Zack's Senior Pics

This past weekend Zack had his Senior pictures taken.  They have turned out really great.  I cannot believe he is already a senior.  How did time fly so quickly?  It seems like just yesterday his Dad was putting him on the school bus and following the bus to the school to make sure he really made it safely.  Now here we are at the beginning of his senior year.

 

 

 To describe Zack you would include cross country, wrestling, school, fishing, hunting, trapping, eating, sleeping and being a typical teenager.  He has a great smile that he reserves exclusively for his family and occasionally a cute girl.  When he shares that smile with you, his entire face lights up and his eyes shine.

 

 

He is strong, stubborn, funny (sometimes, but that is coming from a Mom who is funny all the time), and pretty even tempered.  It takes a lot to get him riled up but when he does get riled, WATCH OUT!

 

 

It seems like just yesterday we were bringing him home from the hospital after he was born.  I blinked and we were sending him off to school.  I blinked again and we were sending him off to scout camp.  Once again I have blinked and he is a senior in high school with dreams of a mission.

 

 

My warning is to all Moms out there...DON'T BLINK!!  Before you know it, your little boy will be a man.  How proud I am of you Zack and the man you are becoming.  I love you Zack!!

A Champion in the Making

 Ever since Zack was in the first grade, he has wrestled.  Each year he puts in countless hours of training, practicing, stretching, cutting weight and starving.  It is interesting to see where he is each year weight wise.  As a Freshman, he wrestled 126.  As a Sophomore, he wrestled 138.  This year, as a Junior he wrestled 145.

 

 

As a Freshman, he missed qualifying for State wrestling by his final match.  He took fourth at District and did not go to State.  As a Sophomore, he placed third at District and ended up going to State and placing sixth at State.  He was one of only two wrestlers that went to State last year that placed.  Braxton Stocking also placed at State, taking third.  The only wrestlers to beat Zack last year were Seniors.

 

 

This year Zack really turned it up.  He worked REALLY hard to cut weight to make it to 145.  He did two a day practices and would go to BYU-Idaho to work out on top of his two a day practices to cut down to weight.  After much hard work and determination, he ended up with a great season.  He started off strong.  Then, he tore his meniscus in the quad in Jackson Hole, Wyoming at the beginning of the season.  That put him out for the next quad which would be a week later at Sugar-Salem.  During that event, the coach put in a third string 138 lbs. wrestler (Cole Goody) to fill in for Zack.  The wrestler from American Falls (Cervantes)blew out Cole's arm.  He was done for the season.  Zack was furious.  I think it lit a fire under Zack that would drive him the rest of the season.

Zack really turned it up.  He wrestled really well.  He went to Pocatello and was undefeated along with 5 of his teammates.

 

Here is a photo of the boys who were undefeated, Braxton Stocking, Trayven Maupin, Bridger Hansen, Braden Hansen, Zack Jensen and Raul Navarez. 

 

Zack excelled and rose to the top. Here he is shown pinning a wrestler from Capitol.

 

 

This is the Sugar-Salem 2014-2015 Wrestling Team. Coaches are Bill Walker, Josh Norman and Brad Hansen.

 

After Pocatello, the next match was a dual at home against Teton.  Teton and Sugar have been rivals for years.  Zack wrestled Bryce Beard from Teton.  As he stepped on the mat, Coach Hill (the cross country and track coach) did the MCing.  He said that the audience was in for a real treat.  On the mat were the two toughest wrestlers in the State in the 145 lbs. weight division.  He said, "now ladies and gentlemen, some of you may be looking for a high scoring exciting match, but be aware these two warriors are battling and are both on the defense.  Because of that, they are carefully calculating each move they make and the move of their opponent.  This will be a low scoring match but will be very intense."  He then went on to narrate each point scored and in the end, Zack beat Bryce.

 

Next stop....District!!  We have a tough district.  Shelley, South Fremont, Teton and Sugar-Salem always have exceptional wrestlers and this year would be no different.  Shelley had Austin Betzer and Teton had Bryce Beard.  These would be the wrestlers to beat at District to secure a great seed at State.  We anticipated that based on the seeding for District, Zack would beat the South Fremont wrestler and that Bryce would beat Austin and Zack and Bryce would have to wrestle for the title of District Champion.  Zack pinned the wrestler from South Fremont, but in a surprise to us, Austin beat Bryce!!  Zack had to beat Austin to win District.  Only the top three wrestlers go to State.

 

Zack's final match against Austin ended with a pin and a District Championship for him.  This would seed him first at State!!!

 

A week later we were headed to Pocatello to watch two days of wrestling.  Sugar-Salem would take 19 qualifiers to wrestle State.  It was an intense weekend.  We would cheer for each wrestler as they would compete.  Each had worked hard to be there.

 

Zack defeated his first opponent with a pin on day one.  His second opponent would be Bryce Beard.  At the end of day one, he faced off against Bryce.  I am not going to lie, I was biting my nails.  Zack defeated Bryce with a pin.  This was a big deal as he had never pinned Bryce before.  He had always beat him but never in a pin.  Right after that, he was interviewed by the news.  State Wrestling Interview  As a mom, I couldn't have been more proud of the way Zack conducted himself during the interview.  He gave a shout-out to Bryce and even acknowledged what a great opponent he had.

 

After day one of wrestling, only three wrestlers were in for first place, Braxton Stocking (Senior), Raul Navarez (Senior), and Zack (Junior).

 

 

We came back on day two and the first opponent Zack was to face was Cervantes.  Zack had been waiting all season to meet up with this opponent and I noticed a smirk on his face as he walked onto the mat and saw that Cervantes had his elbow wrapped.  I knew it would not end well for Cervantes.  Zack went out and gave him all he had and made sure to let him know what happens when you mess with his JV.  Zack pinned him.  This left one wrestler standing between Zack and a State Championship.

Our three remaining wrestlers participated in the walk of champions.  I was pretty touched as a mother to watch Zack participate in this walk.  He had worked so hard to be able to go to State and to be seeded first and now he was one match away from actually being a State Champion.
 

He would wrestle against Spencer Ferguson from Gooding, ID.  Braxton wrestled first and ended up losing in over time.  Raul wrestled next and lost in about 45 seconds.  Zack was up next.  Sitting on the side of the arena, I turned and looked next to me to see Spencer's mom.  I told her, "no matter who wins this match I am going to cry."  "Me too," she said.

 

Round one Spencer dominated.  Round two Zack started to make a come back.  Round three Zack pinned Spencer and WON a State Championship!!!

 

 

Of all of the wrestlers from Sugar Salem High School to participate in State, only ONE brought home a State Championship.  Zack had worked hard and he finally received the recognition he deserved.  I told him prior to wrestling his final match that day that if he went out and won or lost is wasn't because of his teammates, coaches, parents or friends it was all on him.  He would either win or lose based on him and him alone.

 

After Zack won, out of the stands came Braxton Stocking, Austin Betzer and Bryce Beard.  Braxton ran down and threw his arms around Zack and hugged him and patted him on the back and congratulated him.  Austin and Bryce also came down to share their congratulations with him.  It was an awesome moment to see.

 

At the end of State, our three District qualifiers for 145 lbs. who had placed first, second and third placed at State as first, third and sixth.  We were SO proud of each of these boys.

This is a photo of the final outcome of the tournament...first place, Zachary Jensen - Sugar Salem; second place, Spencer Ferguson - Gooding; third place, Austin Betzer - Shelley; four place, Marsh Valley; fifth place, Cervantes - American Falls; sixth place, Bryce Beard - Teton.  Although winning a State Championships was AMAZING, for me, seeing my son treat other people with dignity and respect and rightfully earning the admiration and respect of his peers was the true win.  To see him and the rest of our District on the podium was an amazing feat.  He came out and won by pinning all of his opponents at State.  He really was a rockstar.

 

We sent a photo of him to the Rexburg Standard Journal and they did a write up about him.  He was so excited. 

 

Around the first of May, Zack received an invitation to attend the Standard Journal Sports Stars Athletics Awards.  They held an awards ceremony where each of the top athletes from four schools (North Fremont, South Fremont, Sugar Salem, and Madison) were honored for each sport for the year.  Zack was the only wrestler they honored who was a Junior.  From North Fremont they honored Zack Clark, from Madison they honored Chad Green, from South Fremont they honored Blaze Eckman and from Sugar Salem they honored Zack Jensen.  He was the only one was not a Senior.

We are proud of Zack for all he has been able to accomplish. Over many years of tears, training, practicing, stretching, cutting weight, starving, wins, losses, aches, pains, discouragements, and accomplishments Zack has continued to be a Champion in the making.  We are looking forward to one final year of wrestling and many more years of efforts which will prepare him for being a champion in life.  We love you Zack!!!

Home For The Holidays

Here are some photos of our new house. It is before we moved in so you don't get to see our mess, but at least you get a feel for what our place looks like.

Down Stairs Family Room. Lots of room to spread out. Unfortunately we have a fence right outside of the house so we have no yard but we love our house.

This is a photo of Zack's bathroom downstairs. It has a shower that is so large the kids could make their own room in there if they wanted to.

This is Zack's room. He now has his bed, a full desk with book shelves and a dresser. We still need to get him some carpet remnant to keep it a bit warmer and so he won't have to step onto cold floor in the morning but it is looking pretty nice now. We also need to get some blinds to keep it cooler in the summer.
This is Sydney's bathroom. She has decorated it super cute with a dolphin/ocean shower curtain. Being a bit OCD ensures that this is a good bathroom for guests to use too.

The walk-in closet in my bedroom. I love all of the shelving.

This is where I get ready each morning. The bathroom in the master bedroom. It is nice to have a nice LARGE counter with room to get ready each day. We just wish it had two sinks instead of only the one.

The master bedroom. The light you see to the right is light from the balcony. Yep, we have a balcony outside of our bedroom. It overlooks.....the back of a store and the freeway. Not a fantastic view but at least it isn't overlooking the dump.

This is the dining room. You will notice the back of the dining room has a half wall. That is where the stairs take you down to Zack's room and the spare room. Behind that is Sydney's room. She loves that it is also carpeted.

This is our spare bedroom. We have a queen size bed in there now and it is really nice to be able to accommodate people who want to visit.

This is a view of our downstairs family room. The door that is open is the door to the spare bedroom. The closed door is the laundry room. It has a ton of room and even a huge closet behind the laundry room.

This is my scrapbook room/library. Ok, it is more of a library than a scrapbook room, but all of my scrapbook supplies are stored in the closet in this room out of the way. I love this room. Who wouldn't want to have a library in their home. Also, this is where we have set up our Christmas tree this year.

This is the living room. You walk into the house (see the front door is wide open) and right into the living room. The room behind the door is our library room. We have a sectional, couch and recliner chair for Sharman in here. Also, our entertainment center with TV (thank you so much Amy). It is pretty nice.This is a view of the front of our house. No, it doesn't look that big from the front, but when you get inside, wow it is big. Our place ends at the shrubs.

Here is a view of our kitchen with our pantry, and in the back right you can see the door that leads to Sydney's bathroom. Right next to that is our bedroom.

We are very happy to have a home for the holidays this year. We feel blessed to FINALLY be able to set down some roots.

Holy #$%@@

Yes we all say some things we are not quite proud of when we get scared or when we are in trouble or nearly avoid an accident. Sydney has a new catch phrase she uses when things are not exactly going her way or if she is frustrated.

Barnacles.

Yep, my kiddo could have picked any catch phrase but hers is barnacles. I think she may have picked that one up at school.

On another note, for those of you who are not aware, I am now working in the Financial Aid Office of Dixie State College of Utah. I have been here since June 1st and am loving the warm weather. There is so much to love about southern Utah that I could seriously write pages about the things I love about it here.

One thing I HATE about southern Utah I discovered this weekend as I was pulling into the driveway and my headlights hit an object that cast a HUGE shadow. At first I thought it was a small horse or at least a large dog. I had to get out of the car and walk over to take a better look. There standing in the driveway with no intention of moving was a.....tarantula. GAG!! Sydney was in the car with me and I once I could hear myself over her terrified girl screams (ok so maybe it was my own terrified girl screams), I put the car in reverse, backed up a bit, put the car in drive and gunned it over the top of that hairy beast to end its horrible existence. Yep, I used a deadly weapon to kill that horrific creature. Sharman wanted me to just step on it. Yeah, right!! That thing was so big the crunch was felt through the entire car. There was NO way I was going to step on it in flip flops.

I Know

Yes it has been a LONG time since I last blogged. I know, I know. I just didn't think anyone was really reading it until I got a few comments from "followers" telling me that it had been a while.

For those of you who do not know, I have relocated to work at Dixie State College of Utah. I work in Financial Aid still but in warm weather!! It is great. The people are fantastic and I love working in a warmer climate (FINALLY). The only down side is that I miss my association with my friends and family still in Idaho.

I don't have much time to do an update so I will post more later.

Whit

This last weekend I went to Utah to visit my family. I spent one night with Laurie and one night with Amy. When I got ready to leave to head to Amy's place I hugged the kiddos and told them to stand on the porch and wave to me. Only Whitney waved. After I left she went in and told Laurie, "Mom, I just love her so much I could kiss her right on the lips." I am still laughing hysterically about that one. Love you too sister.

Lucky

This post is specifically for Jayden, Whitney and Tyler. I know you guys REALLY wanted to see my new puppy dog. Here he is. This is Lucky. We got him at HART (Helping Animals Rescue Team) in Idaho Falls. He is a Pomeranian. When I went to get him they had named him Cookie. Well I was getting ready to sign the papers for him and a lady walked in and said, "Oh what a lucky dog." The girls who worked there told me no one wanted him and and that he would be headed to a rescue soon. I thought it was a great name so we renamed him Lucky. He always looks like he is smiling. Even Lisa (who totally hates dogs) said he was cute.

Hopefully you guys can come up soon and play with our new dog. Love you guys.