Juanique and Tristin Roney

Lets Play Catch up!

2012-02-03T19:10:00.000-08:00

WOW-where on earth do I begin! I'll try and do this in chronological order...hows that?

First off...Christmas:

MERRY CHRISTMAS EVERYONE!

Boy was it a good one. Things I am whole-heartedly grateful to my Savior in 2011 are:

-The Gospel, first and foremost!!!
-My family. I have a wonderful family and equally wonderful in-laws. Hardly anyone can say that! I'm a lucky dawg!
-My Hubster! He is wonderful. He's my best friend. He believes in me more than I do myself.
-My business and the work I do. Heavenly Father has blessed me in abundance this year with a booming practice in CO that keeps me more than at full capacity. Having a full practice in less than a year as a massage therapist is literally unheard of! I'm so thankful that I can support my family with the work I do and I am so lucky that my clients are seriously the most wonderful people!

***

For Christmas this year I got to take 5 WHOLE DAYS off to rest and recuperate from all the work I've been doing (being a business owner is no easy task-but being an employee sucks entirely! I will never work for someone ever again!) Not only that, but I got to see all our family as well as my aunty, uncle and 14 year old cousin from South Africa. They were visiting for an entire month!

December 28th, 2011:

Happy 5 Year Anniversary to US!

6 and a half years ago, Tristin and I went on our first date (it was a blind date). He took me to Color Me Mine and afterwards to Comedy Sports. On our 5th year anniversary, Comedy Sports was not open but we did recreate the Color Me Mine aspect of it. While we were painting on that very first date, this conversation took it's course:

T: So what year and you in School?
J: I'm a senior

Confused look from Tristin

T: At BYU?
J: No
T: At UVSC?
J: No
T: So what school do you go to?
J: Timpview High School

Tristin pauses....then asks with hesitation,

T: How old are you?!?
J : 17

Silence

T: Oh my gosh, this is so illegal!!

Apparently that didn't stop us, which I'm SO glad about. Honey, thank you for being man enough by not letting my age scare you too much. Happy 5 years! I am so glad I married you (and I know you're glad you married me!)

January 1st:

Happy New Year Everyone!

Salvesen/Roney Picture Taken Jan 1st, 2012

My goal for this year? Stay sane! So far I'm not doing such a hot job with that one!

You see, here's why:

This year is a very big year for us. It's a year where everything will either change and upset the flow of what we have going here in Colorado, or it'll stay exactly the way things are. This year Tristin finishes his Masters program and applies for PhD programs. If he gets accepted to BYU then is bye bye thriving Colorado practice and hello "Look at me start my business ALL OVER AGAIN". Don't get me wrong, I've still got my practice going in Utah which I love and which has been my original love, but my CO business has quite literally exploded over the past 3 months and not only that but I've made a name for myself in my circles. Just the other day a client told me this story:

"so I was talking with a friend who works over at the athletic club. I told him I was going for a massage today to which he replied 'lucky you'. 'No', I said, 'this girl doesnt give froo froo massages! She's the real deal', to which he replied, 'well apparently there's this one girl you need to try who everyone is talking about at the athletic club who is really good. I think the name of her business is something like Soula, Soulist, Soultic',' Oh my gosh! That's her', I replied!"

That story totally made my day. I have worked SO hard this past year to get my practice going! Tons of blood, sweat, tears and sleepless nights went into (and continue to go into) this business of mine. It's my baby. I've seen it grow from 5 clients a week to sometimes 30 a week! That is a massage therapists DREAM and I did it! I did it with a lot of help, love and prayers from SO many people around me! To leave my business would be like saying goodbye forever to family that I love.

So, as you can see, I am completely torn. On one hand, we return to family and build our lives back up from where we left off. On the other hand, we say goodbye to our CO family. Our lives here started of crappy...I mean REALLY CRAPPY! We had a lot of stuff thrown at us. I wanted to throw in the towel, say "Well Tristin, it's been swell but I'll just wait for you to finish here in Utah. See you in 2 years"' and come running back to Utah. But then I quite my job, started my business and everything changed! Blessings were poured out! It felt as though our lives had found perfect harmony and we had transitioned into a stage of our lives that was just waiting for us to take ownership of it! So when I look into 2012 and try to picture what is in store for us, I get a little scared and sad knowing that we are going to have to say goodbye to either one of our 2 amazing worlds, Utah or Colorado. It's like if I had to ask you, "which is your favorite child?". See our dilemma?

Wow-What a boring rant! I'm so glad that's over with. in a nut shell, our life is pretty good so I have nothing to complain about. So here's to an AMAZING 2012 that is ahead of us!

Hi, We are Still Here

2012-01-24T20:55:00.000-08:00

Hi :) You may (or may not) be wondering where the heck we are and why I haven't blogged in over a month when there was SO much to blog about.
Christmas. 5 year anniversary. New years. School (for both of us). The ending of school. SA trip. An engagement.

The truth is that I've been REALLY REALLY busy....as in SOOO busy I might become comatose. But never fear, the words are here....in my head.... and will soon be put to paper (or posted on the internet).

Please don't be a stranger. Visit back soon for more juicy details on our lives. There is SO much to share....so so much! ;)

The Most Exciting December Ever!

2011-12-18T15:05:00.000-08:00

Holy smokes this month has been CRAZY~ and by crazy I mean its been:
BUSY
FUN
SCARY
CELEBRATORY
ADVENTUROUS

It basically been an over all wonderful month so far! Here's why (brace yourself for TONS of pictures):

1) HAPPY BIRTHDAY to myself and Tristin! YAY. We had a TON of fun skiing over my birthday weekend with Jay and Christina. Jay and Christina rented a condo in Keystone, invited us to go up with then and we had fun and skied all weekend! It was my third time in my life skiing so it was a very mixed-feeling adventure for me. Adrenaline can be fun...until it's not fun. And nothing gets the adrenaline pumping in your veins better than sliding down a mountain of snow and ice at 30 MPH.

Birthday embrace for ME!

Here I am skiing my first run. This was taken when the adrenaline was still fun

There's Lake Dillion in the background

Gotta Love Colorado

Jay and Christina

Jay and Christina bought me a cake but we had to get creative with the candles. It was very sweet! and yes, I'm 24 Finally!

2) One weekend later Tristin and I drove back up to Keystone to celebrate the wedding of Jay and Christina! They finally tied the knot and celebrated by renting another condo up at Red Hawk and invited a hand full of friend and family to celebrate with them as well as participate in the semi casual ceremony. We were lucky enough to be invited to go and celebrate this wonderful occasion. I offered to play photographer for the weekend and so T and I had a lot of fun doing that (as well as be a part of the ceremony). The happy couple looked stunning so taking pictures of the two of them was simple.

The exchanging of the rings during the ceremony

We did the actual wedding ceremony here....on the ice over the river...so I guess you can say they got married on a river :)

The bling

She was really easy to shoot for obvious reasons...and check out those shoes!! Love em!

This is one of my personal favorites! Can someone say "Boy band cover?"

Congrats you two! We love you both and are so happy to have you be a part of our lives and are honored to be a part of the ceremony! We adore you both and are lucky to have you as friends!!

2 weeks down, 2 more to go. We still have Christmas and our 5 year anniversary to celebrate!

Gotta love Decembers!

Christmas Video for YOU

2011-12-04T07:51:00.000-08:00

Not YOU Again!

2011-11-16T06:48:00.001-08:00

Round 4 of Antibiotics is up. Seriously, you'd think I'd be over this by now.

Last week I contracted just about every virus know to man. Ok, maybe that's a slight over exaggeration, I only got 3 different infections which turned into 4 and I'm now back on my 4th round of antibiotics. Ironic because it was taking all the antibiotics in the first place (which DID kill off the bone infection) that caused all the other things to manifest in my body.

Get this! I have taken more medication in the past 6 weeks than I have in my ENTIRE 24 years of existence! That record was one I was not hoping to break. OH well, such is life... If this is my trial to bare this year, I'LL TAKE IT! I'd rather go through this a dozen times than go through what we did last year!

Here's to modern medicine! CHEERS~

Yoga

2011-11-08T08:34:00.000-08:00

Lately Tristin and I have had a lot of visitor from out of state (and country) come visit us. first there was Sonto and Antonio from Johannesburg, South Africa. Sonto is my best friends sister. I'll upload pictures from her trip in the near future once I get them downloaded from my camera. But this past week we had a lot of fun hanging out with Kim.

Pearl St, November 5th (hence the Guy Fawkes shirt)

Kim came to visit us at our humble Boulder home with the goal of experiencing different types and forms of Yoga. Boulder is kinda "Hippie Central" here in the USA so what better place to do it than here? There's probably 5 yoga studios on every block!

Thurssay Nov 3rd. The day after the Snow Storm

however, the day she arrived we were currently being hit with Snow Storm #2! it was like we were picking her up at the North Pole!

While she was here we were able to take her to some great restaurants around town as well as take her to Celestial Seasoning, Pearl Street and Whole Foods (having a Whole Foods so near by is a definite luxury for us). Kim even let me try Bikram Yoga (Which is very hot yoga) with her which I LOVED and am now hooked on!

It was a lot of fun having her here and we were both really sad to see her go.

First Snowfall this Fall

2011-10-29T08:42:00.000-07:00

Aint she Pretty?

On Wednesday we had our first huge snow storm. The only problem with this snow storm was that there were still lots of leaves on the trees so a lot of trees broke which, in turn, broke power lines and therefore caused a lot of homes to not have power during these past few and very cold days. Thank heavens we were not one of these homes!

As far as my tooth/bone infection business goes, I am now down to 3 Antibiotics and taking painkillers only once every other day. Yay for progress. It's still hard to eat but at least I can eat.

It's a Pill Party in my Purse

2011-10-26T09:33:00.000-07:00

No, seriously, it is. I have never seen so many orange prescription bottles in my life! Lets hope I never have see this many again.

I had surgery done Tuesday morning. Apparently my root canal was leaky and therefore infected the bone underneath it so they had to clean the bone as well as redo the root canal again.

*Are you ready for some gory details??*

The doc said when they got to the bone the pus was like a volcano when they opened it up and it took about 1 and a half hours to clean it out and seal it up again (I'm sorry if the word "puss" grosses you out). Post treatment they gave me 5 new prescriptions (3 being antibiotics, 1 narcotic and 1 pain killer) and informed me that I'd probably be in pain for the next 2 weeks!

Well I bought the antibiotics but decided that I was tired of narcotics and pain killers. Standard Ibuprofen is good enough for me, besides I think a little pain is a good lesson for me to not treat dental emergencies so lightly, and if ever the pain isn't enough of a lesson, looking at the super massive black hole in my bank account to pay for the procedure is enough punishment for a decade.

Thank you to my family and friends who have been keeping me in their prayers! They are much appreciated. It has been a scary few weeks but we are hopeful that the worst part is over.

Its a Freakin' Pain in My...

2011-10-23T11:49:00.000-07:00

...TOOTH! (You thought I was going to say something else, didn't you?)
HOLY COW! If I never saw another antibiotic pill or bottle of Vicodin, it would be too soon! To say I hate all things pertaining to teeth and dentistry would be putting it lightly. Why, do you ask? Here's why. Are you ready for a tedious story?

I promise I'll reward you with cute pictures and videos of This guy at the end of this post to make it worth while

5 years ago marked the beginning of the end for a particular molar in my mouth. I had a root canal performed on it 5 years ago. One year ago I had tooth ache in my tooth that had said root canal (which is funny because a root canal is suppose to get rid of the ROOT OF THE TOOTH and therefore rid of all pain. Ironic!). Turns out the moron who did my root canal botched it so I was advised to take antibiotics for the root infection and go to a specialist who fixes messed root canals.

Specialists=special surgeries=lots of money=SCARY=not so enthused Juanique.

You can see why I didn't rush to go see a specialist...

Now back to present day/year:

One month ago my root canal tooth started to hurt again. I went to my friends husband (who's a dentist and probably the only person I'd ever trust to work on me because I hate all things pertaining to dentists) who said the same thing to me, "Take antibiotics for the tooth infection and go see a Specialist. Also, here's some vicodin for the pain".

Pain?? Tooth pain couldn't be THAT bad, right? What on earth would I need vicodin for?

Round 2 of Antibiotics....done.

Tooth pain? Gone.

Juanique=Happy!!! Bye bye specialist. No pain means no problem in my world, right??

WRONG!!!!!

2 weeks later-Tooth pain! At this point I'm swearing like a South African Sailor and completely ticked that I have to undergo ROUND 3 of Antibiotics for this freaking tooth! ARE YOU KIDDING ME!? How could one stupid tooth that was suppose to be fixed 5 years ago, cause me so many issues?

So I finally swallow my pride, suppress my fears (I HATE DENTISTS!!) and email the endodontist/specialist who also happens to be my Bishop. He emails back and says "Get an appointment to see me ASAP!!". Unfortunately I was scheduled to work in Utah when he said I needed to get in so I scheduled with him a week out. How much bad could come from one weeks wait? After all, I HAD been dealing with this tooth problem for about a year and have come out unscathed. What's the worst that could happen?

Present week:

Utah trip was a success. I was busy busy busy. Took my antibiotics like a good girl BUT for some reason my tooth pain slowly got worse....and worse....and worse. In my mind I'm thinking, "Well this hasn't ever happened before? I'm sure it'll go away like the other times so I'm OK".

It did not go away like the other times....in fact, it did the opposite.

In my desperation I took out my orange bottle of vicodin and stared at it for the longest time. "Do I give in or do I sleep this pain off?" By nature, I'm not a huge fan of pain killers to begin with so to give in would mean to go against all my moral codes I've instilled in my brain. Sadly, pain overruled my code-of-ethics and I gave into vicodin

Vicodin-1 Juaniques code of ethics-0

THEN last night happened. Oh heaven I wish I could forget it!!

1:30am- I wake up and my whole mouth is throbbing from pain! Of course I panic. I've never experienced this in my entire life. Worse case scenarios are running through my mind like:

"My whole head is infected"

"my brain might have an infection from this!"

"OH NO, will I need to go to the emergency room?"

"This isn't going to kill me is it? OH HELL it is!!!"

"My vicodin isn't strong enough, WHAT DO I DO?!"

"They're probably going to have to take out several teeth and part of my bone now!"

Yeah, sleepless Juanique=Ludicrous Juanique. What does Juanique, who is intoxicated with fear, go and do? She calls her friend and her friends husband (who's the dentist) at 1:30am to find out if she's going to live or die!

Long story short, turns out I'm going to live and I just need to wait for the Vicodin to kick in. I'm not going to get a brain infection or loose multiple teeth. Be grateful that you aren't my friend who has a dentist for a husband although my friend, Rebecca, whom I called, was very sweet and loving and supportive over the phone with me at 1:30am. She's an angel! I don't know what I would have done without her and her husbands kindness. I probably would have walked over to the Boulder Hospital and checked myself in. She told me to ask Tristin for a priesthood blessing and then try and get some sleep. It was the right advise at the right time. Both worked miracles for me

After hanging up with her I realized just how crazy I had been to actually call someone at 1;30 in the morning about a stupid tooth pain!

Vicodin-2 Juanique's code of ethics (and sanity)-0

So there's my mark of shame for the year of 2011. It's my equivalent to drunk dialing someone. Thank heaven it was Rebecca because I don't know if anyone else would forgive me for something like that!

I love you, Rebecca! Thank you for all the favors you do for me! You are a true friend and Sista from another Mista!

Now as promised, here are the cute videos and pictures of Evan that I took during this trip to Utah. Aint he a Cutie-pa-Tutie?

Nanan Just LOVES Mr Evan!

<br><br><br>Cam

Umm....Yeah, That's What I Thought

2011-10-09T19:16:00.000-07:00

Tristin works ~~for~~ with the Marketing and Communications Department at Naropa University (He's officially a contractor now with his partner under the name Hat Tip Industries, Ltd. --T). Last weekend the Art Therapy Department held a 48 hour paint-a-thon where teams of students would take shift painting for 48 hours straight to raise funds for art therapy in South America. Tristin was in charge of getting some video footage for this event. I just tagged along for the heck of it.

I love Boulder but MAN OH MAN it is a strange place!!

World, meet the festive Art Therapy Students of Naropa University:

Haha. Priceless!

I had to be discreet about taking this picture. I didn't want to seem obvious at all. I got into my "super sleuth" mode and took pics with my camera phone hiding behind my book as I was pretending to read in the corner.

NEVER a dull moment! Never...

Look What I Found!

2011-10-02T19:42:00.000-07:00

WOW~ this brings back some memories for us. I remember spending hours designing this in Photoshop with Tristin. That was 5 YEARS AGO!! Where does the time go? We'll be married for 5 years come December. Craziness!
I just had to post this for memories sake. Also, If I ever DO lose the CD with this on, at least it'll forever remain on our blog.

Now all I need to find is the video of Tristin's proposal and I'll be even more happy. Can you believe I cant find that anywhere? Yeah, I wanna kick me too!

Thank you World Wide Web for storing all my memorabilia!

It Took 9 Years and 3 Days

2011-09-27T09:46:00.000-07:00

In the past 9 years and 3 days I have:

-Lived in 2 different countries
-Lived in 4 different States in the USA
-Went to 4 different high school in the period of one year
-Had my first Thanksgiving meal
-Experience my first proper winter (with snow and everything)
-Hated my first winter
-Lost an accent and replaced it with an new one
-Moved 11 times and lived in 11 different homes
-Graduated from high school
-Went to University
-Got my first car
-Crashed my first car
-Won the Greencard Lottery (technically, my dad won it which automatically got my mom and myself a greencard too)
-Spent $28,000 in lawyers fees and applications papers to not get kicked out of this country
-Became an illegal immigrant for the period of 1 week (I had to wait for my Greencard papers to get processed, in the mean time my visa had expired)
-Found and married my best friend and soul mate
-Started my own business at the age of 20 (the first time in Utah, the second in Colorado)
-Survived our apartment flooding
-Became an American Citizen

Durban Airport, South Africa. September 22nd, 2002

That is the only picture I have of the day I left South Africa. Now just over 9 years later I find myself inside the office building of the U.S Department of Homeland Security Pledging an Oath of Allegiance to the United States, being told I'm now lawfully an American Citizen and watching a Video of Barrack Obama congratulating me on my new Citizenship.

Who knew that today in Colorado, 50 people from 30 different countries swore an Oath to become American citizens? Cheers were cried, a few tears shed and lots of hugs broke out as we were all dismissed and congratulated with a piece of paper proving our new nationality.

To my left sat a man from Nigeria and to my right sat a man from Albania, both dressed in fine suits and shoes. For a second I thought I had missed the newsletter telling me about the dress code. All I wore was my make up from the day before, slightly combed bed hair and a sweater with tights. Frankly, I was uber-ticked that I had to wake up at 6:50am for this ceremony and spent the hour and a half's drive to Homeland Security griping about it. I was humbled when I walked into the office and saw families and friends of families excited for this eventful day. Only then did I realize that today WAS a really big day for all of us. We had all struggled for several year to get the honor of saying our oath and being called American Citizens.

Grumpy, sleep-deprived Juanique was now humbled and slightly excited Juanique. I even wished I had taken time to put some make-up on. I guess the struggle to get to this point wasn't really fought for by me but by my parents. So I have them to thank for this day. I didn't really understand why they were so excited for this day to come. I didn't even tell them I was doing it until I had an hours worth of Stop-Start traffic to endure prior to my ceremony. When my parents got sworn in 2 months ago they threw a big party with all their South African friends and celebrated becoming Americans. They are the ones who struggled with the lawyers and IRS and the people who submitted our paperwork. They are the ones who left their jobs and all they had owned, earned and worked for to come to the States, where as I was just a lucky recipient of their sacrifices.

Thanks Mom and Dad!

So maybe if I was there with them getting sworn in I would have cried in gratitude for all their hard work and sacrifice in getting their children to the USA. If Tristin was there I may have smiled a little more about it and shared with him my hopes and hesitations of this day. However, what I could do was celebrate this life altering day with 50 different strangers from 30 different countries. For just an hour of our lives we were all comrades in that room that had shared similar struggles is different countries and were now at the same pinnacle in our lives.

This morning I woke up a South African, and now this afternoon I blog as a New American Citizen. Maybe on the 4th of July I'll actually get in the American spirit and start wearing Red, White and Blue.

Maybe.......

Skyping Adventures

2011-09-25T21:48:00.001-07:00

Look who decided (Ok, he was forced) to showcase themselves on Skype today!

I just LOVE modern technology...it can be so useless sometimes but terribly entertaining!

Love that little man!

Dad obviously had to have a piece of the fun as well

And against her will, my mom got in on the fun and will probably die of embarrassment when she sees this....

Isn't Skyping SO much fun??

Glad you're back from Europe safe and sound, mom!

Buddhist Boy

2011-09-18T15:20:00.000-07:00

As some of you know, this past week Tristin was away in New York for a Mindfulness Based Relapse Prevention Seminar. So I went to Utah to work and see my family. What I didn't know when I booked my flight was that my mom would be away in Spain and my dad in California... So it was just me, Dessi the dog and thankfully Conryd, Aly and Mr Evan.

Tristin seemed to really like his seminar. There were doctors from all over the world and the USA there to learn these techniques. When he spoke with some of the other dr's there (these dr's having spent thousands and thousands of dollars or seminars and traveling all over the world for them) about what they thought of this training, one of them said that it was probably one of the best seminars she had been to (and she'd been to a lot).
*WARNING, I'm going to get all mushy and "my husband is so wonderful" on you. Brace yourself*

I do have to say I am so proud of him for choosing the program he's in at Naropa and for learning all he can about mindfulness based techniques for therapy. He's going to be one heck of a therapist one day and he's going to help a lot of people. I am so proud of him for it (even though his schooling and seminars are costing me a lot of money....I mean US a lot of money).

One of the training halls at the seminar.

As for me, I got to spend some time with this heart breaker! I'm a lucky Aunty!

if you have a short attention span (like myself) go to 45 seconds into the video. That's when he gets really cute

The Three Things I'm In Love with These Days:

2011-09-02T07:56:00.000-07:00

This Video:

(gotta love those Mormon Messages)

This song:

(the entire album is this beautiful!)

This Man:

No elaboration needed here :)

Life is good. Life is REAL good!

Just Add Fire

2011-08-27T09:00:00.000-07:00

Last night, Mr T and I went to the Longmont Festival.

We aren't really ones to go out and do festival type things (we can get a little reclusive sometimes) but I'm glad we did this one. It was simple and entertaining enough for me to stick around.

When looking back on some of the video I took I wanted to KICK MYSELF IN THE PANTS!!

Heres why:

Did anyone else see dancing Hippie Man??? No, I'm not referring to the big fake dancer, I'm referring to the guy with long hair and in a pink shirt dancing in the first 4 seconds of my video. Look in the bottom left hand corner!

Why on EARTH didn't I get more video of HIM!!!! GGGGAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHH!!! Great opportunity lost forever! Goodbye Dancing-Hippie-Man.

Moving on....

Mr T and I stuck around to watch a fire show. I won't post all the video I took because even I don't have the attention span to sit through them all. Tristin did make a very invaluable comment to me while watching the show, however:

"Remember, in order to turn something mundane into something interesting, just add fire! So you should advertise Fire Massage!"

there's something about fire....It just makes things so much more alluring.

For the record, I will not be doing fire massage.

Lastly, we ended our evening with contemporary music in the background, tuna melts and salad from SunRose Cafe.

Ya know, I would never live in Longmont, but they do have some really cool things going on in that town.

Cayman Brain

2011-08-20T11:17:00.000-07:00

Taking 2 weeks to write this post must only mean one thing...I've still got Cayman Brain.
Def. of Cayman Brain: A viral pathogen transmitted by sunlight, only found in the Cayman Islands, affecting the thalamic cortex of the brain and causing random bouts of laziness, sluggish thought processes, and the occasionally urge to want to do absolutely nothing but find some sunshine, water, and a good book to veg out with.

Cayman was wonderful as always. Pictures speak a thousand words, which is great because I don't really have much to say about the vacation other than it was super. It was awesome. It was super awesome.

(Yes, I got sick the last 2 days there, but that was minor compared to the other 5 days).

I had to dedicate an entire collage to Ophelia because she kept me entertained ALL WEEK long! Man, that little girl is too cute for words and she just LOVES to swim! Taking her away from the pool was like taking away the oxygen from her lung!
All week long she kept calling me "Tistin" (Tristin), because she couldn't say "Juanique". I guess she associated me with Tristin because everytime he's around her, I am as well. However by Saturday she finally called me "WoWheat" (Juanique). YAY!

I also couldn't resist putting this video up of her! She's so goofy I wanna eat her alive!!

I unfortunately didn't get any pictures of it but on Friday we saw a tornado touch ground over 7 Mile Beach. I'm sure it wasn't anything terribly powerful and damaging but it was unbelievable cool to see. It started off as a teeny tine funnel and from that kept getting bigger and bigger. Brienne took some pictures of it so hopefully I can steal some pictures from her and put them up here in the future!

And last but not least I CANNOT BELIEVE I DIDN'T GET ANY PICTURES OF STINGRAY CITY! ARGH!!! Luckily, I DID get a small video of it. I think I was tired of playing photographer by day 3 in Cayman and so stopped taking pictures, which I now regret (Stupid Cayman Brain!!!) Hopefully the video will be enough...

It's been swell Cayman. Hopefully we'll see you again next year!

Powell Power!

2011-08-13T10:25:00.000-07:00

*I realize I'm extremely tardy with my blogging updates so this may all seem "so last month"... because it was. But here goes:

Oh yes yes yes!!! It's that time of the year again! I just love love LOVE summer times!

Not only did July bring the 4th of July, my parents visiting and me passing my Citizenship test (Yes, I'm one step closer to becoming a Yankie....is that a derogatory term? I honestly don't know) but it also brought LAKE POWELL!!

Oh, Lake Powell, how you sooth me!

It was bliss, it was chaos, It was blissfully chaotic.... it was SO MUCH FUN!

Long story short, when trying to dock and anchor the house boat a storm conveniently started to brew pushing our boat onto a shallow sand bank in the lake. So there we all were, standing on a massive three story house boat in the middle of the lake with dented propellers (House boat, meet rocks. Rocks, meet House boat).

Lucky for us there were several other vacationers around that came to our rescue. 15 men, lots of digging and 2 hours later we were freed from the clutches of a sand/rock bank!

THANK YOU GOOD SAMARITANS! You guys rocked!

The rest of our vacationing was just that...a vacation. Boating, surfing, eating, games, REPEAT!

Thank you Rick and Kim for always spoiling us with these trips! Not only are they healthy for the soul, but they do wonders for my sanity! You guys Rock!

I Just HAD to dedicate an entire page to Beatrix because, let's be honest, she kinda runs the show sometimes! She also loves to be in the spot light so getting funny pics of her was a cinch!

Cant wait til next year! Thanks Rick and Kim for an AMAZING vacation! We love you!

Boulder, The American Cape Town

2011-08-13T09:41:00.000-07:00

Last month (July 6th-9th) my parents came to town to visit us! My mom LOVES Boulder. She says it feels like Cape Town to her and Cape Town is a pretty amazing place!
Normally when they do come to town they love to eat out and buy us a lot of food. You'd think by the way they act that I don't feed Tristin. They, my mother in particular, would force (YES, force!) us to buy things. No joke...

mom: "Juan, do you and Tristin want some of these gluten free cookies?"
Juan: "No thanks mom. We don't need it"
mom to the guy selling cookies: "I'll take 2 boxes of cookies please"
Juan: "No mom, seriously, I don't want it!"
mom: "Oh yes you do. You'll want it later"
*sigh*

Wednesday my parents took Tristin, myself and our roommate Casey to the Boulders Farmers market and then to eat at the Dushambe Tea House. They seriously have THE BEST food in Boulder....I'm sure of it!

The love birds....and me

Thursday and Friday consisted of more dining out in Boulder. Leaf Restaurant (which is a vegan restaurant) and The Mediteranian are now one my top 5 of Favorite Restaurants. Thanks Mom and Dad for taking us to places we wouldn't normally go :)

Saturday we revisited the Farmers Market and continued our bickering about being forced to buy food. At least I know she loves me.

The bottom line is, I LOVED having my parents here. Thanks Mom and Dad for spoiling us rotten. You guys are above and beyond wonderful

Exactly Where Have we Been?

2011-06-19T19:16:00.001-07:00

Hi! We are still here! Alive, happy, and keeping very busy!

Wow, have we been busy! This month we have...

Moved into our new apartment in Boulder! Let's hope round two with Boulder living goes more smoothly than round one (which involved a little water damage).

We've been doing A LOT of this (I convinced Tristin to start training with me. He's an EXCELLENT running partner):

We've been having too much fun doing this:

Royal Arch, Boulder

And this:

Dont forget this:

With lots of laughs doing this:

(nothing beats a lecture from a friend-nurse on the floor in Costco about how advil and ibuprofen are the same thing with different names)

Oh yeah, I've also been called to teach some of these girls (I'm now a Laurel Advisor! My favorite calling thus far!)

And last but not least, I have been very busy building up my business doing lots and lots of this:

Just this week my business (which is a pretty full practice) got featured with a local marketing company. SO I've been a little slammed as of late (Who knew there was a little business women/workacholic in me)

So Tristin and I are feeling pretty blessed these days. Heavenly Father's been so good to us! I get to spend MORE time with my husband, do MORE of the things I want to (like train for a half marathon, hike, swim and see family once a month) and still do what I love four days a week!

Things that I'm looking forward to this summer are definitely...

Seeing this handsome guy once a month:

Ain't he cute?

And going here:

I'm needing a serious dose of Vit D!

The past 5 months have definitely been our best here in Colorado. I feel so blessed. 2010 seems like such a distant memory now.

Life, you've been so good to us lately! My Sanity thanks you!

The other day our roommate, Casey, share a mantra he says to himself daily. It's one I've now adopted for myself and which I like to think embodies everything I feel at this point in my life. Thanks for sharing your mantra, Casey!

Here I am, I am here, and I'm exactly where I'm suppose to be!

Some Chicks

2011-05-25T21:26:00.001-07:00

Our trip to Utah this month introduced us to the latest members of the family. Meet the chicks

For easter Kim and Rick got 4 baby chicks. Who knew chickens were social animals? They don't mind being held (they get held every day) and sometimes they can't get enough of human contact.

I can't wait til I can someday get my own chickens. I don't think my soon-to-be landlords would like chickens in the yard very much.

Oh yeah, and we are moving for the 6th time in 4.5 years this weekend. More news about that in later posts.

Never a dull moment.... Never!

iSplurge

2011-05-18T22:18:00.001-07:00

I did something that was absolutely terrible! I splurged on myself and got a 64gb white iPad 2. Oops!

I'm not the type to enjoy clothes, cars, cute hair styles and fancy nails, but I DO tend to like my gadgets....and when I can call it a business expense, how on earth am I going to turn this baby down? Being my own boss has so many perks!

(And Im not Gunna lie, I LOVE that my iPad can do pointless things like this):

We look so hot

Guess Who's Back!

2011-05-04T19:27:00.001-07:00

Can you tell he was sorely missed by EVERYONE!?!?

Love him!!

Olé

2011-05-04T19:22:00.001-07:00

Earlier this week my friend Emily invited me to go to the farmers market with her. Now, The Boulder Farmers market is one of my very favorite places in Colorado. The different types if healthy foods you get there is to DIE for (not to mention all the gluten-free goodies that people sell). So when she asked me, I was SO in!

Right next to the market is the Boulder Contemporary Art Museum that I just learned is free on Saturdays (just FYI). Today the museum was featuring a Latino childrens dance group. I found this out because you could hear the music reverberating a block away. I had to find out where it was coming from so I did. It's was beautiful and the costumes were SO colorful!!

I loved the 10 minutes I was there. My ears could only handle 10 minutes before they exploded.

YouTube Video

6 Days to Go...

2011-04-28T08:07:00.001-07:00

....Until he comes home!

The past four days have been the longest of my life! I'm very ready for my husband to come back to me. One month from him is a month too long!

I miss him and the silly things he does that makes me laugh.

I hope Wednesday comes by soon!

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

This is Not my Child...

2011-04-23T22:10:00.001-07:00

...But man, oh man I wish he were!

So I had The Talk with Mr T. It went a little like this:

J:babe, when you get home do you wanna make a baby?

T: No!

It wasn't a long talk....

If only he could see this little guy then maybe he'd change his mind??

YouTube Video

Dessi met Evan for the first time today and while he cried, so did she. The cuteness was killing me.

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

The Stupa of DharmaKaya

2011-04-21T21:18:00.001-07:00

This past Sunday and Monday I got to see Tristin at his meditation retreat (YAYAYAY)! He's staying at the Shambala retreat up at Red Feather's Lake (just west of Fort Collins in the mountains). It was a blast!

The first day was windy and rainy but we still hiked around. Tristin took me to see the Stupa (temple) that was built to honor the guy who was very influential in helping start the Shambala group in Colorado as well as founding Naropa.
Rumor has it that when he died and when they cremated his body, all was incinerated EXCEPT for his skull which remained completely unscathed. So when they built the statue for the Stupa to honor him, they placed the skull in the center of the statues chest where the heart would be. Kinda cool, right?

Sunday was Palm Sunday but we turned it into "Pine" Sunday instead (we have no palm trees in the mountains unfortunately). Truth be told, I've never experience a Palm Sunday "ritual" that most churches do....we don't really do that in our LDS circles, do we? We have lessons on Palm Sunday about Palm Sunday, but that's it. So to experience an impromptu "Pine" Sunday service was quite fun.

Monday Tristin and I spent most of the day hiking, reading and napping. It was a PERFECT day!

Then Tuesday came along and I had to leave, but I'm counting down the day's til he returns. Before leaving he said to me, "Maybe I could hide you under my bed." It's good to know I'm missed sometimes :)

PS: I wrote Tristin asking him to get some video of the temple and possibly the large statue inside it. I have pics but I think video will be more "wow".

The Latest:

2011-04-11T23:07:00.000-07:00

1) It's that time again. Tristin is off on his stupid 1 month Meditation Retreat. I will get maybe 3 calls from him a week (at random times) and be able to see him for only 2 days of of the ENTIRE month. Ok, maybe it's not stupid but I hate not having him here. I miss him and I miss sleeping well. I can't wait til I can sleep more than 6 hours a night again. He's doing well though. The first week of meditation also included silence...no one spoke to anyone. Yikes, that'd be hard for me.

1 week down, 3 more to go! BUT I get to see him Sunday til Tuesday this up coming week! YAY

2) Running is going well. I have 6 weeks until my 10K, The Bolder Boulder. At the moment I can do 3 miles in 30 minutes. My goal: Finish the 10K in an hour or less. EEK. Wish me luck

3) Work is Nuts! Keeping busy and loving my boss. Haha...K, stupid joke :) Living the dream! Occasionally freaking out, the usual.

4) Can't wait to visit my new nephew, Evan Shane Salvesen. Shane was the name of my mothers first son who died while in labor, so the name Shane means a lot in our family.

5) I splurged and bought 3 swimsuits the other day. (Oops!). I can't WAIT for this summer! It's gunna rock my socks! Maybe I'll have to cut down my work day from 5 days to 4...or maybe 3 :)

Oh life, how wonderful you are!

What's the Difference?

2011-04-05T22:00:00.000-07:00

Question: What's the difference between a 16 year old boy's sense of humor and a 28 year old man's sense of humor?

Answer:
Nothing! The same jokes are still just as funny

PS:The first time the tried the balloon-pop-hug, the balloon failed to pop...they looked ridiculous!

HE'S HERE!!

2011-03-31T09:12:00.000-07:00

BABY SALVESEN IS HERE!

8lbs 1.3oz! He's a big fellow!

He's so beautiful! I just got a picture this morning of him while I was driving and I couldn't stop starring...and then I couldn't stop crying! So I drove while looking at my phone and crying the entire way from the Chiropractors office to home!

I don't know details YET but as soon as I do I'll post them. All I know is that he had Aly's Asian eyes, Conryd's nose and I'm so deeply in love with this little man I could DIE!

New Blog, Baby

2011-03-30T21:58:00.000-07:00

Round two!

Maybe some of you might remember that I tried to start a health blog 2 years ago and fail miserably at it. Well here I go again. I come across far too many good articles, recipes and health tips that I can't stand not documenting them in an orderly fashion OR sharing them.

So I'd like you to meet www.newhealthandhope.blogspot.com

(healthandhope.blogspot.com was taken)
New Health and Hope was inspired because I work on and with so many people who are finding it hard to get good health recipe ideas, health information or just support with their nutrition goals. Sometimes its SUCKS to try and eat healthily when everyone around you is eating what ever they want. I hope that I can provide people with enough health food tips, ideas and recipes that are easy and tasty...

...because lets be honest, if it's not easy or tasty I DON'T do it!Its as simple as that

So if you have any healthy tips, questions, comments or complains, please DO share them. I'm willing to learn more and share more with who ever wants to know.

PS: it's still pretty new so I'm in the process of transferring a lot more recipes, health articles and other stuff on there. If you have stuff you think should go on there too, let me know or email them to me!

Happy eating!

I Love my Blood

2011-03-26T20:38:00.000-07:00

Found this song on my bestest's blog and HAD to share it. No, I may not be black (although it'd be a lot cooler if I was) but I'm still African...the culture's still in my blood

PS:My Citizenship paperwork is a Go...all that's left if the US History exam and interview. Never thought this day would come. Very bitter sweet! I never thought the next time I'd be back in SA I'd be an American citizen.

Babysitting

2011-03-26T19:43:00.000-07:00

Now, more than ever, I feel like when I DO become a mother, I'm going to SUCK at it!

For 10 days Tristin and I were asked to house sit a friends house. Along with this house, we were asked to keep alive (and happy) 2 beautiful dogs.

They are BIG dogs. The biggest things I've ever had to keep alive, besides Tristin.

Meet Bella and Whiskey

They are a cute handful and a half.

Pro's about babysitting these guys:
-they are cute and cuddly

Con's about babysitting these guys:
-They are a nightmare to walk: is it possible to get tangled up in 2 leases and trip? YES

-They are needy: I never know if I'm giving them enough attention or not. I tell them to use their people words but they don't. Kind of inconvenient. I don't know what you need unless you TELL ME.

-They find the worst things to eat: Whiskey got into my purse and ate saran wrap. Bella knows how to "counter surf"... She'll jump up on the counters and grab our food. Just today I got home to find my sweet potatoes in the living room and Tristin's liquorish had be devoured with the box shredded on the kitchen floor (poor thing didnt have a chance).

-Dogs are needy: I can't stand the puppy eyes. It gets me every time! They'll put their heads on your lap and whine.

-I now have an audience when I eat: No meal is alone these days. I have two pairs of eyes watching me eat now. Simply delightful!

-I now watch everywhere I walk: you never know if you're going to kick a dog or two.

How do you find the extra time, love, and attention to give to these guys? And they aren't even HUMAN!!
Don't get me wrong, they are a delightful bunch and a lot of fun. However, the next pet I get will be a rock or plant. Maybe I'll go crazy and get one of each.

Bucket List

2011-03-13T18:59:00.000-07:00

As I drove 8 hours to Utah yesterday, I meditated on a few things I wanted out of life before any kiddos came into it. Don't get me wrong, I DO want kids sometime soon in the future, but I still have some things I need to do to feed my inner-child....So I came up with a very sort bucket list.

1)Run a 10k. If I do that successfully, then a half marathon BABY!
I used to run almost every day and was in great shape. We then moved to Colorado and that was the end of my healthy streak (and a little bit of my sanity). I want that back SO BAD!
I've been reading Born to Run and feel like I'm now at a point in my life where I feel more empowered than ever! As I was talking to my dad about this he started to share stories with me when he ran the Comrades Marathon (a 55 Mile race in South Africa) 3 FREAKING TIMES!

What the What!!
Those Africans are CRAZY. man!!

OK seriously, I know that kind of athletic ability is in me somewhere! After all, I AM his child! I'm gunna go find out if it's still in me!

Dad, you're my hero!

2) Go overseas
Tristin and I are planning on traveling as soon as he's done with his schooling in Colorado. Wanna know where we wanna go?
Australia, New Zealand, and South Africa.
Hopefully we can make this dream real by next year. We may have to sell a car or two....we'll see.

3) Go Sky diving
Why wouldn't I wanna do this? It would be like the Tower of Terror on Meth! Heck yeah that's on my bucket list!

So there we have it. And I feel like if I write this out publicly, I'll be that much more driven to do it.

A Boys Life

2011-03-02T08:39:00.000-08:00

Boys. I will never understand them but at least they always make me laugh! I hope I have boys some day!

PS:Make sure your speakers are on high so you can hear them. Trust me, you don't wanna miss this :)
PPS:Yes, they were at it for 15 minutes

Never a dull moment...

The Beard Comb

2011-02-21T21:16:00.000-08:00

I lost my brush when I was in Utah....this seem to happen about once every 6 months. Either I lose my brush in one of my purses, my car, or I lose it in the house...sometimes it shows up and sometimes it doesnt.

Last week when I got back from Utah I realized I didn't bring my brush with me (and it was my very last one I had-the other 2 I'd lost a year ago).

So I was subjected to using this to "brush" my hair with.
Meet Tristin's Beard Comb.

Yes, he DOES actually own one of these
Yes, it IS the size of your index finger, No joke!
Yes, it took about 20 minutes to comb my entire head of hair
And yes, I DID use it to comb my hair with for 6 straight days (pun intended).

But don't worry, I bought a BRIGHT PINK brush (and it's matching little sister for my purse) so that I wouldn't lose another brush again

(hahaha-blasphemy! I'll TOTALLY lose this one too!)

it feels good to moving up in the world again.

Valentines day (blog #2)

2011-02-14T20:05:00.000-08:00

Tristin LOVES Zombies...he's slightly obsessive about them.

SO....

...this is the song I dedicated to him for Valentines day. This was HIS Valentines Day "gift" from me to him.

We don't really have a very traditional relationship, as you can tell....

HAPPY VALENTINES DAY

BTW, I LOVED his valentines day gift to me! It was so perfect! I laughed so hard!

I adore that man!

A (Slightly Early) Valentine's Day Gift

2011-02-13T15:35:00.000-08:00

I made a stupid little Valentine's Day gift for Juanique, and I'm too ashamed to actually print it out (such a thing should not be allowed to exist in the physical world). So this seems like the best place to make sure she sees it. (Deep breath) Here it is!

Happy Valentine's Day, Babe! You are the best lover ever. Thanks for being perfect for me.

Love,
Tristin

PS- Bonus tip: click on the picture to get a full-size version to print out for your own valentine special person! You're welcome.

YIKES!?!?!

2011-02-06T18:57:00.000-08:00

So, I did it you guys! It's done. I grew some guts and stood my ground!

I quit my secure job to pursue something that was exciting and terrifying at the same time!

I became my own boss! WHY? And WHAT THE H*** was I thinking?
Because being your own boss is WAY better than being bossed around. Also because I realized that the perpetual headaches, bimonthly migraines, and severe body aches were directly correlated to my stress levels...something had to give.
There was a reason as to why all these health issues would go away when ever we visited Utah. It was far to consistent to be coincidental!

So I created (with Tristin) Soulistique! I took a leap of faith, closed some doors in my life, allowed for new ones to open and now I am the proud (and terrified) owner of Soulistique Bodywork!

What is my plan now? Well:
1) I've started my practice already. My website is www.soulistique.com
2) spoken with a local Dr's office who is contracting me on as their new massage therapist in their office (how we crossed paths was a miracle in itself!! I'm telling you, doors are opening!), and
3) for one week out of every month I'll be traveling down to Utah to work on patients as well as do some business with my mom's company as I try to promote her products here in Colorado.

So if you, or anyone you know, want to get bodywork done while I'm in town, let me know and we can arrange that!

"Trust more, fear less". I've embodied this saying over the past couple of weeks.

Yes, I know it's going to be hard and slow in the beginning, Yes, I know it's going to be tough, BUT I think my health, happiness, and sanity are well worth it! Don't you?

WISH US LUCK! (and your prayers are always nice as well)

Love, Juanique Tristin

*Below is my flier that I designed for my GRAND OPENING! Hope you like!

Our 2010 Memories

2011-01-09T21:10:00.000-08:00

K-Here is the most recent version of our 2010 video! Hope you love watching it as much as I do :)

-Love Juan

"For a Pessimist, I'm Pretty Optimistic"-Riot!

2011-01-09T09:31:00.000-08:00

I'm not really a pessimist but lately I feel like I have been. Working 46 hours in a week WHILE having the flu will do that to you. (I think I need another 10 day vacation).

With that being said, I'll give you my recap of 2010...because I was too sick on January 1st to do so:

I'm not gunna lie, 2010 was the PITS! I have never been happier to see a year go by! 2010-you will NOT be missed! You blatantly SUCKED!

*Deep breath*
Ok, it wasn't that bad but a lot of really terrible things happened. Tristin and I have to agree that this was probably our most trying year together.
Now I can't be too harsh on our events of last year because every milestone had a very important lesson attached. I'm grateful for the lessons and the maturity that unfolded from it, but that doesn't mean I'd want to relive it all again.

With all that being said, am I excited and hopeful and optimistic for 2011? I'm a little apprehensive to be honest. Living in Colorado has got to be one of the hardest things I've ever had to do. Moving to the USA being the hardest. Seriously, if it wasn't for the Church and our close Church Family that we have here (They are Heaven's Angels in my eyes!) I would have packed my bags and left.

However, with this past year in the past and a clean slate on the horizon, I sometimes feel a little shred of hope and optimism (and I'm sure more will come once this virus is finally gone and I stop coughing). one of my goals for this year: Trust more, fear less.

So here's to what ever is on the horizon! I have NO idea if you are going to be great, or completely blow but I'll be waiting and I know you are waiting for me/us too.

Best wishes to you and your family for the year 2011! Love, Tristin and Juanique

Our 4th year Wedding Anniversary

2010-12-28T20:06:00.000-08:00

Time is a scarce commodity that, in so many ways, is taken for granted. I know that I have a hard time holding on the the present and worrying about what's past and what's to come. Then it's day's like today when I have an entire 24 hours to celebrate and reflect on some of the choices I've made in my life and the perpetual outcome of those choices. Thank Heaven that on the 9th of August, 2006 I made a choice that altered my life for the better. I said YES.

Now a fantastic 4 years later (geez-time flies) I'm celebrating one of the smartest decisions I've made in my life time.

**Warning-This post WILL be a mushy/love-dovey/incredible-cheesy-that-you'll-probably-regret-reading-it, post....don't say I didn't warn you.

Why do I love Tristin? Here are a FEW reasons why:

-He's incredible sensitive and intune to his emotions as well as others and he's NOT afraid to show it (HUGE plus!!)
-He's incredibly loving
-He's my biggest fan (and I'm his)
-He's my best friend
-He's very intelligent that it sometimes blows my mind
-He's SO patient (and even more so when I'm not)
-He's very supportive of my dreams and visions to the point that he sees them more clearer than I do
-He's a great listener and advise coach
-Just being with each other makes me happy, even if we're just lying on a couch together
-He's a hard worker
-He is SO funny! I have NO idea where he comes up with some of the stuff he says but he keeps me laughing almost every day
-He's all mine!

Babe, thank you for the most wonderful (and sometimes terrifying, lets be honest) times of my life! You've been there with me through thick and thin. Thank you for adding to the happiness in my life! I look forward to the many years to come! I'll love you for forever...and then some.

You CAN NOT be Serious!

2010-12-27T14:30:00.000-08:00

So my parents and I have just passed our 5th year of being permanent residents here in the USA. Our next step is to apply for citizenship. However, the USA makes that very difficult. But it's not the process that annoys me, it's the questions they ask. Have a look and see what I'm talking about:

Have you ever:

a) Been a habitual drunkard?

If I was, I probably wouldn't be sober enough to fill out this application

b)Been a prostitute or procured anyone for prostitution?

HAHAHAHA- Seriously? Would an illegal prostitute even bother filing for citizenship?

c)Sold or smuggled controlled substances, illegal drugs or narcotics?

I once tried to smuggle imported honey past TSA. It didn't go down so well....

d)Been married to more than one person at the same time?

I've been asked this question FAR too many times in my 23 years of living

e)Helped anyone enter or try to enter the United States illegally?

No...

f)Gambled illegally or received income from illegal gambling?

Haha-Right. I don't have those kind of hook-up

Being foreign is SO fun sometimes!

2010-12-27T13:00:00.001-08:00

Santa was good to us this Christmas! He was nice enough to buy us a new uber-fast laptop (due to our other ones being destroyed) so I could learn how to do PhotoShop on it! Here are my first creations! They took HOURS to do! Everyone says the huge learning curve with PS is worth the wait...I sure hope they are right!

Thank You, Tristin, for being so patient with me and teaching me how to use this program. Heaven knowns I'm not the most patient person in the world.

Merry Christmas to all our friends and family! We hope you all had a wonderful time celebrating with friends and family. And I'm sure those of you who could talk to your missionaries were over the moon!

Its Birthday Time, Baby!

2010-12-14T19:19:00.000-08:00

YES... It truly IS the most wonderful time of the year! December is my FAVORITE month because not only do we celebrate Christmas, but Tristin and I get to celebrate BOTH our birthdays and our wedding anniversary! (yay us!)

December 10th I turned 23! My birthday was a BLAST! No joke, I felt like I was a little kid again playing games and getting spoiled! After work I got home and saw these beautiful flowers waiting for me with a Charades Card attached to it saying "Give this to Nicholas or Dimitri to act out where the next clue is!" It was a Charades Treasure hunt which I learned I was pretty bad at. Bodily actions can be so ambiguous sometimes!

Sona also made me a Carrot Souffle (to substitute for a birthday cake) which was to DIE FOR! Sadly I ate most of it. Poor thing didn't even have a chance

*thank you, Sona*

Later that night we went to the Ward Christmas program which was STUNNING! My very good friend, Rebecca, put pretty much the entire thing together and on the back of all the Christmas Programs she printed this:

"And last but not least, HAPPY BIRTHDAY, Juanique. I love you. thanks for giving up your birthday night for my program."

That in itself was a great birthday gift

Sunday morning (yes, the celebrations keep going on) we had a Birthday Breakfast with our Colorado families: the Gourgouris's and McDonalds. I'm not joking when I say my birthday celebrations were so much fun. Everyone made me feel really special and loved. and just when I was starting to think I was getting to old to really enjoy birthdays. Tristin and I are so blessed to have surrogate families out here that really feel like true-blood family to us.

Then finally, today (Tuesday) was Tristin's Birthday. Happy Birthday, babe!

The Gourgouris's took he and I out to dinner to celebrate where Tristin got sung to while wearing a sombrero

When we got home he too had a treasure hunt but instead of acting, he was given clues that he had to figure out, ie:
The princess could still feel that pea, no matter how many they stacked up of me!
Answer: A Mattress!

...and that's where the next clue would be! (This is definitely a tradition I'm gunna do with my kids. It's so much fun having to search for your birthday gift than it is to just be given it)

*make sure to watch for Nicholas's classic facial expressions in the pictures! He managed to photo-bomb practically all of them.

Thank you everyone for all your wonderful birthday wishes and gifts! We had such fun on our birthdays!

Christmas Video

2010-12-08T22:18:00.000-08:00

Create your own video slideshow at animoto.com.

Merry Christmas everyone!! We love you all!

Have you met my Pets?

2010-11-30T21:32:00.000-08:00

I realized that I take a lot of videos of my family's and friend's animals. Here are a few dogs in my life that certainly make life more interesting when humans are monotonous and boring.

Unhappy Halloween!

2010-10-31T20:37:00.000-07:00

This is Halloween! And with it comes the ward parties, the fun costumes and the crazy house decorations!

Saturday Tristin and I helped my friend, Rebecca, set up for the Halloween Ward party. No we aren't on the activities committee but she was seriously low on helpers so we pitched in our day to help her out! The party was AMAZING! I wish I had pictures but I didn't take any! How sad is that? I DID, however, dress up for the party. I swore I wouldn't but gave in to the spirit of Halloween and asked Sona if she had any costumes lying around. she did...she had an entire closet full of costumes! In a moment of haste I picked the outfit that seemed the easiest to put on....a Devil's outfit! I had a pitchfork, horns, EVERYTHING....that I didn't take pictures of! GRRRRR....

Sunday we went with the Gourgouris's to see this one guys house which was just OUTSTANDING!! I thought I was in Disneyland! The entire cul-da-sac was completely fogged out, the detail in everything was crazy and the decorations were just creepy! Not to mention the statues that weren't really statues but little boys that would jump out at you at random moments! This house was insane!! We must have spent an hour walking around and looking at all the decorations!

We finished off the evening watching clips from The Nightmare Before Christmas and singing along to the songs.

What a fun weekend. I think this whole Halloween thing is actually growing on me. I can't wait til next year!

"Lessons I Learned as a Boy"

2010-10-24T21:50:00.000-07:00

Doesn't this leave you with a good feeling?

It's the year of BOYS!

2010-10-24T21:01:00.000-07:00

My cute sister-in-law, Aly, found out of Friday that they are having a boy!!!! I'm so excited for them! I can't imagine how happy they must be!

Congratulations Conryd and Aly! Who would have thought 3 years ago, when you guys would play games in our very first apartment, that 3 years from then (when you weren't even engaged yet) you'd be going through this in your lives?

We are SO happy for you guys!!!

Baby Salvesen, we can't WAIT to see you next year!!

She's 60!

2010-10-05T23:08:00.000-07:00

Yes, this Beautiful Bombshell of a woman is my mother and she is 60 today!

So what gift do you get your mom to really show her how much you love her? What gift really says "Thank you for being the best mom-you mean the world to me and I love you?" I asked myself this last week Thursday while I was working. Then it hit me!!! That night I got on the phone with my family members and started planning like crazy! I had 2 days to get this project together and it had to be perfect!

My conversations with my family went a little like this:
"Guys!! I need photos of you and your kids from all ages in your life and theirs. Please email them to me before Saturday 12pm. Also, I need you to write mom a letter about why you love her and what it is you love about her. Say what you'd want to say to her. Just make sure I get it by Saturday!!!! Ok? Great! GO GO GO!!"

Lets just say my family pulled through! They were AWESOME. Although my deadlines for their part of the project were rigid, they did their fair share and then some! You guys are amazing!

Happy birthday, Mom! I hope it was a good one and that you felt a lot of love from your family!

Below is a link to the Birthday present I made for her! 22 hours worth of work withing 35 hours and only 6 hours of sleep in 2 days....it was totally worth putting this together for her though.

Click the picture below to go to mom's birthday book.

Still Alive and Kicking

2010-09-26T18:08:00.001-07:00

Hi friends!

So It's been close to a small eternity since I've blogged. I'm sure many of you haven't really notice and I'm sure it hasn't altered your universe by an means. The past two-or-so months have been a crazy, busy -blur in my opinion so time to blog has been non existent.

So I think this will be the briefest blog I'll write. And lets be honest, we don't have kids, animals or any missionaries to write or brag about. Our lives right now, although busy, are pretty average for the time being. Needless to say, it seems like everyone else's worlds are going 100 MPH! We love hearing the news about everyone's lives and wish we were there to celebrate it will you all!

So for some announcements and commentary on our lives for the past 2 months:

My Brother, Conryd and my sister-in-law, Aly, are PREGNANT! YAY! I'm so uber thrilled for them I could scream! They're going to have an adorable half Asian baby! Congrats you guys.

As of late I am now applying for citizenship! Woo hoo! No more harassment for me at the airports! I'm seriously sick to death of being frisked and thoroughly searched every time I walk into an airport! So hold thumbs for my family and I that get it please. I don't want to give away my SA citizenship but life will be a lot more convenient when I do. No more Alien ID numbers for me!

Tristin and I went to our first Rockies Baseball Game in August! I think that I can really call myself a TRUE African-American now that I've been to a Rockies Game! They may not have won, but it was awesome to be there and enjoy the music and energy of the stadium! My favorite part was definitely the individual music that played for 10 seconds before each Rockies player went up to bat! Tolowitsky's "theme music" was "Party in the USA" by Miley Cyrus. I busted up laughing every time he went up to bat because that music would play for him.

Tristin is enjoying school this year, he says it's challenging but very worth it. We found out that after his Masters Degree here at Naropa, he can continue to get his PhD at BYU! So in 2 years time Tristin and I might be back at BYU....just like old times. Haha. Man, are we going to feel old when we go back! (I'll be going back to finish my Bachelors Degree in Nutritional Sciences).

So....yeah, that's pretty much our life right now. You really haven't missed much and there really isn't a lot to tell. I'm not going to lie, our lives are extremely busy, me burning out with work and Tristin burning out with school, but there's really not much more going on in the world of the Colorado Roneys!

Still loving the married life, still loving each other, still loving our lives...What more is there, really?

Aaaaaah! Cayman.

2010-08-11T22:08:00.000-07:00

What's to say about Cayman? It was just wonderful! No schedule, no obligations, no nothing. Just peace and rest and relaxation. And for once I actually have a tan. Amazing. The last time I was tan was probably 4 years ago.

Any way, the pictures speak for themselves. Sleep, wake up, eat, swim, read, swim, snorkel, eat, read, swim, sleep. Our days went a little something like that. Oddly, Cayman reminds me of South Africa and Durban. The plants and humidity are so familiar to me. I loved it! We all did!

Massage time again...

2010-07-24T13:35:00.001-07:00

So I'm going to try a new approach to this. I don't know how many family members read our blog but I'll put it out there anyway.

The Cayman trip is one week away (YAY!!!!). In the past I've put aside time to do massages for family members on the trip. This year I'm thinking I'm going to do between 6-8 massages during the time in Cayman.

If you'd like to get a massage, pop me an email and I can put you down for one. This time round I'm probably only going to do the massages on Monday and Wednesday. If you want longer than an hour massage I'd be more than happy to oblige. If the days don't work for you let me know as well and we can figure out something else. I'm just listing my ideals but I'm pretty flexible.

$70 for an hour and $100 for 1.5 hours.

Pop me an email at juaniqueroney(at)gmail(dot)com if you'd like to get a time in or you can call or text me. Kim has my number if you need it (I'm not posting it on here due to spammers).

We cant wait to see you all again in a week!!

Love, Juan

The Powell

2010-07-19T23:31:00.000-07:00

Can you say Bliss? Oh, it definitely was bliss and SO much more! I forgot how much I loved Powell! I also forgot how much I love being with our family. This living-away-from-family thing is not all that it's hyped up to be!

Anywho, Powell was amazing! Sleep, eat, surf, eat, nap, eat, swim, eat, swim, play games, read...Yup, that sums up the entire week! Gotta love it!

And just BTW, the house boats name was "Livin the Dream." So no, I didn't just put that phrase there on the picture to sound cute :P

4th of July

2010-07-12T00:04:00.000-07:00

We had so much fun in Utah this past weekend! need I say more? Yes, I worked (but still enjoyed myself) while Tristin went boating but, nevertheless, being in Utah again makes me so happy. On the 3rd we went to Janenes birthday Braai and afterwards watched the fireworks at Tristin's uncles house.

The 4th of July seemed like it was going to be a cold day but by noon we had our sweaters off and lay out in the sun and played Banana Grams. My mother made us a HUGE brunch that I wish I had taken a picture of. I didn't realize how much I missed her and Aly's cooking! You guys rock in the kitchen!

My mother absolutely spoiled me by taking me shopping and getting my toes painted. I refused at first but she's sometimes very persuasive. I told her that just spending time with her was enough.She got her way in the end. I love you Mom! You're amazing!

So Happy Birthday Janene and Happy Birthday America! I hope you all had a wonderful 4th of July celebration with your families and loved ones!

Our 5th time moving in 3.5 years of marriage

2010-06-27T18:28:00.000-07:00

You think you have bad luck? Read the rest of this blog post to realize how lucky you are! 2 weeks ago water started dripping out of our ceiling on the 1st floor of our apartment. In our bedroom there was a damp spot on the carpet that kept getting worse and worse. We emailed the landlady immediately with pictures and descriptions of what was going on. The next day some guy came out to inspect the leak (this was about 2 weeks ago!!) He said he found nothing but will report to his superiors and get back to us shortly. One week later we hadn't heard ANYTHING from anyone...and the dripping got worse making the ceiling drape heavy with saturation. Friday afternoon we noticed the dripping had gotten A lOT worse. Mind you this was a sudden turn of dripping events. We took video and stressed the concern to our land lady as well as the HOA that this was a very serious problem and something had to be done SOON! This is what we saw Friday:

Saturday came around and the bottom floor looked like the ceiling was going to explode. I felt like I had woken up to a swamp. the wet patch on our floor in our room had gotten considerably worse and I was getting a little bit livid with the inaction of others not doing anything to fix this problem. But I'm not plumber or contractor so I was powerless. We had planned to go on a hike that morning so we set off to do just that.

Around 10:20am we got back from our hike. I ate some food, made some phone calls, rested on the couch and started to look up recipes for fried rice when I heard an alarm sound.

"Sounds like one of our neighbors alarms is going off again," I had remarked to Tristin. About a minute after than Tristin and I heard something like buckets of water falling in the next room over. We went to see what it was.

Gallons and gallons of water was pouring from the ceiling all over the living room! We ran up stairs to where the source of the now-loud alarm was sounding. The sight we saw was something I'll never forget. Niagra Falls was being spewed from out our bedroom wall and across the room! Everything was getting ruined with the never ending flood of water. Confused and in shock I asked myself, "What is the most expensive thing in this room and is partially salvagable?", grabbed our TV and ran to the next room over. I then went back to try and comprehend what I was watching. Still the water was spewing from our wall like CRAZY and pouring out of the window like a waterfall. I grabbed our already drenched laptops, realizing they were probably done for and left everything else behind to flood.

Tristin and I exited the building to see dozens of people outside of our apartment. The neighbors hurridly asked if we were ok and told us they had already called 911. We then joined the crowd and watched as our apartment overflowed. Uselessly we stared, with the rest of the neighborhood, and watched our entire 3.5 years worth of possesions get utterly destroyed.

The fire department came in about 10 minutes and switched off all the water. HOA people kept talking to me and telling me who they were and what to do. Endless people kept asking me who I was and what happened. I felt as though my brain was swimming in a tidalwave of emotions and questions.

Thank heaven for Sona! She was our saving grace. I called her and asked if we could stay with her family for a while. After 5 minutes of talking to her she called me back to tell me she had called several people that were coming to our aid to help.

About an hour later we had probably 15 people with 4-6 cars (I don't remember specifics at that point. I was still in shock) help carry all our stuff into cars and lug it all to our now-place-of-refuge. It was the miracle of the day for me. We had moved out 90% of all our possessions in a matter of 3 hours!

this is the apartment after the fire department had left.

By the time we had gotten to Sona's house (we were the last people to leave the apartment), almost everything was unpacked and put in a temporary storage spot. I wanted to cry but was mentally in a state of numbness. I was so grateful for what everyone had done! There were neatly folded clothes and shoes in a closet, a bed and some of our salvaged pictures in our room that we are now staying in. It felt like a minature refuge from the storm we had just experienced.

The rest of the evening was a little bit hazy but we lived through it. I'll probably go more in detail but at some other time.

So that's the news of our apartment. thanks everyone for your thoughts and prayers. Throughout this aweful experience we have seen the tender mercies of Heavenly Father. We are truly blessed. Things could have been a lot worse. Next to the computer I'm using is a sign that says, "If it doesn't matter ETERNALLY, does it really matter?" what an appropriate question for the past 24 hours. One day we will look back on this and say, "Hey, remember the time our apartment and belonging got completely destroyed?".

God is good, He is loving and I know that without his help things could have been a lot worse for us! I'm grateful to have seen his hand in all of this. From the angels that were there to help us move, to the angels that are supporting us morally and emotionally. We are thankful for all our friends who helped us through this experience. Words cannot express our gratitude for you!

Thank you a thousand times! My heart is overflowing in gratitude!

Love it!

2010-06-08T00:17:00.001-07:00

I just had to share this....

Sunday night Tristin and I went for an evening walk. The late sunset was simply stunning. Boulder takes my breath away sometimes. I may not live close to my family in Utah, but Boulder is definitely the next best place to be.

Actually, maybe Cayman would be the next best place to be :) Grand Cayman Islands, boy how we miss you!

(yes, Tristin DOES know how to smile he just doesn't like to do it for cameras)

Moving from Superior to Boulder

2010-05-29T17:53:00.001-07:00

Out with the Old Place.....

In with the New One.....

It's official! We are finally in our new apartment! This is our 4th move in 3 and a half years of marriage! I wonder where we'll move to next year- JUST KIDDING!

The next time I move, it will be back to Utah! I'm on the count down. Only 24 months to go :( Moving away from family is totally overrated in my opinion.

However, it wouldn't be normal day in the life of Tristin and Juanique if the entire moving process actually went smoothly.

Last week Thursday morning (May 20th), I received a text from my boss saying that his wife was in labor which meant no work for me that day. Good news because we had to be out of the apartment by Friday night, so I could spend the day helping with the packing and cleaning. Tristin and I are loading boxes into our cars when suddenly I hear a thumping noise. I go to check it out to see Tristin laying on the floor with that deer-looking-in-the-headlights look. He then tried to move but couldn't because he was overwhelmed with pain....Uh Oh!

I had no idea what had happened. Tristin's back had obviously been injured and he couldn't walk, stand, move, NOTHING! Any type of motion was overwhelmingly painful to him. REMEMBER, we're suppose to be moving our stuff during the next 24 hours! *GASP*

6 hours later we get him to a Chiropractor. Getting him from the apartment to the car took about 30 minutes. I almost cried I was so scared for him! It turns out he sprained a facet joint in his lower back (facets are parts of the vertebra in your spine), and was on strict bed rest. He was going to be anyway seeing that he could hardly walk, never mind carry things.

The next day (Friday) I had to be back at work. Thankfully, 4 of Tristin's friends from school, one from church and the Elders helped him move all our boxes and furniture so he didn't have to really strain. We then spent the next 3 days unloading, setting up, painting and nesting into our new place. I definitely felt like the man in our relationship that weekend with moving the boxes, carrying the heavy stuff, and having Tristin organize the easy and light things.

End result: We love the new place. It feels like home. It's bigger, cheaper, closer to my work and Tristin's school, has a GREAT view of the Flat Irons, and we live IN Boulder. I love Boulder!

Latest picture of us at the Boulder Creek Festival

View from the living room! There are hiking trails just up the road from our apartment!

I Loved My Weekend

2010-05-15T08:51:00.000-07:00

So here's a list of a few things I LOVE LOVE LOVE:

1) Family
2 )Friends
3 )HOME
4) Weddings
5) Great Weather
6) Dressing up and feeling girly
7) Reading
8) Pedicures
9) Sleeping in

I got to have a fat dose of ALL these things this past weekend! How lucky am I?

Brienne's wedding was STUNNING. The weather was perfect for her happy day and she looked amazing. As soon as I see her wedding pictures I'll post some up. For now I'm stuck posting iphone pics because we forgot our proper camera.

I got to, do my hair, dress up all weekend, hang out with family and celebrate Mothers Day with my moms! The weather was to die for and before we left I got a pedicure!

I love coming back to Utah. I have so much fun that going back to Colorado is sometimes really hard for me. If you can imagine a Mother rigorously trying to pull her Child off the play set at a playground while the Child, who desperately doesn't want to leave because he's having WAY too much fun, firmly grasps his hands around the swing set, that's exactly how I feel. Except I am the Pulling-Mother AND the Reluctant-Child in that instance.

This is the closest thing I could find to my scenario I had in my head. Replace the door for a swing set and an outdoor playground and you have what I imagined.

You MUST be joking!

2010-05-15T08:16:00.000-07:00

I'm not normally a pessimist but I'm pretty sure life has played a very VERY cruel trick on me. Maybe Colorado just doesn't like me, I don't know, but right now I really DON'T like Colorado... at all.

After an AMAZING weekend of beautiful weddings, great food, family time, and a little bit of R&R, we flew into Denver airport to be met with this:

Yes folks, that IS SNOW and 40 degree weather! It snowed Tuesday night and Wednesday morning.

Isn't it suppose to be May!?

Hmm....Life is definitely playing tricks on me.

Using Nonstandard Typefaces in Your Blog

2010-05-10T13:51:00.000-07:00

Tristin here. I haven't posted anything in a long, long time. Unfortunately for all of you, now that I am posting it is going to be pretty much useless. See, I like to solve problems, and I tend to obsess over them until I have a satisfactory answer. For the last few hours I have been obsessing over a particular problem, and now that I have figured it out I can't help but force it on the intertubes. So here goes:

The Problem

The Internet allows for approximately 10 different typefaces to be used, which is not cool. Not that there is anything wrong with Arial, Times New Roman, and Verdana--they are great--but it seems that blogs could be a lot more interesting if they were able to use more variety.

Granted, there are solutions for this. One is to use pre-rendered text (in the form of picture files). This allows for a huge range of stylistic modifications. However, it can get messy when you try to upload the file to your blog. You cannot make quick modifications without having to reopen your original picture file, editing it, re-saving it, and re-uploading it. Blah!

Another option is to use flash. It allows for lots of customization right in the webpage. However, you have to have programming skills, it doesn't work in mobile browsers, and it really doesn't work that well in any browsers. So I'm not a fan.

The Solution

The best solution I have come across is a little javascript code called Cufon. It allows you to use any typeface you like without having to make major changes to the way you already blog. You just assign a tag (such as "< h 10 >") to the font and insert the tag whenever you want to use your custom font. This post, for example, is done in a Didot typeface, which is not available to browsers normally. Here's how to do your own:

The Instructions

1. Go to the Cufon font generator and fill out all the boxes using your font of choice (you do need to have the file on your computer and know where to find it). Pay special attention to the hints by the boxes and don't worry about filling out all the optional things unless you feel comfortable doing so.

2. Click on "Let's do this!" at the bottom of the page and save the generated .js file to your computer.

3. Find a good place to upload the .js file online. I recommend Google Docs, Microsoft SkyDrive, or DropBox. If you don't have any of them I recommend getting at least one of them, as they are invaluable to have.

4. Once you have uploaded your .js file, find its new web address (click on the file, then choose "Share this" or the equivalent). Copy this address.

5. On your blog's website, go to the settings, choose Layout, and then choose Edit HTML (I'm assuming most people use Blogger, but the steps are similar for Wordpress).

6. Insert the following code somewhere after the < "head" > tag and before the < /head > tag:

< src="http://cufon.shoqolate.com/js/cufon-yui.js" type="text/javascript">
< src="'http://your.js.address.here/your.js.file.here.font.js'" type="'text/javascript'/">
< type="'text/javascript'">
Cufon.replace('h10');
< /script>

7. Make sure you have replace the address in the second line with the address of your typeface's .js file. Also get rid of the spaces following each "<". Finally, note that you can change the "h10" in the second-to-last line with any tag name you would like. To avoid problems I recommend leaving it at something similar, such as "h1," "h2," etc.

8. That's it, you should be set now. When you want to use your new font, just add the tag "< h 10 >" (or whichever you chose) to the front of it and remember to close it with "< /h10 >" (or whichever you chose).

The Conclusion

I have only just got this method working for me, so I'm sure there is a lot about it I still don't understand. However, it seems to be working well for me so far. There is one minor problem with it that I have noticed, and that is that the text is not highlightable in the new font, which means you couldn't copy it and search engines may not be able to index it (I'm not at all sure about this last part). ~~Also, the Blogger Preview button may no longer work for text in the new typeface--I'm getting mixed results. This could be somewhat frustrating.~~

One great advantage is that once you have it set up you really don't have to worry about it ever again, as long as you remember which tag you assigned it to. Plus, you don't have to use the new typeface unless you want to, so you won't get frustrated with irreversible changes. Overall, I highly recommend it for anyone that wants to add some variety to their blog and break out of the frustrating limitations of the Internet.

Yes, I looked after a few kids and they lived

2010-04-25T22:20:00.000-07:00

This weekend was dedicated to keeping 4 children alive, happy and healthy. I think I did pretty okay. They're all still alive and breathing so I consider that a job well done.

Rebecca was out of town for 3 days and asked if I could look after her kids while her and her husband were gone. I've babysat these kids quite a few times. I know them pretty much inside and out. This was SERIOUSLY the thought that went through my mind when she asked me: "Oh sure, that'll be a piece of cake".

Full Time Moms-I take my hat off to you! Kids are anything but a piece of cake when you have them full time.

So babysitting started after work on Friday, I was able to get a menu plan for the kids for the entire weekend, shop for those items and then start preparing them. This was probably one of THE hardest parts mainly because everything I bought for them to eat, I couldn't eat myself. Do you have ANY idea how hard it is to prepare food you cant touch? Not fun BUT I endured it :)

Alas, the hard work really only started Saturday. During that day I cooked, clean and learned karate (yes, I did seriously learn karate). Jordan had to learn his karate steps (after about an hour of convincing him to and trying to find his karate clothes) for class via a video online. I found out that he didn't want to go to karate because he didn't feel prepared. So we were going to get him prepared then! I must have watched that video with him 20 times and memorized it so that I could go over it with him. Needless to say he was uber-confident and TOTALLY prepared for his karate class. I watched him during his class and I think he did a SPLENDID job.

After lunch I took the kids to the Rec Center to swim. On the way there Parker, who is 4, and I had this conversation:

"Juanique?"

"Yes, Parker."

"why do you live in such a small house?"

~suppressing a laugh I replied thus~

"Because, Parker, I don't have kids so I don't need a big house. When I have kids I will get a big house for them to play in."

"Oh, Ok, that makes sense. Juanique?"

"yes, Parker."

"I want to play at your house soon. Maybe we can play on the Wii"

Rachel and Aubrey helped me prepare the food throughout the day. Rachel asked me to tell her a bit about my childhood in South Africa, so I did. I told her about my best friends, growing up and about the schools, school uniforms and stuff I used to do for fun. Aubrey helped me SO much with absolutely everything. I'm pretty sure she could have tackled the kids on her own. She's the epitome of a perfect older sister!

SUNDAY:

Finding church shoes is really hard! If Aubrey wasn't helping me I would have been lost!! I walked into church (late) holding Parker,who wore no shoes, in one arm and his shoes in the other. I'm pretty sure my cheeks were bright red from embarrassment.

After church I got their lunches ready. I made sure they had at least a few veggies on their plates that they had to eat. Parker, who detests vegetables, thought he was being sneaky by taking his plate of cucumbers and carrots and dumping them in the draw in the lounge while I wasn't look. That probably explains why I kept finding random items of food throughout the house. However, I was looking....I was watching the entire thing. As soon as he looked up to see he had been caught I gave him my serious face (which was hiding my "I-want-to-crack-up-laughing" face) and asked, "Gee Parker, That wasn't very cleaver. You know you're in trouble, don't you?"

"Yes,"

"So do you think trying to hide your food from me in the draw is going to make matters better or worse for you?"

"Worse."

"Okay, so what do you think you should do right now so we can make this better?"

He picked up his carrots and cucumber, put them on his plate and walked back to the table. We came to an agreement that he only had to eat 3 carrots instead of 5. Kids are SO funny!

Lastly, Parker and I had this conversation in the car:

"Juanique?"

"yes, Parker."

"I wish you were a part of our family."

I almost cried right there in the car.

I loved babysitting this weekend. It was definitely an adventure but those 4 kids were just so fun to be with! It's hard but its worth it when you love the little critters! I sure do love them, even though I make them help clean up when they don't want to :)

My Healthy Recipes. Because I'm a Terrible Friend

2010-03-24T13:27:00.000-07:00

You see, my best friend, Thobeka, has be asking me for WEEKS to post some of my favorite recipes and healthy desserts that I make. I've told her since February that I'd put it up for her. But because I didn't write that down on my To-Do list, it slipped my mind over and over as other daily things occupied my attention.

So Thobs, THIS ONE'S FOR YOU!!

These 3 recipes are my FAVORITES right now.
1) because I have a very sweet tooth so eating health AND getting my sugar fix is a definite plus and
2) I've been looking for ways to get my daily serving of vegetables in but I wanted to make something I'd actually enjoy eating and not think to myself "UGH, I'm eating this because I have to, not because I want to."

Healthy food CAN be SOOOOOOO Delicious! So here we go:

Recipe 1:

RAW CASHEW CREAM:

Just an FYI: I prefer my cream to be a lot thicker than this but this consistency (in the pic) would probably work as well

-4 cups raw organic cashews

-between 4-6 tbs organic agave (measurement may change according to how sweet you want your cream to be)

-1.5 tsp vanilla essence

-1.5-3 cups water (depending on how thick or thin you want your cream to be)

Toss all ingredients into a blender. Blend until you get a creamy substance. Eat with your favorite fruits. It's great for snacks and desserts and any company that may come by is sure to LOVE it!

some fruit recommendations to go with your cream are: strawberries, blueberries, mangoes and peaches.

RECIPE #2:

SWEET BUTTERNUT SQUASH DESSERT::

-1 Medium to large sized organic butternut squash

-1/2 cup of organic raisins

-about 6 tbsp Organic agave or honey (measurement will change according to how sweet you want your squash to be)

-1/2 cup of cut of organic walnuts (how big all small you want your walnut chunks is up to you)

-.1/2 tbsp of organic cinnamon

-1 tbsp organic coconut butter/oil

Cut your squash in half, take the seeds out and bake it on a flat sheet (face down) at 350 degrees for about 45 minutes to an hour.

Scrape the squash into a bowl (preferably glass. Plastic heated up can leech harmful chemicals into your food) and mix it until its mushy.

Add the rest of the ingredients in and mix. You are welcome to add more or less of the other ingredients to suit your preference. Tristin loves raisins so I typically add more raisins. Those measurements will also change according to how big your squash it.

Eat and enjoy as you get a large serving of a delicious vegetable for dessert!! Your kids will never know any different (unless you tell them it's a vegetable) :)

And Last but not least.....Recipe 3

MIXED VEGETABLE AND CHICKEN SOUP:

This is the picture I took of all the ingredients that go in my pot

-Organic Chicken Broth (64 oz). So two boxes of broth, like the one you see in the picture.
-1 and 1/2 cup rice noodles (or normal noodles, the rice has no gluten in but is YUMMMMMMMY!!)
-1 or 2 cans of beans (beans of your choice. I LOVE black beans. Great protein and great energy source)
-2 cans of diced organic tomatoes (like the one in the pic. Don't get the tomatoes that or preserved with sugar or have high fructose corn syrup -HFCS). HFCS is CRAP and makes you put on weight a lot quicker than other sugars.
-1 1/2 cups finely sliced celery
-1 1/2 cups of sliced carrots
2-3 cups of broccoli (I get the frozen organic broccoli from costco. YUM)
-1/2 cup sliced mushrooms
-2 cups mixed veggies (A frozen corn, carrot, green beans mix is what I get from costco. You can see the bag of veggies in my pic. Again, you don't have to have this exact combination. You could do just frozen corn or frozen corn and green beans.)
-about 2 thawed chicken breast diced to the size you want int
-1/8th Braggs liquid aminos or soy sauce or namashoyu

So here's the process. It may seem complicated but it's not. I promise. And I think the end product is worth it. Make sure to have a VERY LARGE pot. This makes a lot of soup. It will last Tristin and I 3-5 days.

Pour broth in pot. Put the heat just a little bit above medium. Add the chicken and pasta and let it cook. The broth will take a while to start boiling. let it boil for about 20-25 mins. Add the lid and start to prepare the veggies.

Start to slice the celery, mushrooms, chop the carrots, open the cans of beans and tomatoe, etc. Wash the beans but dont let the juice out from the tomatoes. You want to keep that.
Put the carrots and frozen broccoli in a blender. Add some of heated up broth to the blender. blend until you get a vibrant green, watery substance. Put that aside for later.

Once the noodles and chicken are cooked add the celery and sliced mushrooms and let cook for a few minutes. add the Braggs liquid amino (or soy sauce or namashoyu). Add the mixed frozen veggies (the corn, green beans and carrot mixture) and let it sit for a few minutes. Add the the tomatoes, beans and blended broccoli and carrot. Mix and let it sit and heat up to your desired temperature.

And now you're done! Serve, add some salt if you like or more sauce, add your favorite seasonings if you like. You can do what ever.

**********************************************************************

I hope this help anyone looking for a few healthy food ideas. If you try any of these let me know what you think. Again, all these recipes I've never really measured, I just mix the ingredients to the consistency or sweetness I want it, so feel free to mix up the measurement.

Love to all, Especially to you Thobbies!

He's a Babe

2010-03-20T20:43:00.000-07:00

FACT: I did NOT know my husband was legally blind until a few months ago. I knew his eye sight was bad, but not that bad.

FACT: I LOVE his glasses. I think he looks cute in them *ahem* I mean sexy. He looks sexy in them :)

I really do love the glasses though. I was always a sucker for smart, nerdy guys. And of course I think he's hot as well so the nerdy-cute look I'm really REALLY liking.

BUT I want our kids to inherit my eyes. I do have perfect vision and never had to wear braces. So I guess I want them to have my teeth as well...but his brains. Actually, scratch that, I'll love them no matter what (and will plan on having good health coverage).

FYI: Still not planning on the kiddos yet so I hope this post doesn't mislead anyone.

Drastic Food Changes

2010-03-04T08:22:00.000-08:00

Once again, our diet has being modified...for the better of course. We've been eating this way for some time but we have slips ups now and then. But no more...

Tristin and I are now GLUTEN AND DAIRY FREE!! It's been a little hard but we feel a lot better when we cut these things out. also, I realize that there are a TON of really good foods out there that are really healthy for us and still really tasty.

In the past 6 months or so I've said good bye to my beloved sweets (goodbye Chocolate, my love. May you rest in peace), my beloved whole wheat home-made bread, my beloved cereals and now my beloved cheeses and milks. With our change in diet over the past months Tristin has lost almost 10 lbs and I've....well kind of stayed the same. I'm now trying to put some weight on (muscle of course) but this is proving to be harder than I thought. As soon as we get my thyroid to start working like it's suppose to then the weight gain will come too (cross fingers)

So bring out the greens and veggies and gluten free foods!

I'll have to post some recipes of some of the stuff I've made that's really healthy and still really tasty.

Anywho, this post isn't all that exciting but it's fun to keep everyone updated I guess.

PS:Aly, my mouth still always waters whenever I read your blog. I think I'm going to have to ban myself from reading it. those Rolo cookies look AMAZING!!!

We're MOVING!!!

2010-02-28T19:12:00.001-08:00

I'm tired of Colorado and so we are moving back to Utah!

HAHA, totally just kidding...

But we are moving....AGAIN!!!! (UGH). I've decided that enough is enough! Paying almost $1100 for a one bedroom apartment is absolutely absurd! our first apartment was a one bedroom and it was only $550 a month. You can get a new 3 bedroom townhouse in Utah for $1100 a month!! Our apartment is a money pit! it's nice and fancy BUT we (meaning Tristin) are students and right now I'm more interested in a savings then living in a very fancy neighborhood and apartment.

so we will be moving again. This will be the 4th time in the 3 years and 2 months we've been married. Yes, we would have lived in 4 different places come June!

Don't you envy us right now? You shouldn't if you do! Moving is a pain in the backside and I'm NOT looking forward to doing it again! But it will be worth it if we can save hundreds of dollars a month.

Besides, all I really need is food in my fridge, clothes in a closet and a roof over my head (Oh, and my intelligel mattress for my tired and aching body. I LOVE my bed!!)

So that is the latest with us! Obviously I'm not too thrilled about this but that is life and sometime life requires change, a little bit of sacrifice and a little bit of sweat.

My Obsession of the Week....

2010-02-18T07:38:00.000-08:00

Every met one of those people that can listen to the same joke over and over and over and still laugh at it every single time? I'm one of those people.

Earlier this week I saw this video (and a few more like it that I'll also post) on my best friends blog and I thought it was just so freaking hilarious! Obviously I looked for more videos that were similar to it and then shared it with everyone I knew because I'm slightly obsessive like that (is "slightly" the right word?).

I wish there were people out there that actually spoke and had facial expressions like this guy!

Hee-ya!! LOL

WELCOME HOME HONEY! Here, Have some E Coli!! You'll love it!

2010-02-14T12:02:00.000-08:00

Tristin is home!! Can you believe it?!?! I can NOT express how happy I am to have him home! Life just got a little more bubbly for me....if you cant tell!

One of the first things I told him were "you can never leave me again!" which is absolutely ridiculous to say because he has to do this again next year and I know that. But he's home and I am so over joyed! I love that man so much!

Unfortunately our reunion was not just between myself and the man of my dreams. A few little stragglers join our private circle of happiness.

Meet Mr Flu and Mr Coli. Mr E Coli!

Flu virus: top e coli bacterium: Bottom

Yes, the flu/cold/weird-thing-I'd-been -suppressing-for-3 -weeks had finally broken completely free and reeked havoc ALL OVER my body! I had to cancel all my appointments at work for the next 2 days and return home to a husband who was probably planning on spending that time trying to mentally situate himself in his unfamiliar lifestyle. Well WELCOME HOME HONEY!!! Now you have to take care of your sick wife! e coli then decided to present itself to my weakened immune stystem and set up camp a day after mine and Tristin's romantic reunion. Unfortunately he wasn't the friendliest of bacteria to my body! 3 days later and 5 lbs less I can finally say I am on the rise to eating food and being healthy again.

Tristin is not, however. He woke up this morning complaining of a sore stomach :(

Thankfully he's not to the point where his body is aching and he's shivering uncontrollably. right now I think it's more mild (and thank the stars for that!!!) Please pray that it doesn't get worse!

So how's that for a "WELCOME HOME TRISTIN" gift? And to share my bug with him on VALENTINES DAY! How romantic am I???!!

I did not really imagine our reunion looking like this at all but a sick reunion is better than none....I guess. I wish it hadn't gone down the way it did but in the end I dont care because I'm just so elated he's home!

Seriously So Needy!

2010-02-05T21:39:00.000-08:00

Allow me to vent for a moment. I hope you don't mind. I'm so sick and tired of Tristin being gone on his meditation retreat! I say Enough is ENOUGH!! this past week our distance has worn on my patience. I am officially patience-spent and semi cranky/whiny/ wanting to kill something! I've held a spider hostage in a glass cup for almost 24 hours now. Pretty morbid, I know. However, I'm not going to kill it although I DID say I want to kill something. I just keep forgetting to take it outside and right now it's too cold for me to leave the apartment. I hope it has enough oxygen to live til the morning. I named him Jim.

Meet Jim. He's my hostage. And yes, I catch spiders with a card that has a cartoon spider on! Quite comical and slightly weird

Anywho:

As far as my time with Sopfia goes, lets say our honeymoon stage is over (for me, that is)! I do not have enough arms to do the things I need to do and hold her 24/7. Oh heaven, what am I going to do when I have kids?? I need to go back to taking care of plants! They don't need attention.

I can't stand needy animals because I'm such a sucker for their longing eyes and sad faces. I normally give in and give them what they want which, in most cases, is my attention. However, I just don't have the time to give my undivided attention these days.

Here's an example of what I mean by needy:

The other night I was walking to get something. The cat was watching me from the floor with a calculating expression on her face. All of a sudden she pounced on my legs while i was in mid-stride, clung there and then propelled herself from my legs to my shoulder where she dug her claws into my skin and held on there until I supported her weight with my arms. I have 3 puncture marks in my skin on my neck from where she hung from. NOT EVEN KIDDING! At first I thought she was attacking me until I realized what it was she really wanted. Apparently Sopfia wanted to cuddle and be held right there and then. She didn't want to wait and what Sopfia wants, Sopfia gets!

Is it possible to feel smothered with attention from a cat? I didn't know cats were so needy!

Angels

2010-02-04T07:46:00.000-08:00

The stars must not be aligned for me these past 2 weeks since I arrived from Utah because last week I had a cold...and made people at work sick by my constant sneezing and sniffling. This weekend past I started to feel better and was doing okay until I woke up Tuesday morning feeling as sick and a half-dead dog! I had gotten the dreaded flu AGAIN!!! It will be my 3rd time in 6 months getting the flu.

I tried going to work by I was so cold and my body hurt too much, so I then went back home to a fringe fulled with nothing but emptiness. I learned an extremely valuable lesson this week:

*It's a lot harder asking for help than giving it*

This is what I mean by that. I was so sick and so sore all over that I couldn't even get up to go to the store and buy food, never mind make any. I was all by myself with no food in my fridge, no hubbie to help and no mother to help nurse me back to health. I was as useless as a rock.

I contemplated asking for help but was too prideful to do it. After 6 hours of feeling sick and starving for food that would possibly make me feel even more sick, I decided I had to do something. So I swallowed my pride made the phone call for help. I called a friend in the ward and asked her if I could borrow some of their food. It was probably the hardest thing I've ever had to ask for. She was more than happy to help and brought me some soup and fruit to my apartment. She even offered for me to stay at their house so I wouldn't have to be alone. I had to decline the last offer because I wasn't reading to make more people sick.

The next day I woke up feeling 50% better, no headache, no temperature, no achiness....no NOTHING!! It was UNBELIEVABLE. I was able to go to a full day of work and even make it to Young Womens. When people saw me I think they had a hard time believing I was sick in the first place.

That night when I got home I had the sweetest note on my counter from another friend. She had dropped off some soup for me AS WELL as did my dishes because I was too sick the day before to do anything. I was so overwhelmed with the kindness people showed me that I almost started crying. I kept asking myself, "how on earth am I going to pay these people back for what they've done for me?".

I feel like I'm a very lucky person and that the Lord sends us angels in the form of people and friends. Not only did I get a lot of help from friends but I was blessed to only get the 24hour flu. I think the Lord knew that I probably couldn't handle anything more at this time.

So, if anyone has any ideas on how I can thank these people, please feel free to share your thoughts with me. I'm all ears.

How has the Lord sent you angels in your life? I'd love to hear your story if you'd like to share it.

Temporary Room Mate

2010-01-30T13:40:00.000-08:00

I'm back to my normal routine again. Yippee! Since Tristin left I've suffered from a poisonous Cold and a fairly bitter mood. but I'm happy to say that life is now back to balance and basics after lots of Vitamin C and lots of cuddling from Sopfia. Sopfia is my temporary room mate. A friend asked me to look after her for a few days while she was out of town. I saw no harm in this. I think she's been a blessing in disguise. I have someone to dote on and give/get affection.

She's adorable but looks CAN be deceiving. Sopfia likes to attack and hiss at people. She also gets jealous if I pay attention to anything else but her.

so with my cold and bitter mood out of the way, life has actually been quite productive. I've rearranged the apartment and cleaned EVERYTHING to the point where my kitchen is sparkling thanks to my super awesome Steam-Cleaner!!! YAY for cleanliness and my temporary room mate. Life is still good and must still go on with or without Tristin. I guess I can say that I'm used to the whole, being-on-my-own thing....once again. It's quite amazing what the mind can overcome to achieve balance and piece of mind.

Pic 1: Smell the flowers

Pic 2: Explore the flowers

Pic 3: Rub the flowers

There is no picture #4 because the flowers ended up on the floor....

I bought Sopfia this Scratch Tower and sprayed cat-nip all over it so that she wouldnt scratch my couches. So far my plan has failed....She now scratches both the couches and the tower.

On a different note: As I was cleaning and rearranging things, I stumbled across this song and I'm announcing that its my new favorite. So much so that I wanted to share it! Hope you like it as well!

The Higher the Climb...

2010-01-26T15:47:00.000-08:00

Tristin came home Sunday for less than 2 days. He told me all about what he's doing, his schedule and how much he enjoys it up there. Saying goodbye this morning was absolutely dreadful. I cried all the way to work AND in front of my boss because I couldn't pull myself together in time. And my drive to work is 33 minutes!!! I'm such a baby. I think I had a massive realization that I wont talk, speak or see him for just over 2 weeks and I have no family to run away to this time because I already played that card.

But on a happier note: Tristin's having a wonderful time at his Meditation retreat and I was so excited to hear about the things he's learned and all the new insightful stuff he's experienced. I'm hoping to be lucky enough to go on a meditation retreat up at Shamala before we leave Colorado in a few years. It won't be a month long but maybe a week. He'll come with me of course. I HATE this not-getting-to-talk-to-my-husband/best-friend thing. It stupid!

I won't try to tell you all the things he's doing up there because I fear I'll taint the value of his experience. I'll leave that for him when he gets back.

However, I have made a Pros and Cons list on being "single" for this month:

PROS:

Constantly tidy apartment. I have more time to clean and less people to clean up after
Exercise. I get to exercise more.
Making food. I hardly ever make food now. There's no point with one person. I just pick at my food every now and then
I dont feel guilty when I get home from work after 8pm.
Computer. I get to use the main computer now instead of my laptop. Having a bigger screen makes a huge difference on my eyes. Not very important, I know
Work. I get more of my work-work done at home.
Music. I get to play MY music in the apartment when ever I like

CONS:

There's no Tristin....

The cons far outweigh the pros. And most of those pros sound like cons to me anyway.

Conclusion:
This is going to be a very VERY long 15 days.

Dilemma

2010-01-13T12:10:00.000-08:00

Tristin is now gone. Saying goodbye was not as bad as I thought because he also cried, and I don't know why but that made my sadness a little less severe. He's on his way to his Meditation retreat right now. I won't talk to him or hear from him until the 25th and then he's off again for another 2 weeks with no contact to the outside world what so ever. So I'm kind of alone. Sorta...

I'm running off to Utah for a week. I don't normally run away when faced with a problem but in this case I think I'm making a exception.

As you can tell (or may have not noticed) I've deleted the music play list from this blog.

This is why....

I need help. I don't know what my play list should be for my blog. Sad, soppy, love songs or upbeat, party, hip songs.

The reason why this is so important right now is because I'm trying to keep distracted. Tristin JUST left so this happens to be my project from now until my plane leaves at 9pm tonight. 8 hours is a long time to wait for a plane trip.....ugh.

Any suggestions??

From Christmas to now.

2009-12-31T17:57:00.000-08:00

hello All! On a very late note, HAPPY NEW YEARS! I hope you had a great one! We sure did! We played Mario Bros on the Wii until 3:30am. We are so cool and I know you wish you were us! We beat the final boss and everything! :) Do we know how to party or what?

Yeah, see that big Bowser on the left side? See the tiny Mario on the right, It took us over an hour using our tiny Mario and Luigi to beat that big guy! New years was WAY intense for us!

Ok, so this is going to be one of those posts with crappy iphone pictures and me blabbing on about how much I love my family (Salvesens and Roneys)... because I do! Being away from them makes me appreciate them so much more! I think this Christmas for us was so amazing because we didn't take the time we spent with family for granted and so everything we did with them was just so much more special and so much more fun!

Waking up every morning and seeing family was so awesome. Playing boardgames with family was awesome. Watching movies with family was awesome. It was all just so AWESOME! (I realize I need more synonyms for the word "awesome").

The saying "you don't know what you've got til it's gone" is so appropriate. Obviously my family isn't gone but the convenience of having them around is something I miss tremendously.

So here are the pictures I took on my phone. Right now I'm just too tired to download the pics from off my camera but you'll get the main idea

(here are some pics. I have more from my side of the family but the computer is being lame and wont let me download them for some reason!! GRRRR)

Joseph (Tristin), Mary (Beatrix), and Jesus (Ophelia). Tristin seems stuck with the Joseph role. lol

Tristin and Ophelia!

US!

On a less happier note, Tristin will be leaving for his retreat this coming Wednesday. I will miss him for the 4 weeks he's away but I'm sure he'll learn lots and so will I. It's sort of like he's going on a Mini Mission. He can't call me, he can only write letters. I think this is preposterous but WHATEVER! I didn't write the rules, I just have to obey them the best I can. Lets see how I do with the semi-single life again. That will be interesting, I'm sure.

"Mary" Christmas

2009-12-15T18:51:00.000-08:00

Tristin and I had a blast being Mary and Joseph for our Church's nativity play last weekend. It was rather fun actually. I learned a few things while practicing for this thing:

1) that I couldn't keep a straight face when rehearsing with Tristin. While he was pretending to console and warm his pregnant wife (me) he'd whisper things like "I hope you don't get hypothermia and die". (He's so romantic sometimes) Try keeping a straight face with that being whispered while you're trying to look uncomfortable and pregnant.

2) Trying to look uncomfortable and pregnant is really hard. Props to you moms out there.

3) Basketballs don't make for good pregnant bellies. They look more like over-sized tumors! And they are really hard to push out from under you're clothes once you've "had your baby".

On Saturday, before doing the nativity for everyone there, we decided at the last minute to toss the fake baby Jesus for a much cuter baby named Adalade! When we brought her on stage there was a very satifing "Awwww" from the audience. Adalade just looked around and then fell asleep, bright lights on her and everything. she was the best baby Jesus any one could have asked for (except for the real deal, of course).

I held her for at least 30 minutes after that.... She was too cute for words!

I'm really glad they asked us to help out with this nativity show. It was really a lot of fun and Tristin enjoyed preparing himself for the role.

....he was sad to shave his beard off afterward, though...

and I'm happy (But very sad babe) to mention that the mustache is now gone

Wait til you see my smile!

2009-12-15T18:26:00.000-08:00

Who said angels aren't in the form of blogs?

Thank you to my oldest and Best Friend for being such a shining star in my life and for posting the most simple thing that can turn someones day right-side-up! Dudette, I LOVE you.

http://justthobeka.blogspot.com/2009/12/wait-till-you-see-my-smile.html

Wait til you see my smile....

Invictus

2009-12-14T23:53:00.000-08:00

Out of the night that covers me,
Black as the Pit from pole to pole,
I thank whatever gods may be
For my unconquerable soul.

In the fell clutch of circumstance
I have not winced nor cried aloud.
Under the bludgeonings of chance
My head is bloody, but unbowed.

Beyond this place of wrath and tears
Looms but the Horror of the shade,
And yet the menace of the years
Finds, and shall find, me unafraid.

It matters not how strait the gate,
How charged with punishments the scroll.
I am the master of my fate:
I am the captain of my soul.

William Ernest Henley

(and yes, I did love the movie Invictus)

Oh Christmas Tree, Oh Christmas Tree!

2009-12-07T19:29:00.000-08:00

Look at what one of Santa's Helpers (named Rebecca McDonald) gave to us! Our very first CHRISTMAS TREE!

Initially we weren't going to get a tree for two reasons:
1) Money
2) We would spend Christmas in Utah and our parents have trees so we'd just take lots of pictures with theirs.

One day on facebook Rebecca asked me if I had put up my decorations yet, to which I replied no because of the reasons listed above. Sunday night I go over to their house for dinner and she pulls out this decorated tree for me from the back of her car! I was so elated! It was the sweetest thing anyone could have done for us! So now we officially have a tree with decorations!

So I would like to present to you our first and very own Christmas tree in our home!!

Thank you Rebecca! We love you!

Now I realize that I haven't blogged about Thanksgiving and I'm unfashionable late with it too but I'll just give a brief overview of our trip to Utah for Thanksgiving....

It was SO MUCH FUN. You truly don't know what you have til it's gone, or in another state. It was so wonderful seeing out beautiful families again and spending time with them. (we miss you all so much!).

We spent Thanksgiving with both families and good friends and I got to catch up with everyone and hold babies all day long. I felt so motherly! Babies are so fun, especially when they aren't yours because you can always give them back when they start crying....or pooping.

After Thanksgiving lunch at Rick and Kim's house. I wish I took more pictures. Why wasn't I thinking?

Christmas Light!

That Thanksgiving Saturday we went to the BYU/UofU football game and it was AMAZING! I'm so proud to say that I WAS THERE and I saw everything with my own eyes! We had such a blast. Thanks for taking us Rick and Kim. Just like old times....

(Thank you Brenton for coming with us! You're always SO FUN to hang out with!)

GO COUGARS!

We can't wait to see everyone again in a few weeks time.

Dear Sun....

2009-11-23T20:26:00.000-08:00

How I LOVE you!

The end!
*Isn't it' the small things in life that make life worth living?*

The Numbers are In....

2009-11-21T09:44:00.000-08:00

.... and Tristin wins! It's official, his body is a lot healthier than mine.

On Wednesday we did a Bio impedance Analysis (BIA) follow up to see how our bodies were doing and coping with our detox. A BIA is a test that measures about 15 different cellular comparments and metabolic functions within your body all in under 5 second (it sends an electrical impulse through your body and cells to measure these things-it doesn't hurt, I promise). To explain all the nitty gritty stuff about it would take an entire essay and then some so I'll break it down to what was important.

Here were our results as best as I can remember them:

Tristin:
1) Lost about 5lbs of fat and gaint 3 lbs of muscle. (Lucky!!)
2) His cells throw off toxins really easily and more efficiently now that he's gone through the detox. His cells are also retaining a healthy amount of intracellular fluid to maintain optimal function (He's so lucky!!)
3) his EMC/BCM ration (this ratio shows if the body is tearing down muscle for energy AKA sarcopenia,) or fat for energy went WAY down!

Overall, Tristin is doing WONDERFULLY! His body has balanced out really well and he is now back on all fruits and veggies without any problems what so ever! All he needed was a good "bodily spring cleaning" to function at its best!

Juanique:
1) Lost 3lbs of fat and 1.5 lbs of muscle (sarcopenia)
2) My cells are throwing off toxins but at a price! My intracellular fluid has gone way down (you need fluidity in the cells to maintain a healthy living cell.) The process of eliminating toxins is hydration. My cells are eliminating these toxins but are dehydrating themselves to do so. So, that is kinda bad. I need a lot more water.
3) My EMC/BCM ratio went up. I'm tearing down muscle a little quicker than I normally was. This is bad!

My end results, eat chicken breasts 2x a day to put more protein in my body and be extremely cautions with what I eat as I ween myself back on foods from the detox. Friday was the first day we could eat fruit again. I ate strawberries and they gave me a massive headache. Strawberries are out of the picture for now. So far this is what I've learned: the only things that don't put my body into shock are: cucumbers, chicken, white rice, lettuce, apples and green beans. So that's all I'm eating right now as I SLOWLY reintroduce one food back into my diet at a time.

So that's the detox update. for those of you still awake to read this, I hope it was somewhat interesting. As a few of you know, I LOVE to learn about health and nutrition so if I get a little carried away with my health blogs, you'll have to forgive me.

Death by Detox...

2009-11-14T21:23:00.000-08:00

We aren't dead yet but detoxes are seriously hard! I think I say that because today is Saturday and I didn't have my job to distract me from the constant gnawing of my stomach against my skin.

"but Juanique, why on earth are you guys crazy enough to detoxing?"- This is why....

My doctor (who also happens to be my boss and who also happens to be EXTREMELY intelligent in the health department) told me the other day that I have serious health issues going on. That's a no brainer seeing as I've seen over 100 doctors in the past 10 years, none of whom could tell me what my problems were (so much for extra schooling!!). As far as my health issues go...that probably can be saved for another post. But it just so happens that I work for the one guy who could find the answers to what was causing my health problems AND TREAT THEM AS WELL! Coincidence? Heck NO!!! Heavenly Father was hearing my prayers when I was younger, and 10 years later He answered them.

Anyway, I've had A LOT of health issues ever since I was a child and no one knew why. But life went on and you eventually get used to them all.

Well since I started working where I work, I've had a lot of questions answered and a LONG road of treatment ahead of me....step one of the treatment being a 20 day detox (my body tends to tear down muscle a lot and store fat, I don't absorb nutrients like I should and I'm allergic to a lot of foods I've been eating that have been causing severe inflammatory responses throughout my body....just to name a few of my issues).

So....now we are detoxing... and I say "we" because Tristin is doing it for moral support. Isn't he the best?? Oh, and I haven't had a meal since Monday. but the good news is that we are halfway through the hardest part. Only 5 more days to go of food-lessness. But don't get me wrong, we are eating a few things that are medical-meal-prescribed, but they are in liquid form and we only have 3 flavors of the stuff so far. ugh.

So no, we aren't dying but a little bit of me inside is. It's that part that is calling out for a Cafe Rio salad and wants it SO BAD. Hopefully that part of me will completely die altogether and stop teasing me with the memories of how delicious Cafe Rio is!!! (I hope it dies SOON).

But in all honesty, I'm excited about this cleanse because once it is over I will be able to start my testing again to see how my body has balanced itself out and then we can start my other treatment. Yay for progress and health. I can also say that I haven't had a headache in almost a week now! To me, that is a BIG DEAL!!! I'm very hopeful about all this treatment. I having a feeling it will make it all worth it in the end :)

Do WE get snow?

2009-10-29T08:39:00.000-07:00

Affirmative! We do...and apparently we're getting a lot of it! (yuck). I should be more positive about winter and snow but I cant think of anything worse than going out into the cold and wet and staying out there to have "fun". Whats fun about being cold? perhaps I should invest in waterproof clothing but even when I have in the past, the wetness of snow always seems to find it's way to my body.

Yesterday

Today

Yesterday

Also, we're making friends with a few families in the area. We're so blessed to have such wonderful people in our lives at this time. It's like having family away from family! The other night we were at the Gourgouris's house and they have this really cool salt water fish tank. They also have a little guy in the fish tank that looks like the shrimp, Jacque, from finding Nemo! They showed me how to feed the fish and when you do, this little guy comes scurrying all over your hand looking for food! it's THE COOLEST THING!

Family, you'll also be glad to know that we've made yet another family love (and hate) Aggravation! That game is like a drug to all who play it! Board games are SO fun!

Any way, I better get going. there's a lot of ice and snow to scrape off my car before I leave for work!

Swine Flu and Chocolate and Rocks, Oh MY!

2009-10-21T22:42:00.000-07:00

Well, the angel of Swine flu did NOT pass our door this past week. Instead the angel of swine flu decided to play a nice little trick on me! I don't even know any one who's sick, so how did I get it??!! It's a mystery. But I'm all put back together again. Yay for cleaver immune systems! Tristin still remains intact and as healthy as a hippo (I accidently typed "hippy" before typing hippo. haha. Maybe I should have left it at "healthy as a hippy").

**Side Story now that I'm on the topic of hippies: Thursday I was walking down Main Street in Longmont when 4 hippies (Yes, they were actual hippies with the long hair, glasses and clothing) walked by me. One said, "excuse me miss, I think you dropped your smile." Confused, I actually looked down (Yes, I am that blonde sometimes), realized what their motive was and started smiling at them. I guess I looked fairly serious before. I responded by say, "well I guess I picked it up because it's now on my face." I parted with them as one of them held up a peace sign. Very random....

Anyway.....

This past weekend we went bouldering up by Boulder Mountain Park. It was a GORGEOUS day and everyone and their dog was taking advantage of the sunshine up there. We went up with one of Tristins friends and his fiance. I didn't do too much bouldering myself, due to feeling sick and all but it was nice to get out to the mountains again before the weather stays cold for good.

This past week I was responsible for the Young Womens activity. We made caramel apples. GASP* That didn't go down well with my "no chocolate" policy! With $50 worth of candy, chocolate and more chocolate it was a buffet of heaven and hell for me. In the end I did have some M&M's which were followed with a massive sugar headache! I guess my policy is still a work in progress. the apples turned out really well. Those girls are extremely creative. The night was filled with apple-making, New-Moon-Movie-talking and lots of giggling girls.

Other than that life has been really good. Just busy as usual. Tristin's program is going well still and he continues to learn some amazing things....hopefully he'll post more about those things in the near future (hint hint, babe).

So that's about it from this side. As of now Colorado is changing in its seasons as well as the animals that live here. It's been fun to hear and see the flocks of ducks fly south for the winter. How come I never saw that in Utah? Was I really that oblivious to it? I was able to catch a picture (a pretty bad picture) of a flock of 30 or so ducks while on my way to work the other day. They were all standing in a dried up lake, almost all of them standing very still and looking in the same direction. It was kind of cool to see. I wondered if they were contemplating how far they had to fly and if they were dreading it like how we would dread a long plane flight or car trip.

Rock cllimbing Rocks!

2009-09-21T22:33:00.000-07:00

Excuse my cheesy pun.

Back in the day when Tristin and I were uber cool, we'd rock climb A LOT. But now we're grown up and have to be something called "responsible". Being responsible is overrated in my opinion. If you've never been climbing before, you should try it. Go to your nearest climbing gym and just do it. It's an awesome sport that is highly addicting.

A client of mine found out that I enjoyed rock climbing and told me that she had a son who is an avid rock climber. I told her that I'd be willing to trade massages if he and his girlfriend were willing to take us rock climbing with them. They were up for the trade and so yesterday was my first time rock climbing out doors (I've only done indoor). I figured it would be similar to indoor until I remembered that the hand holds in the gym are bright neon colors where as the hand holds outdoors all look the same....like brown and gray rock.

It was lots of fun though. Tristin and I had a blast even with the few issues we faced, such as the freezing cold wind (we didn't plan well for cold weather) and just how soft we'd become (we no longer have calluses on our hands to protect us from the sharp, rocky edges). We were just elated when we were done, though. It was just so much fun. However, I'd never realized just how scared of heights I was until I started to look around me while clinging to the face of a mountain with my only security being a rope tied to my harness. I found myself tugging on it just to make sure I was tied in properly.

Hopefully in the near future we will be able to fit rock climbing gym passes into our budget so we can do this more than just once a year. Thanks Neely and Seth for taking us with you.

Nothing new, Nothing old

2009-09-13T17:41:00.000-07:00

As I glanced over our blog today I realized it was looking rather dull and abandoned, so I though, "hmmmm....maybe I should do an update." Yes, I'm full of mind-blowing revealations lately. To tell the truth, there isn't much to update on. We don't have kids to motivate us to become camera-happy, we have no pets to obsess over (we tried that route and lets say we did an absolute mess of a job by losing our animals after 4 days. (I'm demoting myself to a rock again), and we are both so busy throughout the week to do anything exciting and far too exhausted trying to catch up from what was missed during the week to do anything extraordinary on our weekends. I dare say we are leading lives of mediocracy as of now (is that even a word?). But even in these times of uneventful days life has been going for us and changing every so slightly so I'll fill you in on the small details of it all.... that's if you're still reading this blog post.

Tristin started his program on the 17th of August. He seems to be loving the program and always talks about how cool the people in his groups are. Although he has about 1-2 classes a day he spends the rest of his spare time reading the assignments (He probably has about 20 books to read through this semester). 2 weeks ago (the 28th-30th of Aug), Tristin left me to go on a weekend retreat up in the mountain somewhere. it's mandatory for the entire class to go. It was the first time in 3 years that we had been parted from one another. I did not take well to this because on the first day of him being gone I got sick. So my weekend was entertained by Jane Austen movies, cleaning frantically and feeling a tad bit sorry for myself. I don't do "alone" very well.

Other than retreat, he's just busy busy busy. I'm sure he can give you more juicy details of what he's learning and what his epiphanies have been as of late.

OH I forgot to talk about the bunnies! A few weeks ago we were given 2 little bunny rabbits. Tristin named the one El Diablo (meaning "The Devil") and I named the smaller one Luna. Rabbits aren't very loving animals at first but they can learn to be. So we were in the process of training them to be loving and be potty trained....that is until one day we came home and their cage had been opened and they ran away. We had them for only 4 days. I I feel like this month is my unlucky one. Lets hope this bad luck runs out by the time October rolls by.

As for me.....I work.....I clean......I read.....I try to sleep sometimes.....yup, that's it. OH, I'm learning to cook! Big shock, I know! Try not to fall out of your seat, mom! I'm also learning a ton of new and really amazing things from work. Sometimes I think my head will explode from the info overload....then I have those days when I think it already has. Either that or I suffer from prolonged brain-fog.
Also, A few weeks ago I was called to be a Young Womens adviser in our ward so I've really really been enjoying that. I'll plan my lesson, thinking it's going to be an awesome lesson and realize that what I planned and what I had talked to them about were two completely different things. You never know where a lesson will go with 12/13 year old girls. They are so fun and I adore them. I miss being in Young womens. I miss being a young woman. :P

People who know me well will be pleased to hear that I've set a goal for myself....no chocolate. Again mom, try not to fall out of your seat! I'm a HUGE (HUGE is an understatement) chocolate addict. It's my kryptonite, my chink in my armor, my skeleton in my closet. I was doing so well for a long time. I was clean of chocolate for 3 weeks....and then the weekend hit and I went to walmart and bought a box of Jr Mints. My initial intention was to eat only 5 of the chocolate covered mints and give the rest to my class on Sunday but I think someone kidnapped my shopping cart because by the time I got to the cash register the box was empty. I took my class carrot sticks instead.

(Maybe I should write all this in a diary instead of a blogpost). I guess this is what happens when I have nothing useful to blog about. You get a lot of verbal diarrhea

Any how, thats about it for Colorado. I'm sure Tristin will post something more interesting and FAR more insightful than what I just gave you today. His program is very unique and interesting. I love hearing about it when he shares things he's learning or reading about.

So that's about it. We miss you all. Hope life it being good to you.

Google Voice...

2009-08-20T21:03:00.000-07:00

...is the coolest thing you didn't know you needed. It will change the way we use phones once it catches on and free us from the tyranny of the cell phone carriers. For those of you who don't know what it is (and if you aren't dying to get it then you OBVIOUSLY don't know what it is), it is best described as "one number to rule them all." When you sign up for the service you get a phone number that will act as a gateway to all of your other phones. You can then set it up to forward your calls to different numbers, different voicemail messages, or to a "this number has been disconnected" message for the spam you hate getting.

Got that? In so many words, you get complete control over incoming calls. For example, on my system I have one voicemail message for my family, one for my friends, another for church people, and one for my classmates. So my family gets a "hi family!" message, my friends get a "I miss you!" message, and church people get a quote from the Bible (Just kidding! But I totally should. The missionaries would think I'm the coolest ever).

Even better, When someone leaves me a message, I have a whole bunch of other options as well. Google automatically transcribes the message and I can have them text or email it to me. So I never have to leave a class to get an urgent voicemail message. I can read it right on the spot! The transcription service makes mistakes, but never so badly that I don't understand the message. I can also call into my voicemailbox and listen to the messages just like with any other mailbox. If I log into Google Voice I have still more options, such as embedding the voicemail in a blog like so...

...or I can download the message and make a trance song out of it (sorry, I haven't actually done that yet), or I can block the caller so that I never have to hear from that person again unless I want to.

Do you really really want this yet? If not, here is a quicklist of some other features of Google Voice:

FREE incoming and outgoing texts (however, if you have texts forwarded to a cell phone, you will still be charged by your service provider)
Call screening: Callers not on your contact list are asked for their name. Then you are asked if you want to accept so-and-so's call or send them to voicemail.
Voicemail screening: If you send someone to voicemail, you can listen in on the message and decide to cut in at any time.
Call transferring: If you have multiple phones set up with your account, you can easily transfer an ongoing call to one of your other phones with the touch of a button (*).
Call recording: You can record any call simply by pushing (5) on your keypad. Beware next time we are on the phone...
"Do Not Disturb" function: When activated, all calls will automatically be forwarded to voicemail. Great for times when you can't answer calls but you don't want to turn your phone off.
Call initiation from the web: You can make a phone call from your Google Voice number using any phone. Just enter the number you want to call, select the phone you want to call from, and hit "call." The phone you want to call from will then ring your phone and the number you want to call.
Smart phone integration: Palm Pre and Android phone users can get an app that essentially takes over the phone functions of the device. That means outgoing calls and texts will display the Google Voice number. It also means you can send and receive texts to your phone absolutely free of charge! No more ridiculous carrier per-text charges. Similar apps are coming for other phones in the future.

The list could go on, but that should have interested you at least a little. It's really something you don't realize the benefits of until you have started using it. Once you start, you will wonder how you ever managed without it. It's a new standard of living, I'm not kidding. But perhaps the best feature is that no matter what you will never have to give out a new number or beg your Facebook buddies to re-send you their numbers due to a lost phone. No matter what phone you have or what phone is near you, you can always send and receive calls for your Google Voice number. All of your contacts will be kept safe in your account (which is linked with your Gmail account as an added bonus). And this is Google, so you know they will keep coming up with killer new features. Holy cow this is awesome!

Sorry for the full-on advertisement. I promise I'm not being paid to do all this brown-nosing to Google; I just really really love Google Voice. Sadly, it is currently invite-only. But they are giving away invites like candy right now, so sign up here and wait a week or two. I promise that you'll love it if you take the plunge and really use it.

Speaking of, if you want to know my new Google Voice number, just call my current number. I'll give you a hint, though: It has the word TRUST in it! Yeah, I picked it out myself. Bye!

The Shark's Cousin....

2009-08-11T20:46:00.000-07:00

...is the Stringray. Who knew? I learned that from the DOE (Dept of Environment) who was regulating Stingray city last week.

Last week was our annual trip to the Cayman Islands. Yes, it was amazing! I could never tire of that place. From the extreme humidity to the bipolar weather to the sunburn/peeling, I love it all! Bring on the burn, the frizzy hair, and the inability to be useful or productive for an entire week! I welcome all these things!

We drove to Utah the Friday night before we left for Cayman (our departure was Sunday). That Saturday (we arrived in Provo at 2:30am) we spent with my family before leaving. I also got to work on and catch up with a few clients while I was there.

Sunday we left Provo airport and arrived in Cayman about 9 hours later with a lay over in Texas. I've decided that Texas isn't very exciting. there are no mountains, well, non that I saw.

As soon as we arrived we ate dinner and stocked up on food for the next day. I was able to get a picture on my phone of a random rooster that was roaming around the gas station that we stopped to get our goodies at. I guess roosters roam the streets just like squirrels here do. it was kind of odd to see but entertaining.

The rest of the week we were entertained by sleeping, reading, eating (the food was divine...and the desserts...OH,don't get me started on the desserts), stingray city, snorkeling, kayaking, more snorkeling, more stingray city and borderline comatose-relaxation. Can you say *BLISS*

Stingray city was my favorite thing from the entire vacation. I finally became good at holding them. what's weird is that you get to hold these things that are meant to be wild....but they are not. They're gentle and soft (for the most part). I got a few "battle wounds" like getting smacked in the face with a tail from a stingray I was holding. They kind of swing their tails when you hold them and this one I was holding had a very VERY long tail that collided with my face. I also got a few over-eager stingray trying to suck my entire fist because I was holding squid in them. that was a little startling and left me with what looked like a small self-induced hickey on my thumb.

Funny story: Wednesday was an overcast day. Tristin and I went out on the catamaran and sailed up and down the bay. After 20 minutes it started to rain hard, as if stones were being thrown from the clouds. We couldn't run for shelter because we were stranded on the catamaran in the middle of the bay. The only shelter would have been to jump in the water. After a minute of freezing cold rain on my sunburned body, the sky's cleared up completely and it was as sunny as ever. This is what I meant by bipolar weather :)

The only complaint I have about the week was that Shark Week was playing on the Discovery Channel all week long. The thing about Shark week is that it's extremely mesmerizing. As soon as you start watching it you get sucked in and you wanna watch it even more. Seeing dismantled legs and arms and bodies on shows called "I survived a shark attack" was not a comforting thing to watch every night, especially when you're in the ocean every day BUT you still watch it. Obviously it wasn't scary enough to stop me from watching it but I probably shouldn't have because every time I got in the ocean I'd think "Hm...I hope there aren't any sharks near me today!"

Saturday we flew back to the States and surprisingly I was NOT harassed by immigrations or customs. I tend to be a target for suspicion in airports. the rest of the day and Sunday was spent with my family catching up and just hanging out with them. It was a very unreal moment when we had to say goodbye because it felt like we had never really left Utah. Our life in Colorado almost seemed like a very distant memory. It was very bizarre. But now we're back and in the swing of things again and I realized that although I left my home in Utah, I was welcomed by my home here in Colorado.

"Time goes, you say?"

2009-07-19T13:46:00.000-07:00

"Ah no, Alas, Time stays, we go."

How far we have come in the past month and a half. What feels like days has been weeks and what will soon feel like weeks will in actuality be months.

I hadn't realized it but it had been an entire month of bloglessness for me. Some sort of record, I'm sure. So I blurted out to Tristin that he should do an update on our lives as I was running out the door to work the other day. What I didn't realize was that there wasn't really anything interesting enough (for him) to blog about....until he set out on his quest to hook up half the apartments appliances to be on-demand by the touch of our phones. You can read about it in the blog prior to this one.

Here's one new thing I've learned about Tristin. When given a lot of spare time, he will start crazy projects. He's probably broken and fixed our computer (which is new) 4 times over since we've moved due to tweeking programs on it and what not! I don't speak the language of technology so I don't really know the specifics, all I know is that one day I'll want to use the computer and it's broken...again, or he's hooked up the tv and surround sound to the computer and none of those are working. Then I come home and lights are switching on in the house magically and there he'll be sitting on the couch grinning at me, trying to see if I'm freaked out or if I've figured out that it's one of his projects he worked on. He kind of reminds me of Merlin the magician from the cartoon, The Sword in the Stone. (that scene from the movie say's it all). Some days his tricks run smoothly, and then some days he gets a little carried away and things get a little messy with which I say "I don't care, as long as you can fix it"....and he always does. I Love my nerdy husband!

Wow, talk about a tangent...
So here it goes, our lives here in Colorado the past 4 weeks or so...

ZIM FEST (the end of June):

It was pretty cool. The farmers market had a lot to show for the day and we had live music and singing. What really stumped me was that I was half expecting black people to be performing because it's Zim Fest....as in ZIMBABWE the country in AFRICA! How ignorant am I? You'd think ME, a WHITE person from South AFRICA would understand that there are white people in Zimbabwe! I'll tell you what, I'll never make fun of anyone who asks me stupid questions about Africa again, "are your parents black, can you read, are their buildings in Africa, do people wear shoes in Africa, why are you white" questions like that.

4TH OF JULY:

Conryd and Aly drove to Colorado to spend the 4th weekend with us! It was awesome. Friday we took them to see Boulder, Saturday we played games, relaxed, ate food til we felt sick and wrote our names in the air with sparklers in commemoration of the 4th (how cool are we?) Then Sunday they had to leave us which really stunk.

MY PARENTS:

My parents came to visit us the following week. My dad had a show in Denver from the 8th-11th so we'd hang out with them during the evenings when I didn't have work. We ate at the International Tea House 3 nights in a row because the food was TO DIE FOR! It was so amazing, I couldn't believe my taste buds. Then Saturday we took my mom to check out the Farmers market which she loved. We saw and heard some interesting things from a guy wearing a "I love Weed" shirt to a man in the line behind us verbally marking his disapprobation to the lady next to us by saying that she was torturing her dog for letting it walk on the hot pavement and that she should put her hands on the ground and see if she likes it.

Aren't people great?

Then we had to redo the whole goodbye scenario which I've come to strongly dislike, BUT I have to get used to it because it will have to be done a lot in the next 3-4 years.

On a positive note, Colorado has stolen our hearts. It's beautiful, comfortable, the people are lovely and we are very happy here.

Homemade Hax0red iPhone Videos

2009-07-18T15:22:00.000-07:00

So it has been over a month since we posted anything. Big deal, you know you don't care that much. All the same, you might have had a moment in the middle of the night when you wondered what we are doing. Right before you realized you still had half a sandwich in the fridge from lunch. Yum!

We don't really want to bore you with details of what we've been doing (Juanique is working, Tristin is pretending to work and slowly rotting until school starts), so here is an abridged version: We saw lightning and our phones can open our garage door. Yeah, we are awesome in two different ways. And we have videos to prove it. Here's the lightning:

All apologies for the lousy quality and the sidewaysness. All we had was an iPhone (not 3Gs--we do it old-school hax0r style), which doesn't do well with fast things or the dark. I recommend you download the video, open it with VLC, turn on image sharpening to full throttle, and rotate the image 270 degrees. That would make it watchable. But skip to 1:20ish and only watch for 20 seconds. Yeah, I could do all that for you. But then I'd lose interest before this video actually got put up and it would be another month before you heard from us.

OKAY, here is the exciting part that you've all been hoping for ever since you got your first garage. That's right, friends. We've figured out how to open our garage door with a garage door opener OR the computer OR a remote OR our iPhones! You can believe what you are reading, because we have proof in the form of another blurry iPhone video. This is the part where we confess that we don't own a real video camera. We hate memories and stuff. But I'm pretty excited about this, because nothing makes me feel more like a man than opening my garage door with my phone. I know, I have issues. Just wait until I get a Roomba and arm it with a laser. Just the thought makes me a little bit teary eyed. Okay, here it is:

You are so jealous. If you aren't, pretend you are so that I'll feel cool. Thanks. We've also got a digital picture frame and the living room lamp set up on this system. Once we get some more $$$ we can add to it, so that eventually the whole house will be controllable with the phone. And then I will get a Roomba and attach a laser to it. At that point, pray you are on my good list. Mwahahahaha!...

Where Do the Deer and the Antelope Play?

2009-06-13T15:35:00.000-07:00

In BOULDER~ that's where! Well, just the deer, No antelope. (I'll explain later in this post)

Today was our adventure to the Boulder's Farmers Market. It was the perfect day to go as well because IT WAS ACTUALLY SUNNY! This whole week has been showered in rain and lightening which reminds me a lot of South Africa. I don't remember seeing lightening much in Utah, come to think of it. Nevertheless, it was great to feel the warmth again and tie my sweater around my waist. Our adventure started with a search for parking. we parked about half a mile away but the walk was pleasant. the actual market itself was just amazing! If I had the money to spare I would have gone CRAZY. All the food was locally grown and organic, there were tons of bead and jewelery booths, beautiful hand made clothing, paintings, pottery and flowers and plants for Africa. I wish I had taken more pictures but I completely forgot to. I came across a booth that sold handmade sandals from cow hide (I think) that were just GORGEOUS! The owner was really cool and told us that her shoes she was wearing were 7 years old (and they still looked great). They are so durable that you can go anywhere with them like hiking through rivers or just hiking.....so I ordered a pair (I shouldn't have but if they're going to last that long and look that great, then I need them). We also was a poster saying that in 2 weeks time the Zimbabwean Music Festival will be here in Boulder so we can't wait for that. (Don't you wish you were here to see that mom? It's your mother-land where you were born!!)

Later we drove around looking for a store. We ended up in a residential area in Boulder that was at a higher level than the city itself. As we passed a house we saw a deer literally 2 feet away from our car. So I went trigger happy and took a lot of pictures. She was just beautiful and not shy at all. She even started walking towards the car.

Our next stop was Pearl Street Mall which is an outdoors mall with tons of people playing music and putting on shows, not to mention the diversity of the stores there is amazing. We came across a guy on a ball who was juggling fire. Definitely a show worth sticking around for. Then about 10 minutes later our wonderful weather turned to a tropical rain storm and it was time to head on home where we were met with hail. Yes, hail!

All in all it was a fantastic day. We are starting to feel very happy and comfortable here in Colorado. It's a fantastic place to live! In fact, the area here was voted the 2nd best place to live in the USA, next to Provo which was voted the #1 place to live. Haha. So I guess you can say we moved down in the rankings, going from Provo to Boulder :) Just kidding.

Love to all!

Bread Attempt # 4!

2009-06-11T22:55:00.000-07:00

Yay! we did it! we finally made bread that looked like bread and it was soft and edible! Is it the healthiest of recipes? No, but we weren't sure if it was our mistake or the bread-maker's mistake so we bought a "pre-made" box of the dry ingredients for sweet bread (just add water) and TA DA! So now Tristin and I have to find a healthy bread recipe that works in our bread machine.

Do you know of any good recipes for bread that are yummy and healthy? Please share. We'd love to know! As for us, it's back to the drawing board. *sigh*

Bread attempt # 3 (as shown in a past post)

Bread attempt # 4! Success! And Tristin STILL refuses to smile properly for pictures. Haha-I love him

Perspective.

2009-06-11T22:25:00.000-07:00

I was reminded today of a video I once saw earlier this year. Every time I watch it I am humbled but the extreme amount of abundance I have in my life! If you have 3 minutes to spare you should watch it (if you haven't seen it before). How I don't count my blessing enough some times. Hope you enjoy.

Colorado so far...

2009-06-07T05:47:00.000-07:00

Pictures of Colorado on our trip up. Its SO GREEN! I LOVE IT

Wow! I can't believe I've been in Colorado for over a week now. It feels like mere days! They say time flies when you're having fun but I have yet to hear "Time flies when you're constantly in a frenzy trying to unpack boxes".

You'd think that moving from South Africa to a TOTALLY different solar system called Utah would have been easier than moving a state over, but alas each situation has it's ups and downs. So I'll start from the beginning (because I woke up 4 hours too early for church and our church is at 9am)

Last week was CRAZY! I never want to have to move that much furniture AGAIN! and we only live in an apartment! What would moving an entire house of furniture feel like? When we move again, I'm selling all our stuff (except our comfy mattress) and then I'll re-buy everything over when I get to my new place (just kidding, I'm not going to do that, that's absurd). So moving was hard and long and tiring and costly. I was stress, exhausted, sleep deprived and aching all over my body.

Our rental truck. Everything we own is in that.

So moving day comes! Saturday we all left at about 12:30pm. Tristin and I in the moving truck (which was by far the scariest thing I've ever ridden!! I've been on some of the scariest rides at theme parks but this truck, BY FAR, takes the cake. I was sure I was near cardiac arrest a few times). Tregan and Joel Aldrich in Tristin's car and Rick and Kim in my car (thanks you guys for all your help). It took us just under 9 hours to get to Colorado. LONG DAY! We unpacked the truck in less than an hour (go us) and then around 10:30 we all crashed and went to bed. I was happy that I got to sleep on our very own matress again, even though we were surrounded by a million boxes. It was the best sleep I had had in a very long time!

Our lawn with 3 rabbits on it. the 3rd one is a little hard to see. I also managed to get a bird in the picture.

the next day we all went to church. Afterward we looked around Boulder and ate at the International Tea House which Joel called IHOT (international house of tea as opposed to IHOP-I thought it was funny). that place was AMAZINGLY beautiful!

IHOT: International House of Tea, properly know as International Tea House. I prefer the name IHOT though.

Next we headed over to Naropa University to show the family where it was that Tristin would be going to school! To read more about the program he will be going to, click here. The gardens were beautiful, symbolic and the memorial was very unique. The Images were very well thought of. It got us all thinking really hard about what we were seeing and how we were all interpreting it. We then went to Pearl Street, look at all the unique shops and then went back to our apartment to fix up a few things and unpack a few boxes. We had a fun day. then everyone left us early Monday morning for Cayman! I wished I was them that entire day.

Naropa Campus: pic 1: Stones hanging from tree (don't know the point of that). 2: Memorial. 3: Garden with 5 flags representing the 5 elements (I think)

Which leads us to our first full week in Colorado. Unpacking is long and tedious. And to top it off, our apartment wasn't cleaned by the previous tenant so I had to clean and then unpack. Blah. But now I know the place is clean and to MY standard of clean. (Thanks mom for turning me into a germaphobe!)

All in all, I LOVE LOVE LOVE our place. The location is perfect. There is a costco, Walmart, Whole foods, Safeway and a shopping mall (which I probably won't be able to use for a really long time due to expenses) all within 3-5 miles from us. Our apartment is stunning. It's in a gated community with a pool and exercise facility, and we have bunny rabbits outside on our lawn all over the place (I tried feeding them cherries but they don't eat it, who knew?). We got really lucky because we have an end unit on the bottom floor with no apartments across the street from us staring into our place. The area is quiet and spacious. We're 20 mins from Downtown Denver and 15 minutes from Boulder! Like I said, the place is PERFECT! I just love it! And we've been living with my inlaws for the past year and a half so using all my furniture again is like having news stuff! I feel like it's my birthday in June! And I'm baking and making all our food! Who knew I was so domesticated?! ME, Baking bread! WOW...So far the bread hasn't turned out too well but if at first you don't succeed, try try again. Yesterday was our 3rd attempt at the bread thing.....it's still a work in progress :) I'll post a picture of the bread. It's kinda funny really.

Our humble abode. Not the best of pictures.

And now for the cons....
COLORADO IS EXPENSIVE!! Who knew how much money we're all saving in Utah, people? I guess that's the price for living in a desert. And I miss Utah, I really miss my family and being 5 minutes away from them. I miss my friends, my wonderful clients and I miss working. The last 4 hours of our drive to Colorado I put my sunglasses on my face (even though it was raining and thundering) and sobbed for a good straight hour and a half. But if felt good to cry. At least I knew the reality hit me earlier rather than later. But everyday gets better. And once I have a job again I'll feel a lot more productive and useful. So far I've had 2 interviews and one lined up for this week! Cross thumbs for me :)

They had this entire fish with an orange in its mouth at Whole Foods. Tristin obviously thought it was really cool. YUCK!

So that's about it. We'll see in a few weeks exactly where we are and how life is for us. Wish us luck, pray for us and know that we love and miss you all.

Bread attempt #3

Goodbye Class - We will miss you and your hyperactivity on Sundays

2009-05-24T18:57:00.000-07:00

(I could NOT get them to all smile at the same time, and look at Tristin-haha)

Who knew leaving a Sunday school class would be so hard? No me, but then again I didn't realize just how much I loved these crazy kids! On Saturday Tristin and I held a goodbye party (it was Zach's -blond kid on the left- idea) for our CTR class. I was only planning on it being an hour long because what crazy kid would really want to hang out at their Sunday school teachers house? Well our little party turned out to be a really long 3-hour party. We are apparently quite the party animals :)

We played ladder golf outside at first then we played Rock Band and Nintendo Wii. We finally finished our party off with a game of soccer. It was a really fun party full of crazy, hyperactive kids that feed off each others energy, lots of jokes, and just flat out fun! I'm seriously going to miss them, especially when Sundays come along!! I'll miss the "did you bring us treats" questions, the moans and groans when I quiz them on their Church history dates and time lines (that's right, I quiz my kids AT CHURCH! How intense am I? Their seminary teachers are going to LOVE them), and them correcting me every time I misspell a word or write a date wrong on the chalkboard. They truly are a bunch of REALLY smart kids! Probably the coolest kids in the whole ward!

I miss them already...

Tristin ended up winning the tug of war with Luke and Nathan against him, but his hands paid the price for it)

A word on choices

2009-05-21T12:36:00.001-07:00

Today's topic is choices--one of my absolute most favorite things in the world. Choices are at the root of human existence; without them we would live life as a dream and no one would ever know or care that we existed. Our choices define us. Choices are the source and the fruits of variety, which we all know is the spice of life.

Unfortunately, it is exactly this weight attached to choices that creates such a love-hate relationship between us and the decisions we get to make every day. The wrong choice could prove disastrous and destroy something precious to us. Many times we avoid making decisions because we are afraid of making the wrong choice. If we put off the decision we can avoid the consequences for a while. Someone else might even make the decision for us.

What we often fail to realize, though, is that this kind of fearful attitude is exactly what leads to the bad outcomes we are hoping to avoid. To take it a step further, I believe that worrying about outcomes at all is what leads to bad outcomes. By focusing on what could happen rather than what is currently happening we fail to pay attention to the signs around us that could lead to correct choices.

When making a decision, it is easy to play the "What if..." game and worry about all the possible results of each decision. But the very nature of possibilities is that they are never 100% and therefore always unpredictable. We cannot know them, therefore we cannot control them. We cannot control them, therefore we must not waste time brooding over them.

What, then, should we do when making a decision? I don't have a simple answer to this question. At the least I suggest looking at the clues you have available to yourself. What do your feelings tell you? Does choice 1 make you feel joy? Does choice 2 make you feel guilty?

If you don't like the idea of trusting feelings (especially if you are one that always feels fear regardless ofvthe options), then there is still intuition, the higher self, the Holy Ghost, the divine, etc. Whatever you want to call it, it is there and it is extremely wise. You might argue that it is the same thing as feelings, but anyone familiar with it knows that there is a difference. It is usually a matter of looking for it and then exercising it for people to recognize it.

To be honest, almost all of the choices we get to make everyday do not have a wrong and right option and are not that consequential. The most important thing we can do with these choices is to commit to an option and stand by it. The biggest mistake we can make when choosing is allowing the decision to become more important than it really is.

Make a decision and move on--even if the result is not what you were hoping for. Remember, happiness doesn't come from getting the results you wanted. It comes from being at peace with your choices. Many people that fail at one endeavour after another in life still consider themselves lucky and happy because they enjoyed what they were doing and didn't stress the results.

That being said, don't think I'm telling you that you can do any dumb thing and that is okay as long as you decided it was. There are obvious rights and wrongs that will have obvious consequences (a topic all by itself). But when the answer isn't obvious, you can bet that going with your feelings and intuition will always result in peace and happiness. Doubting and worrying about results will always result in misery. So go out into life and remember that joy is in the journey, not the destination (paraphrased from Greg Anderson, not to be confused with this guy or this guy).

EDIT: I wrote most of this post last night and finished it up today. Then I read a fantastic post written by Jason Mraz, one of my personal heroes. It is a great perspective from a fantastically successful and optimistic person that is nonetheless human on the inside, and I feel like it meshes with what I'm trying to say. Read it here.

Natural Medicine Talk

2009-05-15T11:47:00.000-07:00

Hey all!

I'm really enjoying getting emails from you about health related topics. Thank you for sending them. I recently came across a website called Natural Medicine Talk which talks about just that...Natural Medicine (I will also post all this info on my Health blog as well).

Basically, Natural Medicine talk is a website where people who are all interested in alternative health and natural healing remedies can share and receive information regarding to a large array of topics. For example, someone asked about good supplements for ear, nose and throat infections. (Tristin has a problem with this). Instead of taking prescription drugs given to you by your local doctor that most likely has side effects, these people suggested many alternative ideas to treat this problem. (I would personally suggest drinking -or gargling- 3 drops of Tea Tree essential oil in a glass of water)

I love this sight because there are TONS of topics that people are talking about. The information shared is purely given to help inform you and be informed. Topics such as organic foods, help for epilepsy, nutrition supplements, candida, and so on, are being talked about. I obviously haven't read all the topics available on the sight but the ones I have read, I like and agree with. Hopefully this sight will help inform you on any health related questions you may have or answers you may want to share with people on there.

Happy Healing, Everyone!

Bottled Water

2009-05-11T22:34:00.000-07:00

I received this slide show in an email and thought that maybe others would appreciate looking at this too. It's SO interesting!

Soulistique

2009-04-22T13:39:00.000-07:00

Hi all!

So I'm experimenting with a new blog on health,nutrition and the human body. It's called Soulistique. The reason for the name you might ask? Well *soul* because it means Soul, and the word Holistic has been thrown in there too but I put soul and holistic together giving me Soulistic, but then the name Soulistic for a blog was taken so i took off the -ic and put -ique (just like my name Juan-ique) and came up with SOULISTIQUE. It's a little harder to remember but hopefully this explaination will help you remember.

It's just an experiment so I don't know where it's going to end up but please start sharing all your health news and ideas if you'd like. I'm hoping that the sight can become a pool of information on health that everyone can go back to every once in a while for help, ideas and guidance on health.

So here it is: soulistique.blogspot.com
Thanks all!

Spring time means Grill time!

2009-04-20T17:33:00.000-07:00

So my friend Emily blogged about what we did on the weekend (because we hung out with them). She did such an awesome job that I'm just going to let you go and check out what we did this weekend by reading her blog because trying to re-right what she wrote would be redundant. Besides, her blogging skills are WAY more advanced than mine.

So check it out!

Love to all!