Quick little update:

So much has happened ... where should I start first? My oldest son, Justen, got married to Ravyn Martyn-Dow on December 19th, 2009. They have been engaged for almost 2 years so it wasn't a huge surprise but the planning of the wedding seemed to be fast a furious! lol Ravyn's mom, Jaqui, did an excellent job of putting things together. I was included in the plans and we used everything that I had purchased 1 1/2 years ago when the "kids" were first going to get married. After reviewing their financial situation 1 1/2 yrs ago they decided to postpone the wedding. Jaqui provided some beautiful decorations and the cake was beautiful and delicious. It was a very nice ceremony performed by Bishop Gibson and the reception followed right afterward.

Jessica was able to attend her brother's wedding and was even a bride's maid. Brandon and Austin were groomsman and did an awesome job.

I don't have many photos but here are a few from my father-in-law's camera:

Here's the happy couple:

awwww... how sweet!

We are a goofy family! hehe... Justen and Ravyn wanted a silly photo and they got it!

Here's the Taylor and Jensen grandparents with the couple. (Taylor on the left - Jensen on the right)

I can't wait to see the photos from the photographer. I'm sure they will be great!

I knew Jessica wouldn't have the energy to last the whole evening so I had her favorite nurse, Renee, help get Jess ready, come to the wedding with us and when Jess got tired, Karl took them both home and then came back to the reception. I was able to just be the mother of the groom and enjoy my evening. I danced with my husband, all 3 of my sons and all 3 of my brothers... 2 of which had come from out of state to attend the wedding. The evening was wonderful. Two of my friends, Janice and Reesa, came and helped in the kitchen. We couldn't have done it without them too! We are so blessed that Jessica was able to be there and enjoy herself. We never would have believed that she would survive long enough to see her brother get married back when she was in a coma and hemorrhaging when she was 3 years old. What a miracle she is!

I almost forgot....

to update you about the horrible flu we had. It wasn't the SWINE flu .... althought my kids do act like little piggies at times!

Jessica, Austin and Karl are all feeling MUCH better. Karl is still coughing some but at least is able to sleep and work. Austin has been back to school for about a week and is catching up on his school work. Justen is coughing a little here and there but I think it's mostly allergies at this point... in fact, I wouldn't be surprised is Karl's cough is allergy related too. Jessica is still on prednisone but I'm going to call her pulmonary doctor today and see about weaning her off of it. It is making her puffy, ornery and she REALLY can't sleep at night. Fortunately Brandon and I didn't get the cough. My voice was raspy and my sinuses are still giving me some trouble (not extreme) but I think it's allergy related too. I have these same problems every fall and every spring. Lucky me!

I am so thankful everyone in my home that was sick is getting better. I'm exhausted from taking care of everyone while they were sick. I think I need a vacation. My older brother and his family are going to Hawaii later this month. I wonder if I can fit into a VERY LARGE suitcase and go with them? haha!

Thank you for checking in on us and I'm sorry I didn't update sooner. It's been a rough few weeks.

((hugs)) to you all!

Snow on Justen's Birthday: 2-10-09

Justen went out to play in the snow at 2:am on his 23rd birthday! It rarely snows here so it was a real treat!


Here's another picture of him in the snow. I can't believe my baby is this old! Although he has quite a bad case of dandruff. LOL


Graffiti on my car in the snow! I wonder who did it?


The snow stuck to the ground for a little while but it was gone by noon.


Jess really wanted to go out into the snow but I'm a mean Mom and wouldn't let her. It was late and I really wanted to get her to bed... not out in the snow and cold!

My Life.... busy as usual

Oh My Word! I can't believe it's been more than a month since I updated this poor neglected blog! Soooooo much has happened... but then again, it is my life! LOL

Let's see.... what has happened:

Jessica: Had a birthday, turned 20 years old!!!!!!!! I can't believe it! The big bad CHD (congenital heart defects) that tried to take Jess multiple times while she was an infant, and again as a child, as a teenager we almost lost her ... but she has made it to "adulthood!" Something Karl and I never dared dream would happen. Of course she is still at the level of a 7 yr old but she has lived for 20 years and that's a huge accomplishment! I'll post pictures soon... I promise! Jessica's wisdom teeth are trying to come in so I'm going to have to get her in to see her dentist. He said that he will take a look but who knows if he can do anything about it.

Justen: Justen and Ravyn have decided to post-pone their wedding until December. After taking a look over living expenses, etc, they realized that Miss Ravyn needs to have a job and help financially before the wedding. It's a huge reality check, isn't it? I think that one of the hardest part of growing up is having to provide for yourself and your family. Karl and I struggled financially for quite a few years and still have to watch what we buy. It's rough going sometimes but I'm sure that Justen and Ravyn will do well once they get everything in order. We are still so happy that Ravyn is going to be a part of our family. At least it won't be so hot in December! The wedding pictures will be less likely to have sweaty, melting wedding party in them. They wedding cake won't have to be served in glasses because it melted either. hehe! I am so glad that we have more time to get everything together, too. Ravyn and I are making her bouquet... I have a picture of her holding her partial bouquet but I think I'll wait until it's completed before I post a picture of it.

Brandon: Poor Brandon has to have oral surgery on July 30th. He has an adult tooth up on the palette of his mouth which has to be surgically uncovered. They will attach a small chain to it and then to his braces and it will slowly pull that tooth down. When it's time, the baby tooth which is in it's place, will be pulled and the adult tooth can come down where it should have gone in the first place. This is the eye tooth and the oral surgeon explained to us how important the eye teeth are. According to the x-ray, his wisdom teeth are ready to be pulled too so we are going to do all that at the same time. It makes sense to sedate him only once and have him recover from surgery only once. I feel bad for him since I know how hard the wisdom teeth extraction is. I had it done one summer while I was in HS and my family went on a trip 2 days afterwards. I had the choice of either going with them or staying for a week with my aunt and uncle. I decided that I might as well go on the trip so I did. It wasn't the most enjoyable trip I've ever been on but I survived! Brandon will survive too. He also has a birthday coming up on July 28th! He will be 15 yrs old. We are having his party on the 25th. He is going to get the Mario Kart for the Wii. Yes, we broke down and let Jessica buy the Wii last month with her government money. Karl and I swore we'd never buy it and at least WE didn't. haha... j/k of course. Since Jess doesn't feel well enough to go out much we figured she should be able to use her money to buy something to help entertain herself. If the kids fight over who gets to play it then nobody does. We've found which games are too strenuous for her to play and which ones are OK for her. She gets so "blue" so easily, we have to watch her or she will be trying to catch her breath and looking like a purple grape. Poor kid.

Austin: Austin is doing well. He is involved in scouts and does his calling really well at church. There's not a whole lot going on with Austin except that he told me that he needs some "Mom and Austin" time. I have been very preoccupied with so many things that I guess I haven't spent enough time with him. He wants me to watch a movie with him so we will definitely have to do it! He and I really need to start a walking program. We are both feeling the effects of not getting enough exercise and being around food all day (all night for me).

Karl: Karl has been working his cute pattootie off hard. He's taken some off-duty jobs, had his schedule changed around and around, and helping out an officer who was involved in a near-fatal accident. Actually, I have spent some time with the officer's wife too. Officer Bobby suffered severe head injuries and wasn't expected to survive. It's been 3 1/2 weeks and he is recovering from his other injuries but his brain has a lot of healing left to do. He recognizes his wife and can walk but he is still very confused and emotional. Please pray for him and his wife, Kristi, that they will get through this. They have two small children who are staying with grandparents (who live out of state) right now. This is an amazing couple and we really hope that Officer Bobby will make a full recovery.

Karl has also been working on my craft room & laundry room and it is now time to do the texture on the walls and ceilings. One of our friends has a texture machine and is supposed to come on Saturday to make a huge mess texture the place. I'm so stressed excited! At least after the texture is done, dry and cleaned up... all we have to do is paint and put in the flooring - - - then I can MOVE IN!!! Do I dare hope?

Nancy: is in great need of a gardener... or more likely a crew of people to rip out tons of weeds that have been growing since the monsoon season started. I'm also in need of a maid... or someone with a back-hoe to clean out my mess of a house! The monsoons have brought the much needed storms to our area but of course my fibromyalgia doesn't like storms so I've been dealing with pain. Lots of it. I also have no time to myself except for the times I stay up after Jess goes to bed. Some times it's not until the wee hours of the morning. I'm not kidding. Look at the time stamp on this post. I started this post at around 3:15am and it's now 3:57 am. But I digress.

My sister, Alice, had a baby boy last week! Joseph Hyrum Vivaldo. We got to go and visit them and pass the baby around. He was 3 days old and soooooo cute! Poor Alice looked tired so we didn't stay terribly long. (we also respected her enough to not take pictures of her at this time) Our crew - of 6 7 (sorry Ravyn, I almost forgot to count you!) can take a toll and anyone! Jessica was so proud of herself for being able to hold such a tiny baby. Justen and Ravyn got to hold him too. I think Ravyn was a little surprised that Justen knew how to hold a baby so small but I reminded her that he held his younger brothers when they were babies and he has also held other baby cousins.

Here is Jessica... so proud to be able to hold her new cousin!

Jessica and Hyrum

Ravyn taking her turn holding Hyrum while Justen waits his turn.

Jessica playing with her other cousins, Jesse, Julie and Marissa - who are all so proud of their baby brother. (Jess had an extremely late night that night and has not been up to par since. Going out really wears her down and she has to have recovery time.) But she had a great time that night and it was all worth it!

And last but not least....

MY BABY!

She's a 2005 Nissan Altima. Karl has been stressing out so much over the price of gas and the fact that our SUV only gets 10 mpg! This car gets 22 - 31 mpg, can fit all 5 of us and the oxygen goes in the trunk. Karl is so smart... he figured out that the oxygen tubing can come through a crack in the seats from the trunk... the seats can fold down and make the already huge trunk bigger so that is an awesome way for Jess to have her O2 and it not be in the way. We still have the SUV for the times that she needs her motorized wheelchair - which would include trips to the doctor, the mall, or any other long-distance walking is required. She doesn't need it to go to some one's home so here we were (in the picture) getting ready to go to grandma & grandpa Jensen's house on the 4th of July. (pictures of that fun event to come later too!) Karl has been so much more relaxed at the price of gas now that we have a much more economical car. We were able to put 1/3 of the price down so our payments are very reasonable. It's a beautiful car - inside and out. Only 30,000 miles on it and still under warranty. Sorry guys... it's ALL MINE! (Well, I let Karl drive it from time to time though... hehe!)

So anyway... these are the major updates that I can think of... and now that it's nearly 5:00am and it's starting to get light outside, it's time for me to go to bed. No, I'm not a slow typist... I just got to playing with the SD card that can fit nicely into my laptop (which I am using right now) and I downloaded 3 month's worth of photos. Now I need to transport them to my portable (pretty) hard drive. :) *I'm soooo spoiled!!!!*

The Start of Something New

Ahhhhhhh, to be young and in love.... remember how it felt to first fall in love and everything is new? I remember being young and falling in love with a special young man. This young man didn't have a job, he had come home from his mission early because he was very sick and he wasn't sure what he wanted to be when he grew up. But I saw beyond that. Waaaaay beyond that. ;) We prayed about getting married and our answer came back a resounding YES! So we did.




We did what we needed to do to secure jobs for both of us and we started our lives out together. We lived on love, hope and faith.... because heaven knows we had no money! hehehe... and here we are today... almost 23 years later... older, wiser, (heavier) and more in love now than way back then.



We have been through sooooo much over the years... having our first child when we had been married barely 10 months didn't help us financially or emotionally, but there he was. He was our sweetie. Our sweetie who is about to turn us into IN-LAWS! That's right. This post isn't about Karl and me, but about Justen and the love of his life, Ravyn. We found out today that they are engaged and planning a wedding in August.



So there's a picture of what it's like to be young and in love - and about to begin a whole new life together. I wish them well. I wish them peace. I wish I had a genie to pay for the wedding! hehe... but seriously, Ravyn is a sweetheart and I've never seen my son happier. (By the way, he has had a hair cut since that picture.) I'll have to get another picture of them soon.

I thought of Lady and the Tramp when I was thinking about what to write tonight. I love that scene when they are sharing the spaghetti... anyway, here is a little video that I found and it reminds me of Justen and Ravyn: The Start of Something New: Staring Lady and the Tramp

The Lazy Blogger

I am a lazy blogger and copied most of this post from an email I sent to my friend, June, who emailed to check up on me. How sweet to have a blogger friend that was worried about me since I hadn't updated in awhile. So here is my update with only minor changes from the email I sent her.

Things have been crazy-busy around here. Jess has been up and down - she's had some pain in her right foot and she's been fighting congestive heart failure. We've been to the doctor's a couple of times and done x-rays on the foot and blood work. Apparently the x-ray was normal so she must have hurt it somehow but fortunately didn't break anything. Her foot seems to slowly be feeling a bit better. Her blood work came back that her thyroid was still low so her doctor increased that medication. I spoke to the cardiologist and I'm allowed to give her 1 or 2 extra doses of lasix per week but not more. She already takes it twice a day and if she needs more then we will have to give her more aldactone too in order to keep her potassium in check. Her legs and feet are less puffy and her primary care doc said that she looked pretty good. All blood work was good so she isn't in CHF too badly.

We had a marvelous Thanksgiving and I keep meaning to upload pictures and post them here. We had family come into town and I got to see my nephew who is battling brain cancer. He is an awesome young man and he and his brothers are growing up so fast! It was great to see my sister and her husband again too. My parents came in from out of town and my mom's sister, husband and son also came from the Phoenix area. We got to see friends of the family and my siblings that live near us and their families too. It was a crazy-noisy-wonderful time!

The best news is that my oldest son (who has aspergers) took a date to a formal dinner/dance at the church tonight. He brought his date over to meet us and I took a few pictures. I am so happy that my son felt comfortable enough to ask a girl out on a date. This is only his 2nd date EVER! He is 21 yrs old but his aspergers has made it very difficult for him to reach beyond himself and be sociable. He has come a long way since he was diagnosed almost 2 years ago and I am very proud of him. Karl and I have been coaching him on how to be a gentleman and he did so well! I am very impressed with the girl he brought to meet us. She is 18 yrs old and was so nice - especially to Jessica. She and Jess really hit it off. After Justen and Raven (his date) left for the dance Jessica talked non-stop about Raven and how nice she is and how they have so much in common. She asked me if Raven would be able to come over and play Nintendo with her and Justen, etc. hehe After the dance, Justen told me that it went really well and they had a good time. He plans on asking her out again and possibly bringing her over to hang out. Apparently she said that meeting us wasn't "as bad as she thought it would be". haha! I'll take that as a compliment! Karl and I wanted her to feel welcome and I hope we achieved that. We are both so happy that our son is progressing and making good choices.

I'll upload pictures soon - I promise! I haven't been getting much sleep and was ill most of the day today so I slept - now I've been up for awhile and am heading to bed. We are supposed to put up our Christmas tree tomorrow so I'm going back to bed so I can feel well enough for that fun family activity. Of course I'll be taking pictures of that! ;-)

I am so blessed to have such a wonderful family and awesome friends. I just couldn't ask for more.

Happy Birthday Justen

Today is my oldest son's birthday. Justen was born 21 years ago. My first questions is, how the heck did he get so old??? I have stayed the same age! ( hehe... I wish!) But seriously, he is a man now. A MAN! Karl and I were teasing him that he was old enough to buy a gun and go to a bar. Austin (who is 11yrs old) suggested that he shoot the beer cans since we don't drink alcohol. Justen just looked at us like we were crazy. He has no interest in drinking (or buying a gun for that matter.)

The following are some pictures of him through the years. Sometimes it seems like just yesterday that he was my little baby and other times it seems like a lifetime ago.

This a the smile that Karl and I called his "grandpa grin". Doesn't he look like an old man who took out his dentures? hehe.. TOO CUTE!Can you believe that we used to be a young family? Justen liked to have his hair spiked when he was that age. I guess he wanted to look like his daddy. We were visiting the Jensen grandparents home in this picture.

This is Justen's 1st grade picture. He really enjoyed 1st grade. He still says that his 1st Grade teacher, Mr. Steele, was one of the best teachers he's ever had. Mr. Steele says that Justen was so refreshing to have in his class. He was uninhibited and would laugh out loud at anything that tickled his funny bone. We were lucky that both of our other sons were able to have Mr. Steele as their 1st grade teacher too.

This picture was taken several years later - I don't have a picture in between these two that I have scanned onto the computer - tons printed, just not scanned. Anyway, this is a nice picture of all 4 kids. Justen, Brandon (in back), Jessica and Austin (in front)

This picture was taken in 2004. It's been harder to get pictures of Justen since he became so busy with school, work and other activities but I got one! Here he is reading.

This is a picture of Justen after I shaved his head in honor of his cousin, Marcus, who has a brain tumor. It only looks like Justen has longer hair because his hair is so thick! lol! It was nice of him to honor his cousin in that way.
Justen is working at FRY's food and drug store. He was going to school but decided to take a break for now. He is also fulfilling a service mission. Every Wednesday early morning he goes to help out at the church cannery. He is also taking a class at our church Institute. He is serving as counselor in the Sunday School in the Institute Ward he attends. I couldn't be more proud of my oldest son and of course I couldn't love him more.

Happy Birthday Son.