Homemade Hax0red iPhone Videos

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?

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!

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.

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...

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

(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

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.