Where did the time go?

I won't have time to post this later since we are leaving Wednesday to visit Tom's family for Thanksgiving.

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Early in our marriage Tom's mom gave us a decorative plate with this written on it...

"When two fond hearts as one unite

The yoke is easy

And the burden is light"

Wednesday we will be celebrating our 22nd wedding anniversary. Although I didn't think so at times the yoke really has been easy and the burden light.

Tom and I met in January 1984. It was my third year at BYU and about 1 year after he had returned from his mission. The first time I met him was at a ward dance. He was trying to get my roommate to go skiing with him, and she wasn't taking him up on it. For some reason his persistence didn't impress me. Tom and his roommate were made home teachers to two of my roommates while the other roommate and I had another set. That's when Tom won me over. I was impressed with how much he cared about my roommates and what a good home teacher he was. Soon he was coming over twice a month to home teach and 28 times to goof off.

We went on a few dates, but mostly just enjoyed doing things together as friends. Just before leaving on my mission Tom and I played a joke on a mutual friend and went to church "engaged." I had on a cheap, fake diamond and all. During that weekend Tom also kissed me for the first time...my first kiss ever.

This picture was taken at my mission farewell. It's the first one I had of Tom. He is the young man in the white shirt and light blue jeans at the far right of the photo on the stairs.

This picture was taken the day after I returned from my mission. Tom was the only one of my friends who was able to come to my homecoming meeting. He insisted on putting his arm around me and driving me to and from the church building even though I hadn't been released yet. All the extended family wondered, "Who is that good-looking young man?" They didn't believe me when I told them he was "just a friend."

Just before we were engaged Tom and I hiked Mount Timpanogus together. He intended to ask me to marry him at the top, but we ran into a group of 4 up there, and he decided it was much too crowded to be romantic.

We got engaged 1 1/2 weeks after we started seriously dating. To this day there are a few things that set Tom apart from all others...he is the only man I dated more than three times, he is the only man I ever kissed, and he had Heavenly Father's approval.

We were married November 26, 1986, in the Provo Temple. Here we are with our parents.


And here we are at Tom's graduation from BYU with an 18 day old Johnathan. (1988)

1992--Johnathan (4), Tom, Ann, Timothy (1)

1995--Tom, Ann, Johnathan (7), Timothy (4), James (8 months)

1996--Tom, Ann, Johnathan (8), Timothy (5), James (1), Hannah (6 months)

2000--Tom, Ann, Johnathan (12), Timothy (9), James (5), Hannah (almost 4)


2004--Ann, Hannah (8), Tom, James (9), Timothy (13), Johnathan (16)

2006--On our all time best vacation--Ann, Tom, Hannah (almost 10), James (11), Linda (my sister), Timothy (15), Johnathan (18)

2008 at the Twin Falls Temple open house--Tom, Ann, Timothy (17), James (13), Hannah (12)

..and I thought I knew what love was when we started this wild ride!

I wouldn't change a thing.

Ok, ok, ok

Maybe I spoke up too soon about a cell phone not being on the horizon yet. The phone is dead...AGAIN! Just the week before last if you were trying to call us for about 48 hours you couldn't because it was dead. Now, it's dead again. We have had the hardest time with this lately. We've had it go down at least 4 times in that number of months. You'd think they'd want to fix it right so they wouldn't have to keep coming out here. At least we have line backer. What a lifesaver!

My new toy

Yes, I'm finally joining the digital age, and no, I didn't wait until Christmas. Tom wouldn't have bought this for me just like I won't find an electric knife under the Christmas tree. That's the one item on my Christmas list, and I know he didn't get it and won't.

I had the opportunity to do a couple sewing jobs for money. One was the potato bags I posted about on Saturday. The other was to mend a sweater for a sweet older lady. She wanted to surprise her granddaughter with her favorite sweater all mended on Christmas. Who cares that it ended up being a much bigger job that I originally thought it would be. That granddaughter is going to be so happy.

Anyway, I took my earnings and bought myself a Sony 4Gb mp3 player. It's my first. Johnathan has been using mp3 players for several years now, but the rest of us were still lugging cd players around and hoping they wouldn't skip too much. So, I decided it was time. I loaded all my Christmas music on it (280 songs), and I'm really enjoying it. I even got a set of portable speakers.

Sorry, no x-box or wii or even a cell phone on the horizon yet for the Jenson's.

James's Big Thumb

What WOULD MacGyver do?!

Accidents

We were just sitting down for dinner when James cut his thumb on a can and needed to be taken to the ER. It was a deep cut and took 8 stitches. He can take the great big bandage off after 24 hours, but he will have it on at church...if he feels like going. So glad we have insurance!

He said it hurt and he was scared so that's why he cried, but he came home in good spirits and was thinking up titles for his next email to John. I was scared, too, and I was sick with worry as we waited for them to come back. I'm afraid I wasn't the best company for the Grubers.

This week

was quiet and slow. It was great that we didn't have a ton of things going on for once. Today I've been glad that Tom and Tim went on the turkey shoot because that means I get to catch up all the sewing projects. So far...

• I've prepared two twin quilts I'm making for James and Hannah's Christmas.


• I re-prepared a baby quilt someone gave me ("It's already to go. I'm sure you can use it somehow.") So I'm fixing it so it can be tied and donated to the family reunion raffle.


• I've made 6 microwave potato bags for a friend who is paying me so she can use them as Christmas gifts.


• I've mended the quilt that Tom and I have been using on our bed. It is getting replaced for Christmas, but it's still good enough to be used as a throw around, picnic blanket.


• I'm in the middle of putting velcro on the school bags I started making last year when the stake did their humanitarian project. 18 bags total. It's never too late.


• Next is the nativity wall quilt mom sent for Christmas this year...all I have to do is sew it and quilt it...lol.


• Then there's the curtain for the kitchen...I've been wanting to do it since we moved into the house over five years ago. It's still not done and if I don't get to it today it will wait for another year or two.


• Last, but not least, I need to cut fabric to fit over the styrofoam pieces I'm using in my new corner hutch (thanks, Shellece!) to hold up pieces of my nativities so they can be seen better. No sewing involved there.

Other than that it's been a relaxing day!

The dilemna around here is what to do with the broken down van. The MAV (dodge grand caravan otherwise known as Mormon Assult Vehicle) has been leaking transmission fluid for a long time, but it is suddenly alot worse. It's been sitting in the driveway for a month because Tom has been too busy to deal with it, and I'm too stubborn to send it in to get fixed. We've put enough money into that money pit. Anyway, we enjoyed being a two car family for about 3 months before having to park the MAV. I'm not too thrilled with Dodge. Our other car is a Chev Uplander van which we call BMW (Big Mormon Wagon). At this point I'd rather get rid of the MAV and put the repair money into a smaller, cheaper car for the teens to drive. I guess we'll see what happens. Maybe with the tiny tax refund we're expecting we can work on that. In the meantime, Tom finally had a minute, tightened up a bunch of stuff, loaded 3 quarts of transmission fluid into it, and so far it's looking good. We're crossing our fingers.

Ooops, I just heard the van door. That means the guys are back from the turkey shoot. I'd better get sewing again before Tom finds something for me too do...like something fun!

Later...

We went shopping for a few minutes so Tim could buy his Christmas present for Hannah, Tom could buy a Christmas present for me (separate stores) and Tom could use the Cabela's coupon that came today in the mail. It was for $10 off with no minimum purchase. Tom and the kids were stoked to buy $10 worth of Cabela's fudge for 59 cents!

I got a good start on the nativity wall hanging, and arranged the fabric in the corner hutch. The curtain for the kitchen will wait awhile. Here are photos of my hutch...

And dinner is in the oven. And Tom and the kids are cleaning the house.

Good thing I only have productive days once in a while. I'm tired.

Here's the most recent picture of John that we have. He just sent it yesterday.

Martinsville, IN--November 11, 2008

well like the title states im now in martinsville indiana. at least they moved me south for this years winter. martinsville is a smaller town a little bit smaller than bedford, so not too shabby at all. the members here are pretty awesome so far as i can see. its a very interesting little town. from my understanding it was one of the founding areas of the kkk, which means... no black people live here. im kinda disappointed about that. im gonna miss black culture... especially soul food and cajun cookin. but im sure ill love these hoosiers just as much. my new companion is Elder Adaoag (pronounced a-dow-wig). hes a great guy, very down to earth. his parents are catholic converts from the phillipines. so far so good here in martinsville. im getting re-aquainted with tracting. its not so bad. we dont have too much tracting though, we accually have a really good sized teaching pool and a lot of good potentials and some less-active families we're working with. its amazing how just talking about a work that is led by God invites the spirit but more awesome is how we feel when we do it. its funny to me how you guys are giving talks on my mission and things, i might not have any new stories for the congregation for my homecoming talk =P well i better get movin alongi love yajohn

well like i told dad im here in Martinsville. its accually not too terribly far away from franklin. and im only 30 miles out of indy. dont get me wrong, the culture here is a bit different when compared to franklin or indy. its quite a bit more... hoosier. but so far so good. the people here are great, different, but great. my new comp Elder Adaoag has been in the feild 6 weeks. hes pretty sharp as far as doctrine is concerned and hes got the missionary thing down. being a district leader is different. just more to worry about really. in my district theres a companionship of sisters and the zone leaders. so its like i get a district with training wheels =P its accually not so bad im just trying to figure out how to get the same contact and training to the sisters that i would Elders. meh, we'll see what happens. well im gonna go but have a great week i love ya john

High School Tag

I saw this on another blog and since I will probably never be tagged, I decided to just do it anyway.

1. DID YOU DATE SOMEONE FROM YOUR SCHOOL? No, I only went on four girl's choice dates...4 different boys.

2.WHAT KIND OF CAR DID YOU DRIVE? My parents' toyota corolla wagon or ford pick up truck very rarely. I relied on the school bus.

3. DID YOU PASS YOUR DRIVER'S LICENSE TEST YOUR FIRST TRY? The written one, yes. The driving one, no. I was driving my grandma's car and no one told me that it would stall if I ran the air conditioner. The second time I borrowed my aunt's small car and faired much better. He had me parallel park by the Logan temple and as I barely backed into the space I bumped the car behind me. He said, "Normally, we leave room between cars." But he still passed me.

4. WERE YOU A PARTY ANIMAL? Nope, not my thing.

5. WERE YOU CONSIDERED A FLIRT? No. A college roommate had to teach me how to flirt.

6. WERE YOU IN BAND, ORCHESTRA, OR CHOIR? Band and choir. Oh, the memories!

7. WERE YOU A NERD? I was a band geek more than anything else.

8. WERE YOU ON ANY VARSITY TEAMS? No. I took band all three years so I wouldn't have to take gym.

9. DID YOU EVER GET SUSPENDED/EXPELLED? No way! I was devastated if I was late for class or didn't have my homework finished.

10. CAN YOU STILL SING THE FIGHT SONG? Never could. I didn't go to enough games, I guess. I can hum the BYU fight song, though, and sing a few of the words.

11. WHO WERE YOUR FAVORITE TEACHERS? Mr. Pate who taught Mechanics of English. The kids joked about how he had so many three piece suits that he never wore one twice, but I really appreciated the lessons on dressing for success and all. He told us about his youth and how he was a trouble maker in school. Then he dropped out during the depression because he didn't have any underwear to wear. A few years later he went back to school and was more serious. Teachers were surprised to learn he was the same troublemaker from before, but now extremely serious about getting his education. He talked to us about how he loved teaching, but also ran a ranch and showed us a check one time for a 6 figure amount of money. I'd never thought that was even possible. The other one was Miss Manning, the band teacher. She was a genius at designing our marching band shows and demanded excellence without swearing and belittling. We won first in every competition except one and that was at Nationals where we took second place.

12. WHERE DID YOU SIT FOR LUNCH? Somewhere in the lunch room with my group of friends.

13. WHAT IS YOUR SCHOOL'S FULL NAME? Sky View High School

14. WHAT IS YOUR SCHOOL'S MASCOT AND COLORS? Bobcats, blue and gold.

15. DID YOU GO TO HOMECOMING AND WITH WHO? Never went to homecoming.

16. IF YOU COULD GO BACK AND DO IT AGAIN WOULD YOU? No way! Unless I could go back and only do band and choir and take everything I know now back with me.

17. WHAT DO YOU REMEMBER MOST ABOUT GRADUATION? The student leaders gave each of us a marble to sneak to the man handing out diplomas. The choir was sitting on risers on the stage and throughout the whole ceremony someone on the top riser would lose their marble, and it would roll, drop, roll, drop, roll, drop, all the way to the floor. When we finally got our diplomas it was fun to watch the man start putting marbles in his pockets because he couldn't hold all of them in his hands. I went to the all night party afterwards, but it was boring and none of my friends were there so I found a quiet corner in the room where they were showing movies and went to sleep.

18. WHERE DID YOU GO SENIOR SKIP DAY? Didn't have one, as far as I knew.

19. WERE YOU IN ANY CLUBS? No.

20. HAVE YOU GAINED SOME WEIGHT SINCE THEN? Way too much! I thought I was fat then, but looking back now I know I wasn't anywhere near being fat. I was at my ideal weight back then.

21. WHO WAS YOUR PROM DATE? Never went to prom.

22. ARE YOU PLANNING ON GOING TO YOUR 10 YEAR REUNION? I went to my 5 year reunion. I had just come home from my mission and wanted to touch bases. The sad thing was
that the same popular kids who got all the attention in high school were the same people who got all the attention at the reunion. I was always ignored in school so I was pretty much ignored at the reunion. I did run into a boy I'd had a crush on during high school. He was married and had a baby already and had served a mission. He asked what I'd been up to. I said, "Nothing much...just college and a mission." "Nothing much?! That's alot!" That made me feel good. The next reunion is my 30 year one. I haven't decided if I'll go yet. Depends on if I reach enough of my weight loss goals by then.

23. DID YOU HAVE A JOB IN HIGH SCHOOL? I was a part time janitor at the elementary school during my senior year.

This still blows my mind

Today we received a package of junk Johnathan sent home. In it was the "Crit package." Just to explain. In June Tom and the kids went to see the Twilight Critierium and cheered for Kristen Armstrong. They sent Johnathan a "Crit package" containing a cow bell and some protein bars. What he recieved was definitely NOT a cow bell and protein bars. I'm still wondering how a cow bell and protein bars can turn into this...

I wonder who ate the power bars at the Post Office that night.

This is the last birthday song John sang to me before he left on his mission. I look at it whenever I miss him. Don't blink! You might miss it!

Post Election thoughts

I just read a post on Krista's page and thought I'd post a few thoughts of my own.

I am thankful I have the opportunity to vote and have a say in the leadership of our country. I feel very blessed to live here. I support the constitution. I support righteousness. I look forward to the day when the Lord will reign and we can fully live the law of Consecration. Until then I will continue preparing for future hard times the best I can.

My patriarchal blessing talks about following the Spirit so I can withstand the economic turmoil that will face the world, so I’ve given this a lot of thought. I think it’s more than following the Spirit in the heat of the moment and at the time of turmoil. I think it actually means to follow the Spirit and to follow the prophet before the turmoil hits so we can be in a better position when it hits. Being out of debt, having a reserve of money, but also, having our food storage, knowing how to garden and preserve the crop, as well as having a good attitude about work and being willing to do take whatever job we may need to take. I wish we were further along that path, but at least we have started and I’m glad we’ve gotten as far as we have.

Another thought…no matter what anyone says you cannot legislate unity, equality or any other moral characteristic. It just doesn’t work to take money from those who have educated themselves and done the work necessary to be successful to give to those less educated and less well off. No matter how hard you try, the poor end up spending the money and losing it while the rich regain the money and become richer. The only way to create equality and unity is to teach the poor better money management skills, better work skills and better overall thinking. The change has to be from the inside out in order for it to be any good. Going from the outside in will backfire every time. Unfortunately, this kind of change depends on the individual. They have to be ready for it. They have to want it. No one can force it on anyone. Not Obama, not McCain and not anyone else, no matter who they are.

Voting adventures

So, Tom was certain the polls opened at 7 am because he remembered they did in California while he was growing up. We arrived at our poll bright and early at 7:30 am...to find they were still closed. Rearrange the schedule just a bit...go grocery shopping instead, then come back to the polling place.

We arrived back at our location at exactly 8:05 am...and there was a huge line! It took us 40 minutes to vote, but we were glad we'd done it early and wouldn't have to worry about it the rest of the day.

We are so blessed to live in a country where we can express our opinions and take part in selecting our leaders. Such a wonderful freedom we enjoy.

John's letter...November 4, 2008

sounds like... well, not an unusual week for you guys. the work here is definitly in a tansitionary step since now we have so many recent converts that we have to help the ward support, its going to be interesting seeing if the ward can support them. speaking of which hows that recent convert family doing? you guys should have em over for dinner or FHE or something!!
this week was pretty good. it was wierd since i pretty much knew i was leaving. especially this last couple days. then this morning we got the call and sure enough im gone. im going to.... somewhere to be a district leader. President asked me a few weeks ago if i was ready for a change so i figured id at least be getting a new area.
Staceys baptism went really really well. got him dunked on the first try. then on sunday he received the holy ghost. hes doing really really great. theres a meeting i dont know if ive told you about but its called why i beleive and its a testimony meeting for recent converts..basically. anyhow Staceys going to be speaking in that meeting on sunday, i just hope i can make it.
well i still gotta write back to dad
i love ya
john

i wanna take this time to express my deep appreiciation and love for ether chapter 12. it is an amazing chapter, especially when pared with mormon 9 when youre thinking about miracles. theres so much good in that chapter. one insight on weeknesses from that chapter that Elder Varner brought to my attention is the idea that we can pray to have our weeknesses shown to us. ive also noticed it has that ever familiar challenge to "come unto me" like in the last few verses of matt 11 suggesting the very notion that Elder varner expressed.
well like i told mom i got the transfer call this morning. i wonder what blessings ill see in my next area of labor. all i know about it right now is its going to be different from xroads and im going to be a district leader there. so thats interesting. hope i do good.
this week was good much like weeks past. there was this guy who randomly walked up to us the other day and asked for a ride to church. turns out he had investigated here for a LONG time then moved to cumberland and then was incarcerated. i hope the new elder and Elder Ericksen can help this guy, he seems pretty sincere on the get go, i just hope he keeps out of trouble. i dont think i ever worried so much about people keeping out of trouble and not doing stupid things until i became a missionary and especially when i started working here.
well im gonna go. i hope you have a great week
love ya
john

Another crazy week

This last week was another crazy one. Monday was a funeral for a man in the ward. Tom traded his shift thinking the funeral would be around 10 am, but actually it was at 12:30, and he had to be to work at 12:30. The family dinner was at 4 and I helped with that. Tom got home from work at 9:30 pm.

Tuesday was the awards concert for marching band. Tim's band did the best this year that they've done in several years. They took first in their division and second overall at one competition (the first time they performed the show all the way through), and then they took second in their division a week later when the competition was stiffer. That was the third time they had performed the show. Considering all the injuries, illnesses and other challenges they faced this year...including a freak early snow storm that kept them from the first competition of the year...they did extremely well this year.

Wednesday was Scout Court of Honor. James received his star award. Both boys received the hiking merit badge since they completed the 50-mile hike this summer.

Thursday was the book group. We read "Enna Burning" by Shannon Hale and met Thursday to talk about it. The other Ann had prepared a fire in her backyard fire pit and we roasted marshmellows and drank cider as we discussed the book.

Friday was Halloween and the church Halloween party. I had decided we could do it with the other ward which meets in the same building we do and the other chairman took charge. She was so adamant that they had to do it on Halloween (even though the building was scheduled for our ward to use it that night) and we HAD to do everything her way. Well, I was afraid there was no leadership to follow the bluster, and I was right. I won't bore you with the details, but I was NOT a happy camper at that party. Never again! One good thing was that I filled and carried 2 - 5 gal thermos jugs from the kitchen to the table where the drinks were set up. I was surprised at how easily I did that. I've always had good upper body strength, but just last summer I couldn't have done it. The benefits of bp meds and exercise is all I can think of for that.

Today we finally had time to go to our home teacher's and pick grapes. Tom has been helping me steam them and put the juice in bottles. We also went shopping. I finally decided that I needed an exercise bike because my foot is taking so long to heal. Last time this happened (with my right foot) I didn't have any problems staying off my feet while it healed. I hated exercising then and I wasn't working every day. This time I am working every day AND I enjoy exercising. It's been killing me to not be able to do it, and now the weather is too cold to want to bicycle around town. So we finally settled on a bike, bought it, brought it home, I put it together. James and Hannah have both done 30+ minutes on it since we set it up. LOL...maybe I'll get to use it. I didn't want to spend as much money as we did, but he said it was an investment in my health and I was glad he had such a good attitude about it.

Well, that was my week. I'm teaching Hannah's Sunday School class tomorrow and next Sunday I'm talking in church. Never a dull moment around here!

Now Tim is riding the bike.