Dave Ramsey's Financial Peace University

Last week in relief society, a man that works for a local bank came and presented a lesson on Provident Living, specifically "living within our means." He mentioned 13 steps to financial peace and gave reference to this guy, Dave Ramsey, and his common sense program to modifying behavior when it comes to saving, spending, and investing money. Griffie and I are thinking about signing up for the classes. If anyone else might be interested please let me know. Mr. X mentioned that the bank periodically hosts this 13 week program and if they can get enough people to sign up, they'll do it again. It costs money up front to buy the materials, but Mr. X also said that it has LITERALLY saved him thousands of dollars in return. There were also several other people in my relief society class that mentioned they had or were currently taking the courses. They had immediately seen a turn around in their finances.

I don't know about the rest of you, but I'm tired of living paycheck to paycheck and I am NOT going to depend on the government to pay my retirement. I have seen how well they take care of you! The following is a link to excerpts from the "Financial Peace University" program if you'd like to see a preview.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oLX3wUY1xGg&feature=related

Dad's Door

Heidi and I decorated Dad's door at school for a contest. Hope he wins. Everyone else just wrapped their doors with paper. We even hung chains across the hallway outside the office. :) Anyway, I had to show my mom what we did.

Breathing Treatments Again!

Well, since this is an easy place to keep track of things without taking up any space, I'm making a record that I had to give Derek a breating treatment today. I think it was becasue of a small cold and all the smoke in the air from the forest fire in scofield.

Sorry that wasn't a very interesting post. I'll have to update soon.

In the meantime, you can check out my photos on facebook if you want. Derek got his teeth (that deserves a blog post) and Tiger earned his bear rank in cub scouts this month. I'm proud of both of them. Tiger has worked really hard and Derek has been so brave with all of this dentist stuff. They're good boys and I love 'em!

Still Alive and Kickin'

My Summer Vacation

By Kerstina Thayn

My summer vacation was very fun. Too short, but really tons of fun. I broke the bank with all my vactions and day trips. You can pretty much read about all of those on the blogs of my mom and siblings--so I won't go into too much detail.

Our travels started waaay back in May with an overnight trip to a baseball clinic with the Salt Lake Bees sponsored by Spencer's Wishes . Tiger spent the day learning how play baseball from retired major leagures including hall of fame pitcher, Vaughn Mays. The highlight of the trip was the Bees game that night. The pitcher nearly through a No Hitter. We also got to see Star Trek at the Cinemark and stay overnight in a hotel.

Before school got out for the summer, one of my good friends showed my this very cool little spot on the web called Facebook, so we could keep in touch, since I was changing schools and all. I had not idea what I was getting myself into!

Over Memorial Day we went to see Thomas the Tank Engine at the Heber Creeper and in June we went to Box Elder county. Derek is still talking about the trains. At least once a day, he tells someone "Guess what! We went to seeee THOMas!" Tiger enjoyed the sights that he had researched in his county fair report during last school year. Even though it rained on us nearly the whole time, it was a relaxing vacation and time well spent with the family. If you would like to review the detail of the trips, check out my mom's blog.

Pretty much all I did the rest of the month was play FarmTown on Facebook. Well, I guess Annie got married. That's pretty important. Again, you can read about that on my mom's blog. Her version of the day is probably a lot more upbeat than mine. Derek was a nightmare to deal with because he didn't feel well. He cried pretty much all day. Griff didn't come and Tiger was too busy playing to hang out with his mom, so here is my awesome family picture from that day!

At least I got to wear my super-cute new "weddin' shirt."

But other than that, I just pretty much just played FarmTown. Well, I did go one day to Cub Scout Day Camp. It was freakin' cold and rained all day. We were soaked to the bone, and had to eat a soggy lunch--but I guess it was pretty fun. We left early becasue of the weather, so I probably went home and played FarmTown.

I think that was all from June. Oh, wait--Derek had a birthday. The big 0-3. Guess what his cake was! Yep--Thomas. You can check out those details on Heidi's blog. But I do have a cute pic with him and his cake. The other is Derek hanging out with the most interesting guest at the party--Jessie's Iguana.

July has been a really busy month. We went camping with the Jensen's for the 4th, Huntington Lake a couple of times, Seven Peaks, the Peacock and Bates' family reunions, up to Provo to see Harry Potter and Transformers, (which we also went to see at the midnight showing the day it came out). . . OH, and I bought a new car. Unfortunately, I don't have any pictures to show you, because I forgot to take my camera with me, so you'll just have to use your imagination.

Anyway, that was pretty much my summer vacation in a nutshell. I hope I remembered everything. Now, I have to go play FarmTown before my crops die. Besides, all of you are probably hanging out at my farm waiting for me quit blogging and come hire you to pick my crops because you're broke and you need a level up. Chill out! I'll be right there!!! Here's a pic of my totally awesome farm.

Life's Lesson Learned

About a month ago, I recieved a package that said "Caution. Open Immediately. Do not shake. This side up." Of course, I knew that it was coming, but my students on the other hand, were intrigued by all of the warnings. After much begging and excited commotion, they discovered that the box contained five small caterpillars. Over the next seven days, we observed them change daily and grow more than an inch and a half. During this time, we watched them eat, eat, eat the food that lined the bottom of their small habitat, spin webs, shed skin, poop, and just generally act like caterpillars. On the sixth day, they did the strangest thing--they started cleaning things up. They devoured everything, including their waste and webs, in preparation for the next stage. The morning of the seventh day, we came and one was hanging upside down from the lid.
Over the next two days, we watched as all five of the caterpillars formed their chrysalis. Unfortunately, this stage was pretty boring to observe; but the kids kept recording in their journals each day.

Last week, Friday kept getting closer and closer and still no butterflies. I was worried that all our work would be wasted when our "pets" emerged over the weekend. I promised my kids that I would come Saturday and Sunday to take pictures and video to post on my blog so they wouldn't miss anything. Friday, about 10:00--in the middle of finishing up my CORE tests--one of my little boys tugged on my shirt as I walked past him and pointed to the butterfly box. He said, "Look teacher, a butterfly!" I looked over, and sure enough, there was a black and orange butterfly with wet, curled up wings hanging on top of the broken chrysalis. Of course, that was the end of my testing session for a minute. We spent the next 15 mintues or so watching it flap it's wings to dry them as the kids crowded around, shoving each other out of the way so they could see. It was all very exciting. I sent the box over to the other second grade classes (we all had to share because I could only get five specimins) for them to observe. It worked out really great because all three of the second grade classes got to see a butterfly emerge that day. Well worth the wait!
We kept the butterflies in the box for about a week. Our experiment was exciting again as we watched them flap around the habitat and interact with each other. We got to see them use their "probiscus" while drinking the sugar water we fed them. On Wednesday of this week, we decided we would take all seventy five of the second graders out to let the butterflies go. We talked about how it was cruel to keep them locked up in a tiny box for their entire life (which is only about 30 days) and most of them agreed. We took them all out on the field of the playground, they gathered in a circle, and I opened the box. The butterflies, however, just sat there. After a little coaxing, I got one to fly out and instantly about 25 of the kids hopped along after it as it flapped it's wings for the first time in the wind. It was actually quite hilarious to watch them all flutter along flapping their arms and hopping after it. Eventually, all of the butterflies left the box, each with a following of seven and eight year olds in tow. The kids flitted from one dandelion to another, watching as the butterflies tasted the real nectar for the first time. They were having so much fun.

The last great learning experience came as one of the groups was watching a butterfly flutter around the field. As it flitted along with it's train of second graders, a bird flew down and grabbed it. The next day we had a short lesson on the "The Food Chain."

Suddenly Suffereing from Soccer Mom Syndrome

Tiger has been so busy lately, it seems like all I am doing is running around and helping him with projects. Not exacty a soccer mom, but it is all a little overwhelming.

February was our Blue and Gold Banquet for scouts. The boys did skits and participated in a cake contest (which doubled for pot luck dessert. Clever!). There were a lot of good cakes all made by the boys--with very little parent help. It's no secret that I don't bake, well cook at all for that matter, so Tiger came up with the idea to make pinewood derby cars out of Twinkies. By the time he was finished, we had to rename it the pinewood demolition derby. Notice the candy corn flames on the one big pile up. In March we had the actual pinewood derby. He didn't do very well and was pretty bummed. Oh well, there's always next year!

Scouting Slideshow:


Not only has he been busy in scouts, he has had one project after another at school. The first was a county fair project about Box Elder. (Thanks Carol and Kelsey for all the good info.) Second he had a science fair project that we worked on for three weeks. Tiger's favorite thing in the world is running. He decided to do his project on whether or not music effects your pace when you run.

School Slideshow:


And with spring comes, you guessed it--baseball. Currently, we are having to go to practices twice a week and his games start next week. That means baseball 4 nights a week. He loves it though, so what can I say?

Baseball Slideshow:


Last but not least, we have been in and out of the dentist office for both of the boys. Tiger had a cavity filled a while back that turned into an abscess. The same day Derek had his front teeth taken out, Tiger had one of his molars removed. The dentist gave us two options: a permanent spacer for the molar until the permanent one comes in or a retainer. We've known for about 4 years that he was eventually going to have to have the retainer to straighten his teeth, so we went for that option. He chose the tiger stripes and is trying really hard to pretend that he doesn't love having it! I also posted some pictures of my toothless two-year-old. Were getting used to his first grade smile and kind of think it's cute now.

Unsupervised Kids+Phones=Mischief

Remember way back when . . . you're parents were busy or they left you alone with a couple of your friends and the first thing you thought of doing was crank calling. Whether it was a random number chosen from the white pages or someone familiar you thought wouldn't recognize your voice, it was always a thrill to actually go through with it.

Here's the scenario you remember:

You're friend (or cousin) baited you by saying "I bet you don't dare call this number and say. . ." and you would reply "Yes I do. Dial it and I'll show you!" As you listened to the phone ring once, twice, three, four times, your heart would start to beat a little faster and your skin would start to feel a little warm. Then suddenly the ringing stopped, and on the other line . . . "Hello."

The moment of truth.

Would you be brave enough to crack the joke or chicken out and hang up?

Last night we were paying our weekly visit to my mother-in-law's to pick up the boys. As we walked in the door, her phone started ringing and Mickey asked Griffie to pick it up. Nothing out of the ordinary there. As Mickey got further into the conversation, she started saying things like "No, everything is alright here. . . It must have been one of the kids. We'll talk to them. . . It would probably be better if he talked to him when he gets here."

My ears perked up because obviously this was no ordinary phone call. Apparently someone had called 911 and dispatch was returning the call. I assumed it was either Derek or my nephew that is in kindergarten. Derek had been upstairs with no phones low enough to get his hands on. Gauge is not a very good liar, so all we had to do was ask him once. However, none of the kids are good liars when it comes right down to it, but they were all four bound and determined not to rat each other out. Mickey asked them who called and they denied doing it. Big Griff asked them who called and, still, they denied it. I asked and they started blaming each other. Tiger blamed it on Cadance and she blamed it on him. They both told Mickey "Grandma, I don't want to go to juvie!"

Finally, about twenty or thirty minutes after the phone call, there came a knock at the door. It was the sheriff they had to dispatch to come and make sure nothing was wrong. Gauge went pale white and looked like he was going to cry when Mickey told him he had to get upstairs to talk to the officer. The other three marched with their heads down in a nervous, funeral like procession. They all sat down on the couch, with their arms folded and their heads bowed in penance when the officer asked "So, which one of you called 911?"

Tiger was the first to pipe up. "It was me" he said in his tiniest, most guilt ridden voice. As I said, I seriously thought it was Gauge. Tiger KNOWS that 911 is for emergencies only--we've talked about it at home, at school, at scouts. My jaw dropped and I felt my skin get hot with anger as I listened to his confession. I was furious! I could not believe what I was hearing.

I'm sure the twenty minute ride home from Wellington later that evening was the longest he has had in his nine short years. I interrogated him all the way home and finally got it out that Cadance had tried to call someone and it lead to some kind of dare for him to call 911. I'm not sure on all the details because they are still pretty tight lipped about the actual events, but he got scared as soon as someone picked up on the other end and hung up. He didn't know they would call right back.

He learned a valuable lesson about lying, blaming others for your actions, tying up dispatch lines, and wasting a police officers valuable time. I think he's sorry and I'm pretty sure he won't do it again. I'm positive he won't try to crank call the police again. As for the crank calling part of things, I'm sure this is just the beginning.

So, what are your crank calling stories? I'm sure you have some good tales to tell. I'm going to think about mine and post in my comments some of my better jokes--when I remember what they are. :)

What Keeps You Busy?

Well, life has been really busy these past few weeks. Tiger has started baseball, both of the boys have been in and out of the dentist office quite a bit, and I haven't had a day off of school in nearly 5 weeks (can you believe it). I have a lot of events and cute pictures to post as soon as I have a minute, so don't give up on me. I haven't been updating my blog, but have been keeping track of all of you. Sounds like I'm not the only busy one!

So I'll ask:

What do you do in the spring to keep you busy?

Let us know!

Do You Want the Good News or the Bad First?

Well--actually--there is no good news.

As you probably read on my mom's blog (click HERE if you didn't for the original report), Derek fell in the bathtub two weeks ago and knocked his front teeth out. Well, not completely---yet! (One addition to mom's report is that not only did it tear his lip away from the gums, but it actually tore the gums between the two front teeth and detached them from the tooth in the back as well. I'm sure that is where most of the blood came from.)

I took him to the dentist for a follow up appointment today and, as I anticipated, there was no good news. His right front tooth has been gradually turning a rather greenish shade of gray since the initial impact. This, the fact that it is still really loose, he won't use it to eat, and the gums above it are still swollen and bulging forward all lead to the the prognosis that his two front teeth have to come OUT. Hmmm. . . how much Money is your first tooth worth when you're only two?

(At least his nose was clean when I took that picture!) :)

Anyway, the extraction of his front two teeth is scheduled for two weeks from today. They have to come out before the dead roots start to decay and cause infection. Just a side note to add to the bad news from before, he has to have false teeth put in ($Cha$Ching$), but they have to mount them with a retainer cemented to his molars in the back. Unfortunately, the molars haven't grown in yet, but they are starting!!! So it looks like he will just be toothless for a month or two until they come in.

The tooth fairy better start saving up!!!

Breathing Treatments

Derek has to have breathing treatments again and I thought this would be a good place to store the information since I don't really have to keep track of it here. I can just look it up when I need it. I wanted to track how frequently his asthma was flaring up. Seems like that last time was when he had to stay in the hospital in December.

Bad Day

Well, Highway 6 has struck again.

Annie and I took off this morning (late as usual) for a music conference in Salt Lake about 7:00 a.m. Just as we were leaving town, my mom called to warn us that the roads were icy and slick and it was pretty foggy. We were thankful for the warning, but decided to go ahead anyway--we were more than an hour behind them and the sun was coming up.

The roads were fine--until . . . we came around the first corner just past the Summit Station. The pictures say it all:

The damage from the wrecker window

Loading the car on the Wrecker

The first picture is a topside view of how we slid down the embankment (trunk first) and the second is a side view of the ruts where we were luckily stopped by about two feet of snow. Yes, the embankment drops again just behind our back tire marks. The deep snow stopped us just in time.

The detached bumper and the ride up on the tow cable.

The view from the backseat of the Highway Patrol car, which was a first for both of us. The officer offered to let us try it out complete with handcuffs if we wanted. We didn't! :)

The pictures uploaded to my blog post in reverse order and I took these two while we were patiently awaiting the arrival of emergency vehicles inside a chilly car that we didn't dare start.

Can you believe she is smiling!?!

Thanks Annie for the experience of my first real car accident and for making sure we both lived to tell about it. I'm glad everyone was okay--well your bumper didn't come out so well, but I think we both agree that things really could have been a lot worse!

It was kind of like a really, really expensive tabogan ride!

Kids Say the Darndest Things!

The last Monday they had the lights up at Temple Square, the Jensen clan decided to pack up and drive in to Salt Lake for a chilly night out in the big city. Personally, I don't think that I have been to Temple Square to see the lights since . . . hmmm, I don't even know when--but I bet that it has been 10 years or more.

Anyway, to the funny part of the story:

This was Tiger and Derek's first trip to Temple Square. We, of course, stopped in the visitors center to see the Christus statue. When we got to the top of the ramp, Derek just froze, leaned on the ropes, and stared up with the most intent and ponderous stare I have ever seen on his face. After a long drawn-out moment he turned to me and said "Mommy, that is a BIG white Jesus!"

After we left the visitor's center, we were heading through the busy sidewalks back to the Lion House for dinner. We turned a corner a little ways past the tabernacle where they have the statue of the restoration of the priesthood and Derek stopped again. He stared up at this statue with wonder, althought not quite as much as he did before, then turned to me again and said "Mommy, that is a big BLACK Jesus!"

Well, at least he knows his colors.

What's In a Name?

I just read Natalie's lastest post and was inspired!

Concerning Names:

I have had an interesting phenomenon happen to me repeatedly during the last 30 years which some of you may have also experienced. I have been conditioned to respond to what ever name I am called--and that is very rarely my own.

My given name is Kerstina Ann Jensen (please notice the spelling!) I am only called this by those people who know me well. Those that don't know me or have just met me call me Christina or Christine or Kirsten or Kristen or some other commonly known version of this. It doesn't bother me, it is just a fact I have come to accept and I just answer anyway. I guess it is a good thing that I am a pretty easy going person.

It isn't until people see my name written that they realize their mistake. That realization is usually followed by apologies for pronouncing it incorrectly for such a long time, then the practicing of KER-sti-na at least three times while shaking their head at how silly they feel, and then the promise that they will make sure to get it right from now on. Lastly, I get a short speech about how important names are and that I should be more insistant that people call me by right name.

I have also collected a lot of nicknames in my life and I don't know if I should attribute that to the fact that my name is hard to pronounce or if it's just because I'm the kind of person that apparently needs a nickname. Some of my favorites are Sis, Tinkerbell, Kerstinka (later shortened to Stinka and then to Smell), Teeny, KT, and the most recent--Teacher. (If you can think of any that I missed, please feel free to add them)

No one from my highschool years knows me by Kerstina. From the time I was in about 7th grade, my friends had started calling me Smell and it just stuck! Every message in my yearbooks is addressed to Smell. Griff has never called me Kerstina. When he is talking TO me, he calls me Honey or Baby or just Hey. When he is talking ABOUT me, he calls me The Old Lady or The Wife. My in-laws called me Smell for a long time but now they call me Kerstina. Griff's cousin Lynette calls me Smell to this day and so do some of his friends. Most of my own friends that called me Smell have moved on, but as I make new friends I always end up with a new nickname. At the flower shop, I was known at KT--which is definately better than Smell but a nickname nonetheless.

I have been called a few other choice names over the years that are just as important to me as the nicknames because, like the nicknames, they mark events from my life that have shaped the person I am today. From the early years, I can still hear the words "You little Shit!" ringing in my ears with the fear of the punishment that swiftly followed. From my teenage years, I can hear the names that I was called because I made a friend mad or said the wrong thing at the the wrong time and I can feel the heartache and lonliness that comes with being a teenage girl. I can hear the pet names of first love and my baby's first name for me. I can hear the pride of my mother and father when they talk about me and the approval of acquainteces and colleagues that I have grown to love and appreciate and call my friends.

You see, it doesn't bother me when people don't call me by my given name because a name is what you make it. Just like a good pair of jeans or a reliable car, it is the qualities behind the name that people remember. I try to focus on making a good name for myself and just hope that in the end, I am remembered for that.

Found this on Kelsey's Blog

You Are 55% Likely to Survive Another Great Depression

Even though you may not be expecting the worst, you're the type of person who prepares for the worst. You live a relatively modest life. You don't overspend, and you aren't very materialistic. You are also quite self sufficient and independent. You have many useful skills. You can take care of yourself and those you love... which is crucial to surviving another Great Depression.

Could You Survive Another Great Depression?