Taycie got dunked...TWICE!

Here's Taycie and Daddy on Saturday. Two of my Angels.

All I can say is BEST DAY EVER! In regards to Taycie this day was as important-emotional-spiritual-special-life changing as the day she was born.

The previous few months have been very difficult. I thought it was all her with the bad attitude, and the lying, and the disobedience, and the arguing. See, I've always thought of myself as optimistic and full of faith. I guess I had something to contribute to the horrible feelings between us. I've been short fused and frustrated. In all honesty I didn't think the adversary had that much power over me. Turns out he will push absolutely anyone and everyone to bring suffering within a family and impede the work of the Lord. He knew he couldn't stop us from baptizing her, but he really tried hard to keep me from enjoying it, even on that very morning.

But when we arrived at the church and walked into the Relief Society room where the font is the power of the spirit overwhelmed me-"hello friend!" I finally felt a peace come over me. It was such a relief. So I cried, and cried-and prayed a quiet prayer of repentance. Then cried some more, through the entire program actually. She brought her knees up and they popped out of the water so she had to go under again. Everything else was perfect. Fun fact: I was baptized in the same font 20 years ago.

So my baby girl has been telling me for two days now how good it feels to be baptized-that is priceless. And that same peace was waiting for us back at home. I sure hope it stays. Thank you to all who came and shared this special day. It meant the world to us.

Nightmares and Panic Attacks.

All night last night I had nightmares of missing Taycie's baptism due to the fact that I forgot to bring extra (dry) underwear for her and daddy to change into. And in the time it took me to drive home and back to the church house they proceeded through the entire program without me. I woke several times with my heart pounding from my chest and every muscle in my body shaking.

She's 8 today. And appearantly I can't handle it. I think I'm having a nervous breakdown. I don't think I can throw a "good" party and I just don't want her to grow up dangit!!! I'm the mom and that's the end of it! No more birthdays for her.

M.I.A

Side note: this post originated on October 28th. Looks like the MIA bug hit me twice in trying to update all of us.

I can see on the calendar that I've been Missing In Action since my last post. But you see I am really here. That is, I'm here at home wondering what happened to October and why has it gotten so cold so fast?? I have so many updates to tell I don't know where to start! One family member at a time I guess.

Dee is working hard, all the time, non-stop. Work and school have him plenty busy. We are lucky enough to have him surface for meals on the weekends. He's finished with another class as of Tuesday this last week and has only TWO more to go!! We can see that Master's diploma framed and mounted on the wall already. He's finally glad he decided (or that I pressured him) to go on after his Bachelor's. "Just one more year," I heard myself tell him over and over again. Easy for me to say; I'm not the one writing 20 page papers. But now...NOW he only has two months left. I couldn't be more proud of him! We will celebrate January 28th as a new holiday for our family.

I need to wish him a VERY belated b-day; the first time my mom had to go to the hospital was Sep. 21st...his birthday. Sorry the party had to end early babe. I'm glad you are ok with being 31 this year. And I am glad that you are ours! Isn't he handsome?!

Me. Is there anything worth updating me over? Not really. My exercising/losing weight idea got lost somewhere between my mom's illnesses and the cold weather. There is an unused treadmill at my parents' that is going to have to find a home with us somehow. That, or I'm asking for a gym membership for Christmas so I can GO and work out. I really need to loose a "few" before our cruise. I wonder all the time "how does the day get away from me?" where I don't think I am ever going to actually get the house work done besides the daily dishes and emergency laundry when we've all run out of clean things to wear. And then there are mouths to feed. What? You people get hungry? I'm in a bit of a cooking slump. Should help us loose weight. HA! I wish.

Right this minute I am fighting off some beast of a headache. Can't quite figure out why I have it in the first place. I've saved this post-draft twice already to walk away and come back; maybe my eyes just can't handle the computer screen today and it will get posted tomorrow.

That was a sinus infection-we all took turns being sick for a few days. Dee was sick for a solid month between bronchitis and sinus infections. We are once again on the mend, as of today.

Taycie had a fun fall soccer season and they won most of their games! Go Pink Panthers!

She's loving school. We found out she needed glasses to see the board (she was coming home with misspelled journal entries). She was able to pick out two pair and they look very cute on her. She was a very cool Tiger for Halloween. Taycie's first quarter grades were excellent! She almost doubled the required reading points and loves math. As always she's on the run, loads of energy she doesn't know what to do with. She is looking forward to the upcoming events: her 8th birthday, her baptism, and Christmas!! I am reminded every day, several times a day.

Tanner looked up at me from my lap Sunday afternoon (Oct 26th) and said "shun-beem!". It made me smile ear to ear and I kissed his little face all over. I'm thinking they were singing the Sunbeam song in nursery. He wants me to sing to him all the time now. Every day he is saying something new, finally copying anything we want him to learn. Some new words include: stay, come, up high, show, sh-ong, TEE (for tv) off and on as he pushes the button while we are trying to watch something-he thinks that's pretty funny. And while those are more easily interpreted here is a list of his slightly more complicated language: buh-lay=blanket, mi-mi=milk, ooesh=shoes, gauk=sock (shoes and socks have off's and on's attached when he's dressing -OR undressing when he shouldn't be. I think he's going to be a nudist when he grows up. He does have some mad dressing skillz when he is wearing clothes but he wants to do it himself=resulting in this.

I love that I get to be home with him all day, we are bestest friends. Except for when he's attempting to escape nap time. He loves to play on the "pan-o" we finally found batteries for and he'll sit on the coffee table where there is just enough clearance for him to pull it in close. I'm telling ya, I just don't know where the frog's legs gene came from. You know how you say a big buff football player has a neck the size of your thigh? Oh, well that's what daddy says anyway...our Tanner Man has legs the size of daddy's pinkies!

He was the Great Pumpkin for Halloween. He was thrilled that poeple would open their doors offering him bowls full of candy. It was a fun trick-or-treating trip around our block and I had made homemade chili for us to all come home to and warm up with. YUM YUM!!

That should get everyone up to speed on our family to today...good to see you (and be seen)!! Have a happy weekend! We should-daddy doesn't have any homework, HOORAY!!

This boy. Version 2.0

He has long messy hair. He has a shiner. He won't wear clothes. But he can tell me "I LUFF YOU!"

Priceless.

Note: He usually talks with the sweetest voice so when he started talking with clenched teeth I asked him to talk nice-and he just GRINS it big at me. And saying his full name is new; he called himself "NAH" for forever.

This boy.

This is how Tanner thinks it's appropriate sitting on the couch. He'll say "watch! WAAAAA-TCH!" He's been doing acrobatics like this for at least a year or more-it just took me a while to get it on tape. Excuse the cough-cough, he's been a little sick. Don't ya love the long lankey skinny legs?!? And watch for the eye roll-he makes me laugh! I love him! Oh, but what am I gonna do when he gets older and he starts jumping off the roof or something...pray lots harder and more often I guess?

(Sorry the quality is bad...thinking of investing in some new electronics for Christmas.)

Under construction

Trying to give the blog a facelift and took a link from someone else's really cute page for free backgrounds...but does anyone know how to get the header picture sized down just a bit?? I'm a little dumb at this still.

Well, ok that picture fits better; what do my people think?

Learning.

So the name of my blog is "Learn to be Still" (it's an Eagles song title); in the sense that I know I am blessed beyond measure, and I have this beautiful family, and I need to appreciate it all here and now. I am learning loads of other things I didn't know I was failing at, because we are supposed to learn from our trials and such, right? So, let me ask you this...when this is over will I have it perfected yet?

Probably not, but I can keep trying.

My mother's illness has been a HUGE trial-for all of us. She was readmitted to the hospital after being home only two days because she had reactions to the way her medication was put into her PICC line. She was very ill Saturday morning and the nursing service couldn't get what we needed in time. Back to the ER we went. Her doctor was on-call and when he saw her as sick as she was again-he decided she could stay a few more days so that they could really take care of her there. We now know that her antibiotic needs to be diluted (a lot) for her to be able to tolerate it. So she is home once more; and is now functioning a bit better with the extra IV fluids she is getting. At least we have made it through two administrations without incident. Can I please have an "Hallelujah!!"?

I wanted to make a list of all the other things I'm learning. I thought I could keep rolling it through my head and that it might make this lesson easier for me to learn.

1. Patience
2. Patience and Love
3. Patience and Love and Sacrifice
4. Patience and Love and Sacrifice and Appreciation for good health
5. Patience and Love and Sacrifice and Appreciation for family, friends, and neighbors that offer and help
6. Patience and Love and Sacrifice and Appreciation and Service
7. Patience and Love and Sacrifice and Appreciation and Service and Devotion
8. Patience and Love and Sacrifice and Appreciation and Service and Devotion and Hope
9. Patience and Love and Sacrifice and Appreciation and Service and Devotion and Hope and Charity
10. Patience and Love and Sacrifice and Appreciation and Service and Devotion and Hope and Charity and Gratitude
11. Patience and Love and Sacrifice and Appreciation and Service and Devotion and Hope and Charity and Gratitude and Empathy
12. Patience and Love and Sacrifice and Appreciation and Service and Devotion and Hope and Charity and Gratitude and Empathy and the importance of Prayer
13. Patience and Love and Sacrifice and Appreciation and Service and Devotion and Hope and Charity and Gratitude and Empathy and the importance of Prayer and wait...did I say Patience?

Seriously I could go on; but I look over the list and think YES, I WANT to be a person with these qualities, I NEED to be this person I'm being challenged to become.

The Savior has these qualities. He is the only one that knows exactly how I feel. He is the only other person that knows exactly how my mom feels. I started the post kinda joking that this has been pretty overwhelming and that I have a lot on my hands and our family is struggling a little. But, the spirit is telling me that I really can grow from this and I can gain a stronger testimony of all the above mentioned if I take this opportunity to. I am blessed to be close enough to take care of my mom. I am blessed to have an understanding husband and great kids. We will get through this because truly I am blessed, blessed, blessed. I have a Heaven lying at my feet, just like the song says.

She's home.

(This was last month when she met her first great-grandson Kyle. She was looking pretty good. Not so much right now.)

I just sent a mass email to the fam...but if you wanted to see it here: the good news is that my mom is home and I am taking care of her IV antibiotics every 12 hours into a PICC line. She was diagnosed with a strep strain that causes pneumonia and meningitis. She was deathly ill with the fever, sepsis, and low blood pressure Sunday night...but I don't know if she would ever recover from pneumonia-she's just too weak. I think we got her to the hospital and treated in time that the pneumonia won't set in. I pray that every day will be a bit better for her. I want her to get her health and strength back quick; she's much more fun when she's not like this. This just absolutely bites!!

Camille-you were right about the intuition we can have. For our kids, and our own moms! Husbands too; Dee wouldn't listen to me about keeping his boot on like the doc said (he thought that if it wasn't hurting him he was ok) until I pointed out the fact that if he trips or looses his balance he's going to do a lot more damage because that bone isn't strong enough to protect another trauma. I know I know what I'm talking about. I'm smart like that.

Getting everyone back on track here. Wish me luck! And thank you, thank you, thank you for the prayers and encouragement!!! This is a hard time for me emotionally-I have been away from Dee and the kids a lot and I miss them; and the house is a disaster. No disrepect to Texas...but I think Ike hit my kitchen.

prayers for my mom

My dad and I brought my mom to the hospital tonight and they are running every test you could possible do to a person...still not finding the source of the infection. She's being admitted to the ICU for sepsis and hypotension (very very low blood pressure). We are waiting to see her now and I found a computer to hack into just to get my thoughts out of my head. I just knew she needed to be seen when I went to her house to check on her. She only just got a fever yesterday and no other signs of pain or illness to gauge where this is coming from. I am so thankful for that quiet, and small, prompting that said-"she's not going to be ok through the night at home". I will update as I can, who knows how long we will be here. But please, prayers would be appreciated. Thank you for your love and support as always!

Randomness...

I have been thinking about wishes. I went to bed the other night with a whole list of wishes. I wish I could heal broken bones. I wish I was a bit better at time management. I wish I had dinner on the table every night for my hard workin' hubby. I wish I had the house organized at all times. I wish that those 20 lbs would just melt off. I wish, I wish, I wish...it went on for a while.

Taycie has asked me before if wishes come true-and I was almost stumped. Do I lead her into a false sense of reality by telling her "Oh yes they do!"? So I said, "Wishes and dreams can come true, if we work towards them; it's like setting a goal and achieving it." (Which means if I want any of my wishes to come true I have a lot of work to do.) I felt pretty bad about bursting her "princesses and wishes" fantasy; she took the theory pretty well. But, we are having to have (a lot of) conversations about choices and consequences because her baptism is coming up and she has been occasionally naughty; every so often (UM, every day) she likes to test our boundaries and try to negotiate and manipulate between Dee and I. On the lighter side of things she went to Art class and came home with the following pictures:




This was our conversation about her masterpiece.
"Oh, that looks great honey!" "Thanks" she said. I hesitate...uh, "What is it?" "Scribbles!" "Perfect!! That's exactly what I thought." (The only time in my life I could be right about what she has drawn-you know what I mean?) "And what else is special about these scribbles?" "Well, this first one is the primary colors and the other side is the secondary colors." So I came to the conclusion that the Picasso effect was meant-to-be, and we were all so happy about her creation. She absolutely just loves school, and I'm thankful for that.

Dee is still on the mend. We will get another x-ray tomorrow and see if it has healed in place. He is amazing at school too, he got full points for his last paper! It was more than 20 pages long. I don't think I could do it. Way to go!! We are so proud of him.

I think that's all I wanted to put on the page today. My own little form of therapy.

To Trish...I think I know now.

I think I know what Elder Ballard meant. He meant to say "don't go to facebook". Because I recently had a friend invite me to see her facebook page; thought it was just another blog site. Didn't know I had to JOIN and make my own facebook page. Didn't really intend to either. But now I have one...and everytime I try to "just check my email" there are friend requests I have to respond to, comments I have to make, people I have to catch up with, chats to chat-oh dear where did the time go?? Some of the pictures it shows off to the side are people I might want to catch up with...and some not so much. Can I block them from finding me? I don 't think so, so now I'm just out there! Kinda scary!! At least with the blog I don't think too many people see me. But now I'm connected to everyone else's everyone that has a "friend". Guess I'll stay on until the crazies come out-will Ctrl/Alt/Delete make them go away?

Update on Dee: Purple. And Yellow, lots of yellow, and green. And SWOLLEN. OUCH!







AND Tanner? While I blog? Oh, he's up eating a chocolate pudding...that is now all over his shirt, face, arms and the kitchen. My own fault, I KNOW! And, I'm pretty sure that's what Elder Ballard meant. But we can still squeeze in blogging when he's down for a nap, right?

What Dee did.

Can you spell K-L-U-T-Z? Dee fell -OUT- of a trax train, down the stairs and out onto the sidewalk platform flat on his face Friday. (It's ok to laugh; can you picture it?) We thought it would be hilarious to try and get the footage from UTA...however I don't see them burning it to DVD for me. They probably think we'd try to sue or something. But the seriousness of the injury is a broken ankle. The bone is aligned ok right now and if it doesn't displace he won't need pins put in. So he is trying to keep it up and in a walking boot/cast. Tanner was helping daddy work from home this morning. We will keep you updated on the current color of his foot. How excited are you?!?! He can't put any pressure on it for this week and will continue on crutches and this cast for two more weeks after that. It's his right foot so getting him TO work might be a chore. A few of the guys here in our ward/area travel to Salt Lake so he's going to have to become a professional hitch-hiker until he can drive again. Cookies and fast-healing prayers needed. Thanks!

What I've done...

So far this week I have: (sorry for the boring post I will put pictures on when I can find my camera..."TANNER! What did you do with mommy's camera???" Most of my things these days are disappearing because of him. Little monster.)

1. Started exercising and eating A LOT healthier. I don't have a marathon in mind-I know I can't run. But anyone can walk, and walk I will. My goal is to loose some weight so I will be the only beach babe Dee has his eyes on in the Caribbean. I still need to find our pedometer so I know how far I'm going-but it's so crazy in the morning getting Taycie out on time that I keep forgetting I'm forgetting it. Anyway. With Tanner in the stroller and all the kids met up for walking to school we start. We take all the kids to school and then I walk another 45 minutes-I don't come back home until 9:30 even if it means going one more block. (Side story: as I was walking this morning I found a van with two tiny kids in their car seats -no adult anywhere- so I turned the license plate into the police officer stationed there at the jr high. I'm sure that mom thought she was "just running in" but that is so not ok with me, and she was gone at least 15 minutes. I was SO upset about it, and still am!!! It was up on the main road and anything could have happened to those little ones. I pretended to be on my cell phone when she came out but I was really standing there to make sure nothing DID happen to her babies. Sad huh?) So back to my exercising; it feels good (now that my shin splints are better) and I have added an extra block, I think every week I will add more. It's easier then I thought it would be and I'm not exactly killing myself. I don't know what kept me from exercising before except for all the time, effort, sweat, and work; you know? Well, it's gonna be worth it!!

2. Made two batches of sugar-free strawberry jam. I did the math and with as much jam as we use on PB&J's it was cheaper for me to make some homemade. AND with being on a bit of a health nut soap box this week I went for the sugar-free recipe. I wish I could say it was a whole years worth...but maybe I could do another batch before the berries are out of the grocery stores for good. I'd love a batch of raspberries...YUM!

3. Even more yum! Currently making SALSA. OLE! I got a call from a neighbor that our youth group had tomatoes from their service garden they needed to give someone. So with my extra I will give some made salsa back to them. There is no way we could eat 32 pints of salsa in a year! It's yummy and I know Dee will be happy to have it all made and off the kitchen counter but I had to go buy more HOT STUFF because the batch I made yesterday was too mild for him. Now I'm going to get it spiced up mucho mucho and see if he can handle it!

Thanks for letting me add topics to my blog besides the usual husband and kids...I'll let you know how the weight loss goes. Wish me luck!

There she goes...there she goes again!

And now, you can hum the rest of the song along while reading my post!

I'm talking about Taycie off to her first day of second grade!! No tears this year! From either of us!! She has a great teacher, Mrs. Hansen and from what I could tell a very small class size-horray! Last year her class was semi out-of-control at times when I would go and volunteer. She's growing up fast! And I really know this is the best thing for her. She will have to listen and obey someone other than me...maybe it will make it easier to mind me. Fingers crossed! She's gonna do great! I know it!!






So, this is us today-all smiles! First, thank you all for checking in on me and giving lots of encouraging words on my last post. Things were getting a bit crazy! So far, the cars and air conditioners, and such have all been functioning in their right ways. What a relief! I was able to get some of that laundry done; and caved on the ironing. Instead of doing it myself I found a dry cleaner that will press pants for only 2 dallas!! And they look so much better professionally pressed anyway. We were trying to save the money but it is so worth my time right now to have someone else do it!

Tanner has become accident prone-again. It comes and goes. He fell down our lower stairs on his bike a few days ago. I heard the falling and hoped it was only the bike. Since I didn't see it happen I don't know if he really meant to try and ride down the stairs or not. But there they both were tangled together at the bottom of the stairs. Super mom mode kicks in and you scoop your baby up off the floor, he's crying, you want to cry. And you check-everything-nothing broken, nothing bleeding-whew! Bonk on the head, no big deal, he's had a million of thoes-they're harmless right? So you snuggle until the tears stop and he jumps off your lap to run and do something else crazy! (This is his bike he got for his birthday and it's small enough to keep in the house; although we may have to move it outside away from stairs now.)

As far as Taycie being off to school this morning he keeps asking for her, "Tay-tee?" and I say "We took her to school, remember?" "OOOOHHHHH" he says. "Dah-Dah?" "Daddy's at work" "OOOOHHHHH". He must be lonely, I'm almost done blogging honey!

Us Jensens always say...

"If we didn't have bad luck we wouldn't have any luck at all!" Over the last couple weeks we've had lots going on and a bunch of it falls under the bad luck category, sadly.


Bad: The DVR got messed with (Taycie) and the last hour of the SYTYCD finale was not recorded. I could have cried! I didn't get to see the end and I missed half of the judges favorite routines plus the extra routines the top 4 had done together.

Good: Joshua won SYTYCD and Katee was "top girl". I wish this show was on more than once a year. I just love it.

Bad: Dee passed a kidney stone only after just three weeks or so ago having a CT scan that the Dr. said he was fine. Um, check it again please!

Good: My mom is healing nicely from her first knee replacement surgery. I have been taking care of her lots. The kids love the extra trips to grandma and grandpa's house. Tanner yells "YAY!" and claps his hands when we pull into the driveway. Knee #2 is scheduled in six weeks. Then my dad is up next for his. We are keeping the physical therapist employed for the next 5 months.

Bad: Dee has had lots, lots, lots of car trouble. It all started with a flat tire on the way to work. 5 am, in the dark, changing a tire on the side of the freeway is not so safe. Same day-on his way home from work he lost the brakes entirely. Near miss car accident #2; requires replacement of the master cylinder. We hear brake noises get worse as the week ends and that Saturday was spent replacing brake pads, turning rotors, and buying new drums for both the car and jeep for what was needed on each vehicle. The jeep still needs it's wheels balanced. I just keep forgetting to take it in.

Good: Having a husband that is able to fix the cars when something goes wrong. Only really in the saving money factor because he got SUPER dirty and sore.

Good: Seeing an old friend for the first time in FOREVER! Giving hugs, smiles, encouragement. Being amazed at how our kids have grown. Exchanging blog addresses so we can keep in touch better.

Bad: Being 3 weeks behind on laundry 'cause I've been taking care of my mom.


Good: Blogging.

Bad: Realizing on a Friday night that the house feels a little warm and wondering
why the air conditioning is not working? It's still high 90's here, TOO darn HOT to loose your AC; couldn't get a repair man until Tuesday.

Good: Air Conditioning working properly after wonderful father-in-law tried everything in his power to fix it. Repair man + new condenser = happy family.

Good: My niece had a baby boy! Kyle was 7 lbs and 5 oz and 19.5 inches long. Good job Savanah and Zac! And thank you for making me a "Great" Aunt!


Bad: Crying all the way home from anniversary date with loving husband. (This involved a discussion on whether or not we should sell the house with upcoming student loans and other issues at hand...to be able to buy again later on.)

Good: Having a date with loving husband for your anniversary. Having that loving husband to go through life with, make choices with, celebrate our trials (is that possible?) and celebrate our triumphs! It was decided we are staying put and we feel peace now.

Good: Decorating. This is some vinyl I put on the face of my mantle/fireplace.

In case you can't read it the quote is: "Prayer is the key to heaven, Faith unlocks the door". I am going to find an antique key and padlock to affix as well.

Bad: Poor husband having crisis after crisis at work. It was decided "they" (company x-meaning his old employer) could load him to a restore point for his current employer. Some IT mumbo-jumbo. (My idea by the way-I'm totally taking credit for it; I'm humble like that.) So he was able to update from there what needed to.

Good: Seeing (and kissing) AMAZING husband when he comes home after a long day. We love him so much for for all that he does for us!!

In the end-it's all worth it. The kids are safe and sound and happy and we love each other.

And the BESTEST news of all time?? An "anonymous donor" has booked us a Caribbean cruise for Dee's graduation present!!!!!!!!!! WOHOO! We can't wait!! Gotta apply for passports real soon! We'll be on a beach somewhere far away in March, miss us!

Interesting. Very interesting.

You Are Esmerelda!

Mysterious and passionate. You are a survivor. Even though life has swung you some difficult situations you have a strong intuition that gets you through. Also, you have the capacity to sympathize and relate to a variety of different people.

Which Disney Princess Are You?

Please come back and tell me what Princess you are. Or, you know I'll be visiting your blogs like every day this week so you could just post it there where I can see it!

Do you remember this?

This day was August 7, 1999. Nine years ago. Are you in that picture? How funny did you look back then? 'Cause I'm seriously laughing. I just can't believe how much the younger kids have grown, how many others are now married and gots kids now, If you can see Darcy-she's holding an itty-bitty baby. Jen had just had Joey. My friend Katie had been married the day before, and another friend, Dustin, was about to leave on his mission. I have all these nieces and nephews graduated from high school now, embarking on college and married life and motherhood-Savanah is due any day. I can't wait to be a "great aunt". Even though I am already "great". That line stolen from Camille, Jen, or Liz, Trish or Sara when we found out we were having Taycie. I think you all fought over the position. :)

I'm dying from how skinny and young Dee looks. I know that face, I love that face. I can still feel exactly why I fell in love with him so fast. I just couldn't resist. There are those things I wish I could "do over" like my hair and veil...and if only Sara had found her amazing photography talents back then...but all in all we were so blessed to share that day with all of you! Thank you!!

That's right...Dee and I celebrated anniversary numero nine-o on Thursday. We got a date day out on the town for a movie and dinner. We saw The Dark Knight and thought it was pretty good, then had dinner at the Sky Box (a sports grill at the Gateway) and I had the best chicken macho nachos ever! YUM YUM! Life is so full of busy-every day junk we had a hard time feeling like it was a real get-away/escape just to be about us and nothing else...but I will say that I know I love him for the man he strives to be, the provider-husband-and father that he is, the sacrifices he makes so that we will have a future as bright as the sun shining on us that day nine years ago. (And it was BRIGHT! You can tell because everyone in the picture is squinting.)

We do have our trials babe, but I wouldn't go through them with anyone else. And one day we will look back another nine years and think...wow-where did the time go? It's been an amazing ride and I look forward to what's ahead. I love you forever and more than you know!

Tamales, Trains, and Tears; Times Two

Ok then. Haven't updated since:





So so so so so so so sad to see Will eliminated. Comfort held her own there for a while but we all knew she wouldn't make it to the end.

And after that we had this:




This last weeks show was so amazing there is no-way I could possibly choose. I can't wait to see what happens this Wednesday and I am so sad that it is the finale already!! Did anyone else notice how excited Adam Shankman was? He literally was shaking after every routine trying to put words to his emotions for a critique. I loved it!

Girls: Katee is my most favorite and has been solid in every single routine as Nigel pointed out. Here's me, "That's exactly what I was thinking!" But Courtney has really grown on me lately. Especially this last week with Mark.

Boys: Twitch is a character and I really like him, but Joshua and Katee's Paso Double absolutely KILLED me. He gets my vote...even though I don't actually call in. I should call in...and make my voice heard-people! (By people, I mean the half-dozen family members that love me enough to visit my pathetic blog.) Thank you for making me feel important!! :)

You ask; I answer

sorry about the typos on the captions!

My kids: angels or devils??

One day at a time, right? Even when days go like last Tuesday? Especially days like last Tuesday.

Taycie was unloading the dishwasher and Tanner swiped a glass off the counter where upon hitting the tile floor it shattered into a million pieces. Just what you want in the kitchen; your two babies in bare feet and slivers of glass. I thought I was thorough enough to get it all but I am still finding chunks from under the fridge and at the outer edges of the dining room where I thought-no way did it travel that far over.

I opened the door to the laundry room to go in and use the facilities where I found a sticky floor, a substance running down the fronts of the washer and dryer, the smell of fresh laundry but I didn't know what exactly, and a dozen paper towels wadded up in the little basket garbage can next to the toilet. "Taycie what happened in here?!" "Tanner got the spray-n-wash and sprayed it all over." On one hand...she tried to clean it up for me. On the other...she didn't tell me he had done it and I don't keep the spray-n-wash in his reach...dad was the last to do laundry. URGH! I had to close the door and walk away. The current condition of the laundry room is that 3 days later it still needs to be washed down...haven't had the time (I'm blogging instead!).

Taycie argues plenty and gets herself grounded during lunchtime when she thinks it a good idea to tell me "I've been grounded before and you still let me go play". Well, NOT today honey! Now I feel like the most awful mom ever 'cause I've yelled too much today (a quality I really bad want to change and am working on, I promise).

Tanner goes down for his nap. He's a good boy and we rah-rah (rockabye).

I am trying to get some computer time in for bills and such. Taycie comes to me with Candy Land...OK, a mother/daughter fight where only a Milton Bradley game can fix all hurts. And then onto Chutes and Ladders. After all that fun, since it's still quiet time, I let her pick out a movie.

Dee swung into the drive-thru at a local Mexican restaurant to get horchatas. YUM! I gave Tanner the last bit in my cup with the straw and yet he tips it, therefore dumping it all down his front in his car seat. Everything is now ultimately sticky and wet.

Taycie and Tanner (still sticky and wet-not enough time to change him) came with me and my mom to a baby shower where they tested every boundary possible while out in public and in someone else's yard that really didn't take into consideration "little children" when they landscaped. Tanner got two scraped knees and a ba-ba (band aid) for the bleeding one.

Arriving back at home Taycie is instructed to get in the shower and wash her hair. I get Tanner unloaded and everything in the house where I find Taycie, wrapped in her bath towel, standing in the kitchen. "What are you doing?" "Daddy told me to come down and tell you that there are two rolls of toilet paper in my toilet." Sure enough, two whole rolls of toilet paper just plopped in the toilet. Upside, our toilet paper is very absorbent, there was no water left in the bowl. Taycie's fault as far as not keeping her bathroom door closed tight (an endless battle), MY fault more so that I saw Tanner in the bathroom with the rolls of toilet paper and in no matter of thinking did I foresee that he would put them in the toilet. I just thought he was in the cupboard playing and I told him to get them all put back. I must have been super busy with something else, I don't know why I didn't go scoop him up out of the bathroom and close the door. Lesson learned. And no time for picturing funny story when mom and dad are really, really mad. Sorry, I know it would have made this post worth it.

Taycie proceeds to the shower and finally I have the chance to get Tanner un-sticky in his own bath in my tub. Undress, undo diaper, it drops to the floor and pee-pee immediately follows all over the diaper, floor, and clothes lying there. "Tanner! don't go pee-pee on the floor." I run him to the toilet and we have a potty talk. "Can you go pee-pee in the potty?" "Uh-no!" "Are you all done?" "Uh-yeah!" I leave him there momentarily just to see if he will go in the toilet and then take him to the tub. He's sitting in the water with that look, looking down at himself. "Tanner, did you just go potty in the bath tub?" Hesitation, smile, "Uh-yeah!" in all the proudness of a two year old face. Rinse out tub, and refill to finish bath time.

Let me tell you, I was the happiest mom on earth when finally everyone was tucked into bed that night. Now I just get to look back and laugh. And pray it doesn't happen like that again, all in one day, even though -inevitably- it will. I know they are really angels at heart!

really, really, really, really quick...eliminations!

Kherington: I could have sworn Mark would have been eliminated with you. "Country Two-step" WHAT? That was actually painful to watch. His solo really saved him this time.

HOWEVER, Gev's solo was great! Just didn't cut it for the rest of America I guess. I have a whole page of notes I took but I better not get into it all. Let's do a best and worst. I do have to say that Li'l C is crazy smart when it comes to critiquing. I like him on the panel.



BEST: Katee/Will-both numbers were amazing. And they danced to AI David A's "Imagine". Courtney/Josh-Josh really good in Hip Hop, and I liked the Rumba too. Comfort/Twitch-Hip Hop yes, awesome. Chelsie in the Jive-hot. I think the guys' solos are very entertaining. They have great personalities. All 3 group numbers on the results show were great. Who knew Nigel had that kind of choreography in him? I wanted to watch mo' from the "5 guys named Moe"! The Emmy news was really exciting! Good luck Wade, Shane, Mandy, and "the makeup team"!!



WORST: Kherington/Mark-neither number get any love from me. What were Comfort and Twitch wearing? Looked like aluminum foil and broken glass. Comfort still looks clunky in the ballroom routines. I could have done with out the "sea sickness" from Will (there was fake throw up involved if you didn't notice) EWWW! And the wigs...on the girls...not so much.

another favorite

So working graves like I did for 2 1/2 years there were times we made it around the internet firewalls in search of some innocent entertainment as to keep us all awake. We found the Mystery Case Files games. It would keep us going for that week or even two until you "win" it. And every 6 months or so a new one would come out. You could play free for 1 hour on the trial download and after that you could log in for 5 minutes. We would have 3 to 4 people around a monitor trying to get the level passed in under 5 minutes. Crazy! And lots of Fun! It's like an I-spy (you are a detective) mystery puzzle with other puzzles you have to solve-some of them really difficult to figure out. There are now 4 games released; Huntsville, Prime Suspects, Ravenhurst, and Madame Fate. Taycie and I have spent the last 2 days trying to win Madame Fate. I joined Big Fish Games for $6.99 a month to download games because we've found Taycie likes to play and why not get some good games over the next year...OK the truth-so it just made more sense that I really wanted to play the game and I didn't want to pay full price ($20). And bonus-I will get to buy the other 3 games in the next three months all "on sale". My other confession is that I had to find the walk-through online (someone usually gives spoilers and tips out there) to finish it. It was really hard! REALLY hard. Anyway-so if you need another fun thing to try I suggest these games. **small children warning on games 3 and 4 at the ends-if they are afraid of ghosts. Didn't know Taycie was afraid of ghosts until bedtime last night, I'm still convinced it was made up at bedtime, but I won't tell her that.

what you've been waiting for, i know!

I found a bunch of videos online and watched SYTYCD episodes over, and over again. I am ready to post about my favorites. Seriously, there is nothing else on tv even worth watching this summer. Do you feel the same?

http://www.fox.com/dance/ (In case you want more info on the dancers.)

So here's the link for you to see the top 10; I will be talking about them in this post. The thing I very much don't like about the web site though is they don't post videos of the performances. I had to find them anywhere else I could. I'm sure there are copywrite laws and stuff, but come on-you have to see them. Good luck finding them. Here's the run down...

• Katee and Joshua: solid couple, dedicated to any and every routine. My favorites have been: the Bollywood (Indian culture) they did last week, the Hip Hop to "No Air", the Contemporary by Mia Michaels, and the Broadway by Tice Diorio. I think that includes one from them every week. I wasn't sure I'd LOVE them at first. But I do know!
• Jessica and Will: really good together I think, Jessica gets a lot of flack-and complimented and the same time. It's a dancing contradiction. I loved the Lyrical by Mandy Moore to "Alone", and the Contemporary they did last week by Tice Diorio.
• Kherington and Twitch: they usually do well. The one that stands out the most was a Contemporary by Mia Michaels. And last week they were in the bottom 3 couples and had to perform solos to "dance for your life". TWITCH was so cool! He's a popper/breaker I guess is how you classify him and he did this symphony conductor thing. http://www.redlasso.com/ClipPlayer.aspx?id=7fe5097e-c761-4821-a4f7-84e89c797772 I think that link will take you to his video. ENJOY!
• Chelsie and Mark: last but not least. One of the very first shows they did a Contemporary by Mia Michaels called "Tim Burton's wedding"-very good. But my favorite was a Hip Hop to "Bleeding Love" two weeks ago.

I know-that's only 4 couples..."top 10" would be a total of 5 couples. I just can't quite give out any lovin' for Courtney and Gev-they are good, I just don't love, love them. I guess they have been consistent...but nothing outstanding yet.

I'm all ready for tomorrow night's show. I think this is the week they start drawing names out of a hat for partners as well as the dances. Mixes things up a bit. And I have been seeing rumors that Jessica has broken ribs or something and is being replaced by the last girl voted off-Comfort. She's a breaker- "b girl", and I don't love her either. Her lack of formal training really showed last week and I was ok with her departure. So I don't know what's going to happen there. I hope Jessica is ok! I'm guessing Comfort will be back just to fill the void-and they will eliminate one boy this week. I think that's only fair.

Enough already, I know you are thinking it...you might not even be reading anymore but I have to share what I love here and right now this is it. Gives me an outlet too so I've enjoyed my little break from chores to blog a bit. Later!

Trying to decide...

What is the reason I don't get to blog all the time? Maybe this will be a once a month kind of thing where I just catch you all up on what's been going on. (Updates on SYTYCD will have to come after tonight's show.) I want to blog more, so what's the deal? Why am I not creative enough for such funny and inventive posts? I am pretty jealous of what I see on other blogs; and how hilarious people are--you know who you are. I have had several pity parties because no one loves me. I started eating dirt (instead of worms) is that supposed to make you feel better? Overall I'm just not happy with some other things. It's summer-but my bikini body was two babies ago. I don't think it's the dirt. I know I can do something about it but we are burned out here at our house all the time-who would have time and energy for exercise? I know, no excuses. But I have lots of 'em actually, and to me, they sound valid.

Anyway, to update anyone that wants to know.

Dee: has finished statistics and finance classes, two down...and one more added to the end of his "graduation date". MAD MAD MAD! They didn't have it on his schedule because it wasn't offered at his campus-but he will still need the credit. And when were they going to tell him he needed the credit if he hadn't asked first? Probably in January. Because it wasn't showing-he thought graduation would be in January now it's been bumped to February. Still kickin' butt at work though. He rides the train now to save on gas and car trouble. We have plenty of car trouble. Like yesterday we found that a wheel had cracked causing a slow leak in the tire. Cost of a new wheel=who knows. An amazing father-in-law=PRICELESS! Darell found one to fit...not a perfect match but no one's looking right? Maybe the non-matching wheel set can be a new trend we start.

Me: like I said above, not so much smelling roses and sipping lemonade all day like I'd want to. More like the dishes are in the sink needing to be done as I sit here and blog. I'm knee deep in laundry and ironing all the time with a washer I have to monitor on every load to make sure it doesn't overfill and leak and spill out all over the floor. (It happened last week and we were SO glad that the dirty pile of towels was in place to soak it all up!) We did have a good 4th and a nice reunion with my side of the family on the 5th.

Taycie: loads of energy as usual. Bored, bored, bored-she tell me she's bored-all day long. Now, I know that there are a thousand things she could find for herself to do; read, craft, color, play games with little brother. But no, she'd rather be bored (and watch tv). Thanks goodness for my sister and nieces. She got to go to "cousin camp" and spend a few days with them. Apparently she wasn't bored there...when I asked her about her tv habit (it was reported to me that they never watched any tv) she tells me, "well, I didn't know the channels at their house". So maybe when the tv annoys me I will mess up the channels and she won't be able to turn the dang thing on. She's really good about finding friends to play with in the afternoon so I shouldn't complain too much. I know she will be so happy when school comes back around and she is occupied all day with lots of friends and plenty to do.

Tanner: best news of all! Personal record in weight: 23.25 lbs!! Finally ON the growth chart at 2% (doing better in height at 45%). So it looks like we might have a bean pole on our hands. Since being so sick in May he has been much, much better and eating like a hungry boy. His vocabulary is extending to counting and colors and I want so badly to post a "dictionary by Tanner" he says things so cute. "No way" is new. It's reminding us what Taycie used to say and we laugh all over again at her baby words. We could probably publish a Jensen edition dictionary with the two of them. He's decided he loves swimming in grandmas pool if by swimming he can float on the big mattress and splash a little. And fireworks-not so much a favorite. I had to plug his ears and he held onto my hands tight. But no screaming or crying and he cheered and clapped when they were over-I don't think because they were over but because he did kind of like them after all.

Oh, I do love the kids. And I love Dee more than anything, more than ever! He sacrifices so much to get this schooling in. It will all be over some day-with the student loans to prove it. We have our 9 year anniversary coming up next month. I wonder what will happen in the next 9? And whether or not I will be able to have time to blog about it? Gotta go, I've spent too much time here and the kids are on my case about a snack-I swear we just had breakfast!

OneRepublic

My new favorite!! http://www.mtv.com/music/artist/onerepublic/videos.jhtml
You can check out their videos here. I already knew it was "too late to apologize" last year, but if you "stop and stare" you might go nowhere-and "say" you love them as much as I do.

Do you have a happy dance?

Confession time. One of my TV obsessions in the summer is So You Think You Can Dance...are you rolling on the floor laughing yet? Dee gives me a hard time, oh well, with DVR at least he doesn't have to watch it with me. I love this show even more than as much as I loved American Idol this year. I've missed a few years of AI-glad I saw this last season, but SYTYCD has been an absolute favorite all 3 seasons. I hated that Dee made fun of me before-but it just didn't connect until recently why it bothered me so much. I used to dance -confession #2- and I think that's why I enjoy the form of entertainment so much. I had no skill whatsoever but when you're 14 they let anyone in Jazz class that will pay to be there. Before Jazz I clogged from age 8 until my knees literally gave out at 12, and a lot of those years until about 15 I also square danced -confession #3- with my family (we had a good time but I had to quit 'cause it was SO NOT cool to go into high school being a "square" dancer). I love music and the body movement and WISH I could do a small fraction of what I see them do on TV. In researching for this post I found a bunch of videos on the web from past seasons and I loved watching them all over again. I have favorite dancers, routines, costumes, choreographers from all 3 seasons and I can't wait for what this season holds. The Top 20 performed last night and the talent this year is amazing! They mean business-and the choreographers are seriously winning Emmy awards for the stories they portray in dance. I just love it!! So if I have nothing else to tell you about at least I can keep you all updated on who is eliminated this week. And thank you for not making fun of me either.

Tanner funny today

I know it's only 10 am but Tanner had me smiling first thing today and I want to share. He LOVES cereal straws, and wants them every day-all day long. I have to limit them and he gets MAD. He yells "NAH"! It sounds like this: (s)na-(ck) the S and CK missing obviously. And he hits me like I wasn't paying attention. Today I told him he needs to ask nice and say please, so he changed his tone of voice with a "Nah"? and rubbed his chest (please in sign language). I said "Ok, mommy knows." So then he walks over to me and touches "beep beep" on my NOSE. So TENDER!!! I lova him! And if anything else spectacular happens today-I'll let ya know.

P.S. Not a staged picture-that is just how sweet he is!!

**Later that day: when Tanner wakes up from his nap he usually hollers for "tay-tee!" to come get him. If she's home I don't mind, so up she went and I heard some talking and playing. Pretty soon Taycie is downstairs with out Tanner. I waited to see if he was coming down on his own and then I heard a "BOO!" from the stairs-I pretended to be scared and looked up to see his little face from around the corner--grinning from ear to ear. I just laughed! His personality is forming and I just can't get over how much he understands at 2. That was a good day.

Date Night

So the last Dee-and-I-alone date I remember was three months ago for my birthday, and we only made it out for a nice Italian dinner. I can't even try to remember the last movie we actually sat in a theater for. Last night I was DYING---REALLY actually going to die if I couldn't go see Narnia: Prince Caspian, or I guess I could have just gone to see it by myself. Anyway, Taycie and I had re-read the book just so we would know what was going on. (Side note: Taycie doesn't get to see action packed/intense movies until we pre-screen them.) So Dee finished his stats class (HOORAY!) on Tuesday and I knew he needed a night to blow off steam. OK, actually it was me REALLY needing to blow off steam. I have been taking care of sick, VERY, sick babies the last two weeks. Tanner went to the ER twice for dehydration, and I had to check Taycie out of school early one day because she threw up in class (poor thing!). They had the tummy flu severely-lots of yuck, you don't want further details, believe me. I lost track of how many times I had been thrown up on-or pooped on for that matter. It seemed like it was never going to end, from either end, and I was just waiting to get it myself...however I now know that Heavenly Father blesses Mothers so that they can take care of their little ones-somehow keeping our bodies' systems from giving in. I never did get it and I am forever grateful. For most of the first week we even made "headquarters" in the family room with a quilt out on the floor so the two kids could sleep at night with me right there beside them on the couch. I learned we don't have a comfortable sleeping couch. We had throw up bowls, tissues, diapers and wipes, extra blankets and clothes. I even started a "clean pile" of laundry and blankets in the rocking chair because I was going through 3 or 4 extra loads of laundry a day just in clean up efforts. So we would dress out of the clean from the chair, take the dirty in to be washed and when it was clean it would go to the chair...good strategy right?

Well after all that I guess I haven't been too patient or kind...I AM SOOOOO SORRY FAMILY!! I called Dee at work and said, "You need to find me a babysitter and take me out!" Not too demanding even though it sounds a little harsh. It was just the right temperature for Dee to really take note! :) Love you, honey. So he did. He found a babysitter (thank you grandma Steph), came home from working all day in Salt Lake to turn around and go back to Salt Lake to use our gift card his old company had given us for Christmas-yes it takes us 6 months or longer to use gift cards that's how often we go out!! We did not have a good parking experience-who knows why there were THAT many people at the Gateway last night. We ran in to grab tickets for the 7:00 show and I stood there watching for it to blink "sold out" in front of me I was so anxious, but it didn't-Hallelujah! And with reserved seating we got to pick our seats-up far enough you are right on with the screen and just left of center-not too bad. We had just enough time to get a bite-Subway had to do with the time constraint we were in. And then it was time-time to sit and enjoy a full-length film with no kids crying; well not my kids anyway, someone else had a crying kid but I didn't have to take care of it. And 'sup with with the guy half way down and his annoying cell phone ring in the middle of the movie??? I swear it took him two full minutes to get it turned off. Gosh, some people!

Now onto the movie review; the REAL reason I wanted to post tonight (thank you for letting me vent off that whole two weeks of sick kids and stuff). TERRIFIC, AMAZING, FABULOUS, PERFECT!!! I can't believe how they adapted it and made it SO MUCH BETTER than the book. At least more entertaining, and maybe it's not really the book's fault, maybe it's the limits of my imagination when reading the book. But I choose to believe that there were LOTS of creative geniuses at work and they just did all they could to put you there, make you feel all of it. I loved, loved, loved it and wish I could have seen it again today!!! I found myself especially enjoying parts that I kept leaning over to tell Dee, "That's not in the book"-hope I didn't ruin it for him. There was so much more than the book and it just added to the entirety of it. Made something good, so so so good and even better. I'll stop now, sorry for the long post-I'm sure I lost a few readers about half way down. Oh well. Go see Caspian if you haven't already done so!! Both of my thumbs are up, WAY UP! And thank you to my hubby for the DATE! If I promise to be in a better mood will you please not make me wait another 3 months?!!

Check out my Slide Show!