Boy Scout Fishing Day

Yesterday Grant was able to participate in a Boy Scouts of America Fishing Clinic. It was put on at Kiwanis Park in Tempe. He was able to go to classes to get the requirements done for his fishing merit badge and his fly fishing merit badge. He had a wonderful day.

He said the classes went for a long time but then he was able to go fishing for several hours on the park lake. Normally, when we've gone fishing, we never catch anything. It took Mitchell 2 years to get his fishing merit badge because every time he went fishing, none of the fish would bite. Well, yesterday, Grant caught all of the fish. He lost track after 11. He loved it. He said the majority of the fish he caught were blue gill.

He is so excited about fishing now that he wants to go again very soon. Please call and invite Grant to your next fishing trip. He will bring you good luck!

Phoenix Symphony

Last night was an amazing surprise! Around 6pm my 15 year old neighbor, Savannah, came over and invited me to go to the Phoenix Symphony with her family. They are season ticket holders and her dad was unable to go. I was so excited to go. I loved going to the symphony when I was 18 and in Cotillion. I also thought of Grant and how much he loved music and how he would really want to go. But he wasn't back from fishing at this point and they were leaving at 7pm.

So I got to go. Symphony Hall is a beautiful building. Most everyone is dressed up. There are no little kids anywhere to be seen. Here is a picture of the hall before the concert started.

I also tried to get a picture of my neighbor, Julie, and her two mature kids, Savannah and Dakota. (Dakota is a year older than Grant and the two of them get a long pretty well.) However, our picture is very blurry.

The concert that evening was conducted by Lawrence Golan and they performed Symphony Pops No. 2. The songs included Rock Around the Clock, Back to the Fifties, Music from Guys and Dolls and music from the movie Grease. They symphony is incredible. I sat there and thought about how much Grant would love to be hearing these talented musicians. I am going to have to get him to a concert soon.

After intermission, the Phoenix Symphony was joined by the band Sha Na Na. This group was so fun to watch. They were in the original Woodstock Festival lineup, starred in Grease (sang and wrote almost all of the music), and hosted the Sha Na Na television series for four years in the 70's, which I was too young to know about. All of their music was 50's style music that they performed. Some of the songs were At the Hop, Blue Moon, The Peppermint Twist, The Twist, The Stroll, Hand Jive, Teenager in Love, Love Potion No. 9, Sandy, Shake, Rattle and Roll and Goodnight Sweetheart. It was fun to see the mostly senior citizen crowd sing along to some of the songs. At one point in the concert they had everyone get up and do the Hokey Pokey. I have no idea how long its been since I've done that. Maybe we should do that at Thanksgiving to teach all the little kids that song so it doesn't miss a generation.

The first guy in the picture above, on the left, wore that same shirt last night in the concert. It is pink with purple stripes. He was very funny on stage. The third guy from the left is the amazing writer and pianist of the group. His outfit was pink with piano keys on it. It is the same outfit that you see in the picture above. He also has a silver star on his butt. Kind of strange. The 5th guy from the left wears a red rayon slacks and top. I'm sure that must be what he is wearing in this picture. This guy sings all of the very deep bass notes. He also has more energy than everyone else in the group. He is an amazing performer.

Needless to say, it was a fun night. I am so lucky my neighbors thought of me for their extra ticket!

Ultimate Fat Lip!

Thursday night was Ultimate Frisbee night. I went to play for the first time. I'm not very good at throwing or catching a Frisbee so I was a little nervous about playing this sport with a bunch of teenage boys and men. So on the sidelines, before the game started, I was playing catch with Grant and a random little kid that happened to be hanging out. I actually was doing pretty good during warm-ups until the last throw. I missed catching it with my hands and it smacked me in the mouth. It hurt so bad. I was so grateful, at the same time, that I didn't have braces on because the damage would have been worse.

I ran to Brent to tell him what happened and to show him my bleeding mouth. He told me it wasn't that bad and not to worry. But it really hurt and I could tell my upper lip was swollen. The bleeding stopped, the game started and it was a ton of fun. Lots of running. Brent and I were on the same team with three other men. Grant was on the young guys team which consisted of a bunch of teenagers and 20 year olds. Mitchell was a wuss and didn't come to play. It was a very competitive game. I did so much better than I thought I would. I can hardly wait until next Thursday's game!

When I got home, I saw how terrible my lip looked. I've included a picture so you can laugh at my grotesque lip. Yuck! I iced it for quite a while that evening. By the next morning it was sore but most of the swelling was gone.

We Got Chalked!!!

Tonight while we were playing "Hide and Go Seek" at the end of FHE, someone was outside our house drawing on our driveway. The picture above says "Woot Woot You got Chalked!" I've never been "chalked" before. I think it is much better than getting teepeed. The messages were pretty cute and the authors did sign their names. The chalking experts were some teenagers from my Sunday School class. I teach the 16 year olds and Brent teaches the 15 year olds. This last Sunday I taught both classes and brought cinnamon rolls (Brent was still in Alabama). I guess they were a hit.

This picture says "U R Awesome." Although Brent is awesome and wanted to be in this picture, the words were meant for ME!!!

This one says "I'm crying cause I love you so much." I must have really made an impact with my superb teaching skills with these kids. Its only been one day since I taught the class :)

This one says, "Hey, we were driving by your house and it looked nice and clean so we decided to chalk it. We love you Sis. Jensen." See this is how I know that all the lovey dovey things are about me. Ha, Ha.

This note says "Mitch Feel Better. Kelsey, Becky, Justin, Josh" Okay, so there was a little love on the sidewalk for Mitchell because he came to church yesterday with his chipmunk cheeks from his oral surgery.

This says, "Thank you for the cinnamon rolls." Yes, I guess they were yummy. But then again, I fed a bunch of teenagers. I think they would eat anything!

This says, "You are the best Sunday School teacher. We love you!" It's always nice to know you are loved. I can turn this into a missionary moment with my neighbors as they question me about the interesting graffiti on my driveway. I gave them cinnamon rolls on Sunday too.

This says, "You park here." So in case I don't know where my car is parked, I can now just follow the easy to read directions on my driveway.

Thank you to my wonderful teenagers in my Sunday School class and their accomplices for giving our family so much fun stuff to read! You are the BEST! We feel loved and bribed enough to continue making cinnamon rolls!

By the way, I encourage you to spread the love and chalk someone today!

Meet Stan...

This is Brent's cat Stan. Stan is a funny cat. He doesn't care much for the general public or kids. He stays far away. However, he does like to go for walks to the park. All Brent has to say is, "Do you want to go for a walk?" and Stan is at the door. He will then walk down the street to the park and play for a while then follow Brent back to the house. Stan also is good at opening doors. If he wants out of the house or into the dangerous garage, he just reaches up and pulls on the door handle. So at night, we have to make sure all the doors are locked so he won't escape to the night time world where coyotes and mean kitties prowl. Stan also likes to demand to be pet. When he wants to eat his cat food, he will meow until you come and pet him while he eats. (This trait is rather annoying but he really enjoys it.) Although these are rather quirky traits for a cat, he is a good kitty. The other night he came up on bed while Brent was gone and fell asleep. Grant and I laughed at how he was sleeping. What do you think?

He looks like he may be a contortionist too. He is half twisted on his back and on his side. He didn't even wake up when flash on the camera went off. Too funny!

I'm Done Painting

I finally finished painting the downstairs and the downstairs bathroom. Brent has been gone for 10 days and during that time I have been painting the house. He comes home tomorrow so he will definately be surprised at how the house has changed!

The last part of my paint job was the downstairs bathroom. I painted it a pale green. It's almost a green grey color. Once it was done, I had to get new towels and a bath rug to accent it better.

Wisdom Teeth

Today Mitchell had his 4 wisdom teeth removed by the oral surgeon. On the way to the appointment, he told me that when the surgery was over, he wanted to go to the bike park and watch his friends ride. I told him he had to go home after the surgery and rest. He was rather adamant that he would be able to go.

The surgery went fine. When I saw Mitchell after the surgery was over, he looked dazed and confused. His eyes were wide open and his cheeks were stuffed with gauze. The nurse said she would help him to the car. Mitchell said he could do it himself, but as he sat up he swayed back and forth, then laid back down. After she went over the directions for taking care of his mouth for the next few days, Mitchell managed to get up by himself. He was very woozy. He was convinced he could walk on his own. He staggered from side to side. I was afraid he would fall over. It was rather comical to watch though.

Once we were in the car, he informed me he wanted to go back to school. I told him that school would be out in 30 minutes and the doctor had just told him to go home and rest. The teenager mentality is so incredible. Drugs and a cocky natural attitude can really get a person in to trouble. When we got home, he was a little more stable on his feet, but told me he was going to ride his skateboard. He wasn't going to give up on going to see his friends. Thankfully, two of his friends came over after school and told him he looked disgusting and should go lay down. The rest of this afternoon, Mitchell has been stationed on the couch watching TV.

The bleeding in his mouth has stopped (finally!). He is hungry and is enjoying a variety of pudding. He says that three of the four holes in his mouth feel okay, just one of them is bothering him. Mitchell goes in next week to get the stitches out. Sounds like more fun! I think I'll let Brent take him :)

Mitchell really wanted a copy of his x-ray. So here it is right before the 4 impacted wisdom teeth came out. I guess you'll have to turn your computer screen sideways in order to view it. Sorry!