Back to Earth

So I've been home from Korea for two weeks now and all I've talked about is the one hour of my life that involved jumping out of a plane. It was a memorable hour, no question, but I'm sure you are all dying to know how I've been spending the rest of my time...

...

Okay so maybe not, which is good because I don't have a lot to show for myself these past two weeks, at least nothing blogtastic. Nick has been home, which has been awesome. In fact, he beat me home. He arrived back on Guam from his trip before I got back from Korea. Which was of questionable judgement since I had already planned a high school girls slumberparty at our house (thinking he'd be gone) for that Saturday night back, then a going away party on Sunday night. He managed to fit right in to all of it. He even let us paint his nails and do his makeup (just kidding...).

I've talked before about the revolving door of friends on Guam... since people here are always in transition, you are constantly meeting new people while saying goodbye to others you just got close to. Jen is one of those people I just clicked with. We both had the time and interest in traveling, and turns out she made a fantastic travel buddy. But her time on Guam was limited, as her fiance-to-be had already moved back to the States, her job teaching English for a local college had ended, and she was just biding her time before heading back to start her new life. I was so happy to be the one to host her going away party at our pastor's house above the church.

We did an Asian-themed potluck so Jen could have a couple of her favorites before leaving town (I made two dishes from our Thai cooking class!). The spread was delish and the entertainment was fantastic. As Jen is a fellow poetry lover and tea drinker, we did open mic night, coffee shop style. Her friends even brought a mic and sound system. The rest of the night was filled with insightful poetry readings, spontaneous song dedications, and even a drum circle. Nick even wrote and performed an original poem! You had to be there, but let's just say, he got the most laughs hands down! Jen flew to LA and within a day or two, we got the happy news that she is now engaged. And so I've lost my travel buddy... for now :) We are already talking about planning a girls weekend once I move back stateside! All in all, it was a fantastic going away party, and I have to say, one of my all-time favorite nights on Guam to date.

Drum circle 

Nick's amazing poem

We spent last weekend at a retreat put on by Nick's command, which essentially amounted to a weekend at the Hyatt in the touristy part of town and three days where I didn't have to cook a meal (score!). It was also a weekend with many of our friends here all together, and I must say they brought in some pretty great speakers. One was a sleep doctor and former team guy who confirmed our suspicions that our guys get terrible sleep. He even had a solution for us, which we've been trying out all week. One of them was to completely darken your room. Nick came home and immediately duct taped a thick sheet over the windows and we now refer to our room as the bear cave. It is dark! So dark I did not wake up until close to 9 one morning this past week... whoops :)

People kept telling Nick he looks like Ben Stiller... weird!

Another speaker was Sarah Frogoso, the author of Everyday Paleo, the blog and cookbook by the same name. While we weren't too impressed with her presentation (because what she chose to talk about was completely irrelevant to our lives), I did find some of her nutrition ideas interesting... interesting enough to try it out for a few days. For those not familiar with this trendy "new" way of eating, the idea behind Paleo is to eat the way cavemen did tens of thousands of years ago in the paleolithic era before we had things like partially hydrogenated soybean oil and high fructose corn syrup. In other words, eat real foods in their most basic form, mostly meats (organic if possible, though it's really not here), lots of veggies and some fruit. For those of you wondering what's missing, that leaves out grains, dairy and everything that resembles dessert (aaaahh!!). Basically all the good stuff. Who can imagine a world without cheese!?!

Picture does not go with surrounding text. Just go with it

We definitely aren't interested in a diet, per se, but I did see the benefit of making an effort to eat more healthfully, especially out on Guam where, as I've mentioned, you already have to make an effort to do so. Might as well cut out the sugars and processed junk food and focus on the good stuff. So I made a few of her recipes this week, and I have to say they were overall pretty good. I was shocked at how good her slow cooked chicken (a whole chicken) turned out, as everything I've made in the crock pot to date has turned to stewy mush. Oh, but don't think we will be Paleo purists or anything. There is definitely butter melting in the pan with our sweet potatoes at the moment... I'm all for living longer and having more energy, but you still gotta live while you're here. Plus it dawned on me that the entire sacrament of communion is not Paleo, and I don't think the good Lord would have given us a reminder of Him that was something our somewhat evolved bodies aren't able to properly digest. Am I right?

"Not Paleo"

One other thing I did this week was take a cooking class... which we will call the opposite of Paleo. MWR has a monthly Culinary Bootcamp class and this month was focused on Thanksgiving. Given that my parents are coming out (!) I figured I would probably be hosting this year, so might be good to learn some tips. My friend Ashley (from Texas!) came with me. We made all the traditional Thanksgiving dishes... roasted a turkey, green bean casserole, candied yams (which vaguely resembled sweet potatoes at the end), stuffing, mashed potatoes, and gravy from the turkey drippings. The best part was watching professional chefs show you how to do things properly in the kitchen, like carve a turkey or make a roax (I didn't know what that was either... and in fact, when I first heard the word, I thought "That must be from Louisiana," and the chef was like, "This French word..." Oh yeah...). The worst part was watching mountains of butter melt into every single dish. Based on the nutritional talk and cooking demonstration over the weekend, I felt like I'd gone decades backward in nutrition information... which is ironic because technically Paleo should be multi-millenia ahead, but I'm sure you catch my drift. Don't think I'll be making any of these recipes, per se, (though the triple pumpkin layer cake is tempting), but I will have a much more efficient way of getting our turkey from the platter to the serving tray this year. Then again, I might just have my dad do it, since he will BE here! Woohoo!

Other than that, just been hanging out with friends, working out, cooking, reading... uhh, I'm trying to pad this list because I really haven't done much this week! I started a new Bible study, Becoming a Woman of Simplicity, a few weeks ago. It has me focusing on spending my time doing important things, but also making time to rest and not to get busy just for the sake of being busy. It's definitely a message these ears need to hear, and I've really enjoyed my slower paced week. Gotta rest up. After all, might not be long until I'm on the road again :)