FLANed out

If I were to ask you if you are a fan of flan, you would probably respond with a hearty, "No!" I have tried many a flan from different places and people and honestly, they have never been very delicious to me. My husband on the other hand, if you were to ask him what he learned on his mission he would respond, "I learn to make flan." Boy is he telling the truth. I don't think he "learned" to make flan, it is more like "mastered" it! The past few months, I cannot even begin to count the number of flans he has made and given to people. These are people that tell us that they do not like flan. After they taste his flan, they literally dream about it and beg him to make more. His flan has been fought over by more than one couple. So needless to say I'm flanned out. I usually get at least one piece of the flan and I can't take it anymore. NO MORE FLAN. I think we are finally going on a flan break. Maybe we will open up our own flan store, we could probably make a lot of money. By looking at this flan you would think it probably isn't different than any other flan you have tasted before. Oh but it is, it really is.

BBQ with the Quispe Family

Omar's good friend Justo and his family came up to visit us from Orland. They were our very first visitors to our home outside of Jacksonville except for my immediate family. We didn't cook anything super fancy, our usual chicken drumsticks, red-skinned mashed potatoes, white rice (even though I am completely against having rice AND potatoes at the same meal), crackers with spread, and salad. We had a nice time though visiting with one another and the kids watched Aladdin and Mulan II. We have tons of Disney movies that Omar has been collecting for years. It was so different having kids in the house. Hard to imagine that one day we will have some of our own. We look forward to more visits from friends.

Haiti - unbelievable

I am sure most people have been following the Haiti earthquake that occur ed on January 12th. This has been a very busy 2 weeks for me with work, so I have not followed it as much as I would like. One of my Big Brothers has a non-profit that he started about 2 months ago called WeRLove to help the Haitian people and orphanages. I wish I could have done more, but we brought over food, and toiletries for him to send to Haiti. They will need so much help really. His family in Haiti was right in the epicenter. They were very lucky, no one was killed or even badly injured or hurt.

I was reading in the paper last Sunday about the quake and it mentioned how some of the Haitians ask how God could do this to them. Really, it is a tragedy that it has happened, but I know that it is not God punishing people. It is just the random acts of a wicked world. Of course all the people who were lost in the disaster cannot be brought back, but perhaps this might help the country of Haiti in the long run to rebuild better.

It is amazing to see the spirit of survival people the Haitian people have. You hear of so many buried for over a week and still survive. One girl heard people dying all around her and when she was asked if she was afraid she told reporters that she wasn't because she knew she would survive. I think that is how it is with so many other aspects of our life, FAITH & HOPE really are the basis of everything we do. If we believe we can achieve, if we dream we can do, if we try we can become. Anyway...I just love this picture of the boy being pulled out of the rubble. Despite all he has probably lost, isn't it amazing how a positive attitude and smile can make us triumphant and radiate to others?

Manatees & Martin Luther King

My mom & I
Manatee family
Manatee nose - so CUTE!

So this past Monday was Martin Luther King Jr. day and I had the day off. I had thought about spending the weekend in Orlando, but really did not feel like driving all the way to Orlando. My mom and I decided to get together about 1/2 way at Blue Springs State Park to see the Manatees. This is the best time of year to see them beucase it has been so cold and manatees will die if they are in water under 70 degrees for an extended period of time. It was about 1.5 hours from where I lived. I had to leave early beucase the park opens at 8 AM but if you get there after 10 AM you might not be able to enter the park due to crowds. The earlier you arrive the more manatees you will see. There were over 150 manatees at the Springs when we went. We parked my mom's car at a nieghborhood park and drove in together and so saved $2 ($6 to enter the park). Manatees, turtles, and stingrays are probably my most favorite animals, so beautiful, gentle, and graceful. At the park you are not able to swim with the manatees during winter months since they are protected. I have swam with manatees before - 2 seperate times I went on manatee swims when I was in middle school with my mom's 8th grade class trips. That wasn't at Blue Springs State Park, but at Crystal River. I love them!!!



look how many of them are right there!
These "seacows" (herbivores) are eating part of the tree!
The original house of the people that lived at the river back in the day - can you imagine this being your home? So beautiful.

There were over 150 manatees the day that we visited

50 Things That Changed Our Lives Since 2000

I read this newspaper article by Jocelyn Noveck and she listed these 50 things that changed our lives since the year 2000... (I have italicized ones that have affected me/Omar or we have participated in)

1) Airports: terrorism changed them (no more bottled water; taking shoes off before getting on the plane
2) Alternative Medicine more mainstream
3) Apps
4) AARP cards: the boomers are hitting 50
5) Aging: people dressing younger and younger
6) Blog
7) Blackberries
8) Book Clubs
9) Cable (we actually have the bunny ears right now - go figure)
10) Cameras: no more developing film
11) Celebrity Culture: the growing obsession with their lives and TMZ
12) Cell Phones: used more than land lines (I would add blue tooth to that)
13) Chefs: on TV
14) Connectivity: wirelessly
15) Cougars: women dating younger men
16) Crocs
17) Dancing: ex. Dancing with the stars; so you think you can dance on TV
18) Dating: finding love online
19) DVRs (we don't have one right now though)
20) Embarrassment Entertainment
21) Facebook
22) Fat - banning transfat
23) Foodie - gourmet food palates (ex. gourmet burger)
24) Going Green
25) Google (Omar's G1 phone too)
26) GPS
27) Helicopter Parenting (hovering/obsessive parents)
28) Information Overload (tons of info at our fingertips but is it all accurate)
29) Instant Gratification
30) iPODS
31) Life Coaches
32) Musicals on the big screen
33) Netflix
34) Organic
35) Pregnancy Chic (flaunting the baby belly and coverage of celebrity pregnancies)
36) Reality TV
37) Recession Chic (fashion skewed to more severe style)
38) Retro Chic
39) Sexting
40) Starbucks
41) Tattoos
42) Texting
43) TV Screens: bigger and flatter (didn't change my life until I was married!)
44) Tween Culture
45) Twitter
46) Uggs: the fur lined snowboot frenzy
47) Wii (we finally got one for Christmas)
48) Wikipedia
49) Yoga
50) Youtube (I only use it so I can put videos on my blog - this came out during my mission)

I think I would also add-on: Wifi. Playstation 3 Blue Ray

Now lets review some Big events that happened to Omar and I since the year 2000:

2001-2003 Omar served his mission in NY, NY South Spanish Speaking
2001 Kate graduated high school and started BYU
2002 Kate went to France and Italy with a college professor
2003 Kate worked at Aspen Grove
2003 Omar went to Palmyra Hill Cumorah Pageant
2004 Kate worked in Alaska
2005 Omar started into his field of employment (Ranger America)
2005 Kate worked in Southern Utah
2005 Kate graduated BYU with her Bachelors in Science
2005-2007 Kate served her mission in Texas, San Antonio Spanish Speaking
2006 Omar started working for Integrated Excellence
2007 Omar became a Field Manager for his job
2007 Kate and Omar met
2008 Kate and Omar married & moved to Jacksonville
2008 Kate and Omar went to Honduras for honeymoon/vacation
2008 Kate and Omar celebrated Kate's birthday in Panama City
2009 Kate and Omar celebrated their 1st anniversary in Savannah, Georgia
2009 Kate and Omar bought their first house at Sandy Creek (Seda homes)
2009 Kate and Omar went on their first cruise together

Things we are looking forward to in the next decade: a family of our own, being debt free, my dad coming home, traveling to other foreign countries, trabajo nuevo para mi

Day 7: Day at Sea & Day 8: Embarkation

We weren't allowed to take pictures normally at shows, but this one was with the kids from Camp Carnival. There were over 500 kids on the ship. I wouldn't have wanted to bring my young kids on this ship for a cruise. It is too much of a party boat. Also below see the video of one of the activities we participated on board learning the Cha Cha.

Day 6: Grand Cayman

We had to tender out to Grand Cayman. Only about 100 people or so could go on a tender boat at a time. We had to collect a number. We were in group 8. It took us an hour and a half of waiting to get to land from our ship. At least we were not group 22 (they were handing out 22 when we finally left). We decided to go ahead and get a cheaper excursion on land rather than going through the cruise ship. We saved ourselves over $60 by getting our excursion on the land ourselves. We went snorkeling afterward, but I didn't get a good picture. It started raining when we were heading back on the boat. They took some really great pictures of Omar and I with the stingrays, but they wanted to charge us $50!!!
Pirate Ships in the harbor

Us heading out to Stingray City and then to Snorkel







Check out the video above!!!

Later we went and got a few souvenirs - our usual Christmas ornament and I also found some neat trays that were made with real shell. Later we ate native food - jerk chicken. It was so yummy!

Gotta love a KFC that has 2 chickens walking back in forth in front of it. Maybe it is real chicken they serve!