This
is my attempt at giving a re-cap of the past year. I’ll try not to make it too
lengthy, but that is difficult since I keep a detailed journal every week and I
want to include everything!
January:
We started off the year with lots and lots of
rain! Our little town of Santa Clara
made national news because of all of the flooding in our area. It was labeled “The 100 year flood” because
there hasn’t been flooding like that in a hundred years. The Santa Clara River (which had looked more
like a creek) was now raging out of control.
There was flooding going on everywhere – Santa Clara, Gunlock, Dixie
Downs, Enterprise, Hurricane, Bloomington – but it wasn’t all visible unless
you drove to those sites to watch it. By
the end of the flooding, 18 homes had fallen into the rivers and were lost and
many more were damaged. The raging
river was only about ¼ mile from our home. They closed all of the schools due
to all of the road closures.
Rick and the other Seminary teachers got together and came up with a
relief fund called “FUNDS FOR FLOODED FAMILIES” for those who sustained damage
in the flood. After a couple of hours of phone calls to all the right people,
there were over one hundred high school students (and the Seminary teachers)
wearing T-Shirts with their logo printed on them, out on the streets collecting
money in sand-bags. Janika also went out
to help them. They collected money for
several days and ended up presenting the Red-Cross with a check for $23,000! I was very proud of Rick for heading up this
whole effort and also for Janika for getting out there and pounding the
pavement, collecting money. The
land-scaping of Santa Clara is forever changed and I am amazed every time I
drive on the road from Santa Clara to Ivins at how different it all looks now.
After all of the flooding, things slowed down and were
quite peaceful in our family. I
continued to work out at “Curves for Women” most mornings at 6:00 a.m. – making
it back in time for our family scripture study.
We had gotten alarm clocks for Janika and Jase for Christmas and wow,
what a difference! The kids actually
started getting themselves up every morning at 6:30 and were dressed and eating
breakfast by the time I got back from my work-out. The kids were usually in bed
by 8:00 p.m. and I continued to read to Janika every night from my journal,
which sparked some excellent discussions.
Monday nights we had our family home evening activities; Tuesdays and
Thursdays I taught my ASL class; and Wednesdays Rick directed the Hands in
Harmony Choir in conjunction with St. George Musical Theatre. Janika also enjoyed singing in the group,
although not as much as she did with the Hands in Harmony carolers, which is a
much more intense and professional group.
Our church schedule changed to 1:00 p.m. and Rick kept saying how nice
it was to be able to sleep in, throw on pajama pants and just relax Sunday
mornings. Well, that only lasted a few
short weeks since he was called to be the new Elder’s Quorum President and now
had meetings every Sunday morning!
February
We
were always entertained by the funny comments our children would come up
with. Janika had been teaching Jase times tables
and he learned some of them. We were
walking to the park and Jase saw a truck that said "4X4." He exclaimed matter-of-factly, "There's
another one of those 16 year old trucks again!" Then one Sunday we were sitting in church and
the first counselor in the Bishopric got up to conduct. Janika said, "Is he like the "Vice
Bishop or something?" I said,
"They are called first and second counselors." She said, "So that's sort of like the
first mate on a ship then?"
On Valentines night we all went shopping and when we
came home there were some plates of cookies on our doorsteps. Janika asked me if she could call and thank
our neighbors for the cookies and I said, "sure!" Well, she called and they weren't home and so
she left a message on their answering machine saying thank you for the
cookies...(and then she must have been in prayer mode because she
said)..."in the name of Jesus Christ, Amen!" When she told me she accidentally ended the
message like that I laughed so hard that tears were rolling down my face. It seems like one of us did that as a kid
too...probably me!
Anyway, on Valentines Day Rick always does a special
breakfast for the family. When I got
back from working out they were all already sitting around the table eating
French toast, eggs, sausage, hash browns and the works!! Rick writes everyone a sweet little love note
(including me) and leaves it on their plate with a little gift. The kids all got Valentine pencils with heart
erasers. I had also gotten each of the
kids a little heart box of chocolates.
This
month I started writing my first e-book after being inspired by my brother
Chris. He had written several e-books
and was selling them quite well on the Internet. The process includes writing a book and then
advertising it with Google Ads and an Internet sales page. People can purchase my book with a credit
card through Clickbank and I get $20.00 of each purchase (out of $22.70). Then they download the book to their own
computer and so there is no shipping involved.
Clickbank keeps track of the sales and sends out a check every two
weeks. I really enjoy researching topics
of interest and I love to write and so this was a fun project for me. My book was called “Sign Language for Babies
and Beyond: How to promote early
communication and language development in your child.” I also included a video of me signing 250
signs that customers can also download to their computer along with several
free bonus books. I also included a free
newsletter that people could subscribe to on my web page and by the end of 2005
I had over 3000 subscribers.
This month Jase lost his first tooth (first
grade). Our family FINALLY finished the Book of
Mormon through our morning scripture reading.
I think we started about 2 ½ years ago and so it has taken us quite some
time! Janelle continued to go to her TLC
classes once a week and it was good for me to be able to give her my undivided
attention during that time. Jaiden also
loved the music and playtime that the play-group provided. Jared really looked forward going to the class that was set-up for siblings each
week. There were only a few kids in his
class and so he received lots of attention as well.
I did lots of interpreting jobs this month and also
turned down a lot since there were more appointments than I had time for. Being a mom, interpreting, teaching and
working on my book all kept me very busy!
I sometimes called a baby-sitter to help watch the kids so that I could
go interpret or just get caught up on everything! I had a little home-schooled gal named, Ilana
Hailstone, who I often called to come watch the children for a couple of hours
here and there so that I could go interpret for a couple of hours. Sometimes I called her to help tend while I
got caught up on grading papers, prepping lessons, cleaning house, and writing
my book!
March
My mom and dad came to St. George for a visit, along
with my Aunt Nelva and Uncle Arnold (Griffiths). They all stayed at Merrill and
Lorrie’s condo in Sunbrook (Merrill and Lorrie were serving as Mission
President in New Jersey). On the
eighth, Jared turned five years old and got all super-hero (spider-man and
power ranger) gifts for his birthday.
The only T-shirts he would wear were super-hero shirts. We celebrated his birthday by going to the
Fiesta Fun Center (Jared’s choice) and eating pizza and letting the kids play
on the soft-play indoors. Of course
their favorite thing to do is play the games and redeem their tickets for
prizes!
Right after Jared’s birthday, we ended up bringing
Janelle to the hospital with a kidney infection. I had brought her to the doctor since she had
been really feverish the past couple of days on and off -- especially bad at
night -- and hadn’t eaten or drank more than a few bites the past few
days. She had been crying a lot in the
night and threw up whenever I tried to give her a drink. They did a urine sample and said it was a
definite kidney infection. She stayed in
the hospital for a couple of days and nights and went on IV antibiotics. She was a trooper and got lots of attention
from all of the nurses. Rick was able to
get off work and stay overnight with her at the hospital since I had a nursing
baby to take care of at home.
We brought Janelle home and the kids were all so
excited to see her and she was thrilled to see them! We hurried and got everything together to
head up North for our Spring Break vacation.
We had the carpet ripped out of the front room and main hallways and
tile put in (while we were gone). It
turned out really nice and was sure a heck of a lot easier to keep clean (or at
least it had the appearance of being clean)!
For our vacation we stayed at my mom and dad’s one night and then headed
up to Park City. Gerilyn also came up to
stay at the condo with us with a swollen knee and crutches after her knee
surgery from the previous month. Little
Jaiden learned to crawl during this trip (at 9 ½ months)!
At the condo
we played games, watched movies, and went swimming in the pool. We also brought all of the kids snow-tubing
and they had a great time! We were able
to spend some of our time with the Jensens and the Westras and went to Eric and
Kerianne Hoth to plan a Hand’s Up Reunion for this summer. The older three kids
slept over at Scott and Amy’s one night and had fun with their cousins. Back at the condo, Grandma Jensen came up and
brought the kids’ Easter Eggs filled with candy so that they could have their
own Easter Egg Hunt. They also boiled
and dyed eggs and had their own Egg Bash.
Jared was the winner so his egg will get to compete in the Jensens’
party next week. Grandma said he was so
excited and threw his arms in the air talking about his “power egg” that won
the contest!
While we were up North, Rick and I attended the EFY
Session Director training at the University of Utah Institute building. We enjoyed the training and it made us really
excited (and nervous) to be able to spend a whole EFY week with the
participants in July. After picking up
our four oldest (we had brought Jaiden with us) from Westra’s, we headed to Gunnison
where we had a nice visit with Chris and Sandy and stayed overnight. The kids
had fun playing together and Chris gave me a lesson on how to work Clickbank
and make Google Ads. I realized how much
there was to learn! Soon after our
trip Jase started soccer and enjoyed it.
Rick volunteered to be the coach of his team.
April
Janika came down with Impetigo and broke out with
sores all over her chin. It started with
one and over the course of a few days spread to thirteen! Unfortunately I
misdiagnosed it as cold sores and was treating her accordingly. As soon as I found out that it was Impetigo I
started her on antibiotics right away and they quickly cleared up. I felt bad that she had to walk around that way
for over a week and had sores all over her chin for her solo in Sacrament meeting,
her Hands in Harmony Choir performances, and for her big outing to Vegas to go
to “Build-a-Bear” for Madison Barney’s (her best friend) birthday!
I got the new calling of Cub master and was really
nervous since I knew absolutely nothing about scouting. Janelle continued to progress with her
speech and sounded so cute with her vocal inflection going up at the end of
every sentence making it sound like a question.
We were able to understand her more and more but still relied a lot on
her sign language to understand her.
She was really quite fluent in sign and often signed (and talked) in
sentences. I turned 37 on the 29th
of April and Rick and I went out to celebrate. I even treated myself to a clean
house by hiring a cleaning service to come clean my whole house that day! Rick made my sign language DVD for me (that
went along with the e-book) for my birthday.
May
On Mother’s Day Janika said, "Mom, you go lie
down and read a book -- we'll take care of everything!" She made me a bracelet at Achievement Days
and Jared made me a door hanger at pre-school and Jase made me a caterpillar
magnet at school. We had our annual
“Mother’s Day Tea” with lots of yummy desserts that Rick made. We all dressed up and took goofy
pictures!
I finally finished my e-book and Rick spent many
hours getting it ready to sell on the Internet by putting together the
web-page. I started to sell books and
it was really exciting! It was fun
learning how to market on the Internet but it also took a lot of time trying to
figure everything out. By the end of
2005 I had sold 340 books. I had sold
books in almost every state and over 23 foreign countries.
We had other
fun events this month such as the Father's and Sons Outing (Rick and the boys)
and our “girls night out” (me and the girls).
Temperatures started to soar and just a few days before the kids got out
of school we turned on the AC and put up our pool for the summer. I brought Janelle to the optometrist for the
free yearly eye screening that she gets through TLC and it turned out that she
needed glasses since she is far sighted (one eye more than the other one). She can see fine but it is more of a strain
on her eyes since they see differently from each other. She got a little pair of glasses and looks
really cute in them!
Jared graduated from pre-school and the kids all got
out of school for summer vacation. The
thing I like about summer is that the kids all have time to do their jobs
everyday and so I get a lot more help around the house and Janika is a good
little baby-sitter and big help with the kids. Our schedule is also more
relaxed and we can spend more time together as a family and go swimming
everyday!
June
Our family went to Disneyland where Rick and
Janika’s “Hands in Harmony Choir” was performing. We celebrated Jaiden’s first birthday (May 31st)
and enjoyed a nice little vacation. Rick
and I then went to our annual Seminary Convention while Gerilyn and Katie and
Shelby tended the kids. We then headed
up North stopping at Chris and Sandy’s and then stayed over my mom and dad’s
where we were able to visit with Jeni and her boys. Rick had helped organize a “grub club” party
with college friends at Evergreen Park with Healeys, Hoths, Karen and Dave
Hunter, Gordon and Kris Jones, and Laura and Holly (and of course everyone’s
kids!) It was really fun to visit with
all of them and the kids’ had a great time playing together. Then we headed up North for the Hands Up
Reunion that Rick had also planned. It
was held at the Jensen’s house with dinner and visiting and then the infamous
DVD that Eric Hoth had made from pictures and video-clips. Then Rick and I left the kids (except for
Jaiden) with Gerilyn and Grandma and headed to Idaho to be session directors
for EFY at BYU-Idaho. It was a wonderful
experience for both of us. Jaiden really
enjoyed all of the attention as well!
When we got back to St. George, the kids enjoyed
swimming all of the time! Jared finally
learned to love it too. At first we had
to bribe him because he was scared of the water since he couldn’t touch the
bottom. But he finally overcame his fear
and started swimming as much as everyone else!
He even started getting brave and began taking off his water wings,
which really made me nervous! Janelle
and Jaiden loved to swim too!
July
We headed back up North again and left the kids with
the Jensens again for another week while Rick and I session-directed another
week of EFY (the ASL session at BYU).
This time we left Jaiden too. The
week went well and had some great high-lights, but it wasn’t as spectacular as
our first week. It was the first time
leaving the baby so long and I was ready to have her back by the end of the
week! She seemed to adjust just fine
though. The 28th was our 11th
Wedding Anniversary!
The seminary teachers in Rick’s faculty at Snow
Canyon High School all decided to form a LLC in order to buy land and housing
for investments. We hope these
investments pay off! Rick made a major
investment by buying an entire recording studio. It was extremely expensive -- $7000.00. It has been worth it though. He loves it and really has a knack for
putting together incredible arrangements of music! We think it will pay for itself through time.
August
In August Janika and Jase started swimming
lessons. Even though they are both good
swimmers and have been swimming all summer, I wanted them to be able to swim
the actual formal strokes in water where they can’t touch! They did great enjoyed their lessons and were
swimming clear across the pool and back by the end of their two-week
lessons.
I was definitely ready for the kids to start school
again. They got to go to a brand new
school – Arrowhead Elementary, which is on our same street – just one mile
away. Jared started kindergarten and did
great! Janika had Mrs. Sparks for Fourth
grade and Jase had Mrs. Goodman for Second Grade and Jared had Mrs. Robinson
for Kindergarten. My mom and dad came
down to visit and to see the Tuacahn plays.
It was fun seeing them and they were a big help with the kids.
Our family started up scripture study again and had
some long sessions as we were trying to follow President Hinckley’s challenge
of finishing the Book of Mormon before the end of the year. Rick gave all of the kids’ blessings to
start off their new school year. I
found out that I was expecting again and soon started to feel the effects of my
new pregnancy with exhaustion and morning sickness! August 30th was my Grandpa
Norman’s 90th birthday!! Our
family had a big party for him the beginning of September and I wished that we
weren’t so far away so that we could have attended..
September
This month New Orleans was hit by Hurricane Katrina,
which ended up destroying the levees and leaving pretty much the entire city
under water. It was labeled the biggest
natural disaster ever in the United States.
Our nephew, Haylen, got called to Japan on a mission. His parents, Kyle and Calleen, surprised us
all by going through the temple and getting sealed! Haylen and Kydie also were sealed to them. It was wonderful news and we were all
thrilled to hear of their decision.
I started Jani and Jase with piano lesson with a
teenage gal that lives near their elementary school and so they can walk there
right after school on Fridays. Rick also
started “Hands in Harmony Carolers” again and after getting the group and
practicing for a few weeks they had a very successful retreat at Dana Raine’s
home. Rick had Curtis Simmons and Julie
Ann Perry come and present at it. At the
end of the month Grandma and Grandpa Jensen came down for a visit and to see
the Tuacahn plays. We made arrangements
for Grandpa Jensen to come and play the piano for Janika, Jase, and Jared’s
classroom. It was a big success and the
students’ all had a great time dancing around to the music! Jase brought home his back-pack stuffed with
darling “Thank-you” cards that his class-mates had written to thank Jase’s
Grandpa for coming and playing the piano for them.
October
Since Grandma and Grandpa Jensen
were in town, we had an early party for Janelle at the ORE condo that Rick had
reserved for the weekend. We ate a
dinner of Japanese food in honor of Haylen’s mission call to Japan and everyone
went swimming in the outdoor pool. We
also let the kids play on the tennis court and at the playground. Then we sang to Janelle and ate a yummy
zucchini chocolate cake made by Grandma Jensen. Then we let her open up her present (a
little Barbie Trike) and then the kids played some games with the
balloons.
I started volunteering in Jared’s kindergarten class
every Monday. He seemed to really enjoy
having me come and I was able to get a feel for how he was doing in class. My friend, Mari Purdy, would watch the two
little girls while I went each week and they enjoyed playing with her two girls
of similar ages. I switched my
work-outs from “Curves” to “ReZults” where they have a child care center. Janelle loved it and Jaiden did too after a
few times of getting used to it.
Since Janelle was turning three years old (on
October 14th), she had her last day at TLC. They had a birthday party for her with
decorations, a Dora Piñata, party bags, and a scrapbook of pictures of her (and
me) from the last year and a half that she has been going there. They also dipped her feet in paint and got
footprints of her feet. It was
cute. She was tested for the pre-school
but didn’t qualify since her speech had improved so much and she was now in the
normal range for a child her age.
Over UEA, Rick took Janika, Jase, and Jared to Vegas
for an overnight outing as a reward for earning their gold ticket (20
tickets). They went to Chuck-e-Cheese
and ate pizza and earned prizes from redeeming their game tickets and then went
to their hotel. Jen and Gray’s family
also came to visit over UEA. Our kids
were so excited to see their cousins!
All of the kids slept on sleeping bags in the family room and Jen and
Gray slept up in Janika’s room. While
they were here, we ended up getting a new car!
We were keeping our eye out for one since we needed one more seat with
the new baby coming. We purchased a 2005
Chevy Venture Mini-Van that seats 8. It
has 23,000 miles on it and ended up costing around $16,000. Grayson drove down with Rick to Las Vegas to
pick it up and Jen and I took all of the kids to Fiesta Fun Center.
Earlier that day both our families went to the beach
at Sand Hollow Reservoir together and had a really good time. Later on Jen helped all of the kids make
“flubber” in all different colors out of Elmer’s Glue and Borax soap. Also this month, Janika earned a trophy for
her literature entry in the Reflections contest! She was in the top five in that category from
her school. We were proud of her! She is a great little writer.
November
Rick turned 38 years old this month and of course
both Grandmas had their birthdays this month too. Rick has always loved the show “Star Gate”
and he learned how to download past episodes of "StarGate Atlantis"
from the computer and then he would always watch them on this little 2X3 inch
screen on his lap-top! It got to the
point where we wondered if he was addicted!
For Thanksgiving we invited another Seminary teacher (John Bushman) and
his family over for lunch for Thanksgiving and enjoyed a very nice meal and
company. Yearsleys were also in town and
so we were able to spend some time with them too.
December
December was the usual whirlwind of Christmas
preparations and Hands in Harmony performances.
Our schedule was totally thrown out of whack as the kids got to bed late
every night and slept in late. I managed
to squeeze in a friend birthday party for Jase with a clown and magic
show. Janika’s birthday included a late
night at Fiesta Fun with Madison and then a sleep-over at our house. The next day she and Madison (also a
caroler) performed all day long. Janika
enjoyed performing with the carolers immensely and thrived on the crazy
schedule. Rick had new costumes made
and they were absolutely gorgeous! The
carolers did a great job as usual performing non-stop and spreading Christmas
cheer! I am always amazed at the
beautiful arrangements that Rick comes up with.
He has written and recorded several songs on his studio and they are so
beautiful!
We had a very nice Christmas both at our house and
in Ogden at Grandma and Grandpa Jensen’s.
To celebrate Grandpa Jensen’s birthday, Rick, Julie, Jodi, and Gerilyn
sang the songs that they had performed as kids at Lagoon. They wore Rick’s Hands in Harmony Vests for
an added touch. Kyle announced the group
and Craig played the drums. It was a
neat tribute to Grandpa Jensen and he became emotional as he accompanied them
on the piano. Christmas was also
wonderful. I am always amazed at all of
the work Grandma Jensen puts into these Christmas celebrations to make them
extra special. This year every grand-child received a pillow-case with his or
her favorite prayer scripture embroidered on it along with a little picture of
the child. On Christmas evening Rick and
I were able to take a trip to the Anniversary Inn in Logan which has become a
tradition of sorts for us these past few years.
We also had Jase’s baptism while we were up North and then had everyone
over to Jensen’s for Jase’s special dinner of favorite foods.
Jase is now in Scouts and having this calling as
cub-master helps me to know better how to help him earn his achievements. It will be interesting to see what this next
year holds. Rick loves his faculty and
he is an awesome teacher, but he is getting restless and is tired of the
attitudes of some of the students (and some of the parents). We put in a request for a change of
assignment this year and so we will see whether or not that comes into
fruition.
Things are going really well with our family and I
feel truly blessed. We live in a
beautiful area and have been blessed with a lovely home. I love my husband very much and always look
forward to our weekly dates every Friday night.
We always have a wonderful time together. He is also a great dad and plays games with
our kids and often spends individual time with each one of them. He has always
been a good provider and is good with handling finances (which is a great
plus!)
All of our children are happy and thriving. Lately we have been spending a lot of time
together as a family just playing games and having fun together. I am grateful that I have the opportunity to
be a stay-at-home mom. I know it sounds
like I am gone a lot, but it is really only a drop in the bucket compared to the
time that I am home with my children. It
can be overwhelming at times, but I really love being a mom. I often find myself gazing at my beautiful
children while uttering a silent prayer to Heavenly Father that he has allowed
me to be their mother.
Janika is now ten years old and a big help when she
is home. She is a great baby-sitter and
also a good little cook! She can whip up
a dynamite batch of chocolate chip cookies from start to finish without any
help at all. She also often cooks
breakfast for all of the kids and loves to try new recipes. She loves to sing and has a very nice
voice. She hasn’t been too thrilled
about taking piano lessons, but we are trying to keep her motivated. She continues to be a stellar student who
excels at everything academically.
Jase just turned eight and was recently
baptized. He bore a beautiful testimony
at his baptismal service and also in church after we returned home. He is also a great student and excels in all
of his subjects. He loves to play with
friends and he loves to play video games and computer games. He is also a good singer and sang a couple of
solos in church this year.
Jared is doing well in kindergarten and is also very
outgoing and social. He is also very
affectionate and will often come up and give us hugs and snuggle with us. He has a wonderful imagination and can
entertain himself with the smallest of things.
He is certainly a bundle of energy and we will find him pulling his
light saber on anyone who walks through the front door!
Janelle has progressed leaps and bounds this
year! She is now a chatty little three
year old who is fiercely independent!
She wants to do everything herself.
She can go potty all by herself, but just don’t go and flush for her or
you will never hear the end of it! She
continues to make me smile and laugh with the cute things she says and with her
little songs and rhymes.
Jaiden has also progressed a ton this year. She now runs all over and is a little
chatter-box as well. She sounds so cute – I never tire of hearing her cute
little phrases. When I say “Okay
Dokey!” She chimes back, “okey
okey!” Ever since I stopped nursing her
she has become attached to her bottle.
She goes around shouting, “Kaw-Cut milk!
Kaw-Cut Milk!” (Chocolate milk!)
We also look forward to the arrival of our new baby
boy who is due in April. We will have
three girls and three boys and feel that our family will be complete! We are grateful for the gospel in our lives
and for the many blessing that Heavenly Father has given us. We know that the gospel of Jesus Christ is
true and we feel grateful to live at such a time as this with a prophet of God
to lead and guide us. We have
truly been blessed abundantly this year and throughout our lives!
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