No More Teachers, No More Books...

Schools out! As the bus pulled away this morning, I was ambivalent...on one hand, I won't have peace and quiet at home anymore during the day, and on the other, I am sooooo ecstatic that I don't have to wake the girls up every morning, nag them to hurry up, do their hair, help them with homework, or make their lunches anymore!!! I really despise making lunches every day. Megan absolutely refuses to buy hot lunch. Brooke would on days that I was just fed up with it, but not Megan. It is so HARD not to make PB & J every stinkin' day. In my pre-children days I never would have guessed that making lunches day in and day out would tax my creativity so heavily. (I realize how incredibly lame that sounds!) I guess that it is one of those mundane, redundant areas of life where the phrase "endure to the end" has especially poignant meaning to me.

Brooke finished up 6th Grade today, and it's on to Jr. High! Woo-hoo! Great job Brooke! Here she is with her awesome teacher Julie Miner.

And here are Danika's feeling about the day...

And here's Megan walking home from the bus stop. What a cutie! And look at those gorgeous mountains in the background (love them).

Hooray for summer vacation :)

It's A Beautiful Mornin'

After a cold, rainy Memorial Day, the sun is shining, the breeze is blowing, the birds are singing, my garden is growing, and my iris are blooming! I just had to capture them on film before they fade away. I love spring in Utah! This is the time of year I hated in Nevada because it meant the heat was on its way. But here it means gardening time! Mike and I planted our tomatoes on Saturday. I've got peas, beets, spinach, broccoli, peppers, and even an artichoke going in the garden too. I love, Love, LOVE it!

Last Minute Miracle

All the 6th Graders at Brooke's school put on a Shakespearean play--"A Comedy of Errors"--on Thursday night. There were not enough parts for everyone, so the kids who weren't in the play put on a Green Show. Brooke's group was doing a fortune-telling booth. Unfortunately, it rained, so they had to move it into the hallway. Sooo, our plan to use our EZ-Up shade canopy for the booth didn't pan out. It was too big to fit in the hall. So at about 2 o'clock on Thursday, I was trying to figure out how we were going to make some kind of booth. We had the box from our freezer in the basement, so I decided to run and get some paint and paint it. I cut it down the middle in the back so it could fan out wider, and put on the base coat. When the girls got home, I set them to work on painting gold details.


Looks pretty awesome, don't you think?


While it was drying, we grabbed some fabric we had in my stash downstairs, some scissors, and a stapler. I was just going to wing it once we got there! (Did I mention we had dance lessons and Activity Days in the midst of this?!) Because of the cooler temps. and rain, the paint took a while to dry, so we got to the school just a few minutes before the show started. Becca, Brooke's friend, already had the table with the crystal ball set up, so we just put the box around the table with the open side against the wall. We stapled some fabric over the top to make it dark and along the back. It turned out pretty well considering how last-minute it was, and their booth was a big hit!


Crowd control!



Megan, McKenna, Brooke and Becca--the gypsy fortune tellers.

I am SO glad that project is over! I think all moms should receive honorary diplomas for getting their kids through all the school projects they do!

Megan Turns Eight!

So, I'm a bit behind...Megan turned eight years old last Thursday (May 15). You can see why our family motto is "the Jensen's are always late, but we eventually get there." So I wanted to just mention that she is now eight, and excited to be baptized. I can't believe how he time has flown by. Just yesterday she was my little chubby-cheeked cutie with fuzzy duckling, downy hair. Now she is a beautiful young lady. Megan has more energy than all four of the rest of us combined! She keeps me from totally succumbing to old-ladyhood. She is the closest thing we have to a son (I mean that as a compliment!), because she is truly happiest when outside bike riding, playing soccer, or running wild with her friends. She has an irrepressible thirst for F-U-N!

Eyelash Envy

So, for those of you who haven't heard, we got a puppy on Easter. Yes, we did. I'm still wondering why...those dang kids! She is a miniature schnauzer. Her name is Trixie, and she has been pretty good so far. Although she thinks she is tough and barks at everything with legs until it gets close to her, and then she flattens out like a rug, totally submissive. She was looking pretty scruffy, so I took her to have her groomed the other day. Now that her eyebrows are all trimmed up, you can really see her luxuriously long eyelashes. I think she looks so cute and feminine!

Mikey Turns the Big 4-0

Happy Birthday Mikey! Still love ya, even w/out the hair, you studmuffin!

Okay, enough teasing! I would actually like to thank my awesome hubby for all that he does for me & our family. Here's my short list:

I love you for...

• Getting up every day and going to work in bumper-to-bumper traffic


• Driving home every day in bumper-to-bumper traffic


• Wanting to provide a comfortable life/home for us


• Doing the dishes every night after dinner, without being nagged--and sometimes more often when needed


• Being the strong one, and for being vigilant in enforcing rules and consequences with the kids (I am sooo weak at this)


• Listening to me complain


• Putting up with my indecisiveness


• Liking everything I cook :)


• Being funny, and knowing when to use humor to break up tension at home


• Letting me do pretty much whatever I want


• Encouraging me to try new things, better myself, and follow my dreams


• Believing I can do anything


• Being masculine, but not being a slob


• Being authentic (WYSIWYG with you)


• Staying physically fit, even with back and leg pain


• Sticking with me through thick and thin!!!
  
  Here's to another 40 years!

My Baby's Growin' Up Too Fast!

Danika got her braces on today, and I feel like I did on her first day of Kindergarten! She has waited for this day for a long time, since her baby teeth were slow to fall out (she's still getting her molars), and we have been putting it off due to terrible insurance coverage :) Well, she sure looks different, but she's still a cutie!

Freak Hail Storm

We're not quite sure what season it is here in Utah! A few days ago it was 80 degrees, yesterday it was 40-something and it hailed. Megan thought it was cool though!

Girls Day Out

Last Saturday Danika and Brooke played hooky from soccer, and we took a day trip to American Fork to visit our friends Bethany and Maddie. Bee (Bethany) is a friend from my college days. We met in an English class at BYU. Since then she has lived in Australia, Japan, Germany and California, but we have managed to stay in touch (we actually hand-wrote letters, if you can believe it!). Her daughter, Maddie, and Danika and Brooke have become friends too, so we all have a great time together. Bee is a few weeks away from having a baby, and we wanted to do something fun before the baby arrives. Saturday we took the girls to Urban Wear (a great store for skirts in University Mall in Orem), drooled over scrapbooking supplies at Archiver's, had lunch at Quizno's (I'm in love with their Chicken Caesar salad), and then headed to a boutique called Dear Lizzie for dessert. It was so fun, and I'm so glad I get to live closer to Bethany, who is my dearest kindred spirit!