SLEEPY TIME!

I guess you are never to old to fall asleep at the lunch table. Eli was to tired to finish his sandwich and just decided to lay down and take a nap on the chairs :)Here are a few words that the boys say wrong that I don't want to correct them on because I find it super cute!
Eli: pep = pet, hands-me = handsome
Tyler: E-why = Eli, han-ga-mer = hamburger

SUMMER VACATION!

So I am a little/a lot behind on the blog. We did take a family vacation this summer and headed back to Heather's condo in San Diego Sunday August 28th and came home Wednesday August 31st. It was a short trip, but a great trip. Our kids don't require a lot on these San Diego vacations, they just need some food and some beach and they are happy as can be.

We hit up Mission beach when we got there on Sunday and hung out there until we were all starving for dinner. The next day we headed to Coronado Island first thing in the morning and spent all day there. The kids just LOVE the beach - that would be a Grandpa Rodgers thing they inherited for sure :)

They spent the day chasing waves, finding sand dollars, collecting crabs, chilling on the towels under the umbrellas, snacking, eating ice cream, we just had an amazing day. We went back to the condo and had dinner and then headed back out to Seaport Village so everyone could get their own bag of salt water taffy, mmm delish.

The next day was Sea World day (Thanks Danika for the discounted ticket hook-ups)! The kids were a little warn out from the sun all day the day before, but they were still very excited. We hit up all the rides the kids could go on, Eli was able to go on the majority of them and me and the twins spent a lot of time riding the same 3 rides over and over again because that was all they were tall enough for. We sat front row for the Shamoo and Dolphin show with our ponchos on so we could get nice and wet and they all loved it. After the park closed we headed off to Phil's BBQ (which will become a regular hot spot for us each vacation). The kids devoured their food and we all left happy and satisfied!

The next day was our last day there and we had planned on going to the beach for half of the day before driving home, but everyone seemed warn out so we popped in some movies and the kids just chilled and played while we cleaned up and took a nice easy time getting ready to go.

It was a great vacation and our family always bonds and grows so much closer when we get to take these trips together. It is so good for us to get away from the stresses of every day life for a bit and remember how much we have fun together and love each other.

2nd ROUND OF STITCHES FOR THE JENSENS!

Last night we had our 2nd round of stitches. Before I tell the story I must say that the blame for this accident happening should be placed upon me and Jared and not on Emma. Had we put the twins to bed on time, none of this would have happened but we are suckers for the kids playing and getting along so well that we tend to leave them alone for a bit and let them stay up later :)

Jared and I were sitting in the family room working on my homework and all the kids were in our room watching Ironman and playing. We hear a thud and then Tyler starting to cry. I start to just casually walk in there because Tyler is pretty tough and if he cries at all its only for a few seconds and then he is done. I quickly picked up my pace to a light jog when I started hearing Emma saying over and over again, "I'm sorry! I'm sorry! I won't do it again! I'm sorry!"

I get to the other side my bed and look down and Tyler is on the ground crying and there is blood running down his face and I am not quite sure where it is coming from. I pick him up and rush him into the kitchen so Jared and I can investigate the situation. Jared puts some water on his face to wash away the blood so we can see what's going on and there it is - a HUGE cut in between his lip and his nose and the sucker is WIDE open.

We are big supporters and fans of the butterfly bandages in our house, we have used them on multiple occasions but this was not going to be one of them. We grabbed a wet napkin and I held it over his cut and pinched it to try and keep it closed as much as possible, put my shoes on, grabbed my keys, couldn't find my cell phone but Jared threw me his and I shouted to him, "Call Stephanie and I will meet you at Urgent Care."

I got in the driver seat, put Tyler on my lap and he straddle me, laid his head on my chest and put his arms around me while I drove to Urgent Care pinching his face with one hand and driving with the other hand. (yes, I know, extremely un-safe - but in my defense - I took all the back roads through my neighborhood and never hit a major street).

I pulled up, looked at the door and it closed at 8pm and it was 8:22pm. I thought, what the heck, I am hear, let's try it. I walked up to the door and didn't see anyone but the TV was still on so I pulled on the door handle and the door opened. I walked in and put Tyler on the counter while he laid his head against me and blood was running down the napkin because it couldn't hold anymore. The receptionist came out and before he could say anything I said, "hi, he needs stitches!" He got big eyes and said, "uh we are closed, but hold on!"

Jared called me a minute later and was on his way. Stephanie was our saving grace and rushed right over to the house without hesitation and stayed with the other kids so Jared could come out and meet me.

Turns out the doctor on duty that night is an ER doctor and he wasn't going to send me to the ER for stitches so he let us stay and took care of us!

First, Tyler gets numbing cream put on and he cries a little from it - I am not sure if it really hurt or if he was just bothered that someone he doesn't know was touching him. Then after he was calmed down the doctor came in and didn't even touch him, he just looked at him and Tyler lost it. He freaked out. The doctor talked to us for a bit and then left and we consoled Tyler and got him to calm down.

After he was good and numbed up the doctor came back in and that's pretty much when I left the room. I can totally take my kids to go to immunization shots and no issues with it, they usually don't cry, but if they do its only for 10 seconds...this kind of pain on top of an injury and the fact that I can only imagine it really is painful makes me to sad so I leave and make Jared deal with it, ha ha. While I was outside the room I could hear Tyler screaming and crying and I could tell it was legit. My heart broke for him. Jared informed me that the doctor took gauze and was scraping out the wound and making sure no bacteria or anything like that was in there. Then he proceeded to shove the other numbing needle way up in his cut, oh poor buddy.

I came into the room so I could help hold Tyler while he got stitched up. I knew he was good and numb, but it's Tyler. Once he makes up his mind about something, there is no changing, no bribe is going to work. He did NOT want to be there anymore and he just wanted to go home. Jared held his head still while the doctor stitched him up and I laid sorta on top of his legs and belly and held his arms. He is a strong little sucker. I don't think his back touched the bed once.

4 stitches later and we were done. We were only gone an hour, pretty easy, we can't complain. All Tyler wanted to do was go home and lay in our bed and finish watching Ironman. His wish is our command. We headed home and were greeted by curious boys and a clean kitchen, lovely Stephanie had done my dishes, what a good friend. The boys came out and were checking Tyler out. They couldn't take their eyes off of him. They kept asking all sorts of questions, what was on his face, how did that string get there, how do you take the string off, things like that. Then the boys took Tyler into our room to watch the movie and Eli took a few moments to point out every corner on the bed, nightstands, etc that could pose a possible threat towards him :) It was dang cute.

I went into Emma's room and even though she was sound asleep I didn't want her going to sleep thinking that we were angry with her or that Tyler was mad or anything like that. I woke her up and she asked, "how's Eli?" I said, "ha ha, you mean Tyler?" "ya, how is Eli doing?" "Emma! you dork, it's Tyler that got hurt! He is home, do you want to come see him?" She finally woke up enough to realize what was going on and she headed to our room. She took her first glance at him and her little heart broke. He looked yucky and she felt bad. We explained he was good and it was no biggie and she gave him a hug and a kiss and headed off to bed. (yes, its important for me to write all these little details down because I want them to know when they get older, how much they loved each other!)The movie finally ended and we got all the boys to bed. Tyler was extra snuggly that night and we loved it. The next morning we took the boys to their play date and left Jared and Tyler home to chill out together so that Tyler wouldn't get hurt again. He was lovin' the time alone. He suckered his dad into all sorts of movies and crap food. Later that night he complained his tummy hurt, guess he had a little too much candy, ha ha!

He is doing great and is just fine. They want to take his stitches out on Monday to try and avoid a railroad track scar on his face. Eli is completely obsessed with coming with me to take him because he HAS to see how they are going to remove them.

Our 2nd round of stitches was much more pleasant than the first one. 2 down and I am sure, many more to go!

SEPTEMBER 11, 2011 - 10 YEARS LATER...

I think it is important that Jared and I journal our feelings about September 11th so that our kids and grand kids will know what we thought of that day and what we experienced. Emma is 9 years old now and can't quite fully grasp what happened that day. I understand that. It's like all the things I read in history books, its hard to fully understand it unless you lived it.

Sunday night September 9th I finally got Jared talked into selling some of our stock so that we could have the cash we needed sitting in our savings account. We were in the process of building of our first home and had plenty of money in the stock market so we could put the down payment down we needed. I kept asking him to cash it, but he wanted to keep holding on to it and watch it go up. The next day, Monday, I headed to work and he was going to cash out our stock while I was gone, but decided he wanted to watch it go up more so he did not heed the advice of his wife. That night I believe there might have been an arguement about him not listening to me and we went to bed with the promise that he would cash it out first thing in the morning!

The next morning was Tuesday, September 11th. Jared always had Tuesdays off so he would sleep in. I was 4 months pregnant with Emma at the time. We were both laying in bed when our home phone rang. I got up to get it and it was my mom. She is a woman of few words. She basically just said, "go turn on your tv and watch the news!" I asked why? She said, "just do it, you will see." I went over and turned on the TV and they kept replaying the footage of the planes crashing into the towers in NYC. I couldn't really understand what was going on. I didn't really get how everything was about to change at that moment in time.

I woke up Jared and he came out and watched TV with me. I finally got ready for work and then called down to see if we were still working that day. They said yes, but that they were all gathered around a radio listening to reports or watching things on the Internet. I had Jared haul my TV out to the car and I headed off to work. I got into my office and had a guy bring in the TV for us and we all huddled around it and just sat there and watched it. We sold medical software across the country. I remember the NY sales rep crying and being very upset because she didn't know how her dealers and customers were doing. I remember people leaving work and going to donate blood. I remember hearing about flight 93 crashing in Pennsylvania and then another plane also crashing into the Pentagon. I remember watching President Bush in an elementary school class being read to and then the secret service whispering in his ear about what was going on. I remember they shut down all flights across the country. I remember hearing things on the news and no one was sure what was going to happen to the other government buildings around the country. I called my dad to see what he was doing. In typical dad fashion, a man of no non-sense/no drama/and a work-aholic , he said, "working." I remember asking him to leave and just go home. He said, "if there was a problem we would know about it and they would evacuate us."

The day continued to roll on. We were still all gathered around my TV at work watching the same scenes replay over and over. Terrorists in America? Really? Not here, not us. I like to think I live in a Disneyland world, everything is happy and good and bad things don't happen here.

Finally they evacuated my dad's building just to be on the safe side and I felt much better about that. Finally my work around lunch time just decided to send us all home. We weren't working anyways and neither was anyone else around the country.

I took my TV and went home and stayed in my living room glued to the TV the rest of the day. I couldn't take my eyes off of it. I couldn't believe this was happening. It didn't seem real. It was sorta like it was a movie or something. These poor people jumping out of the twin towers knowing they would die once they hit the ground, but still choosing that over staying there inside knowing they would be burned alive. The poor people on the planes knowing they were going to die and there wasn't anything they could do about it. The innocent people who just went to work that day not knowing it would be there last. How could this happen.

Despite all this sorrow and hell these people went through, good things did come out of it. People pulled together. They helped each other. They carried each other down the stairs in the towers, they helped day and night clean up the debris, they helped find bodies and bring them back to their loved ones, they risked their lives to save the life of a stranger. The country got a sense of pride back and started displaying it - like how I pictured it in the 1950s when people would have flags hanging in their yards and yellow ribbons tied around trees. People were wearing red, white and blue, they had flag pins on their clothes and bumper stickers saying, "We'll never forget". People were joining the military left and right because they wanted to over and kill al-Queda terrorists and teach them a lesson. People started going back to church and turning to God for peace and comfort. I loved hearing all the amazing stories about how so many more people would have been at work in the towers if it wasn't for a miracle that day like there son missed the bus so they had to drive them to school making them late to work, they had a random doctor's appointment that morning so they were going to work late, things like that. Small things that made a big difference.

I was scared. I do remember being scared. What if this was going to start another world war. What if they were planning other attacks. Everything changed in our country because of that day. Airport security was a big one, even though they changed it completely I was still scared to fly for the first time after September 11th. I didn't want to be a racial profiler, but I was. I checked out everyone on the plane to make sure they didn't look like terrorists (whatever that is).

September 11th is a day I will never forget. It is a very important day in history which changed our country forever. It is a day in which my kids will read about in school. I want them to know my simple thoughts on it. I am proud to be an American. I am proud of the police officers, firefighters, military and every day people who helped out on that day and gave their lives to save others. (I also like to remind Jared that we lost our money in the stock market that day and that he should have listened to his wife and cashed out a long time ago so we didn't have to borrow our down payment from my parents, ha ha!)
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Memories of 9/11 - by Jared

I remember waking up that morning to Carol turning on the tv to the news and showing me what was happening. The first thing I saw was images of one of the towers burning. Reporters were trying to make sense of what was going on and speculating what could have happened. It was as I was sitting there in bed watching the first tower burning that a second plane hit the other tower. I was so captivated that I couldn't even get out of bed.

After the second plane hit the second tower I wondered how in the world it could be possible that another plane could accidentally hit the other tower, then reports started coming out that this could be a terrorist attack. I couldn't fathom this and didn't want to believe it but then reports came out that at least 2 other planes had been hijacked and were flying off course.

I remember seeing one of the towers collapse and couldn't comprehend what I was seeing. It seemed like a movie. It couldn't be happening. I remember feeling such a sense of hopelessness and so helpless. It sickened me to think that someone could do this and that Heavenly Father could let something like this happen. I remember seeing images of people jumping out of windows from the World Trade Centers before they collapsed. They were faint but distinguishable black outlines of people falling through the air. I remember seeing an amateur video of someone in one of the building lobbies and hearing the loud thuds all around them. Those sounds were people falling from the floors above
and landing on the ground.

After I began to grasp what had happened and the media and the government knew what had happened I felt like most of the rest of the nation and wanted justice. Whoever plotted this and did this terrible deed had to be caught and stopped from doing it again. I wanted our President to act and I wanted something to happen. Those feelings then slowly changed over time to wishing we could instead cure the world of such hate that would drive someone to commit such despicable acts.

I'm grateful to hear about the many stories of heroism, from the public officials to the ordinary citizens that gave of themselves to help those around them. I'm grateful to hear about the stories of those that survived and how the attribute their survival to the help of those around them and to the help of God. I believe there were many miracles that day. Each life saved was a miracle. The passengers being able to stop Flight 93 that crashed into an empty field in Pennsylvania was a miracle and a great act of love and heroism.

9/11 was a terrible day in our country's history in terms of the lives lost; but it was a growing period for the world to see the Lord's hand and witness miracles. The US had always been known as one of the great nations to lead the way in worldwide humanitarian efforts, but this time it was the rest of the world that stepped up to help a wounded nation. The outpouring of sympathy was incredible to witness as the rest of the world did what it could to help the US heal.