A Cockroach Marathon

Yeah, strange title, I admit. But let me explain.

Last weekend Ruby's bilingual preschool asked us to take our turn watching the oh-so adorable pet cockroaches that reside at the school during the week. Not plain old cockroaches, mind you, but giant madagascar hissing cockroaches. The girls kept begging to hold them when we brought them home. You would think they'd be terrified of them, but they had almost no fear of them at all. It seems more and more clear to me that fear is a social construct. For example, hundreds of thousands of people die every year in America in car accidents, but only a handful from deadly spider bites. Yet the ratio of arachnophobia vs automobiphobia (my invention) proves our fears are illogical and absurd. Why doesn't the hair on our necks stand on end every time we step into a car ... as we are exponentially more likely cheating death than if we see a spider on the ceiling. In attempt to summarize–fear is organic and mortal. It can take whatever shape you allow it to, but you have the ability to mold it, trim it, or even kill it. I'm working on killing some of my own.

One example - a marathon. I wouldn't say I was terrified of running a marathon. What I would have said 18 months ago would be to say that the work and discipline required to reach that ability is greater than my desire to do so. (if that makes any sense) In the end, my fears were buried in several layers of justification. The fear of giving up junk food, being a fat guy at a gym, failing and gaining everything back, setting a goal I couldn't reach, and on and on.
In the end, in fact, I decided to commit to a half-marathon. And once I finally committed to douse those fears in Round-Up until they shriveled into nothingness, only then did I realize that all of those fears were nothing but self-deception - they were a mirage created by my poor habits in attempt to stay alive and thriving in my mind. And once I realized that they were nothing more than smoke and mirrors, it was then that I broke through the false barriers of fear and lost the weight and began running and training. The half marathon was difficult for a formerly-fat newbie, but I realized a marathon would be the most appropriate slap in the face for those habits that fed on my fears for so many years. It was one of the hardest, if not THE hardest thing I have ever done, but I'm so happy to be able to shove that marathon medal into the faces of those fears to remind them that they no longer have a home here ... that they have been exposed for what they truly are. Freedom from fear is critical, beautiful and profound freedom in life. I have many more fears to expose and purge, but I'm happy to be making progress. This marathon was a great milestone (pun intended, unfortunately) in my battle against fear.

In other news, life is good. It's the day after the marathon and my new fear is that I'll walk like a 94 year-old for the rest of my life! I'm more sore than ever in my life. Holly has been kind enough to massage my legs now and then, but they're so tender I'm afraid the meat will just fall off the bone! But I suppose I'll heal and be back at it in ... a few years :)

Sonoma keeps growing and getting more and more adorable. We're about to start letting her cry through the night and are dreading it. It's so hard to listen to that ... but not quite as hard as losing sleep for endless nights to come. She's generally a very mild and happy girl -- she's fantastic.

Ruby and Olivia are enjoying school and just love spending time playing with each other. Lately they've really taken to the CD player downstairs and love to sit and dance and sing along to all the random CDs Bailee and Holly have given them. It's entertaining to watch ... and if you don't watch, they'll make sure to stop and remind you to watch them.

I'll try and shorten the soapbox for next week!

This week's recipe: Homemade Tortilla Chips (they were so tasty!)

2 cups corn meal
1 cup white flower
Add water and mix until it sticks but isn't sticky
1 tsp salt
1 cup veg oil

Put the oil in a pan and heat it up to fry the dough. Mix the dough and add the salt in. Break the dough into small balls that are roughly 1 inch in diameter and roll out as thin as possible. Then cut into quarters (triangle shaped) and toss in the pan for a few seconds, then flip them over. When they're just turning golden, quickly grab with salad tongs (or whatever), let the oil drip off as best you can, then place onto paper towels or some material that can soak up some of the oil.

I like them unsalted, Holly perfers a bit of salt. Throw them all in a bag, toss in a few pinches of salt and shake the bag. There you go.

Everything Matters

I've recently been listening to a brilliant podcast series called "Design Matters" by Debbie Millman. Debbie is a designer who interviews some of the greatest minds in the design industry. But before each interview she gives a monologue about a recent experience in her life. The experience usually seems very insignificant, but she finds profound meaning in any and every experience in life. Where most of us dig for diamonds among the coal of the everyday life, she seems to recognize the unforeseeable value of every single experience.

I'd love to change my perspective ... to see life for what it really is rather than pass it off as uninteresting, unimportant or insubstantial. I believe more than ever that every event, every conversation, and every experience in life has far more meaning than we give it credit for. I'll do all I can to start seeing with this new perspective.

And now, stepping back into the superficial updates ... as there's rarely enough time to write with the heart and thought that I'd like.

Olivia has started kindergarten at Bear River Charter School and seems to sincerely enjoy it. Ruby is doing her last year of Union bilingual preschool and should be fluent at this point! Sonoma is 4 months today and is realizing that she has vocal chords ... especially during quiet times at church :) She's adorable and growing faster than her hand-me-downs can handle.

Apart from that, our garden is giving us more tomatoes and zucchini than we can handle ... and the fall is always a fantastic time for local whole foods. We've been making mango leather, zucchini brownies and fresh salsa. Such a stellar season for food!

Here are a few photos from the past few weeks.

103 Photos and a few words of summary...

So, we sort of fell off of the blog-wagon for a few weeks. What can we say? It’s summer time and life with three kids takes getting used to! This week’s update will have to be a summary of those we missed.

We had the opportunity to go up to Myrna Redd’s cabin in Bear Lake for a few days. It was wonderful to spend time with family and friends up there. It was especially nice to see Andy and Erin Buteau and their children who were visiting from London (their kids have the CUTEST little accents).

Olivia turned five! It’s hard to believe that she is that old. It’s hard to believe that we were in Thailand that long ago, but yes, it has been five years. She is so fun to have around and we learn so much from her every day. She is excited about kindergarten. She loves princesses, pink, and all things girly. She loves sugar more than any of those things, but thankfully, she is very good at eating vegetables as well. She is a very loving big sister. She and Ruby love to sing and be either “mommy and baby” or “rock n’ roll girls” together.

Ruby's 3rd also happened in May...and we neglected to mention it. Sorry, Ruby! She's got to be the most adorable 3-year-old in the history of the world! She's pleasant, easy, sympathetic, (usually) obedient, and loves just about anyone who will talk to her. She's a fantastic little sister for Olivia and a loving and helpful big sister to Sonoma. What a gem (pun intended).

This month my sister Kristen and her family moved to Provo so that Marshall could attend law school at BYU. I got to go down for a couple of days and help them move in. Wish them luck! Also, my brother Clay and his wife moved to Salt Lake City so that he could work full time for the non-profit organization Fight the New Drug. Both families will be sorely missed here in Cache Valley.

In other news, we found a wonderful live-in babysitter named Bailee who will be with us for a while. We are very excited about her and love having her around. She is a Junior at USU majoring in special education.

Other than that, we’ve just been having a ton of fun and staying very busy this summer! Enjoy the photos ... we're using Picasa so the viewing and uploading is easier. You can watch the slideshow above, or click here for all of them.

Jello Legs, Double Duty & The World Cup

Monday was a holiday and like most non-work-days-that-aren't-Sunday I try and go on a long run or to do an extended workout to make up for short ones during the week. I decided that I'd truck up a mountain and run down ... bad idea! It was a beautiful climb up and the burn was feeling pretty good, but then I had to run down as fast as I could without dying. I think my legs DID die! About halfway down I tried to walk for a few seconds and my legs wouldn't have it ... I nearly fell over. So what did I do? Kept on running. By the bottom, my legs were Jello, but I felt okay. Little did I know that this one workout would render my legs useless for the entire week! They became so sore that the 90 year-old down the street looked like an olympian compared to me. Quite a painful week.

Then again, things have been so busy at Advent that I've had to work 12-14 hour days, and fortunately (I suppose) having legs isn't required for the type of work I do. And in case you haven't heard, we are DESPERATELY seeking to hire another full-time graphic designer and a web programmer! I'd prefer to not work double duty for the rest of my days.

The world cup ends this week and it has been perfect timing to have Stan and Nga here as they're big soccer fans as well. The whole Smith family, in fact, are quite fanatical about it all. It makes for an exciting month once every four years. We are in Alpine this weekend so we can all be together for the final game. Fanatical behavior augments when accompanied by other fanatical individuals. It's fun.

Recipe of the week: Mediterranean Grilled Salmon

1 large salmon fillet
1/4 C olive oil
3-4 Tb Herbs de Provence
1Tb sea salt

Drizzle olive oil over the fillet. Scatter the herbs and salt across a cookie sheet and rub the fillet into the seasoning on both sides. Toss onto the grill and cook on low for roughly 10 minutes per side. If you have a cedar plank, cook the fillet on top of it.

(We don't have our photos here in Alpine, so we'll try and get them when we get back)

Family & Blessings

It's been quite the week of family and remembrance of our freedoms.

I was thinking about this day of independence and started thinking about all the types of freedoms that we enjoy in addition to our free nation. There's freedom from mental illness, physical incapacity, poverty, addiction, abuse, and a myriad of other things. We have the freedom of knowledge and limitless information. Never before in the history of the world has the individual had access to more information than today. And the freedom of knowledge has brought us everything that makes our lives so very cushy and convenient. Electricity, plumbing, medical advancement, vision correction (whew!), and the like are all thanks to the freedom of and to knowledge and information. There are still countless countries across the world with a political and/or economic infrastructure that obstruct these foundational freedoms and thus lead to social and economic stagnation.

And since today was Sonoma's baby blessing, I couldn't help but reflect on the reality that she is being born in some of the most privileged circumstances in all of history and in all areas of the world. And with that immense privilege comes immense responsibility to give in return. We are given such great wealth, health, and education in order to be armed with the tools we need to give, serve, and assist those who have less in life. As the scripture states, "where much is given, much is required". I hope I can teach this lesson to Sonoma and my other girls–that they'll be grateful, service-minded, and humble.

A couple of images from this week:

Summerfest, Father’s Day, and the World Cup!

Last week was Summerfest, a long-loved Logan event. The weather was perfect and we had a great time enjoying good food, fun music, wonderful friends, and excellent weather. Finally – summer has arrived in Logan!

We have also been enjoying the exciting World Cup. It’s been awesome getting together with friends and family to watch exciting games. We are sad that the US is out of the competition, but will still follow the remaining teams. What a great sport!

Father’s Day was a lot of fun. We spent the day visiting family and even got to see the Biswas family who came to visit from California. I’ll just take this opportunity to say that Adam is the most amazing father.  He cares deeply for his daughters and would do anything for them. He has a magical way of making them laugh. He truly has a gift for keeping things upbeat and positive. I know this because when I have had it with things and am ready to scream and break a whole in the wall, he comes in and somehow lightens the situation, giving me perspective. He loves playing with the girls, getting on their level and engaging with them. He loves teaching them and is very patient. I’m so grateful for him.

This week the girls and I got to go to the canyon with Linda, Laura, and her girls. Viv and Ru had a wonderful time (they idolize their older cousins). They hiked a little, made a pretend fishing pole, and even got to touch a live fish that a made had recently caught. It was amazing for them.

Sonoma is already a month and a half old, and we can hardly believe it. She is getting bigger and we love having her around! Most people who see her say that she looks like someone in our family, or that a certain feature matches this or that person in the family, or that her eye will be a certain color – but their opinions are never consistent.  Blue eyes, brown eyes, Adam’s eyes, Ruby’s mouth, …who knows? She is her own person. She likes a pacifier, will take a bottle easily, makes noises that sound like a little lamb, loves snuggling, and is cuter everyday! Enjoy the photos…

Recipe of the week:

1 tsp Thai curry paste (red or green)
1 can coconut milk
1 tsp honey
assorted veggies (enough to fill the coconut milk) such as baby corn, peas, carrots, onions, cabbage, etc.
Cooked rice (brown or jasmine)

Add coconut milk, curry paste, and honey to a frying pan and turn on heat to medium low. Chop up the vegetables into small pieces then add to the milk mixture. Cook until the vegetables are soft. Salt and pepper to taste. Serve over rice. *honey and curry measurements can be adjusted depending on your desired spiciness/sweetness.

Island Park ... not too tropical

This week we took an Olsen family vacation up to Island Park, Idaho. When you hear Island Park, you may think of water sports and splish-splashety fun. Well, you'd be sorely disappointed ... yes, even in mid-June. The temperature averaged at about 55 degrees and it rained half of the time. And now that I've set the scene, I should mention that it was uber fun! We brought our mountain bikes up, and apart from my stupid bruised shin caused by my inherent try-stupid-tricks personality, it was a great ride.

 Island Park is very close to Yellowstone, so we spent one day driving into the park to see Old Faithful and a few other sights. That old geyser should have been called Old Rainful that day! It was raining the whole while as we waiting, but just as it was time to see it erupt, it started pouring. And since we're on that note, Ruby wet her pants in the car just minutes before, and all her clothes became contaminated ... a separate geyser story we probably don't want to get into right now. But at the end of the day, it was a great tour of a beautiful part of the world.

The World Cup started while we were up there and we just happened to be at a super-nice cabin (thanks Herm and Norma!) that had satellite TV, so we gathered to watch the US vs. England yesterday and were pretty happy to see us tie the game ... especially since the one US goal was partially due to a foolish error on the side of the English team. Wahoo!

Hippy recipe of the week:

Orange-Almond-Vanilla Grawnola  (http://goneraw.com/recipe/orange-almond-vanilla-grawnola

A combination of orange, vanilla, almond, cinnamon with a batch of sprouted buckwheat makes this grawnola a yummy breakfast treat. I am a big fan of grawnola, although I don't make it as much as I'd like to. Buckwheat is such a nice and light grain, especially when sprouted, and the orange-vanilla combination really highlights the overall flavours of the recipe. Enjoy!

Ingredients: 

1/4 cup sprouted buckwheat (soaked overnight, sprouted for 1-2 days)
juice of 1 orange
leftover orange pulp can also be used, chopped
1 tsp vanilla extract
1/2 cup almond pulp (leftover from almond mylk)
1 tbsp agave syrup
1/2 tsp cinnamon
handful of sliced almonds

Preparation: 

Combine ingredients in a bowl and dehydrate for 4-5 hours. Serve with nut mylk of choice or as a topping for banana soft serve (I served mine with some sumptuous blueberries).

Here are a few photos from the week:

4 Generations of Olsen Ladies

From the bear and wolf museum/zoo in W. Yellowstone.