Long Time, no post

Will try to remember to update this page, facebook seems to always get our updates now.  Taylor had a good soccer season, she was voted Freshman of the Year and was given the Save of the Year.

Taylor was drum major for the Middle School Marching band and she won Best Middle School Drum Major in the Washington County Marching Band Competition.

Lastly, Taylor made the Basketball team, she is going to be #45.  Will keep you updated on how basketball goes.

I went to the Salt Lake Wasatch Rails Train Show and had a fun time, took pictures at the show and they are of course on Facebook.

Shaylie's Dango Adventure

Read about Shaylie's Dango experience at my blog: tonyajez.blogspot.com

Shaylie's New Present

Almost one year to the day since Taylor jumped and ripped through the old trampoline pad, we finally got a new one!  We decided it would be a Shaylie present and she got to jump on it first.  We found a place that made different color pads, as we didn't want to have another plain black one. The puppies seemed to like it.

Shaylie was very happy with it and she has been out on it several times. Dad has been as well!  It is very nice to not have the big hole in the backyard anymore.  Thanks to Tonya and Taylor for going out and pulling all the weeds and cleaning up the garbage.

New Team...Pine View High School!

Taylor has made the roster of the Pine View High School Girls' Soccer Team!!!!!!!!!!  She has been very nervous the past two days of tryouts and afterwards we sat under a tree waiting for the sign to go up on the door. Taylor got tired of being nervous and waiting, so she went to fill her water bottle.  Knowing that a watched pot never boils, we knew the sheet would be put up while she was gone, and we were right.  We watched as some very happy girls danced away and saw a few that were very sad.  We saw Taylor come out so Tonya and Taylor walked slowly to the door, I don't think Taylor wanted to look but when Tonya put her hand up to give a high five, I knew things were good.
Taylor wanted a picture, so I came over and snapped a very happy shot.  Now the adventure begins, practice every morning at 8:15 until school starts! PV's first game is August 13th here, however, for relatives up North, she has a game on August 14th at Pleasant Grove High School. The PV Soccer schedule is on the right hand side of The TechFamily page.

Night at the Ballpark

Taylor and I went to the Roadrunners game last night. It has been a couple of years since we went to a baseball game, so we felt we needed to catch back up.
I had a Bratwurst and Taylor had a chicken Sandwich. Then we had Nachos and then Ice Cream, it was great!
The game was going pretty well, the team was up 4-1, then the wind kicked in and by the bottom of the fourth, it started to sprinkle, I was hoping that the team could hold onto the lead and then the game could end in a rain delay. At the middle of the 5th, the Roadrunners lead 6-5 and the rain was coming down pretty hard. But then it stopped and everything went downhill from there.
The starting pitcher for the Roadrunners got tired and started walking batters more than usual, they replaced him and the relief pitchers started walking almost everyone. Taylor has early morning soccer conditioning and I go to work early, so as it was nearly 10:00pm and only in the top of the 7th, we decided it was time to go home. As we listened to the game on the ride home, they walked several straight and suddenly the score was 10-6 for the bad guys, what a waste. The Roadrunners eventually lost 10-8. As we drove home, we drove into the rain so it was a nice cool night.

The Crowd, as usual was very small, even though they were offering kids free with paying adults (which BTW, doesn't apply to teenagers we found out) The ones that were there were having fun, until the rain of course, then it was basically only kids and the die-hards.
But we had a fun night!

Real Salt Lake Game - 5/29/10

We were heading up to Holden for Memorial Day week when Tonya suggested that there was a Real Salt Lake game.
I went online and found they had a huge discount for tickets so I called Taylor and her friend Shaylee who were up in Holden already and asked if they wanted to go. Grandma Dawn did not want to go, oh well. (actually that turned out ok as we would have needed to take to cars.)
They of course did, then I called my mom and didn't really give her the option of not going. We drove up to Holden, visited a while and then made the rest of the drive to Salt Lake. We met my mom at the front gate.
As we walked it, one of the supporter groups was playing music to hype everyone up. There was confetti everywhere and people dancing. Mom thought that was great!
I took Shaylie around as this was the first time she had ever been to a big stadium, she was pretty impressed.

We had been prepared for cold and rainy, but it turned out to be sunny, too sunny for quite a while. I had even gotten seats underneath the upper deck so that we would have some shelter from the rain.
Real Salt Lake had two mascots.  The little one was great! he was doing cartwheels and somersaults all over the field!
The game was great! Real scored 4 goals and had a really nice one called back on an offsides (I didn't see that and no one else in the stadium either) Turns out that a lot of the people sitting around us were from St. George as well, small world.
There was over 15,000 people there, maybe they will realize if the make it more affordable, more people will come. Taylor was shocked to find out that a cup of fries and a small water was $4.00 each, so she just got the fries.
Mom was fascinated with the supporters group, they were banging the drums all game long, dancing around, had big flags, smoke bombs. I told her that I would get in contact with them for her to join!

It was great visiting with her, after the game, we said our goodbyes and parted ways and headed back to Holden.

Happy 14th Taylor!!

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Yea!!!!!!

Tonya was going to the store and she asked if I needed anything, I told her 34" waist shorts and she brought them home. I was very nervous to try them on as the last time I could wear shorts that size was my senior year of high school, but shockingly, they were loose around the waist and they were not tight anywhere! I am almost to my goal of 32" waist (which I think I could wear when I was at St. Vincent's elementary school) Very happy day! Nothing tastes as good as being thin feels, so this should be fun!

Ogden Train Show

I attended the Ogden Train Show.  It was a great time.  We had a LOT of people come and look at our layout. The highlight of the show, however, was the DDa40X that is parked outside. It is the largest diesel train engine ever built, and I got to sit in the cab! That was a big thrill for me! To see all of the pictures from the show, click here. My mom and my cousin with her new baby were able to attend. Hopefully, for the show in November, I can get the whole family together!

1st Round of HCG Diet

I finished up the first round of my diet over the weekend. I ended up losing 34.6 pounds, putting my weight at 206.4, which is the lightest I have been in my married life! I eventually will do another round, as my goal weight is to be 183 (my weight when I was a sophomore and junior in high school). It is so much fun to weigh less. We actually started eating semi-normally on Sunday, and I actually lost a pound! One thing I have found, it takes a LOT less food to make me full now. We had lettuce wrapped burgers for lunch yesterday, and I could barely eat one. Now I know I cannot push it as if I do I will be able to eat more and more, but if I do everything in moderation, I will be ok. I have also noticed that my blood sugar is back in the normal range, hopefully that will last.
The one problem I am having is that none of my pants fit. I have to wear a belt with my 36" pants and don't even get me started on my suit, which has size 42" pants. I am going to the store this week to see if I truly can wear 34"'s, which would be the first time since high school, I am excited about that. The goal is 32's, but that is a little ways off still.
Changing gears (hah!) Tonya won us 2 tickets to the NASCAR Nationwide race is Las Vegas last weekend, so Taylor and I went to watch the race with 70,000 of our closest friends :-) . When we got there, all the Sprint Cup guys where practicing, so we got to see Jimmy Johnson, Jeff Gordan, Tony Stewart(My Favorite), Dale Jr., Joey Logano (Taylor's favorite), etc. That was real exciting! The race had Kyle Busch and Danica Patrick, so we were happy. It is really neat to watch a race in person, you can feel the wind from the cars and definately hear the cars, it is SO MUCH BETTER than watching the race on TV. We had a fun time.
Coming home, there was a huge wreck on I-15 about 15 minutes from Mesquite, both lanes were a parking lot, so Taylor and I watched almost the entire movie Transformers on my cell phone, there was only about 20 minutes left when we finally got moving again, a Suburban must have lost their trailer when we finally got up to the accident.

The Weekly What's Up

I wanted to tell you about the latest news from Shaylie's World.  You already know how my Shaylie has always been a very entrepreneurial spirit....she's always looking for ways to make money, coming up with business ideas, inventing new products and the list goes on!  Well, she's finally found a very satisfying way to implement some of her great ideas!

She started a class newspaper called "The Weekly What's Up." It began when her school "community" was trying to come up with ideas for new jobs. Shaylie asked if she could be the reporter for the weekly trial they have in class. If kids have complaints during the week they "sue" each other and have a little mock trial. So Shaylie came home with notes from the trial and decided that she wanted to make a newspaper and put in an article, the trial report, and maybe  a comic. It was her usual "Shaylie-way" of taking a great idea and making it greater!

She took it to the classroom the next day and the kids went crazy for it! They all wanted to work for her and they were coming up with more jobs: writers, editors, ad managers, etc. The kids were all filling out job applications and giving Shaylie a lot of attention. Her next edition had these cute ads that kids were buying with their class money. One was for a Dance Club--"get your groove on" and another was for a Book Club, but my favorite was from the boy who was a lawyer in the mock trial that started it all. He had placed an ad that said, "Kamden's Lawyer Service--He helped Nate sue, and that's all he needs to help you."  So cute!

She hired someone as an editor--she wanted to be a writer-- and I showed her how to attach a file to an email, so she was putting the paper together and emailing it to the editor who was making changes and sending it back to her. It was all very professional. I have been so impressed with her skills. So far she has put out 3 issues.

And finally, we went to Shaylie's parent teacher conference on Thursday and her teacher told me how impressed she has been with Shaylie's project. She said it has energized their class and made everyone so excited! I was so glad to hear that she was supportive of Shay's ingenuity. Usually at these conferences all I hear is how she struggles with math, but this was nice because I was able to express my appreciation that they are focusing on what kids do right and not what they are struggling with. Shaylie is so amazing at so many things that they don't focus on in school, so it's been great to see her finding her own outlets for her talents.

And best of all, it is making Shaylie feel better about herself, her friends, and her place in class.  If I can figure out how to do it, I'm going to post one of the issues.  If not, I can send you one if you request it!

Love my kids!!! Both of them are so amazing in so many ways. I couldn't be a prouder mom.

An Accidental Morning

Our Friday morning was unfortunately eventful! Scott woke me early saying, "Get up! Your sister was in a car accident!"  By all reckoning, that is not the ideal way to start the day--although having said that, it's infinitely better than being IN the accident. :)  We rushed to the hospital to find my sister and her daughter in good spirits, despite the fact that they ran a red light at the intersection of 700 South and River Road on the way to school that day and were clipped by a truck. They both sustained some injuries. Anje had dislocated a bone in her wrist and Anissa hit her head, but a CT scan showed that all was well. I had to joke with her that the CT might be defective, since it obviously did not detect the damaged part of her brain that recognizes RED LIGHTS! I was just grateful that she was around to joke with. I think they were both incredibly lucky.  Anje had a minor surgery to place and pin her wrist.

You can see from the damage to the car that it could have been so much worse. Luckily, they were both wearing seat belts and the airbags protected them as well.





I have been worried about this kind of thing happening for a while now, since my sister has a very bad reputation for being a HORRIBLE driver. She has been in only two other major accidents before (one of which resulted in a life flight, a coma, and a very long recovery) and several fender-benders. So much so that my first thought when Scott woke me was "Not Again!"  She has laughed it off up until now. But I know that seeing her daughter "broken," as she put it, has sobered her up and I hope she'll take driving even more seriously.

To her credit, she was already starting to be better about Texting and Talking on the Phone while driving. (I know!!!)  We had given her sufficient grief about those that I think she started to realize how important it was to leave the phone off while driving. I'm really hoping that this accident will be the catalyst to a new Era for them.

She feels supremely guilty about what happened, but the thing is we are all guilty of being distracted at times and what happened to her could have happened to anyone.  I am just so incredibly happy that they are still here to lecture and rib and give grief to...Taylor said it best yesterday, after she found out what happened and that all was well. She said, " Can you imagine a world without Anissa and Anje in it?"  The truth is I've had far too many opportunities to imagine just that and I'll tell you right now, I don't like it!  I'm so glad they're okay!

Going to Grad School

I just got the notice today! I've been accepted into the University of Utah's Educational Psychology program. I'll begin earning my Master's Degree in School Counseling starting in May! I'm very excited!

by Tonya--Let's see...What have we been up to?

We had a great birthday celebration for Scott the other night. I did not take any pictures...no surprise there. We were able to go out to dinner, thanks to IHOP's new HCG menu. We didn't have anything different that we would have done at home, but I didn't have to cook it, and Scott didn't have to clean it!!! That's worth it if you ask me. After dinner, we went out to the movie, 2012. Scott and I both had seen it before and judged it to be all right for the girls. Boy was I wrong! I'm sure if the other audience members could have taken a vote, I would be a shoe-in for the "What-Kind-of-Mother-Brings-Her-Very-Young-Sensitive-Child-to-This-Kind-Of-Movie? Award" The entire time Shaylie was crying and asking "Are they dead?" "Did those People die?" "Not the puppy!!!" I kept offering to take her home but she didn't want to leave Daddy on his special night. Instead, she opted to play video games under my jacket for a while, but eventually it was too much and she and I ended up sitting in the car waiting for Scott and Taylor to finish up. I learned a valuable lesson about the rating system that night. Scott had a good time regardless, opening presents...some accessories for his Drummel tool and train room stuff...his overalls and his beloved BNSF USB drive were also part of this day!

The girls are counting down the days to the next vacation. They are both doing well in school, but we all know that vacation is much more fun. Taylor is healing from her multiple injuries and is doing very well with her diet. She just finished Indoor Soccer (not her favorite) and is looking at a tournament in a couple weeks, as well as the spring season. Shaylie is having lots of fun at her Kung Fu class and is planning on competing at the Summer Games with her class. Her "Master" brought some neat uniforms that they will wear for that and for a parent exhibition. I'm so glad she is enjoying it so much!

Scott has been in full-throttle train mode these days with Shows, and Meetings, and working on his modules. Now he's in the planning stages of hosting a big show down here. I think it will be a lot of work, but he loves it so it won't seem like it!

As for me, I've been pretty low-key lately. Work is going well..I'm still enjoying it very much. The people I work with are wonderful and fun, which makes all the difference. I am ready to start down the School path again...I only need to find out if I'm in or not..then I'm ready and rearing to go! I should find out by the end of March, then classes begin in June.
The other thing that keeps me busy is Church and since our ward just split we are kind of in a hiatus. We are in a brand new ward, so all the callings are up for grabs. I'm very anxious to see where I will serve. I was already in Girls Camp Planning mode when the change was announced so now I'm just treading water, as we all are, until I can dig in again. I love serving the Lord and I just want to go where I can be of the most use.

So, nothing too crazy going on...just our normal lives. We are happy and, for the most part, staying out of trouble. If anything interesting happens and probably even if it doesn't, we'll be back with more updates soon.

Happy Birthday Scott!

My wonderful husband Scott is turning 39 today!  So in honor of this occasion, I am listing 39 random facts about Scott that show why he is so amazing!

1. 1- Scott is 6'2" tall but he wishes he were taller.


2. 2-Scott is a great dad! He loves his daughters and is super supportive (Tay may say overly-supportive at times). He takes off work to go to plays, games, and other special events. He wants to know everything they are doing and he does his very best to make sure they know he loves them.


3. Scott is a family man. If there is a choice, Scott will always choose to be home with me and the girls. He loves spending time together, even if it is just sitting home watching each other play on the computer.


4. Scott is very photogenic...not to mention amazingly handsome.


5. Scott was born in St.Paul/Minneapolis, moved with his family to Fargo, ND, and then to SLC.


6. Scott is brilliant. He is super smart and can learn/do just about anything he sets his mind to. I think Taylor inherited this trait from him. I remember in college, he would be facing a challenging programming issue and wake up in the middle of the night with the answer his mega-brain had been processing in his sleep.


7. Scott makes us laugh. If you don't know this side of him, you don't know him well enough yet. He has a dry, sharp, sometimes cynical sense of humor, but I just get it! He cracks me up on a regular basis.


8. Scott has never had a cavity!


9. In High School, Scott was in the band, a sports manager, and school mascot. He also worked at AlphaBeta to earn money for college.


10. Scott loves trains! He has a train room full of beautiful works of art and engineering. He picked up this hobby as a boy, but has really started taking it seriously in the past 5 years. He was just recently written up in the paper for his latest Train Show exhibition. He loves to show off his latest and greatest creations. Just ask!!!


11. Scott's favorite color is BLUE!


12. Scott is loving! One of my favorite things about Scott is that he says "I love you" to me everyday, many times a day. He never leaves the house without saying it in the morning and he never goes to bed without saying it at night. And usually he says it about a hundred times in between.


13. Scott does his own laundry and does dishes almost every day! He (almost) never complains about anything else I ask him to help with around the house either. He is very generous about helping me whenever I ask, and even if I don't.


14. Scott loves sports and is quite an expert with rules and other nuances of the games. It drives me crazy whenever we're watching a sporting event and Scott will make a comment about what just happened that is echoed seconds later by the commentators on TV. It justs one of his gifts.


15. Scott's (not-so) secret dream job is to be a train engineer.


16. Scott hasn't had a soda-pop in about 10 years. He gave it up when he found out he was diabetic, just before his 30th birthday. I don't think he's had one sip since. Amazing will power!


17. Scott loves biking! He biked to work and back for the majority of the past 6 years. One year he even logged over 3000 miles on his bike. He's been hit by cars twice, I think; and he's been just about anywhere a bike can go in St. George.


18. Scott's favorite 80's band is Def Leppard.


19. Scott is very supportive of me and my crazy stuff! He encourages me to write, to play, to sing--to pretty much do whatever I feel I need to be doing at the moment. He is so great to help drive kids, or stay home while I'm out at Girls Nights or classes or meetings or whatever! He always says when I'm happy, he's happy. How great is that?


20. Scott has about 5 email addresses.


21. Scott loves his dogs. He never had a pet as a child and he is head over heels in love with our dog Blackberry, and to a lesser extent, with Cricket. He could play fetch with Bubba for hours. They adore him too!


22. Scott is an early bird. He wakes up every day about 5:30 and is always the first one to work in the morning around 6:30 or 7:00 am.


23. Scott is kind of a geek. :)


24. Scott's favorite movie is Star Wars: Empire Strikes Back.


25. Scott was once in a TV commercial dressed as Darth Vader.


26. Scott is a closet Twilight fan. He's just finished reading the book while walking on the treadmill in the morning.


27. Scott is pretty handy. He's been channeling his inner Tim Taylor in the past few years. He built a wall in the garage, installed a ceiling fan, and repaired our washing machine, and has been mastering the few tools he's acquired, while constantly wishing he had more.


28. Scott has a great singing voice.


29. Scott is a wonderful friend. He has become friends with several "older gentlemen" in his train club and I love that he thinks nothing of the so-called "generation gap."


30. Scott loves kids. He really is a natural teacher. Whether with the kids in Primary or at the train shows, or coaching a team, he loves seeing them smile and enjoy something he has created or taught them--most especially if the kids are named Jesienouski.


31. Scott is passionate. When Scott decides to do something, he does it ALL the way. He throws himself into projects and does it the way he wants. This is something I admire very much about him


32. Scott is an Aquarius which means he is shy, with strong convictions, sometimes hiding the depths of his personality under a layer of frivolity. Fits, I think.


33. Scott's favorite food, among several favorites, is Italian Sausage...or anything with Italian Sausage in it. He especially loves going to Olive Garden for Zuppa Tuscana and salad.


34. Scott is good with money, and by this, I mean he doesn't really spend any. He has made a great effort to keep us out of debt and is very thrifty, much to his wife's dismay.


35. Scott cooks the meals at our house about once a week.


36. Besides working for the state, Scott also runs a computer business on the side, is an officer in his train club, and serves in our church.


37. Scott is very creative. Trains, websites, logos, graphics...he has a very creative mind and finds lots of ways to put it to use. I remember in college he made a basketball court out of masking tape in his dorm room. I  never saw it personally, but I heard about it...it was legendary.


38. Scott is a wonderful provider for our family. He works hard and makes sure that his family wants for nothing. He leads out in making sure we are having Family nights, family prayer, and scripture study. He encourages us to be better in every way. He is always the first to suggest improvement projects and fun activities.


39. Scott is the best father, husband, son, brother, friend a person could have. We are so blessed to have this man in our lives. I have known Scott for 18 of his 39 years--that's about half his life-- and he only gets better with each passing year. I can't wait to spend the rest of my life with this wonderful man.

We love you, Scott! I hope your day is amazing. Thanks for sharing your life with us!!!

Happy New Year?

Posted by Tonya. So, I can't believe we haven't blogged on the TechFamily for over a month! I guess with my HCG blog, my Random blog, Scott's train blog, Facebook, and other daily doings, we haven't remembered to keep up here. Hopefully, you know where to find us if you need to go what's going on!

Christmas was good to us! And the New Year's been going great, with just a few minor setbacks. I guess our biggest news is that we (Me, Scott, and Taylor) are doing the HCG diet. We've got one week under our belts, only 5 more to go! Already Scott's lost about 9 lbs, I've lost about 8, and Taylor's lost about 8!! We're all doing pretty well even though it is hard on some days. Hopefully, by Spring Break, we'll all be healthier, happier Jesienouski's.

Scott's been doing a lot of work with his trains. He is currently at a Train Show in Utah County and I'm sure he'll have pictures and stories to share when he returns. I'm very proud of him!

We'll try to post more often. I'm going to try to get back to posting family stuff on this blog, and keeping mine for me!

Thanks for checking in on us! And be sure to leave a comment or two so we know who we're talking to!