Winter favorites

I'm not a huge winter fan, because I don't really like cold weather, but here are a few things I do like about the winter...
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It seems like no matter what I always find money in my winter coat pocket. I'll need to remember that on a random day that I'm strapped for cash. It's like a reserve bank account in my winter jacket pocket.
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I absolutely love the way kids look when they wear winter clothes. I don't know if it's the beanies, mittens or big puffy jackets, but I think they look adorable. I just wanna eat them up, but I don't think it's socially acceptable.
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I love these cute winter boots people have been wearing lately. I even bought myself a pair.
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I finally have a child old enough that the Santa thing is starting to work. I love that just by saying, "Santa's watching", it changes my 3 year olds behavior from naughty to nice...well sometimes.
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I really like drinking hot chocolate on a cold night. I haven't always loved hot chocolate in the past, but this year some friends have introduced me to new ways of drinking it. Like with a Tim Tam or a cookies & cream Hersey bar melted in it, and of course marshmallows or cool whip (as if it didn't have enough calories before).
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Christmas all together. I really love Christmas. Like I mentioned, I don't like the cold weather, but I think that's part of the reason Christmas is when it is. The Christmas season has a way of warming your heart and soul and I love that.

So, those are a few things I love about winter time. I hope everyone has fun getting ready for Christmas and enjoys their winter season.

Oak Park Dental

This is the dental practice Brody will most likely be working for when he graduates in June. We visited it about 2 weeks ago and love-love-loved it. The dentist/owner is revising the contract right now and will probably have it to us on Wednesday.
It is a huge practice and Brody has the potential to do really great there. They get about 300 new patients a month! The economy is strong in Lake Charles, and the town is growing. The 2 dentist that are there are booked out for 7 months. So, they really need a new dentist and I know Brody will get tons of great experience there. A lot of the staff has been there for 15-20 years, so they are very efficient, professional, nice, and have it all together. The dentist/owner is probably one of the nicest guys ever. Every one of his staff, and people in the community just love him. He also seems like he will be a great mentor and will be able to help Brody with anything.
The town seems nice. The people were really nice and friendly. They are obsessed with eating good ol' Cajun food. Everyone we met talked about crayfish, gumbo, shrimp, etc. I'm sure it won't take us long to become Cajun fans ourselves.
We know there are other options that could work for us, but we both really feel like this is the best. We are excited to know where the next step in our lives is probably going to be.

Thanksgiving

We spent Thanksgiving in Houston this year. It was so fun for us to visit my family. Baylor had a blast hanging out and playing with cousins. We arrived in Houston Wednesday and stayed until Sundays. On Sunday Brody and I went to Lake Charles and left the kiddos in Houston so my parents could watch them, and we could check out a dental practice in peace and quiet. I'll tell you more about the dental practice in the next post, but to sum it up, it was great and the dentist and his staff were so nice. Here are some pictures from Houston. I just realized I don't have any pictures of Thanksgiving, but if you use your imagination I'm sure you could picture it. It probably looked similar to yours but just add a lot of crazy Jensens. I hope everyone enjoyed their holiday. Happy Thanksgiving!

Say Cheese

Well my little munchkin is starting to talk. He says most of the basics. He'll say, Mama, Dada, thank you, bath time, and my favorite, cheese. It's my favorite because of how he says it. He'll hold the "E" sound out for a long time and slur the "S". I'm sure you mom's know what I'm talking about. Cheese was his first word. You know you take a lot of pictures of your kids when that is their first word.

LA here we come

Don't be too jealous. It's not this LA.
It's this LA.We will be going to Lake Charles, LA. to check out a dental practice. The owner will fly us to Houston over Thanksgiving weekend and wants us to drive to Lake Charles, which is only 2 hours away, on Monday and Tuesday. My family is in Houston, so it works out perfectly. Brody is looking at a few other job opportunities, but I personally am rooting for this one to work out. We still have questions and concerns and are not certain this is the place for us, but we hope this trip will help with that. Brody also hasn't been offered the job yet, so it might not work out at all, but if anything we got a free trip to Houston and get to spend time with my family around Thanksgiving. Good luck Brody! I love you and am so proud of you!

Mystery solved

Believe it or not this picture helped Brody and me figure out the mystery as to why Baylor is afraid of almost every cartoon or movie ever made. Actually, Brody figured it out, I'm just trying to take some of his credit.
I'll sometimes turn on PBS kids or Disney and let Baylor watch harmless cartoons, but he often ends up yelling, "I don't like it. It's scary". I'm sure many of you moms have watched the cartoons on these channels, and you are well aware that they do not broadcast anything even close to being scary.
So, we were doing some activities in a preschool book when I came to this page. Baylor immediately said, "No, I don't want this page, it's too scary". I showed Brody, so Brody ask Baylor what was scary about it and Baylor said, "The chicken is too scary and not nice". So apparently because one of the chicken's eyebrows is crooked, and he has his hands on hips, he is scary. I admit the chicken does look like he is scowling, but seriously is that really that scary?
I went on thinking about all the cartoons Baylor has been afraid of and that really is the reason why. For example, Baylor is terrified of Handy Manny and Handy Manny has a tool that is always scowling and complaining and doesn't smile. I guess in Baylor's mind everyone should be happy and smiling all the time, and if not than they are scary.

Jamaica

Welcome home Brody. Brody recently returned from Jamaica, where he was gone for 11 days. I know jealous, huh? He did a dental service mission with some other students from Ohio State. He had an awesome experience and help a lot of people who otherwise would not have been able to receive dental care. We missed him like crazy (as you can tell from the sign). We are so glad to have him back home. Here are some highlights from his trip.

Here is Brody's 1st patient he worked on. This is the before and after shot.


They stayed on a nice Sandals Resort while in Jamaica. Here are some pictures from there.


Although they did stay on a resort that was nice, Jamaica is a very impoverished country. Brody worked in what most of us would call a shack. They used a generator so they had power for their dental tools. Every morning they had people lined up out the door trying to get in for dental treatment. Here are some pictures of where he was working, the preschool they went to where they helped teach the children about dental hygiene, and other locations around the town.

Loss The Weight

I was very hesitant to do this post. I don't know why, I just feel dorky posting pictures of myself and don't want people to think that I think I'm "all that and a bag of chips" because I lost 20+ lbs, because I don't. Then I thought it might be good for me to have these pictures posted because next time I have a baby and gain extra weight it will be a good reminder that had lost the weight before, and I can do it again...hopefully. Plus, it might help motivate someone else.

I was lucky after I had Baylor, because the baby weight was easy to get off. I thought it would be the same after I had Chase, but it wasn't. With Baylor I kept on about 15-20 lbs for a while, but once I stopped nursing at 6 months I dropped those extra pounds quickly. Chase was a totally different story. After I stopped nursing I still had an extra 20+ pounds, and that weight was not going anywhere. I knew I had to work to get it off so this is what I did.

I mainly just started running. I also go to a few fitness classes at my gym and sometimes do weights. I used to be a good runner in high school, and it was easy for me, but for some reason 2 children and almost 10 years later it's not as easy. It took time and I had to build up my endurance, but now I love to run and it really helped me get into better shape.

The next thing I did was stopped snacking at night. Brody and I had a bad habit of pigging out during the evenings. I usually try not to eat much after dinner now, and speaking of dinner, that is something else I changed. I didn't change anything I made I just changed how I ate. First, I tried not to eat while cooking. While I prepared dinner I would be eating it the entire time. I would pretty much have had a full course meal before we even started dinner, and that didn't stop me from eating a full dinner too. Now, I try not to do that and when we do eat I try to eat less of my main dish and more veggies instead. I guess the only other thing I did was just be aware of what I was eating. I was more aware of the calories I was taking in and tried to lessen them.

So that's mainly what I did. I feel great right now. I'm to the weight I was when I got married, which I never thought would happen. I've maintained this weight for a while, so my drivers licence is finally telling the truth about my weight. Hopefully I can keep it off. I just need to resist eating about 10 lbs of candy I have left over from Halloween.

Before...

After...

Fooled me once

Beggars Night may have fooled me once but not this year. In Columbus if Halloween falls on a weekend the city schedules different days and times for you to go trick-or-treating and calls that night Beggars Night. My scheduled date and time is Thursday, October 29, 6:00-8:00. Some of you may remember from last year that we were the weirdos that tried to celebrate Halloween actually on Halloween. I was very surprised when I started getting knocks on my door at 6:00 two days before Halloween, and opened it to find trick-or-treaters. I gave the 1st group of kids granola bars or something lame like that and ran to the store to get candy. By the time I got back and Brody got home it seemed too late and like too much of a hassle to get Baylor and Chase dressed up, and I figured we could probably still go out on Halloween like normal people, but boy was I wrong. There was not one single person trick-or-treating on Halloween. Apparently we have very good law abiding citizens here in Columbus who do not break this rule, but since we are rebels we did it anyways. We only went to a few friends houses who were kind enough to understand our situation and give us candy. So, I learned my lesson, and I'm ready this year. I've got my candy and costumes and know my scheduled date and time. Bring it on Beggars Night!

Falll in Ohio

Well, so far we are having a lovely fall season in Ohio. Don't be mislead by the words "lovely fall", I still have had a heater blasting for the last month, but it's been pretty nice and no snow yet. Here are some things we have been up to lately.
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Of course football, football and more football. We have Buckeye season tickets so rain or cold we go to their games. We are also watching alot of pro football. Brody loves the Denver Broncos and despite a crazy preseason with lots of changes, we've enjoyed watching them win so far this year. (6-0) Keep up the good work Broncos. I'm also playing some fantasy football this year. So like I said, football, football and more football.


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We recently went to Hocking Hills with some of our favorite friends. It's a beautiful area. We hiked up to some caves and stayed in a nice cabin.


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You can't have Fall without Halloween. Chase is a scarecrow this year, and Baylor is a crow. We went to a Halloween festival last weekend and had alot of fun. We still have lots to do before Halloween though. We've got the ward Fall festival, Boo at the zoo, going to the pumpkin patch, and another Halloween party.

Fall Crafts

My sister Courtney did these cute fence post Halloween decorations a while ago, and I copied her. I'm getting excited for Halloween. I hope everyone has a fun, save holiday.

Okay, so this isn't really a fall craft, but I did it this fall. I actually got the "HOME" vinyl lettering about a year ago, and I was suppose to put them onto blocks, but since I procrastinated so long I changed my mind and decided to do this. I just framed the letters and then framed the frames. I'm apparently trying to set a record for the most frames you can use in one project.