Surgery for our Missionary

Sister Jensen had to go in and have her gall bladder removed. She thinks it was really set off by the greasy food at the MTC. This picture was before the surgery. She is really thankful that they have a dietician that makes her food special - low fat. When Jessica came out of surgery, she looked somewhat like a nun. She was freezing and couldn't stop shaking. They have these really cool blanket things that are called "bear [Bair was the inventor]hug". It is this super thin plastic sheet that blows warm air to puff up like a thin air mattress. It has this great warm air blowing in it all the time to keep you warm.

They gave her so much pain medicine that she suddenly got very sick. They put oxygen on plus a cold rag on her head. She had an ice pack on her stomach and her back. It was rough. Obviously, the smile came once she was feeling a little better. She felt naked without her name tag...so she put it back on. She just wished they would have put Sister Jensen on her wrist band.

I was allowed to drive her and Sister Davis back to the MTC. It was hard to leave her there with her being so sick, but with the attention that she was getting from the sisters in her district, I knew that she was in good hands. The MTC has a nurse in the sick bay, and there is a Dr. there as well. Two Elders had surgery last Friday and Jessica and one other sister had surgery on Monday.

Thanks for all the prayers.

Winter Guard

Kelsie is captain on her Color Guard team for Desert Hills High School.

TheY went to Salt Lake last weekend for an evaluation show. The judges went crazy when the girls performed. This is a first year team. The girls did Color Guard in the fall (that is when they perform with the band in parades and at half time at the football games), but this is new to all of them. They even got a new coach with Winter Guard. They did such a great job that they got moved up two levels.

Next week they go to Salt Lake again for competition this time. They have many trips planned over the next couple months to compete.

GOOD LUCK KELSIE

Sister Jensen is on her way

We stopped at Desert Hills High to say goodbye to Kelsie. We just had to get one more hug in.
We stopped at the MTC on our way to Salt Lake. It was good that we did because on Wednesday, it was so crowded.

On Tuesday night we went to Italian Village for pizza benders. The Jensen Grandparents treated us all to dinner. It was so fun to see everyone. Jessica is really going to miss Mary Ann, the youngest Jensen cousin. She truly brings a smile to everyone that she meets.

As you can tell, Sister Jensen was more than happy to leave. I was questioning how it would be to have the new "drop at the curb system". I loved it. At least you can quietly cry and not feed off of those that are sobbing. The Elders were so happy and you could just feel all the excitement in the air.

We love you "baby girl" (yes, she will always be my baby). You will be fantastic.

Farewell: The Food

We had so much company come into town for Jessica's Farewell, we knew it would be nice to feed them all after church. Because Jessica loves soup (so much that she even wants to eat it in the heat of summer) she requested a soup bar. With the help of Jenni, and my sister Donna, and Jessica's friend Ashley, we were able to make soups, desserts, salad, and veggie trays in time. We did cheat and buy the rolls.

This was the appetizers table. The chips and salsa came from Chili's (so much cheaper!) Lamar's mom, Gay, gave us this awesome triple crockpot. It's so neat because you can keep all three things at different temperatures. And we were able to serve 3 different soups in it.
The dessert bar! Packed with cookies, fudge, and chocolate covered pretzels.

We learned this cool palm tree trick from the Cutco booth at Santa's Workshop this year. It was so fun that Jenni had to replicate it (and make it look better).

The food was a hit, and our guests were able to head back up to Salt Lake on full stomachs.

Time to start blogging...

Jessica has helped me put this blog together, and now that she's leaving, it's time to learn to do it on my own. Thankfully, she's writing me very detailed instructions on how to do all this. Now that Christmas and the big farewell are over, we have time to sit down and start putting up all the fun stuff that's been going on with our family the past couple weeks. We also put her address up on the sidebar so you'll have easy reference if you need it so you can write to her.