Everything Jensen

A via ferrata (Italian for "iron road". Plural vie ferrate . In German, Klettersteig ) is a mountain route which is equipped with fixed cables, stemples, ladders, and bridges. The use of these allows otherwise isolated routes to be joined to create longer routes which are accessible to people with a wide range of climbing abilities. Last weekend, Matt took a few of his Venturing Scouts out to Seneca Rocks, West Virginia. They left at 3 pm Friday, had a good night camping at Seneca Shadows Campground (with some DELICIOUS dutch oven cooking). The next morning, they were all up early as the excitement of rock climbing the Via Ferrata at Nelson Rocks was hard to contain. After a breakfast of instant oatmeal and hot chocolate, they quickly packed the tents and headed to Nelson Rocks Preserve. The guys had an 11:30 climb start time, and couldn't get in earlier, so hiked a bit, scouted the mountains and the rope bridge they'd soon be crossing, before heading on up. At 11:30...

Melinda’s awesome co-workers threw her a baby shower this morning. It was a fun break to the day, with plenty of food, games, and good times. Melinda’s old boss, Bev, was responsible for most of the planning, games, and decorations. Her new boss, Susie, made sausage and egg casserole - which was delicious! And, the media buyers made some customized signage to add to the décor. There was even a raffle for some new products donated by the product development team (grand prize, a signed copy of the newest Bo Bice CD…which is also available for purchase at TimeLife.com - go get it!). Everyone was so generous, we’re a little overwhelmed! They nearly wiped out our registry. So, Adelaide…we’re ready for you to show up any time (or, in a month is good). This was Melinda’s second shower. She also had a spectacularly fun and super amazing get together with friends and family earlier in the month, but we’re still tracking down the pictures from that one. So, we’re blogging out of order.

Spring is here again! And with Spring comes Spring Planting! Matt built two large planter boxes last year and we had a fairly successful garden, though we had no idea how much space pumpkin would take up (up out of the box, circling around the back yard... don't think we'll be doing that again). This year we've got a few newcomers to our garden line up. Here's what you'll see in the pictures below: In one box we've got yellow onions and three rows of beets. In the larger planter box we've got an eggplant; mexibell peppers; jalapeño peppers; several varieties of basil; and cherry, early girl, and lemon boy heirloom tomatoes. In the back of our yard we have our little pride and joy, a Chicago-hardy fig tree surrounded by chives. He's just a baby fig, about 2 feet tall, but should grow 3-5 feet this year. We also have a couple baby blueberry bushes, and a few rosemary bushes lining the back fence. On just the other side of the fence, we also have "Mint...

Wow, two posts in one day! This is a post for Erin, because she asked so nice. We’ve been busy putting together Adelaide’s nursery, making everything ready for her arrival in early-July. With the help of Craig’s List, Ikea, and a lot of elbow grease… we think it’s looking pretty good. Matt did all the painting - big ol’ kudos to him! He also gets credit for all the other "manly" jobs, like assembling then rearranging the furniture multiple times for a fussy wife. Melinda did a few of the craftier things, like seaming the curtains, creating the bed skirt (it’s lime green with hippos!), and making the mobile.

We’ve received numerous requests over the last year to start a blog. Facebook just isn’t cutting it for hard core M&M fans anymore. So, by popular demand, here is Everything Jensen. Will give you a moment to finish your happy dance. Ready? Okay. In creating this blog, we make no promises to be eloquent or frequent in our posts. Melinda writes for her bread and butter. A keyboard is often the last thing she wants to see in her off time. And Matt, well, he rarely gets off time. We do, however, promise to post lots of cute pictures of our baby girl when she makes her arrival and beyond. That’s really why you all wanted us to make the blog anyhow, right? We understand, she’s pretty cute already. And, because Adelaide is the real reason you're reading this, here are some pictures. Yeah, she's adorable.