Bridger Layne Jensen

Annie has already blogged about the addition to our family here (she might need to change the url of her blog to ratcbJensen now), but I thought I would write a little about our new son Bridger and post a couple pictures I have. We've had him home for about a week and a half now, and I think we've adjusted pretty well. Of course our nights are a little different, but as Annie pointed out, her mom is here and helping a ton with that. Bridger seems to be enjoying himself ...

Bridger is a very happy baby. The only time he gets fussy is when he's hungry (he gets that from me), or getting tired. He is a very precious addition to our family, and I am happy he is here.

2010 in Review

At work we are at the point in the year where we are required to write a yearly review in which we list some of our top accomplishments for the year. It's kind of a pain to do, however when we're done, it is nice to look back and hopefully feel good about what we accomplish the previous 12 months. I thought I would do the same for my personal life so here are three accomplishments I'm proud of that I did in the year 2010.
Reach the Beach
Earlier this year I participated in a century bike ride from Beaverton Oregon to the coast named appropriately "Reach the Beach". A friend in the ward talked me into doing it and I was able to barrow a bike from my boss at work. Training was hard, but I really started getting into it. I unfortunately was only able to train for a couple months before the ride so it was pretty difficult, but I did it … I reached the beach. The scenery was amazing, and I actually enjoyed most of it. Well up until about mile 60. Then it seemed like the wind was blowing directly against the direction I was trying to go and I wore out very quickly. So for 40 miles I was not enjoying it. Several times I came very close to quitting by choice. There were another several times I nearly quit, not by choice, but by actual physical failure. At the end I remember curled up into a ball in the passenger side of the car while Annie drove us home. I knew that my body needed food to replenish all the energy I had exerted, but the idea of eating made me sick. It wasn't until we got home I was able to down a fruit smoothie and then slowing my body began to recover.
Even though it was extremely difficult and I was hating life for much of it, I am glad I reached the beach and plan to do it again (with a little more training). 

Mt Elbert (first 14er)
In late August I went to Colorado for a weekend to visit Annie and the kids who were staying with Annie's parents for a few weeks. While I was there Mark (Annie's dad) and I climbed Mt Elbert, a 14433ft peak in the Rockies. It is ranked 2nd Highest Peak in the Contiguous United States. The hike is 8.75 miles round trip with about 4700 ft. elevation climb. Yes … another one that nearly knocked me out.
Living at about 200 ft. above sea level, being at 10,000 was a bit of a shock to the system. And that's where we started climbing. Thankfully Mark was very patient with me. As we reached the top I was only able to take a few steps before needing to rest just so I could take a few more. It was slow and only sheer determination to reach the top kept me going. But when we got there it was worth it. The view was amazing. I curled up into the fetal position against a rock to block the wind while I tried to recover some strength because I knew we still had to go down, which turned out to not be much easier than going up.
Again very difficult, but I hope to do it again … maybe with a little more time to acclimate to the elevation

The deck
The final accomplishment I want to list for 2010 is the deck I built on the house we are renting. Yes, renting. The property doesn't really have any backyard because of a steep decline and protected wetland area directly behind it. It has a small (6'x8') deck that Tanner has been playing on with a small sand box. Annie communicated with the home owner that we really like the house, but need more space for the kids to play and convinced him to pay for deck materials and we would build it. (By the way husbands, when wives say "we", they mean you).
I had never built a deck before. In fact I hadn't built much of anything. I remember building a bird house in cub scouts. I had helped my dad build some fences and do some sheetrock work around the house, but I am far from being a Bob the Builder, so I was a little overwhelmed by the idea and still not sure how I got signed up for it. Annie got me a book from Home Depot on how to build decks which was actually really helpful, but it a took a couple readings before I was really even ready to start.
It took me a good couple months to just get the design done. Never done that before either. I used a program I Googled called SketchUp (actually Google developed it). It's a free program that's easy to use yet very powerful. An architect friend said that he actually uses a paid version of SketchUp for his designs.
After the design was done, it took a good 4 months more to build the deck. Spencer helped a bit and so did Annie's brother-in-law Kevin. But I was out there every day after work, and some times before work. All day Saturday and any holidays that came along. I took my birthday off as a vacation day to work on it … fun. But I finished it, and am relatively pleased with the outcome. Unfortunately it took so long we haven't really been able to use it much yet, but are looking forward to it this spring and summer.

Watch out world

Watch out world … here comes CC.

Starting the deck

Tanner is very excited to start building a deck behind our current house. I wish I could say the same.

Some fun pictures of Cedar. 

Tanner's Prayers

My last post was about Tanner's faith in prayer, but I have to comment again on the subject because the quality of his prayers continues to amaze me.  I remember when I was young Mom and Dad had to time our prayers trying to force us to pray longer and hopefully more sincerely.  They were repetitive, not very thought out, and very short.

There is some repetition in Tanner's prayers ... hey he's five.  But he always adds some special nuggets of thought and sincerity.  A couple of examples ... We didn't have family home evening last night (Monday) and told Tanner that we would have it tonight (Tuesday).  This morning he said the prayer to bless our breakfast and he asked Heavenly Father to bless us to have a good Family Home Evening tonight.  I was impressed that he remembered (because I sure didn't) and was already asking for the blessing.

Then, "... and bless daddy so that he can make lots of money at work today."  Oh ... how I love my Tanner.  I asked him afterward about that specific request, and he said, "so we can pay for the house and more toys".

Last year I faced losing my job and had been searching for several months before I found another that didn't have an expiration date.  I really enjoy my new job, and I know, in part, I got it because of the faith and prayers of a little boy.

Faith of a child

There are several instances in the scriptures where we are told to be like a little child.  One of the reasons is because of their simple, pure faith.  Case in point:

A while back Tanner was a little sick with a cold, and in his nightly prayer he asked Heavenly Father to help him get better.  After his prayer I asked him if he believed that Heavenly Father would make him better. His reply ... "Of course he will".  There's something to say about his body language as well in his reply because it read ... "Duh dad, what do you think ... of course he will!"  Attitude aside it made me think.  I knew Heavenly Father had the ability to make him better, but I wasn't totally sure Tanner would wake up 100% healthy.  My faith was definitely not as simple and pure as Tanner's.  It was so obvious to him that his prayer would be answered that even questioning it was just silly.  Well Tanner did wake up the next day all better and I knew Heavenly Father had answered his prayer.

I'm sure I will see more of that attitude as Tanner gets older.  I hope I see a lot more of that  faith in prayer from him as well.  It was a good example for me.  Thanks Tanner.