Sorry, no jazz hands here

I’ve been watching a lot of Glee lately (my daughters like to watch the episodes over and over) and I thought it would be great to introduce myself with a musical number. Except I can’t sing or dance very well. And, you know, this is a blog, not TV. So I’ll have to do it the old-fashioned way and just use paragraphs.

My name is Jenni and I am an older, part-time commuter student. I am a senior in the Master of Arts program with a concentration in Children, Youth and Family Ministry. I have been married to my husband, Paul, for 16 years. We have three children (Patrick, Hannah and Zoe), a cat, two hamsters and a bunch of fish.

This is my fourth year at Luther. Because I don’t want to leave school with more debt, my husband and I are paying for classes out-of-pocket and with generous support from our home church. We are blessed that my husband has a full-time job (his calling is that of computer nerd with full benefits) and I have two part-time jobs which allow us to do this. Needless to say, we are a busy family. My husband and I grew up in the Twin Cities so our family is blessed with a community of kind, caring people in our lives.

I love dark purple and hot pink, T.V. and movies, reading and pop culture. I knit in my free time (or while watching T.V. or reading for class), wouldn’t trade my Macintosh for the world and am a graphic designer by trade (that is also one of my two jobs). It has been amazing to watch God at work in my life connecting all of these different things I enjoy into my own ministry work with children and youth. I look forward to seeing God at work in the lives of my family and I as I move forward through this process and we live out our own individual calls as part of a family.