1997 has been a year filled with blessings for our family. Shortly after the new year started, Janika (age 13 months) started walking and walking and walking!! She was pretty proud of herself and could entertain herself for quite a long time by just walking around. BLM decided to have me (Wendy) come in one morning a week to interpret and that worked out really well. My sister, Jeni, volunteered to watch Janika these Wednesday mornings since it gave Janika and her son Landon, an opportunity to play together. The kids loved it too!
Finally, the end of April came and we found out that Rick had been hired!! We were absolutely thrilled! We were asked to sing a couple of songs for the banquet at the hiring meeting. We still didn’t know where we would be teaching and anxiously waited to hear the news. A few weeks later, we got a call saying that Rick would be teaching in St. George, Utah! We couldn’t believe it! We were so excited and yet we were sad to be moving away from our families. Rick had been chosen to play the part of a brother in the musical “Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Coat” at the University of Utah this summer and so we had to cancel that as well Hands In Harmony, voice lessons, teaching at the Community College, interpreting for BLM and other agencies, and so forth. We really had a lot of ties in Salt Lake and moving was like completely starting over from scratch.
After a couple of trips to St. George, we finally found a house that we immediately fell in love with! After selling our condo and moving out, we kept everything in the Ryder truck for a couple of days in order to go to my brother Shane's missionary homecoming. He had just returned home from his mission in Brazil. The family celebrated together with a family BBQ at Scott and Amy's house in Draper.
Then it was time to head to St. George to stay! Scott and Julie Yearsley's family and Grandma Jensen drove down with us to help us move and get settled in. They were a big help as was the Westra family who helped us move out of our condo. We sure do have great families! We were excited to show them our "miniature mansion on the hill" and had some fun with them before they left to go back home.
We love the scenery in Ivins. All around us there are mountains, including a giant red mountain right in our backyard. We often go outside to look at the sunsets and are in complete awe of the beauty surrounding us. At night we love opening our blinds in order to see the stars and the moon shining through our window. It is wonderful having a large front lawn for Janika to run around on and we look forward to getting our back yard put in. In July the Blackhams came down and we watched Landon for a few days while Jen and Gray celebrated their anniversary in Vegas. Janika and Landon had a blast together and we also got to have some fun outings with the Blackhams while they were here!
After a couple of trips to St. George, we finally found a house that we immediately fell in love with! After selling our condo and moving out, we kept everything in the Ryder truck for a couple of days in order to go to my brother Shane's missionary homecoming. He had just returned home from his mission in Brazil. The family celebrated together with a family BBQ at Scott and Amy's house in Draper.
We love the scenery in Ivins. All around us there are mountains, including a giant red mountain right in our backyard. We often go outside to look at the sunsets and are in complete awe of the beauty surrounding us. At night we love opening our blinds in order to see the stars and the moon shining through our window. It is wonderful having a large front lawn for Janika to run around on and we look forward to getting our back yard put in. In July the Blackhams came down and we watched Landon for a few days while Jen and Gray celebrated their anniversary in Vegas. Janika and Landon had a blast together and we also got to have some fun outings with the Blackhams while they were here!
It didn’t take long to become involved in our new area. Rick started teaching Seminary at Pine View High School and loved it and I started teaching the Intermediate American Sign Language series at Dixie College on Tuesday and Thursday evenings. Rick tried out for the play “StarChild” and ended up with the leading role! He did a great job both singing and acting in this production. We decided however, that it took too much time away from family and so he probably won’t attempt something like this again. My pregnancy moved along slowly but surely and we had an Ultrasound in August that let us know our little baby would be a boy!
Rick and I became involved in two wards – our home ward in Ivins and the Deaf host ward in Dixie Downs. We ended up keeping our records in our own ward, but attended the Deaf host ward every other week in order to help interpret for their meetings. This was a good experience for us and helped to keep us involved with Sign Language and the Deaf. I began to get calls fairly often to go out and do interpreting in the community which I did about once a week. This was a nice outlet for me and provided us with a little spending money. There are only three certified interpreters in this area (including Rick and I) and I am the only Level II and so there is really a need for our services. In our home ward, Rick was called to teach Gospel Doctrine and I was called to play the piano for the Ward Choir. I thought this would be an easy calling, but it has been challenging since the music is so difficult.
Rick and I started attending an interpreter class on Mondays through Ednet which is a telecommunications course. I was fortunate to get a good job as an interpreter trainer working with interpreters-in-training in the St. George and the surrounding areas. All the work is done at home since it is through videotapes and the mail. This way I don’t have to leave my kids and I can work the hours that are convenient for me. This has really been a blessing for us!
We are grateful to have Rick’s sister, Julie’s sister-in-law, Dana Charleton, living nearby and we enjoyed Thanksgiving dinner at their home this year. They have been wonderful to help with Janika, and Rick is teaching two of her daughter’s voice lessons. Speaking of music, Rick really misses Hands in Harmony and we are hoping to get permission to start the group up again next year.
Finally, after what seemed like an eternal pregnancy, I started having contractions the morning of December 2nd as I took Janika on our daily walk to the park. The contractions were not too bad and I wasn’t in any hurry since it took so long with Janika. I told Rick that I wanted him to come with me to teach my sign language class that night (just in case) and so we dropped off Janika at Dana’s on the way. It is a good thing he did! The contractions were starting to get worse as we drove to class. I gave my students their quiz while trying not to show the pain on my face of the contractions that were continually getting worse.
I went to my office and told Rick to take over. As soon as he left, the contractions started getting really bad. He came back a few minutes later to check on me and could immediately see that we needed to go right away! He rushed to gather up all of the all the quizzes and then we hurried to the hospital where our baby boy was born 30 minutes later (7:03 p.m.). Rick said he never wanted to cut it that close again, but I was grateful that he came so quickly and with no complications. We named him Jase Rick Jensen. He was 7’ 12” and measured at 21”. He is a beautiful baby and reminds us so much of Janika when she was first born.
Rick took three days off work to help with the new baby and then we had Grandma and Grandpa Westra come for the weekend and then Grandma Jensen spent the next week with us. We are so grateful for such wonderful families and Janika loved all the attention that she received! Janika is now a beautiful, active little two year old and quite the chatter box! She speaks so cute and clear and copies everything we say. She loves to read stories and sign songs and she is nice and soft with Jase. We had Jase blessed in my mom and dad's ward in SLC over Christmas Break so that all of our family could attend. It was a wonderful day! I can’t help but look back on this past year as a year filled with choice blessings. This year we were blessed with a new wonderful job, a new wonderful home, a new wonderful baby and the list goes on and on. How grateful we are for our precious families and our knowledge of the gospel and knowing that our family is ours forever!!
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