Tulip Fest

Now that our guests (my mom & sister Heidi) have left, the weather has become gorgeous. Nevertheless, we had a great time despite silly mother nature. Perhaps Ms. Nature had depleted her supply of mood stabilizing meds.

In fact, last week we turned around in-route because there was 3 inches of snow on the freeway. Aja bawled her eyes out. "I WANT tulips."

Today it was sunny and 70. We drove the 80 miles up to the Skagit Valley for the Tulip Fest. It's one of our favorite events of the year. As you can see in the pictures, it's reminiscent of Holland. Enjoy.

This one is a classic...totally un-staged

In Anna's mind, this is her most beautiful smile
Goofy Aja

Millions of tulips. Check out Anna sniffing them...

Cleo Ann Hears a Who!

My mom, Ann, and my sister Heidi are in town this week. It's really great to have them here. They are loving Aja, Anna & Liv. Since we only see our family from Utah once or twice a year, it's so cool to see the kids interact with their Grandma and Aunt. This picture was taken at the Olympic Sculpture Park in Seattle.

Cleo Ann Glauser Jensen is 71. She was the original health nut. She was one of the first to adopt the "jogging" craze back in the mid-1970's. When I was a kid, she regularly forced me to eat yucky health foods (natural, organic foods have become much more palatable over the past 30 years).

When I had to take the treat bucket to my 1st grade class--Ann filled it with whole-wheat-raisin-filled cookies. She fulfilled my special birthday party request for pizza with whole wheat pizza. Needless to say, my friends mocked me. I survived and I'm a better person for it. In fact, I have become a disciple of Ann's healthy eating and healthy attitudes.

I have also benefited from Ann's unwavering faith in Jesus Christ. Over the years, I have seen her address life's problems with optimism, humility, faith, and action. She has a sure knowledge that life has a good purpose. Thank you mom for all you've done for me.

Numero Uno

Our sweet Liv celebrated her first birthday this past week. I told Carmen that I'd be blogging about it and she said,"I thought your blog was supposed to be different, more edgy."

Well, blogging about the Osmonds isn't exactly edgy. Regardless, I'm gonna write about things that are important and fun to me. My family, especially this sweet/juicy one year old IS really important to me. She had a great time digging into her own cake. As you can see below, we had to help her get going, but she figured it out.

Tribute to Stevie

As a special treat, we spent some time on youtube teaching the girls about Stevie Wonder. They loved him jamming to Superstition on Sesame Street. Before bed, I had them walking around the house with their eyes closed. Anna was bumping into walls. Blindness is such a new, crazy concept to them.

Anyway, on youtube, we came across this Osmonds & Cher medley of Stevie songs. Yes, the jumpsuits are outrageously funny...however, the performance seriously rocks the house! This arrangements, harmonies, and great dance moves blow me away. This is live TV and they totally nail it. Wow!

Results Show - Jensen Truths Revealed!

Results Show - Jensen Truths Revealed...this kinda sounds like a lame reality show title. Hopefully this post will be better than that. I thought I'd be worthwhile to reveal the answers to my "two truths and a lie" poll. I'll also introduce the new poll..."things you're sick of." It's a bit cynical, but I feel it's timely.

On with the results. Nice nice job distinguishing the lies! I've listed the % of voters how thought each item was a lie.

Jer -

• Grinds wheat, bakes bread (7%). My mom, Ann, taught me the old-skool ways of Mormon home arts. I was a serious 4-H kid. Now, making bread is a special daddy/daughter thing. Yet, I must admit I'm bummed about the sky-high wheat prices.

• Soiled shorts selling donuts (11%). Yes, I sold for Tasty Donuts as in my early teens. I don't think further explanation of this incident is becoming of this blog.

• Loves NASCAR (66%). No way. Are you kidding me? However, I'm tolerant of NASCAR fans...one of my credos is "whatever floats your boat."

Carmen -

• Out marathoned by Elvis (18%). I witnessed Carmen's 3rd marathon in which a guy in a full Elvis suit dominated most of the runners. Carmen finished strong after she puked at mile 24. She rocks.

• Missionary in Utah twice (14%). She served in as a guide at Temple Square in SLC. In the off-season the guides get assigned to another mission anywhere in the US. Carmen's 2nd call: Ogden. Humbling eh?

• Loves Haggis (55%). No. She really hasn't been fortunate enough to feast on ground-up sheep innards mixed w/ oatmeal and then stuffed into a sheep stomach. I have had the pleasure and it's quite yummy.

Aja -

• Smells like Meatloaf (66%). She neither smells like the food, nor the singer guy (you know, "I would do anything for love, but I won't do that")

• On track to be 6ft tall (3%). Yes, at 2yrs and 3mos studies suggest that if you double a girl's height it is how tall they'll be +/- 2 inches. Aja was 36inches. Right now, she's almost tall enough to dunk a basketball.

• Scottish Highland Dancer (13%). She's taking lessons, so I guess that qualifies her.

Anna-

• Loves Prunes (59%). Not. Although she is quite an eater, evidenced by her super-cute 3yr old belly.

• Luvs Earth, Wind and Fire (3%). Yes, she regularly breaks out into a tune from our favorite wizards of funk. I'm doing my best to expose the girls to good tunes...like the girl on this link.

• Wears 3+ outfits daily (3%). Yes, this question was easy. I think most lil' girlies throughout the ages have loved dress-up.

Liv -

• Sorta named after LL Cool J (18%). Her full name is Liv Loree Jensen (LLJ). Loree is Carmen's maternal grandma.

• Super cute from day 1 (0%). Seriously, she has been. I don't use the phrase "super-cute" flippantly.

• Short for Olivia (74%). Nope. People always ask this though. However, we do regularly call her "Livee".

For the next month, I'm allowing you the opportunity to vent in my "things you're sick of" poll.

Vermin Insergency

No, they are not back. For now, it looks like I killed the vermin off. Hooray for death and carnage! After the WMDs, I was fully expecting them to regroup in some sort of insurgent coalition. Either they are dead, or planning to unleash some serious havoc when I least expect it.

I'm still a little creeped out by the whole affair. But I have to admit, I really like to light things with fuzes. I also like to operate heavy machinery and watch volcanoes smolder. Occasionally, I ask myself why I picked such a boring profession as banking. There are rarely big explosions in banking.

Vermin WMDs

We have a burrowing vermin problem. On Saturday morning we discovered a pile of displaced dirt on our flagstone walkway. This morning there were FIVE piles! Carmen and I aren’t exactly sure if it’s a gopher or a mole, but here is NO WAY a tiny rodent is going to mess with our walkway. We worked too hard on it to see it get messed up.

So in honor (or dishonor) of the 5^th anniversary of the occupation of Iraq, I broke the Sabbath and headed down to Lowes for some vermin Weapons of Mass Destruction (WMD). Much to my delight there are many WMDs to choose from....ranging from bio-degradable to purely toxic.

The old guy at Lowes who helped me knows a lot about killing vermin. Based on the 10 minute tutorial and history of vermin WMDs that he offered, he takes great delight in killing off the little suckers.

I ended up buying a couple WMDs. The dynamite looking things (according to the package they’re illegal in many states) actually come with a fuse. You light ‘em and cram them down the hole to gas ‘em out. The Lowes guy told me to have a shovel nearby just in case I need to whack-a-mole. Seriously.

Well, we lit and shoved 2 of the dynamite WMDs this morning before church. I drew a picture of me doing this on Aja’s etch-a-sketch during Sacrament meeting. It’s man vs. beast. I’ll have to wait ‘till tomorrow morning to see if I won.