National Anthem Video (Jaiden and Janelle)

 Jaiden and Janelle Jensen are members of the National Honor Society at their high school. They had the opportunity to sing the National Anthem at the NHS Induction Ceremony tonight. They did great!! You can listen to it HERE!! 

Janelle Waterskiing

My friend Ellie Kenworthy's family is really into boating, and she managed to schedule a trip to take all of us friends! It was way fun, we went Sand Hollow (I think, don't quote me on that :)) and we all went boating and wake surfing. After that we went to her family's lot in Hurricane and ate food and watched a horror movie on top of a trailer! (It wasn't really scary cause we just made fun of it really) but it was a super fun day!

Josh: Soon to be Soccer Referee

Josh has been interested in becoming a soccer referee and so I have been trying to help him through the process. This is all new to both of us and so we don't really know what we are doing! Someone on Josh's soccer team told him about a certification training in September for new refs (and this boy's mom also called me to let me know about it). We both decided to register our boys for the training. It was the St. George entry level grassroots training through the U.S. Soccer Learning Training Center. I checked to make sure it was the correct website and the proper training that would lead to him becoming a ref for competitive soccer leagues in our area, and it was.

The training included 5 hours of online training (and quizzes) and then an in-person course on September 1st. The training, including both the online training and the in-person course, was $85.00. Rick was hesitant about spending the money for that, but Josh assured him that he would pay back the funds once he had his license and could start working. Rick was also concerned about transportation to and from games, since the soccer fields are clear across town. I am concerned about that also, but want to give Josh the opportunity to work, even if I have to bring him. Hopefully we can work out a carpool situation. 

At the training course the people giving the training went over more referee drills and calls, but Josh and his friend left the course confused because they were given NO information on what to do now that they were certified. How did they get to where they were now to actually working as a referee at games? When they asked they were just given the phone number of the ref assigner for Southern Utah. I called the number a couple of times and left a message, but received no response. Josh was very busy with Cross Country and soccer and so I put it on the back burner for a couple of weeks. I kept forgetting about it and so I set up a time in my calendar for Josh to call the ref assigner. (He doesn't have a cell phone and so he needs to use mine).

Josh called a couple of times and left a message. This time we received a text with a link to a PDF which contained detailed instructions with the next few steps on becoming a referee. I am not sure why the boys were not given these instructions during the online training or during the in-person course! Well, those instructions took another hour to wade through (granted I am a little slow, but I am constantly checking and double checking to make sure that I am following the instructions correctly). So now Josh is registered as a referee (we just have to wait for the final approval). We have the payment system set up (for him to get paid), and filled out the information that would put him on the referee list, and ordered the referee uniform and kit (another $68.90). I sure hope this will be worth it! So now we are just waiting for approval from whoever is in charge and for the uniform and other supplies to arrive. Then we will call the ref assigner again and let her know that he is ready to accept games. His friend already went through this process a couple of weeks ago and so he is assigned to three games this Saturday. 

Josh has been concerned about the expenses and said that he would pay us back for all of the referee expenses once he starts reffing games and earning money. (Thankfully they pay well!) He also wants to put together an account to help pay for other soccer expenses, such as specialized trainings and tournaments. He wants to tryout for high school soccer this coming Spring and has offered to help pay for that as well. He is such a great kid! So hopefully he will get to ref at least a few games before the season ends and will be all ready to go for Spring season. We also encourage our children to pay tithing first, the missionary jar next, then savings. So after all that (and helping to pay for soccer expenses) hopefully he stills has enough leftover for some play money!!  

Janika in Snow College Magazine -- 40 Under 40

 Way to go, Janika! 

Josh SCHS Cross Country Meet

Josh ran in the home Cross Country meet at SCHS. He did awesome! We had been really worried since he injured his back at his soccer game last Saturday after he collided with another player. His back had been hurting him ever since. On Monday he rode his bike halfway to XC practice in the morning but then turned around and came back home since his back was hurting so bad. He missed all of his XC practices this week and also missed one of his soccer practices. So we were worried about how this race would go! We really wanted him to run because he had already had to miss almost every XC meet due to conflicting soccer games. 

Josh's back was still hurting him the morning of the race. I asked him if he was okay getting a blessing and he accepted. Rick and Jared gave him a blessing and he was blessed that his back wouldn't bother him during the race and that he would be able to do his best. Well, his back didn't bother him during the race and he was able to beat his former time by over 2 minutes! His former PR for a 5K was 21:03 and this race he got a time of 18:56!! Way to go, Josh! We were all excited over his time and humbled and grateful for answered prayers and tender mercies!!    

Visit from Grandma

Grandma Jensen came down with Julie (and Haulee and Shane's family -- and their neighbors) so that Shane could do the Iron Man. The Iron Man was actually cancelled this year due to Covid, but Shane still did the entire race by himself!! Now that is some crazy dedication!! Meanwhile Grandma came over to visit. Grandma played some games of Uno and Skipbo with Jenna, and then the girls and I met them at the house they were staying at to go swimming. The kids had a ball! Jenna brought her snow cone machine and served everyone snow cones! (Pictured, Janelle and Jaiden modeling, Jenna and Jhi swimming, Jenna with cousins and their friends making snow cones). 

 

Jaiden's Group Homecoming Pictures

 This group is lucky that the mom of one of the boys is a professional photographer! Thank you, Melody Averett!! 

Janelle's Homecoming Group Pictures

 

Homecoming

For Jaiden's day date they met up with their big group and went to a thrift store (The Hope Chest) where they picked out funny clothes for each other and then went bowling. Jaiden and her date found these awesome onesies!  Then they got Chick-Fil-A and ate lunch at Lane's house.

Janelle's group went boating at Sand Hollow. She had a blast! However, she came home sunburned, in spite of my many warnings to wear sunscreen! 

The girls weren't in the same group, so we were excited that the dates happened to show up at the same time so that we could get some pictures together! Although the colors look like they are ready for valentines day, ha ha. The girls did a little re-enactment of when they were little (just by memory -- I wished we had watched the original video first so that we could have made the second closer to the first. Maybe next time!) 

2007: https://youtu.be/aZy3kDL0zHM

2020:  https://youtu.be/A2SdeSsscsE

Jaiden's group went out to eat at an Italian restaurant (Cappelettis) and Janelle's group had pictures on a water tower. They had decorated it all and she said it looked awesome. It was catered by Chick-Fil-A. The dance was on the high school football field. Unfortunately students were not keeping the rules and kept doing Mosh Pits in spite of several warnings to stop. Finally they shut down the dance and kicked everyone out an hour early. The same thing happened at Janelle's last dance -- except for that time it was due to crowd surfing. It is just too bad that some groups of kids have to spoil it for everyone else. So Janelle's group split up and she and her date joined Janelle's friends at one of their houses for their own dance. She said it was really fun. Jaiden's group went out for ice cream and then to someone's house to watch a movie. Both girls had a great day in spite of the dance being shut down.

(Both girls' group photos are in the posts right above this one!) 

Homecoming Week and Suzy's Corner

I spent the two Saturdays before Homecoming bringing the girls dress shopping. Unfortunately they weren't available to come together. I learned from Janelle about a dress shop called "Suzy's Closet" that is right out of someone's home in Hurricane. It was awesome! Over a thousand prom dresses (either to rent or buy). The dresses were modest, or had accessories to make them modest. They happened to have a 50% sale the week we went and so it was killer deals! I ended up getting six dresses between the two girls, ha ha!! Two for Homecoming (they chose really simple dresses for HOCO) and fancier ones for Junior Prom and Senior Ball (assuming they get asked). 

I remember coming up to SLC to go dress shopping with Janika and her best friend. You can read that adventure HERE!! But I really hadn't had a chance to dress shop with Janelle and Jaiden (other than online shopping) so it was fun to get out for some mother-daughter time and see them try on dress after dress and get a feel for their individual styles! 

I watched a dozen or so YouTube videos trying to learn new hairstyles for Homecoming. Thanks to Jaiden's hair requirements for past recitals I finally mastered french braids and dutch braids. For this dance I learned how to do a waterfall braid. I am a slow learner, but am pretty proud of myself when I finally master a new style! Janika was so awesome at doing both her own hair and her sisters' hair that I didn't learn many of these skills until she was out of the house! 

Jaiden was asked to sing the National Anthem at the Girls' Volleyball game on September 8th. She had been nervous when she was called down to the office during school, wondering what the reason was. She was relieved when she found out it was "just" a request to sing at the game. I know many people would not be "relieved" when asked to sing a solo in a gym filled with people! They have themes for the games such as "Black Out" where everyone wears black. The theme for tonight's game was "Business Out," which is why she is wearing a random blazer in the video, ha ha! It doesn't look like many people dressed up. Rick and I went to watch her sing but didn't stay for the game. After the volleyball game Jaiden went to the soccer game with her friends. Josh also went to the soccer game with his friends. With the sudden turn in temperature after the storm Monday night the kids froze. Jaiden even came home halfway through to grab some blankets. 

The week of Homecoming there were school activities every night of the week. (Powder Puff game, parade, drive-in movie, tailgate party, Homecoming assembly, Homecoming game, Fireworks party.) Jaiden was involved to the hilt in every single one of them. I had her miss the drive-in movie for her weekly dance class and she was completely distraught about missing what she deemed to be such a critical social event. Besides singing at the Volleyball game, Jaiden was also asked to be the soloist when the Madrigals sang at the Homecoming game. I was SO disappointed that I didn't get it on video! I was racing out the door when Josh asked me to drop him off to his friend's house. I thought the events started at 7:00 but I guess they have the Madrigals sing the National Anthem before that time. So I heard it from the parking lot but wasn't able to video it. Janelle had to miss singing at the game due to work.  

 

BFF Romantic Corner: Candlelight Dinner

Tonight Jenna (age 11), asked if she and her friend, Clarissa, could fix Rick and I a special candlelight dinner for our date tonight! We wholeheartedly agreed! They did such a fabulous job! They dressed up as cute little fancy waitresses, decorated the stairs and basement with candles, played soft music, and served us a delicious meal of tacos, followed by dessert. First they called their "restaurant" JC's Romantic Corner (J for Jenna and C for Clarissa). But before the end of the night they switched the name to BFF Romantic Corner. After the meal they cleaned up the kitchen so that we could watch a movie. It was the perfect date! Love these cute girls!!

We tipped them $10.00 ($5.00 for each of them). They were really happy with that!! Here is the Facebook Post with comments! 

YW Boating

Tonight we went boating with the Young Women at Quail lake. Apparently, every member of our Bishopric owns a boat! Why haven't we done this before? It was a lot of fun. Janelle has been before and so she stayed up the longest. Jenna tried over and over but wasn't able to get up. I am sure once she does, she will have no problem! Jaiden got up briefly and so Janelle managed to get a good shot of her!