March Update

 *I was released from the Young Women Presidency and called as a Relief Society teacher. This calling will be a lot less time consuming, although not as fun! 

*Grandma Jensen had a bad fall while going on a walk and tripped on the uneven sidewalk falling face first on the cement. She broke her nose on both sides and also her hand and some ribs. She has been in a lot of pain but is on the mend and hopefully will recover quickly! 

*Josh made the Snow Canyon high school soccer team and it is going well. He has been playing JV and getting quite a bit of playing time. I helped with the soccer camp, team snacks, and first team dinner. Rick and I have enjoyed watching his games. Josh has also started refereeing again on Saturdays.

*Janelle cut off her long locks and it turned out really cute! Many of her guy friends have started receiving their mission calls and she has had fun going to their mission-call openings! She is excited to serve a mission in October! 

*Jared turned 21! Now that he has moved out we only see him about once a week. (The kids usually come over for dinner on Sundays). But he is doing great and is enjoying the social atmosphere on campus. 

*Jase and Ellen had their baby reveal. Their baby is a BOY!! We are excited for our first grandbaby and the kids are excited to be an Aunt or Uncle! 

*Spring Break brought Snow to St. George this year! That is a first! Jenna was able to play in it before it melted. Derek and Danielle were in town and came over to visit. The kids had a ball! 

*Janika and Brandon came to visit the weekend after Spring Break and so it was fun to see them too! They are excited for their townhome to finish being built so that they can move in! they finished a huge job of refinishing their table. 

*Jenna had the District Geography Challenge and had studied most days for the past month.  She put in MANY hours! The competition wasn't what she was expecting, but she did great and got FIRST PLACE!!    

*Jaiden took the ACT test last week. This is the first time it was done on a computer instead of on paper. It's about time! I don't know if they will get their scores back any more quickly though -- we will see! 

*Jaiden applied for the Governor's Honor Academy at SUU, but it is really competitive and she didn't get in. However, she is moving forward with the Distinguished Young Women Scholarship Program (https://distinguishedyw.org/).  

Jenna Geography Challenge -- First Place!!

Jenna had the District Geography Challenge coming up and studied almost everyday for the past month. She put in MANY hours! I also put in many hours printing off maps and lists of nations and capitols for her to study. I put together maps and quiz questions for her to fill out and often quizzed her on the information she was learning. This is what she was tested on: 

Level 1: 150 Geography Questions 

Level 2: Landforms and Geography Terms (2 pages)

Level 3: Nations and National Capitols (Europe's Western and Eastern Nations, Middle Eastern and Northern Africa)

Level 4: Europe, Northern Africa, and Middle Eastern Mountain Ranges, Peninsulas, Rivers, Seas, and Oceans

Level 5: Various Geography Questions

It was A LOT of information -- including lots of long names that were difficult to pronounce! We were told that the competition would be online this year over Google Meet. (So I couldn't go watch like I did in past years.) However when Jenna finally had the competition she didn't see any kids from the other schools on the Google Meet -- just the kids from her own school who were there with her.

There was a proctor with them and a facilitator from another school asking the questions and showing the PowerPoint, but that's it. This was supposed to be a district competition with the winners from all of the intermediate schools in the district. She said it was done differently this year -- through a point system. Anyway, the good news is she got first place!! We just don't know how many kids she was actually competing against besides those from her own school. She was happy that she won but disappointed in the trophy and sent me this email:  

hi mom so i got the trophy but i'm really disappointed because it is just like i said it's really small and plastic it looks like it would snap if i dropped it but im happy i won and now we can celebrate. i love you so much! 

(Now that she has Geography down maybe she can work on her grammar, haha!) She was hoping it would be a BIG trophy like Janelle got in sixth grade when she won second place in the Geography Challenge. Oh well. We are both glad that it is over! 

Below shows a picture with Jenna's sister, Janelle, with the trophy she got when she got second place in District. This is more along the lines of what Jenna was expecting and hoping for! I told Jenna that a lot probably depends on who is in charge that year -- and honestly, the competition seems to have garnered less and less support through the years. Her older siblings received nice prizes in elementary school for being in the top three in the Geography Challenge. But when Jenna was one of the winners in the fourth grade she didn't get anything. She was told that she would get a nice Geography book but they hadn't ordered them and told her that she would get it later. They never did order them and she never got one. So that was disappointing! 

Fifth grade she got first place in her grade and didn't get anything besides a paper certificate. She then went on to District and got third place, but again, she didn't get anything besides a participation certificate. Sixth grade at least she got a medal for her grade and now this trophy and certificate, albeit not quite what she was hoping for. I know it isn't all about the externals rewards, but it sure is nice to feel like you get rewarded for your efforts! At least she learned a lot and hopefully she will be able to retain a lot of that information! I told her that I would take her out to celebrate! Way to go, Jenna, we are so proud of you! 

Jared

We sure miss this kid ever since he moved out! (Jared playing croquet on the campus of Dixie State University!) Cool sunset!! 

 

Girls' Night Out!

Town was crazy and parking was a nightmare. When it is Spring Break up north it seems like everybody comes here! Perhaps that was the reason for the rush. But it was fun once everyone arrived and got settled at George's Corner, even if it was quite a wait! This is a group of ASL interpreters, with a couple of Deaf friends thrown into the mix. We shared lots of crazy stories and laughter! 

(Pictured: Shauna Evans, Kelly Bunting, Kathy Gibson, Wendy Jensen, Deanne Erickson, Melissa Julien, Sarah Hinze, Cari Shakespeare)

Soccer and Snow

Josh is supposed to dress up in church clothes for home games and their spirit pack sweats for away games. It snowed today (again) and so this is about as good as it got! (He does have a white shirt and tie underneath his hoodie!) They played against Hurricane tonight. JV won 6-1. Varsity won 5-0.

Brandon and Skyler

Janika and Brandon tended their nephew, Skyler, for a few days while his mom and dad took their two little girls, Peyton and Taylor, on a surprise trip to Disney World! Aren't they cute? He is a natural!! 

Spring Break Snow!!

The Monday of Spring Break was beautiful weather! Then it turned cold and today (Saturday) we had snow!! Snow for Spring Break in St. George? That never happens!! Jenna took advantage of the snow and made a little snow princess on Janelle's car. Josh had gone with the SCHS soccer team yesterday to Farmington for pre-seasons games. They were supposed to have another game in Orem on the way home today but it was cancelled due to the snow! Of course our snow had disappeared by the afternoon, but it was still chilly! 

Cousins!

Derek and Danielle were in town for a quick visit with friends and stopped by on Saturday so that the cousins could play. Too bad it was lousy weather for their visit! There was snow this morning but it had melted by this afternoon, as it always does. We were glad that they could come over. The kids had fun playing and we had visiting. Check out Derek wearing Janelle's newly cut pony-tail!! 

Grandson Coming In August!!

Jase and Ellen came over with some cans of silly string and we gathered in the backyard and sprayed them at the same time. Almost every single one of us (including Jase and Ellen) were feeling "girl" and almost every single one of us was wrong!! We sprayed blue silly sting!! Our first grandchild is due on August 21st!! 

  

Click HERE for the Facebook Post to see the videos from the gender reveal!!

Happy Birthday, Jared!!

Jared is 21! We have missed him this past week since he has moved out, but glad that he is enjoying this time with such great friends! Jared is so cool! He is energetic, positive, always smiling, great with kids, happy, buff, smart, funny, and so fun to be around. He expresses gratitude often and I love that! He has adopted the mantra from the Nigerian people he worked with on his mission "Too blessed to be stressed!" Even when he totaled his car a couple of weeks ago and had the worst day ever, instead of getting angry and upset at his misfortune, he wrote me the sweetest note saying how grateful he was for me and that he could feel my prayers for him. It made me cry! I am so grateful for Jared! 

New Hairstyle: Janelle

Janelle has been saying for months that she planned to cut her long locks over Spring Break and every time I tried to persuade her otherwise! But now that she has done it I absolutely love it! She looks darling! Here are some before and after pictures! 

Grandma Jensen's Fall

Grandma Jensen had an accident this week (on Wednesday, March 3). She was on a walk and tripped on the sidewalk, crashing down face first. She was bleeding profusely and broke bones on both sides of her nose. She also broke her hand and one of her ribs and suffered from a concussion. Her kids brought her to the clinic who sent them on to the hospital. They kept her overnight. She is back home now and seems to be healing well, but I imagine she is in a lot of pain. After the swelling goes down they will decide if she needs surgery on her nose or not. It has been a scary ordeal! We are praying that she recovers quickly! Jenna wrote her this sweet note and made her a pop-up tissue box out of construction paper. We mailed them to her along with get well cards from the other kids, so hopefully she got them!