The Ozarks

So Charlene and I went to the Lake of the Ozarks for eight days to celebrate the Feast of Tabernacles with our church about a week and a half ago. Wow, was it fun! We didn't take a whole lot of photos, but we can tell you about it a little bit.

We golfed (well Char did, I didn't), played board games (Catan and Quelf), we go-karted, we hiked, we went to see castle ruins, we went on a short cruise around the Lake of the Ozarks (which was beautiful), we had a campfire, we went to a winery, had a pizza party, man... you name it we did it.

We also saw this awesome spider. *shivers down my spine thinking about it*
The landscape was much more interesting than North Dakota's (though North Dakota's beauty I would say is in the people and the peace.)
Trees!
Castle ruins!

Most of all though, we ate a lot of really good food. No pictures of food though, because we were too busy enjoying to snap pictures.

We met a lot of really awesome people and developed some very special relationships.

All in all it was a very spiritually uplifting time (as it always is) being able to have fellowship with so many people for eight straight days makes for a very uniquely positive experience.

A Lego Star Wars Birthday? At 26?

So, Charlene is 26-and what did she ask for on her birthday?

^This^

Of course, she was so proud that she displayed it on Facebook to show off her inner geek. Everyone knows she's a science nerd-but did you know that she LOVES Star Wars, Lord of the Rings and Batman? (This may have had something to do with my decision to marry her...)

Charlene and I were in Missouri during her birthday and she received ^this^ from some friends in our church - it's the Naboo Fighter from Star Wars Episode 1: Revenge of the Sith.
^This^ came from Trent and Shannon (Charlene's brother and his wife) and it is a Snowspeeder and the Wampa cave scene from Star Wars Episode V: The Empire Strikes back.

^This^ is the Millennium Falcon OF COURSE! Flown by Han Solo and Chewbacca in Star Wars: Episodes IV-VI.

Charlene gets what she wants - but NOT because she's spoiled (which she's not) but because she works WAY too hard not to be appreciated with all of our might.

Han Solo agrees.

The Mighty Making of the SALSA

Some say that salsa is the life blood of the latino...

Actually, I don't think anyone has ever said that. I just said it in my head while trying to think up something to say here. Oh blogging...

Anyways, Charlene and I are making glorious wondrous salsa. In fact we are making so much that our local salsa marshal has deemed our house the capital of Pico de GET OUT OF TOWN.

We are using ingredients from our garden as well as MANY MORE from the grocery story. We had enough tomatoes from our garden to fill our medium sized mixing bowl with them, as well as garlic, a meager amount of cilantro, and plenty of peppers. But let me tell you folks, we wanted to make an obscene amount of salsa. So, we went to our grocery store and bought 70 tomatoes, 57 Jalapeños, 9 bulbs of garlic (you get the picture.) Needless to say - we went in the middle of the night so as not to draw too many weird looks (though that may have given reason to make it even weirder.) These veggies will all go to good use - believe us when we say this.

Want some? You have to come spend time with us to get some. So there.

ANNNND PICTURES

Hot Goggles, for keeping the hotness out (or in?)

Crafty Craftiness and Flash Photography

I just got done working (slowly) on a homemade craft table for Charlene. To be honest, it's kind of a gift to make up for a birthday present two years ago that I started but never finished... but that's a different story. The craft table has shelves for supports, a BIG work space for cutting and working with large pieces of fabric, as Charlene is prone to do. Charlene is always working on something big it seems. It even has a shelf with dimensions that make it perfect for holding 5-6 bolts of fabric. It has white/cream insides and natural wood on the outsides with a lacquer finish. My thought behind the project is if you know that someone is productive or good at something, then you should help them to be more productive. Charlene is so crafty and creative - I think she deserves all of the best tools and a big work area, which she now has! We just got done moving her stuff from the basement to our old roommate's room and turned it into a craft room/sewing room.

The question is, am I being a nice husband - or am I just trying to get all 200 of her half finished projects out of the rest of the house?!?!?!

On another note...

I was trying to take a picture of Charlene next to her new craft table and we spent an obscene amount of time trying to take a picture with her eyes open. Seriously Char? Charlene is talented at many things, but when it comes to controlling her own eyelids in the presence of flash photography there is only one word that comes to mind: Failure. Here are just a few of those pictures put into a montage for your viewing pleasure. btw the picture up top had to be taken WITHOUT flash in order for her to leave for work on time... hopeless...

Storm

So, we had a pretty significant storm roll through our area. Here are some pictures of the damage that was caused by trees falling over on our neighbor's stuff. Luckily, we seemed to be the only house on our block with large trees that hadn't fallen over. This picture is of our neighbor's house two houses south of us. It seemed that every tree in their yard had fallen over except one, and two of them had fallen onto their house. They also had their phone lines ripped out of their house from the trees falling on them.

This is just the top third of a very large pine tree (large by ND standards) that had snapped off and fallen onto some guys car across the street from us. It broke out all of his back windows and had flattened the roof of the back half of the car. By the time I had taken this picture, they had taken the very top off of the car already.
This is our front yard. Just a lot of smaller branches all over the place. I've been hearing of trees and power lines down all over Fargo. Good thing we are still safe!

Pizza Delivery Special Instructions...

What are these drawings you may ask?

It's a wizard of course...

Why is there a wizard drawn on our pizza box? I'll tell you why.

So Charlene and I had Trent and his fiance over for a board game (Smallworld in case you were wondering) and they wanted to order some pizza from Papa John's. So we ordered online and there was a section for special instructions. We decided to put "Draw a wizard on the box." So this is what we got. This made my week. Best Papa John's employee ever.

Pizza and an Update

Delicious!

We took these pictures a month or so ago but haven't gotten around to update until now!

We are VERY busy!

Charlene got a promotion at Sylvan and is now the Lead Teacher so she works all day getting things ready for students to arrive and then teaches until everyone goes home. The responsibility came with a raise! Yay! She'll still try for a "real" teaching position this fall but it isn't looking likely.

Luke is leaving Subway for Ruby Tuesdays. He has to work on memorizing a new and larger menu!

He's also busy as a full time student.

The chemistry crayon business has slowed but we're working on figuring out advertising and how that can improve business.

Fargo is very very very cold.

But the Sabins are doing great! Busy but great!

Granola Hippie Alert!

Charlene and I made some more awesome food tonight that we thought we would share with everyone! These are some suuuper healthy tacos made with some... unconventional ingredients that turned out to be absolutely DELICIOUS. It feels good to pig out on yummy food and know that everything you just put in your stomach is going to nourish your body and make you feel GREAT. Everything in this recipe is vegan, and best of all, RAW! Charlene and I have been reading a lot about nutrition lately and we've come to side with the idea that food is much healthier in its raw state (assuming it's organic, fresh, clean, and plant based) - lot's of scientific evidence behind all of that, but it's still a relatively small and new-ish (or very old) idea/movement. BTW, the tortillas are not raw but as soon as we get the new dehydrator that we ordered in the mail recently, which has a larger area for dehydrating things that need more space, we will be able to make raw tortillas - which we are super excited about.

On the left is a rice like recipe made mostly of root plants like parsnip and daikon, on the right is a bean like mixture made mostly of soaked seeds and sun-dried tomatoes.

"Rice"
2 med parsnips (peeled and coarsely copped - about 2 cups)
1 cup coarsely chopped daikon (long white radish thing)
1/2 cup untoasted pine nuts
1/2 cup fresh chopped cilantro
1/2 cup chopped parsley (we used dried and it still worked out! about 2 tablespoons)
3 teaspoons lemon juice (fresh squeezed is best!)
1/2 teaspoon sea salt
1/2 teaspoon ground cumin
- place parsnips, daikon, and nuts in a food processor and pulse until the mixture resembles rice-like coarse crumbs
- transfer mixture to medium bowl and add the rest of the "rice" ingredients and mix
- EAT!

"Beans"
1 cup sunflower seeds
4 cups cool water
1 cup sun dried tomatoes
1 teaspoon chili powder
1/2 teaspoon chili pepper flakes
1/4 cup chopped cilantro
- place the sunflower seeds in 2 cups water and let soak for 4 hours. Drain and rinse and set aside.
- place the sun dried tomatoes in 2 cups of water and let soak for 1 hour - reserve the soaking water, drain the tomatoes and set aside
- place the seeds and tomatoes in a food processor and pulse until well blended, but still chunky
- transfer mixture to large bowl and add the rest of the "bean" ingredients and stir until combined
- EAT!
This is, essentially, a taco "meat" substitute made of ground walnut, seasonings, and mushrooms.

The Taco Meat

• 1 Portabella mushroom cap, rinsed and chopped medium-fine (nearly 2 cups finished)
• 1/2 cup raw walnuts, chopped (not too fine… leave some texture)
• 1 clove garlic
• 1 tablespoon cold-pressed olive oil
• 1/2 teaspoon raw apple cider vinegar (ACV)
• 1 tablespoon raw cacao powder
• 1/4 teaspoon ground cumin
• 1/2 teaspoon raw cane sugar (rapadura) or some other raw sweetener
• squirt fresh lemon juice (about 1/4 teaspoon)
• quality natural salt & fresh pepper to taste
  

Mix all ingredients well and check for taste. Should not be under-salted.

Spread on dehydrator sheet and put into the dehydrator on “almost high” — no worries, you’re not cooking it. It’s only coming to roomish-temperature while you fix the remaining ingredients, then it’s coming out. You could also put on plate and stick in the oven on “warm”, just to the point of releasing some of the mushroom’s moisture so they darken a bit.

For our accompanying beverage we made homemade lemonade. We make juice often with a citrus juicer. Orange juice fresh squeezed from good organic oranges tastes 20 times better than any store bought orange juice - and best of all, if you squeeze it yourself you have the joy of knowing it wasn't pasteurized, which, though it makes it safer for keeping on a shelf longer, burns out much of the flavor, delicate vitamins, and enzymes.