If only...

If only I can have my baking dream... *sigh*

Fiona Has Arrived

For those of you who don't know, we were blessed with the opportunity to have a cat join our household. She is a sweet little cat, about 5 years old. Friends of ours had adopted her from the Humane Society in Omaha. They found out the husband was breathing at only 50% capacity after a couple of weeks due to allergies and had to find the cat a new home. In steps some other friends of ours who decided to take her in. They found out a close family friend was highly allergic to cats and was no longer able to come over to their house anymore.

We had talked with both of our friends and knew she was available for us to adopt and would come with all the startup items. This was too good of a deal for us to pass up. I had been talking with Dave about getting a cat at the beginning of next year. This seemed like it was what we wanted with very little cost.

So we had to give her a name. She had been given a name by the Humane Society (because she was found abandoned) and by both families before us. But we have a tradition in my family. Our animals all have names with a theme to them. My grandparents named their dogs and cats after flowers. My parents continued that tradition and that there must always be a black male cat in the house named Daisy (don't ask... it's wierd I know). We have tried to name our children with Irish names. When we went to the Humane Society to get a dog, the dog we chose (who was perfect for us) already had an Irish name. So we thought that maybe we need to give our cat an Irish name. The kids and parents pondered, and in the end, the name Fiona was chosen. Not after the Shrek character or anything. Just because it is Irish.

She has settled in nicely. She loves having her own floor of the house to herself. She stays in the basement mainly and our dog, Seamus, stays on the upper floor. It works out well for both of them. She has been eating well and the kids are adjusting to her very well. Conner is afraid of cats in general so we have had to work the hardest with him. But he is getting so much better. That was one of the reasons I wanted a cat. I couldn't comprehend my child being scared of cats. Also, I missed the company of a kitty. I have grown up with cats around me at all times and so when Dave said he would rather have a dog, I compromised and agreed. Now, don't get me wrong. I *LOVE* my dog, Seamus, but there is just something so different in a cat's personality that I love. And now I am so happy having my kitty.

Christmas Decorations

The day after Thanksgiving was over, we put up the Christmas decorations. I'm pretty crazy about this. I always put the tree up on the day after Thanksgiving and take it down on New Years Day. This year was a little more challenging though because we weren't sure where to put things in the new house. I did buy a beautiful prelit garland to go on our mantel and it is wonderful! The kids helped me get the tree setup while Dave was at work that day, so he could just walk in and enjoy the work done. He did still get to put up the outside lights though the next day.

All of the boys were fighting over who got which light up Christmas tree for their room. Grandma Pat made some adorable ceramic Christmas trees that light up and play music when wound up. Finally, they all got divided up between the various locations and all were happy.

It has been wonderful to sit in the living room, in the peace and quiet (after the kids have gone to bed), with complete darkness other than our Christmas tree and garland. I actually get a chance to enjoy the simplicity of the time and the true meaning behind the holiday. May you all get the same opportunity at some time this season! Merry Christmas everyone!

Thanksgiving

We had a great time celebrating the Thanksgiving holiday with our loved ones. This was our first Thanksgiving in the new house and so it was fun trying to figure out how to fit 20 people into it! The kitchen is wonderful for a buffet style setup of eating. The kids got to eat at "the kids' table" in the kitchen. It was the first time we separated them from the adults and I think they actually liked it! The rest of us ate at two tables setup in the living room. It was a great time and the turkeys Dave fried up were fabulous! Everyone seemed to be in good spirits until about 4PM when the little ones decided it was past naptime and started crying more.

We then celebrated Thanksgiving with my side of the family at my parents' house in Omaha. It was so much quieter compared to the 20 people before! Since there was only the 8 of us, the choas was more controlled. I love having holidays at that house and savoring all the memories of holidays and loved ones passed. It always puts a smile on my face to remember how my great grandma Edna used to sit in that chair over there. And how freaked out my grandmother used to get at me even touching her glass table and leaving fingerprints on it. :) She would have had a stroke if she saw all the fingerprints left on there after my four kids were there for 24 hours! Heh...

But we did something special this Thanksgiving. For the first time ever, we celebrated Sean's birthday as well. His birthday being on December 9th has always been so inconvenient for our families. First we all gather for Thanksgiving. Then 2 weeks later for Sean's birthday party. Then 2 weeks later, Christmas. And lastly, 2 weeks later for Bree's birthday. So we thought we would give this a try this year and see if the kids liked it. If at any time, the kids decide they want their birthdays NOT combined with a holiday, we will change it back, but for now, it works best!

Sean will be turning 5 and is very excited about it. He knows that once he is 5, he will get to go to school in the fall. That boy is so jazzed about heading off to kindergarten that he asks me for homework here at home so he can get ready! It is really cute though to see him working on writing his letters.

Christmas Shopping

Yep... I got a little crazy this year. I decided to complete my Christmas shopping early this year. I wanted to enjoy the holiday season without thinking (every two seconds), "What do I need to get done?!?" So I collected my list, planned out my choices for gifts, hijacked my mom for a Saturday while Dave watched the kids at home for me, and got it done. I was gone until 9:30 PM that night, but it all got done! I'm so excited and realized a few benefits to shopping earlier rather than later. First off: I get my choice of picks off the Christmas lists because I am the first one shopping! Secondly, it was much nicer that day (70 degrees) than it will be in December with snow/sleet/rain/cold temps. Thirdly, I will not have to worry about when is the last possible minute I can buy this item and still get it shipped to {insert city name here}. Fourth, there are not so many people out shopping at this time. Fifth, there are all sorts of awesome sales going on right now because of the bad economy! And lastly, the feeling of satisfaction I get when I can say to myself "I am done with my Christmas shopping" is amazing! Of course, I can't say it out loud or I get many hateful stares from everyone around me at the thought of their Christmas shopping yet to be done.

I even got Bree's Halloween outfit for next year on clearance and bought a lighted garland I wanted for our new house's mantle during the Christmas season on sale! It was a great day overall and was fabulous because I also got to spend time with my mom and eat out without having to cut up someone else's food for them.

I highly recommend this way of shopping for everyone who celebrates Christmas, or even Hanukkah. So... get out there and spend money to help our economy bounce back. And then you get to enjoy the real reason behind the holiday more with less running around.

And yes... the wishlists here are now up to date with all things that have not been bought. If you get something from the list, let me know so I can remove it! Happy Holidays everyone!

Muffins with Mom

Every year, Conner's school has a Muffins with Mom activity in the morning before school. This is our first year and I think the kids has a great time. I got a good chuckle out of my morning when I saw this verse on our placemats. Welcome to my world (minus the coffee):

If you give a mom a muffin,
She'll want a cup of coffee to go with it.
She'll pour herself some.
Her three-year-old will spill the coffee.
She'll wipe it up.
Wiping the floor, she'll find dirty socks.
She'll remember she has to do laundry.
When she puts the laundry in the washer,
She'll trip over boots and bump into the freezer.
Bumping into the freezer will remind her she has to plan for supper.
She will get out a pound of hamburger.
She'll look for her cookbook ("101 Things To Do With a Pound of Hamburger").
The cookbook is sitting under a pile of mail.
She will see the phone bill, which is due tomorrow.
She will look for her checkbook.
The checkbook is in her purse that is being dumped out by her two-year-old.
She'll smell something funny.
She'll change the two-year-old's diaper.
While she is changing the diaper, the phone will ring.
Her five-year-old will answer and hang up.
She'll remember she wants to phone a friend for coffee.
Thinking of coffee will remind her that she was going to have a cup.
And chances are...
If she has a cup of coffee,
Her kids will have eaten the muffin that went with it.

Football Madness!

The annual wager has begun! As many of you know, we have a few great traditions in our house revolving around sports. One of them is our Football Fun. Dave is a big San Francisco 49ers fan; Conner and I love the Dallas Cowboys; and somehow, Ryan became a huge New Orleans Saints fan. (He has been since he was 2... back when they hadn't won very many games, let alone a Super Bowl.) So every year, we wager between each other based on the overall record of our teams at the end of the regular season. There is a prize for 1st and 2nd place. But one of the funniest things about this is that most of the games are on Sunday, when we are at our busiest. So we rarely get to watch the teams play unless it is on Monday Night Football or Thanksgiving. So we anxiously wait around on our Sunday nights, watching the crawls at the bottom of the screen on ESPN to see if we get to celebrate that week or hang our head in shame.

(On a side note: this year on Thanksgiving day, for the first time ever, the Cowboys will be playing the Saints in the later game. There are a lot of bragging rights wrapped up into that game this year.)

If the 49ers win 1st place, Dave gets to decide the way we spend all our home improvement money next year. If they get second place, he only gets the money made in May.


If the Cowboys win first place, I get tickets to see a broadway show in Omaha this year. If the Cowboys win second place, I only get a nice date night out (of my choice) with something like dinner and a movie. Conner hasn't chosen anything this year. Maybe he'll get to choose a week of meals?

Now, if the Saints win, Ryan gets a month off of having to do chores. If they get second place, it is just one week off.

Each person came up with their own prizes this year for the first time. As it stands right now in week three, the Saints are in first with a 3-0 record, the Cowboys in second with 1-2, and the 49ers in last at 0-3.

I only have one this to say about this all....

GO COWBOYS!!!

Fall Fun

I love the fall. And for me, nothing says fall like October. We have fabulous reasons to get together and have fun: apple picking, bonfires, Halloween, General Conference, potlucks, pumpkin carving, football games, trunk or treating. Those are just a few of the things that make me so happy during this time of the year. We start to wake up in the morning and feel the crisp coolness coming in through the windows. It makes you snuggle in under your blankies just a minute longer. In the afternoons and evening, the temperature is perfect! Not too hot, not too cold.

The boys always love it when dad gathers together the leaves in the front yard and jump in them. Of course, in the past, we had a huge maple tree in our front yard that provided many leaves to play in. Even Seamus got into the action! I called it leaf day and got out the camera to take tons of fun pics. This year, in our new house, we have two smaller trees in the front yard. We'll have to see how much fun the kids have in those leaves. So I uploaded a couple of pictures from the last three years of leaf fun.

It is nice to have a deck to sit on this year and enjoy the beautiful weather. Our new house also has a great setup for us to watch conference at home over the internet. We hear the football games at night over at the high school two blocks away. The kids have their costumes already chosen for Halloween. Ryan is going to be Mario from Super Mario Brothers; Conner chose a clone trooper outift from Star Wars: the Clone Wars; Sean was happy being Tigger from Winner the Pooh. But the best thing is that I got to reuse Conner's clown costume I made. Bree is going to use that one. She looks adorable in it and does really well getting around in it. In the past, I have never reused costumes because I was afraid I would look back at the photos and never be able to tell the kids apart. "Which one is this? Ryan or Sean?" You see my dilemma here? I feel confident though that I will be able to tell Conner and Bree apart. :)

The Normality of Life

I haven't had much to post because I have been really sick. I got a bacteria that totally messed with my body and so I was sick for 10 days before I finally saw the doctor and got meds. Now that I am feeling much better, I am able to enjoy the normal life.

Ryan and Conner ran off to school on the 13th and so it is back to just having Sean and Bree at home with me. I am enjoying the more quiet time (especially during afternoon naps) and the less mess to clean up. But I miss seeing a little blonde head pop up from downstairs and Ryan being so helpful with Bree out of the kindness in his heart. I also miss them doing their chores, which seems to have ended now that school started. I'm still working on that.

With the last week being so much nicer in temps, we have been able to have the windows opena bit. It felt so good and gives me hope that a wonderful fall is coming.

I still am adjusting to living in Blair. It is very hard being further away from all of my close friends in Omaha. I miss them all so much. Unfortunately, I haven't made any REALLY good friends up here yet. You know, that person you click with the instant you meet them and you know you can just hang out together regularly and have tons of fun? I'm sure that will happen eventually. Maybe some of the people I have met now will become that. It is hard though. I am a very social person and I have no playdates or outings to talk with people except when I go back into Omaha for something. I have prayed and fasted quite a bit for Heavenly Father to ease this lonliness, but it comes on His schedule, not mine.

But really, what do I have to feel sad about? I have a beautiful home in a safe town. My family loves it here and is doing so well. My husband is awesome. He has a great job. I have wonderful in-laws here in town who have been so kind and sweet to us. We chose this move. We weren't forced into it. And I do love so many things about Blair. So I keep praying and hoping for some help. I'm sure it will come along. Heck, I even joined the Parent-Teacher Organization here. Wish me luck!

Things I Have Learned from Star Wars III

We have not let the children see Star Wars III in the past due to lots of violence and a little bit vivid body burning at the end. But finally, we broke down and let them watch it for our Stay-cation this week. During the day. With all the lights on. And much popcorn! But as I sat watching it, I was struck by how many things in that movie can really be lessons for us adults.

1. Small wrong choices can lead to disasterous ends. Many smaller choices Anakin made in the beginning led to him becoming Darth Vader. Such as when he executed Count Dooku in the name of "justice". Talking with Chancellor Palpatine so often when many people, including his wife, warned him that he did not seem to be everything he was showing to others. And even getting married in the first place! (Not that I'M against marriage, but a Jedi is never supposed to marry!) Little steps down the wrong path.

Many times we are told, don't drink, don't smoke, don't hang out with those people. Most of the time people are trying to help you. We decide (in our pride) to fight against the advice people give us. We choose to have just a little drink. And then a little more. And eventually, you are out partying with the wrong sort of people getting drunk almost every weekend. Little steps down the wrong path.

2. Pride is one big disasterous cloud that can impair our vision. When Anakin starts feeling the power he has over others, he gets that "big head" syndrome. He feels like he is better than all and knows more than all. We can sometimes get this way in our lives. Of course, this leads him to do the one thing he was trying to prevent from happening: injuring (and eventually killing) his wife Padme.

3. We have to remember other people's motives for what they do. This can cause them to make decisions later on that do not mesh with your decisions. All of the Storm Troopers are people who represented the Republic and their interests. When the Jedis "became" an enemy to the Republic, the Storm Troopers turned on them in a heartbeat and without remorse. They had seen their role in the picture; the Jedis were surprised by this and without defense.

Too many times in my life, I have had people I considered friends. I would have done almost anything for them just to have them turn around at a later time and look after their own interests. You may say to yourself. "Well, these are not the kind of friends anyone wants." And that may be true, but never cause yourself to be thrown off your path of values and make choices you regret later in life because of someone else who may be just a "ship passing in the night". You may also be surprised and without defense.

4. Marriage is only working when two people trust each other, open up about their fears honestly, and share everything with each other. Anakin married Padme who he loved soooo much. So much so that he defied the Jedi laws to marry her secretly. But when he started to have fears about her death, he became secretive and irrational. He made bad choices. Choices in the end that destroyed his relationship.

Too many couples today believe in that fairy tale love that we see in the movies and read about in books, and don't realize the reality: hard times will follow. I have been married for 11 years now and can safely say there have been good times and there have been bad times. Obviously, I liked the good times better, but I found that the bad times don't have to be so bad when you have someone to share that burden with. They can help you up when you fall down and vice versa. Sharing your fears with them allows them to understand why you are doing the things you do and say. It helps them stay rational and find ways to make the situation better.

5. It is not the size of your light sabre that matters, but the faith, experience, and expertise behind it. Yoda is one small guy... er... person.. thing? Anyways, and he has one small light sabre when you compare it to many of his opponents. But he has over 600 years of experience to back up his fighting skills. He knows he can do it. He believes in the force. He trains. And he always comes out of the battle. He may not of won it, but he lived to fight another battle and train others.

As people on this earth dealing with so many crazy things going on in our lives, we tend to feel like the undersized Yoda. But instead of the force, we have faith! We train by praying, reading our scriptures, and going to church. This way we know what decisions we want to make when the time comes to make them in the future. We rely on God's experience to help us make decisions. And He has a lot too being as He has been around since before the beginning! This builds our faith and allows us to share it with others, just like Yoda did with Luke in later movies. He shared his knowledge and made Luke a better person for it. We too can share our beliefs with others... So let our light shine and help others decide to be a better person in the future.

I know. This is a wierd post from me, and I am not a Star Wars junkie. I leave that to my son. But the more I thought on it, the more similiar it seemed to our lives in reality. So there is my take on it.

Garage Sale Prep

I know. I must be abusive to myself. For I am having a garage sale next week. It will be kinda crazy, but we have too much stuff that I need to get rid of. I have never had a garage sale myself before, but have been to tons of them. I think I have looked at enough web sites as well to figure out tips to have a successful sale. This will help clear out our garage though. And make a little extra cash for us in the meantime.

When we first moved in, we cleared out the garage for the most part so we could get our two cars in it when the bad weather came through town. I started to notice there was a lot of stuff I needed to get rid of that I wasn't going to find a place for in our new house. So it started getting to be a pretty big pile in our garage and we couldn't park in there so easily anymore. Since I figured out that I wasn't going to be able to participate in the really good consignment sales anymore in Omaha for getting rid of my kids' clothing, I figured a garage sale might be the best way.

So, if anyone has any tips to help this go smoother, I welcome them. I am going to let the boys make a little extra money by selling cold bottled water and homemade cookies. I hope it goes well. *sigh* Pray for us. This might be harder than moving.

My Alarm Clock

This is why small town living is so interesting. The Blair Marching Band has been practicing for a 4th of July parade every morning this week. Our little subdivision must be the perfect little parade route because they walk up and down the roads at 8 AM each morning. It just makes me giggle when towards the end of the video they pause and turn towards our house to play a song. By the way, this is from my bed! As you can see, there is no sleeping through this!

The General Way of Things

Summer is an interesting time this year. The boys don't have any kids in the neighborhood to play with. So they have to get along with each other. Not always such an easy task. We have spent some time at the library. The summer reading program is going well. The pool has been off limits since I couldn't find a swimsuit for Bree and I couldn't find my swimsuits I already owned until today. Fortunately, I found a swimsuit for Bree at Wal-Mart the other day for $5 that will work nicely. I'm still not sure about going to the expensive pool in town. We went to the carnival earlier in the month and enjoyed that a lot. We have ran errands in Omaha and spent some time with Omaha friends. But mostly, they have played with toys and video games to keep happy.

I have been trying to clean up said messes and trying to unpack those last few stubborn boxes. I also have to prepare for a garage sale I am having July 29th thru the 31st. All of that stuff we packed up to stage our Omaha house that we weren't sure if we would need in our new house is going! There is also clothing the kids have grown out of and toys! So much fun!

Then comes the last chore of which I am sorely unprepared for. I am trying to decorate our house. In our last house, it began to feel like I was in a museum dedicated to the Jensens with all those family pictures we had up. I wanted to go in a different direction with this house. I actually want to have decorative pieces and a few family pictures. I went shopping at Hobby Lobby when the home decor was 50% off and got some fabulous deals! I struggled a lot with finding something I thought would look great together in our living room, but I think I finally found it. I'll post pictures when we get the painting done and put items on the wall that belong there. This is really hard for me though. I'm just not sure. I am convinced that I was born without the gene to decorate a home. Creativity is not my thing. So let's cross our fingers that I will be able to pull something off.

Neighborly Turtles

We have started to meet our neighbors now. It only took about 2 weeks, but they have started coming over. It's like a turtle. The turtle sees something drop into his vacinity and it is time to pull himself back into his shell. You might say we were startling to see move in with all those trips with the U-Haul truck and the three boys running around everywhere outside. Of course, seeing all the people helping us move in. And a dog can be quite an alarm bell ringing site. So you stay in your shell for a suitible amount of time... in this case, two weeks. Slowly, you begin to peek out and see if everything is still ok. Let's see, no dog barking incessantly: check! None of our children running through neighbors yard and screaming bloody murder constantly: check! New neighbors wave at us when they see us peeking out: check! Everything must be ok!

While Dave and Kev were working on putting the playground set back together on Friday, the neighbor behind us came out and was trying to reach through the fence to pet Shay. I talked with her (Chris) and her husband (Kim) for quite a while at which point they must have assumed I was ok people. Of course, they only did this once I said hello to their son (college age guy) who was walking their cat (yes, I did say cat) in their backyard.

On Saturday, when Dave and I were working on cleaning up and sorting our garage more, the guy to the south of us, Buster ("Once I die, there'll be no more Busters in the county"), came over and said hi to us. Very sweet older gentleman who we found out through conversation must use a cane because he was run over by a tractor when he was 3. Seeing that Buster had ventured out of his "shell", the neighbor directly across the street, Red, came over too. He was also venturing to organize his garage that day. He said it took him 15 years to get up the courage to tackle that job again.

Very friendly neighbors all around so far. I keep waving at the others I see as I drive off to go places. Eventually, I would like to get some cookies baked up and take them over to them all so we can properly introduce our family to the neighborhood. Then there will be no need to hide in their shells just because the Jensens have come to town.

The Way of Things

I am a very anal retentive person in case you don't know me very well. You may have guessed this though from previous posts about everything being in it's place. So when things gets outta whack, I get frustrated and grumpy. Same thing for schedules. I love schedules! I love To Do Lists! I know. I am a freak. But this is just how I am. So the first couple of weeks of summer, I am usually a pretty grumpy person until we get things on schedule. Also, getting the kids trained to put their stuff back where it belongs when they are done playing with it. This year, things have been compounded by moving and trying to get everything where it belongs to begin with.

So yesterday, I planned. I began giving the boys chores to do each day and setting up a schedule for how the day would run. So they boys understood when they got up today that the day would go as follows:

First, we get breakfast eaten. This is cereal for everyone so Ryan can help the brothers get this setup if Bree lets mom sleep in. The boys are allowed to watch TV while they eat breakfast. But once it is gone, they will need to turn it off. Then the chores were to be done. Today I then let them watch a movie with some popcorn while I got some laundry done. We'll then have lunch and Bree will go down for nap. The boys will then get their video game time (which is dependent upon them completing their chores from the day before). By then, we will start getting things ready for dinner and the evening activities. If we need to run any errands, that may be the time.

Of course, I'm not so crazy that if the schedule needs to be changed, I can't flex it. I do. Often. In fact, this isn't the normal schedule because we are expecting bad weather here and we don't have the playground setup yet in our new backyard. Ok. So I am a little bit crazy.

A Garage With A Car In It

That's right! By yesterday afternoon, I was able to park the van in the garage. Goal #1 done! Now we are working on getting it cleared out enough for Dave to also be able to park in there. I think he could park in there now, but it would be a very tight fit. So unless there are some nasty storms coming this direction, he will have to wait until (hopefully) tomorrow night.

It is another lovely day here though. We turned off the A/C and opened up the windows. We have some beautiful smelling flower outside a window and it perfumes the whole house wonderfully! I think it is a lilac, but I didn't think they still smelled after the blooms were gone. Either way, it is heavenly! My husband tells me, "It is actually called fresh air." Either way... I'm loving it!

More time last night with family over visiting us. I so love it! It is fun to have our family around us and be close enough and comfortable enough with each other that we can spend some quality time with each other.

Well, speaking of quality time with each other, I am being paged by Conner to go play some video games with him! Tah tah all!

Settling In

Now that we got all of our stuff to Blair and in our garage, it was time to start putting it away. I hate this process and love it at the same time. I hate it because I am a person where every thing has it's spot where it goes. When I have a new house, I need to find that thing's spot. Then I always question whether that is the "right" spot for it. But on the other side, I love it because it begins to make this house become our home. And I get to have that feeling of I am slowly putting everything in it's proper spot.

So our garage is a maze. And we have more cardboard to recycle than any one family should ever have. Fortunately, on Saturdays, Blair has a recycling place we can load up the cardboard in a vehicle and take it all too. But only on Saturdays. :) So we get a good pile going each week. We already had a good pile the day after we moved and an even bigger one for today!

Things are settling in nicely though. The boys have yet to meet anyone in the neighborhood, but I think our area has mostly older kids and older adults. Bree is fascinated with the trains she can hear in the distance. The boys are enjoying regular romps through the sprinkler on these very hot days.

Most of the boxes inside of the house are unloaded. Now we are working on the garage. I have a goal to be able to park my van in the garage by the end of today and to be able to park both vehicles in by the end of Memorial Day. Ambitious, I know.

We had to buy a few things though. I had to get my double oven. The old oven literally heated up the entire kitchen 12 degrees any time my stove/oven got turned on. So we bought and installed the new one on Tuesday. Also, we needed a new entertainment credenza in our living room. The old one was way to high and big for the space we needed to place it in. So we ordered that online from Wal-Mart early in the week and it arrived on Thursday for us to put together and setup electronics. All of the electronics have been setup now. We finished the surround sound last night so we could watch a movie on our date night.

Our house is beginning to feel like a home!

The Move

We are officially moved into our new house! We are very excited and tired right now. But I figured I owed some of you a run down of how everything went.

We had our closing date for both houses on Friday, May 21st. So we rented the biggest U-haul truck available on Thursday, May 20th and loaded up the Omaha house. It went well except for a couple of hitches: we filled the truck with more to come up here and Ryan's school scheduled the talent show he was in for a night time showing THAT night. So while the truck was being loaded up, I took the kids to the Talent Show to see Ryan perform. That night, we slept on sleeping bags and spent our last night in the house.

The next day, the boys went off to school for their last day before summer vacation and we finished cleaning up. We handed off the keys and left the home around 10:15AM. We then went up to Blair for a walk through of our new home, came back to Omaha to run some required errands (like picking up the boys from school), then drove the U-Haul and van up to Blair so we could sign some papers. Got that done and started unloading at the Blair home.

After we unloaded the U-Haul, Dave, Kev, and their dad went back into Omaha to pickup the second load of our stuff we had stored in our storage unit. They came back and unloaded that (also stopping along the way to pickup some items we stashed at my parents' house as well). So all of our stuff was in one location now! Yay! Dave and Kev then drove back to Omaha for Dave to return the U-Haul. So here we are and then it was time to start unpacking. But that is another post all together!

Welcome to Our New Site!

This is our new blog site since we are no longer the Omaha Jensens. We are now one of a few Blair Jensens. It seemed silly to keep our name the same and since we know we will be in Blair for quite some time, we changed the name. All the same info is here that was on our previous blog and the old one will stay operational, but I will stop posting there soon. So welcome to our site and we'll keep you updated on our new life in Blair!