Check out my food blog. I always love to share a delicious recipe!

I have put several recipes on it already. I only will post recipes I have actually tried and like. I hate getting a dud.

Most of the recipes you will find are either old or are new but almost completely from scratch. Try your hand at it.

The foodstorage you have is hard to use unless you know how to cook it from scratch. So we'll give you tips on how to use those hundred lbs of beans, and other useful ideas.

This is Aydin Aksoy, a new friend of ours. He is the Vice President of the USA Dance chapter we joined. It was due to his and others' hard work that this competition in Long Beach was so successful.

He is awesome. We had a great time talking with him. We must have charmed him. He said we were his "favorite couple" and he was so sincere we know it's true. Just don't tell anyone else. :) He also gave us a nifty device that allows five headphones to connect to one Ipod, or two ipods to connect to four speakers. Talk mixer fun. Mmmmmhmmmm.

The pictures are from Aydin. Isn't he great?



This is a great shot of the new dress Kristy Made. Brian is also sporting the Shirt Kristy made for Smooth. It works. We think next time he'll use the vest as well.
Check out those Jepp/S pants. Nice eh?



This is Kristy's favorite part of the new dress: Swish, Swish.
The weight of the fabric bounces off of my knees and gastroc. It's very fun.



We made a few lovely friends at this competition. It is so nice to meet such wonderful people when we travel so far from home.

Social dance couples will have the opportunity to spend two hours with individual time learning steps and technique.

The Competitive Ballroom students can choose between choreography, core initiated ballroom exercises, or movement analysis.

Contact Brian for certificates- (208) 206-2429

We also do analysis and exercises to improve movement for their varied activities.
We have personally worked with Gymnastics, football, basketball, wrestling, ballroom, Jazz, and voice students.

dinner

Here is a picture of our first meal in the new apartment. You'll get more images of the apartment when I finish opening the last 15-ish boxes. We're close.

I am doing a great work, so that I cannot come down.

I strongly encourage you to read this article on keeping sights on what is really important.


We Are Doing a Great Work and Cannot Come Down

President Dieter F. Uchtdorf
Second Counselor in the First Presidency

From the Ensign of the Church of JESUS CHRIST of Latter Day Saints.

http://lds.org/ldsorg/v/index.jsp?hideNav=1&locale=0&sourceId=fbf6230bac7f0210VgnVCM100000176f620a____&vgnextoid=f318118dd536c010VgnVCM1000004d82620aRCRD

Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness

We recently discussed what inalienable rights are. We came up with this description (with the help of Jo)

A right is something that you have by being born. If you were born on a desert island all you would have is life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.

Saying that the things you would not have and are not entitled to are:

Food
Shelter
Marriage
Children
Healthcare
Money
Power

These are things that you could work for. They are a privilege. They are incentive. In fact you should work for them. By working for them you get a sense of accomplishment. You should not be forced to work for them either. That takes away freedom of choice. (For those who are LDS it's the difference of Agency (with consequences) or everyone being able to get back again (force) to Heavenly Father.)

However, if they are given to you without you putting in the necessary effort you do not understand what is truly required to have them. If somehow your benefactor dies, or whatever, then you suddenly lose your benefits that you didn't really deserve in the first place because you were not willing to work for them. You are in a rut and you are screaming "injustice!" and you're right. You don't even know how to get those benefits on your own merit. That is truly injustice.

I know that there is a lot of corruption in the land. I think Democrats have Socialistic tendencies and "some" think Republicans have anarchy (no desire for any government) tendencies. With so much corruption who can tell.

So maybe I'm neither. I am for the liberty, love, the family, and all that is right and good. I believe that evil should not be called good, and good should not be called evil.

I believe people have the right to pursue their desires. I also firmly believe that we should not remove the consequences they worked so hard to receive. It is not fair to punish those who work hard and are good while rewarding the wicked or lazy.

That said. You probably think I am heartless. On the contrary. As I have researched Charities, Non-profit organizations, and donations I have discovered that American's are the most giving collection of people in the world. Why? Because we have education, religion, and family values. We desire that people do not live in terrible conditions. We want to share our education, our health, and our wealth. We want to help the less fortunate, sponsor the determined yet underprivileged, and invest in those who do not have the current means but do have the inspiration for something great.

We want to teach people to fish so they can feed themselves for a lifetime.

I am appalled at the resentment created in people, because they are taxed in order to help others, implying that they themselves are not good enough to do it on their own. So families are pulling apart and resent helping each other, because they think that the government should do it, since they are paying taxes for that sort of thing. This happens so slowly (over a series of 50-60 years) that we think it is normal not to cling together and support each other.

I believe that the founding fathers had a pretty good understanding of corruption and how government should run. The Federal, state, and city governments were to have a set of checks and balances so that no particular party or organization would get strong enough to bring in corruption. (Although Washington himself warned against separating into parties at all.) That way even though there is evil in the world people would be too afraid to put power/greedy hungry people in power because it would hurt the people.

Well, afraid to say it. FDR used the terrible conditions to open the door to socialistic thinking...with the promise that when the war was over and the people returned to normalsy that Social Security and Medicaid/Medicare would end and the powers of government would return to how they were intended. So, more power was given to the government. The people were so eager to sell out their freedom for a handout.

The power was too tempting. It still exists.

The city should take care of city dealings.
The State should take care of state dealings.
The Fed should take care of Freeways, International relations, and severe crimes.

So what can we do? Get involved.

As "Remy" said in Ratatouille, "the time to change is now." It is not inevitable if we do not make it so.

Awake from your slumber and do the research. Don't just research modern day government. Do what John Adams did. Go and research the history of the world. Read Karl Marx Communist Manifesto, Read Voltair, Candide, the history of Russia, Broken Glass Floats, the Hiding Place. Find the good-bad-ugly and sort it out. Only then will you truly understand how freedoms are slowly taken away and must be paid for again with blood.

Prevent the Pride cycle. Arise. Focus on all that you can do.