This email was sent March 16, 2022
I haven't done an update for a while, so here goes! We have had lots going on! I will start with some medical stuff...
Medical: Janika was diagnosed with Gestational Diabetes, which was really overwhelming at first, but she is getting a hang of the new meal plan. Jase got Covid again (a month or so ago), Jared tested positive for Mono (and yes he DID get it from kissing a girl) but it only affected him for a few days, he also just got over a really bad bug, separate from the Mono. Janelle is fine, Jaiden has been having stomach issues on and off for quite a while. Recently I brought her to the doctor who ordered x-rays and blood work (including Celiac, but it was negative). Everything was normal except for the C-Reactive Protein (CRP), which was high. That points to inflammation somewhere in her body. Her bilirubin was also slightly high. We set her up with the gastroenterologist, but since is a minor she has to go to the Pediatric Gastroenterologist and there is only one in our area and he is booked out until May. In the meantime the doctor put her on omeprazole once a day to see if that helps. It hasn't helped any though. We will probably have to do an endoscopy to see if they can find anything that might be causing it.
Josh is still struggling with Parosmia. We have tried a variety of supplements, but nothing has seemed to help. We brought him in to the doctor for a full blood work up and everything was normal. I also took him to an ENT. His only suggestion was daily saline rinses with a neti pot, but I don't see how that would help any. He also injured his ankle and wrist in his last soccer game and thought his wrist might be broken so I brought him into the clinic for x-rays. She said that she couldn't see a fracture, but recommended he go to an orthopedic doctor to make sure since it was in the anatomical snuffbox (ASB) area. Then they called back a couple of hours later and said that the radiologist looked at it and said that there actually was a fracture. When I brought him to the Orthopedist he recommended he wear the split and come back in ten days and they would x-ray again and let us know if he needed a cast at that time or if it was healing fine with the splint. Nothing to report on Jenna, thankfully (except that her teeth are taking longer than expected and so her "braces off" date keeps getting pushed into the future! She has had braces for years! Now she needs to wear rubber-bands -- again!)
School and Extracurricular: Jase and Ellen will graduate this May with their Bachelor's degrees and Janika with her Master's Degree. Unfortunately Jase and Ellen's ceremony is the exact same day and time as Janika's ceremony for USU in Logan, which we are really sad about because we would love to attend both! Jared received his Associates in December and is continuing on towards his Bachelors. He is enjoying teaching Seminary. He was made Elder's Quorum President, which has been an extremely time consuming calling. His ward put together a program modeled after the 12 step addiction recovery program that the church has. They are calling it "emotional resilience" instead of "addiction recovery." I guess there are so many struggling in the ward (especially with pornography) that the Bishop wanted their own focused program just for their ward and he put Jared in charge of teaching those. Jared said that it has been good, but very overwhelming, especially since he is just a peer, not a isn't a licensed therapist or social worker or anything like that. I guess they have been really well attended though.
Janelle seems pretty upbeat on her mission even though they have been so locked down and not even allowed to proselyte or anything. But the mask mandate and some other restrictions were finally lifted this past week, thank goodness!
Jaiden has been overly busy, as always. She finished up her murder mystery play. Chris and Kim happened to be staying with us the weekend over her play and so they came with us to watch it. Jaiden's class schedule hasn't been too rigorous this semester, except for Concurrent Enrollment Math 1050 and Concurrent Enrollment English 2010, both of which have been a lot of work. She has been busy with the Sterling Scholar portfolio, auditions for the Musical Revue, Madrigals, Executive Council, preparing for region solo and ensemble, extra dance rehearsals in preparation for their big recital coming up, and her job is just starting back up at Tuacahn. No wonder she has stomach issues! She applied to be an ambassador program at SUU and made it through all of the rounds -- the last round was a weekend at SUU involving where they had more individual interviews and they also had to prepare and present group presentations. She said it went well and was fun but that her stomach was bothering her Friday night, which is too bad. I have more information on the blog: https://wendyjensen.
Josh was excited to start up with high school soccer again and quit his job at Icebox because it conflicts too much with practices and games. He has one more month until he turns 16! He is working on getting all of his driving hours in. Jenna has been spending almost all of her free time with friends. She and Clarissa are still good friends (they have been best friends since pre-school). Another girl, Grace Freeman, moved her from Idaho last summer and she and Jenna became best friends as well. The three of them spend lots of time together! These are the three that stayed at Lava Ridge while pretty much all of their friends transferred to Vista (a performing arts school). Grace and Jenna tried out for the 7th grade talent show with a duet and made it in. They only picked 8 numbers and so I am glad that they were one of them! It is at the end of the month. Jenna really wants to take voice lessons from Heidi Anderson (Jaiden's teacher) but she is really expensive and Rick didn't want to pay for it, so he offered to give her voice lessons. I really didn't know if he would follow through, but he has! I am proud of him! They have lessons every Tuesday at 4:00. He has missed here and there, but overall has been pretty consistent! So he has been working with Grace and Jenna on their song.
Jenna has also been getting so good at doing hair! She did Jaiden's hair for Preference and it was beautiful! She has started a "hairstyles album" on my phone of different styles that she has been learning and working on. I have included a few here, but there are lots more fun ones that we didn't get pictures of.
Shane and Adria came over President's weekend for Adria's soccer tournament. So it was fun to spend some time with them over that weekend and also with Chris and Kim when they came down. Brandon's sister and her husband and three little kids stayed over last Saturday night on their way to California. Their cute little girls were SO excited for a sleepover with Jenna!
Spring Break: It is our spring break this week, but we didn't plan any trips. Our kids said that EVERYONE except for us was going on a trip -- mostly to California. Rick decided to go to Vegas to work (interpreting) this week. Normally when he goes to work in Vegas he has some down time to go to the spa or to the temple or whatever, but these have been 11 hour days working for Amazon -- boring and lots of time standing. So not the most fun work, but at least he is making a lot of money this week! I have had several appointments here this week too, but still had some down time. Today I took Jenna and her friend, Lindsey, on a beautiful hike, so that was fun! The kids have all gotten back into "The Flash" and Jaiden and Josh have watched lots of episodes over Spring Break! Jaiden also cleaned out her closet and drawers, so at least she got something productive done, ha ha! I figure she needs this break just to chill from her busy schedule. Jase and Ellen went to Vegas and brought Evan with them. They said it was a fun little trip and that Evan was really good. They were even able to meet up with Rick for dinner one of the nights, so that was fun! That's all for now! I have still been keeping up on my blog, so for more information and pictures go to: www.wendyjensen.blogspot.
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