Jorja the Ambassador!

Today was a GREAT day! I got a call from Shelby at Utah State. She asked if Jorja was home. I told her she wasn't, she was at school. Shelby said, "Great! I actually wanted to talk to you. We would like to offer Jorja a spot in our ambassador program." WHAT??? I was so excited! Over 600 people applied, they offered this to 24 people, and Jorja is one of them! This will give her a four year full tuition scholarship. This is the same as the presidential scholarship Maysen and Stockton received for their grades. I am so happy for her! Jorja complains that she isn't smart, which isn't true. It is so hard to walk in Maysen and Stockton's footsteps. But look at Jorja! I'm so proud of her! Shelby told me that they were going to overnight a box for me. We were supposed to hide the box and record Jorja finding it. It has been soooo hard keeping this secret! Our entire family knows except Jorja. We are beyond thrilled for her!

I checked Jorja out of school and took her and Maysen to a dermatologist appointment. We stopped by Fashion Place Mall on the way back. Jorja needed to pick up something. Maysen waited in the car. We hurried and stopped by Dillards to look at prom dresses. Jorja didn't see anything she loved. She was talking to me about how much she wanted the ambassador scholarship. She is also a finalist for the SUU ambassador program. I'm not sure if that one comes with a scholarship. She is supposed to go down to SUU this weekend for the final interviews. It's an overnight thing. She needs a covid test to go down there. Jorja asked if she still needed one because she should have an immunity right now. They said she did. Jorja is worried about taking the test because if any covid lingers in her system it would show positive right now. She doesn't want to be quarantined again. Things have been so crazy this last year we just don't know what would happen. Jorja said she doesn't even want to go because she is really hoping to get the Utah State scholarship. Ahhhhh!!!! So hard to keep this a secret, but I did!!! I'm so excited for her!

Giselle, Jorja, Ella

I have had parent/teacher conferences the last two days. Things are weird with online school and a few things fell through the cracks with Preston, but he has enough time to fix it. All is well with Jorja.

Stephanie at parent/teacher conference

The Jazz season has been so fun. Yesterday they played the Charlotte Hornets. The game was close with the Jazz up by 1 at the start of the 4th quarter. The Jazz ended up scoring 41 points in the 4th to win the game 110-132. I thought this tweet by Jonny Linehan was so funny. Also... loving the standings right now.

All Negative

We are all officially done with quarantine! Jorja got out of quarantine this morning and was able to go to school. She was so happy! I spent the day bleaching all the things. I washed Jorja's sheets, bleached doorknobs and light switches. Bleached the downstairs bathroom. Everything, including walls and ceiling. I probably spent two hours cleaning the downstairs bathroom. All should be well now. We had our covid tests this afternoon. We drove down to Mike's work and then went to different drive thrus, just like last time. They called us and said everyone was negative, except my test was inconclusive. I had to go back and retake the test. I was a little nervous. Everyone would have to restart quarantine if I was positive, except Jorja. Also, all of my bleaching would be pointless if I actually had the disease. So, about thirty minutes later we got word that I was negative also. My second test they made me do to nose swabs, so I had three in total today. Not horrible, but didn't like it.

I'm also annoyed. I know covid has been horrible for many, many people. Our experience with it has been different. Jorja was sick. Sick enough I would have kept her home from school for at least one day, probably two; but not sick enough to take her to the doctor. Also no one in my family got this super contagious disease that shut down the world for an entire year. This is after being at the cabin, Stockton sleeping head to head with her for three days, Michael driving us to Utah, bringing her food....all the things. No one at the cabin got it, and no one here got it. I know Jorja isolated herself once she started feeling sick, but still. I can't believe Jorja lost her high school experience to this disease. So frustrating. Jorja is excited that she has the 90 day immunity. She won't get quarantined again for the rest of school. She thinks the immunity is longer for other things, but our school district says 90 days. 

Jorja had a periodontist appointment today. Maysen and Stockton both had gum grafts when they were in fourth grade. Jorja has avoided it. Until this year. She will need to get one. We have it scheduled for April, after spring break. We have to go to the office in Sugarhouse because the first appointment available at this one would be the week of her high school graduation. It might have even been the same day. Don't want to do that.

Jorja got to go to the last day of the musical tonight. It was The Little Mermaid. She has two really good friends in it. Sami was a mermaid and Giselle was Jetsom the eel. This was performed in the new fine arts center and Jorja said it was super cool. Ursula was hanging from the ceiling with her tentacles dangling. Boats were able to float around. I think the robotics team designed those. I'm glad she was able to get out just in time to be there for this. I'm glad she had fun. I'm glad quarantine is done!!!!!

Sami & Jorja

Giselle & Jorja

Not Stockton's Homecoming

Today was supposed to be Stockton's homecoming. We had to postpone it because he is quarantined. Today is also Jorja's last day in quarantine and she can hardly stand it. She is feeling healthy now, but we won't let her come out until tomorrow. I caught Stockton in her room with his mask on sitting on the other side of the room and I made him come out. I don't want to trip at the finish line here! We have played a lot of Jackbox with Jorja, and a lot of Among Us. Still, it will be good to see her for reals again tomorrow. We played the ghost game with everyone but Jorja. Maysen was the ghost and had a crazy story she had to convey. She did it though! These are two of her clues she gave. The first one she held onto Stockton's hand and couldn't let her marker leave the paper. The second one was the wire clue. Maysen was so good!

New Kayak

Today started frustrating for me. Jorja ordered something from Michaels and wanted me to do curb side pickup. She asked if I could get Chick-Fil-A breakfast. I got orders from the entire family for what they would want at Chick-Fil-A. On the way down there Jorja called and said breakfast might be over. She wanted me to go and check. I asked her to call. She said she was scared. So annoying! She does student government, which is super scary to do, but is afraid to call Chick-Fil-A and ask what their hours are? She told me to drive where she used to park and I could see the back of the menu to see if the breakfast had changed. Ridiculous. I did that and felt stupid. The workers were looking at me. I saw the regular menu up, so I assumed it had changed. I told Jorja we missed it. So, she wanted me to go to McDonalds. I had to get new orders from everyone. I went to Michaels and did the curbside thing. Jorja called me and asked what the menu looked like. I told her. I assumed the menu was the same on both sides. Nope. Since it was the regular menu that meant breakfast was still going. How was I supposed to know that? Jorja begged me for Chick-Fil-A because McDonalds makes her sick. Why did she want me to go there then? I now had to go to both drive thrus because people wanted different things now. Soooooo annoying.

Mike ordered a kayak for Christmas and it came today. He is planning on strapping it on the 4 wheeler and then being able to kayak out to the boat. He thinks it will be easier than the blow up raft we have now. Plus, people might have fun with it when the sailing is super slow. Should be fun.

Preston & Mike

Three Things

First, Jorja felt good enough to clean her room today. Progress! Second, there is a lot of snow at the cabin. Third, it is so fun being a Jazz fan right now!

Ambassador Interview

Jorja has her ambassador interview today. She looked so cute! I didn't get a picture though. She wore her yellow dress and got all dolled up. I didn't really get to see her because of corona. We keep a roll of paper towels right outside her door. When one of us goes inside we use the paper towel on her doorknob. Jorja had her two minute presentation of something she is passionate about first. They told her this would last 6-8 minutes. Hers lasted 15. Her book turned out so cute. I can't believe she did this so fast. Especially when she felt awful!

Jorja got out of her dress, into comfy clothes and fell straight asleep. She slept until I woke her up for her next interview thing. This time is was an hour and a half. She got back in her dress, put on her best face and nailed it. Stockton said he was walking by her room and could hear the other kids on the zoom call. He heard something like, "My name is so and so. I'm the student body president...." He said they sounded dull and boring. Then he heard Jorja talk and she was much more engaging. Here's hoping that translated! Ahhhhh! So scary! Over 800 people applied for this scholarship. The first cut was about 130 people. Now there are 71 left. We thought they were taking 30 people, but Jorja found out today they are only taking 24. Fingers crossed for her! She would be perfect for it.

Mike bought a ghost detective game that we played tonight. Everyone except Jorja. She slept and slept. We played for a few hours. It was pretty fun. One person is a ghost. We have to figure out who killed them, how they died, the motive, the location, and the weapon. The ghost communicates to us using a talking board, pipe wire things that they mold into shapes, drawing on backs, tarot cards, 3 second pantomime, and a ghost scream. I might have forgotten something, but it was really fun. Can't wait until Jorja can join us again!

Adults Blowing the Game for the Kids. Classic.

Bear dog loves the snow. He also loves his ball. And Mike. And food. Those are his favorite things. The order probably goes Mike, ball, food, snow. Three of Bears favorites collided today and he was so happy. I don't know how Mike can stand being out there so long not bundled up. Half the time he goes out there without shoes. Thankfully not today. Bear was one happy dog.

Mike & Bear

Bear

Snow duck ~ they have loved their private pond

When it is snowy outside our house gets covered in snow puddles. From the dog. This is how it happens.

The result

The rest of our family went for our corona tests today. If anyone of us was positive they would be banished with Jorja. The pros would be Jorja wouldn't be lonely. The cons would be our quarantine would start over. This lady came to our car and gave each of us these long q-tip looking things. We had to put it up each nostril and go around about five times each. They then took it back and called us in 20 minutes. They told us not to go home in case any of the tests were inconclusive. We drove around to different drive thrus and got different stuff. It was kind of fun. They called and we are all negative! Woohoo! Jorja finishes quarantine on Monday the 22nd. We finish on the 25th. We can get out Monday too if we come back and have negative tests that day. That is our plan. Mike has us scheduled for it.

Stockton and testing lady

Jorja has been feeling sick. She has lost some of her taste, but not all of it. She spent the entire day working on her story. Drawing and coloring pictures. She won't show it to me yet though. I'm glad she felt good enough to work on it. Jorja has also wanted to hear Bear howl. We have been telling her how funny it is when he thinks everyone is gone. While we were at the corona test she texted us that Bear dog was howling. He sounded so sad. Then she said he came down and found her. He came and sat on her. He loves Mike. The rest of us are poor substitutes.

We got the funniest text thread from Bubs this morning. He was reffing a game last night and the game had quite the ending. This is the story in his words. Gotta love it.

Quarantine Day 1

Today I bleached all the things. I spent forever cleaning. Deep cleaning. Not my talent, but I did it. Especially the upstairs bathroom. I bleached everything. I washed the bathmats and the shower curtains. The upstairs bathroom should be corona free. I deep cleaned the downstairs bathroom too. Jorja has hated the downstairs bathroom. Well, taking showers in it. When we first lived here Mike took out the 70s green flooring. It took longer than we expected to replace it. So, it was concrete for awhile. Jorja hated it. She said spiders were there. We got everything redone years ago. Maybe seven, I'm not sure. Jorja still refused to take a shower down there. Actually no one used it, even though I thought it was a nicer shower than the one upstairs. Jorja will have to get over her fear this week.

I got annoyed at Jorja today. We had to call the school to tell them she was positive. She wanted to be the one to call them. She is 18, so I guess that would be okay. I brought her down the phone and stood back from her. She asked me to leave. I told her I wanted to be there when she called. She told me she didn't want me there. I was furious. I left. A few minutes later she texted me and told me the school said I had to be the one to call. Too bad she didn't let me stay. Jorja said she didn't want me to get sick. I told her that if I was going to get sick I have already been infected by taking care of her, riding in the car with her, cleaning all the things. I wanted to be there to hear what the school said so I would know the rules. Now I felt like an idiot calling the school. So anyway, we had our moments today. I felt bad because I know Jorja felt awful, but at the same time I want her to stop pushing me out of her life.

Jorja slept most of the day. Her throat is sore. She aches. She has a cough. Pretty much every symptom but loss of smell and taste. She is breathing fine, so that is nice. The thing that is bothering her the most is she has a canker. That is not a corona thing, but it is driving her crazy. Jorja was able to get ahold of the Utah State people and let them know she can't come up on Wednesday. They told her she could do a virtual interview on Thursday. She is disappointed and relieved at the same time. Disappointed that she misses out on yet another thing. Relieved that she can still go forward with trying to get this scholarship. She has to give a two minute presentation on something she is passionate about. Like baseball or shoelaces. It could be anything. I told her to do it on service. She was so passionate about the Make-a-Wish thing. Jorja said that wouldn't stand out with the people she was interviewing with. She said there is nothing unique about her. (Not true) She has been messaging Kengo. She met him outside a Pizza Limone when he was playing the ukulele. He was a Utah State ambassador in college. He told her to do something to stand out during the presentation. Like he brought in his ukulele and sang his presentation. He then gave her the idea to do a story book. Jorja would do these bednight stories for awhile. Just read books on Instagram live. Like Green Eggs and Ham. Things like that. They were so funny. Kengo said she should do her presentation like that. Jorja loved that idea. She was too sick to really work on it today, but said she got all the words to the book down and she will work on the book tomorrow. Well, she will have the time to do it, so that's good I guess.

The rest of us are quarantined until Thursday February 25th. If one of us gets corona our quarantine starts over. We are getting tested tomorrow to see if anyone else has it so we don't start an infinite quarantine loop. This will be fun. The only picture I have today is Preston in a dog cage. No idea why he is there, except I think he missed his dog.

Preston & Bear

Positive

Jorja woke up feeling awful and asked if we could get her a corona test. She is paranoid because she has a huge interview at Utah State on Wednesday and is worried that she won't be herself if she doesn't know she is negative. She also starts a new job tomorrow. Mike called and they wanted her to come in today before 4:30. I asked Michael if he would drive us down. We had a nice drive and got home in plenty of time. Jorja and I went to the Overstock clinic. They come to our car and we have the results in about twenty minutes. They came and tested Jorja, then we drove to my dad's house to pick up Bear. Maysen texted asking me to video picking him up. This is the video and a picture my dad sent. He is watching Brittney's dog too. Lots of dogs. Hope Bear had fun.

Phineas, Milo, Chet (Brittney's dog), Bear

Picking up Bear

I brought Bear to the car and saw that Jorja was on the phone. She whispered "I'm positive" as I put him in the car. Yikes! I hurried back to my dad to grab the rest of Bear's stuff. I told him Jorja is positive for corona so I wasn't going to stay and chat. Luckily I wasn't close to my dad at all and was in and out of there pretty quick. I got Jorja home and situated. She has to be in her bedroom by herself and has to have her own bathroom. Hopefully no one else gets it. (They didn't) I was worried about Michael. He was nice enough to drive us all the way down and now he has been exposed. (Michael tested and was negative. Sherry was negative also. No one caught corona from Jorja. Thank goodness!) 

Mike and the kids came home around 11:30 tonight. We all need to be quarantined now. This is going to be an adventure!

Cabin Valentine

Today was really fun. We had church here, which is awesome. We played games, played outside and just had the best time. What a fun Valentines Day! Jorja was feeling better, but still stayed away from everyone just in case. We played Among Us at the end of the day. Jorja played from the basement.

Sherry, Maysen, Connor, Preston, Stockton, Mike, Leo, Melissa, Michael, Miah, Tage

Stephanie, Maysen, Connor, Preston, Stockton, Mike, Leo, Melissa, Michael, Miah, Tage

Miah

Stockton, Preston, Michael, Connor

Melissa & Leo ~ Sherry driving

Stockton & Preston ~ SO FUN TO HAVE STOCKTON BACK!!!

Michael, Connor, Leo, Melissa, Tage, Miah

Preston & Stockton

Stockton & Preston

Preston's getting covered

RIP Preston

Stephanie ~ Brett asked if I found Mina's cinnamon bears that she hid when they were here

Mina's response. Thanks Mina! They were delicious!

There is so much snow here!!!

The Hardys left today. Connor and Miah walked back up. I was confused. Turns out Miah dropped her cell phone. They were able to find it at the top of the hill. Glad they noticed, glad they found it and glad it still worked!

Connor & Miah

Success!

What a fun day! The cabin is the best!!!