Jorja Smurf

Mike and I went to the bank today.  We needed to sign some papers for the cabin and have them notarized.  We also wanted to wire the money to Idaho.  Well, turns out our home equity loan went through.  The bank said that we had already used all of the new loan.  What?  We now owe an extra $190,000ish and have no cabin.  Luckily Mike has made sure he has talked to the same lady every time.  We sat there as she tried to find the money.  I could hear her say, "I know they haven't accessed this yet.  Where did it go?"  That was a little disconcerting. Anyway, the lady assured us that she will find the money and they will be able to wire it tomorrow.  Kind of scary how easy something like that could happen.  I was just talking to Maysen this morning about things like this.  She found a news article where Verizon charged someone two million dollars for his account that was open for a month.    Her statistics book had an anecdote about someone who was charged over four quadrillion for a subway ticket.  Wow!  That must have been some ride!

My scouts and I finished up the Spirit of the Water adventure.  Then they got to play around in the pool.  It was nice because Burke was sick last week and so disappointed that he missed scouts.  Nice he could come and swim one more time.

Jorja had her last softball game today.  Her team name was the Smurfs. Her friend Katlyn came and watched.  That was sure nice of her.  Mike and all the kids were there as well.  Jorja got to pitch the first inning. She did great for her first time pitching.  I love how she wants to try every position.  Catcher is still my favorite position to watch her play.

Jorja  

After a predetermined number of batters, Jorja switched with Addison who was in the outfield.  Jorja doesn't like the outfield very much.  This is the first game she played out there this season.  She also played shortstop today.

Jorja was up twice and got two great hits!  Her first hit she got in a pickle between first and second base.  Saturday she told me that they were supposed to practice getting in pickles, but they ran out of time. She was disappointed because she wanted to try that.  Today she got her wish.  She even survived and ended up on 2nd!

 Jorja raising the roof on 2nd base

 Coming home

 Praise from Preston

 Jorja ~ second time up

Jorja is so sad to see the softball season end.  She loves, loves, loves it.

Primary Program

Preston had his primary program today.  For the first time in a long time I only had one child participating.  Jorja was very happy about that fact.  The program was great.  The kids knew all the songs.  The only thing I was disappointed in was Preston was on one side of the chapel and we were on the other.  I thought we would still be able to see him, but when the kids stood up Ava blocked my view.  Every once in awhile I would catch a glimpse of Preston.  He looked like he was singing his heart out.  I wish I could have watched him the entire time. I'm going to have to remember that next year.  Find out where he is sitting and sit there.

Today went by pretty fast.  Maysen, Stockton and I went to choir practice after church.  I told them if they participated in the choir I wouldn't make them take music lessons anymore.  They haven't enjoyed choir so far.  Hopefully it gets better.  It is nice to have one less thing to do during the week.  Although it made today pretty crazy. Maysen had a missionary prep class and Mike and Stockton had a stake priesthood meeting.  We managed to catch a glimpse of the blood moon before bed, but today was pretty hectic.  Busy, busy, busy.  

Jorja Pitching

Mike and I went to the temple early this morning.  We were asked to be the witness couple.  We spent a lot of time in the celestial room just talking.  It was really nice.  We came home and watched the BYU game. Well, I watched and Mike slept through it.  That was not nice.  That was a horrible, horrible game.  Jorja had softball practice today.  Her last one.  She is so sad.  When I came to pick her up she was pitching.  I had never seen her pitch before.  She did pretty well for her first time. She loves trying out all the different positions except outfield.  Outfield is not her favorite.

Jorja

Jorja and I met Mike and the kids at Chuck-a-rama.  Scoop and Cori had given us gift certificates there for Christmas.  At least I think it was for Christmas.  We never had a chance to go before today. Thank you Scoop and Cori.

Preston had a birthday party to go to.  It was at a place with laser tag and arcades.  Preston came home with a fake security camera.  He loves it.  I asked him how many tickets that cost.  A lot.  How did you get so many tickets?  He hit the jackpot on a game and earned 1,000 tickets. When Preston told me he hit the jackpot I heard Stockton yell, "Of course he did!"  Stockton thinks Preston is the luckiest person alive.

Maysen, Jorja and I watched General Womens Conference downstairs in the movie room.  It was really good.  It was also really nice to watch it at home.

Apple Cider Press

I had a meeting at the school about Maysen's high school graduation and college applications.  This is crazy.  I wonder what her life is going to be like a year from now.  Starting a new chapter in our lives.  I'm not ready for this chapter to end.

Our neighbors invited us over to a apple cider party.  He bought a cool cider press and we got to try it out.  They ordered a giant crate of apples.  Megan and I washed the apples and brought them to the press. Mike and some friends used the press.  Mike was very impressed.  The cider was so delicious! They are planning on doing this every year. Sounds like a fun tradition to me!

Special Needs Mutual

I was asked to lead the music for the special needs mutual.  I was asked a few days ago.  Sister Murphy said she would call and talk to me.  I hadn't heard anything, so I texted her about it today.  Was I supposed to wear a dress?  Was it at the stake center?  Those kinds of questions. I'm glad I asked because it was not at the stake center, it was over by Buttercup park.  I was supposed to wear a dress because it was in the chapel.  She asked me to text her a picture so she could send it to Jill. Jill is the piano player and she wanted her to find me.  Sister Murphy told me she usually leaves her house at 6:30 and gets the numbers in the chapel changed.  I got a little turned around finding the chapel, but I did find it.  I sat in the front of the chapel for awhile hoping Jill would find me.  She never did, so I finally went and changed the numbers. When I finished a man in a scouts uniform came up to me and told me I was in the wrong place.  I told him I was filling in for Sister Murphy. He said that the Young Mens and Young Womens were not combined today.  It only happens a few times a year and today was one of them. Of course.  I was embarrassed even though I did nothing wrong.  I wasn't sure where to go.  I wandered around looking for where I should be.  I heard someone say they were meeting in the chapel.  I said that I had just been kicked out of the chapel, so I didn't think the Young Women were meeting in there.  They went and asked and found out that we were meeting in the chapel.  I did not want to go back in there. I stood by the door for a long time hoping Jill would find me.  Soon the scout guy that had kicked me out saw me.  He said that he guessed he was wrong and we were meeting together.  Finally I saw a lady walking up to the piano, so I figured that had to be Jill.  I went up and talked to her.  She tried to introduce me to a guy who was walking by, the same scout guy who kicked me out.  He said, "Oh, we've met."  Yep.  Anyway, I was leading the first song in the chapel, right where I was supposed to be.  Two special needs kids came on the stand while I was doing that.  I didn't notice them right away.  I didn't notice them until I hit one of them in the face and one in the arm.  Oh my gosh.  I was so glad when that was over!

Stockton went with Josh to diving.  Allison took them to the store to get measured for their suits.  Looks like Stockton is going to have to break down and get a speedo.  They are required to wear team suits and warm ups.  Josh loved diving today.  Stockton didn't like it as much. He liked it the first time he went to BYU, so hopefully he has a better experience later.  Goodness gracious, this has been so stressful.

BYU for Diving

Jorja had a softball game today.  She sure loves it.  She played catcher and 2nd base.  The girls are allowed to steal home now, and Jorja did a great job keeping them in line.

It looks like Stockton will be diving at BYU now.  Josh checked out the U yesterday and didn't like it much.  Stockton has friends at both places, but once in awhile we will get to carpool with Josh.  One problem is, Josh moved.  He only lives a mile away, but he is in a different stake.  His Young Mens is now on Wednesday.  Josh can't go do diving on Mondays because of piano and Wednesdays because of Young Mens.  Stockton can't go on Tuesdays because of Young Mens. It looks like Stockton is going to try for Wednesdays and Thursdays. I'll need to take Stockton every Wednesday.  Thursdays I'll be able to switch off with Josh's mom.  It sure is going to be a lot less convenient than just going to Cottonwood.  I think they are going to take practices more seriously too.  Stockton will progress a lot faster, I hope he has just as much fun.

American Ninja Warrior

Stockton got to play American Ninja Warrior for Young Mens today. Seth had set up an obstacle course around the gym.  Some things required strength, some balance.  Stockton was the only one to complete it, and he was able to do it twice!  I tried it.  I made it past the first obstacle, hopping across the room on chairs of different heights.  I fell when I tried to swing on the rope from one table to another.  I'm not a ninja.  Stockton is.

Spirit of the Water

For scouts today we worked on the Spirit of the Water adventure.  We talked about water safety, exercise and I had them practice doing a rescue.  I had the boys jump off the diving board and swim to the other end of the pool.  They are supposed to swim 25 feet.  Most of the boys are on swim team, so this is no problem.  The rest of the time they just got to play.  The boys loved it.

Jorja had a softball game today.  She loves softball.  Scoop and Cori came to the game.  Cori took pictures, which is nice because I keep forgetting to bring a camera.

Jorja as catcher

 Jorja as first base

 Jorja as batter

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.)

Stake Fair

Mike has been working a lot of our stake fair that was held today.  He managed to get an extra internet box put in the cultural hall for this event.  There was a huge family history thing going on.  No one had any problems with the internet, so that was a win for Mike.  We came inside for a drawing.  We had one ticket for our entire family.  We saw a lady put in a bunch of tickets.  Oh well.  Stockton was holding the ticket.  I laughed and said, "We won't win for sure with Stockton holding it." Stockton is not a lucky person.  Stockton quickly handed the ticket to Preston.  Preston is a lucky person.  Anyway, Preston won the prize! He was pretty excited.

The fair was pretty fun.  They had water games, pie eating contests, bouncy houses, all sorts of games with prizes, hot dogs, a car show. The list goes on and on.  There were some pretty fancy cars there.  I think Mike took pictures of some, but I forgot to get them.  I had to take Jorja to softball practice.  I hurried and dropped her off so I could get back to the fair.  I convinced Matt and Sam to bring Anne up here.  We had lunch.  I sat next to Alex Boye.  He is not in our stake.  He said his family comes here every year because they like it so much.  How fun is that?

Sam, Anne, Matt

 I had fun taking pictures of these guys as they were walking away

Anne loved the bounce house.  At first she didn't want to go in.  I climbed in there with her.  She jumped and jumped like crazy.  We went down the slide twice.  She was not happy at all when it was time to leave.

 Anne

 Inside the church there was this giant tree picture.  It was pretty cool.  I took a few pictures of it.

 Top of the tree

 Middle of the tree

Jorja had a friend come over today.  Her name is Katlyn.  They had a great time.  They took off on scooters.  The only problem is we had no idea where they went.  We are not use to any of our kids leaving to play around the neighborhood.  It's good, we just need to get use to it.  Mike and I drove around until we found her a few streets up.  They had found Melissa.  Melissa was Jorja's stand partner in orchestra and she really likes her.  Melissa came back to our house with the other girls. They decided they wanted to do a snow cone stand.  Melissa brought a cooler that they filled with ice.  They made a sign and stood on the street corner for an hour.  They managed to make $6, which was quite impressive because it was pretty cold.  We had to track them down and tell them it was time for Katlyn to go home.  Jorja came with us when we dropped her off.  We hurried back, dropped Jorja off and then Mike and I headed to Steve and Shannon's house.  They have Fox Sports 1, so we were able to watch the BYU game with them.  It was a great game until the last three minutes.  It would have been amazing if they could have pulled it off.  Oh well.  This is now two games in a row that Mike has watched the entire game.  I can hardly believe it!

State Fair

Maysen only had her vet class today.  They had a field trip to the state fair.  Maysen was pretty excited about going.  She had never been before.  I don't think I have either.  I was thrilled that this field trip was on a day she didn't have her other classes.  It's nice not to have to make up work later.  Maysen seemed to have a lot of fun.  She was a little nervous when they were leaving.  Most of the kids were on trax, then their teacher stepped off right as the door was closing.  I guess he realized not everyone was there, so he needed to find the others.  The kids left on trax were stunned.  Anyways, she made it back to her high school just fine.  I picked her up there and then took her to the scrub store.  Her scrubs we had ordered for her were in.  She was really glad to have them.  She will need to wear them every Tuesday and Thursday. Tuesday she just wore the top.  Her teacher laughed when he saw her.  She didn't do her matching very well.  I still thought she looked cute.

I took Stockton, Jorja and Jazzie to the temple today.  They didn't have school.  A lot of people seemed to have that same idea because we were there for two hours.  When we finished I stopped by the house to pick up Preston and took the kids to Chick-Fil-A.  Jazzie stayed most of the day.  Jorja was so happy about that!  My dad brought pizza and we watched Max tonight while my dad was at dinner club.  Days off are fun.

Calendars

This was weird.  Maysen has no school for the vet program today, but she goes to her high school today.  Tomorrow she doesn't go to her high school, but she has her vet program.  Maysen's vet program is in a different school district, so she goes there according that districts calendar.  I asked Shannon why they don't have school on Thursday but they do on Friday.  Shannon said that the 10th graders are taking the PLAN test today.  Okay, that makes more sense.  Our school will do that next month.  The 10th & 11th graders will need to go, but the rest of the school gets the morning off.  Maysen had a pretty easy day.  Early morning seminary.  Then home for a long time.  Physics, then back home.  Statistics for her night class.  Weird day.

I picked up Maysen from early morning seminary and dropped her off at the temple to do baptisms.  I told her to make sure dad saw her so he would bring her home.  Mike works in the baptistry every Thursday morning.  He didn't know Maysen was coming.  Mike actually saw her as he was walking out.  He went back and got changed so he could baptize her.  Maysen thought that was really nice.  I'm glad they passed each other so she wasn't stuck at the temple all morning.

Mike and I went to the bank and signed papers for our new loan.  We should be able to have the money to buy the cabin by next week. We filled out the paperwork for the official offer on the cabin today. Exciting and scary at the same time.  We signed the offer with a sparkly pen.  Well, the ink wasn't sparkly, just the pen was.

Mike

 Stephanie

Walk in Their Shoes

We ordered some of Maysen's graduation stuff today.  Cap and gown etc.  Weird.  Mike finally had his root canal.  I really hope this stops his pain.  I took Stockton and Josh up to BYU for diving.  They are trying to decide which program to go to.  Josh wants to go to BYU.  I'm hoping they pick the U.  It will be so much easier for us to get them to the U. Josh likes the coach better at BYU.  I really like Stockton and Josh diving together.  I'm not sure what we are going to do.  Both of the boys seemed to like diving today.  They did conditioning for about an hour before they even got in the pool.  I thought Stockton would hate it, but he didn't seem to mind.  One thing, if they choose BYU they are going to be in great shape.  They tried to go to BYU yesterday.  Josh's mom drove them.  They were gone about thirty minutes before they turned around.  Traffic was so bad.  I hope that doesn't happen often.

I missed Jorja's softball game because I was gone with Stockton.  This is the first game I missed.  I don't like that.  Mike said Jorja did great and had a lot of fun.  Not surprising, she is still loving softball.  I took the girls to Young Womens.  It was stake standards night.  The speaker was great.  She teaches nursing at BYU and once a year takes her students down to Guatemala to do service.  My favorite part of her talk was actually a video she showed.  It was put out by The Cleveland Clinic.  There was no talking.  Words came on the screen talking about how you don't know what people are going through until you have walked in their shoes.  It is really good.  If you want to check it out, here is the link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cDDWvj_q-o8 That is my first time trying to put a link in my blog.  Not 100% sure if it will work.

Preston's Pinewood Derby

It rained so hard today.  Rain like this was common in Georgia.  I tried to take a picture to text Mike.  The road kept flooding over.  Luckily all of the water stayed out of our house.

There was a parent meeting at the middle school for the Chinese Immersion kids.  They showed us their current pathway plan.  It looks like Jorja will have a year and a half of Chinese again next year.  I thought it would be down to just one class period.  Hopefully we won't have the same problem with her orchestra.  At the meeting they talked about the field trip to China they are hoping to take the kids on.  That sounds crazy!  They want to take the kids to China at the end of their 8th grade year.  They are basing it on schools in Oregon.  If they follow Oregon's plan, the kids would spend 10 days in China after their 8th grade year and one month in China after their 11th grade year.  Wow.

Maysen came with me to the Chinese meeting.  We had to leave a little early in order to get Maysen to her statistics class.  Mike helped Preston get to the pinewood derby.  I was late, because I needed to bring Maysen home.  That's okay.  The pinewood derby guy was still talking about rules.  Thirty minutes he talked about rules.

 My family is sitting across the way

 Preston LOVES his puppy!

 Preston

These next two pictures were blurry.  I put them on anyway.  Preston's puppy got second in the race.  He was so surprised.  He thought his puppy would be really slow.  He said, "That wasn't supposed to happen!"

Preston

Mike let Preston record the races on the GoPro.  Preston LOVED doing that!  He followed almost all the races with it.  Sometimes he would run with the cars.  He had so much fun!

Preston with the GoPro

 Preston's reaction after taking first!

 Mike and Preston

 Mike was asked to pull the lever for every race.

 Griffin...also, look how cute Jorja is.

 Preston liked to wag his dogs tail at the end of each race.

Preston ended up taking 6th overall.  He was very excited with how his puppy raced.  He had such a fun day.

Making the Dog

My brothers and I have been playing Beat the Streak.  It is a game where you pick one or two players to get a hit during their game.  If they get a hit, you get a point.  If you pick right 57 times in a row you win 5.6 million dollars.  MLB.com has been doing this for several years and no one has won.  (Joe DiMaggio's hitting streak lasted 56 games. That is the streak we are trying to beat.  Except we are not playing.  We can pick any player on any day.  My brothers are pretty impressed with DiMaggio.)  Anyway, my previous best was 4.  Then I got on a roll.  I really wanted to beat Brett.  His longest streak this season was 20.  I got to 21!  Then I messed up.  I picked Bryce Harper.  He didn't get a hit on his first at bat.  Then he was injured in the outfield and out the rest of the game.  Boo!  I couldn't believe it!  Luckily Lorenzo Cain also didn't get a hit, so I didn't have to feel too bad. It was fun while it lasted.

Mike and Preston have been working on Preston's pinewood derby. Preston wanted his car to look like a dog.  Mike was pretty relieved that he didn't care about winning.  Took a lot of the pressure off. Preston did most of the work himself.  Isn't he adorable?

Preston

 Preston wanted me to get the spray in the picture.  I tried.

 He's so happy!

 The finished product.  Preston is in love!

Michael's Farewell

We had a special stake conference today.  Elder Neil L. Anderson spoke.  Not Neil A. Anderson like we heard him referred to twice today. Once by the stake president when he was introducing him.  He spoke about the last days of L. Tom Perry and Boyd K. Packers life.  It was interesting to listen to those stories you don't usually hear.  Nothing crazy, just simple stories.  Like after conference last spring Elder Packer told the other apostles that that would be his last conference.

We came home from conference and grabbed a quick snack before we headed over to Michael's ward to listen to him speak.  He did a great job.  Lisa and Nathan will have both of their boys out on missions pretty soon.  It's going to be weird having Michael gone.  Especially weird because he is only two months older than Maysen.  How could Maysen be that old?

We hung out at Lisa and Nathan's house for awhile and ate lots and lots of yummy food.  They always do such a great job hosting things. Nathan says he's not looking forward to being an empty nester. Neither am I.  At least I have more than a decade before I reach that mark. 

BYU Plays Boise State

My family came over for a swim party today.  I invited everyone I could think of that lived in Utah and who is related to the Parrys.  Except I didn't know David's new wife lived here, so I missed that one.  Besides Bubs and Matt, Heather is the only one who came.  Oh well.  She is the only one who usually comes.  At least I tried.  We had a great time though.  I wish I had some pictures to post, but I was in the pool most of the time.  We played a game of Dominion with Matt.  Zac won the first game and Heather won the second one.  Or it might have been the other way around, but they won both of the games.  Matt was not amused.

Mike recorded the BYU/Boise St game for me.  We started watching it after the kids went to bed.  What an amazing game!  I wish Stockton had watched this one with me.  Mike stayed up for the entire thing!  He even watched the entire game!  I don't think that has ever happened before.  What a finish!  I can't believe BYU won with another Hail Mary!  Just when you think it can't get any better, BYU gets a pick 6! So, so much fun!  Sam was at that game.  Lucky!

House, Scrubs, and Swimming

Our house is sparkly clean right now.  I love it!  We had house appraisers come this morning.  We need to borrow some money from our house in order to buy the cabin.  We never had our house appraised when we bought it almost five years ago.  The guy said he could come out and do it, but the land alone was worth the price we were paying for our house.  The appraisers asked us if we had done anything to our house since we bought it.  (They asked us this over the phone.)  I started listing things and was surprised at how much we had done. New kitchen with new cabinets and appliances.  New floors through the entire house.  New windows through the entire house.  Completely redid the upstairs and downstairs bathrooms.  Awesome painting in the girls room.  Cool wood paneling in the boys room.  Moved the laundry and made it a room instead of a hallway.  Added a door to the pool bathroom.  Made a small shed out back.  Made a pool shed to cover the pool equipment.  Redid the pool wall.  New pool lining, pool cover and winter pool cover.  Replaced all of the old pool equipment (heater, filter etc.)  Put an intercom system in the house.  Wow.  We have done a lot. Hopefully the appraisal comes back with good news.  We won't know until next week.

I took Maysen to the scrub store after school.  She needs scrubs for her vet class.  They have to be a solid color and they can't be orange. Apparently her teacher hates orange.  I thought it would be super easy to get the scrubs, but it ended up taking forever.  She finally found some that she liked.  She chose a pretty green color.  She was able to take the shirt home today, but the pants have to be special ordered for her.  Even when they do come, we might have to hem them anyway.  I wish I was more handy with the sewing machine.

Jorja organized a little get together with some of her friends.  Natalie, Kate, Katlyn and Hailey all came over.  They had pizza, played games and went night swimming.  Jorja ran in dripping wet and asked if I could turn the pool light on.  It was pitch black outside.  Mike was in extreme pain, so I went to get the light plugged in.  It's pretty easy in the daytime.  It took me forever to find the cord.  I finally went and found a flashlight, that worked much better.  Jorja was so happy today. I'm glad she was able to have such a good day with friends.

My Dad is 72

Today is my dad's birthday.  I took him to Bruges for breakfast.  They just opened one really close to his house, so that's fun.  The waffles were pretty yummy and filling.

Stockton had a diving meeting at the University of Utah today.  We weren't really looking forward to that.  It was odd, so we knew something was up.  Stockton's coach, Mike Tuckfield, has decided to quit coaching diving.  He is going back to school to get his administrative degree.  He introduced us to Ted Everett who has agreed to coach the boys.  We will just need to drive them up to the U. Josh doesn't want to dive at the U.  He wants to dive at the Y with Tyce. I don't know what we'll do.  Both are far away.  This is going to make our lives much more complicated.  I know we are not going to quit diving.  We just have to figure this out.

Mike took Maysen to her statistics class tonight.  Jorja went to Young Womens.  They had a combined activity where they put the flags up for the healing field.  That was such a great activity last year.  We did it just with the beehives.  I was glad they did it with everyone this year.  Jorja was the only one who was able to go in our family.  I asked her how the activity was.  She started crying.  She says she doesn't have any friends. Maysen kind of laughed at that.  She whispered to me, "How can she say she doesn't have any friends?"  I don't know exactly what happened or why Jorja feels this way.  I wish I was still in Young Women's so I could figure this out.  I texted Kristen and asked her if she was there. She wasn't.  She went to the Young Women's volleyball tonight.  That explains a lot.  Jorja usually comes home sad when Kristen isn't there.

Anne and Softball

I watched Anne today.  She is a lot easier than she was a year ago!  I kept her awake until I went to get Maysen at 12:30.  I didn't want to have to wake her during her nap.  We went inside the high school so she wouldn't fall asleep in the car while we were waiting.  Anne loved walking down the steps and up the ramp in the cafeteria area.  She was excited to see Maysen.  She sang a song about Maysen the entire way down.  Later Sam told me that Anne asks to sing the Stockton song every night before bed.  They sing, "Stockton loves Anne very much". Then Anne will say, "Jorja!" so they will sing, "Jorja loves Anne very much".  They sing whoever Anne says, but she always starts with Stockton and then goes to Jorja.  This is the song she was singing on the way to pick up Maysen, but she was only singing about Maysen.

Jorja had a softball game today.  Scoop and Cori came and watched her.  That was really nice.  Jorja got a really good hit and got two RBIs to end the inning with the 'too many run' rule.  She played second, first and catcher today.  She still really loves softball.

Mike and a few other people rewired the stake family history center tonight.  Hopefully that will solve a few problems they have been having.  He was glad to get that done. 

Our 20th Anniversary

Today Mike and I celebrated our 20th anniversary.  I feel so lucky.  I have no idea what I did to be so blessed, but I'm very grateful.  Anyone who knows anything about Mike knows how lucky I am.

Mike & Stephanie

Mike stayed home from work today.  He finally had a dentist appointment!  He has a cracked tooth and will need a root canal.  I can't remember everything that is wrong with Mike's teeth.  I know his allergies have been a part of some of the pain.  Hopefully they will do an excellent job on the root canal and that this will solve all of his pain problems.  Wouldn't that be wonderful?

Maysen had her statistics class tonight.  She drove Mike and I to her class.  We then waited for her at the Village Inn across the street.  Not a super fancy place for an anniversary dinner, but it was close to Maysen's class and this is where Mike gave me a diamond heart ring before he left on his mission.  Well, it was at the Provo Village Inn.  He also pretended to propose to me at a Village Inn.  He thinks he's hilarious.  He ended up officially proposing to me by the rock we are standing next to in the above picture.

We are (hopefully) doing something amazing for our 20th anniversary. For our 10th anniversary we took our three kids on a cruise.  They randomly had an entire week off of school in September.  Our anniversary was right smack dab in the middle of it.  That was fun. This time we are most likely going to be able to do something better. We are in the process of buying my Grandpa's cabin.  My Uncle John needed to sell Grandpa's cabin after he died.  Well, Uncle John owned more of the cabin than Grandpa did.  We were hoping to go in on the cabin with other family members.  Maybe own 1/6th of the cabin.  No one else (but my brothers) wanted to go in with us.  We then started talking to my brothers to see if they would help us pull this off.  All of them were willing to contribute some, but three of them live far away and rarely get to the cabin.  It didn't make sense for them to put their entire inheritance from Grandpa in.  Mike and I started talking about trying to buy the entire thing ourselves.  We are working on the financing right now and think we will be able to do it.  My brothers might take the money they are going to get from the sell of the cabin and buy some 4-wheelers or snowmobiles.  Mike and I definitely won't have money for toys for awhile!  We told the kids, "New college plan.  You all get scholarships!"

This cabin means so much to us.  My little family had two favorite places in the entire world.  The cabin and Mike's childhood home. Mike's house has been sold and demolished.  We couldn't bear the thought of losing the cabin.  We figure if the cabin becomes too hard financially we could always sell it.  Then we would know we tried everything we could do.  Our kids are really excited about it.  All of them wanted us to keep the cabin.  Maysen says, "It's the last place of my childhood."  Crazy that she's right.  It's also the last place of my childhood.  When our kids are married and have kids of their own, how cool will it be to say, "Your great-great grandma spent a lot of time here.  She loved it."  The cabin was a sanctuary for my brothers and I after my mom died.  It was a place where we could be together and felt like we belonged.  My mom loved it here.  I love that.  Anyways, keep your fingers crossed for us!  We feel like we are making a good decision. Logically it doesn't make a whole lot of sense, but it feels right.  I hope it feels that way because it is the right thing to do, not because I want it so badly!  I guess only time will tell.  I'm so glad Mike loves this place as much as I do.   

Cleanup

We spent today working around the house.  It is nice to have an extra day with Mike home.  Jorja and Preston made butterfinger cookies. The only problem was Jorja makes cookies from memory.  This time she accidentally put too much butter and shortening in them.  It didn't affect the taste, but I could just feel the cookies sticking to my ribs.

Mike was able to con Matt into helping him take our big, giant pool heater out to the street.  That thing is so heavy.  Tomorrow is the neighborhood cleanup day.  Mike and Matt were able to get it there with a help of a wheelbarrow.  That is a great thing to have checked off of our list!

Dinotrucks

Today was kind of a relaxing day.  Except for the fact that Mike was in extreme pain the rest of the day.  I really hope the dentist can figure out what is wrong.  We let the kids (Jorja and Preston) stay up late. Preston really, really, really wanted to have a Dinotrucks marathon.  I have no idea why.  We let them have one tonight.  I have never seen Dinotrucks, but I could hear lots of laughter coming from the three youngest kids.  It's the little things that make them happy.

Miracle at Memorial

I started driving home around 7:00.  Usually I start driving earlier.  I was up earlier, but the wind was blowing like crazy.  I was too nervous to drive for awhile.  We made it home shortly after my dad dropped Jorja off at softball practice.  He was surprised to see us so early.  We are hoping to get a lot of work done on the house, so we were anxious to get home.  We spent most of the time working on the computer room.  We hadn't gone through everything since the remodel when that room because the stuffing room.  Mike also got the kitchen looking sparkly.  We took a long break so I could watch the BYU/Nebraska game.  What a game!  Stockton watched the entire thing with me.  I LOVED that!  Mike was in the room for the entire game, but slept through most of it.  (His tooth is causing him incredible pain.)  Mike did watch the fourth quarter with us.  What an ending!  So exciting! Too bad Taysom Hill is out for the rest of the season.  Talk about completely different emotions.  Watching that game made me very glad my kids don't want to play football.  I couldn't believe how many injuries there were!  I do love to watch BYU play though.

David's Wedding

My cousin Tammi's son was married today.  We were planning on bringing the entire family.  Jorja really didn't want to miss softball practice.  I texted my dad a few days ago and said, "Do you want to have a sleepover on Friday?  Everyone will be here, except Mike and I." That worked!  Mike and I headed off to Idaho in the motorhome.  My dad and Max came around 4:00.  Cathy brought up pizza for everyone later.  My kids had a great time.

Mike and I had a great time at the wedding as well.  It was outside right by the falls in Idaho Falls.  Really pretty.  It was fun to talk to lots of different people in my family.  Mike and I have some pretty exciting plans we have been working on.  It was good to talk to John & Renee, Steve & Sharon, Terry & Rozie and a lot of other people about them.  I forgot to bring my phone so I was unable to take any pictures.  Too bad, because it really was pretty.

After the wedding, Mike and I went to Sizzler and then started the drive home.  We only went a little way and pulled over at a truck stop near Pocatello.  The motorhome makes traveling really easy.

Stains

Mike had two giant presentations to give at his work today.  He won a hundred dollars for having the most voted on presentation.  He thinks they went well.  I would explain what they were about, but I have no idea.  Even though I have been told multiple times.

I had a dentist appointment today.  When I was there I asked if Mike could get an earlier appointment.  He has one scheduled for the end of the month.  He has been in almost constant pain for the last three weeks.  He keeps thinking it will go away, but it never does.  He has gone to dentists about this in the past, and has gone to an ear/nose/throat specialist before.  Sometimes the pain is in his ear.  He has had a root canal done, but nothing seems to help.  It's frustrating because it comes and goes, so he never knows how long the pain will actually last.  This time it has been awful.  He woke up at 4 in the morning completely miserable.  He carries around pain pills with him everywhere he goes.  The dentist can't get him in until Tuesday.  Made me wish Mike (my brother) lived up here, or that the practice we go do was set up like his.  Their practice is open until nine at night (or something like that) and it is open on the weekends.  I hope they can help him.  I haven't been too impressed with the dentist.  I have had bonding done on my front teeth.  My front tooth was chipped when I was seven and fell off of my bike.  The bonding is great, but after awhile stains creep up on it and it is impossible for me to get them to go away. My dentist in Georgia was great and would file down my bonding and redo it.  Mike has even done that for me when I went to New Mexico. This dentist leaves them stained.  They have told me I could get veneers.  They even gave me a quote.  After insurance it would be over $2,000.  Long story short, I wish New Mexico wasn't so far away.

Lunch

I was so lucky to be able to go to lunch today with my friends.  All of our kids are in school now, so you would think it would be easy to get together.  Not so.  Jacqui, Becky, Jenny and I all met at Cafe Trang. These were the ladies I served with in Young Women.  It was so great to talk with them.  Jacqui and I stayed until her kids car pool dropped them off where we were at!

Mike and I went and watched Jorja play her softball game today.  The other team was really good!  Jorja was able to get two outs.  Once when she was catcher and once when she was on second base.  She also got a base hit.  After the game she told us she liked her team because they have a lot of fun.  It is always funny to see her dancing and raising the roof on 2nd base.  They have a cheer that goes, "Hey you!  On two!  Do the wiggle wiggle!  Hey you!  On two!  Raise the roof a little!"  I can't believe my super shy girl is out there dancing!  It is awesome to see her so happy!

Once I Was a Beehive

Jorja went to see the movie Once I Was a Beehive for Young Womens. She loved it.  She has started to be really outgoing.  It is so great to see. Thinking about Jorja reminded me about curling her hair.  She asked me to curl it for Sunday.  I put socks in her hair Saturday night.  It made it slightly curly.

Jorja

She wanted it curlier though, so we broke out the curling iron.  I have never curled either of my girls hair, so this was a first.  Ange and her sister Karen came to visit us when we lived in Washington, before Jorja was born.  They left their curling iron at our house.  I keep trying to remember to give it to Ange, but I'm so forgetful.  Anyway, I luckily had Ange or Karen's curling iron to use.  I should have taken a picture after we finished.  Jorja looked pretty cute.  I wish I knew how to do girl things.  I wish I knew how to teach my girls to do girl things.  I just don't get it.  Luckily Maysen and Jorja like me anyway.