Sitting, Waiting, Wishing..

This morning I woke up from a very vivid dream that seemed like a precious memory.

I walked into my parents home with Christopher close behind. My body was filled with anticipation as I entered into the back family room to greet my daughter!
 My parents had agreed to spend time with her while Chris and I were out on a date.
My mother handed her to me and a held her up in the air to admire her soft blonde hair and beautiful blue eyes, and then brought her close and held her tight.

It was the best feeling ever. Unfortunately, I woke up immediately after, realizing that it wouldn't be for another 6 months at least until that would truly happen. And a few weeks until we even know whether our baby is a girl.

But whats interesting is that, this wasn't my first baby dream. I've had two others within the past month or so.
And those dreams I dreamt about a baby boy! Just as vivid. Just as beautiful of a baby! Blue eyes, and delicate brown curls for hair.

 These dreams are so wonderful, but TOTALLY driving me crazy with anticipation!

We'll have to update you on the gender once we find out :)

Soup of the Day

The other night I was a bit lazy when it came to dinner prep.

Chris scanned the cupbords, while I scanned the fridge and together decided on soup and salad.

The shocking thing was that Chris pulled out a can of Vegetable Lentil!

It's one of my favorites, but he's not a fan. Maybe he was trying to hint something about my eating habits...

We sat down at the table and dished up.

I chose to eat my soup first and then the salad.

He chose to eat his salad first and then the soup.

And by the time he was finished with his salad,

 I guess he had forgotten what was next...

SOUP!

Silly boy forgot about the bowl.

A Nacho Bell Grande with a side of Chocolate Milk, please!

Oh the days of pregnancy. Wait. what? I'm really actually pregnant?!

That was the best news ever!

I always slightly feared the reality of whether I could get pregnant or not due to a few.. ok,ok, many struggles that come with family history.

So,we're thrilled that things are going so well as I enter into my 14th week!

With this great news comes such a fluctuating and uncomfortable schedule.

We developed a hunch, due to the new sleep pattern that I came to LOVE! I slept a good 14 hours on any given day. I could tell Chris was a tid-bit irritated with this one; and,

Seeing that it was summer and my job(s) were with two school districts I was able to get away with it for a few weeks until school began again.

 And then the pains started developing that felt just as horrible as cramps...

That was when I finally told Chris we need to get this checked out.

A few hours later...

"Congratulations, you are very pregnant according to your test results!"
 I had a smile plastered on my face and I found tears on Christopher's.

It was SO cute! One of my favorite moments of our marriage.

From there we tried our hardest to keep it under wraps until we were sure things were moving in a positive direction. A few slip ups and a text message sent to the WRONG person kept us on our toes about who really knew!? The hardest thing was living so close to my parents while enduring "morning" sickness. With me it was more like anytime sickness!
..and it's still lingering

FINALLY when our day of revealing came, my 24th birthday, my mother just looked over at me and said, "Oh, I knew it. I'm sorry [for not being surprised & excited] but I already figured you were." 

(mothers intuition, I suppose)

Meanwhile my dad was still putting the pieces together.

"Wait, isn't that just a photo of you? You know, an ultra sound of you when you were a baby?"

After a few laughs, we explained it to him who it really was and he was happy!

And then asked if I was covered by an insurance plan, like any great dad would do. Right?!

Honestly, I still don't think it's hit him yet...

As for cravings,

 My list so far includes:

Ketchup

tater tots/fries

Popsicles

Carbonation

Taco Bell

Chocolate Milk

the first 3 have come and gone and were at one time the only thing I could eat, but the last three I still love, love, love to eat and drink!
And we just received taco bell coupons in the mail!

Yes, It sounds just as bad as it looks. But I do fit in the healthy foods, too. more often than not. Promise! Plus if I'm not eating what my baby needs it just steals it from my body. nbd.

Side Note: Q: Did you ever want a real viable reason as to why caffeine should be avoided, as the word of wisdom states?

A: Because it's really bad for pregnant women and the development of babies in the womb.

I never knew that, and feel really lucky to have inspired teachings of our gospel protect me from such harmful substances.

Four years and seven months before..

   In December of 2010 I graduated from California State University - Northridge with a bachelors of Arts in Child Development. 

   Although I wasn't able to "walk" until May 2011, I officially achieved my goal of graduating in 2010 with only days to spare! It was a magnificent feeling of completing such a huge part of my "decades of decisions". 

(side note:) Chris was the next huge part of my "decades of decisions" when, again, only days after completing my college degree, he proposed, and I said, "YES"!!

   Four years and seven months before my graduation... brings us to May of 2006 when my future husband was graduating from the University of Nebraska with a Bachelors of Science in Construction Engineering Technology.

   What a proud moment it was for Mr. & Mrs. Steven Jensen, as their oldest son walked through his graduating class and received his diploma. What a joy!!

 Another proud Mr. & Mrs. Steven Jensen moment was had with their second son, Jordan... AND his wife, Kristina both graduated on July, 22nd from Brigham Young University- Idaho!

What a double joy!  
Another joy was that we got to be there :) we were unexpectedly able to drive up and be a part of the celebration. So fun!

PLUS, in June my brother Robert Celebrated his *graduation from California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo with his Bachelors of Science in Electrical Engineering! 

It was so much fun :) 

(side note:) dang! What a smarty-pants family we have

   As a gift from my parents they had my degree framed and presented to me in May when I officially walked. So, in order to be fair I (not so) secretly took Christopher's degree and had it framed to match my own. It was pretty easy to match, considering that both our school colors were red and black... or  is it crimson? hehe. Chris' school colors are Scarlet & Creme.

   

  

*Robert has 2 classes left to complete in the Fall.. so technically he graduates in December but he walked early rather than late, like me.

South Couch

  I met Christopher and his beloved "south coach" at about the same time of year, Fall. Although, unlike Chris, I knew nothing of south couches history, so when I was asked the question, 

"Don't you just love this couch?!" 

just imagine his reaction when I answered, 

"Well actually I hate how the sitting area is so narrow and it drives me nuts how the cushions slide off so easily and they're not so cushion-y as I like, plus it's too low to the ground and makes me feel like I'm about to hit the ground rather than a couch... and it's kinda old..and dirty."

Oh and did I forget to mention the floral print?

    You guessed it! He wasn't too happy, but I could sense that he knew where I was coming from.

Since that time I've been informed of the story and history of South Couch AND seem to have developed a soft spot myself for the darn thing. Except that, once we we're engaged and I knew we'd be living together I told Chris I didn't think South Couch would be staying with us.

Before I continue, let me fill you in on the whole story;

   To name the couch, was inspired by his good friend Ryan Sweeny who had a couch of his own who he lovingly referred to as the "Black Hole". Supposedly you'd sink right into it and immediately fall asleep. 

  As for South Couch, Christopher grew up with it in Nebraska where it was home to the basement downstairs. The whole family would rush to finish Sunday dinner and bolt down stairs to snag the couch before the other three siblings could. It was the perfect place to spend the late afternoon napping in a cool and cozy bundle.

So where did the name derive from?

 Well, it wasn't the only couch downstairs, but it was the only one up against the wall furthest South. and viola, "South Couch" it was.

  Time came and went and soon Chris was off graduating College and accepting a career located in California. And being the golden childthat he was,  he was blessed with all of his parents old furniture to furnish his Long Beach apartment. Lucky Dog.

  Little did the others, back home in Omaha, know that Chris took off with their napping buddy. They had just suspected that it was finally tossed out due to old age. Thank goodness!

   Three moves later and it's still standing. That's what I call a solid couch. It has survived Christopher's adolescence, college career, trek to California, the many house parties that came with his bachelor days; and here it is today sitting humbly in the living room of our first home together as Husband and Wife.

   But like I said before, it wasn't staying with us!  Well, we've bought a new couch with nice thick fluffy cushions at least 3 or more feet off the ground and are definitely wide enough, and get this, they've got Velcro on the bottom of each cushion so they don't ever have a chance at sliding! It's awesome! 

   Oddly enough, South Couch still sits loyally beside our new one and I just don't have the urge to junk it just yet. I love it! I prefer napping on South Couch more than I do our new one. 

I guess old habits do die hard.

New Beginnings

Here we are creating a blog together to help inform all of our friends and family what we do in life and how we do it. It's just one more new beginning to adjust to and keep up with. For those not so familiar with the two of us, you might ask, "What IS new in their life?"

 ..our response would be something like this:

 We just got married on March 26th in the beautiful Manti, Utah Temple which was so perfect I could hardly believe it was real. The family was all together secluded in an extra large cabin, feelings of peace and happiness were in abundance, I was marrying the man of my dreams, and we were all on time to the sealing!

  After our sealing and a nice dinner together with our guests, we then drove up north to Salt Lake and stayed the night at The Anniversary Inn. It was such a fun and comfortable stay! The next morning we jumped on a plane and spent a beautiful honeymoon on Maui, Hawaii! It was eight days of beautiful weather, calm seas, and almost too much adventure for a new couple to handle! But we survived like champs :)

  After the frivolous week in Hawaii we came home to our new apartment still stacked with boxes and unopened wedding gifts, only to be informed the first day back at work that Christopher would no longer have a job with Westley Thomas, Inc. 

WHAA! 

  Now. They always say once the honeymoon phase is finally over a couple is then hit with the face of true reality.. but really?! I didn't think it would end quite that abruptly!

  It was difficult to swallow that first day home but thankfully we were newlyweds and still soaring above cloud 9. I truly believe that is what got us through, what could have been, such a rough patch. Not to mention Christopher's "never give up, never surrender" attitude.

  So, on life continued with a wedding 'open house' in Christopher's hometown of Omaha, Nebraska April 9th. My parents came along for the trip and we all loved being back together only after two weeks of being apart.

  And it didn't stop there. May 7th was our largest wedding celebration in Camarillo at the Henderson's home. It was a gorgeous backyard reception where we, again, celebrated with family and the majority of our friends who lived in California. We were spoiled by getting to celebrate our wedding over and over, and over again :) Ultimately, the best part of all the celebrating was the blessing that all of our families were able to see one another so often! 

  I was so flustered when it was all said and done and we said our goodbyes; knowing that this time, it would be a much longer period of time before seeing one another again. And for those of us who know Christopher's mother and how sad she is to see her children leave after having them home for the holidays... well I felt what probably was just a glimpse of what she does when her babies head back out of state to Idaho, Utah, and California.  It's never been an easy thing for me (Erica) to say goodbye.

 Again, reality struck and we were back to work. I, myself, was working as a SPED instructional assistant with a kindergartner who was diagnosed with severe ADHD in the mornings and then off to be a Child Care Assistant in the afternoons while Christopher was home diligently searching for a job wherever he could. Not only that, but he also took over the household duties of moving us in, doing laundry, washing dishes, shopping, and cleaning the house! 

  We've both decided that we'd much rather stick to our original roles ASAP; as I was tired of working eight to six each day and he was tired of all the household duties! What a valuable lesson learned for us. 

  Since then, about two months exactly after being laid off and numerous prayers and fasts, Christopher found a job with Hales Engineering conveniently located in Camarillo just five minutes from our apartment. The Lord is just so readily waiting to bless us as we work diligently to live in the way He directs and asks of us. And yes, it is work to live life according to Gods will, but it sure is worth it!