DT's Blog

Wyatt Home Video 01

2009-07-28T15:11:00.001-04:00

Wyatt recorded this on my 28th birthday, which was on July 27, 2009. We had a fun day!

Daytona Squirrels 02

2009-07-28T15:03:00.001-04:00

This was a cool park that we found in Daytona while going to the beach and also to see the Daytona Cubs baseball game at "The Jack."

Caricature

2009-07-12T12:55:00.007-04:00

This is a caricature that Wyatt drew of me standing next to him. For the best view, click on the jpeg for a bigger image.

What do you think?

Note the "Gotta Have More Cowbell" T-Shirt (I got it at a Rays game in '07).

These kids are sharp, I'll tell ya!

Our new home

2009-05-29T14:29:00.003-04:00

I have been wanting to take some pictures of our new home in Satsuma, but I just haven't had time. Things are busy! But I will get on that, because I am excited about sharing our new digs with you. We moved in with my Mom, Dad, and nephew Wyatt to share their house in Satsuma. Besides having a wonderful dream kitchen in their mobile home, they have room to house Angelina in Wyatt's room. Mama was wonderful enough to share her camper; we had it parked on the lot close to the house but far enough away to get some privacy. Alicia and I camp out there, and we are really starting to enjoy it. It is a 300-square feet flat with a small kitchen, a bathroom, and an upstairs "bedroom" that you'll just have to see to believe! Is it cramped up there? Sure, but we only sleep there... we don't spend a lot of time in there doing anything else. Right now as I type, I am sitting in our little office with all the speakers hooked up to my computer. That is how I am listening to Collective Soul and LOVING LIFE! You'll have to give me patience on the pictures--I want to put them on there as bad as you want to see them, so believe me when I say that they are coming soon. It really is quite cozy here, and we are in the process of organizing all of our "stuff" (and you KNOW how much of that there can be that accumulates). I have a habit of being a storage junkie, but I am trying to let go of the stuff that is just not that important.

Collective Soul

2009-05-29T14:15:00.003-04:00

I am lovin' this! I have always enjoyed listening to music from Collective Soul, but I have not been keeping up with them over the last few years. Apparently, they haven't been idle. In 2007, they released "Afterwords," which I am listening to right now as I work. If I have time (hmm...I don't know about that... I MADE myself write this entry, promising myself that I would have to keep it short), I will write up a full review, but for now, suffice it to say that it is GOOD. Vintage Soul.

You can get the songs at www.collectivesoul.com, if you don't already have a place to get them from. I use Zune Marketplace.

I also found out that they are touring, and they are coming to Lake Buena Vista on July 14. Shibby!

Another CD they have is called "Home," and it is one of those nifty CD/DVD combos that gives you a good reason to actually go out to a store and buy a hard copy. I am putting it on my Christmas List now!

Time of Your Life (Good Riddance)

2009-05-17T13:16:00.005-04:00

Just wanted to post this metube video of my performance at Deseret Academy's 2009 graduation, held this past Friday, May 15 at the Ravine Gardens in Palatka, FL. Enjoy!

¡Viva la Verde!

2009-05-13T18:49:00.001-04:00

Some of you may already know--we have started our own organic produce business! It is called ¡Viva la Verde!, and we are going to be at the Jacksonville Farmers Market (1810 W. Beaver Street) each Saturday from 8:30 A.M. to about 2:00 P.M.

We have created a newsletter that we going to distribute before this weekend, and I wanted to see if you are interested in receiving it each week. Just reply with a comment if you want it every week, and you will get it--either from this address or that of my Mom. You can always opt-out, but I thought you would want to at least check it out. It has a price list for the week, plus other fun stuff that I know you will enjoy reading.

Mono Meals

2009-04-18T14:13:00.002-04:00

Today for lunch, we had a mono-meal. In case you don't know, that means eating just one thing until you are full. It can be very satisfying, and the meal is very easy to digest, because your stomach only has to work to digest one type of food, with all of its various nutrients.

At the farmers market this week, we bought some watermelons on the cheap. Mom blogged about our picnic lunch yesterday, and we ate the leftovers from that today, along with one of the smaller watermelons that we bought for $4. I asked the guy that sold them to us if they get any cheaper over the summer, and he said that pretty soon, they would be so abundant that he would eventually lower the price to $1! That means this meal is going to be repeated in our family A LOT this summer!

So anyway, to today's watermelon, we added some Himalayan salt and some Mexican Fiesta seasoning, and it was delicious AGAIN! Not as sweet as yesterday's though, and the small one we ate today was seedless. I am kind of liking the flavor of watermelon seeds, even though it is something I have never really eaten in the past. They also add a nice crunch to the melon, and I have heard they are good for you. Does nyone know if that is true and why?

Farmer's Market

2009-04-18T11:03:00.005-04:00

So we've decided what the next big step is for our family. We are going to start selling our raw creations at Farmer's Markets, starting with the Jacksonville Farmer's Market on Beaver Street. I am REALLY excited, and I know that I have been given this opportunity to excel at doing something that I love. Yes, I was let go by my job last week, but it has been an amazing week. I have not been sad, depressed, or discouraged. I know that Heavenly Father is preparing the way for us to do something great, and this will be another step towards launching the DT foundation and also our first raw restaurant.

We found out that we may not be able to do smoothies, juices, or ice creams on the spot as that could be in violation of the health code, but we CAN do pre-packaged foods. So we are going to experiment with our best raw creations and see what people like the most.

I hope you will support us in this endeavor, but even more than that, I am excited to see which of our creations YOU enjoy the most!

Stay tuned...

PB&J!

2009-04-18T10:45:00.005-04:00

For breakfast today, we had peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, RAW-style!

It is a really easy meal to make. We just sliced up a few apples, spread some almond butter on the top of each slice, put some medjool date slices (and a few sliced-up deglet dates for variety) on each piece of "bread," and added a few dashes of salt. Mom taught us how to make this a few weeks ago, and I have been wanting to make it for all of us, because I knew Angelina would love it. And of course, she did!

Keeping up with DT

2009-04-03T11:36:00.003-04:00

There are 2 new ways to keep up with me, if you are interested in that sort of thing.

The first is twitter. I don't know how regularly I'll "twitter", but I am on there at least. My page is:

https://twitter.com/trunkybeat .

The other is a cool thing I've learned to do with my RSS feeds. Feed-readers are an amazing thing, and now you can keep up with some of my favorite news articles, blog entries, sports stories, or life commentaries. Check it out, and I hope everyone starts doing this. It is a neat way to share interesting, thoughtful, or personal things without having to email a link to everyone you know. My feed reader of choice is google, and the link to my shared feeds is:

http://www.google.com/reader/shared/02053383542510281468

Let me know which stories are more interesting to you!

Raw Treats

2009-03-21T22:45:00.006-04:00

Alicia's birthday was this month, and I made a few special raw treats for her on that special day. I made some almond mylk, which we don't make that often, either because it is messy, or because we don't have enough almonds in the house. The made some sweet milk (almond milk + agave nector) and chocolate smoothies, which were wonderful. I didn't take any pictures of the chocolate, because I think we drank 'em up too fast. That is SO good! But I did take a picture of some of the leftover almond mylk:

Almond Mylk

Now when one makes almond mylk, one doesn't want to throw away the leftover pulp, because raw unpasteurized almonds are a bit expensive. So one tries to find things to make out of this pulp. I decided to make some dehydrated almond cookies. They were pretty good, but I will make them better next time. The problem was they were too thin. That is, when I put them in the Excalibur to dehydrate, they broke apart when I pulled them out the next morning. I drizzled some agave on them, and I think we added some big slices of banana to eat with them to moisten them up. I gave the big one to Alicia. This was pre-dehydrate, and that is them sitting on the dehydrator tray:

Almond Cookies

I also made some banana chips. They were perfect--much better than my last batch a few months ago, which were cut too thin and stuck to the tray when dried!

Banana Chips

See how thick they are cut? That is the key.

So the chocolate mylk was the favorite treat, but I must say--drinking some sweet mylk with the dry cookies and some banana was VERY satisfying.

I am not a raw chef every day, but when I am I really enjoy it. And I treat my ladies right!

Raw Lunch

2009-03-21T14:36:00.001-04:00

Welcome to Lunch!

This weekend is going wonderfully! March Madness from noon to midnight every day, and enough fresh raw food to be satisfied the whole time. I couldn't resist taking some pictures of our BEAUTIFUL lunch that we had today and sharing them with you. The colors were so wonderful. Angelina (have you seen her adorable new hairstyle yet?) and I were talking about how it is neat that fruits and vegetables love to be picked, eaten, and shared, and it is true! They project themselves in such bright and vibrant colors, and they taste so good in their natural, unmutated form. They want to nurture us!

Alicia is watching a set of DVD's featuring Dr. Graham and Dr. Rozalind Gruben in which they talk about some of these things. Something that Alicia picked up on that I didn't really hear when I listened to the DVD's earlier this month was that we shouldn't shun our sweet tooth. The fact that fruits are sweet and we tend to like sweet is not a coincidence! This relationship began in the Garden of Eden, where Adam and Eve lived as fruitarians. It is not an addiction like it is with some other foods. These foods are the best that we can eat, and they grow in abundance for us. I hope to one day live in a place that is more tropical so that I can have access to an even larger variety of fruit than is already available to me and my family.

The connection that we can have with our food is simply awesome.

Darius' Plate

Our lunch was a big salad. I learned from Dr. Graham that it is good to combine avocado and any citrus or high-acid fruit to make a salad dressing. So I imitated a recent recipe made by my mother and made a grapefruit juice and avocado dressing. We drizzled it over greens, tomatoes, green onions, and then topped it with a few orange slices and some previously-made Parmesan cheeze.

I must say, it was VERY good. I recommend that dressing to anyone, raw vegan or not. Angelina said that it was her favorite meal ever and asked if we could have it on her birthday. I am not sure if that means she no longer wants blueberry pancakes, but I think she does because I think she is aiming towards 3 specific special meals that day. Two down, one to go! This next picture was taken by her:

Angelina's Plate

By the way, that drink in the cup in the first picture is freshly-squeezed juice from a freshly-PICKED grapefruit (it is one of the only things we seem to know how to grow right year-in and year-out).

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

2009-03-17T15:15:00.003-04:00

A funny thing happened to me this morning when I was getting ready for work. I was trying to decide between two shirts that Alicia had bought for me last week. One was grey and the other was this green shirt. Well, I didn't even realize today was St. Patrick's Day, but I thought the green matched better with the dark tan khakis that I had selected, so I picked it, and Alicia agreed. When I got to work, I overheard some co-workers discussing wether or not today was really St. Patrick's Day. I shot a quick look at my Dilbert day calander and saw that indeed, it was! Wa-hoo! No pinches for me today!

Another funny thing was that even before I heard them talking, I saw my boss wearing a lime-green shirt and thought, "Wow. That is a really hideous shirt. What was he thinking?"

More Learnings from Dr. Graham

2009-03-17T07:47:00.008-04:00

Well, I started reading "The 80/10/10 Diet" again (doesn't the cover make you just want to grab a couple of peaches?), and I think the edition that I bought at his lecture that we attended last month in Miami has some additional sections added compared with the edition that I read last year. This one has two extra appendices: one is a section full of testimonials, and the other is an FAQ. I started browsing through them, and learned all kinds of new things that I don't remember reading before. The questions in the FAQ were very simple, and very chronological in the sense that if someone wanted to start living this lifestyle, these are the questions they might have, and in this order. Like one of the first ones is "Can I really eat all this fruit?", followed by "What about dried fruit?", "What about vinegar?", etc.

So as I read, I realized that I agreed with some of these teachings, and I disagreed to a certain extent with others. I want to make changes in my lifestyle and adjust according to what I was learning and feeling, so I started making two lists to help me "move in that direction," as Dr. Graham is so fond of suggesting. He says that if you don't make this transition overnight, the best that you can do is "move in that direction."

Here are my lists:

Foods that I want to start eliminating from my diet:

Dehydrated foods, including dried fruits (they are not a whole food if they don't have the water that originally came with them!)
Vinegar (I think I'm actually already there, but I didn't really know why. This is actually a poison! In chemistry class, they mix vinegar and water together to make acetic acid. Yeah. That is one of the ones that has the skull and crossbones on the outside. Vinegar is just dilluted even more, but a poison is still a poison.)
Sea Salt (Not that foods like celery that have sodium are bad, but EXTRACTED salt)
Condiments. Think of it this way: anything that can’t be eaten by itself as a meal shouldn’t be eaten at all. Time will tell how I can handle this one. I have always liked salts, spices, and things to make the food taste “better,” but I think I just need to start thinking of WHOLE FOODS that can create the same effect. Example: jalapeño instead of chili powder.

Foods that I want to eat very sparingly, or at least acknowledge when I do eat them that they are not the best things for me to eat. If I eat foods from this list, I want to start thinking of it as a compromise for me:

Seaweed and algae. Dr. Graham says that these should not be considered vegan since they contain creatures. He also says that we are only meant to eat things that appeal to us in their natural state, and you would gag if you were to eat seaweed or saltwater right out of the ocean.
Frozen Foods. I learned from a lecturer named Tanya Zavasta at a recent raw meet-up that when a food is frozen, the cells expand (which we all already know). For foods, this expansion causes the cell walls inside the foods to burst, and we don’t have a lot of research to tell us what this does to the nutrition provided by the food. Dr. Graham says they should not be eliminated (since this is one of the best food-preservation methods available), but that we should be aware that it is a potential compromise with the value that the food is providing us.

One thing that I am still pondering, particularly when it comes to Dr. Graham’s reasoning on consuming things like vinegar and sea salt: yes, these things will kill you in their concentrated form, but it is actually true that ANY substance is toxic at a certain concentration, even water! So the idea that these things are diluted poisons has got me thinking, but not necessarily in total agreement. One point, however, that does resonate with me is how something shouldn’t be considered a food unless you can make a meal out of it by itself. If you can’t do that then it should not be considerred a food that can be eaten at all.

I am enjoying reading the book again, and I highly recommend that it be read by you. I am also enjoying listening to his DVD series “Making Friends With Your Food,” with Professor Rozalind Gruben also lecturing.

This ain't no commercial, but for more information on Dr. Graham's program, including how to get a copy of "The 80/10/10 Diet," please visit http://foodnsport.com/. You can also get it on amazon.com. I think it is fascinating what Dr. Graham is able to do with athletes on a raw food diet. As he said in the lecture that we attended last month, if someone needs more fuel (calories) for an athletic lifestyle, it doesn't mean they need different kinds of calories, it just means they need more of them.

Badfish

2009-03-05T15:51:00.003-05:00

I already posted about this in my online Journal (see http://trunkybeat.livejournal.com/3590.html), but I had to put it here for people that don't read there. Badfish is coming to Jacksonville! Badfish is a Sublime tribute band, and we all know that Sublime is the best mellow band out there, right? If you want to go let me know, and we can carpool there! It starts at 8:00 next Wednesday, March 11 at the Freebird Live at Jacksonville Beach. You can buy tickets by calling (800) 594-8499. Oh, and Scotty Don't will also be there. Can't wait!

Cancer is NOT a mystery

2009-03-04T08:44:00.005-05:00

Ever since I was a kid, I was wondering how millions of dollars of research could supposedly be spent on cancer every year. "What are they spending the money on?", I would think to myself. And why isn't the answer being reached? If it is not being reached, why do they keep thinking more money will solve the problem?

Well, now that I have educated myself thouroughly (and as a cancer survivor myself, some of that education was painful, believe me!), I understand a little bit more about what the money is being spent on, but I know it is a waste. Cancer is NOT a mystery. The cure is already out there, as well as the prevention! PLEASE stop spending the money the way it is currently being spent! One day soon, I hope to launch the DT Foundation. Will it be a fundraiser for cancer research? YES! My family and I also hope to educate those that need it--those that want it. My family has always been big on education, and we want this information to get out there.

This post was inspired by an article that I just found recently:
http://www.detoxtheworld.com/blog-detail.php?ID=63

It is kind of a long read, but it is worth it. Over the last two years, I have been having some of the same thoughts that are presented there. I hope you will make the effort to decide for yourself if healthy living is worth it. I know that you will find out for yourself some surprising benefits. Do we live this way just to be healthy? Do we do this just to lose weight and look good? Is that the only reason for going raw, getting back to nature, and educating our family on the benefits of living this way? For me, the answers are no, no, and no!

I started living this way BECAUSE I was diagnosed with cancer. I'm not sure that I personally would have made this decision without that happening first. As unfortunate as that is, I suspect it is the same way with many of you. A life-or-death situation would have to happen before you decide to take the plunge. Well I am here to tell you that it does not have to be that way. You CAN do this! If you come up with excuses of why you cannot, then you really do not WANT to do it. I have been very blessed to receive this knowledge, and I know that my life is so much better than before I ever found out I had cancer. I know that my knowledge is not complete! I am always looking for new things to learn about my body and life in general. I know that my body and my spirit are much more in tune now, and that they will know if something new that I hear or implement is right or wrong. It is important that we keep searching for the truths that will make us happy and concious.

Low-fat Lunch

2009-03-02T13:07:00.005-05:00

I just have to share a picture of the colorful lunch that I had at work today. The best part? It was tasty AND low-fat, which supports the direction my family and I are trying to go in keeping with the theory of the 80/10/10 diet (see "80-10-10" tag below).

The lunch consisted of some spring mix, apple slices, orange wedges, raisins, and sliced banana. No dressing needed!

Now of course I like raw salad dressings. I got to try a new type of guacamole this weekend--one that conisted simply of mushed-up avocado and grapefruit juice. It was so wonderful. And I absolutely love the ranch dressings that we've come up with, especially the caesar ranch!

Fruit dressings are great too though. They give you tons of energy and don't bog you down like some of the nut-based dressings that can make your diet more like 10/10/80 (80% or more fat), if you catch my drift. With this "fruit salad dressing," as I like to call it, no nuts are needed!

In case you are interested in the caloronutrient distribution, the meal was // calories from carbs/fat/protein. Here are the details:

Total calories: 578
% Calories from carbs/fat/protein: 92/3/5

The lettuce is about 12-13% calories from fat, but it is a low amount of calories in the overall meal (19!).

I got my information from http://www.nutridiary.com, which is a great place to keep a log of your meals and calories, or if you just want to look at the calorie distribution. It is really cool--you can create an account and save meals that you enter so that you don't have to enter them all over again later. If you have any questions, just ask!

2009 Book List

2009-02-08T15:28:00.004-05:00

I want to create a list of the books as I read them this year. This will make me more accountable, as my goal is to read 25 books this year. If I get through that many easily, I will change my goal to 50.

Read so far:

Don't Bet Against Me! by DeAnna Favre
Green for Life, by Victoria Boutenko
Twilight, by Stephanie Meyer

Dilbert and the Way of the Weasel by Scott Adams

Working on:

Why My Wife Thinks I'm an Idiot by Mike Greenberg

Libro de Mormón en Español

Doctrine and Covenants

Our Heritage: A Brief History of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints

Blindside by Michael Lewis

New Moon by Stephanie Meyer

Why We Want You to be Rich: Two Men, One Message by Donald Trump and Robert Kiyosaki

Updated 2/9/09 ~11:00 A.M. with a new book I remembered I finished in January.

3/2/09 update: I finished "New Moon" and wood like to start on Eclipse. I finished the Greeny "Wife/Idiot" book, the Trump/Kiyosaki book. I have also started reading "The Dilbert Future," by Scott Adams, which is quite entertaining. I think those are all the updates. I am trying to figure out how best to handle these updates. Maybe I'll just do a new post each time--maybe every quarter. That way, one can see the progress I've made throughout the year. Yeah, that's it! I'll post at the end of March.

Angelina Funny! Me Post!

2009-02-08T15:23:00.003-05:00

I don't care if this saying came from Angelina's father, who's lack of urgency in signing the adoption paperwork is the only thing preventing us from adopting Angelina right now. He always has been the "funny" one of us Trunk boys. This is the latest term we've learned from Angelina: every time we see a school bus, I call it a short bus--it doesn't matter if it is short or not, it's just one of those things I think is funny. Well, she said, "That's not a short bus. It's a cheese wagon!"

When she repeated it again today, it still cracked us up. She can't tell an official joke to save her life, but some of the things she says in ordinary conversation are hilarious!

Finding the right mate, in a nutshell...

2009-02-03T14:55:00.005-05:00

I am reading the book, "Why My Wife Thinks I'm an Idiot," by one of my favorite sports journalists, Mike Greenberg (the "skinny" half of Mike and Mike in the Morning--Alicia likes them too!). I got to the section on how much Greeny loves his wife, and he is talking about how crazy most women are and how crazy most men are for wishing they weren't married (you know the stereotype...). Here is a quote I would like to reprint:

"It is invariably in those moments when she is at her craziest that I am most aware of my love for her. That isn't a coincidence. Her craziness serves as a reminder that all women are crazy; the key is to find one whose craziness suits you."

Well said. I'm glad I found a women that loves me for who I am. I'm thankful for all she does to keep us together and keep our family happy. Yes, she is crazy, but she's my kind of crazy.

2009 Academy Awards

2009-02-03T12:42:00.005-05:00

So the Oscars will be here in 3 weeks, and as usual, I haven't seen any of the movies nominated for best picture. Four of the five nominated flicks were rated "R," so that means the only one I would have even thought about watching was The Curious Case of Benjamin Button. I don't remember that one being advertised!

I just read that netflix review of it that I linked to above, and now I do remember seeing a trailor or two for it.

My personal favorites from last year were Iron Man, Hellboy II, Hancock, Star Wars: the Clone Wars, and probably Dark Knight (we own it, but we still haven't watched it!), but, as a fanboy, I am a tad biased. We've got a rented copy of The Incredible Hulk sitting at home too, waiting to be watched. We really liked the 2003 version, so I don't see why this one won't be even better. We are also looking forward to watching Superhero Movie, Transporter 3, Twilight, and MAYBE Witless Protection (with Larry the Cable Guy). Delta Farce turned out to be a real dud.

Speaking of fanboys, check out this Wikipedia List of Marvel Films that I found while typing this:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_marvel_films

I had no idea there were so many sequels in production! This is a good thing. Hopefully.

Anyone watch Wall-E? It got nominated for six catagories! I saw it on DVD, and thought it was the worst Pixar movie ever made. Now, that's not saying much, because the rest of their movies are GREAT. So let me just say that it is not fun to watch. It takes about an hour to even get into what the plot actually is. I do like the ending though, and not just because that meant the movie was over!

2009 Oscar Ballot (PDF)

Here is a list of other american movies made in 2008: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_American_films_of_2008

2008 Films that I enjoyed:

Baby Mama

Bedtime Stories (an Adam Sandler movie without any profanity? And it was GOOD to boot!)

Eagle Eye

Get Smart

Iniana 4

Kung Fu Panda

The Longshots (yes, a Fred Durst movie)

Vantage Point

Alicia and Angelina watched The Spiderwick Chronicles last week, and they said it was good.

Worst movies of 2008:

Cloverfield

Wall-E

Leatherheads

Mama's Boy (what exactly has happened to Jon Heder since Napoleon Dynamite?)

Speed Racer

Your thoughts on last year's crop of movies?

Sunday Selection: Journaling

2009-02-01T07:33:00.003-05:00

Having a journal is important. Not only can it help you sort out your feelings, but you can leave an imprint for your posterity. This can be very important! By reading the words of our ancestors, we can learn a lot, or at least become familiar with the things that our family has gone through. I can only imagine what some of our progenitors will think of the things that we write!

Anyway, I wanted to post a link to my new online journal:

http://trunkybeat.livejournal.com/

I just posted an entry on my thoughts as I was studying for Gospel Doctrine class at Church today. I guess you could say that is the REAL Sunday Selection for today. Check it out!

My mother showed me this livejournal site. It is cool because you can make each and every post private or public. This is neat because I would like to think that if I wanted to record something private in order to help myself, I don't have to feel obligated to share it.

Let me know what you think, and let me know if you sign up for your own online journal, so that I can know if you want to share it and get feedback.

An Open Letter to Elder Alexander

2009-01-31T18:18:00.003-05:00

I was just cleaning out my inbox, and I sent an email to Elder Jarod Alexander, from our ward. He is in the Salt Lake City, Utah mission, so he is enjoying the cold there now. He has matured a lot there, even from just the few months that he has been out there, from what I can tell from his emails.

Anyway, most of the thoughts from the email seemed like a journal entry (albeit short) for my life, so I wanted to go ahead and post it here for posterity:

Hey dude; we are glad to hear that everything is going good. It has been pretty cold here as of late (30's-50's), but we have also had some warm days sprinkled in. You are lucky to see so much snow. Alicia wants to see it so bad!

The work here is going pretty good. The missionaries just moved, along with the Elders from the Arlington ward, to some pretty pimp digs on Ft. Caroline Rd. The Stake President has asked us all to fast as a stake this weekend for the work to progress, and also so that each of us will have a teaching opportunity. Alicia, Angelina, and I really love missionary work, so of course that is one of the things for which we are fasting.

I get to teach the Presidency Message in Elder's Quorum tomorrow. I get to pick the topic, and Home Teaching has been on my mind a lot lately, so I think I am going to go with that. Plus, I have always been considered a home teaching guru in our ward, so I think people look up to me for that. I will pretty much prepare the lesson tonight from scratch, although I will be able to simply use a lot of the thoughts I've been having as a base. Any ideas on how to get the home teaching numbers up in our ward?

Hope everything goes well, and we can't wait to see you again and jam!

DT

iLa Vida es Buena! (Life is Good!)

Darius S. Trunk

Baseball's Never Been Hotter....

2009-01-27T16:47:00.004-05:00

Well, I called the Jacksonville Suns' front office today, to see when their promotional schedule would be released. They said that it is not ready yet, but to keep checking the web site.

So I asked them if they could tell me what Bobbleheads they were doing this year, and they were happy to oblige! They are doing only three this year, but they are some good ones:

Ivan De Jesus, Jr.
Clayton Kershaw
Southpaw

Great, right?!? Those are three games that we will NOT be missing this year!

It is still not up, but you can keep checking the following link to see their promotional schedule:

http://jacksonville.suns.milb.com/promotions/index.jsp?sid=t564

See you there!

Raw Meet-up

2009-01-27T13:49:00.006-05:00

For the newest JaxRaw meet-up, which was held this past Saturday, January 24, we met up at my favorite restaurant, which you know as the Present Moment. At first I was skeptical, because I envision all the meet-ups as being pot-luck luncheons where we all meet up and try each other's recipes. Yes, this one was more pricey, but we gained some valuable info and had just as much fun as at any other meet-up! We were also able to take some friends (Nick and Bella), and they had a blast!

We made contact with a few more important folks at the meet-up (namely Ian and Adam), and I added a few books to my wishlist ("Enzyme Nutrition" and "Raw Foods for Busy People"). We also got to try some GREAT food! Besides our now-usual raw chili (which I am happy to say that we have now replicated at home!), we got to try some indian food (tempeh, marinated veggies, and curry) as well as Chocolate Chip Cherry ice cream for dessert (it was amazingly creamy--very close to the good stuff down at Glazer Farms in Miami). The currey was also not the same as the kind they sell at Glazer, but it was very good in its own way.

I would be remiss if I did not mention the RAW BLUEBERRY PANCAKES that we had when we went to Present Moment earlier this month to celebrate an amazing achievement of mine (and a sign that the Living Foods lifestyle will allow your body to do AMAZING things): one year with no signs of cancer! Or course, that is another (neglected) post altogether... Anyway, they (the pancakes) were absolutely incredible. We are trying to think of a good time that we can go there in the morning, and just get a couple of plates of those for breakfast, as Ivette now has the place open for business in the mornings. There is also a fruit plate available that sounds good as a breakfast item.

Some of the other foods that we've made at home recently are:

Green Applesauce (the only ingredients are parsley and apples)
Lemonade
Chocolate milkshakes
Baklava
Whipped cream (great as a fruit topping or as a layer on the baklava!)
I have to mention the chili again. This stuff is going on the menu when we start OUR raw restaurant!

Pretty amazing stuff.

Nintendo DS

2009-01-27T13:45:00.003-05:00

As I said in my last facebook update, I am really excited about the Nintendo DS that Angelina got this past weekend as a late Christmas present. I have always loved video games, and I am hoping that this gives me a new excuse to start playing them more. Whos has time for video games?

On the DS, there are old favorites renewed, like Mario, Mario Kart, Legend of Zelda, Guitar Hero, and Resident Evil, as well as new games. There are even some educational games! Jaray was telling me that there is a zookeeper game in which you can learn all about different types of animals, even ones under the sea. So that makes it even easier to justify!

Maybe I can even eventually get a second DS for myself, because you can link up wirelessly to play two-player games. In the meantime, think she'll let me play hers? :)

Sunday Selection: Be Perfected

2009-01-18T22:24:00.005-05:00

Note: this post was actually initialized on Sunday, January 18, but I am just now posting it. Some of the thoughts may not have been fleshed out as much as I would have liked.

Today in Church, we had Ward Conference, so we got to hear from some of our leaders. The theme for the conference was from a scripture in the book of Mormon – Moroni 10:32-34. It says, in part:

Yea, come unto Christ, and be perfected in
him, and deny yourselves of all ungodliness; and if ye shall deny yourselves of
all ungodliness, and love God with all your might, mind and strength, then is
his grace sufficient for you, that by his grace ye may be perfect in
Christ;

2 Nephi 25:23 supports this:

For we labor diligently to write, to persuade our
children, and also our brethren, to believe in Christ, and to be reconciled to
God; for we know that it is by grace that we are saved, after all we can do.

We can’t be perfect in this life, but the Lord, by His grace, will “finish up” our perfection AFTER we have done all that we can do to be perfect.

Other supporting scriptures:

Alma 13:6 - We are called to teach others so that they too can be perfected and return to live with God.

Moroni 7:48 - When he appears, we will be like Him, IF we have and pray for the pure love of Christ.

These came from President Voorwahler’s talk in Priesthood.

Glass of water analogy: we fill our glasses with our best effort to a certain level (a certain fraction).

The Lord then fills our glasses with what is missing—what is needed to make it full—AFTER all that we can do.

Other thoughts:

We must strive NOT to be complacent. As we do try to be perfect, we have to remember that there will always be new milestones to achieve. We must endure to the end and not be satisfied with “just” doing what we’ve done. "Enduring to the end" is not JUST accomplishing those initial goals, like getting baptized, going on a mission, going to the temple, etc.

Sunday Selection: The Word of Wisdom

2009-01-11T16:28:00.006-05:00

The word of wisdom is a wonderful thing! I have thought about it a lot since I converted to being a raw vegan in November 2007, especially as it pertains to my family and me. I wanted to get some of my thoughts down in my blog, even if it causes some “discussion” (hopefully healthy and not contentious). Curious yet?

As a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints (a.k.b.s.a. [also known by some as] the Mormon Church), I have always been taught the Word of Wisdom, which is found as a revelation from the Lord in the Doctrine & Covenants, Section 89 (click here to read it in its entirety).

12 Yea, flesh also of beasts and of the fowls of the air, I, the Lord, have ordained for the use of man with thanksgiving; nevertheless they are to be used sparingly;
13 And it is pleasing unto me that they should not be used, only in times of winter, or of cold, or famine.

Well, growing up, I was always taught to somehow justify eating meat sparingly by maybe trying to limit it to once a day or even just "one meat per meal." After all, does it not say that the Lord has ordained meat for the use of man? Somehow the “only in times of famine” part got swept under the rug as we all justified it as being the natural way to eat—everyone eats like that today, so why not us?

I also like this part, which comes before the meat part:

10 And again, verily I say unto you, all wholesome herbs God hath ordained for the constitution, nature, and use of man—
11 Every herb in the season thereof, and every fruit in the season thereof; all these to be used with prudence and thanksgiving.

Well, I originally became a raw vegan so that I could get healthy and eliminate the possibility of a cancer returning to my body. Some wonderful side effects have been that I lost 100 pounds, became even more health-conscious than I already was, and gained a greater appreciation for animals as well as ALL of God’s creatures. Life is wonderful!

I had originally intended to eat 100% raw for two years, after which I would switch to an 80/20 diet (80% raw, 20% cooked food [while still not eating meat, milk, or other animal products]). I think Hippocrates teaches that to its students in case they panic at the thought of never eating cooked food again! Whether that "worked" on me or not, I don't know, but I now think we should be taught to embrace that idea and realize that we are the ONLY mammals that cook their food. Isn't that interesting? Isn't it also interesting that affluent diseases like cancer and diabetes have become MUCH more prevalent in the last 100 years or so? But I now have zero intention of returning to cooked food on any kind of regular basis. I have learned too many good things and felt too many positive benefits from this lifestyle and doing the things that I know my Heavenly Father wants me to do. I am raw for life!

Please keep in mind that with this entry, I am not trying to chastise anyone for their interpretation of the Word of Wisdom OR for the way that they live. One of the things that I’ve learned is that we should all have mutual respect for the choices that we all make. I know that our Heavenly Father has a plan for each of us individually. What he has revealed to me and my family doesn’t necessarily apply to everyone else or even anyone else!

I am grateful to be able to share this lifestyle with our little Angelina, and I am happy that she has not only accepted it, but EMBRACED it. She LOVES trying new things and also sharing some of her favorite foods with other friends. Honestly, if you ever think about going raw but are afraid your family won’t get on-board with you, try it with your children! What kid doesn’t like raspberries, blueberries, watermelon, cherries, grapes, carrots, almonds, sunflower seeds, or cashews? What kid wouldn’t REALLY rather have some strawberries, bananas, and nuts than a hamburger? The really cool thing about children eating raw vegan is that they are much less “toxic” than we are, so you don’t necessarily have to worry about if they are getting too much of one nutrient (like a lot of fat or protein from too many nuts). Yes, you should teach them good principles, but their bodies will “talk” to them just like ours will to us and tell them what it is that they need to eat.

I am grateful that I can now "run and not be weary, and walk and not faint" and that "the destroying angel" is "passing by" us (verses 20-21).

Finally, I am grateful to have such awesome friends that not only support us, but are curious enough to attempt some of the things that we have done to change our lives. After all, everyone eats some raw food, so we all have something in common! We are also each at a different point in our own personal journey, and I simply wish to share the things that I have learned with my family through our study of this fascinating topic and through meaningful prayer with our Heavenly Father. I must say though, that I have seen some amazing changes in my friends who have tried it. Will everyone on this planet eventually eat like this? I don’t know, but I sure am enjoying it right now, and I know that much good can be done by sharing these things with others.

NINE hours of Football?

2009-01-10T08:03:00.004-05:00

I am finally getting around to watching the final NFL Playoff game of last weekend on DVR (Dolphins-Ravens), and I saw a great commercial from a beer company, which I will not name. So it says, "How can you watch NINE hours of NFL football this weekend? Easy... just skip the Sunday afternoon game!"

Love it.

Should be some amazing match-ups today and tomorrow.

The Cardinals are just plain up-starts, but they sure are fun to watch. They could give Carolina more than they want to handle.

The Ravens v. Titans game will be great. Not much has been said of the Titans since their winning streak (and their perfect season) was ruined a month or so ago. But their defense is still their defense, which is one of the best in the NFL. The Ravens' D would like to refute that and make a statement after making the dolphins look like guppies last weekend.

Eagles/Giants III: This one has all the makings of a classic. As some talking head on ESPN said yesterday, McNabb will have to play perfect for this one to be close. But if he does, it could be a repeat of their second match-up this year, in which Philly beat the G-Men 20-14. The Giants won the first game this year (in Philadelphia) 36-31, so this is the rubber game.

Chargers at Steelers: This is the one I am looking forward to the most. Phil Rivers and Big Ben Roethlisberger were drafted in the same class a few years ago. They both played very well this year. Yes, it looks like L.T. will not play for the Chargers this week due to injury, but in case you haven't heard, he's got a very suitable back-up, shorty Darren Sproles. He got over 300 all-purpose yards last week, as Peyton Manning watched pitifully from the sidelines (the Chargers have now ended the Colts' playoff run two years in a row!). The Steelers defense is just NASTY, while the Chargers defense is penetrable.

How many hours of football will YOU be watching this weekend?

Garfield and Friends!

2009-01-05T09:34:00.002-05:00

I just wanted to post this funny picture of Angelina that we took at the Outlet Mall in St. Augustine.

Sunday Selection: Inspired Decisions

2009-01-04T20:03:00.004-05:00

I wanted to share some of the thoughts we had as a group during Elder’s Quorum (Priesthood Meeting) at Church today. President Ladd taught the lesson, and it was on inspired decisions. He presented six steps to coming up with an inspired decision:

Six Steps to Coming Up With an Inspired Decision:

1. Identify the Problem
• We all make decisions everyday, sometimes trivial, sometimes life-changing. Sometimes they are spiritual, but sometimes they are more of a temporal nature. Examples of temporal decisions may be to find out which job to accept, whether to accept a job wherein you need to relocate, a question about your garden or your “fields” (Alma 37:37).

2. Pray About It
• I thought this was interesting. I would think prayer would be the last part of the process. Like it says in Doctrine & Covenants—study it out in your mind and in your heart, and THEN pray, and you will feel the answer to what you should do. But no, you should first pray as soon as you identify the problem. In this way, you can receive divine help all along the way, and SOMETIMES, the Lord will answer your prayer right then and there, and you can move right along to step 5. I have had this happen several times (mostly in the last year and a half), and each time, I was very surprised to hear the answer WHILE I was still praying—before I even ended the prayer! Each time, I thought, “Are you sure?! You don’t want me to… ponder it more?” So yes, it is well worth it to pray about your decision before you move on to the next steps in the process.

3. Study the Problem
• Ah yes. This goes to that scripture in D&C about the Lord making it known to you AFTER you study it out “in your mind and in your heart.” Study it out, ask friends and others who may inspire you, and just ponder it.

4. Make a Decision
• Since you are receiving divine help along the way, go ahead and make the decision. Be confident! This will be the choice that you bring to the Lord. Several times during this lesson, I thought of the story of the Brother of Jared at the beginning of the book of Ether in the Book of Mormon. I thought of how he had an important decision to make (how to have light in the 16 underwater barges in which he and his people would be traveling for the next year). He received a divine prompt to make a decision HIMSELF and THEN present it to the Lord for approval/confirmation. I thought of the confidence that he had when he brought his choice to the Lord, and the Lord rewarded him for his faith by helping him to know that the decision was a correct one.

5. Pray for Confirmation
• This is when we receive a “Yeah” or a “Neigh.” As you already know, you may not receive the answer you wanted, and it may not come WHEN you want it. That means not always right away, either.

6. Act—Do It!
• Sometimes we’ll think we made the wrong decision based on the results of the choice we made. Sometimes we won’t see that it was a good decision until much later. A lot of times we will ask, “Why?” “Why is this happening to ME?” If the times get tough, we also need to remember those feelings of confirmation that we did receive when we brought it to the Lord in prayer. Remember that decision-making process that was performed. Those six steps were important—don’t go back on your choose simply because it doesn’t feel right at first. Remember—that was an inspired decision!

We have to remember that things DO happen for a reason! We have to be ready for those tough times.

The other interesting thing that I got from this lesson was that we need to do the work ourselves—God will not take away our free agency by making the decision FOR us. This goes back to the story of the Jaredites—the brother of Jared needed to decide what HE wanted the Lord to do to help him. God wasn’t going to just spoon-feed it to him.

Price Alert: Organic Bananas

2008-12-15T05:15:00.003-05:00

For those of you wanting to choose organic but trying to stick to a strict budget, this post contains some great news! Organic bananas are the same price as conventional (which means non-organic; pesticide-ridden, if you will)! But only at Native Sun... $0.69/pound, that is. Never say Native Sun is too expensive; Publix has still got organic bananas at $0.99/pound (which is normal) vs. $0.69/pound for conventional.

And for those of you who are still not convinced, check out this article I found while searching for an image of some bananas:
http://www.fitsugar.com/1568020

Sunday Selection: Unity

2008-12-15T05:03:00.004-05:00

In today’s Priesthood class, we studied from Chapter 23 of the Teachings of the Prophet Joseph Smith manual. The lesson was on the concept of unity, and it inspired me to write about how we can apply this to our lives. I’m not sure how neat and tidy this post will be (how unified, if you will), because it is just a collection of thoughts that I had while participating in the lesson. So maybe I will just present it that way here, and it will be helpful:

• The lesson mentioned the concept of putting forth a “concentrated action.” That was a neat idea to me. I like the word “concentrate.” It can not only mean to focus, but it also reminds me of concentrations of fluids in a compound. I like chemistry, and it is a neat idea that the ideas, actions, and yes, foci of each individual can help complete the mixture and create a genuinely good thing.

• History shows that when groups of people have banded their strengths together and became united, the results were much better than anything their individual efforts might have done.

• During the class today, a few of the class participants mentioned sports teams and how the teams with the high-paid, egotistical stars are usually not victorious. It is those teams that are filled with selfless, no-name, blue-collar players that want to win and perform concentrated actions as a team that may not show up in the box score, but that will help the team be victorious. A good example is an offensive line on a football team. Do they receive any accolade for their work? Although they are starting to get paid like true stars more and more each year, they will never be as famous or popular (at least in the fans’ eyes) as the so-called “skill players.”

• In any war, be it from the archives of the scriptures or in the history of our own country, platoons of soldiers that were unified were proven to be victorious.

• Unity starts in the family and then moves on to other organizations in each of our lives, be it in our Church, Scouts, Quorums, student groups, or even at work. I think it is utterly important that we establish that unity at home—among the people with whom we hope to spend the rest of our eternities. We must help each other out, so that we can then concentrate our actions on serving more of our brothers and sisters here on earth.

• I was also reminded of the Power Team that we have been instructed to have within our businesses, including our real estate endeavors. Having a power team is SO important in business—you’re not expected to be the expert at everything. The best entrepreneurs go out and find those people that can be the best at each individual discipline within the business. For example, if I have a portfolio of rental houses, could I be the property managers? Of course I could, but why not team up with somebody that has taken the time to be the master of fixing toilets, summing up the books, or even collecting rent. It just makes sense that a concentrated effort would be more effective than everything being done by an individual.

There were a few scriptures that were shared during the lesson, and I wanted to share three of them:

• John 17: 21-24; Christ pleaded with the Father that those who followed Him would be one with Him, and that He would be one with the Father.

• 4 Nephi 1: 15-18; this is a follow-up to the scripture in John. After Christ visited the Nephites, the people achieved unity because of their righteousness.

• 1 Corinthians 12:26 (12-27); If one member suffers, so do the rest of them, but one member has cause to rejoice, so do the rest.

Work Christmas Party 2008 (Black and Veatch)

2008-12-14T09:52:00.002-05:00

I wanted to post some videos and pictures from the Black & Veatch 2008 Employee Christmas Party. We had a blast! We got a babysitter for Angelina (she had a fun little sleepover as well). We got to dance for the first time in ages, and we even brought some food from Shakti so we had something yummy to eat while everyone else ate from the buffet.

Alicia, Peg, and the St. Johns River:

All aboard the "Lady St. Johns!":

Me and my "hoodlum hat:"

Nick is "King of the World!"
Um... yeah... :

We got to dance to a very nice mix of songs up on the second deck of the boat. Here we are gettin' our sprinkler on:

Photos:

Alicia and I, just chillin':

Now that's Metal!

O, Christmas Tree, O; Christmas Tree!

I thought this was kind of neat, even if the picture didn't turn out perfect: a view of I-95 where you can see some of the green exit signs from BELOW the bridge!

I have a few more; maybe I will post those later.

Edit: I am waiting on Nick, who took more pictures with the company camera, which is more conventional and yields better looking pictures than our video camera.

Present Momennt: A quasi-review

2008-12-12T05:50:00.015-05:00

This post was mainly inspired by a friend, who wanted to know more about the Present Moment Cafe, which is my FAVORITE Raw Restaurant! It is located on King Street in St. Augustine (see map).

Is it my favorite because of its close proximity? Or is it because it really is the best? I haven't decided yet! Anyway, I also "borrowed" some photos from their web site. I don't think they'll mind, since I am promoting their restaurant!

View Larger Map

Here are some of the foods that they serve:
Start off with a salad, or one is usually included with each entree, even for lunch! They have raw dressings, from a light citrus marinade to a creamy house dressing to whatever other creation they decide to create.

This is their sushi. I have only tried theirs once--not because it isn't good, but because we make it at home all the time.

Here are some of their entrees. The first is a mock meatloaf. They also have sunlight burgers, mock tuna salad, tacos of life (one of my favorites), lasagna, and more!

The last time I went, I had a Viva Burrito, which looks very similar to this enchilada. I love how they stuff 'em with sprouts!

And of course, you cannot forget about dessert! The apple cobbler is a must-have, not only because it is good, but also because it comes with vanilla ice cream (made from almond nut-milk). They will periodically have a special ice cream of the day, like lemon, strawberry, banana, chocolate, and pistachio. Shown here is the banana split, which used to be a special, but is now a regular on the menu! It is awesome.

So do yourself a favor and take a trip to the Present Moment. You will not regret it, and it may give you some ideas of the types of gourmet raw food that you like to eat. My sister-in-law, who is a "meat-and-potatoes" kind of girl, is addicted to that apple cobbler, and also usually orders a strawberry or chocolate milk shake before her meal when we take her.

Present Moment also has a deli that you can go to for fresh take-out, desserts, and a FEW produce items. It is worth checking out when you eat at the restaurant (it is right next-door).

I also wanted to post the map to Shakti Life Kitchen (click here for their web site with photos, a menu, and more), which is a raw restaurant that opened up in Jacksonville Beach recently (corner of Atlantic Blvd. and Pine Rd). It too is GREAT, and they teach about "proper food combining" (more on that in a later post, or just ask me). They also have desserts that you can take to-go, like the Present Moment Market. I will post a review of this restaurant later, but here is the map:

View Larger Map

Corn Commercials

2008-12-10T04:08:00.003-05:00

I feel like I am getting behind in documenting some of the cool stuff that we have been doing. Last month, our new family (with the addition of 7-year-old Angelina, whom we are in the process of adopting) went to Tampa to visit mi suegro. Alicia has already written a little bit about the "Corn Maze" at Long and Scott farms. You can rad more about that here, but I wanted to post the commercials for raw corn that Angelina and I made. She loves her raw foods! Check it out!

Now stop wondering and go try it!

Random Videos

2008-12-10T03:28:00.003-05:00

Just because I can... I'll do these chronologically.

The first video is from our Thanksgiving Keys trip. Imagine getting a sunburn in late November! Anyway, Alicia has chronicled some of our adventures there, and Mom has referenced the giant "Maine lobster" hermit crab, found by Angelina at Sombrero Beach. Check it out:

2nd Video:

Rowan playing in a banana box. Just so you know, this is the box top for the 40-pound box of organic bananas that we buy almost every week from Native Sun. Not shown: Rowan and I are secretly having a competition to see who can eat the most bananas.

Finally, I HAD to get this on video! Alicia nose was a little plugged up yesterday, so of course she did a "nose cleanse." This is one of the coolest things we have done. It is neat to think that you can pour saltwater in one of your nostrils, wait for it to fill up your sinus cavities, and then have your nose be more clear when you get it all out. You should try it!

Gas Prices, revisited

2008-12-10T03:23:00.003-05:00

Wow, this seems kind of expensive now, eh? How cool is it to fill up your gas tank for less than $20?

The other day, I went to the Hess that is across from our street on Beach BLVD. We usually go there, because it is the cheapest we can find without the ridiculousness of driving all over town to find the best deal. Also, we hate going to Murphey's (the Wal-Mart beast that gives you 3 cents off every gallon--IF you go inside Wal-Mart and buy a gift card). Anyways, the sign advertised $1.69/gallon for regular unleaded, so I was like, "Heck yeah!" and pulled in to fill up. The price at the pump was actually $1.65! Are prices dropping so fast, they can't even keep the marquee updated fast enough? This was Monday evening. The price on the sign there yesterday was at $1.62 (maybe even lower at the pump?).

I'm enjoying this...

The Upside of the Recession...

2008-11-11T07:02:00.003-05:00

Huh?

Yep. I've already mentioned one below. And speaking of low gas prices, check out this blog entry by one of my favorite celebrity bloggers, Scott Adams (creator of Dilbert):

http://dilbert.com/blog/entry/the_upside_of_the_recession/

Scott brings up some good points! My favorite is his comment about "24." I've never seen the show, but the comment is great!

I have also posted the Dilbert blog under my favorite links ("I Get By with a Little Help from My Friends...," shown to the right).

Gas Prices

2008-11-11T06:30:00.004-05:00

So what are the gas prices like in Florida right now? Here is a sample of what we can get up here in the mid-west:

I think the lowest we saw was $1.77. But heck, when it is this low, you are honestly not even shopping around as much as you are when it is upwards of $4.00/gallon, because you are just so happy that you aren't breaking the bank with every fill-up!

One other anomaly: at one gas station, the price of mid-grade fuel was the same as the price of unleaded! Too bad we had just filled up...

Sunday Selection: God's Power

2008-11-11T06:20:00.003-05:00

Yes, it is Tuesday. Yes, I don’t always post these on Sundays. But I try to, and I think of these selections on Sundays, usually while I am at Church. This week, we had the great opportunity of being in the “Show Me” state (Missouri) and Kansas (home of those GREAT Chiefs and Royals). We went to the Overland Park 1st Ward yesterday, and we got to hear from a recently-returned missionary, Sister Fackrell. She served her mission in Croatia. During her talk, she brought up a great point about the power of God. She said that while we can be doing everything we need to be doing to keep the commandments and stay true to our covenants, but if we do not have the faith to go along with those works, the things for which we are praying might not come true. Faith is required for our spiritual progression. God already knows what we need and what we want, we just have to pray for it and have an unshakable faith in those things.

I thought about my own life, and all the things that I am praying for right now. Do I have enough faith? Or do I let too much doubt creep in? Is *any* doubt too much? When I am fasting and praying for these things, do I really believe that they are going to come to pass?

Over the last year or so, I have received some amazing revelations concerning things that the Lord has promised for me and my family. Some of them have already come to pass. Some of them I know the Lord will make happen when the time is right. But it is not easy. There is so much discouragement out there—so many reasons to think things shouldn’t go right. But I know that my Redeemer lives, and that he wants us to be happy. We must have an eternal perspective, and keep living the Gospel. The Lord will continue to bless us as we follow his will.

And have faith.

For Sunday Selections from previous weeks, please go to that tag on my old blog here. This is a permanent feature of my blog—I just may not do it as often as I should (but isn’t it like that with a lot of things?).

Adam-Ondi-Ahman

2008-11-11T06:11:00.000-05:00

While in Kansas City (I am here for an OSHA training for work), we decided to go to the Garden of Eden. That’s right—Spring Hill (a.k.a. Adam-Ondi-Ahman; see Doctrine & Covenants 116:1). My wife was inspired this week more than ever to finally start up her blog, and you can see her photo tour of Adam-Ondi-Ahman here, here and here. I wanted to add to that by adding this video of some beautiful wildlife that we saw while we were on our way out of there.

It was really neat. Can you guess what the deer were thinking?

Famous Vegans

2008-09-29T15:50:00.004-04:00

In his latest Dilbert Blog entry, Scott Adams posted some "Famous People Lists" of which he discovered he was a member. One of those lists was of famous vegetarians (including vegans). No word on how many of them are raw vegans, but I was happy to see some my childhood (and current) hero Kirk Hammett (guitarist/songwriter for Metallica) on there, as well as fellow musicians Jeff Beck, Tom Morello, Eddie Vedder, Weird Al Yankovic, and Serj Tankian (System of a Down).

Also included were sports stars Tony Gonzalez, Pat Neshek, Marv Levy (former Head Coach of my Bills!), Tony La Russa, and actress (and Dodgers fan) Alyssa Milano. Another actress thrown in there was a crush of mine while I was a teenager--Gillian Anderson (Scully from the X-files). I can't remember if I knew prior to reading this that Sarah Conner and Pam Anderson are vegetarians. Also: Pauly Shore (another favorite from my childhood!), Sinead O' Conner, and Jamie Lee Curtis. Some of los famosos I already knew about, like Woody Harrelson, Scott Adams himself, Prince Fielder (but isn't he a vegan?), and Apu and Lisa Simpson (from the Simpsons). But where is Carol Alt? And Jon Gries (Uncle Rico from Napoleon Dynamite)? Guess not.

Did I miss anyone?

You might be a raw foodist when...

2008-09-25T15:44:00.008-04:00

Our old friend Steve Pavlina is at it again! Well, maybe not, but he has posted an hilarious, jeff foxworthy-type list on his blog. I've told many of you about Steve's 30-day raw foods trial that he finished earlier this year. Well, he has gone back to this lifestyle, and I believe he is 100% raw again. Every once in a while, he'll post something else about it, and here is the newest offering:

You Know You Are a Raw Foodist When…

Check it out and tell me (and him, if you want...) what you think.

Oh, and don't worry if you don't know what a breatharian is. I had to look it up too.

Steve is a very good internet writer, and a lot of his other blog entries, including that ones that DON'T deal with raw foods, are VERY fascinating and inspiring. If you are new to the Steve Pavlina raw foods saga, and are interested in another perspective on this lifestyle, start with this link:

http://www.stevepavlina.com/blog/2007/12/30-days-raw/

Check out day 5, in which he has a section on the costs of a raw food diet. Expensive, right? Uh, no. According to Steve, his average raw-foods day cost about about between $12-$15. It CAN be expensive, but it just depends on how much you believe this will help your health and/or save your life. He says if you are budget-conscious, you can get by on $5 a day, or less. Is that cheaper than what you are eating now? That $15 figure jives with what Alicia and I are doing now, and it will be even less as we get our garden going. But I think that is cheaper than what we were eating before, given that we would each go out for lunch a couple of times a month while at work, and that costs what, $6 or $7 per meal, minimum? You know it is more if one goes to a Chili's-style place.

What I love about that first link (and the blog-post about each of the 30 days on the trial diet) is that he posts pictures of every single meal that he had during the 30 days--breakfast, lunch, and dinner, plus any snacks. He also posts some recipes for meals that aren't as simple as just fruits and vegetables on a plate.

Here are some more updates from Steve, following his 30-day trial:

http://www.stevepavlina.com/blog/2008/04/returning-to-raw-foods/
http://www.stevepavlina.com/blog/2008/07/yet-another-raw-food-diet-update/

http://www.stevepavlina.com/blog/2008/08/raw-food-diet-and-energy-gains/

I realize that you might not read all this in one sitting (I still haven't finished reading each of the 30-day entries). But I wanted to document these entries, because it seems like every time I want to read them or tell a friend about them, I had to search for it. Now it is all in one easy-to-find blog entry.

One more! Click here if you want to download an hour-long raw-food coaching session in which Steve participated:

http://www.stevepavlina.com/blog/2008/01/raw-food-coaching-session/

Minor League Musical Chairs

2008-09-25T10:24:00.007-04:00

Most of us know that the Dodgers are leaving Jacksonville. That's right--the Suns will now be affiliated with the Florida Marlins (wa-hoo!), while the Dodgers will be going to Tennessee with the Chattanooga Look-outs. What we didn't know is that there would be so many other changes. Instead of continueing to try to remember all the changes, I made a table of all the ones that I have found so far:

McDonald, Ellis get some P.T. in the MLB

2008-09-18T10:03:00.006-04:00

Sports break!

Former Jacksonville Suns standouts A.J. Ellis (catcher) and James McDonald (right-handed pitcher) both made their MLB debuts with the Los Angelos Dodgers this week.

McDonald (who pitched GREAT for the Suns this year) pitched a perfect ninth inning in a blowout loss to the Pirates (!) last night. He recorded 2 strikouts

Ellis played on Monday (9/15) and Wednesday (9/17), but as a late-inning defensive replacement. He has yet to get an at-bat in the majors, which should just be temporary, since he hit 0.321/0.433/0.456 (batting average/on-base percentage/slugging percentage) for AAA-Las Vegas this year.

You ate WHAT?

2008-09-17T14:16:00.002-04:00

Just when you thought we couldn't get any weirder, and after you heard that I eat raw corn, you read this: today for lunch, I had raw rice. It was delicious! We actually tried it for the first time at one of the raw restaurants in New York last week, so we decided to make it ourselves. It is really quite simple: you soak the rice in water for a day or so, and then you drain it. You then place in a bowl over some olive oil and salt. Put it in the fridge after it has marinated for a while, and you have a delicious item as a meal or a side item! It is REALLY good. The oil makes it tastes like buttery rice. Soaking it in the water softens up the rice, but it will still be "al dente."

This could be a movie treat for me--buttered popcorn is one of the few cooked foods that I actually miss (yes, it's true). I could post a blog about raw corn, but just take it from me--it is MUCH better raw than cooked. Go out and try an ear!

Raw Power

2008-09-15T15:36:00.001-04:00

Raw Power

The following entry contains a lot of information, but I want to help! Some of it is touchy, but I wanted to put it all in one place so that I can refer people to my findings.

Here goes!

The diet that Alicia and I are on can be called the Raw Vegan diet or the Living Foods diet. Just eat any raw fruits, vegetables (including lots of sprouts), nuts, or seeds! The important thing is not to cook any foods, as cooking any food destroys the enzymes needed to give life and health to your body and also to digest the food. Let me repeat that, because it is very important. Not only are cooked foods hard to digest in the first place, they also have been stripped of the enzymes that are naturally in them before they are cooked (the enzymes die when they are heated to a temperature of 118 degrees F), so they are DOUBLY harder to digest. Raw foods are easier to digest because they aren't hard for your body to process, and the enzymes in them help you to digest them too! I'm sure you've heard how long it takes to digest meat and other foods (1-3 days). Conversely, it only takes your body 2-1/2 hours to digest a raw meal, and only 15 minutes to digest a raw juice. If you eat three cooked meals a day, your body is constantly trying to digest the enzyme-depleted food, and by the time it gets done digesting 1 meal that you’ve consumed earlier, you've already eaten another one. It is very hard for your body to heal itself when this is going on constantly, and very EASY for your body to be susceptible to diseases. Compare that to eating raw (non-pasteurized!) juices and raw foods, and your body has a lot of time to quickly digest the food and then can move on to eliminating cancer cells or problems related to other diseases. Not only was my body able to heal itself from brain cancer (and rid itself of the toxins that the doctors gave me through chemotherapy), but Alicia was able to heal herself from being insulin-resistant (and very close to adult-onset diabetes). Since she started eating raw, her blood sugar has not once been above 100, even after a meal of only fruits! Many people do not know that high blood-sugar is actually related to fat and toxins. If your bloodstream is filled with a lot of hard-to-digest fat (including raw fat), the sugars (even good sugars) that you eat cannot be digested quickly, stay in your bloodstream, and cause problems, ranging from diabetes to cancer to candita (yeast) infections.

I know this helped us! My dream is to eventually start "The DT Foundation" to help people get this information. Raw food is going to be a lot less uncommon than it is now. It is not just a "thing" anymore. The best book that I can recommend you read is "The China Study" by Dr. Colin Campbell. In it, he relates how our health is closely related to the foods that we eat. AMAZING science behind eating a plant-based diet!

Quick tip: if you decide to go raw and someone asks you something crazy like “But where do you get your protein from?” ask them—“from where do you get YOUR protein?” Animal protein is just not meant to be consumed by humans. It is the wrong kind of protein.

Here are some web sites from the Hippocrates Health Institute. This is a place that teaches people to live a balanced life and eat a raw-foods diet:

General web site: http://www.hippocratesinst.com/
Sample Videos: http://www.hippocratesinst.org/SampleVideos.aspx
Sign up for their free magazine: http://www.hippocratesinst.com/Magazine.aspx

My wife and I, along with my Mom and Dad, went there for New Year’s this year (December 30-January 6, 2008). It is normally a 3-week detox program, but with our schedule and finances, we all decided to go for one week that time and perhaps try to do the rest later. It was an incredible experience. But I will blog about that later (hopefully).

Sorry this entry is choppy, but some of the thoughts are random. I wanted to get them all down. A friend asked me for “a list of the foods that you eat.” This sounded kind of funny to me, because I had already told him my standard answer—“fruits veggies, nuts, and seeds.” But it is a common question, so I decided to elaborate. Besides “fruits veggies, nuts, and seeds,” there is lots of raw cuisine out there. Just go to any Borders or Books-a-Million and look up their raw cookbooks (uncookbooks?). You shoul be pleasantly surprised!

Here are some web sites of raw food restaurants and recipes. The first one (The Present Moment—our favorite!... just by default though, because it is the only one in Northeast Florida) is in St. Augustine. The rest are in New York City. Another dream of mine (and Alicia’s) is to open up a raw restaurant in Jacksonville. It’s gonna happen, so keep an eye out for it.
Here are the sites:

http://www.thepresentmomentcafe.com/
http://www.rawsoul.com/restaurant.htm
http://www.rawsoul.com/recipes.htm
http://www.raw-q.com/

Most of the foods at these types of restaurants are indulgences for Alicia and I, as even raw-fooders can get too much fat (from nuts, avocados, seeds, oils, etc.). Our diet really is simple! We have a shot of 1-2 ounces of wheatgrass (Google: wheatgrass if you don't know what that is) and fruit for breakfast, and then usually salad for lunch, with a fruit topping, a home-made raw salad dressing, or guacamole and salsa (my favorite). Then for dinner we'll eat fruits, raw soups, and/or something else of the like. There is not much to it! Some of our friends have even started modifying their diets to increase the percentage of raw food that they eat, and to me that is awesome! I think they are seeing the benefits when they really stick to it…

For more info on needing to keep the fat level down, see Dr. Doug Graham's book and philosophy, "The 80/10/10 Diet." (http://www.foodnsport.com/811/index.html). In it, he explains the ratio of caloronutrients that humans should be eating, and why. 80/10/10 refers to 80% calories from carbohydrates, 10% from fats, and 10% from protein. This relates strongly with what I was saying earlier about carb sugars being "stuck" in the bloodstream and causing health problems. See the book excerpt on that very site. Not just for raw eaters! Whether you are eating 5%, 50%, 80%, or 100% raw, vegan or non-vegan, you should follow these ratios as close as possible.

I cannot stress that this thing that we have found is not just to lose weight. It is the way that God, in his infinite wisdom, has designed us to live. It is a way to live the way we were meant to live. Happy. Disease-free. Full of energy and life. It is being with our family for a LONG time. This is important for me, and I hope it is important for you. Please let me know if you have any questions.

New York, New York

2008-09-15T08:37:00.002-04:00

New York, New York

I wanted to post some pictures from our family's recent trip to New York. Earlier this year, I was able to score some tickets to the Mets-Braves series this past weekend (Sept 12-14, 2008). It was a dream come true for me (thanks, Mary!), as I have been a Mets fan since I was 7 or 8 years old, and this was the first time I had a chance to go to New York and visit Shea Stadium. It was also an awesome trip because I got to spend so much time with my family (in addition to Alicia, my mom and dad also went). It was unanimously better than the Green Bay trip we made 2 weeks ago ("have Trunk, will Travel" is our motto. We LOVE to travel!). That was another dream come true--for my Dad. You do know hard it is to score Packers tickets, right?

Anyway, here are the pictures:

This was the main highlight for me (showing metal in the first picture)--getting to see Johan Santana (shown pitching in the second picture), David Wright (pictured in third picture on-deck, #5), and the rest of the Mets woop up on the Braves. Friday night's game was rained out (see the tarp in the first picture?), so we saw a double-header on Saturday (they split, with the Mets bullpen blowing a 2-0 supurb start by Santana to lose 3-2 but then holding on for a 5-0 shutout in the nightcap).

The Manhattan Temple. Beautiful, isn't it? For those of you that don't know, it was built from an existing building, and is on the second floor.

Did you know that wheatgrass is good for animals, too? In fact, cats and dogs LOVE wheatgrass and will chew on it, instintively knowing that it is good for what ails them. Back in the day, before it was scientifically verified, Ann Wigmore originally decided that wheatgrass was going to help her body heal itself from cancer because her cats chose it over any other grass.
I LOVE this picture! Did you know they have farmers' markets in New York? Very good ones at that. We were able to get our wheatgrass shots in every morning!

"Adjusting" ourselves to the New York life...

GREAT Led Zeppelin song, am I right?

I had to take this one for Nick and Jon. I didn't know they owned a steakhouse!

This was actually the night that we got home. We missed Elder Alexander (leaving from our Atlantic Ward on Tuesday to start his mission in Salt Lake City) giving his "farewell" talk on Sunday with the missionaries, but we were able to make it to his open house that night. He is going to be a great misionero!

Also, check out my most recent two videos:

Manhattan Temple

Elder Alexander's Open House

http://www.youtube.com/user/trunkybeat

DT's other Blog

2008-07-02T13:02:00.001-04:00

Please go to the following site to see DT's blog:

http://360.yahoo.com/eldertrunk

Click on "view blog" or "My Blog," and check out my stuff!

Don't let the registration process stop you from getting your own account and posting your thoughts--I look forward to your comments!

First Post

2008-02-04T16:15:00.001-05:00

I wanted to post some of what my family and I have been doing since we left our "vacation" at the Hippocrates Health Institute in West Palm Beach, Florida. I really want you to know that the things they teach you here are possible, even in a hectic work environment or with a busy schedule. That is, some of the things are possible for me, and hopefully they can be for you too. You must learn to adapt--you may not be able to have to have a cucumber juice at exactly 9:00, 11:00, and 4:00! I have my first juice at 7:30 in the morning--before I go to work!

I felt inspired to do these things while I was at the Institute because I knew I was going to cure myself of cancer. I knew I was going to make myself a cucumber and sprout juice at work before lunch, even if people looked at me weird, because I knew it would help save my life. And it is has done just that! In January of this year, I had my first post-treatment MRI, and the results showed no signs of cancer! My follow-up MRI in April revealed the same results, and now the frequency of my checkups has been reduced to once every 6 months!

So for this first post I want to show you how I make wheatgrass for myself every morning--1-2 ounces for myself and 1-2 ounces for my wife Alicia. We take them in shots, and I must say, the quality has gotten better since Michael (the "Juiceman" from Hippocrates) showed us how to correctly harvest the grass. Still not a taste you look forward to, but hey--you know this stuff works. Anyway, check out the video.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LZ29puWtOXI