These Are Real!

One of the tenets of my religion is that God continues to create. We believe He has created worlds without number, and that His work is ongoing. This is a concept that is difficult--no, impossible--to fully comprehend given my limited understanding of all things astronomical. But just one look at the incredible photos beaming back to earth from the Hubble telescope gives anyone pause. One would think some of these photos were paintings rather than photographs, given the dim view of the heavens we have from our limited earth-bound perspective, they are so magnificent and interesting. I have so much to learn!

Worm Lizards

So now that my son Marshall knows he is going to Brazil, I thought it might be appropriate to begin posting little tidbits I learn about the country to help him get mentally prepared for what he may encounter. Here is my first entry: Worm Lizards. I understand there have been major floods in Brazil, and worm lizards are swimming around in the flood waters as well as crawling around on land. Their bite is extremely painful. Advice: don't try to use one of these for fish bait!

Voce fala o portugues?

Big news in the Bowerman family! Marshall received that long-anticipated letter, announcing that he has been called to serve as a full-time missionary in...Brazil! We're pretty excited, to say the least. We watched him open his call letter on Skype. He had a few friends plus his brother and sisters who live near him all together as he opened it. (The picture on the right is from Skype, so not great quality, but better than just listening over the phone to the event!) His mission is called the Porto Alegre North Mission. When we first heard that, we were thinking he would be close to the equator, but after doing a little research, we have learned just how big Brazil really is, and his mission is in the southern part of Brazil, where he will get some chilly weather.

We don't know that much about the culture, so we will be doing more research over the next few months (he leaves in late August) to see what we can learn about the food, the weather, the people, and the Church in that part of the world.

As you can see in the cute picture above (he came home from a school field trip one day with that around his neck), this is something Marshall has looked forward to his whole life--what a great blessing it will be for him to be able to devote two years of his life to full-time service of the Lord, finding and teaching those who are receptive to hearing about the restored Church of Jesus Christ. He will leave as a teenage boy, and return as a young man, much more mature in his knowledge of the gospel, with a love in his heart for the people he served and with a deep foundation upon which to build his life.

Zombie Boogie Juice

Panic City! We went to get some sauce for our spicy meatballs at our favorite little salsa shop in the whole world, located in Alton, IL, and they were out of business! Not only did we not have any meatballs for Conference weekend to share with everyone, we started thinking maybe the manufacturer had gone out of business, because we couldn't find any store anywhere carrying this brand, Ahrun's Finest Zombie Boogie Juice. It's the best! It's made with habanero peppers and pineapple. I am not a fan of habanero salsas, because they are always so nuclear-spicy hot that you can't enjoy the flavor. But the makers of this barbecue sauce figured out that a little goes a looooong way, and got it just right. Meatballs like you have never tasted. Mmmmm!

What to do, what to do? Google to the rescue, I was able to locate a vendor (The Insane Chicken--probably ate a raw habanero) and place a mail order. And of course, shipping is pretty pricey no matter who you're buying it from, so to get maximum value, I just went ahead and got my year's supply. Hmmm...I wonder what the shelf life is for barbecue sauce?

And The Winner Is...

Hands down, Darlene's guacamole! She even brought a little dish of finely chopped Serrano chilies, just for me, to spice it up! Wow was it good. Darlene, you can't move to Las Vegas until you give me your recipe, I'm going to block the moving van if need be...

I Need Conference Food Suggestions

It's General Conference time and I'm thinking about what to cook. We've had a bit of a tradition the last several conferences-our good friends the Raymonds come over to watch it with us, and in between sessions we have snack foods and yummy treats that both we and the Raymonds have prepared. It can be difficult to concentrate during the morning session thinking about what's coming, and difficult to stay awake in the afternoon session after sampling all the goodies. Thank goodness we can record the conference for replays!

Anyone have any great ideas for this weekend?

We thought of Santa Maria style tri-tip (grilled beef with garlic and pepper), homemade salsa, and grilled skewers of veggies and meats.

But then how about grilled polska kielbasa, nachos, and zombie boogie juice meatballs?

Wait, wait, don't forget Darlene's incredible guacamole, kid's favorite chili cream cheese dip with Frito's, and charro beans?

And then, there's the recently popular Super Bowl phenom, the bacon explosion!

See my dilemma?

Hillary and the Butterfly, and other Fairy Tales

I heard today that Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton announced that Americans are to blame for the border violence in Mexico. I have to give her credit, she is the first person to apply logic to this situation and put it on a level we can all understand. Just one little problem, she didn't go quite far enough in her analysis to really get to the root cause. Chaos theory helps out here:

--A Mexican drug lord kills the mayor of a border town.
--A Mexican border town mayor makes a Mexican drug lord angry by saying he is going to crack down on drug traffickers
--A Mexican mayor feels compelled to do something about drug crime because his city is losing revenue from low tourism rates
--American tourists feel frightened because it's not safe to walk the streets of Mexican border towns due to the high crime rate of crazed druggies who need money to support their habits
--Mexican druggies fall into their bad habits because it is so easy to get the money they need to pay for the drugs by robbing American touristas
--Americans go to Mexico to shop and see the beautiful sights, especially things like the butterflies in the eucalyptus trees
--A Mexican butterfly flaps its wings