NOTEWORTHY SHOW IN SACRAMENTO

Finally, the time is here. Noteworthy is coming to Sacramento. Friday, March 13th at 7:00 p.m. at Sheldon High School Performing Arts Center. We are so excited. Tickets are on sale at http://www.noteworthyladies.com/. We would love to see you there and bring a friend or two or three. Here are a couple of links to some videos so you can get a small taste of how talented these girls are and it is even better live:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fcqWQRxdRMs&feature=related

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6QNeUgXoVsY

Also, if anyone would like to help get the word out I have posters and flyers. Just let me know and I will get some to you. We really want to get as many people their as possible.

25 Random Facts about Me

I copyed this from my facebook but thought it would be fun to put here for those of you who do not follow facebook. I would love to hear 25 random facts about you if you would like to take the challenge. It is a fun way to get to know each other.

1. I broke both my arms in kindergarten when I fell off the swing. It is a really funny story you should ask me about it sometime.
2. I love musicals. Yes, I love it when people randomly start singing and dancing.
3. I burp alot. I have passed this amazing talent on to my 3 girls and the smallest one burps the loudest.
4. I love piano music and wish I could play.
5. I hate having dirty hands, which is probably why I am not a fan of camping.
6. I do not like water being thrown in my face...it makes me very, very angry.
7. I love cotton candy and french fries.
8. I really like candles especially ones that smell like cinnamon.
9. One of my favorite things is new socks...if I were rich i would wear a new pair everyday.
10. I love reading...it is one of my favorite things to do. Curl up under a warm blanket and do nothing all day but read, with new socks on of course, a perfect day.
11. I wish I could sing...I like to sing but really am not any good.
12. When I was 10 I fell off my pony and dislocated my elbow...the most painful experience of my life.
13. I love the smell of hay.
14. I like to people watch and then talk to my best friend Connie about the funny ones!
15. I started a musical theatre company for youth with my friend and we are now in our 6th
16. I went to BYU-I when it was Ricks College.
17. I want to learn how to use my new Nikon D-70.
18. At my high school there were racial riots and I had to hide under a table in the cafeteria to avoid being hit by a chair. You see we couldn't escape out the cafeteria doors because they were blocked so we had no choice but to fight or hide. I hid...yes I am a chicken.
19. I love teenagers. I really like working with them. I would much rather work with teens then little kids.
20. In the last 3 years I have become an ardent fan of acapella music. Especially a group called Noteworthy. Who just happen to be the 2007 world champions of collegiate acapella.
21. I am lactose intolerant.
22. I like to watch reality TV.
23. I love to listen to the sound of waves crashing on the beach.
24. I go to wal-mart at least once a week and I prefer it over target.
25. I have just wasted a really long time doing this...when I should be doing something productive like cleaning my house.

P.S. I am putting a plug in for my daughter Courtney's blog. She just posted a really great post and you should go read it. Her blog is listed on the side under my favorite blogs "snap, crackle, pop". Check it out.

Diane Helen De Lucia Jensen

Born September 20, 1934 in Oakland to Nicholas and Helen De Lucia, Diane passed away at home, in Rancho Cordova on Jan 17, 2009 at age 74. She devoted her life to her family, her church, sewing, painting, teaching dance, and directing theatrical productions. Of note, Diane choreographed for the Elk Grove Strauss Festival for many years. Lovingly cared for during her long illness by her husband Willis Boyd Jensen, she also leaves children Marcia Harris, Michael Jensen, Stephen Jensen, Caryn Stapp, Sarah Blair, Rachelle Anderson, Jared Jensen and their spouses, 34 grandchildren, 4 great grandchildren, her sisters Susan Rosenquist and Marian Brown, and brother Thomas De Lucia. She is preceded in death by her parents and brothers Nicholas and Andrew De Lucia. Services will be held Friday, Jan 23 at 11 am at the LDS Church, 2400 Cordova Lane, Rancho Cordova. In lieu of flowers, please donate to the Alzheimer's Association.

Diane was a great inspiration to me. She was a great example of what a great LDS women should be. I was blessed to have her as my mother in-law. I miss her and look forward to the day when I can see her again and thank her for all she has done for me.

I have received many kind words from so many of you. Those words have brought comfort and peace. I have posted a copy of one the really shows what kind of person Diane was...


I was sad to hear of the passing away of Sister Jensen today. She had a life long positive impact on my life. When Rancho Cordova was still a part of the Fair Oaks Stake and I was 16 yrs young she invited me to be in the dance festival for that year. I was so shy that when my mom would drop me off at the Fair Oaks Stake Center I would wait until she left and then walk up to the Circle K. I did that for about a month. When Sister Jensen found out, she came to my house to teach me the steps. It was because of her that I went on to do the dance festivals and stake plays that I enjoyed doing so much. I know that there are many other people, including my 2 younger brothers, who were blessed because of her.

Ciara

Thought it was about time I updated the blog on Ciara's JRA (juvenile rhuematoid arthritis). She had an appt. Friday with her rhuematologist. She see's him about once a month. She had some bloodwork done and it showed that her liver enzymes and her sed rate were elevated which is not good and that she is a little anemic. The sed rate lets the Dr know how much inflammation there is going on in her body so when it goes up then he knows that the JRV is getting worse which Ciara was telling him that she felt worse and that she has been experiencing lots of stomach pain. The liver enzyme is telling him basically that her liver is not at all happy with the medication she is taking and something needs to change because you do not want to have elevated liver enzymes or at least not as high as Ciara's are.

And I just want to say here that Dr. Stobie is great. He gives Ciara the most complete examine everytime we come and never makes us feel like we need to hurry along. Are appts generally last 45 min to an hour.

Anyway, so Dr. Stobie wants to figure out which medicine is causing her liver to be so unhappy and changed her off of Clinoril and put her on a new NSAID Relefen. Hopefully, this change will also help with the stomach pain. Relefen is not as hard on the stomach as Clinoril. She will continue with the methotrexate once a week which really dosen't seem to be doing much and is not causing any of the side effects accept mouth sores which is good. And the mouth sores are just a few and it dosen't help that she has braces. Ciara goes back in 4 weeks to see if the change in meds will help the liver enzymes go down and also how she is feeling. If the liver stays the same then she will probably have to go off the methotrexate if they go down then he will increase the amount of metho she is taking and he also will probably start her on a new med that you may have heard about from TV Enbrel. This is a really good med for JRV but Ciara would have to give herself a shot twice a week which believe me she is not happy about but Dr really wants to get her JRV to stop progressing and hopefully decrease. Apparently Enbrel is very, very expensive in the thoughsands of dollars range. Dr asked what kind of insurance we had and we are very blessed to have amazing health coverage. Dr even said "well make sure your husband doesen't quit that job". Yes, I am very grateful for a husband who gets up at 3 every morning to go to work so we can have this amazing health insurance.

So, we are now just waiting for the next 3 weeks to pass to see what it going to happen. Ciara is still a real trooper who never complains, gets up at 5 every morning for seminary (because she is so slow in the mornings it takes her a good hour and 20 mins to get ready) and she has only missed 3 days so far this year and one of those was because we were out of town. I am also blessed to be her Mom.

Hope you are all having a great day, week, month etc. Love to hear from you.

SADD

Does anyone else get that blue, down, no energy, motivation feeling when the weather is like this (overcast, foggy not sunshine for days, weeks at a time)? I have it bad ....I hate feeling this way and even though I know the cause and that I feel this way every January I still feel this way. Anyway, below are a few pictures of my sunshine and what can make me happy and smile anytime.

New Look

So, I have been trying to figure out how to get a "cute" blog and I think I finally did it. Hope you enjoy the new look.

Happy New Year 2009

These are the picture of our new shower. It is so nice to have a nice new shower!

I just can't believe that it is 2009 already. I swear it was just Jan. 2008 about 3 months ago. Do you remember when you were young and it seemed that time moved so slow. I remember thinking Christmas would never ever come and now it seems like it comes every 3 months. Time is flying by and I don't like it! Now that I want it to go slow it speeds up...I am never happy.

Our New Year's Eve was not so spectacular but fun. We spent the evening with family playing games and eating (of course). Do we ever gather without food? (I am pretty sure the answer to that is no) Then we had to leave before the new year because we had to pick up Ciara and friends from the dance. Ciara went to the dance up at Mormon Center, I think she had fun but not sure how much. Ciara was really not feeling well. She has been having lots of stomach pain and joint aches and pains. I am worried that she may be developing an ulcer from her meds. And unfortunately her rhemetologist is out of town until the very end of Jan. I am thinking we will probably have to go in to her peditrician for a check if the stomach pain does not get better.

Courtney and Katie started the new semester today. Katie reports that so far her classes are fine. She has moved into her new apartment and seems to like it. Her new Bishop came over for a visit last night and she really likes him. So hopefully, this semester will be better than last and she will finally feel like this is where she is supposed to be. Courtney, only had two classes today and she only made it to one. She is still having lots, and lots of dizzyness and nausea. Lots of snow today so she decided to miss one of her classes. Hopefully, tomorrow will go better she has classes from 9 to 3. She got the bill for her ER visit today, are you ready for this....$13,649. Yeah, thats right I said thirteen thousand six hundred and forty nine dollars. And that does include the ambulance ride or the cat scan. So, no wonder our health insurance rates are so high. She was never even admitted.

David has a project and report due Wed on ancient egyptians. His project is to cook something the egyptians ate. So, tonight we made pita bread or something like it and some candy that is as david says the ancient egyptian version of rice krispies. It is sesame seeds with honey. I am not a fan of honey but if you are it is probably tastee.

And we finally got christmas all put away! Yipee, it is fun to decorate for christmas but never quite as fun to take it down and put it away but I am glad to have my house back to normal. It always looks so empty though with all the christmas stuff gone. And this is just a picture of my naked, dead christmas tree. It looks so sad.

Ciara and friends just hanging out over christmas vacation.

Hope you all have a wonderful year full of family, friends and food.

Lots of happenings

So much has happened over the last two weeks and I am talking other things not Christmas. First, of all our shower decided to leak into our master bedroom so we had to tear out the old one and replace it. And as you may have already guessed this just is a hugh task. Lots of mess and lots of time especially when your husband is working lots of overtime. Well it is finally done! I think we can start using our new shower tomorrow when everything is dry. It looks really nice and will be really nice to have our shower back. Our new shower has a place to sit which should be cool. I will have to take a picture for you all to admire.

The next big happening was very scary. My oldest daughter Courtney was in a car accident. She drove home from BYU with her roommate Kristin so she would not have to drive home alone. Kristin lives in Arizona. Courtney was also going to help finish mixing the new Noteworthy album for a couple of days and then fly home. The Friday before Christmas her and Kristin were trying to make a left turn in one of those lame left turn things where you just have to wait until you can go no arrows. Well, the light turned yellow and the cars were slowing down so they decided they could go but at the sametime they decided to go a big truck decided to try and "make" the light before it turned red. Well, the big truck t-boned the little honda right on Courtneys side. Thankfully, the car had airbags which I am pretty saved Courtney from some serious injuries or maybe even death. The truck was going about 50 mph. Both girls are going to be fine. Kristin had to stay in the hospital for a couple of days because her brain was bleeding. She is home now recuperating and mostly just has some pretty bad headaches. Courtney was released the same day after lots of tests and even a catscan. Courtney is still really sore especially on her right side and has lots of dizzy spells. She also is very nervous in the car and likes to sit in the middle of back seat and sometimes she crys because of flashbacks. But hopefully, all this will pass and she will recover fully. I am sure they had angels watching over them and am very grateful to a loving Heavenly Father who watches over us. Things like this really make you think about how quickly life can change.

Courtney and Katie have to head back to Provo early because Noteworthy is opening on New Year's eve for Rockapella a pretty well known acapella group. They were on the show Carmen San Diego. I am very sad that they have to head back early but this will be a fun experience for them. Katie also moved into a new apartment and so she will have a chance to get everything organized before the new semester starts.

We had a very fun and blessed Christmas. A Christmas angel sent our family such an amazing gift (thank you so much whoever you are, we can't thank you enough for your kindness!). We spent lots of time with family, ate some delicious food and remembered our Savior. We even had a Happy Birthday Jesus cake. Hope you all also had an amazing holiday and that your New Year is filled with lots of happiness.

Back to a somewhat normal life

So, now that the election is FINALLY over, I am back at home and can start having a normal life again. (whatever that is) I really need to do this more often so I don't feel overwhelmed when I finally do sit down to update. Yeah, the election was crazy! I believe it was the worst ever. Talking to everyone that has worked voter reg for a while they all said they have never been through an election like it. 80% turnout which is pretty amazing since it is usually much, much lower. You might saw it was overwhelming. I mean I love seeing people get out to vote an all but my goodness I was not prepared for the wierdness of the public. Let's just say it was defitnetly a learning experience.

So what has been happening with the Jensen Family .... let's see we had our fall production at EGMTC the Jr. cast performed 101 Dalmations and the Sr. cast performed Roger's & Hammersteins Cinderella. Both turned out really well. David was Horace (one of Cruella's henchmen) in 101 Dalamations and Ciara was Portia (one of the step-sisters) in Cinderella.

Stephen was released as Bishop after 5 years. It was very bittersweet we love having him home but at the sametime it is also sad. Especially for him. But he is now serving in the Stake Young Mens as 1st Counselor which will be great. He was an amazing Bishop for the Gerber Ward and we loved seeing him up there on the stand every week but it is nice to have him sitting with the family agian.

This is a picture of his board in the Bishops Office. Mostly written on by the youth of the ward. He didn't erase any of it for 5 years. So, it was very sad to finally have to erase the memories. So, we took pictures.

Thanksgiving was very memorable. We went to my parents house for dinner which was amazing. My Mom can cook. We had ham and turkey and all the fixins of course. My brother and his family was their as well. We decided we needed to take a family picture since it had been so long since we had taken one ...which I think means we have never really taken a family picture. Anyway, we went out onto my parents porch to gather for the picture and the neighbor decides now would be a good time to come over and visit and say "thanks" to my mom for the nice dinner she took over to his house. Well, he came right as we were about to take this long overdue family picture and for some reason just couldn't get the very large "HINT" we were giving him and well we now have a new member of our "family" in this first picture we are all laughing so hard that we just couldn't stop even for the picture. Michael the neighbor is the one peeking over katie's head in the middle back.

So yeah, here we are totally laughing our faces off, especially my family. Katie was especially wierded out by the neighbor she said "it looks like he is about to eat me"

We did finally get a "good" picture without Michael the neighbor.

Alicia, Robert (my brother), Katie, Courtney, Me, Stephen

Ciara, Dot Devey, Timm Devey

David and Michael (Robert's little boy)

Here are a few more pictures we took that day. After my parents we went over to the Jensen's for dessert, games and singing. We are putting out another CD so we had to practice.

Prop 8

Just can't stop thinking of how important this election is -- we are making history. Please be a part of this important election and vote! Also, I hope you will realize the importance of Prop. 8 and what your yes vote means. Families are the cornerstone of our nation and if they fail then so will our nation. Please vote Yes! And, pray, pray and keep a prayer in your heart all day for the voters of California.