Minitown

Last Thursday afternoon I left town with other adults from my school to Prescott, AZ. We went to the camp ground called Pine Summit Camp to prepare for the 55 students who would be arriving the following morning.

We arrived in the evening to our large cabin facility. As we inspected our lodge, there were mice running here and there. Yuck! They were; however, very little and cute. They ran super fast. Some of the mice decided to go for a swim in the men's bathroom toilet. They couldn't make it out after their swim. Too bad for them!One of the counselors, a young lady in her late teens, fished them out and disposed of them. She is one brave gal!

Minitown is a diversity leadership program. The 55 students that were selected to attend had to apply for the program and write an essay. Many students had to be turned down for this amazing opportunity. While at camp, the students go through workshops and programs that help them explore stereotypes, friends, popularity, family structures, classes in society, etc. It was so cool to watch these kids open up and find common ground with other kids they never took the time to get to know. Its hard to describe exactly how the program changes and helps kids but I so grateful I was able to be a part of it.Our camp was short counselors so I has the privilege of being a cabin leader. These are the girls in my cabin: Shari, Sonia, Rachel, Shelby, and JD. These girls were SOOOO messy. Okay, a few of them were. Before they could go home, they had to clean the cabin. Three of these girls had never used a vacuum in their entire lives. They have maids. Needless to say, each of them took turns using the vacuum and I took their picture doing it.

This is my discussion group. After each program or at least once per day, we met as a group to talk about the program, what they learned, what questions they still had. Then we did some icebreakers and explored our family make-ups. Although it took time for the kids to learn to trust each other, these kids loved each other by the time Sunday afternoon came. We became incredibly close. This program is amazing in how it helps to break down barriers and let kids think about and talk about things they hadn't analyzed before. I have so much respect for the kids in this picture. The counselor of our group was Jon Jon. He is a college student at Phoenix Community College. He did a fantastic job leading our group discussions.

This is a picture of everyone who was involved n our camp. I am near the front of this picture. Although it was a fabulous experience going to camp, I was so glad to get home Sunday evening. I was anxious to take a shower with water pressure and to sleep in a comfortable bed.

Building The Gate

Since Brent and I were married this last June, we have been busy working on many projects to improve our home. Actually, Brent started some of the projects before we were married and we are still trying to finish them.

One project is building a gate for the side yard. There used to be a large tree on the side yard. It was quite overgrown and messy but it provided a lot of shade. Chopping the tree down was a big job and Brent was grateful to have a chainsaw to help chop up the stump when removing the tree. After the tree was gone, the area had to be leveled off and the pavers had to go in. Now we need the 10 foot gate.

Brent is one of the most talented people I know. He didnt' want to go and buy the gate, he wanted to build it himself. It also was an excuse to update his welding tools. After looking at many different gate designs, Brent decided to do a 10 foot gate that is split into a 6 foot section and a 4 foot section. The gate also has a large double arch at the top. To build the gate he had to find a company that sold metal. Brent then had the fun of bending the metal to make the arch. Next he had to weld the frame together. Yesterday, he was cutting metal for the slats that will hold the wood in place for the body of the gate. I'm sure I'm missing many steps to the gate building process. However, it is exciting to see the gate coming together. Mitchell has also been a great help in this project. He has worked along side of Brent in putting it all together.

In this picture Brent has on his protective ear muffs, a long sleeve shirt to catch the sparks that could burn his skin, and he is in the process of welding in the metal slats.

Once this gate is completed, we can move Brent's trailer out of the garage and start organizing and cleaning the garage. It will be an exciting day to be able to park in the garage....no, I would be excited if I could walk through the garage without climbing over things. Yes, that would be a blessed day!

Night Hike

Tonight for Family Home Evening we took the boys on a night hike up South Mountain. It was dark when we got to the trail head at 6:20pm. We all had our flashlights to help see on the trail. It was just a sliver of a moon, so it was pretty dark. ((Can you tell that I'm focusing on how dark it was...do you get the impression I don't care much for roaming around in the desert in the dark??)))

The boys liked the night adventure. When you have teenagers, you have to do dangerous and risky things to keep their attention sometimes. Mitchell wanted to hike all the way to top of the mountain where the radio towers were. After we hiked for an hour on the rugged trail, the radio towers were still another hour away, so we started to head back. We will have to go back soon and start our hike a little earlier in the day so we can make it up to the flashing red light towers.

This is the rugged trail. We saw a few creepy spiders on the trail. One might have been a brown recluse!

This picture was taken at the beginning of the hike. I'm not big on doing risky things like hiking in the dark where snakes, javalinas and coyotes might be lurking as they prowl for their night time meal. So this picture just proves I wasn't a chicken for one evening!

Grant was a great hiker. He had a headlamp on his head for most of the hike that worked great until he turned around and looked at you. Then you were blinded. He has improved tremendously as a hiker since the last time I took him hiking. He has really become a good Boy Scout; very tough.

Mitchell had a little trouble with maturity on the hike. He kept flashing his flashlight and laser into our eyes and thinking it was hilarious. Needless to say, he got it taken away from him. His response to that was to run off down the trail in the dark and hide. Can you see him hiding behind the rock in this picture? He is near the top and you can see two little dots that are reflecting off of him. Later on, he did get the flashlight back and managed to not shine it in our eyes. He can be taught!!! Yipee!

It was a fun Family Home Evening. When we got home, we ate pumpkin cookies just like the ones Sarah had posted on her blog. Very yummy. We even got Grant to try one and he ate the whole thing.

The Biggest LOSERS!

Last night we had our ward trunk or treat party. We created a family costume of being the "Biggest Loser Family." Everyone particiated.

The Jensen-Ward Family.

We had lots of fun in our costumes at the Halloween Party.

Grant just wore Mitchell's clothes. They were plenty big on him!

Mitchell was the hardest one to convince to dress up in our family costume. He seemed to have a great time though.

I found Mitchell and my supersized pants at Goodwill. Very fashionable and comfortable!

Brent I think had the biggest pants of all!

What a Mess!

On Saturday I went in the backyard to trim some trees and noticed something strange. The week before I had blown all of the leaves out of the rocks and did weed eating along the border around the grass. Grant mowed the lawn and it looked great. Now my kids are big enough that they don't go and play in the rocks. So I was surprised to see rocks dumped all along the paver border. I pushed all of the rocks on the pavers back into the rock bed. I even took time to get all of the rocks out of the grass. I attributed this mess to the cats. Maybe they were digging in the rocks for a bug or to go to the bathroom. Who knows, but it was strange.

On Sunday afternoon, Brent and I were looking out at the backyard and noticed a funny bird. This bird was digging in the rocks, picking them up and tossing them on the paver border. I couldn't believe it! Brent recorded the bird creating this mess. Who would have thought the culprit would be a bird!
Here is the bird picking up the rocks and creating an additional mess on our paver border. Where are the cats when you need them to control the crazy bird population!!! j/k

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!