AFRICA!!

My parents got their mission call on Wednesday. They are going to be serving in the Kenya Nairobi Mission. They report to the MTC on February 25! What news! I thought my mom would die (or at least pee a little), but they are both really excited, can't you tell?

Congratulations, Mom and Dad. You are going to do great. We love you!

Happy Thanksgiving!

Josh's family came to celebrate Thanksgiving with us - and we have had a really great week. Genny and I created a beautiful feast, but I have a hard time not cooking Jensen-style (enough to feed an army or two!)

Here are some pictures of the grand feast for 5 adults, 1 child, and 2 dogs (it WAS Thanksgiving)!

After dinner, we invited Annie and Regan to be our entertainment for the night - and it was well worth the price of dessert and two embroidered placemats that we had to pay. We are thankful that we have such good friends that don't mind hanging out with us inspite of my husband!

Josh decided that he wanted to try out his talent at being a tattoo artist - so he practiced his art on his mom's foot. Pretty good for a first-timer, but I'm thankful that Josh has chosen a different career path to support us!

We decided to fight the crowds on Black Friday and spent our day shopping and walking and freezing. We found a new outdoor mall (Legends) that made us almost feel like we were home at The Gateway. It was a good find that I'm sure we'll visit again.

Photos

Sweet haircut, Josh!

Even sweeter.

Thirsty?

Jensen Family Cup Game. . . Kansas style!

Happy Birthday Amber!

Moore moldy hair. What?

Today's post is broken down into three sections: The Moore family, moldy Crystal Light, and sweet haircuts.

First, the Moore family joined us for dinner and Harry Potter Scene It tonight. We had a wonderful time, sharing good food and better company. We feel really lucky to have made such great friends. So, Hunter, Julie, Mariah, Amber, and Cody - thanks for enduring the drive and for being so great! It is Amber's birthday tomorrow - so we converted dessert into a birthday cake, matches into candles, and had a mini party. We also played the famous Jensen Family Cup Game and Cody was really good!! He was able to stand cup after cup on the table!

Now, have you ever wondered what happens when there is a partial cup of Crystal Light left out for two weeks? Well, Josh and I had dinner one night in the office (no time for dinner breaks around here with finals coming up!) and we forgot to clear the cup. Two weeks later, Josh finds the cup and so we took some pictures. I had no idea that there were so many possible colors of mold. I will attach some pictures, but they don't do this disgusting cup of bacteria-filled punch justice. So, now you know - don't leave your Crystal Light out for too long!

Third, I've been giving Josh his haircuts. I've gotten so good at it that I decided to try out some sweet new styles. See the attached pictures for stylin' ideas!

Missing:

I'm so glad it's a weekend! I'm even more glad that there are only two days of school next week. It has been an interesting week at school since I discovered I am teaching a thief. I went to use my cell phone the other day and realized that my battery had been stolen out of it. I didn't have any more classes that day, but I went to the other classrooms and asked the kids to keep their eyes and ears open for a battery floating around. The third classroom I went to, there were about 6 hands that shot up and all the kids said, "Talk to Cody!" So, I talked to Cody. He wouldn't admit anything to me, so the principal talked to Cody. He wouldn't admit anything to the principal, so his mom came in. He wouldn't admit anything to his mom, so I still don't have a battery. I couldn't understand why someone would just steal a battery out of a phone until I went to buy a new one last night and couldn't find one anywhere! My 4-month old phone is outdated and they don't carry those batteries anymore. Josh bought one from ebay for me - so I'll be back in business next week. Darn seventh graders. Don't ask me what I was thinking when I decided to teach middle school!

I haven't seen much of Josh lately - finals are rapidly creeping up on him, so he has been doing a lot of studying and attending lots of study groups. He is doing so well in school so far and I am really proud of him. I don't think he feels as confident in his abilities as I do, but if you ask me, he's doing just fine.

Only 4 more days until we will have family here for Thanksgiving! Hooray!

What big teeth you have!

Here are some pictures of Abe AND Tilly. Can you believe the size of Abe's teeth? Sometimes I wonder if they are going to hurt each other when they start to wrestle, but it doesn't seem to bother them. They are best buddies and love to snuggle up to each other (or anyone who will pay any attention to them!).

This post was for Ashley so she doesn't think I leave Tilly out on purpose; just because she's adopted doesn't mean we don't love her! :)

My Boys

Here are my cute boys. Even at 100 pounds, Abe thinks he's a lap dog. Apparently, he's right.
We've had a good Sunday. I always love spending time at home with my sweet husband and my stinky dogs. We went to play a game tonight and realized (only 2 years after marriage) that we don't own any good 2-person games. So, we watched football instead. That's not any better than Farkle or Sequence!
Here goes another week - only 7 more days of school until Thanksgiving break.

What's a blog?

Don't ask me, but I have felt left out not having one!! I decided this is a hobby I can take up so I have something to do while Josh is doing all of his stuff that he does.
We are loving it here in Meriden. I am learning to like 7th graders and Josh is enjoying school. Can you believe that it's almost the end of his first semester?! I'm already to the middle of second quarter in my school - and it's almost Thanksgiving!! Let's see, only 40 more days until we go home for Christmas! This hasn't been so bad after all.
We love our house, we love our ward, and we have made lots of really awesome friends. We've been really blessed and are so glad that we've come to this strange state called Kansas. Who would have thought? :)