Joe's Farewell

Today was Joe's mission farewell. Grandma and Grandpa Jensen came down for the weekend and it was really nice to have some extended family with us for this even. At first we thought only Joe would be speaking, but in the end both Greg and I were also asked to speak. Our topic was "The Good News". None of us were thrilled with such a broad topic, but in the end it turned out quite well. I spoke first and started by defining the good news as the Gospel. I then touched on understanding the good news, how it has been shared, and what we need to do to fully benefit from it. Greg went next and spoke about how the good news came to and benefited his family. Then Joseph finished the program by focusing on our responsibilities once we have received the good news in our lives. He made a comment about home and visiting teaching being missionary work that impressed the Relief Society President so much she came up and told me that she had written it down so she could quote it later. We had many people tell us how impressed they were with the program. And even a few that commented that they had never heard Joe say so much at one time before. He did an excellent job and I believe gave us a glimpse of what a great missionary he is going to be.

Later on in the afternoon we had a small open house for people to come say good bye to Joe. It was good to have one last time to gather friends together with Joe. It is going to be strange when he is gone. I am excited for his opportunity to serve a mission, but do not look forward to his being gone. But I know he will be an excellent missionary and will be blessed greatly for his service.

Melissa turns 21!

I am not sure how it happened, but Melissa has turned 21. I am having difficulty dealing with the fact that she is that old (not to mention what that means for me!) To celebrate, Erin and I drove to Austin and spent several hours with her. We started off going to lunch, where we enjoyed Indian food at the Clay Pot near her apartment. Erin then went with Melissa to her Institute class. Before leaving town, we drove up to Mt. Bonnell and enjoyed the view of the city and river. Melissa's birthday present this year was her UT class ring, something she was very excited to receive. Melissa has become an amazing woman, and we had a great time with her on her birthday.

Missionary Shopping Trip

On Monday, February 18, we flew to Utah to shop for Joe’s mission clothes. Since Houston isn’t known for extreme cold, we started looking online for clothes. After checking out some websites, I liked the looks of the Missionary Mall, which offers a wonderful 2 yr guarantee on everything they sell. If anything wears out during normal missionary activities, all the elder has to do is send in a picture of the item and they will replace it for free. This even includes wiping out on your bike and tearing your pants. Hard to beat that. Although their website was good, we didn’t want to buy Joe’s mission clothes without letting him see them and trying them on first, so a trip to Utah was a must. What a blessing to have my flight benefits which made this trip possible.

We originally tried to fly out Sunday morning. However, our flight filled up at the last minute and all we ended up doing was spending a few hrs. at the airport. Luckily flying out Monday was a breeze, so the only thing it cost us was a night we planned to spend with the Stays. When we arrived in Salt Lake we were picked up by Grandpa Stay, who was going to loan us a car for our trip. After dropping him off at work, we headed to Provo. We spent the afternoon at Brett and Tonia’s house. Tonia and the boys were pulling in just as we got there. We helped them unload their groceries and headed inside. We soon discovered that Brett was home with the flu. Luckily he felt good enough to come chat with us (and none of us ended up catching what he had!). Sam and Cobe couldn’t wait for Joe to arrive. As soon as we entered the door, Cobe went downstairs to get the Wii turned on so Joe could play with them. It didn’t take long for Cobe to lose patience for Joe to come play, so he came up and got him. The three boys were happily occupied until dinner.


Tuesday was our shopping day. We headed right for the Missionary Mall. There were a couple of people already there, and only 2 salesmen so we wandered around for a while on our own. Once we had a salesman to help us, everything went smoothly. He went through the list with Joe and helped him select things that Joe was comfortable in. We ended up buying just about everything he needed there (and getting an idea for a great laundry bag that I made for about $25 less than they were selling it for).


All that was left was to have his suit pants hemmed. They took Joe's measurements and told us the pants should be done in a couple of hrs. Since we were heading to Salt Lake when we were done, we decided to grab some lunch, make a quick stop at the distribution center and then pick up the suits. Unfortunately the seamstress was called over to the Sister Missionary Mall, and unable to finish his pants when promised. This meant we'd have to return in the morning before we flew home. What a pain! We headed to Layton, had a great evening with the Stays and then drove back to Provo Wednesday morning. Luckily the traffic was no problem at all, and we were easily able to get there, return to Salt Lake for lunch and still be at the airport with plenty of time to spare. The biggest challenge was making all of our purchases fit into our carry on luggage. But in the end it did and the flight home went very smoothly.

Sadie Hawkins

Rachel went to the Sadie Hawkins dance tonight with Chris White. Both Rachel and Chris are big fans of "The Office", so Rachel asked him to the dance by putting a stapler which said "Sadie Hawkins?" in green jello. Couples dressed like each other for this dance, but Rachel and Chris decided to just dress in black. They had dinner at BJ's before the dance and then went to a friend's house after the dance to play rock band.

The Tuba Queen Rules Again

Rachel had her solo and ensemble competition on Saturday, Feb. 9 and earned ones on both of her performances. She had worked very hard preparing for this competition, but was worried because her ensemble wasn't able to get together to practice very much. In the end it turned out she was worried about nothing as her ensemble did awesome. She was, however, shocked that she got a one on her solo as that didn't go as well as she had hoped. But she is not complaining. She is happy to take her medals and run--all they way to the state competition which will be held on Saturday May 24 in San Antonio.

Big day for Joe!

Today Joe took out his endowments at the Houston Texas Temple. Wow, what an amazing experience! Being a parent is such a difficult job at times, but this was definitely a day where we were able to experience the true joy of being parents. This morning before we went to the temple we attended the world wide training broadcast on the family where we were told that "the family comes first" and that it is an obligation to raise up a righteous family. This afternoon as we watched our son take a major step in his spiritual progression, that message was reinforced. Everything we do should be focused on the goal of having an eternal family. This was our first day in the temple with one of our children. I look forward to having this experience with each of our three daughters!

Throughout the session, I kept looking over at Joe. I loved watching his face, and seeing Greg help him along. I kept wondering how this could be my little boy. Time has gone so fast! Just before I went through the veil, I glanced back over my shoulder and gave Joe a smile. I then joined Greg in the Celestial room and we waited for Joe to follow. Our Bishop told me later that after we were both gone, he moved up behind Joe and told him that this was just like life--he'll see me smile at him and then slip through the veil, and then I'd be waiting for him in the Celestial Kingdom. (I had a similar thought as I passed through the veil)

I am so thankful that we were able to be with Joe in the temple today. What a great blessing it is as a parent to watch your child make such an important commitment to live the gospel to its fullest. We are so proud of Joe and his decision to serve a mission. He has an amazing spirit and I know he will be a force for much good in Colorado!

Funny girl!

A few weeks ago we were talking about the Green Bay Packers and how it takes more than 30 yrs on the waiting list to get season tickets for them. Well, Erin decided she better get on the list because you never know she might live in Green Bay someday. So early last week she received her letter from the Packers saying she is on the waiting list for 4 tickets. And she only has 77,735 people in front of her!

Out of my comfort zone

Last Friday (Feb 1) we got a call from the sister missionaries that serve in our ward. Not an unusual event, as they often call to have Joe go out with them. I answered, expecting them to ask for Joe, but instead they asked if I was available to go out with them on a visit. This really took me back. I said just a minute, put my hand over the phone and just stood there. Greg asked what was wrong. I said the missionaries had just asked me to go out with them and that I didn't want to go. He and Joe both laughed, and said they understood that dilemma. So I stood there and fought with the urge to say no and the knowledge that my whole family was watching me and that I would be setting an example by the choice I made. So I said yes.

I met the sisters at by the house where there appointment was. Unfortunately the woman who they were supposed to meet wasn't there. So we got in my van and went to visit one of their other contacts. It has been a long time since I have gone out with the missionaries. It was really good to see them teach an investigator and deal with the objections that were brought up. Gave me a good insight on what Joe will be doing on his mission. I am not sure I added anything to the evening (although I did play with a 3 yr old so at least I was able to try to keep him focused on me and not being such a big distraction for his Grandmother). I am glad I went--even if I really didn't want to.

Words you don't want to hear

Yesterday I got a call from Melissa. It started out normal--Hi Mom. I asked how she was doing and heard the word parents don't want to hear--"I got hit by a car". Luckily they were followed by "but I am fine". Turns out that Melissa was crossing the street when a car decided not to make a stop at the red light before making a right turn. The car hit Melissa, making her stumble but not knocking her down. The driver jumped out of the car, freaking out as he should have. Melissa told him he was fine and walked off. I told her she should have gotten his information in case it turns out she was injured but didn't know it. She told me that she felt fine at the time and just wanted to get away from the situation. Now, of course her knee and arm were both a little sore. I told her to go to the Dr. and get checked out--just in case she had an injury that would get worse if she kept up normal activities. She agreed, and then told me that she thought she was being a hyprocondriact because she was feeling things on the side that wasn't even hit.
Later that day I received a text from her saying she was now afraid to cross the street. Several years ago while visiting Greg's sister in Cedar City, Melissa was shot in the shoulder with a BB gun by a juvenile delinquent that lived across the street from Sherri. After that Melissa suffered from what only could be described as post traumatic stress disorder for a while and was very afraid to go outside. This brought back memories of this for me, and I can only assume it did for her too. My poor baby! I told her I would come to Austin if she needed me to take care of her. She jokingly replied that I may need to move there to help her cross the street. I guess it's true that laughter is the best medicine!

Today Melissa and I were texting and she sent me a note that she hadn't made it to the Dr., and asking if I still wanted her to go. I asked how she was feeling and she said that she had a bruise on her knee--but that she hadn't hurt at all since taking some Ibuprofen yesterday. So we decided to count our blessings and let it go. We always try to remember to ask that Melissa be watched over and kept safe in our prayers. This is one occasion where I know our prayers were answered.

Our amazing clarinet player

Erin is a very talented clarinet player who likes to play for fun and not necessarily to be "the best". This week we have had a couple of reminders of that. First, during her private lesson, her teacher told Erin she really frustrated her. Erin asked why and the response was "because you could be amazing if you wanted, but you just don't care". This comment just rolled of Erin's back. We have had issues with this private lesson teacher's attitude in the past, but have stuck with her because she is a good teacher and because Erin doesn't let her comments get to her. When Erin told me about this incident, I told her that her teacher was probably right--that if she practiced more she could probably get a scholarship. Her response was "I don't want to study music, so why would they give me a scholarship". Good point. Later that same week, Rachel came home to tell us that her high school band director had called her into his office. He started off with small talk about the new tuba they are getting next year, and then asked about Erin. He said he heard that she is a really good clarinet player. Rachel confirmed this. He than said that he had heard that Erin was thinking about quitting band. Rachel said no, that we had talked her into giving marching band a try and that she planned to take band next year. He was very relieved, told Rachel how much the band needs Erin and then told her to let Erin know they are getting some new Bass Clarinets next year and that she might get to play on a brand new instrument. Too funny!
















On Saturday, Feb 2, Erin had her Solo and Ensemble competition. She had been working on this for quite a while, and I hadn't realized how much it was stressing her out. Friday night we took some brownies over to Sarah Richardson for her birthday. We sat in their living room talking, and S & E came up. Erin said she was so stressed out she could wait until it was over. I looked over at her and she had tears in her eyes. I asked her what was wrong and she said she knew she was going to do bad, would get a bad grade and then get grounded. Let me explain this by saying that Rachel did get grounded once for getting a B in band--not because a B is a bad grade but because she got it simply because she wouldn't turn in her practice records. We do expect our kids to do well in school--however, the standard is that we expect you to do your best. In this case, Rachel got a B simply because she would not bother to turn in her practice sheets. The grounding was an attempt to get Rachel to be more responsible. I assured Erin that no matter how she did at competition, she would not get grounded. That I knew she had prepared her pieces well, and that I wanted her just to go and enjoy playing them. This seemed to calm her down a little. The next day she went to competition and seemed pretty calm. When we picked her up, she announced that she had earned a 1 on both her solo and ensemble. She said she lucked out and got the easy judge, so even though she messed up on her solo she still earned her medal. She also said she would have been happy with a 2 on her solo. It was good to see that she had taken our talk to heart and would have been ok with not being perfect.