Latest and Greatest

Well, a lot has gone on at the Jensen's house the past 14 months (since the last post). I keep telling myself I will be better at blogging, but so far I have proven to be pretty pathetic!

We were able to have our retaining wall put in! RPC did an amazing job and we would highly recommend them to anyone else looking to have a retaining wall installed (regardless of how small or big the job is). It was pretty amazing how quickly they got it up. Seriously, Sol left for work one day and they had some of the preliminary digging done, and he came home the next day around noon and the wall was pretty much done!

Before...

During...

After...

Sol took the Insanity challenge (a 60 day work out program) and after the 60 days had lost 24 lbs. He continued to do it a little longer and ended up losing over 30 lbs! It was amazing because we would have never thought he had 30 lbs to lose!

We had the opportunity to go to Utah in July for Todd and Sandra's wedding. We also got to go to Iowa for New Year's! It was so awesome to see both of our families! We don't get to see them often enough, and really enjoy the time we do get with them.

After a busy summer of (what seemed like non-stop) traveling for work, I was fortunate to find a job at SEL! My commute went from 114 miles one way to 2-2.5miles round trip! It has been a huge relief to be home, and I had no idea how much additional stress I had until I didn't have it any more.

Sol and I participated in several 5k runs. We have always run, but never participated in organized running events. After participating in several 5ks, we ran in our first 1/2 marathon! Sol was a superstar! He decided to run the race that morning (with no more than 6 miles of running at one time for the past 12+ months) and he blew us out of the water! My run went so so... definitely not how I planned, but there was good reason for that... the following Monday I found out I was expecting!

We ran the Moscow March... (April- picture not shown), the Walla Walla Balloons Day (May)...

Lentil Festival - Pullman, WA (August)...

Snake River 1/2 Marathon - Lewiston, ID (October)...

That's right, we have a little boy on the way - set to make his grand appearance somewhere around June 19th. I have been busy trying to prepare for the baby and I think we are close. I guess we will see when he arrives.

Top 2 pictures - 12 week appointment

Bottom 2 pictures - 20 week appointment

Me at 25wks... believe it or not, two-three weeks before I could still wear "normal" clothes. I felt like I went from nothing to "popped" out over night.

Shortly after finding out we are expecting, Sol was put in as Elder's Quorum President. A couple months later, I was put in as first counselor in the Relief Society Presidency, and Sol was just asked to take on additional responsibilities at work! So here we are, in a matter of 5 months, I have a new job, a baby on the way, we both have new church callings, Sol is wrapping up his Master's program and will soon be taking on additional responsibilities at work!

With all that said, we truly feel blessed! As I have reflected on everything that has taken place, I truly believe Heavenly Father knows us, loves us, and has provided us with an opportunity to feel of his love, and in return provide love and service those around us!

Read More 10 comments | Posted by Talia Jensen

It's Been a While...

Well, I know it has been far too long since I posted last. I get so caught up with life and sometimes forget the important things... Here is a brief update of the past few months.

Ian and Brandie got married in July. We were fortunate enough to go to UT to be a part of the festivities.

While there, Sol and I rappelled down on a real rock wall for our first time.

We also went to Lagoon (our first roller coaster park in the 8 years of our marriage)! Who knew Sol would like Lagoon? We had a blast and definitely look forward to going to more in the future.

We got to go hiking with some family friends. This is Elk River Falls, in Elk River, ID.

We didn't do much with our yard since we moved in because we are saving to put in a retaining wall (which we believe should come before the sprinkler system)... so this summer we watched the weeds grow as tall as us! Our poor neighbors. We are looking forward to this summer when we will have enough saved to put in our rock wall, sprinklers and grass!

We went to a handful of Cougar football games. Unfortunately it was a very, very sad season, but nonetheless fun!

Sol had the opportunity to go to Boise for work. While he was there he stopped by the Pyrah's and participated in pumpkin decorating. He also had the opportunity to give Stacia her very first bouquet of flowers from a boy! ;) We miss the Pyrah's so much!

My incredible sister and her little munchkin came to visit. Korver wanted nothing to do with me while he was eating the frosting off the cookie. I kid you not, this boy would eat candy for every meal if Wendy would let him. He loves sugar!

I set the Christmas tree up and enjoyed all 600 lights! It was pretty bright - I think everyone in the neighborhood could see the glow from our windows. I loved it!

"Santa" was good to us this year! We have absolutely ENJOYED our VitaMix! It is amazing how much better I feel when I eat more fruits & veggies. We have made everything from smoothies to pancakes to soup to orange chocolate fondue! Yum!

Sol also chose to grow some scruff for much longer than "normal" this winter. In the past, he grew a beard for the three weeks we spent with our families. However, this year was the first year his coworkers saw him - and the LOVED it! They told him he looked like Justin Timberlake, so he kept it for much longer than I would have preferred ;)

Last but not least, we live in the middle of a field and when winter rolls around we get "roommates." We do not care to share our living space with these "roommates," so we set out poison. This year one (or more) of our "roommates" created a nest where he/she shouldn't have, and after eating our poison passed away as evidenced by this...

Sol will be so upset this made it to the blog, but all I can do is laugh. No one I have spoken with has ever seen something like it (except for my brother-in-law who professionally cleans air duct systems). Any suggestions? :)

Read More 5 comments | Posted by Talia Jensen

San Francisco

I just returned from a trip to San Francisco for a conference. Here are some of the pictures from my trip...

We decided to go the the baseball game. Sol will attest that I am not much of a baseball fan, but it was a quick game - so I didn't get too bored.

We got to the game early so one of my coworkers could try to get autographs. The rest of us walked around the ball park and this is what you see as you look out from the stadium! It was beautiful.

These are some serious game goers! They wait in the water just in case a ball is hit in their direction and if you look closely, they are grilling while they wait for the game to start!

I only know a few baseball players by name and Randi Johnson is one of them. So just to see how I "measured up" I got a picture next to his photo! I didn't realize he was so tall!!

Here is a group photo! What you can't see is how fried I got! The forecast said it was going to be a high of 57 and overcast so I brought no sun screen. Whoops!

This is a picture of my hotel from a walking path. You can see an airplane in the upper left corner. The airport was across the bay from us, and surprisingly, you really didn't hear many planes!

This is a picture from my room. I took it at night, so it is pretty dark, but I had a pretty good view!

We went to dinner at Benihana's! I have never been before and our Chef was hilarious! He was a Hispanic trying to impersonate a Japanese Chef. It was definitely a fun experience.

While making the table's fried rice, he created this. Then he poured soy sauce in the middle of the heart and put the spatula under the heart to make it appear as though it was beating. We thought it was pretty creative!

Here he is juggling an egg with his spatula. I was surprised he didn't break it and after he cracked it open, he juggled the egg yoke without breaking it. It was pretty impressive!

Overall it was a fun trip and good to get to know some of my coworkers on a more personal level!

Read More 2 comments | Posted by Talia Jensen

Coach of a Lifetime

Have you ever had a person come into your life who will forever hold a special place? This is a picture of Sol with Coach Neto - his high school baseball coach; however, he was more than a coach to Sol!

After graduating from high school, Sol returned during the summers to help coach the up and coming players. There were many long days and incredible memories formed during this time! We are so grateful for the Netolicky's friendship and we were ecstatic to be able to catch up with them!!

Read More 1 Comment | Posted by Talia Jensen

Iowa Beaches

Sol had several coworkers take vacations to destinations with nice beaches. He joked that he was going to Iowa to play on their sandy beaches. Here are some of the pictures of the "Beaches."

We even caught some other beach goers. Personally, it was way to cold to be walking around like this! I think they were getting an early start on their tans.

We wanted a picture of us, and Mark caught us being silly.

Here is a more recent picture of us!

I will have to say that these beaches aren't highly sought after destinations like Hawaii, California or Florida - but it was the best we could do in Iowa!

Read More 0 comments | Posted by Talia Jensen

Family Photo

While in Iowa this past summer, we got some updated family pictures. This is Sol with his siblings.

This is a picture of Sol with his mom, step dad, siblings, and nieces/nephews. We definitely miss seeing the kids more often.

And this is Sol's siblings with their significant others, his mom and the kids again!!

It was so much fun to visit and we miss you!!! Lots of love!

Read More 1 Comment | Posted by Talia Jensen

Iowa Flooding

We went to Cedar Rapids this summer to see Sol's family and decided to drive around to see the flood damage. We were very surprised. One year later and the city is in much better shape, but still has a long way to go. Here are some of the things we saw...

This picture shows a spray painted line of where the water was at it's peak. In the picture is a 15 passenger van and if you look closely, you can see the water line above the van.

We saw several homes that had something spray painted on it. These are some of the ways people expressed themselves during this difficult time.

This mini van has definitely seen better days! I could not believe that this was still sitting this way a year after the fact.

This picture also was intriguing because the garage wrapped around the tree didn't match any of the nearby homes, indicating that the current swept it away from it's original location and landed it here.

Due to problems with the sewers, the city had to bring in porta-potties. There were still a handful through out the city and if you look behind the porta-potty, the empty lot used to be a home that has been torn down. As you drove through the city there were different colored notices posted to the exteriors. Yellow and Green (if I remember correctly) meant that there was minimal damage, but Red meant that the home could no longer be used. This may have been one of the red homes.

This is one of the better pictures actually showing the water line. It is a business near the river.

It was difficult to know the stories behind all the homes, but this one appears to have been stripped of everything. It is hard to know if the owner was trying to dry it out before rebuilding or if they are in the process of tearing it down.

This one caught my eye because you can see the water line pretty well, but also the American Flag was still flying! There were a lot of homes that put up flags. This one, however, looked as though it went through the storm.

It was neat to see the response of the Iowan people. They are very resilient and will prevail!

Read More 0 comments | Posted by Talia Jensen

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