Moving on over.

So it's official. I will be posting solely on the Jensen fam blog, 

found at nickandhaley.blogspot.com. 

Be sure to follow us over there!!

Consolidating.

So I am trying to figure out how to combine blogs in a way that won't be completely abandoning this one. First, because I just redid the look and I love it. Second, because I have so much on this blog from the past four years, and it would be so sad just to dump it.

But I would love for our Jensen blog to become the primary blog, and then the Providence website to be our ministry blog.

I think I will update the family blog a little and then perhaps say goodbye to this one. I won't delete it, just let it sit for ever and ever and ever.

lovely internet finds

First, if you would like some lovely, free music by Josh Garrels, you should click HERE. You won't regret it.

Second, check out this super awesome coffee table. Well scratch that. I have been trying to add a picture for the past hour, but since blogger fails at life, it will not add.  So just click HERE to see an awesome blogpost on an awesome coffee table.  I am in love. We have multiple pieces of furniture that need to be painted... A coffee table, three book shelves, two bedside tables and a dresser. I would love to do something like this for the coffee table. I am trying to think of a different letter or number we could stamp on the top.

Actually, if you have any suggestions on how to resurface a dresser, please share. I was thinking a distressed green to match our duvet.

state pillows

 Today, Nick and I tackled a fun little project. We made state pillows for our next home! I drew out the states on the fabric and cut them out. Nick sewed them using my grandmother's sewing machine, and then I stuffed them and added the finishing touches.

 

We placed little homes at the cities where we have lived.

 Missouri! Probably the easiest of the three.

 Tejas! My personal favorite. I love the fabric.

And Rhode Island... Minus the islands. Sorry, Newport. This one was definitely the most difficult of the three.  First, it's weird to make something so small on a map so large on fabric. Second, RI has so many little islands and such, and the bay goes right up to Providence. But I didn't want the pillow to have an awkward handle. So I sewed on some blue fabric to be the Bay. 

Needless to say, I am pleased. I am envisioning them sitting in the rocking chair Nick made. 

Just a few things.

A. I desperately want to make the Pioneer Woman's Iced Coffee. It looks so amazing. And I love good iced coffee.

B. Speaking of good, iced coffee, a trip to Waco is in order. WOOOHOOOO. It has been entirely too long since I have walked around Baylor's campus, sipping Cowboy Coffee, feeling astute. We are hoping to visit this week.

C. Third, you should check out THIS WEBSITE to see what new adventures are around the corner for the Jolly Jensens.  Jolly makes us sound like pirates. The Jensen scallywags are about to set sail on a new escapade. I guess jolly could also allude to Santa Claus. But when I think of "ho ho ho," I think of "yo ho yo ho" which brings me back to pirates.  Yarrrrrg....

D. While I was working out yesterday, I was watching the Disney channel, of course. And I realized that Disney has already moved on to a new generation of stars.  And now I feel especially old. I feel like I had finally come to grips with shows like Wizards of Waverly Place replacing Lizzie McGuire and Even Stevens. But now those are being replaced with shows like Good Luck Charlie and Shake It Up, whose stars are even younger than my baby brother! Maybe it's time to watch more cooking shows.

E. Speaking of cooking, if you don't make this chicken pot pie recipe (just add chicken instead of turkey), you will be judged.

That is all. Peace and blessings.

For Better or Bratwurst.

Meet Kaitlyn. You have seen her before.

Kaitlyn just got married, and has started a food blog. And it's awesome.

Check it out. Follow it. Cook. Be merry.

For Better or Bratwurst.

Me: I love you, my little petunia.
Nick: I love you, my wildebeest.

.....

Nick and I worked on this craftiness most of yesterday afternoon.  

We made the J out of cardboard, hot glued the pieces together, 

and then glued/stapled the padding and fabric to the cardboard.  

I love the fabric. I found it in my Icee's closet. 

She thinks it was my great grandmother's.

Today I am working on the book Kaitlyn and I are writing. Tomorrow, I would love to make Texas, Missouri, and Rhode Island shaped pillows for our couches.

lessons learned.

Sometimes, my husband steals the covers while he is sleeping.

I used to try to pull them back over, and then just whimper until he woke up and gave them back.

But I've learned that hitting him is much more effective.

My beautiful Kaitlyn got married this weekend! The wedding was so perfect!  

I love you, Kaitlyn and Joshua! I am so glad we are married friends now!

Three of my favorite people turned 23 within a week of each other. This is for them.

Dearest Kaitlyn,
Thank you for being a constant friend.  I am so sad I missed your birthday, but since Harry Potter was involved, it's like I was there in spirit.  I will never forget the countless hours we spent at your house, eating nutella and baking, watching Mary Kate and Ashley, and drinking chai tea lattes.  I was so blessed to have you stand with me in my wedding, and I can't wait to stand by you in yours... in a month!! I love you and I am so proud of you for getting into med school. Also, we need to finish our book.

Allison, aka Pea,
I am so grateful for your friendship, and the fact that our lives are in the same newlywed stage right now.  All those late night talks before bed were so sweet.  I will never forget our road trip together and the hilarious moments that took place then.  I love being able to call you and talk about being wives and our future plans.  I cannot wait to see you this weekend!!

 Blair Bear,
I'm so glad you got to spend your birthday at Hogwarts. I can't wait to watch HP dh2 at midnight with you this summer! I love that we have so much in common, and can text each other random quotes whenever they seem necessary. I love watching Glee or Friends with you while drinking strawberry daiquiris, or doing puzzles, or laying by your pool.  I will never forget summer 2009, whether it was crying together in the upper room, or walking in silence to breakfast.  You are my lobster, and I can't wait to see you this weekend, too!!

Things I am currently loving...

 This awesome purse my mom brought back from South Africa.

Our new mugs! I made the little one, and the other two are from our trip.

My husband. As of yesterday, we have been married for 3 months!

This book. Discipline is an area that I really struggle with when it comes to my faith.  This book is extremely practical and extremely challenging.

Adele. Oh how I love you. Thank you, Glee cast, for tweeting about her and bringing her into my life on February 28th, 2011. I foresee a long friendship.

Projects, lately.

 I saw some wall art at Target that I really liked, but it was $30! So I figured I might be able to recreate it myself, using different materials.  This is the result:

 I really like the little bird.  But I just like birds.

And then yesterday, I decided to make some pinwheels for decorations! I wish we had better paper, but I still like how they turned out. A nice way to welcome spring.

And then I made some delicious Snickerdoodle popcorn.  I got the basic recipe HERE, from Picky Palate.  But I tweeked the recipe since I didn't have everything... I used the microwavable butter popcorn... and regular cinnamon... and instead of white chocolate, I sprinkled powered sugar over it.  It was pretty good, I must say.  I would recommend it.

Tata for now!

Pain.

One of my favorite things about gymnastics is that it teaching life lessons.  Most of the time, the little girls don't even realize they are learning more than gymnastics.  As a coach, I also get to learn from their experiences.  Over the past two weeks, I have had two different girls wipe out on the beam.  One was a tiny kindergartner who was learning how to turn on her tipy-toes, or as we call it, in relevé.  The other girl was a year older, more experienced, but lacked self-control. She was practicing assemblés on the low beam.   The first girl slipped as she turned, straddling the beam with her legs and landing on her back on the floor.  She started crying immediately.   The second had not been paying attention and was very sloppy as she hopped from one leg to two on the low beam.  She missed both feet and smashed her hip into the beam before she fell to the ground.

Neither falls were tragic.  In fact, they were both extremely common.  But for these fresh, novice gymnasts, they were wake up calls.  To both girls, I said something along the lines of, "I know this hurts.  You're going to have a bruise.  But that is part of gymnastics.  You will be ok.  Would you rather sit out for a second or keep going?"  The first girl, with tears in her eyes, informed me, "But I don't want to have a bruise!" I couldn't help but laugh a little.

The falls didn't surprise me.  In fact, with the second girl, who had not been listening to my corrections, I even saw it coming.  Having experienced the same falls myself, I could see past the pain and encourage them to keep going.  Until then, they hadn't associated pain with gymnastics.  It was fun, easy, and safe.

This is such a blatant picture of life! We pass through, unaware of certain pains until we fall.  We may know that they can happen, or that they do happen to other people, but until they hit us personally, we often don't think about it.  And then it happens, and we don't know if we can keep going.  And of course, God knows the plans He has for us, and He sees past the pain.

I have been learning recently just how many hurting people there are around me.  They are in serious emotional pain and, whether they know it or not, are longing for peace.  I want to encourage you to pay attention.  We live in a dead, hurting world.  If you are a follower of Jesus, you have the Remedy.  Don't keep it to yourself, pretending that life is painless.  Share it.

"I am leaving you with a gift- peace of mind and heart. 

And the peace I is a gift the world cannot give. 

So don't be troubled or afraid." 

[John 14:27]

Life Changes

Well, I am entering into week 2 in Rolla.  We are moved into our quaint apartment!  It is quite lovely! The weather is monsterous.  It's finally above freezing today, a first since I've been here.  Fortunately they have snow plows here, so I can actually drive, since driving in the snow is so foreign to Texans.

Things I am getting used to:
- Living on a budget. Freeing yet frustrating.
- Living without internet.  We don't have internet at our apartment, which is fine. I just have to get used to it!
- Living in sub-freezing temperatures. Yuck.
- Living with a boy. He killed my sea monkeys. But he also makes me breakfast.

Things I love about Rolla:
- The size. It's tiny, and it literally takes 5 minutes max to get anywhere. The only problem with this is that the car isn't warm by the time you need to get out.
- The old houses.  They are everywhere and they are so cute!
- Downtown. Old, cute, small.  It's a true downtown.
- Community.  Just last week we had people over three different nights for dinner.  Last semester, I missed the community I had at Baylor.  Nick and I have been praying for community for me this semester.

Updates:
- I got a job! I am going to be coaching gymnastics!
- A second job is in the works! Tomorrow I am meeting with a lady who runs a day care/babysitting program and she wants me to work 3-4 days a week! Hopefully the two jobs combined will be around 30 hours.
- Nick and I are leading a home group in his organization. The title is "Living Life Worthy of the Calling," and the subject is Godliness.  We have 12 people signed up! Woohoo! Please pray for our time together and for the relationships that will be built.  8 of the 12 are girls, which is awesome! And there are 2 married couples! Hooray!
- We are enrolled in Dave Ramsey's Financial Peace University at a local church.  We are eager to see what we learn from it!
- Nick and I went to the same church as mentioned above on Sunday.  We went to the Young Couples Sunday school class, and then to the worship service.  It was funny because a lot of the couples had multiple kids and were probably in their thirties.  We definitely felt young.

Cooking:
- If you have any great, easy recipes, send them to us! We love cooking together, plus we are going to need some great recipes for our home group every week.
- I made twice baked potatoes from The Pioneer Woman cookbook the other day.  Oh my goodness they were delicious. And so easy!


That is all for now. I am sure there will be more updates later. If you are reading this, please come visit. During your spring break. Or just over a weekend. We have a very comfortable couch.

Book lists

I seem to always have a reading list that never diminishes... In fact, I think it just gets longer... Too many books, too little time.

Here is my current reading list:
- The Bible, especially Mark
- Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows
     - This is my third time to read it, and I am still catching things I missed before.  I think that is because for the first time, I have read all seven in the span of a few weeks, so I am able to mesh together the big picture.  I have said it once, I will say it again. J.K. Rowling is a genius.
- Sacred Marriage- Gary Thomas
     - Recommended to anyone currently married, or who wants to get married sometime in the future.

Here is my "started, but still need to finish" list:
- The Cost of Discipleship - Dietrich Bonhoeffer
- Life Together- Dietrich Bonhoeffer
- Men are Like Waffles, Women are like Spaghetti- Bill and Pam Ferrel
     - I stopped reading this because I liked "For Women Only" much better... It's almost like they are trying to be funny, but are just super cheesy.  But it has some interesting ideas and I still need to finish it.
- I Believe- Grant Teaff

The "I own but haven't started yet" list:
- The Tipping Point- Malcolm Gladwell

And finally, my "don't have, but want to read" list:
- The Connected Child- Karyn Purvis
- Adopted for Life- Dr. Russell Moore
- Letters to Children- CS Lewis
- The Summer Kitchen- Lisa Wingate
- The Divine Conspiracy- Dallas Willard
- Radical- David Platt
- The Prodigal God- Timothy Keller
- Transform a City- Eric Swanson
- Tale of Three Kings- Gene Edwards
- Mere Christianity- CS Lewis
- The Great Divorce- CS Lewis

And here is a little list of I think you should read in the near future:
- Life of Pi- Yann Martel
- On Fairy Stories- JR Tolkien, along with his own fairy story, Leaf by Niggle
- Train Go Sorry: Inside a Deaf World- Leah Hager Cohen

Child Abuse Prevention

I don't generally let the silly things on facebook or twitter make me upset.  I think that social media is a brilliant way to communicate with large groups of people, but sometimes, things just go wrong.

This new "Change your profile picture to a cartoon" business actually made me angry.  We have gotten so used to using Facebook as a form of identity that we think that changing your profile picture in order to fight child abuse and bring back warm fuzzy memories is the way to protect the hundreds of thousands of children in the US alone who suffer from abuse each year.  "Well, I changed my profile pic for a couple days, done my good deed for the week."  Hiding behind Facebook makes us feel like we have actually accomplished something.  Like we are making a change.

If you want to change your profile picture to a cartoon, go ahead. But don't pretend like you are saving a child's life.  How about raising awareness by introducing advocacy centers and shelters?  How about educating people on the symptoms of abuse so anyone who comes into contact with children will know what to look for? And if they notice something, letting them know who they need to call and why it is important to actually do something.


So, in case you hadn't gathered, I am not changing my profile picture to a fun childhood cartoon. Because child abuse isn't fun. It isn't nostalgic.  It kills thousands of children every year.  Instead, here is some information on how you can get involved. 

In Central Texas:
- Family Abuse Center- I spent 2 semesters volunteering at this center.  We led group play therapy sessions for the kids while their moms were in their own group therapy.  It was hard. The kids were in desperate need of healthy attention. But it was an incredible learning opportunity for me. The FAC does a great job at providing a clean, safe, and free place for families running away from abusive homes.  They provide education for the moms, and stability for the kids.  The FAC is always in need of donations.  If you live in Central Texas and are interested in volunteering, they love that too. Just check out the VOLUNTEER section on the website.

- Talitha Koum- While TK is not specifically for child abuse victims, they do work with many children who suffer from neglect and abuse.  These kids come from the poorest of poor neighborhoods in Waco.   Talitha Koum provides a nurturing, healthy environment for the children to grow up in.  They not only provide for the kids while they are in the nursery and preschool, but they continue to work with the schools as the children grow out of the programs, providing food, clothing, school supplies, and toys.  They also hold weekly parenting meetings.  Every child is part of play therapy and is under the watch of a child psychologist.  Like the FAC, TK can also benefit from donations and volunteers.  I worked here as a part of a research lab my senior year, and my life was seriously changed.

- Children's Advocacy Center

In DFW:
I do not have experience with the centers in the DFW area, so I am just going to post some links, and if you are interested, you can check them out!

- Children's Advocacy Center of Collin County- Plano
- Alliance for Children- Tarrant County
- Child Abuse Prevention Center- Dallas
- Dallas Children's Advocacy Center
- Dallas CASA

Finally, know the signs.  This is something you can do with little time or sacrifice on your part. You think that children aren't abused where you are?  You're wrong.  I know it is easy to assume that my neighborhood and my city are "too nice" to be a place for something like this.  But it just isn't true.  HERE is a great website with information on how to spot child abuse.

It's better to act and be wrong, than to think everything is fine and be wrong.  If you believe a child is being neglected or abused, you are breaking the law if you don't report it. (The same is true for someone over 65 and for those with disabilities).  CLICK HERE for some Texas hotline numbers for Child Protective Services.  You can also call 1-800-4-A-CHILD.  Please call 911 if you believe the child is in immediate danger.

a poem.

From my diary when I was 7:

"Birds"
By Haley Purdy,

Red yollow brown
white blake black
and Pink They

are very Prettey

The End