One of the great things about being here in El Paso is that I have managed to begin doing something I have wanted to do for a long time- train in Brazilian Jiu Jitsu.
It has become a kind of consuming hobby and I love it.
I train 2-3 times a week and spar at lunch with a few army buddies Monday - Thursday. I also spend a significant portion of my time studying instructional videos.
Recently I was promoted to purple belt by my coach Jesse Briggs. It’s a proud moment for me.
I was so happy when the YM said they were going to do the Chopped competition for our combined activity this month. It is one of my favorites. Sure enough, they asked me if I would be a host home. I have been for the past two years (and have learned a few things) so I said yes. Sadly the other leaders assigned to my house couldn't come so it would be just me and the youth (two of which are 18 so they counted as our other adults).
I went earlier that day to the baking aisle of the grocery store and grabbed a variety of things I thought they might want to use. Then one of the YM leaders came over with the ingredients. This year a secret ingredient was included (a lemon) and I didn't think it was fair that I let my group know or give them an advantage so I kept it a secret even from my kids. I hid it in the fridge and told them not to go looking. I also made sure our prettiest serving dishes were ready to go as how the dish looks has proved important in past judging.
The bishop's sons, Mont and Rhet, arrived just before 7pm and at precisely that time I let them know what the secret ingredient was. Eva took charge, because baking is her thing, and decided we would make donuts. She had a recipe for strawberry glazed lemon donuts and decided to make a lemon whipped cream as a side dip. She directed the group with very little help from me. Soon the Ashby boys (Josh, Braden and Ty) arrived as well. She tried to make sure everyone contributed in some way but there were just too many people. Some of the boys only juiced a lemon or cut up strawberries but everyone helped. It was funny to see the boys' eyes grow wide as she asked if they would zest the lemon. "Um, how do you do that?" Hahaha.
We did have some really good ideas from some of the youth. Rhet needed to mash strawberries and found our mortar and pestle. It ended out to be an easy way to mash them. Darby found the glaze too lumpy so suggested the immersion blender. It made it silky smooth and so tasty we added it as another side dip. One of the donuts overflowed so it had no hole. When I cut into it to make a hole I saw it wasn't baked all the way. Luckily we had time to put them in for a few more minutes.
At exactly 7:40 we loaded up and took our beautiful and delicious donuts over to the Crosby's for judging. We were the third group there. One group didn't even arrive until 20 minutes later. I hope they lost some points for that. Most of the dishes looked really good but I was pretty proud of our group's dish and the way they worked together and were kind to each other.
The Crosby's house was packed with youth. I was able to get some pictures of the Bishop, Sis Kendrick and Bro Belli trying our donuts and writing down the scores. After they tried every group's dish they deliberated for quite a while. Eva was so nervous.
Finally they announced that they had three top contenders and it was hard to choose. But in the end our group won! They were so excited, especially Eva. They got Oreo cookies as a prize. The worst dish's group hard to eat a ketchup packet.
It was a super fun activity as always and my kids came home very happy.
In other news he has started his mission papers as well. The paperwork is done and he had his dental exam last week. Now we need to get his physical exam set up. The documentation was extensive given his diagnoses and I had to dig out a lot of old dates and forms to finish the paperwork part. I am glad I keep so much in the file cabinet.
Brendan has so many choices to make and so many big changes are coming up. I think he is beginnign to feel the pressure, which is both good and bad.
It was Monday and I was washing a load of towels. I was upstairs when I got an alert on my phone that the washer had an error message. When I went downstairs to check on it I also heard the the water was continuously running even though the load wasn't spinning. I looked up the code and it said that there was a problem with the water flow (meaning that it would not shut off). I tried all the things that the internet suggested but still the water flowed. I finally turned it off and the water was still flowing! So I shut off the water valves and had to drain it manually. That was not fun and took a while. I'm glad I was home though. I looked up online who was a highly recommended appliance repair guy and called. He said he would come tomorrow morning.
Tomorrow morning came and went. Then the afternoon came. I had things to do so I finally called him. He said he would come that evening. He did come but about 45 minutes before I had to leave to take the kids to youth activities. Jason stayed with him. He said he was going to replace a part and then they were checking it. Jason was in with him when he put in the new part and mentioned that it wasn't a precise fit but that they would make it work. Then they proceeded to test it for over an hour. It would spin but then would get stuck and not advance. Finally they said that we should turn it off overnight and check in the morning to see if it "reset". If it didn't work then we would have to replace the control board. The cost of that would be hundreds of dollars. They still charged us $140.
After youth activities I spent the night looking at and pricing new washing machines. There was actually a sale on now and Jason and I were willing to spend part of our anniversary date buying a new washer if need be. I tried the washer before I went to bed and instead of having a problem with too much water, now I was getting the error message that it was not getting any water (and indeed I could not hear any water flow).
The problem was the same in the morning. Jason suggested that we look around to see if we could find the real replacement part locally. Since he saw how they fixed it (and it was easy) he was willing to give that a try before we went even longer without a washer and either spent a lot to replace the control board or bought a whole new washer. It turns out that an appliance shop in downtown had a part. It would be over $90 but that was worth it in comparison to what we were looking at spending to fix or replace the washer. The appliance shop was in a sketchy part of town but we were happy to acquire the new inlet valve assembly.
After our anniversary date Jason took apart the washer and put in the new part. It still didn't work! When I told him he looked defeated for a minute and then something dawned on him. He asked me to let him check something. He disassembled it again and realized that he had put in the old part. He switched it for the new part and it worked perfectly!! Yay for a handy husband! And yay for not spending hundreds of dollars. But boo to an inept repairman. Imagine that? Put in a part that you have to cut to fit and it doesn't work right? How surprising. It's just all so El Paso.
Last Sunday I was upstairs talking to my mom on the phone and I heard the doorbell. Someone downstairs got it and so I didn't think much of it. When I was done with the phone call I came down and Jason told me that I had missed the cutest thing. The Ingrams, including little Leo, had come over and Leo gave Paige a rose, saying she was his Valentine. Awww. Then, in true Leo fashion, he grabbed her hand and tried to drag her to her room, asking to go play. How adorable is that?
