Finally...some pictures!

Our first day at Disney was fun, but we were totally not prepared for it....see below. We just went with nothing, and had a ton of fun. These pictures are of Isaiah and Caleb at the Jedi Training. We had to use Dar's phone to take the pictures, because the cameras were still in the luggage and my phone was nearly dead. They both learned how to fight with a light saber, and then they both got to fight Darth Maul. We rode on/did Buzz Lightyear, Star Tours, Space Mountain (London cried), Autopia, Dumbo, King Arthur Carousel, Pinocchio, Snow White, the Tiki Room, Jungle Cruise, Tarzan Treehouse, Indiana Jones, Pirates of the Carribean, Haunted Mansion and watched the Disney Princess Fantasy Show. Then we came "home" and all died from exhaustion. Being up for nearly 48 hours straight and running to that many attractions nearly killed us all...but we were up the next morning for more!

I'll do the other days later...I need to help pack and make dinner, so we can get on the plane in the morning (like at 7am) to fly to visit our families in Idaho!

Exhausting fun

Sea World was amazing, and we didn't have to do as much walking as the two previous days. Yesterday, we went back to Disney and also to California Adventures. We rode on the Toy Story Mania ride, and it was so fun that we stood in the line a second time and went again. We are going to Disney/CA Adventures again today, and then maybe I will have time to elaborate. We haven't been to bed before 11pm yet, and we have been getting up around 6am...so we are completely bushed by the time we get home for bed.

We're on da mainland

This is going to be a really short post, but we made it safely to the mainland. We flew out of Maui at 8:30 pm on friday night, and we arrived at LAX around 5am. We drove to our hotel, in Anaheim, by 8:30am...short version, we reserved a car and they didn't have it when we got there, so we had to walk to another car rental place and pay more, so it took all morning... The hotel check in wasn't until 4pm, but they did let us come in and eat at the all you can eat breakfast buffet and let us stow our bags in their storage room. We didn't have any way to shower or nap (we only slept lightly on the 5 hour plane ride), so we just went to Disneyland at 10am. We stayed there until 8pm, and by the time we got to the hotel, we all felt like zombies...no sleep or showers for 2 days! We showered the kids and they fell asleep instantly. Our favorites parts of the first day here were: Darwin, the Indiana Jones ride; Melissa: Space Mountain; Brooklin, Indiana Jones and Space Mountain; Caleb, Jedi training and getting to fight with Darth Maul; London: the Dumbo ride...she was terrified of almost every ride we went on and didn't have as much fun as the rest of us did...; and Isaiah: Jedi training and Darth Maul, and the Tiki Room.

Today we slept in until 8am, and then drove to San Diego to go to the zoo. We stayed all day. We got to watch a splash painter that was really awesome and the animals were cool. We will have to post pics another day, because it is now almost 11pm, and I need to sleep....tomorrow is Sea World and my legs sure need the rest!

Saying Goodbye...

Last night, I went out with a few of my friends for my last girls night with them. We went to a beach house (that was really awesome) and had some food and a bunch of laughs. These first four pictures are of Elena and I. She has been my best friend here, and I am really going to miss her. I have been the music leader in primary for the past three years, and she is my piano player. Every sunday, we sit behind the piano and crack jokes and laugh our heads off during sharing time. We have been scolded a few times, but mostly I think they just know that we are going to be being silly, and they just got used to it. Sundays won't be the same anymore. I am so glad I could find such a good friend here...and I am really sad I have to leave. I won't stay gone too long...Darwin got to go back to Alaska every year that we lived here, so he owes me. =) I've already said good bye to her, and it is too hard to write it here, but I will really miss her.

Me, Monique, Elena, Amy, Lisa, and Monique's daughter Melena hiding Elena's pregnant belly (she is due in Sept). Lynn, I really wish you could have come, but I will see you when I come to visit. Keep in touch!

Aloha Oe Wailuku Ward!

Today was our last Sunday with our Wailuku Ward, and there aren't words to describe how much we will miss our ward family of the last three years. Each of the members will always hold a special place in our hearts. As a tradition here, when anyone is moving away, after the closing prayer in sacrament meeting, the ward sings Aloha Oe to them and present them with many lei, as kind of a final goodbye. The first time we experienced this tradition, I didn't know the person that was leaving, but the song and the love expressed through the giving of the lei, made tears come to my eyes. We have sung Aloha Oe to many family, friends, and missionaries going to their missions and going home from their missions. I cry each time. Today was our turn, and I could barely get through the first line. The people of our Wailuku Ward are the most loving group of people I have ever experienced. We will truely miss all of them. Instead of having our regular third hour meetings, the bishop took pictures of the entire congregation, and then we had a potluck dinner, so we could say our goodbyes. I hope that we will be able to keep the spirit of aloha that we have been surrounded with for the past three years with us, and that we will be able to share it with others. We received so many lei, we could barely see over the top of them. We told people that we wouldn't need scarves when we got up to Alaska, because we had enough to keep us really warm.

Good bye Wailuku Ward! We will miss you all greatly! Thank you for loving us. We have loved every minute of our time here, and are grateful that you could share it with us. You have taught us so many wonderful things. If you ever want to come and visit us up in Alaska, our door will always be open to you!

A Hui Hou!
Na Ohana Jensen

Ha`aheo ka ua i nâ pali
Proudly by the rain in the cliff
Ke nihi a`e la i kanahele
The creeping silently and softly up the forest
E uhai ana paha i ka liko
Seeking perhaps the bud
Pua `âhihi lehua a o uka,
Flower âhihi lehua of inland.

Hui:
Chorus:

Aloha `oe, aloha `oe
Farewell (to) Thee, farewell (to) Thee
E ke onaona noho i ka lipo
Sweet fragrance dwelling in the dark forest
"One fond embrace", a ho`i a`e au
One fond embrace, before I now leave

"Until we meet again."

Moving Day 3

Well, the computer is almost out of battery, but we are on the third day of packing, and it was supposed to be the last, but the mover guys are on Maui time, so they are coming back tomorrow. We got most of the upstairs cleaned today...the walls, mirrors, windows(inside and out...Darwin and Isaiah went out on the roof for this!), carpets vacuumed, and some of the bathroom tackled. I even vacuumed the screens. We are in the bed and breakfast now for the first night, and earlier we took the kids to see Wall-E. It was pretty cute. Darwin had to go to work and to get some nail hole filler, so I am doing this really quick. I sure hope the movers get a move on tomorrow...because I don't work on Sunday, and Monday is our checkout with the property manager.

Good-night!

Moving - Day One

My camera is buried somewhere in a suitcase, and the video camera wasn't so here is a video of our first day of packing...mostly boring, but hey...it's a post! =)

A lady from church took the kids for the whole day, which was really helpful. I left mid morning to take the sleeping bags to the laundry mat. I got some crocheting done, and listened to about 12 chapters of Genesis on my ipod. I've had a goal for a little over a year now to read the bible cover to cover, because I never have, and now I've read the beginning of Genesis like three times. I found out you can download the bible for free on lds.org, so I am changing my goal slightly and am now listening to it. I can multitask this way...lol. I can clean house or sew, and still make my goal. I actually learned some things...go figure. I'm not sure I knew that Joseph with the colorful coat was the son of the Jacob that worked for his wife's father to earn her, and then got given the older daughter, and had to work seven more years for the one he wanted. I know you all knew that...and I did know both of the stories, but didn't make the connection between the two.

Anyway... =) ...The movers will be back tomorrow at 8am, and this time, they are taking my computer. I may have a magic trick up my sleeve, so I might be able to post even after they take my computer, but we'll have to see. If not...see you on the other end!

A Younger Looking Me

Yesterday my friend Ketra, took me to get my hair done as a thank you for helping her in the library all this year. It was nice to see her one last time, and I am going to miss her a lot when we move.

Thank you Ketra for the wonderful friend you have been to me, and for my beautiful hair...hehehe... I loved working with you in the library, and I'm glad I got to know you. It was nice to have someone else that understood why I couldn't stop in the middle of a project, and also got excited when we figured out (after cataloging 100's of books) that the Dymo could print on two lines. I hope you have a fun year next year...keep in touch! ~~MeJ~~

This is a before picture of my hair...notice that I look very...errrr...mature.

This is my after hair...no more grey! Wooo Hooo!

More Brite Music..for Joel (because he asked) =)

Click here for more information about the songs
Click here to create your own MySpace Playlist

AAAAAAAHHHHHH!!!!!!

Moving stinks.


I am excited to move, but the getting to it really stinks.


I probably won't be posting too much until August, because in 5 days, the movers will be coming, and then I won't see my computer until we unpack it in Juneau....as soon as we find a place to live.

Today, we just sold our desk, table and chairs, couch, recliner, and fish tank. The house is getting emptier, and I am still not ready to leave...but my reality meter has swung drastically in just the last 24 hours. Tomorrow I get to get away for a few hours, and spend some quality time with one of my friends for the last time...


My list of things to get done is slowly getting shorter (and longer) all at the same time, and I hope I can get us all packed and ready for the movers by Tues. night. I will be so ready for a vacation by the time it gets here.


Sorry this is not a better post, but I just feel overwhelmed today. I also have to prepare a talk for sunday, and I don't know when I'm going to have time to write it down.


Happy thoughts for today:
The stuff we needed to get rid of is gone
The new furniture is purchased and on it's way to Juneau (I love IKEA!)
My hair will not be gray tomorrow...=)
My kids have been angels today
I have not been a frenzied growly monster today
I had 2 hours of silence so I could prepare for my talk (the topic is service)


Wish me luck...I'm going to need it!

WHAT?!? Nostalgia gone awry

I have added a music player to my sidebar just so all of you could have a good laugh...but don't push the play button before reading this post. I don't know how many of you grew up listening to Brite Music by Janeen Brady, but I did. The songs were so fun and they covered many topics...holidays, seasons, religion, physical activity, values, animals, etc. ...and my brothers and I used to play the tapes nonstop. We would run all over the house while "See Me Run" was playing and I have sung many of these songs to my children. I have tried to find them on the internet, and a few years ago, I was able to buy a CD, but they were expensive (it is one of those home party kind of businesses) so I just let it be for awhile. Well, yesterday I had one of the songs stuck in my head, and I thought, I really want these....nostalgia....and they are very good songs for kids. The company has now gone digital, and is selling the albums in MP3 format for $9.99. I bit the bullet and bought 5 of the albums that I had as a kid. I spent the rest of the day blasting brite music through the house and singing and dancing with the kids. (All of them liked the music, except for Brooklin...she thought it was too babyish for her.) Anyway, while I was making dinner, one of the animal songs came on. It is called "A Seal And A Walrus" I didn't really remember this song, but as it started, I said outloud "I think this is a funny one". It started to come back to me, and I began to sing along. It didn't seem too funny of a song, until the last two lines, and then WHAT?!? I thought these were all just cutsey little kid songs! Needless to say, we have now listened to this song a hundred times and bust up laughing every time. Even Brooklin isn't tired of it yet. Enjoy!

****Oh, and you have to double click on the song title (yes, i know the player doesn't really fit on the sidebar) and it will start playing.****

Pictures from a Tongan Graduation Party

A couple weeks ago, a boy from our ward graduated from high school, and he had his graduation party at the church. His mom asked me if I would be kind of the "roaming photographer" for the event, so they didn't have to worry about pictures. I said sure, and I took 150 pictures for them. We have been to enough parties here to know what to expect, but it was bigger and better than I thought it was going to be. Here are some of the pictures I took.

This is the guest of honor's table. There were two graduates and their parents and a few other special guests that sat at this table. There were two pigs, and lots of fruit and other food.

This is the food for all the other guests. The young womens served all the food for the event.

After the dinner, we got to enjoy many dancers. This girl is was in Caleb's grade at school, and she did the may day dance that they learned.

These are I think some of the cousins of the graduate, and they did a very cute haka dance...I know that isn't how you describe a haka, but the boys were really trying hard to look like the older guys when they do it, and it was cute.

Next, was the tongan money dance. Because it was preformed inside the church, the graduate's sister told the audience that sticking the money to the girls was not allowed, but that there was a box to the side of the stage for any donations. Normally, everyone gets up and sticks money to the girls (they are well oiled and it sticks to them). Aleta, also recently posted a money dance picture and explaination. The girls were really beautiful, and I loved their costumes

This is a girl in our ward. She did a hula. I think she has won some kind of award for her hulas....anyway she is really good.

After the hula, we had four girls do a Samoan dance.

Then another Samoan guy came out and did a dance, and then the girls rejoined him for the end of it. His sister is in the white shirt and jeans...and she is our Nursery Leader.

The final dance was the graduate and all his football buddies doing the haka. He is the one with all the leis and wearing the lava lava. I guess they did this at their football games. It was really good, but the pictures are not as effective as a video of it would have been.

London's baptism

Our baby girl was baptized today. I took these first four pictures the other day so I could get a good shot of her in her dress while I wasn't running around and such. She was actually baptized in this dress and then she wore the dress I made for Brooklin's baptism to church today and after she got dunked. I didn't make her dress, because it is actually really easy to find an all white dress here. They have them at almost every store.

Here are London and Darwin right before her baptism. It's not really appropriate to take pictures of the actual baptism, so this is from right before and the others are from right after.

After her baptism...which was done in an outside font that is located in the center of the church in a little courtyard...all the church members gave her many leis and gifts. This is her with her many leis.

Newest member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints

Here we all are!

A hard day at work!

I have often been accused of not working hard and playing all the time by my family members and I want you to know that it is just not true. So to show how hard I work I have decide to post today's efforts on this blog site. This should put to rest the unfounded rummer that I do things that are unrelated to my primary responsabilities during the work day. Now two Saturdays ago I worked the entire day talking to people about how to prepare for a hurricaine and conducting a harbor patrol in Kahului harbor. As a result today may not be the best example of a hard working day but I will do my best to put the right type of spin on it.

I arose a 0300 to begin an arduous day of work. I arrived in the harbor in time to assist in launching the vessel and getting underway in moderate to heavy seas where we could assist the Maui Fire Rescue vessel (who really did launch at the same time and went fishing in the same place) provide oversight to recreational activities happening about 12 miles outside of Kahului Harbor. When we arrive we found that there were Mahi Mahi (dolphin) and Ahi (tuna) that needed to be taken as sample specimens from the environment. We did the best that we could to take a sampling that were representative of the area: 2 dolphin and 4 tuna. When we completed the sampling we decided we should widen our search for other types of life. During our fishing (I mean searching) we collected a short billed spear fish. I will admit that it was a lot of fun to reel this one in.

OK, I have a really cool job and I had fun today. I hope all of you have as much fun as I do. Love what you do and do what you love.

This is the demonstrating my workout in the short billed spear fish lifting exercises.

This is me and Hunter Betts (the vessel owner).

This is a fish sample that we took. OK, they are a little small, but they were a lot of fun to catch.

update to the 92 out of 200 thing

My mom wrote me this email, so I thought I would post it...it was cute....and my new total is 94. My responses are in red and if there are parenthesis, then that wasn't in the email...it is just for explanation. NERT!

So a few questions:

When did you ever hold a tarantula?In kindergarten...Tammy the Tarantula

Have I ever seen a meteor shower? I'm sure I saw the northern lights while I was in Alaska.

You did hold a baby goat!yes...but it said lamb, so i didn't highlight it

#32 made me laugh and you know why....................you did care once!!! (My mom and my dad came home from somewhere one night, and I was totally dancing my legs and arms off in front of a mirror...so I wouldn't look goofy at the stake dances...and I didn't see them pull up. They must have watched me for a good 20 min, before they decided to let me know that they could see me through my open window. I was completely embarrased, and I just sunk down below the window and stayed there!)

Man, you did #46 and I had the opportunity and never did it once.

#81 will NEVER happen to me!!! (she is terrified of flying)

Which historical place did you live in?duuuuh....you came to visit me there...when London was a baby...(we lived in Washington DC)

Did you never perform on a stage in all your years in band?I guess I was in roadshows, and we did preform onstage in band

You never made a hole-in-one even in miniature golf?i can't remember...but I don't think I have

What did you invent? Something to do with baby blankets???I invented the hair pillow (it is a small pillow with real hair sewed into one side. The short version of this story is when Isaiah was a baby, he would wake up every hour of the night and I gave him a pony tail one night...i had just cut Brooklin's hair...and he slept for six hours straight. The only problem was he was pulling all the hair out of the rubber band, so I sewed it into a small pillow. He is on his 4th one now, and still sleeps with it every night. He likes to twirl it in his fingers to help him relax)

You wore custom made shoes when you didn't learn how to walk until you were 15 months...they had a special heel and inserts. and you learned to walk right quick.

Are you sure you never took hunter's safety? Dad said all of you kids did except for Marnie.I never did either

What's an NJP newsletter?????????idk (I actually just googled this, and it stands for non-judicial punishment, and it has something to do with military discipline...so I guess you would know if you had one!)