Last night we had our friend, Yi Ling, over for dinner. Yi Ling is from Taiwan and has been attending our church since the fall. We’ve enjoyed getting to know her. After dinner we played Jenga and Uno.

I’ve been planning to blog about Josh’s birthday for a while, but teaching and studying have delayed my blogging plans.  For Josh’s birthday I took him on a surprise adventure to a special hamburger restaurant. I was so pleased with myself for planning the surprise trip…of course, I wasn’t so pleased with myself when my Google Map directions took us to the middle of a development, instead of to the restaurant. (Josh thought I was planning him a surprise birthday party and was just trying to throw him off track.) We enjoyed the restaurant (once we got there) and the hamburgers were a success!

Since Josh’s birthday was right before my comprehensive exam, we decided to wait until after the exam to celebrate with his traditional strawberry cake. Mom J. sent the recipe and it turned out great! And in case you’re wondering what I gave Josh for his birthday…..click here to see…

Two reasons for the title:

1. Apparently my sister-in-law Emily has decided to become a farmer when she grows up.
2. I just finished up a ministry website for my good friend Jeremy Farmer. Jeremy and his family are headed to Cambodia when they’ve finished raising their support (they started today with a service in Rockford, Illinois). Jeremy’s first visit to Cambodia was in 2002 as part of a threesome that included me. Once Jeremy’s there, I’ll be the only one still getting ready to go. (Brian Kane was the third, and his family has been in Cambodia for a couple years now.) Here’s the Farmers’ site:

Nancy Jane Cochran Elementary School is officially out for the summer! My last day of teaching was Wednesday, and there was a faculty work-day on Thursday to close out the year. On Thursday, I packed my room up, stored all my valuable instruments in the main building, enjoyed our end of the year luncheon, and drove off for the summer. I really enjoyed my first year of teaching. Being a music teacher is the world’s greatest (paying) job! I learned more each week and by the end of the school year I felt like I was finally getting the hang of things. I’m looking forward to next year!

To celebrate the end of the school year, Josh and I went out to eat at Olive Garden and then went for a walk at a park. It’s nice to have a break from the pressures of teaching and lesson-plan writing! In two weeks, I’ll be starting six weeks of summer courses – fun – fun! But for now … I’m going to enjoy being off from school and I’ll be studying for my oral comprehensive exam which will take place some time during summer school.

(Oh, and we had a lovely 11-month anniversary a week ago. Almost 1 year!)

During our premarital counseling, Tim Bixby encouraged Amy and me to make a regular practice of reading together, particularly books that would encourage us to strengthen our marriage spiritually. We read a couple books and book portions together in preparation for marriage, and since we were married, we’ve worked to keep up the practice.

In addition, we like to do some fun reading together, often just before bed. (With the marriage and devotional books, we read back-and-forth out loud. For fiction, I read to Amy.)

Yesterday we were reviewing what we’ve read together since we got married. We were surprised by how much it was. Here are the books we’ve completed (together and aloud) since marriage:

• The Great Divorce (C.S. Lewis)
• The Odyssey (Homer, translated by Fagles)
• Reforming Marriage (Douglas Wilson)
• Christian Living in the Home (Jay Adams)
• When Sinners Say “I Do” (Dave Harvey)
• Essential Virtues: Marks of the Christ-Centered Life (Jim Berg)

We’re currently in the process of reading these:

• Till We Have Faces (C.S. Lewis)
• Beyond Suffering (Layton Talbert)
• Seeing with New Eyes (David Powlison)

Starting books — and then actually finishing them — has always been a little overwhelming to me. But you may be surprised by how much you can read if you do just a little at a time. It’s certainly been a surprise to Amy and me. I don’t feel like we spend that much time reading — and reading aloud isn’t the fastest way to get through a book — but (like saving money, I guess), it adds up.

After reading the previous post, you might ask, What does popcorn have to do with music?

There are a couple answers. One, the promise of a Friday popcorn party can add a little motivation to good behavior in class throughout the week. Two, one of the songs (well, a text with rhythm — no melody) in Amy’s music curriculum is actually about making popcorn. Here’s a performance (yeah, that’s my wife way up there in the air!):

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(If you’re using a blog reader, you might want to go to our blog to see the video that’s included above.)

I didn’t mention this in the previous post — but I spent yesterday at Cochran Elementary School with Amy, participating in her classes and (during a couple classes) making some photos and videos. After a day with her at school, I wonder how in the world Amy does anything at the end of the day but come home and sleep. Lots of jumping, lots of energy, lots of talking and singing. When we came home, I wanted a nap (and took one).

As you would guess, Amy’s a great teacher, and her students like her very well. So do her colleagues. (So does her husband!)

What are these kids so captivated by? (Well, one of them appears to be interested in the camera, but I mean the rest.)

A hot oil popcorn maker, operated by a music teacher:

The popping process was “boring” for the first couple minutes (before the popping began), but after the first pop, there were lots of oo’s and ah’s and a few shh’s. They liked eating the popcorn, too. (No surprise there.) Some said it was the “most delicious popcorn” they’d ever had, and a few determined to buy a popcorn maker.

It’s said that air poppers are healthier than oil poppers, but Amy uses Canola, so it’s good fat. Here’s one more photo of the wonder of the popping popcorn:

The other ingredients of Good Times are cookies (we — mostly Amy — made 300 small chocolate chip cookies on Thursday evening), singing, a team competition to put notes in their proper places on a staff (you can see the staff on the floor behind Amy in one of the photos further up), and lots of jumping up and down (little kids like jumping up and down). The cookies were a big hit (“They’re so soft!” “They’re better than … Chips Ahoy!”)

Yesterday evening, Amy and I had over a classmate of mine, Fahad, along with his cousin, Rakan, an MBA student in Oklahoma. They’re from Saudi Arabia. (Fahad is the one on my right.) We had an enjoyably evening and a wonderful roast.

Did you notice that I got a haircut? We had decided to wait till the semester was over. So Amy took care of it Friday evening. (And she did a marvelous job!) If you’ve forgotten how long my hair had gotten, here’s a recent photo (taken after an event that required a tie — something unusual for me these days).

The semester ended well. I had two final papers (due Tuesday and Wednesday), and some final exams to grade (I finished those yesterday). So summer has begun. My plans are to study French, continue my work for Nightlight Christian Adoptions (formerly Carolina Hope), design a couple websites, and conduct research on Jarai for my dissertation — along with some other miscelaneous items.

By the way, Amy’s old computer (very graciously given to her a couple years ago by her brother Jon) is on the way out. If anyone is trying to dispose of a (still reliable) laptop that’s a couple years old (at a reasonable price), please let us know!

Last Saturday night we had my friend Ms.  Carter over for dinner.  I was excited for Josh to meet one of my coworkers.  Ms. Carter is a 4th grade math teacher at school and has made me feel a part of the Cochran faculty.  I’ve enjoyed getting to know her and visiting her classroom this year.

During Spring Break, Josh and I took a “break” from our studying and spent an evening in Forth Worth. We visited the Barnes and Noble, and Josh read Poe’s The Black Cat to me. Afterwards we enjoyed a dinner of Mexican food and walking around downtown Fort Worth.  While walking around, we met the most interesting man. His job was to walk around town and scare all the birds away by either shining a red light into their eyes or by startling them with his large clapper. He told us that if we walked further down the road we would find all the noisy birds. We decided to test his word and just as he said, a couple blocks down the road there were hundreds of birds filling the trees.

Today is our 10 month wedding anniversary. It’s hard to believe how quickly our first year is passing. Marriage is wonderful – I am married to the dearest sweetest man in the world.

Last Friday I took the written part of my doctoral comprehensive exam. My questions were:

1. Discuss the role of a Christian teacher in a public school setting. What are some of the issues of concern that a Christian teacher must address in the current public school setting?

2. How can popular music meet the National Standards of Music in a middle school general music curriculum? What pedagogical or curriculum problems can occur from an “overuse” of popular music in this curriculum?

3. How do the learning theories of Vygotsky and Piaget apply to the elementary music classroom? Which theory is more applicable in the elementary music classroom?

I spent over eight hours writing my responses and felt like my brain was fried by the end of the day. Josh made me a delicious spaghetti dinner to celebrate. And I’m currently enjoying not having the pressure of the exam weighing on me.

I took Thursday (the day before the exam) off from school to review for the exam. While I was home studying, the FedEx lady delivered fresh flowers that Dad and Mom Jensen sent to encourage me on my final day of studying.

It will be at least another week before I hear back from my committee concerning my results. After I hear back from them, we will set up a time for the oral half of my exam.

Back on March 15, we had our pastor (John Lutz) and his family (Shawn, Micah) over for dinner. Amy made a wonderful pot roast (maybe she’ll put up some photos?) and some great cookies out of yellow cake mix (the only cookie-making ingredients on hand!). Here’s the cookies:

The Lutzes tried out our Boomwhackers — introduced here — (new church orchestra?). They were pretty good, especially considering that they didn’t get much prep time. (Does “especially considering” turn a compliment into an underhanded aspersion?) Here’s a 20-sec clip:

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Finally, since you can see from the top photo (which we’re all part of) that I obviously have a timer function on my camera, here’s a little something showing … well, you’ll see:

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Today I decided to experiment with making soup using our leftover chicken and chicken broth from Tuesday night’s meal (Tuesday I made a whole chicken in the crockpot). I thought I would document my first soup making experience. Mmmm – mmmmm – good!

This evening, Josh decided to treat us to dinner at Moni’s (a local Italian restaurant) and ice cream at Braums. It was a delightful treat after a long week of school and study. The past two weeks, I’ve been working with the 5th grade reading class, instead of teaching music (my kids tell me they miss music…I do too!). Yesterday and today I taught all 5th grade reading classes  by myself, because the regular teacher was out of town due to a family emergency.  Life is an adventure.

For Saturday night’s salad meal, I tried browning chicken in Italian dressing and was pleased with the results. (Mom, just thought you might like to see how healthy we’re eating!)

We’ve both had a busy week. I have several pictures to post, but they will have to wait until after my comprehensive exam (April 17th).

Happy Birthday to my wonderful wonderful husband!!! I love you so much!

Happy 9 months of marriage to the most wonderful man in the whole wide world! I love you so much, Joshua Jensen – so much! Thank you for being the man who loves me, leads me, and points me to Christ. I love being your wife.

Saturday evening we had Sharleston and her son, Nick, over for dinner. Sharleston used to be the secretary for the linguistics department at UTA and was very helpful to Josh, especially when he first came to UTA.  She is a very sweet lady and considered herself the “den mother” for the linguistics department.

We had a delightful time with our guests. I made bacon wrapped chicken (thanks, Emily for the recipe), along with red potatoes (thanks, Ruth B.), mixed vegetables, and rolls.

Thought you might enjoy a snapshot of our Spring Break activities this week. Josh has a color-coded list of things to get done, and I’m preparing for my comprehensive exam. We’ve had our past few meals on our card table, since cleaning up our regular table and then getting everything out again seemed like too much work.

Last Saturday night (for our weekly Josh and Amy Night), we did some shopping and then went to Mimi’s for dinner. We both enjoyed our meals and then went home to play a game of Othello (you’ll have to ask Josh who won).

Sunday night we babysat the Johnson kids, while their parents went house hunting. The Johnsons have three adorable children and are expecting their fourth in July. We spent the evening playing games, having razor scooter races in an empty parking lot, reading, eating dinner, and watching a movie.