Keeping it zen!

It's the end of the semester..finals are coming up...the hubby is keeping it zen!

For a good laugh...

What am I doing you might ask? Trying to relax my jaw...smiling for pictures hurts...

Now go on and laugh...

You are authorized to use this picture for blackmailing...because really, it's quite funny.

We took that picture the other day... 

And then saw this...

Oh I think I'm just so priceless sometimes... :)

Cherry Blossoms

We are spending the weekend with about 14 million other people... no, not in our place...how would we fit? But watching and listening to General Conference. Every six months, the Church of Jesus Christ of latter-day Saints has a general conference over a weekend. Four sessions of two hours. 1 prophet. 12 Apostles. Lots of general authorities. lots of counsels, advices, stories, laughs, good news and above all, the  amazing presence of the Holy Ghost. To teach us what we need to hear. We all hear the same talks but the Spirit will whisper the things that we need to our heart and ears. We love General Conference. Reminds me of my time as a missionary on Temple Square.

Before the 1st session started, we decided to go to the Tidal Basin for some fresh air and cherry blossoms. A bit cold but always beautiful. Blossoms remind me that there is always a new beginning available. We can start new each day, don't have to wait for Spring. Life gets tough but we blossom through our trials, we refine ourselves and become what the Lord intends for us. We are His children and our potential is huge and divine.

It's Ben's turn.

Monday, March 21st.

I knew it was coming. After our Family Home Evening, I was pretty sure it was there. Chris said no, tomorrow. I said "call your mom". He did. I was right. The mail had just come in and guess what was in it: a mission call. For Ben. His little brother. I screamed. Yeah, I know I get super excited about mission calls. They're the best. And the people who get a chance to go on those missions, well, they're cool. They get to go for two years or a year and a half (if it's a girl) to some place anywhere in the world to preach. To preach indeed. What you might ask? What could be better than sharing the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Yep, that's what missionaries do. They share the good news that there is a Savior and that His Church is ont he earth today. And it's the best!

So, back to Ben..He is in Hawaii at school and the call arrived in Cali. So, after some coordination with every family member, we were to all skype at 10pm (ET) to open the call and hear the news. Mom would open the envelope and directly put it on the camera so Ben could read his call to everyone. Chris and I also being not in Cali got to see the call as Ben read it. It just happens that both Chris and I remember exactly where on the piece of paper is the name of the mission. So as Ben started reading my eyes were already glued to the name of the mission and I had to seal my lips to not say a word. And then he finally read it (it truly seemed like forever..): Brazil Fortaleza Mission. You will teach the Gospel in the Portuguese language.

This is followed by a series of scream in Hawaii, Cali and DC. So exciting. Really, we are so pumped for him. He is going to love it and come back a changed man. Changed for the better. Missions are an amazing experience, one I would do again in a heartbeat.

He leaves July 27th. We are going to Cali to see him off and wish him the best.

Ben, we are proud of you and truly excited for you. Brazil get ready!

Congratulations Ben!

Hawaii and Cali...see Ben's smile after he read his call...So happy!

Springfield, MA

Thursday March 24th, BYU lost to Florida in the Sweet 16 (D1). BYU-Hawaii won in the Final Four (D2). BYU-Hawaii is my alma mater. The championship game is on Saturday at 1pm in Springfield, Massachusetts. What did we decide to do? Drive all night Friday and be at the game off course!

I drove pretty much the whole way there. Landed at 3am in the driveway of my friend Jenn. Slept in the car for a couple of hours (had to have the experience). Had breakfast with Jenn and her family. Showered. And then headed out. 

Springfield is the home of basketball. It's also where the Dr. Seuss writer came from. Did you know that the first basketball "hoops" were peach baskets? James Naismith invented the game. And I'm pretty sure there are quite a few million dudes and dudettes out there who are very thankful for his invention. 

Who doesn't love basketball?

Anyways, we visited the Basketball Hall of Fame. Chris couldn't be any happier. Oh, and you should have seen his face when we walked into THE Michael Jordan exhibit...rings, shoes, pictures,jerseys...A shrine to the legend.

We headed to the BYU-H vs. Bellarmine game. Oh so good to be among my oh so loved Hawaii peeps. Love BYU-H and love, love, love people from the islands. They're just the best. It was so fun to cheer for my school. That place changed my life, for the best. 

We lost. No biggie. We'll be back. We still made it to the championship game and that is a BIG deal.

Congrats Seasiders for an awesome season. 

We drove back to DC that evening. Got home around 1am. Set the alarm for Church meetings at 5:30am. Forgot to turn the alarm on. Woke up just on time to get to the regular meetings. At least I set the alarm, right? So tired. Slept all afternoon. Glad we went. Oh so worth it. Thanks BYU-H for everything you did for us. When do we do that again?

Two comforters, some pillows and a trunk.

THE MICHAEL JORDAN... 

 Our Seasiders

 With Valmene, our Tahitian friend. Her hubby was on the team and is the best rebounder in the nation

Sometimes, you just gotta be spontaneous and drive 14 hours in a 24hrs period for a game of basketball.

Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough Ice Cream

I have been wanting to share this recipe for a while but didn't get around to it. We bought an ice cream maker attachment for our Kitchen Aid mixer a couple of months ago and this was our first attempt at making ice cream...and it was delicious.

The recipe is from The Vegan Scoop by Wheeler Del Toro:

Ingredients for Cookie Dough:

1/2 cup non-hydrogenated, non-dairy butter (Earth Balance is great)

3/4 cup agave nectar

1 cup all-purpose flour

1/2 teaspoon salt

1 tablespoon vanilla extract

1 cup semisweet vegan chocolate chips

1/4 cup to 6 tablespoons water

Ingredients for Ice Cream:

1 cup soymilk (or really any other non-flavored non-dairy milk)

2 tablespoons arrowroot powder

2 cups of soy creamer (we used coconut creamer)

3/4 cup sugar

1 tablespoon vanilla extract

To make cookie dough: Blend butter and agave nectar in a large bowl until creamy. Stir in flour,salt, vanilla extract, and chocolate chips. Add water,1 tablespoon at a time, until you reach a cookie dough consistency.

Roll small pieces of cookie dough into balls and drop on a cookie sheet covered in waxed paper. Place cookie sheet in freezer until needed.

To make ice cream: In small bowl combine 1/4 cup of soymilk with arrowroot and set aside.

Mix soy creamer, remaining 3/4 cup soymilk and sugar in  a saucepan and cook over low heat. Once mixture begins to boil, remove from heat and immediately add arrowroot cream. This will cause the liquid to thicken noticeably. Add vanilla extract.

Refrigerate mixture until chilled (3hours). After the chilling, put the mixture in your ice cream maker, churn it according to maker's instructions. In the last inute of churning, add the cookie dough balls.

You might want to eat some of the frozen cookie dough balls on their own. That's what we did because we had too many cookie dough balls to fit!

When the ice cream is done churning, pour in the freezer container, let sit in freezer at least a couple of hours, then serve!

It's so delicious. If you're wondering why our cookie dough balls are so dark, we used whole-wheat flour the first time because that's all we had lying around. It was good but a bit grainy so we would advise for the all-purpose flour they call for in the recipe.

Enjoy! And if you are around and need to borrow an ice cream maker, let us know.

SMILE

My Major Change

It's not often that I get on here and post an update, but one day that might change. Until it does, you all will have to be happy with the fact that once or twice a month (or year, ha ha), I (Chris) will post a line or two. This particular moment is to formally announce that I have changed my major. I won't ask you to guess what it is, because I have experience that tells me there are not many who guess it! I have had people say anything from art, to history, even to psychology! My new major, however, is not any of these; though some would say it is some twisted combination of all of them (if you count secret combinations as an art ;).

My new major is...drum-roll please...Government and Politics!

I know, pretty far away from Mechanical Engineering, but allow me to explain if you are still in your seat. I realized that while I love to build, design and fix things, especially cars, there is really only one job in engineering that would make me happy: project manager over an electric vehicle at Tesla Motors. Pretty specific, right? Well, along with that title comes the idea that to get to a position like that would take at least 20 years in the industry (I'm gifted, it's true, but some things can't be avoided when moving up). During those 20 years or so I would be checking out stress tests on parts that someone else designed, or checking to see if there was 1% more efficiency that could be squeezed from a moving part or battery. Don't get me wrong, I find all of this fascinating, and it's neat to see what people come up with the solve such problems...but I wouldn't want to be the one that bangs his head against a wall to figure it out. I realized that I love engineering and especially automobile engineering, but to make a career out of it would ultimately doom my passion to become the mundane or duty. So I decided, after much prayer and thought, that I would do international relations. I love people, and I love cultures, and I love new languages. Sure there are quite possibly many boring jobs in international relations, but the odds of me being able to live my loves of this field are much higher and come much sooner than 20 years in!

I'm sure there are some who think I'm crazy, others who already know I am, and otheres still that were undecided...until this point! lol. I changed my courses, and traded calculus III and physics III for government and political theory and microeconomics. So far I haven't looked back! I am happy, and that's what matters most. Graduation is not pushed back, but moved up by at least a year and a half, if not more. I don't know exactly where this new direction will take me, but I know it's moving in the right direction. I am so grateful for prayer, and also for the love and support of my dear wife, who has spent the last three years listening to my talk about becoming an engineer, and so lovingly supported me with patience and wisdom as we worked through this decision. I love you Sweetheart

PS. - vote for me...2020! lol