Physics Table

As soon as I got home from dropping off Stockton I had a text from him.  He had left his binder home that had his calculus homework and all of his signed disclosures.  He asked if I could bring them as soon as possible.  I hurried down there.  Stockton hadn't replied to my texts, so I wasn't sure where to meet him.  I knew where his calculus room was, so I went there.  The teacher was in the middle of a lecture and Stockton is in the front row right in the middle.  I was worried I would interrupt the class or embarrass Stockton if I brought it to him.  I waited outside the classroom out of the view of the students while I tried to figure out what to do.  After I was there for five to ten minutes I saw Mr. Miller.  Stockton had him for math last year.  He said hello and I asked him if he could give Stockton his binder.  Yay!  Stockton told me today that he is really liking Mr. Palmer.  Mr. Palmer taught calculus at the school when I went there.  I wish I would have had him. I have heard that people will change into this school district just to have him for calculus.  Anyway, Stockton said that Mr. Palmer explained the why of the math today.  He had just learned formulas last year and had no idea how they worked.  He said that it all made sense now.  Hopefully this will be a great year for him.

I took Maysen to her one class today.  We stopped at the store first and got some cash.  Maysen had a physics fee and Stockton had a chemistry fee.  I figured I might as well go in with her and pay the fee for Stockton.  The school was on assembly schedule so we had a bit of a wait before class actually started.  I walked with Maysen to class.  Her physics class is right next door to Stockton's chemistry class.  I went and talked to Stockton's teacher and dropped off his fee.  I just figured I might as well do it that way since I was already at the school.  I stood outside Maysen's physics class and watched for a bit.  Maysen was sitting at a table in the front center of the classroom.  She was the first one in the class.  I watched as all the students filed in and sat anywhere other than Maysen's table.  To the point that people were standing in the back of the classroom.  Maysen looked so cute and tiny sitting there.  I saw her wave and smile at a few people.  I finally walked away. I was so angry.  Why would no one sit next to her?  Not even next to her, but just at the same table?  Sometimes I tend to 'blame' Maysen for her lack of friends.  I think that she has a wall put up and doesn't even try.  As I watched her I realized this wasn't true.  She was making eye contact with people and being pleasant.  It's just that no one wanted to sit by her.  My heart broke.  Five years is a long time to go without friends.  Maysen has done great despite this, but five years is a long time.  I don't think Maysen even remembers what it was like to have friends.  How can so many people walk into this class, see someone sitting alone and choose to keep it that way.  Especially when there weren't enough seats for everyone!  Maysen had told me this had happened on the first day.  I kind of said, "Maybe people just didn't want to sit in the front?"  When I watched today I realized it was more than that.  Maysen said she wanted to make a joke and say, "What am I ..... a negatively charged ion?"  But she couldn't remember if that was scientifically correct and she didn't want to be wrong.  I talked to Maysen about this when I picked her up from school.  She said today wasn't as bad.  After I left a few people came and sat at her table.    This child has such a good head on her shoulders.  I am so lucky she is mine!

Mike and I started watching Stockton's other French movie.  It is called Les Choristes.  That one is in French with English subtitles.  It is so much better than the other movie.  We are planning on finishing it tomorrow.  Hopefully we will end up liking the entire thing.

Disclosures

I know what I'm going to be doing for the next several days...... 

My friend Megan contacted me yesterday.  Her daughter, Zoe, is in Maysen's early morning seminary class.  We worked out a carpool, so that will be nice.  Although we still haven't figured out what we are going to do for Maysen's vet program, so everything might change.  At least I won't have to take her tomorrow.

I had to give permission for Stockton to watch two different French movies.  I looked them up on IMDb.  I'm nervous about them because they are both PG-13.  Mike and I watched the first one on Netflix tonight.  It's called Chocolat.  It was in English, but set in France.  It was also incredibly boring.  Stockton's going to hate it.  We didn't like the premise of the movie.  Mostly it is a knock against organized religion.  It's not a horrible movie, but there are a few parts I would rather Stockton not have to witness.  Stockton didn't want to have to read something and write a report about it later.  I asked him if he would tell me when they are going to watch the movie because there is a certain part I would rather him turn his head from.  Hopefully he will have advance warning.  Most likely he'll fall asleep far before that part anyway.

First Day of School

And so we begin...... I got Maysen up bright and early at 5:00.  Her internal time clock is completely messed up right now.  She had to hurry and get ready so she could leave by 5:45.  She is doing early morning seminary this year.

Maysen ~ 12th grade

While she was gone we got Stockton and Jorja up.  Mike gave each of them a father's blessing.  I was able to go back to the school and pick up Maysen before I needed to leave with these guys.  This is going to be a crazy year figuring out how to get everyone to the places they need to be.

Stockton ~ 10th grade

 Stockton was very glad

this is the last year I will make him hold up fingers.

 Jorja ~ 7th grade

 Haha!  I get a few more years to torture this one!

 Jorja's school project ~ a banner about herself

Mike gave Maysen and Preston a father's blessing after the other two left for school.  I'm grateful Mike is able to do this for them.  I think lessens the kids anxiety as they start a new school year.  We had to hurry to get Preston out the door.  I drove him down the street so he wouldn't miss the bus.  We didn't make it.  The bus is suppose to pick up the kids at 8:20.  It drove away at 8:15.  What's up with that?

Preston ~ 3rd grade  

 Many years left of torturing!

He does his threes weird.  Although that might be the

official way to do 3s in sign language....(?)

 My babies!

It's weird that this is the last year of regular life with them.  I hope it doesn't go by too fast.  I'm going to miss having them all live under the same roof as me.  Maysen got to hang out with me this morning since her vet program doesn't start until Monday.  By hang out I mean she wrote stories on her computer.  Maysen only had only one class at high school today.  She will be taking a night math class at the college campus since they dropped the class she needed.  Still annoyed at that.

Jorja had her first softball practice of the season today.  She was so excited and happy to see her softball friends.  Although there is one girl who is not playing this season that Jorja really, really wanted to play with again.  That's too bad.  We got back pretty late for a school night. Mike made the kids scones for dinner.  Happy, happy children!

Airports, Airports, Airports

Nikki and Kelsey dropped us off around midnight.  We took the red eye back.  Again, everything was open.  I stopped by a store and bought a spoon rest that said Alaska on it and a chocolate chip muffin I planned to save for the morning.  Our flight was about thirty minutes late. JetBlue boards the back of the plane first.  This is where we were. While people were still boarding there was a drunk old man.  He was probably in his  late 80s.  He couldn't talk without slurring his words. He called the stewardess over and asked for a beer. She told him that they couldn't serve beer now.  She brought him a water.  That made him mad.  He said, "I don't want water, I want beer!"  He was pretty loud.  The stewardess told him he was welcome to get a beer in the bar, but he couldn't get one here right now.  He was kind of excited about that and said, "Really?  And I can get back on the plane?"  No.  Of course you can't get back on the plane.  The entire plane is going to sit and wait while you go drink beer at the bar?  Finally someone came on the plane and talked to him.  She said, "You are not going to be served beer at all this entire flight.  Do you understand?  No beer."  He wasn't happy about that.  This guy was one row behind and on the other isle from Maysen and I.  It was extremely bizarre to listen too.  Especially since we don't have experience around drunk people.  Also, I don't know how much his age played into this.  Anyway, I guess his grandson was on the plane.  His grandson was probably in his 50s.  His grandson sat down in a huff and whispered/yelled at him.  "STOP TALKING!  STOP TALKING!  I'M BEGGING YOU, STOP TALKING!  YOU'RE GOING TO GET US THROWN OFF THIS PLANE.  PLEASE, PLEASE STOP TALKING.  @%&*@ STOP TALKING!"  Then he would slap his leg really hard and I was worried that he was hitting his grandfather.  It was extremely uncomfortable.  Finally someone behind me said, "Could you please not use that language?  I have kids with me."  That made the grandson really angry and he yelled, "Do you see what I'm dealing with?"  The guy said, "I still have kids with me and they don't need to hear that language."  The grandson says, "Oh right, like they haven't heard that before."  He was such a jerk!  Then he went back to whisper yelling at this grandfather.  This went on for about thirty minutes.  Finally they asked them to leave.  The grandson gets up in a huff.  Turns around and swears at the guy who asked him to watch his language and stalks off the plane.  The tension was so thick.  The stewardess were talking to the family guy and he said, "The old man wasn't the problem, it was his grandson."  That is true.  The old man was a little crazy, but the grandson was ridiculous.  I'm glad we didn't have to ride the plane with him, but I sure felt sorry for the old man.

Eagle at the Alaska airport ~ for Jorja  

Well.....our plane didn't make it on time.  We just barely missed our connection.  It took me a bit to figure out where to go to get help.  By the time I did I was the last one in line.  Oh boy.  All the flights were booked and we just had to sit and wait it out until the lady could get to us.

Maysen at the Long Beach airport

There were two men who had gone fishing.  The lady wanted to get them home tonight since they had all that fish.  Their option was to fly to Arizona, then to San Francisco, then to Utah.  That sounds enjoyable.  Another girl in front of us was able to get home with two connections.  There was a group of 5, one of them was very pregnant.  They were able to get back as well but had to take two flights.  Most people they talked into staying the night.  There was a father and son (the son was my age) that was in front of us.  They finally decided to stay.  They didn't want to wait all day in the airport and then told they had to stay.  The people who stayed were given a hotel room and airport food credit.  They had to pay for their own rental cars if they wanted to do anything.  I REALLY didn't want to stay the night.  The kids all start school tomorrow.  I wanted to get Maysen back for that and I wanted to be there on their first day.  Anyways, after waiting forever the lady comes out to talk to us.  She said she got us on a flight today.  We were going to have to fly out of the Ontario airport (apparently that is an hour away) but the flight would be nonstop.  Yay!  I was so happy I hugged her.  Maysen said the lady looked at her like I was crazy.  I didn't care, I was so happy.  She gave us a food voucher and told us to go eat and then come back and she would give us the transport.  We had to go back through security to get the food.  I forgot I had water in my bottle.  I wanted to keep the bottle so they had me go outside, dump out the water and go through it again.  I was escorted by security the entire time.  We got some food and sat down by the father and son we had been talking to.  I can't remember their names, but they live in West Jordan.  The son reminded me of Casey Cole.  They couldn't believe it when they found out we were getting home tonight.  I showed them our ticket and that is when I noticed we were flying to Oregon.  What?  We were leaving at 10:00 and arriving at midnight.  I told them that I was sure she said we would leave at 4 from Ontario and it would be a nonstop flight to Salt Lake.  They pulled out their tickets and discovered they were going to Oregon too.  What?  It took us awhile to figure out they just gave us those so we could get through security so we could eat.  That was a relief!  Anyway, we came back to where the lady told us to meet her.  That is when we heard our names.  Jackson and Chelsea were at the airport!  They were on a JetBlue flight to Salt Lake.  I told them to expect a full flight because there were a ton of people who couldn't get on it.  The lady came to talk to us and said that the flight we were on was messed up.  They put us on a nonstop flight for tomorrow.  Yikes!  She said to stay here and she would see what she could do.  I introduced her to Jackson & Chelsea.  "These are my cousins.  They are flying to Salt Lake on JetBlue and offered us their seats."  She laughed at me and walked away.

Maysen, Stephanie, Chelsea, Jackson

We waited for awhile until the lady came out and said she got us on a nonstop flight out of LAX.  It would get into Salt Lake around 10:00 at night.  Yay!  Twelve hours after we were supposed to be home, but at least we will get back in time for school!

Maysen

Not only did she get us on the flight, but she got us in first class.  Fancy.

First class didn't seem much different than economy.  My orange juice came in a glass.  They had bananas and Halloween size Twix in the snack basket.  I would have much rather gotten home on time.

Maysen in first class

Mike was waiting for us when we got there.  The kids were asleep when we got home.  I am so glad we finally made it!  We left Alaska almost 24 hours ago.  I'm so tired!  This is not how I wanted to spend the last day of summer.  It is also not how I wanted to spend my mom's birthday. I'm just glad we are safely home.

Bears

Nikki and her girls took Maysen and I down the Turnagain Arm to Chugach National Forrest.  Maysen kept making fun of me because I kept calling it 'that finger thing'.  Finger....arm....what's the difference? It was raining when we arrived at the visitor center so I decided to leave the fancy camera in the car and just use the cell phone.  I tried to take a picture of something, but my camera ran out of batteries as soon as we walked inside.  It might or might not have been because I was checking Instagram every three seconds.  Literally.  BYU dropped their box today in New Mexico.  I wasn't sure if Mike would notice when they did, so I wanted to take a screen shot and text it to him.  My phone was dead before the box dropped.  When I got back to Nikki's and was able to charge it I saw a ton of messages back and forth from Mike and Brett.  Mike tried for the box and missed it by one minute!  Oh man! There were tons of cool things in there too.  A Taysom Hill jersey and a signed picture of Taysom jumping over the Texas player were two of the things.  Mike would have loved it.  It makes me smile that he did that with his girls.  How fun.  Maybe Brett will have better luck in Virginia.  Anyway, we played around there for awhile and then watched a movie.  They even had a penny machine.  I was excited about that. Preston LOVES the penny machines.  Preston and Jorja both got penny books in Hawaii.  Preston downloaded an app that he can find out where every penny machine in the world is.  He was pretty obsessed with that.  He loves it when I bring him home a smashed penny. Maysen is still a bit bitter that I let him do that.  She says she always asked me if she could have a penny when she was little and I would always say no.  I asked her if she wanted to collect them now. She said it was too late but might reconsider when she is married. Whoops. Sorry about that Maysen.

Our next stop was to the Alaska Wildlife Conservation Center.  That place was cool!  You basically just drive around and look at animals. All of these animals have been rescued and would not survive out in the wild.  You can stop and get a better look.  They also have signs where you can find out what happened to the animal before they were brought there.  We first saw this moose.  He was pretty cool, we named him Henry.  

Henry  

We spent the most time here with the bears.  They were incredible!  So much fun to watch.  They had the brown bears on one side and the black bears on the other.  Nikki told me if you ever encounter a black bear you need to fight back, but a brown bear you play dead.  I think the rhyme was, "Black fight back.  Brown lay down."  Hopefully I don't need to know that.

I took a lot of pictures.  I think I enjoyed the brown bears more than the black ones.  Maybe because the brown bears were awesome!

 This was my favorite picture

The brown bears and black bears do not like each other.  There is a fence between the two areas, but sometimes they like to yell at each other anyway.

 Look at those horns!

We left and looked at other animals for a bit, but came back to the bears for feeding time.  We were only there for the black bears.  Still, the brown bears were more interesting.

Bear food

While I was trying to get a picture of this guy eating, Maysen was trying to get my attention.  She was looking at the brown bears.  One of the brown bears was standing up looking at her.  She said he was like that for about thirty seconds.  I totally missed it!  I got a picture of him standing later, but it would have been cooler to get him standing looking at Maysen.

 Maysen

 This poor eagle only has one wing

We met Lynn in a parking lot at Home Depot.  Nikki was bringing him money so he could buy a gun off of some guy.  Ha!  They are giving us the full Alaska experience there!  We went out to eat after the transaction was completed.  I can't remember where we went, but it was delicious!  I had a meatball sandwich on a giant pretzel.  So good!  I gave half of mine to Nikki and got half of her sandwich, also on a pretzel.  I'm bringing Nikki's sandwich to the airport with me.

Lynn took the younger girls home while Nikki and the older girls went shopping with me.  I wanted to get some Alaska shirts.  We struck out at Target, but Walmart had a ton.  It was so fun looking at all of the Alaska things!  Once we finished there we came home to packing and ice cream.

Had to say good-bye to the caterpillar 

Eryn loved Maysen.  She kept telling Maysen she was her best friend. She is adorable!

Maysen & Eryn

Nikki has five daughters.  I can't believe how different all five of them all.  They look different and have completely different personalities. Maysen and Jorja look different, but Stockton and Preston look exactly the same.  Funny and fantastic to get five daughters all completely unique.

Riley & Kelsey

Katy, Maysen, Eryn, Maddie

 With me!

 Nikki and Stephanie

 With Eryn

 Maysen said this picture squished my eyeball

 I love Nikki!  I'm going to miss her!

Nikki and Kelsey took us to the airport.  Our flight leaves at 1 am.  I will write about our flight home tomorrow.  I hope it doesn't take twelve years to see Nikki again!