoping we would have time for them to watch him dive, but we were too late. Although when we got there, some of the college divers had put a mini-tramp on top of the 10-meter platform. That was CRAZY to watch!

Stockton got changed and then we were off to Park City. We had bought a Groupon awhile ago for unlimited use of the Ultra zip line and the Alpine slide. We also had fun going through the Olympic museum. It's crazy that Jorja wasn't even born when the Olympics were in Salt Lake.

Stockton and Maysen both said they liked the Alpine slide better than the zip line. I did too. The zip line was fun, but it wasn't as scary as you would think. It really was a gentle ride. Mike and I rode the Xtreme zip line. Too bad the kids didn't weigh enough to go on that one. Still not scary, but you do go fast. It's fun to hear the wind in your ears as you fly down the mountain. Mike said Stockton was really cute on the first ride up. He kept saying how much fun this was.

We also enjoyed watching the ski jumpers practice into the pool. There were little kids jumping into the water off of a small ramp. It looked like a lot of fun. I bet it is hard to swim to the edge with the skis. Stockton said, "Too bad you always have to land feet first."

We ended the day with a short trip to the outlet mall. I was hoping to get new crocs for the kids, but they were too expensive. In Georgia, I was able to find them at the outlet mall for $5. They had $5 crocs here too, if you had a size 14 foot. They were huge! We ended the trip with a visit to Maggie Moo's. I went next door and got a Jamba Juice instead. I don't think I have ever been there.... We did have a wonderful day, and it was nice to spend it with the kids doing something a little bit different then our normal routine.

Mike

Stephanie

Maysen

Stockton

Jorja

Maysen

Stockton

Jorja

Stephanie, Stockton, Maysen, Jorja

Maysen, Stockton, Jorja

Maysen

Stockton & Jorja

Maysen & Stockton

Stephanie & Jorja

Jorja

Stockton & Jorja

Jorja & Stockton

Maysen

Once we were home we played Dominion. Yesterday we let Stockton pick all the cards for Dominion....then Jorja got a turn, so today Maysen got to pick her favorite cards to play with. We then watched an Amazing Race while we waited for my dad to bring Preston home.

Preston had a fantastic day! My dad wore him out! He played Nintendo 64 with him, took him to the aquarium, McDonalds, and a bouncy place. Preston was wiped out when he got home. He said he had a super-fun day. He then wanted my dad to come in and play Mario Kart Wii. Preston told my dad he would go easy on him. A few games later, Stockton wanted to play. Preston said, "No, that won't be fun. Stockton will win." Preston let him play anyway. We also played Wario Ware before my dad left to go home at 9. I am so glad Preston had such a wonderful time. My dad mentioned that maybe he should spend a one-on-one day with each of the grandkids. Sounds like a great idea to me! Preston felt so special!

What a day! Mike and I ended it by trying to clean up some of the bark that made it down the street. We are about half way done. Hopefully we can get the rest cleaned up tomorrow. I think I am exhausted now.....

Do You Love Me?

When Mike got back from his mission but before we were married, we started doing a "secret code". Mike would squeeze my hand four times (do you love me) I would squeeze back three (yes I do) he would squeeze twice (how much) then I would squeeze his hand as hard as I could. Now every time one of us taps four times on anything, we know what that means. For example, if Mike taps my leg four times under the table he ends up with a giant kick to his shins....pretty harmless, right?

Well, now Jorja has figured out our secret code and wants to squeeze our hand every night before bed. She also comes up to Mike and gives him four quick hugs. When he squeezes her hard at the end she'll say, "Hey! No fair! I could still breathe!" She has also taught this secret code to Preston and he wants to do it all the time as well. Sometimes he gets confused. For example, Maysen came behind him and gave him four quick squeezes. He reached behind and gave Maysen three quick hugs around her neck. Maysen gave him two squeezes, then Preston pulled her hair and squeezed her face as hard as he could. Not quite the right idea. Anyway, Jorja and Preston wanted to do the secret code all through church. The people who sat behind us probably thought we were very strange.....

Speaking of church. Maysen gave a talk in sacrament meeting. She didn't tell me. I did figure it out before we went there. This morning when we were playing Dominion, Maysen made a comment that she was stressed. I kept asking her what she was stressed about. Mike would say, "Don't worry about it Stephanie, she's okay." I dropped Maysen off at her presidency meeting before church and came home and asked Mike what was worrying her. He said, "She wants it to be a surprise, but it's nothing bad." I said, "All I can think of is she would be giving a talk in church." Mike said, "I'm not going to say either way." I just stared at him because I knew he would laugh if he was trying to get out of telling me something. Finally he couldn't take it anymore and said, "You're so mean!"

Maysen planned the talk all by herself. Mike didn't help her at all. Her talk was on faith. I thought that was funny because her first talk in sacrament meeting was on faith. Maysen did really well and gave her talk with only a few notes. It is so hard to do it that way, I am glad she tried it - and she did a fantastic job. Many, many people came and complimented me on Maysen's talk. I loved the quote she started with. It is by Trina Paulus. "How does one become a butterfly? You must want to fly so much that you are willing to give up being a caterpillar."

I have many caterpillar traits that are hard for me to give up. I'll have to focus on them more so I can learn to fly. Thank you Maysen. You are amazing.

Grandpa Flips Out

My dad and Cathy, Max and Mia, Bubs & family, Matt & Sam, Grandma & Gayle, and "the cousins" came over for lunch today. Three of my dad's cousins were in town. Peggy, Jane and Sally. I remember my dad always referring to them as the cousins - I also remember him saying their names as fast as he could. Anyway, today was really fun. The cousins brought sandwiches from Blimpie, my dad brought pizza from Little Caesars and all sorts of drinks - including spa water. He had lemons and cucumbers sit in this class container over night. Then he put it in the box, full of water, and brought it to my house. That thing was heavy! I can't believe he didn't drop it on his foot!

We had a very pleasant and enjoyable afternoon until Jane realized her flight was booked for 6 AM instead of 6 PM. Oops. Luckily Peggy was able to talk Southwest into letting Jane on their flight. I'm glad it worked out, it was really nice to spend the day with them. Sad if Jane had to already go home.

Dad

Bubs & Abigail

Gayle and Grandma

Ange is the only one who would put sunscreen on my dad's back.

Grandma & Peggy

Sam & Matt

Gayle, Jane & Grandma, Peggy, Sally

Grandma, Jane, Peggy, Sally

Jorja

My dad's flip! Love it!

I told Maysen and Stockton that today they needed to be social. Didn't work. Maysen said, "Mom! I need to write! Don't you understand?" Nope. Can't say that I do. In the history of my life I have never felt the need to write.

After my dad and the cousins left, we played Dominion. We had a lot of people so there were two games going. Lincoln really knows how to play that game. We started a Pirate game with Maysen, Mike, Matt and I after the kids were in bed. Matt won the game in a Sloop! Seriously! He never got out of a sloop, but had a ton of money....his last turn he attacked a merchant and came up with enough to win. Crazy.

Today was such a great day. I am so happy that I live in Utah again and can enjoy my family more than twice a year!