RYAN'S FIRST WHITE CHRISTMAS

Tomorrow we will have been in Michigan for two weeks. My mom was good enough to take care of a lot of our travel issues: looking after our cats while we are away and driving and picking us up from the San Francisco airport. We had a layover in Chicago that ended up being two hours longer than we intended because of our plan arriving late and then technical difficulties with the aircraft before we took off. In all of my travels that has been the worst plane experience that I've had so I count myself lucky. We were greeted happily in Detroit by my sister-in-law Leah and my three youngest nephews.
We spent that weekend in Detroit playing with the kids, watching debates between Christians and Atheists on youtube and making tasty food to eat. They let us borrow one of their cars and we left for Lansing the following Monday. It had snowed a lot but the roads were mostly cleaned off, though we did drive past at least three cars that had gone off the side of the road. Becca even called the highway patrol to come and get one of them. I'm glad she did because that was the coldest weather that I've ever been in. It was a biting 4 degrees Fahrenheit that late afternoon. We were happy to see Walter and RossAnn and thankful that we arrived without any problems.
The next day was our four year anniversary. We were in Lansing for our two year anniversary and went to some of the places that we had been two years ago. It was nostalgic and very enjoyable.
Then the Tobey's came from Detroit to Lansing and we were one big happy family in one little town house. It was reminiscent of the big holiday celebrations at the Boothe's house when I was a little boy and my cousins still lived rather close. Walter, my father-in-law, had suggested that we make a schedule and the scheduled days went pretty smoothly with everyone pitching in with the chores and the kids and everyone having free time. Walter commented that he loved watching the family get organized to serve and help one another in the best way possible.
There are lots of fun stories that we could tell about taking care of the kids but one in particular stands out in my mind. Two Fridays ago I was taking care of the twins in their room. Just out of curiosity, I decided to see what these little two-year-olds would do if I started speaking to them in Portuguese. They noticed the switch but didn't really seem to be bothered by it. We went down stairs to where the Christmas tree was and Ben started taking ornaments off. When he took one off that looked like a house, I did as I had been doing while we played and said object's name in Portuguese. This time, Ben furrowed his little brow and said House. quite adamantly. I responded, Não, é uma casa. to which he replied even louder House! I decided that I might be confusing them and switched back to English.
A week and a half later, last night after dinner, Ben and I were down in my In-law's basement where Walter has a small rope swing set up for the twins. To keep from being bored I decided to practice my German thinking up original sentences and then saying them aloud. Ben was swinging happily several feet away and I didn't think he noticed especially since I wasn't trying to talk to him. When I did finally turn my head in his direction I found that he had been looking at me rather seriously. He then shouted House!
Some other memorable activities were playing in the snow the day after Christmas. Becca, my brother-in-law Rick and his oldest son Richard built an igloo out of packed snow. The weather changed soon thereafter and a rather vigorous rain washed away most of the snow for most of last week. We took advantage of the good weather to go on a date with Rick and Leah. Rick had been to a Middle Eastern restaurant before and wanted to take us there. We stuffed ourselves silly eating wonderfully flavorful food and then went to the mall and played air hockey.
I appreciate all of you wonderful people who made 2008 so great for us. Becca and I are in a period of transition, a term that is often employed as a euphemism for hardship. In this case it is simply that: transition. This year we followed the Lord's counsel and made changes to our lives that we did not understand, nor do we completely understand them now. It is hard to see far reaching consequences of our actions but I am filled with a solid sense of optimistic curiosity when I think of what 2009 will bring for me and my lovely wife.
Happy New Year's Eve from Ryan and Becca.

THANKSGIVING 2008

Sorry, I still haven’t heard anything about my oral test results. I checked the PO Box about a week an a half ago and I’m sure that Becca will check tomorrow after she goes to the DMV. Please don’t get your hopes up too much because I was not as prepared to take that test as I should have been. It was a good experience and I feel very confident that I will pass it if I have to take it again in February (or whenever the next testing is offered).

I’ve had a stubborn cold for the past few days but it hasn’t kept me from enjoying Thanksgiving. Thursday we went to Atwater to be with my dad’s side of the family. Last year things took longer to prepare than was anticipated and we ended up eating all of the snacks. This year we were expecting the same delay so we brought lots of appetizers. Ironically, we only got to sample them because the turkey baked quickly and someone wisely put the appetizers away so we would still be hungry. The food was delicious! What happened after dinner was very nice as well: before dinner we were all told to write down some things we were grateful for on a slip or two of paper. After dinner we mixed up the pieces of paper and all read one out loud. It was supposed to be anonymous but ended up being pretty obvious who wrote what. All the same, it was a very nice activity since all of us had time to think and write down things that we were truly thankful for instead of having to improvise on the spot.

Saturday was spent with my mom’s side of the family at my grandmother’s house. I actually ended up spending a bunch of time outside, which turned out to be kind of nice since I’m inside all the time for my job. For the past couple of years Grandma has asked me and my brothers to put up her Christmas lights for her. A year seems to be a long enough time for me to forget how we did it the year before. I spent far too long on that project and it ended up being a family activity where just about everyone came outside to say what needed to go where. Even though that sounds annoying, it was actually kind of fun to be outside with everybody. Grandma, my aunt Laurey and I took Grandma’s pug for a walk and then Grant and I got out a bunch of Grandma’s Christmas decorations (which I’m sure will look great once she gets everything up). Grandma does so much for all of us that it really felt good when she asked us to do something for her.

I think what Becca and I feel most thankful for this year is feeling so loved and supported. Out in Utah we were 99% on our own and were very aware that if we didn’t make ends meet then they simply wouldn’t. We moved a lot and almost every time we did we had to build a new support system. God has blessed us greatly and we prospered in spite of our disadvantages but that doesn’t mean it wasn’t really hard. Coming to Modesto has been so easy! Thank you all for every little thing you have done for us since we’ve been here. We love to be invited over and when you stop by. We love not having to try and see everybody for a few minutes before we rush back across the desert. We love you all and are grateful that you are part of our lives.

I should also state that we are grateful for those who helped us while we were in Utah. Alicia, and now Darren, was always there to lend a helping hand and let us know we were loved. Our friends the Cranes, Higbees, Pinos and Kingsleys shared our sorrows and our joys in addition to driving us to airport several times. Last, but not least, Aunt Emma and Deb were absolutely wonderful acting as our matriarchal figures in the absence of our mothers bringing us together as family, getting us fabulous tickets to unforgettable events in the Conference Center and letting us stay at their home when it was needed. We will never forget any of you or the many ways that you showed your love for us when we lived close.

Even with all of this love and joy Becca and I still feel a nagging sense of incompletion. I’m sure that my cousins Jarit and Britain and the Lees in Fresno all had a good time but the family get-together was not the same without you. We feel the same way about our family in San Diego and San Antonio: your absence is sorely felt, especially during the holidays.

The ones we miss the most, however, are our wonderful Michiganders! Missing them isn’t quite as bad because we know that we’ll being spending two weeks with them enjoying Christmas and ringing in the New Year. We can’t wait!

I PASSED!

I just got my results back from the written interpreter's test and I passed! Though I can't find any hard core information about this, I've been told that only 2% of people pass the first time they take this test! WHOOHOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!
I'm registered to take the oral test on Monday the 3rd in Walnut Creek. Thank you for all of your prayers and encouragement.

Dumb Cat, Language Club and Not Many Massages

The huge economic recession has been scary to watch. Becca’s job has been really slow. I am very grateful that my business is doing as well as ever, something we thank the Lord for quite often. For the past ten years or so, in the LDS Church, we’ve been receiving counsel to avoid consumer debt, buy houses and cars that we can afford and to live within our means in general. This big crisis has come about largely because of unwise spending and living on borrowed money. Even though things are tough I remain optimistic about the future. I think that it will take us five to ten years to get out of this mess but I believe that America has the ability to get out of it and continue prospering.

I took the written portion of the state interpreter’s certification test at the end of last month. It was amazingly difficult and had very little to do with the courts and legal-lingo. It’s just a filtering test to get rid of people who don’t have a solid grasp of both English and Spanish. I need to find out what a passing score is. If all I need is a 70% then I feel pretty sure that I passed. If I need an 80% then I might have paid a bunch of money just to have a learning experience. I’ve also started taking an agricultural labor management course and hope to be able to couple that knowledge with being a certified interpreter. We’ll see.

While I was taking the test in Sacramento Becca was being graciously entertained by our good friends the Schofields. They were wonderful to include her in their plans, pick her up and drop her off, with such short notice. After going to Sacramento, we went to see one of the linguists that I interviewed a few months ago for my blog. Dr. Alexander Arguelles is a scholar who knows 30 different languages. He invited us to his home and let me look through his extensive language library. He was a gracious host and answered a bunch of my questions.

While there, his wife and two young boys came home. He is married to a very nice and pretty Korean woman and their two boys are between the third and fifth grades. Dr. Arguelles speaks mostly French to them and has enrolled them in a Spanish immersion school. The oldest boy explains communication at home like this: Korean is for shouting and for prayers, French is for being at home except when company is over and English is for every other time and when we can’t think of the word in French.

We love being in the Central Valley with so many friends and family close to us. We often felt alone and left to ourselves in Utah. Today we helped my Grandma Barbara set up her Wii and ended up bowling and playing tennis. Grandma is catching on very quickly and my Aunt Carrie is a natural. It was a lot of fun.

As much fun as it is to be here we miss our good friends who are spread out all over the place. Lately we’ve had some good chats with friends in Utah and Texas. Some friends and I started a sort of linguists club where we get together online once a month via Skype. We’ve had two meetings so far. In them we talk about language related topics, share our goals, give each other suggestions and then in following meetings we share how our goals went. The meetings have been great about getting everyone focused and encouraged to pursue our professional and personal goals as well as for giving us a place to talk about these subjects that we like so much.

We are also very active in Church. My past two lessons to the 14 to 16-year-olds have been about how to set goals, including spiritual ones, and to stay chaste until marriage. Becca has been very busy with activities for the teenage girls of the ward. We were both asked to speak in Church a couple of Sundays ago and I think that things went well. Becca, who was worried about having to speak for ten to fifteen minutes, ended up talking for twenty. She did a very nice job and everyone liked her talk. We were asked to talk about the witness’ of Christ that we had received and how they affected our lives.

Life can be mundane, overwhelming and demanding but all in all I’d say that things are going well. Thanks a bunch for your phone calls, emails, blog posts and for all of the other things that you do to stay in touch with us. I’ll leave you with a short video of one of our cats chasing imaginary monsters:

Teaching Brazilians to Play UNO, a Birthday in the Mountains and an Eventful Weekend

Our lives have definitely gotten more involved over the past few weeks. It seems like we’ve got at least one social activity a week on top of choir on Tuesday, activities with the youth of our church on Wednesday and volleyball on Thursday. In fact, this next weekend is going to be pretty involved as well: we’re going to watch Grant get his second degree black belt on Friday, I’m taking the written court interpreter exam early on Saturday morning in Sacramento (all prayers on my behalf will be greatly appreciated), on Sunday I’m singing a solo in church and the following Monday I will be interviewing one of the greatest linguists of all time for my blog.

Yesterday Becca, my brother Grant and my grandma Barbara all went up to Sonora for my cousin Brittain’s birthday party. It had been years since I had seen her dad Mark and I never get to see her and my other cousin Jarit very much any more. We were very happy to be invited and loved seeing everyone including my Aunt Carrie, Uncle Frank and Aunt Ruth and Uncle Murray and Aunt Laurie.

We renewed our Blockbuster online subscription. We saw the latest Rocky movie the other night and it was horribly boring. It had some good moments and was trying to communicate a good message but none of that made up for a slowly paced movie that often felt as though it were wandering aimlessly. We also watch TV series on DVD. It’s kind of a bizarre experience to watch a whole month’s worth of episodes in a single evening. Because of this I can no longer stand commercials. It’s kind of like reading a book. In Spanish they use the word capítulo (or chapter instead) of episode for their TV series and now that makes even more sense to me than it did before. I particularly like Detective Goren’s Sherlock Holmes-like character in Law and Order: Criminal Intent.

Two Saturdays ago we helped represent the USA at an international festival put on by the Hispanic Latter-Day Saints in the area. Our table had red, white and blue decorations and we served hotdogs, grilled cheese sandwiches and s’mores. Most of the Latin American countries were also represented and had much more elaborately decorated tables than ours. Their food was pretty tasty as well. There were choreographed dance numbers after that from different Hispanic countries. Interestingly enough, we were introduced to a Brazilian Latter-Day Saint who we’ve become friends with. She even invited us over to her house last Thursday night where we ate traditional Brazilian food and taught her how to play UNO. Her visiting teacher is an old friend of mine (the former Rachel Thompson) and she was also there with her little daughter Becca. It was a very nice evening.

A Happy Linguist, Technical Difficulties and Working with the Youth

This week we start my virtual bilingual call center. An elementary school and a high school will be able to call a toll free number whenever they need to talk to Hispanic parents and I’ll be on the other end interpreting for both parties. It’s a trial run that I’m doing for free until the end of the month. We’ve already run into some technical difficulties, which is quite frustrating, but I hope to find solutions for them with the help of my good friends Dan and Cameron, who I eventually would like to hire on full time.

We had a scare this week. Becca has been having some very weird symptoms off and on for the past two week or so. She gets achy bones and a headache for about four or five hours, usually in the evening, and then the fever breaks and she’s fine the next day. My mother-in-law, a former nurse, said that it sounded like textbook pneumonia so she went to an urgent care facility where she was told that she didn’t have pneumonia but did seem to have some other type of bacterial infection. They gave her antibiotics which seemed to rid her problems but then last night she felt sick again. That was frustrating to say the least. Perhaps the antibiotics haven’t really had enough time to work and maybe these are allergy symptoms. We’ll see. The important thing is she doesn’t have pneumonia, which took Bernie Mac’s life a few weeks ago.

My language blog is getting more popular. I was interviewed about language learning on a more popular language blog and the recording of the interview, as well as a link to my website, is posted here. That got me a lot more hits. In June my site was averaging 53 views a day; in July it averaged 65 and this month it averaged 92. On Tuesday some friends of mine and I will get together via Skype and have a conference call meeting. We’ve decided to form a club of linguists/business men where we share ideas, set goals and try to keep ourselves motivated and competitive in the language area of business. I’m actually pretty excited to get that going.

Today Becca and I were called to work with the youth of the Church. The bishopric had some miscommunication about where Becca was going to serve and she was accidentally asked to serve in two spots: teaching the little kids and helping the teenage girls. It was decided that she would serve with the teenage girls but when the bishop asked for a sustaining vote in Sacrament Meeting he accidentally said Young Men’s Organization instead of Young Women’s. He caught himself after he said it but it was still pretty ironic. I will be teaching a class to the 15 and 16 year-olds boys about becoming men in the Kingdom of God. I’m actually really looking forward to it.

Thank you for you emails. We love being close to my side of the family (we’re barbequing at my dad’s tomorrow!) but we really miss our family that’s in Utah and Michigan. We’ll have to take a trip some time.

Good Produce, Two Cats and a House

We survived the move and are about 80% unpacked. Once the essentials are nicely put away it’s hard to find the drive to put away everything else. I remember my dad saying that if a box of things has gone unpacked for two years you might as throw it away. With the exception of things like picture albums I have to say that I really like his idea. Since we’ve been married Becca and I have moved many times: from our respective apartments to the tiny white house behind the Provo library; from the tiny white house to my mom’s house for a couple of summer months; from my mom’s house to a basement apartment; from the basement apartment to São Paulo Brazil for a couple of summer months; from São Paulo to our third story apartment in South Orem; from South Orem to a house in Central Modesto. That makes six times in three and a half years and not staying any one place for more than a year. We’re ready to break that old record and stay in this house for at least two.

We love California. The abundant agriculture products of the Central Valley are rich and flavorful. I remember preparing a refried bean and ground turkey mixture that I make and chopping a clove of garlic for it. The garlic’s odor was rich and strong and made for some delicious tacos. We also love the strawberries, peaches, nectarines and tomatoes here.

Each time we moved we felt that we had to start all over getting to know our neighbors, church members and new friends. Here we have been invited over to most of my relatives homes (we’re still waiting for my dad’s folks to give us a call J) and many of our friends have been over to visit us as well. I still have to get back to a few of them. It’s nice to feel wanted.

Our wonderful landlords have allowed us to get two cats. One is a kitten that my step-mom and step-sister Tristine went and got but had to give up since their current cat kept hissing at it. They asked Becca if she wanted it and Becca accepted. She is several months old and weighs not quite four pounds. She was the runt of the litter. They didn’t think she would survive when she was born so Tristine named her Mira, being short for miracle.

We went to a nonprofit rescue center to get our second cat. The night before we went I had a dream of a dark colored cat in our bathroom. When we went to look at the animals I saw a full grown, dark colored cat the reminded me very much of the cat in my dream. Curiously, I felt like we should get her instead of getting a kitten like we had planned on. Fortunately, Becca felt the same way. Compared to the tiny kitten she looks quite large so Bertha sounded like a good name for her. Don’t ask why.

Becca likes her bosses and coworkers and is impressing clients left and right. She does at least four massages a week for people who request her because of work she’s already done on them. This is after working there for barely a month. After not practicing her profession regularly for about a year and a half she’s feeling the stress of it physically. Hopefully she’ll get back into the grove soon.

I’m starting a new pilot program with a high school and an elementary school here in Modesto. We’ll be providing live interpretation for them during school hours via the internet. It’s actually very exciting and I have high hopes for this new service. I would explain more but it’s time to go to church. Thanks for reading.

SORE THROAT AND NO CLOTHES

I started feeling it coming on last night. I've got a sore throat and some cold symptoms. Bleech! I'm canceling my Chinese lesson and sleeping in tomorrow. I packed away all of Becca's clothes and most of mine. Tomorrow I'll tackle the guest room and the office after work.

LAST WEEK IN UTAH

If I stayed here in Utah for about three more weeks I would have been here for five years, off and on. I've gotten used to the mountains and how close everything is. I've gotten used to most everybody going to the LDS Church. I've gotten used to no traffic on Sundays and people being very trusting. I never did start giving directions using north, east, west and south. I don't say thinks like "crick" or "oh my heck" and I don't refer to Utah as Zion.

I sent a sign up sheet around church today and eleven guys put down their names and numbers offering to help me bring everything down from my third story apartment into a moving van. I was touched to say the least. Becca and I are also trying to get people together so that she and I won't have to unload everything ourselves once I get to Modesto.

I was pretty much alone all last week. My brother Garit came and visited me on Tuesday but that was it. My human interaction has been limited to telephone calls and webcams with Becca and chatting on the internet with other friends. Although it's kind of fun at first it also gets old pretty fast. I am anxious to get to Modesto.

When you study a language you inevitably have to study the culture a bit as well. I don't know if any of you have heard but the oldest civilization in the world is trying to get its citizens to be more civilized. After the cultural revolution of the 1950's being highly civilized started to become looked down upon in Mainland China. The PRC really wants to make a good impression on the rest of the world so they've produced this video to try and remind people (especially Beijinggers) to be helpful and polite.

This next video is a bit long but I really like it. It's one of many songs that was written in honor of the Olympic Games in Beijing. It features most of China's famous singers. The only one I recognize is Jackie Chan. Yes, Jackie Chan has had a successful pop music career in China a long side his Kung Fu movie career. He did the dialog and singing for the character of Captain Shang in the Mandarin language dubbing of Disney's Mulan.

Our new landlords have been extremely kind to us. It makes us really want to keep our new house in good condition while we live there. For us, this new house will have tons of space and I'm looking forward to that. It's in a quiet neighborhood in between McHenry Avenue and Coffee Road (for those of you who are familiar with Modesto) and less than a mile to the south east of my old high school. Becca has been working at her new job in Modesto for the past week, which is why I'm alone here in Utah.

A chapter of my life is coming to a close and another one is about to be written. I don't know exactly what awaits us in Modesto other than wonderful family and friends. It will be interesting to see what the next five years has in store for Ryan and Becca Boothe.

A WEDDING AND A FAMILY REUNION

My cousin Matthew and his wife Heather have been married for about two weeks now. They were sealed in the Salt Lake Temple and then had a ring ceremony that evening in Sandy. They are a lovely couple and I hope the best for them. I really liked seeing my extended relatives, especially the ones who live in Texas who had not seen in around ten years. Two of them are married now and I had the chance to visit with their spouses a bit. I can honestly say that they all seem like great people and I am pleased to be related to them.

A curious thing happened while I was at the wedding activities, and this just goes to show how interconnected the Latter-Day Saint Church really is. A married couple from my local congregation came to the wedding. He is a retired professor who spent much of his career teaching Spanish linguistics at BYU. Apparently, while he was getting his PhD in Michigan, he and his wife were the youth leaders of the groom's mother and her siblings. I was commenting about this to one of my aunts and she pointed out that she also knew this professor and that he had led her study abroad program to Spain when she attended BYU. The connections don't stop there. He also taught my Portuguese linguistics professor who led the study abroad program to Brazil that Becca and I participated in last year. In addition to that, he was the Missionary Training Center president in the Dominican Republic while Becca's roommate was there. His name is Halvord Clegg (just in case one of you knows him) and everyone knows and loves him and his wife.
The Monday after the wedding there was a Hunsaker family reunion in Layton Utah. My grandmother is a Hunsaker. This was the first time that I had ever met any of her siblings. I really enjoyed finding out more about my great-great grandparents and Grandma's brother and sisters. Becca and I both thoroughly enjoyed being around so much family that weekend.

Another Phone Call to Brazil, Massage Therapy and 27 Years of Ryan Boothe

Well, besides not having a huge party for Ryan’s birthday, it went pretty well. I made him breakfast and then he got to open his presents. At his request, I made him a homemade lemon meringue pie for his “birthday cake.” It was time consuming but well worth it. We bought Bombay House take out (Indian food...YUM), played video games and watched a movie of course! We got a large translation for his birthday which balanced out our slow month.

We have both been steadily losing weight little by little. So far we have both lost 10 lbs. YAY! Hopefully by the time we move to Cali we will both be our target weights!

I am very excited for California, but I must say…I will miss the Utah mountains. I never understood how people from Utah could love their mountains so much. After living here for about 4 years on and off, I realize what a blessing they are. They are so majestic and beautiful…and right there in your face…every day! I never thought I would call Utah home, but it sure feels like home every time I come back. It is comforting every time I see the mountains after I have been away.

There is a Massage Therapist who lives in the same apartments that we do. We trade whenever her schedule permits it. I love getting more massages! My last full body massage before I met her was in Brazil at a hotel we were staying at. Besides their far less modest draping techniques (in Brazil), I was quite relaxed. It is cool that we both had different training because we are able to experience different modalities than what we were taught.

So far so good with the supplements I have been taking. I really, really like them! In the 2-3 weeks that I have been taking them I have checked most things off my list (the list of things I wanted to see improvement on). There is only one more major thing on the list (out of 5 major things), and that one is more complex than the others. Hopefully that too will be accomplished soon.

Oh, I got called to the Young Women’s presidency in my ward (LDS congregation). I am now the 2^nd counselor and over the 12 and 13 year old girls (Beehives). They are a fun bunch…lots and lots of energy!! It is strange to think that I am the grown up, when I was a Young Woman in my ward in NY about 5 years ago! I was a Beehive 10 and 11 years ago!!!!!! It is amazing how time flies!!! I never thought those years would end, and here I am married for the past 3 ½ years, out of school and moving to California…for the 2^nd or 3^rd time???!!!! HOLY COW! As a girl from NY, I never imagined I would be living in California.

Anyway, that is all for me this week.

Thank you very much to all of you who remembered me on my birthday with phone calls, cards and gracious gifts. It was an enjoyable day. Birthdays have seemed less important to me after I turned sixteen but it is still very nice to see who I am important to once a year.

Knowing Portuguese has certainly been a blessing in my life. This week I read on the internet about a Brazilian professor who published a poetry anthology called Babel de Poemas where he translated poems from sixty different languages into his native Portuguese. Other than making me want to buy the book, I became curious about the translator.

His name is Carlos do Amaral Freire. In 2001 Cambridge University gave Dr. Freire an award and included him as one of the 2,000 greatest intellectuals of the twentieth century. His scholarly studies have included learning 115 languages. He has conducted research and taught college courses in several universities in South America, the USA and Europe. After reading several interviews with him I did my internet stalker thing and found his home telephone number. He lives in Florianopolis which is one of the cities that Becca and I visited last year. This morning I gave him a call and he was gracious enough to talk to me about a number of subjects from language learning to translating to Ziad Fazah to language comparison and so on and so forth.

Life goes on much as it has for the past eight months or so. Work was slow but steady this week and I made some efforts to get new clients. My right knee and ankles have not been hurting as much so I went jogging twice instead of riding a bike or exercising on an elliptical machine. There is something satisfying about working out regularly. As Becca and I have been eating much healthier this past month we have found our bodies reacting adversely to unhealthy foods. I suppose that’s a good thing. It’s sure nice to feel my clothes fit more loosely.

Minerals, Slow Business and Language Learning

It’s now quite warm here in Utah Valley; I’ve felt uncomfortable in anything but shorts the last few days. I love mild summer weather. I think that I prefer living in a T-shirt, shorts and sandals to anything else.

Work has been slow so I’ve been studying up on Chinese and blogging more. I can now add Iran, Hungary and Venezuela to my list of countries that have people who read my language blog. I’ve also found free podcasts to listen to in Portuguese and Spanish. They are radio programs with the commercial breaks taken out and put into MP3 format so I can listen to them on my Ipod whenever I want.

The Spanish one (La Matinal) is curiously broadcast out of the Netherlands and gives about ½ an hour of current international events every day. The Brazilian one (Café Brasil) is an informative and entertaining ½ hour weekly program put on by Luciano Pires, a sort of talk radio host, who addresses a single weekly subject while playing snippets of different songs that complement his points. I usually listen to these programs while at the gym or doing chores around the house.

Here is Becca:

Hello, hello!!!

The week has actually been quite slow concerning the business, we have had a lot of time to read (yes…I am reading a book) and do things that we want to (as long as we stay home in the office). I have been reading the book called “Dead Doctors Don’t Lie” by Dr. Joel D. Wallach & Dr. Ma Lan. Dr. Wallach is known as “The Mineral Doctor”. I am quite fascinated by him and the Youngevity nutritional supplement line. I am so curious and fascinated that I decided to try the products for myself, and in order to get the 30% discount I joined the MLM and became a distributor. It is based on the fact that the body needs 90 nutrients (vitamins, minerals, essential amino acids and essential fatty acids) in order to function properly and have the tools it needs to heal itself.

Through my Massage Therapy education I have learned how incredibly connected the body is on so many levels, more so than I can even comprehend. If there is an imbalance in one area of the body, our body compensates the best it can to allow us to continue living. What a great built in feature!!! Sometimes this doesn’t work as well as we want it to. Most of the time we wish that our body just wouldn’t get sick and that disease wouldn’t happen. It sure would make life a whole heck of a lot easier. We can be born with nutritional deficiencies. We also neglect our body causing nutritional deficiencies. If we don’t give the body what it needs…how on earth can we expect it to prevent us from falling ill, or to heal itself once we have gotten ill?? I think Dr. Wallach is on the right track. So far it is the most complete line of nutritional supplements that I have seen so far. I will keep looking. There are 4 things in my life that he claims are due to nutritional deficiencies that I would REALLY like to get rid of. We will see how it goes! My Heavenly Father has given me a body, and I want to treat it right. I believe that he made our bodies to do incredible things, and that since he loves us so much, he provided the necessary nutrition on this earth for us to consume so that we can work properly. He never gives us a challenge without providing a way to achieve the goal. I am hoping that I will be able to supplement my diet with things that will do my body good. This is a good step in the right direction to take in my life. If you are curious about the products, you can visit my website at: www.Youngevityonline.com/BeccaB

SO, that is that. I am really excited to try these supplements. In addition to taking the supplements I am going to “kick my butt” at the gym with cardio and ab workouts, as well as go on a healthier diet than the one I have been on. I am turning over a new leaf!!

That is pretty much it for me this week.

THE IN-LAWS, AN EARLY BIRTHDAY AND MOTHER'S DAY

Well, the weather has been beautiful so far this past week. Ryan and I have enjoyed going on walks. It is so nice to be able to walk with him. It is very peaceful. I definitely enjoy his company.

Things have slowed down again for the business. We are hoping that it picks up soon. We have been riding quite the rollercoaster lately. Thank goodness it mainly goes up hill.

It was a really nice 8 days having my parents here. I haven’t seen them in a year and a half, so their surprise visit was quite welcome. We went to Lava Hot Springs in Idaho the day after they got here. It was wonderful. It is one of my favorite places to go (mainly in the winter so you can roll in the snow after taking a dip in the hot waters). Natural springs are piped in. I guess it is somewhere around 3 million gallons of water per day get cycled into a nearby stream to keep the water pure. I got quite sunburned on my thighs and shoulders with little hints of redness in other places. Luckily Aloe Vera was on hand so it didn’t last long. Aloe Vera is a necessity when you are a red head. My aunt Annette told me she puts castor oil on sunburns, and it actually helps red heads to tan!! I must try this!!!

I baked and cooked my parents lots of yummy things. The end of their visit came seemingly so soon that I was frustrated that I wasn’t able to cook them everything I wanted to. We were able to go to an El Salvadorian restaurant in downtown Provo that my mom has wanted to go to for 3 years. She served her mission in El Salvador. Beans, rice, crema, home/hand-made thick fresh tortillas and fried plantains……mmmmmmmm…mmmmmm!!!!!!!!! I could definitely eat that every week. We also went to see the movie Iron Man. I really liked it and of course my hubby and dad did as well. My mom was sweet to humor us and go. I think she enjoyed it overall. We also celebrated Ryan’s birthday early. I made Grandma Boothe’s peanut butter caramel and vanilla ice cream goodness….but I used pretzels instead of graham crackers. It is Grandma Boothe’s recipe right???....What is it called?? Well, it is gone none the less. :) Ryan was quite shocked and didn’t know what was going on when we sang him happy birthday as he came in the kitchen…candles and all. It was pretty funny! I wish I had a camera capturing it…haha.

Oh, so I am on a frozen blueberry kick right now….oh goodness I just can’t get enough of those wonderful little berries!!!

Well, that is it for me for now.

Happy Mother's Day! I hope that all of you wonderful mothers were treated well and were surrounded by those who love you. All the women in our congregation were given a big fat chocolate bar instead of flowers this year. I think that it went over quite well.
I also enjoyed my in-laws' visit. They were wonderful guests. We also got a chance to see several of Becca's aunts, cousins and her uncle Phil, all of which was a lot of fun. We ate a lot of good food, watched some good movies, played fun games and enjoyed each other's company. People in church today commented about how they liked my father-in-law Walter who was quite outgoing last Sunday.

I was going to erase my language blog a few weeks ago because I thought that not very many people read it. Before deleting it I thought that it might be a good idea to find out if people read it or not based on something other than the number of people who comment on what I write so I found a way to get some simple statistics. The result was surprising. In just under a week my blog has received the visit of over ninety people from Canada, England, Ireland, Spain, Sweden, Australia, China, Korea, Japan, Brazil, France, Belgium, Italy and fourteen different states of the USA! Needless to say, I have felt more encouraged to write.

We are still going to the gym regularly and I'm still studying Chinese and volunteering at the MTC. Work is good. We were so extremely busy last month that even a "normally" busy month will seem slow but I'm still hoping to keep busy. Once I got done with an enormous project that I was working on for the Los Banos Unified School District I got a bunch of things to do from a variety of our other clients. We'll see.

EXCITED FOR CALI & RYAN'S NEW BLOG

Well, hello all! I haven’t written in a while so I thought maybe I would begin this post. We have had some pretty sporadic days when it comes to the weather. It will be all nice and sunny…around 75 degrees, and then it will snow and get all nasty and cold. I am ready from spring to come and stay. I think we will have days of spring, interrupted by the winter that doesn’t want to give up, and then a really hot summer. I wish we could just have spring as a season instead of a battle between two other seasons for more time. I must say I have had a few days where opening all the windows is fantastic (until the smokers downstairs open their windows…which all the smoke then comes up to our apartment). Yuck!

I am finally over my cold! Yay! It lasted about 2 nasty weeks. The seemingly unending pressure changes in the weather didn’t help at all with my sinuses.

The business is quite busy, especially in the beginning of the week. We are thankful for this because by the time we are worn out things slow down so that we can enjoy a nice weekend before the rush on Monday. We are bringing on more translators which should help.

We are very excited to move out to California come July/August. I am especially excited about all the farmers markets, Gilroy Garlic Festival and sunny weather with just the right amount of humidity. I hope to make the festival next year. I hear Teryl and Penny like to go so we hope to maybe tag along with them one year. I am super excited about moving to Cali!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I just can’t wait!

We are looking for a house to rent/lease in the Modesto area. We hope to spend on rent between $700-$1000/month (preferably no higher than $800 so utilities won’t kill us). If you come across anything that seems to be in good condition and not dumpy let us know! I would love it if the place had a garden because I just have an itch to do gardening. I want to more and more each passing day. Many places seem to have lawn service included in the rent which would also be nice. There is absolutely nothing online when it comes to houses. Only apartments, and none so far that meet what we want and need.

We really can’t wait to have a kitten and maybe a small puppy as well. Not too long ago we got to watch two orange kittens that were absolutely adorable and soo funny to watch. Some pets would be a nice addition to our home since babies aren’t here yet…L

I finally used the gift card Ryan bought me for Christmas to Banana Republic. I bought 2 nice shirts that are just right for me and look great on. Also, I was able to buy two really nice dresses at another store which made me really happy since I have been needing new dresses. One is a black button up shirt dress with ¾ length sleeves and a full tea length skirt…very elegant/casual and classic all at the same time. The other is a white eyelet dress that has the appearance of being a wrap around dress. It also has a tea length full skirt. I feel very lady like and feminine in them while feeling modern and in style at the same time. I love it!!!

Raquel and Rocio and I went shopping yesterday(Tuesday) which was fun. Raquel looked great in everything but ended up not getting anything (mainly because the one she wanted wasn't in her size) Sad...we would have had the same white eyelet dress! *sniffle sniffle*

We are still diligently going to the gym. We really like the habit and plan on keeping it for as long as we can.

I am looking forward to my parents coming to Utah sometime in July. It will be so very nice to see them seeing as though I haven’t seen them in a year and a half!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! That is way, way too long to go without seeing your parents. I hope I never have to do it again. Depending on the place we find in California and when we move in…maybe they will be able to come to Modesto instead. We will see. If they do come to Utah I will be happy because my dad is the ultimate packer to have around when moving. Everything is labeled well, packed in the truck according to size, weight, fragileness and shape so that nothing will fall or become broken during transportation…it is all very logically executed. I LOVE IT!!!!!!!!!!! I wish my dad could be there every single time I ever move in my entire life. He is amazing!

My sister and Rick finally sold their town home. They will be moving to the Detroit area. Wonderful…because they are closer to the airport….stinky because they won’t be 2 houses down from my parents so it won’t be as easy to get together with everyone or help with the nephews.

Well, that is it for me this post. Here is my wonderful sweet hubby:

I’ve started another blog. Well, I’ve kind of started three. So including my language one (read my latest post about the world's top 20 languages) that makes four that I have where I am the only writer and this one where Becca writes with me. The blog is called Mormon Explanations and it is going to address LDS beliefs and common misconceptions about the LDS Church and its people. I feel that this is a good thing to do since there is so much Anti-Mormon propaganda so readily available on the internet.

Bigotry is often a form of ignorance and the best way to combat ignorance is with knowledge. As I started looking around online I found that, along with a lot of slanderous and nasty Anti-Mormon people, there are a bunch of other Mormons like me who are trying to reach out to the world and allow people to find out about the Mormons from actual Mormons instead of from hateful people who lie and defame us.

For those who don’t know, tens of thousands of Mormons from all over the USA and the whole world congregate twice a year to the Conference Center in Salt Lake City Utah to listen to their leaders speak in a General Conference. At each of these meetings there are hecklers like the men in the video below.

I’ve been to General Conference about half a dozen times and every time I went there were about a dozen hate mongers like theses ones who yelled at all of us while we assembled to praise the Lord Jesus Christ. Salt Lake is around 40% LDS and Utah is about 65% LDS. Can you imagine antagonistic hecklers like these at the Kabba in Mecca, at the Wailing Wall in Jerusalem or at the Vatican?

I remember being curious about the Jehovah’s Witnesses so I got my hands on a copy of one of their own pamphlets. I read it pretty thoroughly and even looked up many of their scripture references in a King James translation of the Bible and a Jehovah’s Witness translation of the Bible (at the time my roommate had a copy). I respectfully disagree with some other their interpretations of God’s word but I truly respect the fact that they heavily advocate racial tolerance, meticulous Bible study and active proselyting by their church members. My point is that I went to the source for my information and I wish that more people did that with the Mormons.

I could rant and rave some more about this subject but I think I might calm down a bit first and then go and put it on my new blog. Becca has just made a fabulous dessert and I’m going to go have some. One of the most foolish bits of Anti-Mormon propaganda is that we are not Christians. I will end this post by including a video of current leaders of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints who can shed some light on this subject.

SUPER NINTENDO, PUTTING MY FOOT IN MY MOUTH AND GENERAL CONFERENCE

My planner says that I've got fifteen minutes before I have to start work so I'll see what I can get in. Boy is there a lot of work to do! The Los Banos Joint Unified School District has made some huge requests and I'm working hard to meet them.

General Conference was absolutely wonderful. My mom was in town and had tickets to the Saturday session which we both attended. Becca was at home with the cold. Mom and I went nice and early and were able to get very decent seats in our section. I think that it’s funny and slightly embarrassing how nobody, not even those of us in the Conference Center, paid close attention to the instructions that Elder Uchtdorf gave. I particularly enjoyed Elder Nelson’s talk that session and was surprised by Pres. Eyring’s talk; he usually isn’t the one to bring the hammer down.

I had my first brush with E-Bay last month. I bought a little game machine that plays old Super Nintendo and regular old eight bit Nintendo games. Playing them has been very weird. I suppose that it’s the closest I’ll get to feeling like Jason Bourne from the Bourne Identity movies. I couldn’t tell you beforehand but as I play some of these old games, like Mario World, I notice that my fingers just seem to take me to all of the old secrets that I found back when I was fourteen. This reminds me just how much I used to play those games. Becca is enjoying them as well and has already beaten Mario World on her own.

I put my foot in my mouth last night. We were waiting at the church to get our temple recommends switched over to the bar code (yes we’ve been quite tardy) and I brought along my Portuguese flash cards for something to do while waiting. One question from people sitting around us lead to another and little old Uruguayan sister started chatting with us. She said that Uruguayans get a long with both of their neighbors: Brazil and Argentina. I thought that this was an interesting comment. EVERYBODY complains about the Argentineans. I joked a bit about Argentina and said that I didn’t believe her when she said that her country got a long with them. I then found out that another one of the sisters waiting with us was from Cordoba, Argentina. Whoops!

Okay, times up. We love you all and hope that all is well.

THE PINK FUZZY MONSTER, OLD FRIENDS AND COSTA RICA

Going to the GYM has been great. I’ve been sleeping better and I feel great. I still feel just a little out of place, most of the people there are GYM rats that are in great shape and wear very trendy clothes, but over all I like it. My friend Luis came with me last week to lift weights and thoroughly shamed me; it was fun to have the company though. Although there are some pretty funny characters that go to the GYM, I’d have to say that the funniest thing that I’ve seen so far is the guys outside a particular dancing class. Becca told me that the name of the class is actually “Dirty Dancing.” The walls of the classroom are made of glass and there was a whole group of guys outside drooling inconspicuously. I saw everything from guys pretending to workout while not prying their eyes from the class to others who whistled to their friends across the GYM and motioned to them to come and watch. I chuckled for days.

I just got done writing a two page history of the Chinese language that I was going to include in this post. After I got done, I realized that it would be a bit too long for this blog so I published it on my other one which is dedicated to my ideas about languages anyway. I’ll sum things up for most of you by saying that I am enjoying studying Chinese. For those interested, you can read it here.

Post-college life is becoming a little less of a mystery to me. I’m writing a business plan up to get a loan so I can do some serious advertising and add simultaneous interpretation services and message services in addition to written translation services. It’s been slow going but I think that I’ll be finishing it soon. Fortunately for me, there’s a lot of information about small businesses and business plans on the web that is useful to me. I had no idea that business plans were so long!

Congratulations to my cousin Austin! He just received his mission call and will be teaching the good people of Costa Rica about the Restored Gospel of Jesus Christ for two years! Costa Rica got rid of its armed forces years ago and started investing in education. As a result, it has a literacy rate of over 96% and the most stable economy in Central America. Its unemployment rate in 2006 was about 5%. That said, it still has a lot of people living under the poverty line. GOOD LUCK AUSTIN! I’ll probably run into you at the T.R.C. in the M.T.C. on Mondays.

That’s enough from me, here’s the lovely Becca:

So, I figure I should write this week as well. As usual I do not have much to say…at least I never think I do! As Ryan said, going to the gym has been great. I have faithfully gone at least 3-5 times every week for the past 6-7 weeks. Sadly I haven’t lost any weight or inches!!!...not even a little! I do at least 30 minutes of cardio as well as working out my abs, legs, arms and pecs every time I go…Oh well, it still is quite healthy to go as often as I do. We are even eating healthier foods- lots and lots of veggies for dinner! I never thought it would be so hard to get into shape since I was in fantastic shape the majority of my life (up until 5 years ago). If I keep going to the gym, I’m sure I’ll make it to my target weight.

So a couple weeks ago a friend from my home ward in Rochester sent me a message and told me of a get together that was going to happen with some girls from my home ward. I was the baby at the get together...they were all the girls in my sisters group of friends. It was a nostalgic night that I was very happy to be invited to. I have not seen many of these girls for at least 5+ years. They couldn't believe I was married...thank goodness I had my hubby with me as proof! I cannot believe all the little ones that have been born! There were at least 11 children under the age of 7 there!!

Janeen, Sarah, Me, Kristine, Natalie and Debbie

I am so very excited for Garit and Raquel to get married!!! Let me just say that I have been a big fan of hers since I met her! I cannot wait for her to be a part of the family. She will be a wonderful addition! My first sister-in-law…and I love her already!!!! We will have lots of fun over the years!

So, Grandma Barbara gave me a fluffy light pink robe for my birthday this last December, and let me tell you…I love it! I wear it all the time. In fact, Ryan and I have dubbed it the “pink fuzzy monster.” Usually I put it on in the morning before my hair looks decent; also, it has taken over y wardrobe…hence the “monster” part. It is quite useful to have since our dryer stopped working. Doing laundry is a pain since we have to hang everything to dry or lay it out on the furniture. The loads have become smaller since I have the robe...making laundry a whole lot easier! Thank you Grandma! Having a home business means I do not have to get ready for the day unless I want to. I tend to have a case of the lazies in the morning, so I normally get ready in the afternoon when I have to leave to do errands (only if I have to of course).

One of my dear friends Kelly just had a baby girl! I got to hold Lexi when she was a mere 4 hours old! She has a perfect rosy complexion and a very full head of straight black Mexican hair. She is absolutely beautiful! I used to go on walks at least once weekly with Kelly last year during the spring months. We would talk about wanting to get pregnant, and all the girlie stuff that would bore our husbands to death. It was great! We bonded last spring. I was so happy when I got home from Brazil to learn that she was pregnant! It is so unreal that she just had her baby! I am so happy for her!

Ryan and I still love driving our Tuscon! We still have quibbles over who gets to drive it. The move to California in August will be tough since one of us has to drive the moving truck. It will be a long, lonely dive! Maybe we should buy walkie-talkies!! I cannot wait to be in California and have everyone over for dinner! I love to cook!

I have created an incredibly decadent banana brownie truffle. It is to die for! Sometimes I fail at attempts to create yummy things, but this time, I must say…I hit the nail on the head! Bananas and chocolate are two things that definitely need to be explored more in my kitchen…mmmmmm…mmm!

I cam across this design on accident...I LOVE IT!!!!

Despite normal things that can put a damper on your day, life overall is very good right now. Our business is doing well, we have happy clients, our lifestyle is gradually getting better and better and we love each other very much.

Well, that is it for me today. We love and miss you!

A BLOGGER, A MODERATOR AND AN ENGAGEMENT

March is funny in Utah Valley. In one week the depressing clouds and invading cold are gone; the snow in the valley melts and you feel comfortable going outside without a sweater or coat. After Mother Nature teases you with such lovely weather you awaken the next morning to find the ground dusted with snow. By mid April she makes up her mind and decides that it’s officially spring. Speaking of mid April, my brother Garit and his girlfriend Raquel have just announced their engagement! It looks as though the wedding will be in mid April. Raquel and Becca, who are very much looking forward to being sisters-law, have already been on the phone talking about floral arrangements. We are excited for them and are looking forward to coming to California next month to share in the joy of their sealing.

A couple of weeks ago the people at the www.polyglot-learn-language.com site asked me if I wanted to be a chat room moderator. I respectively declined, recognizing that this was a tell tale sign of my spending too much time there. Plus, Becca didn’t much like going to the gym by herself and I really wasn’t fond of being at home by myself so we cancelled our Blockbuster subscription and used the money to buy me a membership. It’s true; we are moving away from being couch potatoes!

SchoolTranslations.com is keeping me and Becca very busy. We are starting to get more organized with business meetings and weekly goals. Although we haven’t been too successful at getting new clients, lately our current ones have sent more work our way. This is kind of a reversal from times when we would get lots of new clients who only sent us a little bit of work.

I am still a bit of a blogger and will often comment on quite a few language sites that I frequently read. Last week one of the bloggers quoted a comment that I had made and then used it as a new post. I didn’t know whether I should feel flattered or unnerved.