Our Valentine's Day Weekend

A little late, but better than never!

Last weekend was super busy and so much fun for us. First of all, on Friday afternoon, Dave had to work hard with the rest of the Maximized Living Club to put on the event at the school (that Dave mentioned in his last post). The speaker was Dr. Charles Majors, who is a mega successful chiropractor in Chicago. His talk was so powerful and informative! He spoke on the Power of an Adjustment. The students loved it and the event went very smoothly.

Once we were done at the school we headed up to visit Dr. Pete Wurdemann in North Branch for the rest of the weekend. Dave, Nick and I signed up to participate in Saturday's Freeze Your Bunz 5k co-organized by Dr. Pete's office. (This was my first official race!) Dr. Pete, his wife Lisa and their five kids were SO nice to let us stay with them Friday night. We got to see their beautiful log home and had a delicious dinner! After that, Dr. Pete coached Nick and Dave on adjusting while I got to spend time with Lisa and the kids. We read mannnny many books and had lots of hugs!

Thomas and Gabriel on Left and Grace on the Right

The next morning, Dr. Pete woke Dave and Nick up promptly at 5:30am to do a P90x workout! They were both first timers to the program and really enjoyed the intense workout (right boys? haha!)... Well, maybe if they didn't have to run a 5k a couple hours later!

We headed to the race site and did some screening, or at least *tried* to screen, for Dr. Pete. It was so cold that all of the registrants signed in and ran back to their cars to stay warm until the race started. We were supposed to catch the people between registering and the race starting.. We didn't quite get the chance, and instead just stood there and froze for the two hours leading up to the race.

Then we started the Freeze Your Buns RUN! Nick was one of the leaders along with Dr. Pete's oldest son Josh. Dave was right behind them. And Rachel, Thomas and I jog-walked together. In the end, Josh got 2nd, Nick got 3rd, Dave got 22nd and I got 66th. It was a great way to spend Valentine's Day morning! :)

Dave during his run -- taken by the professional photographer

Eating a delicious doughnut and enjoying hot chocolate after the run.
(this face totally reminds me of Matt for some reason!)

Nick receiving his medal and prize -- 3rd Place Winner!

Nick and me, keeping warm in the tent and showing off his awards

Us with our numbers!

And poor Dave on the ride home (I was taking pictures while driving.. :)

After the drive home, we ventured out to Nick's place to enjoy his hot tub and some ice cream from Cold Stone. What a great way to relax and end our day!

This past week and this coming week, Dave's been busy with midterm exams. He's been at the school since Noon and it's already about 5pm..he'll probably be there a few more hours yet. It's these times that I don't really enjoy having a husband who's also a student, but I always remind myself that I'll get to see him again in a few days! haha ;) Just kidding...sorta.. We're actually heading to the Kuznia's for an Oscar party tonight! Cannot wait for Papa Murphy's pizza and great company!

And Alanna just informed me that Loretta & Brad had their baby this morning!! Karmyn Aili, 6lb 1oz, 18in. Congrats to the entire family!! That's so great! You must be so happy to finally have your baby in your arms, Loretta! You can find Loretta's blog under the list of blogs we follow, on the right side. For those who might not know, Loretta is Alanna's sister who got married this past spring.

Think that's all the exciting news and updates for now.. Have a great Monday everyone!! We love you all!


- Elise

My skinny....finally!

Hey everyone! I've FINALLY had a chance to sit down and write my "skinny" that Elise has been prepping everyone for. I'm so blessed and happy to have her as my wife as she does so much for me! I don't know what I would do without her.

Anyways, everyone is probably wondering what goes on in a day in the life of Dave. Well, it would be hard to write down one specific day, but I can give you a generality of what goes on. My friends and I work out every morning at 6 or 6:30am. Two of my friends, Jake and Nick, and myself have just begun training for the Grandma's Marathon in Duluth, MN!! The race takes place on June 20 (I believe)...Nick has done it once already and Jake and I just decided to do it. It has been a goal of mine and even though I am busier than ever I am going to accomplish it. Being in marathon shape will give me a good base for participating in the Chisago Half-Ironman, which is another goal for me this summer. So, not only is there school work to get done, but a lot of training!

After working out, which involves burst training, swimming, or running, I go to my classes. Most of my classes this semester are not too boring. As a T5 (which is half way through school) the classes are becoming more clinical, which I am thankful for. There are a lot of labs and busy work to accomplish. After classes finish which is usually around 5pm I have meetings to attend for all of the organizations I am in or I have to plan and prepare for our club meetings. I am President of the Maximized Living Student Club here at Northwestern. We have one of the biggest clubs on campus and our mission is to prepare and develop students into future leaders of health care through Chiropractic care. Jake (one of my good friends) just became Co-President with me and I am really happy for the extra help.

Not that I want to talk to much about what we do as a club, but we just came off of a HUGE week for our club. We had Dr. Charles Majors, a world-renowned Chiropractor from Chicago, come and speak over the lunch hour to the school. Because it took place over the noon hour we had to organize an efficient process that got the students fed and in their seats so they could hear Dr. Majors talk. 2 weeks of planning and hard work by all, we were able to get 200 students and about 10 doctors to the talk. A week before the talk we had people play Wii bowling to win raffle tickets for our prizes at the school! Doing that helped us get people excited and come to the talk. A lot of hard work, but it payed off in the end!

I pretty much spend my entire time becoming a powerful and passionate chiropractor. America ranks 37 out of 42 in the world for health so we have a lot of work before us. Even though we have the greatest medical system, technology, and pharmaceuticals, we are the sickest industrialized country in the world. People need to be taught true, maximized health so they can live a higher quality life. Through Chiropractic care and teaching people how to eat the right foods, exercise, minimize the use of toxins, and reduce stress on their body we can achieve this! I am going to start a new blog that will help teach you how to reach a higher level of health and tell you more about Chiropractic care and why it is essential to living a longer, higher quality life.

I will keep blogging and keep everyone in the loop as to what I and Elise are up to! I will get better getting back to all of my friends and family, so if you have emailed me and are still waiting a reply, I will get to you! I am learning how to handle everything in life and school, so of course there are learning curves.

I hope everyone has a wonderful President Day weekend!


- Dave

Taxes

I meant to post this earlier. A conversation with my mom reminded me to get this online. I just wanted to pass along the IRS website to find a third party to prepare and submit your taxes for free: http://www.irs.gov/efile/

If you click the "file online for free" link, it brings you to a page where you can either choose a company to file your taxes through or the IRS can help pair you up with one based on your income and needs.

Personally, we've been using the free Turbo Tax edition for the past few years: http://turbotax.intuit.com/taxfreedom/. And Turbo Tax is free for states that sponsor a free file program, like MN and MI (as well as others, check the link). There are income or EIC requirements to qualify for free submission to both Federal and State, but it's well worth it to check out!

Let me know if you have any tax questions and I'll give the best advice I can. Spent 3 years on the Volunteer Income Tax Assistance group on campus as well as schooling, so I've seen a lot of things.

Anyway, just wanted to pass along the great IRS website! Keep it bookmarked, you may want it in the years to come, too.


- E

Our Birthdays Extravaganza

So, when I asked Dave about posting his skinny, he said he's still "getting to it." It'll be done probably this weekend -- don't worry, he didn't forget. Just has a lot of stuff going on last and this week! Busy busy boy!

This past weekend was SO much fun! Our Birthdays Extravaganza was a complete success! We rented the clubhouse at our apartment complex (which turned out to be completely free in the end!) and had 22 friends over for dinner, drinks and games.

We tried to have an all-natural and organic meal. We were successful except for the cakes! We wanted to do a pasta meal, so I made three different types for some variety. We had Vodka Sauce over whole wheat pasta, Bachamel Sauce with chicken and roasted bell peppers over whole wheat pasta, and Cheese Stuffed Jumbo Shells with a homemade spaghetti sauce over top. And a green salad and roasted garlic bread on the side. Jenna and Marcus were brought a fruit salad to round out the meal. It was all so good!! There were little leftovers.. And for the cakes, I made Dave a 5 layer Black Forest cake and just a simple yellow cake with chocolate frosting for me. We just finised the last of the cakes last night. Yummo!

Thanks to Amanda for taking all of the pictures for us!! We forgot our camera in our apartment. Luckily Amanda came prepared and was so nice to post the pictures for us the next day! We appreciate it!!!

Nicole and Shane struggling to light the candles. :)

The rendition of "Happy Birthday" wasn't necessarily the best we've heard.. but it was thoughtful none the less!

Make a wish! Dave is 24 and Elise 22

We followed up dinner with a great game of Partini.
Who know it would be such a fun time! We'll definitely be playing it again in the future. For those who haven't tried it yet, we highly recommend! It's sort of like Cranium, only better! And it's made for play with large or small groups. There are various types of mini games to play, like in Cranium, but it's an all out contest between boys and girls as to who wins the overall game. And it's especially fun with wine and beer. :)

And we just want to say T H A N K Y O U to everyone who celebrated with us, who wished us a happy birthday and who were most generous with gifts this year. A special thanks must go out to Mom V, Mom & Dad S, Aunt Mary & Uncle Dave, Aunt Debi, Aunt Claudia, Aunt Rebekah, Joel, Allison and Vern, Nick E, Amanda and Loretta!!! To each of you: thank you so much for everything you did to make our birthdays so special! We loved everything!

So I must brag about the gifts we got eachother. Since we didn't get eachother Christmas gifts this year, we decided to get eachother small birthday gifts. Now I thought small meant $40 or less, so I spent a few months researching some really neat but affordable gifts. First, I got Dave a set of Dominos with the game Mexican Train -- because every year we spend Thanksgiving with Scott and Laura and Scott's grandma brings her Mexican Train game with her. LOVE it! Dave was surprised to get that gift. But, I also got him a mini speaker for his iPod: http://www.vat19.com/dvds/ipod-lego-dock-speakers.cfm?adid=gbase. Now, you can get these on just about any electronics site, but this one has the cheapest price I could find -- just $19.95!! That's right, super affordable!! And the quality is amazing for what you pay. It's basically the only thing of its kind out there right now, and yes it's in the shape of a Lego, but soon they'll probably be coming out with different models..? It's a cordless and battery-less speaker, about the size of AA battery or a standard Lego. The sound output is great! The speaker has its own adjustable volume besides the volume on your iPod, so you have lots of control. I wanted to share it with all of you because it's a great idea for anyone who owns an iPod!

And for my birthday gift from Dave..he apparently assumed small gift meant, more litterally, small...because he got me an iPod!! Joel went in on it with him, but holy crap I was so suprised! He took me out to dinner on my birthday and presented me with a gift card to the Apple store. I about cried from excitement. He knows how badely I have wanted one for, oh, years! We went to pick one out on his birthday (Saturday) and I chose the green iPod Nano. Loving it so far! It's nice to have it for when I'm cleaning houses or working out. Thank you so much Dave!

Hopefully Dave will be posting again this weekend. I'll get on his case. He's actually suffering from a 4-day weekend since it's his school's homecoming right now. So..we'll see. Hope you all have a fantastic weekend!!


- Elise