Jensen Annual Update, 2019

Seasons Greetings from Plano, Texas! This year has been a mix of big changes and blissful routine. The biggest changes were Ben beginning work in the corporate social responsibility industry at a friendly and growing company in Plano and Julia starting Kindergarten.

We managed to see a good portion of our extended family through the year (bless those who came to see us!) and will spend the holidays in Las Vegas and St. George, where we'll be with an assortment of Jensens and Ryggs. In July we drove to Minnesota to visit with two of Ben's college roommates and had an absolute blast. We're super proud of this accomplishment, as this was our first multi-day road trip since well before Thomas joined the crew.

Ben's new career phase started January 7th at YourCause, a firm that creates cloud-based software that facilitates and encourages employee engagement (such as volunteering or philanthropic giving). He has the good fortune to work with excellent people and hopes to be at the company for some time. Outside of gainful employment, he still enjoys reading up on macroeconomics (who doesn't?) and spending time with Becca and the littles. Starting in January, he'll begin working with the 11-13 year old boys at church. Fingers crossed that everyone survives the year.

Rebecca continues her work at GAO and doesn't quite know what to make of the fact that she hits her 10-year mark this month. If you're looking for reading material that covers fascinating topics as dryly as possible, Google her work using "Rebecca Rygg" and GAO.  This year took her to two national laboratories in the Chicago area, two federal prisons (in Oklahoma and Kansas), and FAA facilities in Oklahoma and Missouri, one of which is in a cave. At church, she has been helping out with the young women, though the new year will likely bring a new adventure. Over the past few months, she's explored a new phase of a once-dormant hobby - yogurt making. In years past, she would make the yogurt itself from scratch, but this time around, she's using store-bought plain yogurt and doing the flavoring herself. The kids partake with gusto, so we're calling it a success! She doesn't read as much as she would like to, but has great aspirations for the new year.

Julia finished strong at her preschool, playing the part of a captain inspecting her troops during a song at their graduation (maybe you had to be there). Kindergarten has been a change for the whole family, but she loves her teacher and class. It's been so, so fun to watch her learn! Also, she put her hula-hooping skills to good use at the school back-to-school picnic hula-hoop contest. She won the Kindergarten contest with ease. (Becca is reticent to admit she won the grown-up competition!) Julia and Becca continue a tradition of singing five songs a night before bed, with the selection changing monthly. Her knowledge of lyrics to songs such as Let it Go, Be Our Guest, Part of Your World, A Christmas Song, Come Follow Me (four verses), and more may surprise you.

Thomas started the year as a wee one-year-old and will go out as a two-year-old with opinions and a couple dozen words to go with them. A current favorite Thomas-ism occurs when we walk outside and he puts both hands to his cheeks and says "Cold!" He also reminds us daily that kids are different from one another - he manages to drink 4 times as much water as Julia or any of his classmates at school. Let us know if you want our opinions on overnight diapers.

We feel super lucky to have the family and friends that we do, and we wish we could regale you with these updates in person (and hear all about how you're doing, too). We think of you often and look forward to our next visit. 

Wishing you health and happiness in 2020!

Family picture following Thomas' winter performance at school. He's happier here than he was during the performance.

First day of Kindergarten!

Reading time

Halloween

Reading time, part 2

Seasons Greetings from the great state of Texas! The past year brought more big changes for the Jensen family, with Ben finishing his MBA at Vanderbilt and rejoining the full-time employment crowd, a move to Lewisville, Texas (in the Dallas metro area), and a baby toddler girl who clearly and vocally (if not yet articulately) feels that being stationary is so 2014. 

As if the above weren't enough, additional family highlights include visits from 3/4 of Ben's siblings, a trip to horse-country Kentucky to attend the Rolex Kentucky Three-Day Horse Event, a visit from Ben's parents to enjoy graduation festivities and attend the Iroquois Steeplechase (who knew we were so into horse racing?), a just-in-time visit from Rebecca's parents to help with the move to Texas, a Rygg family reunion in San Diego, and a Jensen Christmas in Oregon, complete with all of Ben's siblings and Julia's first Jensen cousin. Phew! On a very related note, y'all are welcome to come visit us in Dallas during 2016 - we're looking forward to staying put for a bit and would love the company!

Ben is gainfully employed at Hewlett Packard Enterprise. Working under an excellent boss in the Workforce Planning Division, he's learned more than he cares to know about the art and science of layoffs. (It's generally referred to with clever euphemisms like 'labor transformation.') Trenchant quips aside, the human capital concerns of a Fortune 50 company are diverse and complex, and the opportunities will soon provide Ben with enough variety to keep him interested - quite possibly for the long haul. Outside of work, Ben found joy and fulfillment through learning some basic woodworking (courtesy of a family friend here in Texas) and enjoying the local pool with Julia. Ben misses Nashville's famous hot chicken (Hattie B's!) and is eagerly looking to fill the void with good Texan BBQ. Recommendations appreciated. 

Rebecca started 2015 with lots of change by ending her maternity leave and returning to work at GAO, which, for the first half of the year, involved bi-monthly travel (DC, Dallas, and Seattle). While the busy schedule somewhat cramped her homebody style, she appreciated that the DC and Seattle trips enabled her to visit with family. As cooler weather approached in November, her love for crocheting ramped up again and yielded baby hats, baby mittens, and a stuffed animal / blankie for Julia.

Julia spent 2015 (6 months old to 18 months old) doing the things you'd expect from a little person her age. Crawling, learning to walk, getting teeth (current count: 7.5, not counting an undetermined number of molars that are beginning to peek through), learning words (not yet "no," but we're expecting it any day), holding entirely unintelligible conversations with anyone (especially herself), and getting into ALL OF THE THINGS. As we get to know her better, we learn that she's a friendly soul who watches people and things carefully. Others who spend time with her note that she loves to be helpful by getting shoes and diapers and toys and whatever else is requested (and often preempts the actual request). We're especially enjoying aspects of her current stage, particularly that she's giving longer hugs and generally showing more affection.  

We feel super lucky to have the family and friends that we do, and we wish we could regale you with these updates in person (and hear all about how you're doing, too). We think of you often and look forward to our next visit. Wishing you health and happiness in 2016!

Love from the Jensens,
Ben, Becca, and Julia 

The daily selfie for the traveling mama

The one time in 2016 we got all fancied up - McCall wedding, Nashville

See? We do fun stuff as a family...at family reunions

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December in Oregon; Julia at Ben's high school

 

Seasons Greetings from Nashville! Our family has continued to love being here as Ben continues his MBA program at Vanderbilt, and 2014 has been a wonderful year. The big / huge / life-changing news this year is the addition of Julia Helen Jensen to our family on July 1. Thankfully, she arrived safely and has charmed most everyone with her calm demeanor and infectious smile (we're confident the holdouts will capitulate at some point soon). In addition to figuring out this parenting thing, we've continued to enjoy the good company of friends made through church and Ben's school. Highlights for the family include: a July trip to Portland for a family wedding (Ben's sister); visits from family in August for Julia's baby blessing; an October trip through the Smokey Mountains in celebration of Autumn and our second anniversary; another October trip to Indianapolis to meet a new niece; and another Indianapolis trip for Thanksgiving. We'll spend Christmas in Las Vegas and St. George with Becca's family, and return to Nashville just in time to ring in the New Year. Phew!

Ben continues to enjoy the break from adult life provided by the Vanderbilt MBA program. This year's highlights included a school trip to Israel in March, a summer internship with the Nashville Entrepreneur Center, and a couple almost-job offers. So close! As a second-year student (in a two-year program), Ben was fortunate to work as a Teaching Assistant for the Communications and Marketing courses. He found the experience rather enjoyable and will likely look into teaching as a part- or full-time endeavor one day once business school loans are paid off. So...check back with us in Update 2025.

Rebecca spent the first half of the year continuing to work at her DC job (the Government Accountability Office) from her home office in Nashville. The lack of a daily commute freed her to spend some more time playing piano and furthering her meager skills. She worked until the day Julia was born, July 1, and has since enjoyed her maternity leave. Though as a newborn Julia has been fairly demanding of mama's attention, Rebecca found time enjoy some long-latent hobbies. In particular, she started crocheting, which she hasn't done since high school. Pictured below are some of the projects she's completed since Julia's arrival. She also braved a solo trip (+Julia) to Utah in November to visit with friends and family. Perhaps unsurprisingly, Rebecca's reading this year has mostly focused on birth and child development (reading lists available upon request), but she also enjoyed being a part of the local congregation's book club.

Julia made her debut on July 1, as mentioned above, and has spent the time between then and now proving herself to be an incredibly lovely baby. Ever since birth, almost everyone who has made remarks about her has observed that she's an unusually alert and active baby. She loves looking around at the world, and is more often content to lie on the floor and kick around or, more recently, flip from back to tummy and vice versa. She loves to smile, but even more loves to burrow her head into her parents' neck when someone notices her smiling. In all, her parents think she's charming (when she's not fighting a nap or spitting up indiscriminately), but don't rely on our (patently biased) word. Here's documentary evidence:

Julia being her charming self, sporting crocheted leg warmers

Hard to top crocheted leg warmers, so that's a wrap for this year's Jensen family news. 

Wishing you a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

With love from Nashville,
Ben, Rebecca, and Julia Jensen