Did I Really Graduate?

So here's a funny story--although I didn't think it was that funny AT ALL at the time.

I get this phone call from my academic advisor from BYU who knows me fairly well since I went in to see her many times to make sure I had the classes I needed and completed what was required for graduation. I might have over-done my visiting rights. Anyway, I tried to be so careful as to not let anything slip by unnoticed. So the following was the conversation I had with my advisor Gail after she verified who I was:

Gail: "We have here that you walked in the Apr graduation"
Tena: "Yes"
Gail: "We never received a grade from your ballroom class that you took this last semester, and I can't clear you for graduation until I receive a grade. Do you know why you didn't get a grade?"
Tena: (frantic) "I have no idea why she didn't give me a grade--I did everything I was asked to do for that class. There's not much I can do about it now because I'm now living in WA."
Gail: "Could you email the teacher and ask her to submit your grade so I can clear you?"
Tena: "Yes, of course . . . but I didn't need this class to graduate--it was just for fun. Does that still matter?"
Gail: "You're right. It doesn't look like you needed that credit but just give her a call or email so you don't end up without a final grade on your transcript."
Tena: "Okay"

I was still frantic because Gail thought it would be okay, but she wasn't sure. I emailed my teacher, called her office phone, and called her home phone. I never got a hold of her, she still hasn't responded back, and called Gail back a few hours later.

Tena: "I haven't been able to get a hold of my teacher"
Gail: "Oh, I'm sorry, I was going to call you back and let you know not to worry about it. I was able to clear you for graduation."
Tena: (sigh of relief)

It wasn't until TODAY that I truly was relieved because I received my diploma in the mail. IT IS NOW OFFICIAL--I AM A BYU GRADUATE!

P.S. I still don't know what grade I would have received from my ballroom class--oh well.

Technical Difficulties

I've been meaning to post more, but it's just not as fun without the pictures to go along with it. As I think I have mentioned before, we are currently living with my parents in Washington for the summer before we move to Texas for a while. My parents have the same Kodak software that we have for loading our pictures onto the computer; however, whenever I try to load a video from our camera onto the computer, it says that there is an error and shuts down the entire program so that I can't get any videos and sometimes can't even select a picture that I want before it shuts down. Anyway, I will try and put up the pictures I can now, but you might want to scan through our blog to see more pictures later (hopefully by Sept we'll be moved in and have our computer set up so I can update the posts with pictures). Sorry for the inconvenience and for the following posts that might be a bit bland OR featureless--I thought that was a good synonymous word to use.

Happy Mother's Day

I just want to wish all the mothers out there a Happy Mother's Day today. Even if you don't have any children, I know that you are a mother figure in the eyes of someone! I want to thank all of the special and wonder women in my life. Every acquaintance/friendship I make makes an impact in my life.

5 Months Old

She is such a happy baby. What a joy and blessing she is in our lives.

Mission Reunion

April went by so fast that I didn't get a chance to post everything that happened. Sorry this is out of order, but I just wanted to post a couple pictures of some people that had/have a huge influence in my life--President and Sister Sybrowsky, President and Sister Ashton, my husband Joe, and my daughter Brooklyn.

On Fri April 4th (the night before General Conference weekend), it has been tradition for former mission presidents to hold a mission reunion. I was lucky enough to have 2 different mission presidents during the time I was serving in the Canada Toronto West Mission. It is always so much fun to see familiar faces and dear friends.

Sybrowsky's

Ashton's

Anything Else . . . ?

Finals/Graduation week was busy for both of us. I didn't have any finals, but Joe was busy studying for them as I tried to pack up the rest of the house for our move. I thought I was doing well packing things up beforehand but when it came to moving everything out Sat (Apr 26th) morning, we realized we still had a lot of stuff to do.

The following are some highlights of that week:
Wed-Joe finished his last final at 9:00 pm
Thurs-attented the commencement ceremony where Elder Bednar, from the quorum of the 12 Apostles, gave a great talk about "Learning to Love Learning"
Fri-(1st) our only car left (since we sold the other one just last week) wouldn't start and way too expensive to fix (2nd) my Dad found the part and fixed it with the help of his friend over the phone just before my graduation (3rd) we all made it to my convocation ceremony where I recieved my Bachelor of Science degree (4th) enjoyed a nice dinner at Los Hermanos
Sat-packed and cleaned all day--we thought we would be completely done by noon, but it was 8:00 pm before we got out of our apartment. What a day! To make that day more exciting, the rental truck wouldn't start. We were not having good luck with vehicles at this point. Luckily Joe made it safely to our first destination which was his brother Jeff's house where we were going to store our furniture for the summer. They wanted to just back up the truck a bit so it would be closer to the house to unload, but it wouldn't start. We had some other help with a truck, trailor, and van to get the rest of our things to Joe's parents' to store. So, things worked out in the end--just not as planned.

Joe's Accomplishments

Joe did it!!! He finished his last classes at BYU--including his 25 page Senior research paper. We are so proud of him. Hurray! He had a lot on his plate as he does with every semester with trying to balance work, school, and family. He is so good at putting his family first and our needs (I try not to be too needy). We are excited to be in Washington state for the summer and looking forward to the big move to Texas in August. Joe found out that he is going to be teaching in Nimitz 9th Grade School where he'll be teaching history and geography.

4 Months Old

Joe and I had a bet going before I took Brooklyn to the doctor's about how much our little princess weighed. Joe guessed 10 lb 8 oz, I guessed 11 lb 4 oz, and she ended up weighing 11 lb 2 oz. Yes, I'm a very proud mother!

Baby Giggles

Sorry this has taken me so long to update. Brooklyn started giggling on 27th March, and she done lots more since. Here are a couple short video clips of her first laugh (notice I had to hide the camera from her otherwise she would stop laughing and stare at the camera). The pictures are not the best, but it's the sound I was after anyway--Enjoy!

Tena's Accomplishments

We've been so busy trying to figure out all the details for our move up to Washington for the summer and then Houston this fall that I haven't had the time to share my good news. I finally completed my 200 hours for my internship! I went in to my advisor's office last Wed. to show him my internship summary report and ask him if there was anything that I was missing. He looked it over (I wasn't quite finished) and said it looked great. He set it on his desk, looked at me and said, "You're Done!" I never thought I would ever hear those words when it came to school. I still have my ballroom class to finish up the semester, but I'm pretty much just waiting for graduation--it feels GREAT!!!

Brooklyn's Accomplishments

Brooklyn's accomplishments this week were making a new friend (hopefully she'll make some friends that actually talk back when Mom and Dad finally let her out of the house), going for her first walk in the stroller, and rolling over!

Utah vs Houston

No, this post is not referring to a basketball game or anything like that. Some of you might have already heard, but Joe and I have really been contemplating and praying about where he should do his internship/student teaching to complete his degree in History teaching. There are actually 4 places that BYU will let you teach--these places include Utah, Houston (Texas), Washington D.C., and Mexico. Now, I wouldn't mind visiting Mexico with Joe but if I'd have to get around by myself, I don't speak a lick of Spanish. D.C. is beautiful, but it's just way too expensive to live there and so far away from family. So that left us will the decision between Utah and Houston.

It was a hard decision, but we decided to move to Houston. We will be moving in August. After weighing out all the pros and cons to each place, the bottom line was that we felt Houston would give us the opportunities needed to help Joe get his Masters Degree as well as help our family get a good start with a job and then after a few years, be able to choose where we want to "plant our roots" as opposed to feeling stuck. We want to be closer to both our families and hopefully this decision now will help with our decisions in the not too distant future.

We appreciate very much the support of our families with our decision! THANKS!!!

New Discoveries

Brooklyn has been smiling now for about 2 1/2 weeks, but we have not been successful in capturing it so that all of you could enjoy it. Well, I finally caught it today! I was so excited I even got a video of it and as you will be able to tell from the video, she was trying to hide her smiles.

It's fun to finally have her interact with us and to recognize who we are.



"OK Mom, I'm good to go. Let's go for a ride!"
(No, I did not pose her for this picture)

She loves to play with her Dad. Do you remember the video of Brooklyn hitting the toy giraffe in the nose and knocking it over? Well, before I took this video, she bopped Joe on the nose a couple of times. We thought she might do it again, but she decided to tease us instead.

She's not to the point where she can roll over or sit up yet, but she is getting stronger every day. The picture on the left is how she use to spend "tummy-time" but as you can see in the video, it's a bit more productive now.

She is starting to explore more things with her tongue. She may look like a cat cleaning her paws, but I think she's trying to find her thumb. She's put almost her whole hand in her mouth before probably because her thumb is too small by itself.

Brooklyn's Blessing Day

During church on Sunday February 3rd 2008, Joe along with other family members took Brooklyn in their arms and gave her a name and a blessing. It was a very special moment! I know that Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ want all of us to know who we are, where we came from, why we are here, and where we are going after this life. Brooklyn is a gift from our Heavenly Father. She is one of His children that He has entrusted in our care. We feel privileged for this awesome responsibility to be her parents and are grateful for God's great Plan of Happiness so that we will always be together as a family.

This is a precious Daddy Daughter Moment!
(more pictures on our Flickr account so go check it out)

2 Months Old

Video Clips

I can't for the life of me figure out how to put a slideshow directly on this blog, so I decided to put our photos in "Flickr." Here is the website to see a lot more photos: http://www.flickr.com/photos/jandtjones/
Most of them are of Brooklyn right now, but I hope to get more up soon. You'll want to see the photos--we have a little drama queen.

These video clips are pretty cute I think, but you know I'm pretty bias (I saved the best one for last).

This is her favorite place to be during the day. I'm getting pretty good at typing with one hand.

We woke up Sunday morning, and she was wide awake looking around. She got so excited when I rubbed her hand on the soft and fuzzy Winnie the Pooh on her bumper pad that she kept doing it.

The boys better watch out for her--she's got a mean right hook. I love how she goes across her nose first, waits for just the right time, and then makes her move. We may have a little boxer in the family.

President Hinckley Passes Away

While talking with my parents last night, we were informed that President Gordon B. Hinckley (age 97) passed away yesterday (Sun. 28th Jan) around 7pm. I have not read anything that explains exactly how he died but here are 4 websites that have lots to say about the legacy he left behind.

http://newsroom.lds.org/ldsnewsroom/eng/
news-releases-stories/beloved-church-
president-gordon-b-hinckley-dies-at-97
http://www.sltrib.com/
http://www.cnn.com/video/#/video/us/2008/01/28/
gordon.hinckley.obit.cnn?iref=videosearch
http://www.cnn.com/2008/US/01/27/obit.hinckley/
index.html?iref=newssearch

I am grateful to know that the work President Hinckley did while serving as the President of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints was the work of the Lord. He was a man called by God to be His Prophet and mouthpiece on the earth but has now been called back Home and another will be called to take his place. It saddens me that President Hinckley is gone, but it also makes me happy to know that not only has he been reunited with our Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ, but he has also been reunited with his lovely wife who passed away back in 2004. May all of us (people of all faiths) be able to enjoy what President Gordon B. Hinckley left behind! I wish I had the time to tell you all the wonderful things he did in his life. The websites I listed above tell a lot about not only what he did for the Church but what he did for people all over the world so please take a few minutes to get to know what this great man did for us.

1 Month Old

I know this is a couple weeks behind, but I wanted to share with you all how cute and how much our baby girl is growing. Actually, on her one month mark (5th Jan), she had a cough and the sniffles which turned into RSV (Respiratory Syncytial Virus) by the next day. She had a number of apnea spells (stopped breathing) which hospitalized her (and me) for 6 days. That's another story that I will try and share with you more when I have a bit more time. Anyway, last week on Tues the 15th, we took Brooklyn into the doctor to check up on this RSV and how she is recovering. She weighed 6 lbs 9 1/2 oz which was really pretty good for being so sick for a week. We took her in again just yesterday (Thurs the 24th) for her regular 6 week check up, and she weighed 7 lbs 7 1/2 oz. She almost gained 1 pound in just over 1 week! So as you can see, she is doing much better and is as cute as ever! Have I told you how adorable she is? The pictures say it best!

We've been told she looks more like Dad but what they didn't know was that she's got her Mom's curls--yeah! Who do you say she looks like more? Place your vote on the poll posted on the side underneath our Christmas picture. The voting will be open until her 1st birthday so if you change your mind on who she looks like more as you see her grow up and change, vote again!

P.S. I'm trying to figure out how to put up a slideshow of Brooklyn's pictures so if anyone knows how, please let me know--Thanks!

2007 Highlights

One thing just kept happening after another until it has been over 2 months since I last posted anything--sorry about that. I hope that you haven't tired of checking our blog with no recent updates. Hopefully now, I will get back on track and write at least once a week. You can add comments to help me know people actually check it and this will keep me motivated to write.

Well, I believe where I left off would be Thanksgiving weekend. We had a great time in Washington with my family this year. The weather was great for driving, and we got to do a few extra things along the way to make the long drive bearable.

We made a stop in the Boise, Idaho, area and bought the biggest caramel apple you have ever seen. We had seen it in the store before but decided this time would be the time we would splurge and try it. It was a granny smith apple dipped in caramel and white chocolate and then covered with toffee and peanuts. It was sooooooooooooooo good!!!

Here are some scenery pictures of our drive through the mountains. It is beautiful!

Here is a picture just coming out of the mountains into the more flat part of Oregon.



It was nice to be with the whole Haworth family for Thanksgiving! Joe and I were in charge of the mashed potatoes. I made them and Joe displayed them.

It may be hard to see everyone, but we are all here except for Tony who had to work (he came later that night). Starting from the front left we have Christina (Tony's wife who is expecting a girl in Jan), and their daughter Riley and Alix. Next we have Ashlyn, Kamee, David, and Kayvri (this is David's family). Cassidy (another one of Tony's girls) is at the head of the table. Then Grandpa and Grandma Haworth and Darin. Lastly, we have my cute husband Joe and then me taking the picture (also expecting a girl in Jan).

So, Thanksgiving was the first highlight and the next highlight was a very unexpected event. It was the birth of our little angel.

Brooklyn Tena Jones
Born: 5 Dec '07 at 6:35 am
5 lbs 8 oz
18" long

You can see more pictures of her from the following website: http://web.mac.com/douglasjones2000/Site/Photos.html
These pictures were taken by my father-in-law. Some of them were taken the day after she was born and some were taken 3 days after she was born.

Our Birthday gift to Brooklyn!

With her being born 4 weeks early, I still had 2 weeks of school left to finish (1 week of classes and 1 week of finals). My mom was so kind and willing to come spend a week with us (or should I say Brooklyn) while Joe and I finished attending our classes. It really helped out a lot where mine and Joe's class schedule overlapped all the time. We were able to finish our classes, work it out with our teachers where we had conflicts with our finals, and finish out the semester strong. Both Joe and I ended up doing very well in all of our classes. We had a lot of outside help not only from friends and family but from our Heavenly Father!

Within that time frame of finishing up school was my 26th Birthday (16th Dec). My husband, mom, and in-laws were all there for me to make sure I knew that I wasn't forgotten or overlooked.

The day after all our finals were over we had to celebrate. No, not just because finals were over did we celebrate, but it was our 2 year Anniversary (23rd Dec)! Grandma and Grandpa Jones were willing to babysit little Brooklyn while Mom and Dad went out to see the new "National Treasure" movie. The first "National Treasure" movie has special meaning because that was the movie where Joe and I first held hands. I guess you could say that's were it all started for us, so we thought it would only be appropriate for our Anniversary to see the sequel.

Now, we finally get to Christmas Eve and Christmas Day! It was fun to start some of our own family traditions with our little addition.

Decorating the Christmas tree

Before & After

Taking family pictures



Reading a Christmas book and the Christmas story from
The Holy Bible and The Book of Mormon



Baby's first stocking and ornament



Building gingerbread houses


Last year's gingerbread Cottage . . .


. . . and this year's Gumdrop Fortress

And of course, opening gifts


present from Grandma & Grandpa Haworth


present from Grandma & Grandpa Jones


present from Mom & Dad


presents to each other

Christmas morning brings Santa Clause and a special breakfast. For breakfast, we had German Pancakes with mixed fruit topping, whip cream, and syrup. We also had orange juice specially made by Joe with little ice crystals, bacon, and homemade hash browns--Yum!!!