and Tinkerbell

At a later time you may be introduced to her amazing dance skills, Shellie and I taught her our F.H.E. moves... Priceless

Backyard Things

Well as you all know I am rounding the corner at Weber, set back by a untransferable freshman year, a couple surgeries, bed ridden semesters, and a glorious mission. Currently I have given my shoe selling skills a backseat or more less traded them in to stimulate my homemaking skills. Being a nanny is wonderous..ly amusing? It's fun, I really enjoy photographing life and they love it too. So they have gotten to know the Nikon and I am able to focus on school. My Dinner preparation has improved and I am using my bartering skills more than I used In Europe.

Seven Things You May or May Not know about Jenny Hansen.

If the title didn’t spell it out, I’ve been tagged. The only difficult part about this is the person that tagged me (James) had really good facts about himself. Lucky for me, I don’t mind following after extreme coolness.
1) I love the smell of a freezer, the ones with excess of ice along the walls, it reminds me of eating Otter Pops when I was little.
2) From a very young age I used to look in the mirror and wonder what I would look like when I was older. Each year it was the same story, same face and same question, yet I was expecting something different. Infact I think I just barely grew out of this stage. I set interesting expectations for myself that just don’t add up.
3) I don’t know if irony is an essential part of our lives, but I can honestly say out of every person I have known, my life feels like it defines Irony. Which ironically I don’t mind.
4) Not long ago I bought fine clothing. The pockets were sewn shut with a thread like hem. I was a bit upset to that I paid so much money for a malfunctioned piece of clothing. Realizing this was one element of fine clothing was such a funny experience for me. Being second oldest of eight kids, I was given second hand goods and hand me down clothes, which I still love. Along with that, the first time I tasted rotten milk, it was recommended by me to find that cow to make sure she wasn’t still sick. With a household of 10 family members, old food/leftovers was just a crazy myth.
5) I've only filled up about 8 journals. I know I'm behind...blogging counts right. I love writing.
6) I have yet to taste something I don't like. Moldy, discolored, rotten oranges don’t count, even thought I’ve eaten those as well.
7) I have to use this one, because I know it is what sets me apart from every single soul I will ever meet, and every good soul as well. I burnt my house down when I was 5 and I blamed it on my brothers for 8 years.
Thank you for the tag.

Spring Break is Over

Minor changes.
I cut a couple inches of my hair, more is to come.
I am planning a birthday party with my employer for his 7 yr olds b-day. My task is to rent two white hummer limos! Crazy!
For me, it feels as thought I have finally began the semester. Attending classes on campus and even going to the singles ward is definitely helping in the transition back to normal life. Art is keeping me pretty busy. Stay tuned for those projects.
An update for all the ladies, I went on my first date. .. I think. It began with the Joseph Smith movie: Prophet of the Restoration, playing at the visitor’s center in Salt Lake City. I guess he knew exactly what to do to sweep me off my feet! Okay to be honest I couldn’t stop thinking about the mission. I have seen that film dozens of times as a missionary, but this time there wasn’t an investigators sitting next to me in the dark asking doctrinal questions… it was a male recent return missionary. Oh, if he only knew the way to my heart is doctrinally. Well all in all it was comfortable, we are good friends and nothing more. I guess I shouldn’t count that as a date, but he paid for the play and called me to go with him. Later on we met up with other friends in Provo and another dose of J.S. and the Technicolor dream coat play, maceys ice cream and dinner @ Gurus. Let’s retract those first couple sentences… I almost went on my first date.? I know you think I’m crazy

Pineview Prep

Here is a picture of my love. She is Hollie's daughter (my oldest sister) Anna. She was 5 months old when I left to Arizona. I was never a missionary that was homesick, except for one time when Hollie sent me a picture of her kids, Logan and Anna and they were toddlers and I almost cried. I held most of it in. Being home from a mission is difficult, but spending time with them helps me. This little one here is such a girly girl, screaming at the of of her lungs and carries such an attitude. I guess she is making up for all the tom boys in our family.

The Legislative Session Comes to a Close

It has been awhile, since I've updated. I never realized how demanding the session would be. I thought I'd be sustained by something else. I was so used to having that in my life for the past 18 months. I learned a lot, some of you may have seen me on T.V. and in the newspaper, receiving interesting coverage about my Dad's ticket quota bill. Hopefully in the next couple weeks I'll post a couple pictures from the experiences that I had. For now I must retire and repair myself for physical therapy. The knee is doing really well.

Remembering, Reuniting with Crutches

Take a seat for a second, I want to share with you what I learned in the scriptures. December 12, I was in the emergency room with a knee injury. One-hour prior I was playing co-ed soccer and turned too sharp and tore some ligaments. I heard the popping noise as I fell to the ground. It was interesting because I couldn’t seem to jump up as fast as I have always done, in fact the only other time I couldn’t get up was when I dislocated my left ankle playing soccer May 2004.

So here I was again being carried off the field. A couple minutes passed, I watched the game considering “walking it off” and getting back in but it just didn’t feel right. I figured I’d better head home and get it checked out. So I drove home as the pain increased, I grabbed a book of Mormon for the waiting room and my dad. This felt too familiar but this time I was more emotionally prepared.

The doctor that examined me took note of my own diagnosis and started to bend my knee, which honestly wasn’t that painful at which point I am sure the doctor was considering me some kind of “can’t hack it girl”, I guess medical terminology for that word would be a hypochondriac. I had more degrees of mobility than the normal ER knee injury. I don’t know the sign and symptoms of a torn ACL but I just decided that is what I had done. So they schedule an MRI for the next day.

The procedure takes close to 35 minutes, so the technician offered me headphone connected to the radio and that seemed to make me more nervous than the MRI results. A few days later I met with my sports doctor who was actually in Switzerland with the U.S. ski team. Even without him there I felt safe. His nurse assistant came in and read over the results of the MRI at which point she turned away from the computer toward me and with the saddest eyes said “I am so sorry” Which basically means I tore everything. Tears filled my eyes as that vocalized truth was confirmed to my own personal thoughts and feelings. She sent for another doctor to discuss options or surgery and review in more depth the results.

He was great and was very informative. I asked him about people that return to sports without surgery. He said that they is a strong small percent (33%) that amazingly bounce back with no problem, the other 33 % percent may have trouble walking without surgery and the last 33% are just able to mend and go back to sports.

He started to stretch and move my knee. He was examining for swollenness, pain, rang of immobility and wasn’t finding any of those things. He would occasionally ask “Are you sure this doesn’t hurt?”

After 5 minutes he declared “ this is odd because all the signs of a torn ACL are not found in your symptoms except the MRI. You didn’t tear your ACL 5 days ago; you only tore your meniscus 5 days ago. You must have had to have torn it long ago and because you didn’t have an ACL 5 days ago that is why you tore your unsupported ligaments. Tell me Jenny, it’s probably been awhile since you played soccer, how often did you play soccer in the mission field?”

“Almost every Wednesday, or P-day” I replied. He continued by telling me it was an accident waiting to happen. He couldn’t believe I didn’t tear my ACL on my mission. It seemed immediately the tears that once filled my eyes were now seaming down my face. 2 percent because of surgery and the other 98% because of Doctrine and Covenants section 82 verse 10: I, the Lord, am ^abound when ye do what I say; but when ye do not what I say, ye have no ^promise.

I pictured President Buttars testifying that to me at that moment and also as I reflected on three different occasions why I was so tempted to participant in a proselyte game. I am sure sister Edmunds or Sister Reid could attest to the times I verbally said “I wish I could play” If I would have disregarded that rule, I would not have been bound to the Lord. I wouldn’t of even have been bound to my mission President. The white handbook is the term and agreements I signed to when I sent my acceptance letter to President Hinckley. That is a higher law of God’s commandments to keep us safe and when we are obedient to those, the Lord is bound to us, by his own words that are flooding the earth. It is simply another occasion for the Lord to open the windows of heaven, the personal blessings or tender mercies if you will, are apparent in obedience. In my case, the blessing was the fulfillment of a full-time mission for the Lord. D&C 82:10 has brought me a step closer to my Father in Heaven even if it consists of reconstructive surgery.