Davenport, IA Trip

This past weekend was AWESOME! Loretta, Nick, Dave and I left early on Saturday morning for Davenport, IA. The reason we took the 5 1/2 hour trip was because Mary Tocco was speaking about the dangers and toxicity of vaccines (here's her website: http://www.marytocco.com/). Her presentation alone was well worth the drive!

On top of that, we got to visit the birthplace of chiropractic, Palmer College of Chiropractic! This was the first thing we did upon arrival to Davenport. We hopped into a tour group for incoming students. Walking through the halls of the school was just amazing. It was surreal at times to see the places BJ Palmer once walked, touched and created. The halls were filled with philosophy! We also peaked through the windows of the Palmer mansion, where BJ and family lived and started the school of chiropractic. Unfortunately the mansion was closed for tours on the weekend, but Dave and I plan to stop back down this summer and arrange a tour in advance for ourselves. For those of you who may not know, DD and BJ Palmer are the great philosophers of Chiropractic. They wrote the Green Books, the basis of all chiropractic, and started the first chiro school, Palmer, which is still well in function today. So getting a chance to tour their home for us is like an Islam visiting Mecca. Getting inside those doors is going to be an amazing experience!

The president of Palmer's Maximized Living Club, Tom, and his girlfriend, Lindsay, allowed us to stay the night with them. So nice of you guys -- thank you so much!! It was fun to meet them and the other 15-ish students from the club and school. They took us across the Mississippi (about a one mile drive from Davenport, very quick) for dinner in Illinois, along with the insanely big group of students. It was a great night! Then we left early on Sunday morning back for the Cities. Poor Loretta (Loretta Johnson, for those fellow Yuppers reading. She's a Calumet grad and ironically ended up at Northwestern for the same program as Dave!) studied the whole way down, the whole way back AND had still another exam to study for when we got back to Bloomington. Hope it went well for you on Monday, Loretta!!

Here are some pictures from our trip. We have many more where these came from! And if any of you would like a copy of Dr. Tocco's talk or more information on the dangers of vaccines, especially for infants and children, please please please ask! (I'll mail one to you soon, Ashley!) We have DVDs, tons of websites, and now many cases and research to back up the facts. It's best to make an educated decision and to see both sides before doing something to you or your child's body and health.

The rising sun that welcomed us Saturday morning leaving Bloomington, MN


First picture we took upon arriving at Palmer
(from left: Nick, Dave, Elise, Loretta)


Dave holding up DD Palmer


The Healing Gardens outside of the school where patients relax after their adjustments.

The Palmer emblem


Real skeletons illustrating spinal deformities, part of the largest spine collection, orginially compiled and owned by BJ Palmer. The entire collection is on showcase in the halls of Palmer. It is now illegal to collect real spine and skeletons.


You can see the Palmer Mansion in the back behind the sign.


Epigraphs, like this one, were scattered on the halls across the campus. Originally, BJ wrote with chalk on the walls and sidewalks around campus and town. These inspirational and philisophical sayings were meant to remind the students of true chiropractic principles.


Dave, Loretta, Elise & Nick by the Mississippi River


Dave and Nick impersonate one of their "favorite" professors...


A couple of loners.. :) We came across this quaint little outdoor theater!




A video of "tryouts" at the theater


We all climbed up a 5 story tall lookout point. In the background to the left is a river boat casino, which we did not have time to visit.. ;)


The view of the Mississippi and the bridge to IL from the lookout


The view of some of Davenport from the lookout



A video of the elevator ride down from the lookout.


Mary Tocco during her talk

- Elise

A Fun Week!

Dave survived his first round of National Boards! He finished around 4pm on Sunday. Feels okay about each part and now we wait 6 weeks to see how he scores. Oh the anticipation! :) I know you did great, sweetie!!

We hope you all had a festive St. Patrick's Day! Dave and I actually did a bit of celebrating since Sunday...which we claim is all in honor of the Green Holiday.. haha! On Sunday, we went out with a few other guys from school to unwind and release after their Boards. Nicole was out, too, and we both agreed it is just as stressful being the significant other of a chiro student during Boards time as it is to take the Boards!! (Our small excuse to unwind as well..)

Sunday's fun -- note the green beer to kick off our 3-day party fest!

We also went out in honor of St. Patty's Day. We met up with Shane and Nicole and a bunch of their friends from Apple Valley first. Thank you for the pictures, Nicole! It was fun meeting a few new faces and having a weeknight to relax with cool people outside of the school setting.

St. Patrick's Day

Last night was a big night for Dave and the Maximized Living Club. Dr. Pete Wurdemann and the club officers organized an event at PF Chang's Restaurant for all the club members and other student guests. It was a huge success!! Dr. Pete told the group his story, why he's in chiropractic and how he came to have such a successful practice today. He also answered many questions from the students about the transition from student to doctor. Just awesome knowledge. I'm so glad I went and will definitely continue taking advantage of these opportunities! Events like these open the networking door for Dave and me and have already helped us so much for the future of our practice. The knowledge and information that we gain alone is priceless -- something every student needs to learn but often passes up. We're just blessed with these opportunities and can't WAIT to get out there and open our own doors!

Speaking of opportunities within chiropractic, this weekend we're attending an event at Palmer in Davenport, Iowa -- the proverbial birthplace of chiropracic. Dr. Mary Tocco is speaking on "Are Vaccines Safe?" She is a world renowned leader in vaccine and autism awareness, education and research. We'll be recording the talk if anyone would like to hear it! (Do a quick Google on her and see how knowledgable this doctor is!) We are super excited to make the trip to the school and take a tour. It's somewhere Dave and I have wanted to go since he started school last year. We're also taking Nick E and Loretta with us. Should be a fun 6 hour road trip!

So these are the fun parts of our week in a nutshell. Still so much more to look forward to! AND the weather is still nice here! We went out for our first bike ride since NOVEMBER on Monday. Thinking of taking another one for myself this afternoon.. WE LOVE SPRING! Anyone sitting in their office or classroom itching for TGIF yet?


- Elise

Ella Marie Haraldson

Congrats to Scott and Laura on the healthy birth of their first child, daughter Ella Marie Haraldson. Born Friday March 13th at 9:50 p.m, weighing 6 lbs 9 oz and measuring 19.5 inches. Congrats to the new family!

Ella Marie
(picture from Scott & Laura's blog: http://www.theharaldsons.com/blog/)

For those who may not remember, Scott and Laura are our amazing cousins and were also the ever talented photographers at our wedding (http://www.scottharaldson.com/). They live around here in the Cities. We're looking forward to vising them soon and meeting little Ella! More pictures to come! :)


- Elise

Spring Breakers

Oh. My. Have we been BUSY! So Dave has his first set of National Boards coming up on Saturday/Sunday. (Btw, if you have some time, please send him an email or facebook message to wish him luck! He'd appreciate it!) Like I mentioned before, I've seen little of him for the past couple weeks. This week has been no different, with him studying late into the night with his buddies. There has been busyness in a good way for me though, having taken on three NEW families for nannying in the last week and a half! Which means about $200 more per week! But, it's been keeping me away from home and friends having to spend the extra time nannying. And besides all that craziness, we've had visitors! :)

Joel came to stay with us Friday thru Monday, a little taste of a spring break vacation. Dave and I felt horrible for being so busy during his stay, but we did get the chance to take him out on Friday night for a couple hours. Here's the infamous pic of DP shots -- which were delicious by the way. You can check it on Jlo's blog as well, listed under "Blogs We Follow" on the right side of this page.



We have had the opportunity to visit with some other spring breakers this week. Eric, Rei, Ish and Aaron have been in the Cities for their break from MTU since Saturday. I had the pleasure of joining them for dinner on Monday night. By the way, I absolutely LOVE going out with these guys because they are just as adventurous as me when it comes to ethnic foods! We had a fun times of cooking meals together while at Tech together. So Monday night, they took me to a Japanese restaurant, and I wish I had gotten pictures or video because it was one of those places where there's a grill right on your table and the chef comes and does a show while he prepares your meals! It was SO cool, way better than seeing it on TV - haha! It was a delicious meal. Dave and I will definitely be going back to that restaurant (whose name escapes me right now...). Thanks for introducing me to a great place guys!

Unfortunately Dave couldn't joint us Monday night because of school, but last night, Wednesday, we arranged another dinner date that actually worked with Dave's schedule. This time, Dave and I picked the destination. So, we picked one of our favorite Indian restaurants called Surabhi. Let me just say DElish! I think we all had our fill and then some last night. I grabbed a few pics with my phone:

Aaron and Eric..note all the dishes that were JUST Eric's! It was a lot of food!

What was left of my meal, lamb curry with potatoes. A 7 course meal!

All of us, from left to right: Elise, Dave, Ishtiaque, Rei, Aaron, Eric

The boys will be heading back to Houghton on Friday. Have a safe trip, guys! Thanks for stopping to see us throughout your stay and hope you had a fun Spring Break! :)

** Breaking News ** Laura & Scott reportedly (from Facebook and their own blog) headed to the hospital late this morning. Laura was about 7 days over due as of today, so we're hoping her labor is going quick and easy right now! :) We'll get some pictures as soon as we get to visit Baby H! For now, congrats to the soon to be new mom and dad!!


- Elise

Birth, Birthdays, Death.

First of all, I forgot to include this in our last post -- Zack and Johanna had their baby boy on Wednesday evening, February 25th. Congrats to the newlyweds on their first addition to the family! I don't have his weight and measurements, so feel free to include those as a comment to this post!

Henry Dean Stout
picture courtesy of Chris

There are quite a few more birthdays coming up in the next few weeks, so just wanted to wish all of those people a happy day!

Allison K's birthday, a friend here from the Cities, celebrates on 3/3!

Allison and her daughter Ocean dressed up for Halloween '08

Eric Schwartz celebrates on 3/6!

(We need some pictures of you, Eric!:)

Jake S, another friend from the Cities, celebrates on 3/9!

Jake (on far left) with Vern, Dave and me

Elsa Schwartz celebrates on 3/11!

The lovely Elsa

Johanna Stout celebrates on 3/19!

Johanna - the new mom!

and Melissa Wagner (the cutie in our January 13 post) celebrates on 3/22!

Missy Melissy

So there are A LOT of March birthdays! We hope each of you have a GREAT day!!

Lastly, a friend of ours, Larry, passed away on Sunday in Houghton. Dave and I enjoyed visiting him, his wife Lorraine and their dog Josey for dinner and good conversations. Please pray for Lorraine and the rest of their family. We know you'll be strong Lorraine..we'll miss him too. Rest in peace Larry. We love you.


- Elise

Happy Birthday Dad S!

Wayne's birthday was yesterday (technically on Feb 29th, but he still had a party yesterday!) Dave and I hope you had a GREAT birthday!!



For today, we don't have too much planned. Had a pretty lazy weekend I guess. Last night, Dave, Nick and I went to see Slumdog Millionaire at the theater -- which was amazing by the way! We recommend anyone go to see it! We had tried to get in there a few weeks ago, but it was sold out. Instead we went to see Revolutionary Road (*yawn*), which was quite depressing.. Slumdog is a much better choice. We can see why it won best picture and all the other Oscars this year!

Then this afternoon, we went to the Original Pancake House for the first time ever with Nick and his parents, Mike and Sam. They came to visit Nick for the afternoon. It was so nice to meet them and spend some time getting to know them. And we're now hooked on the OPH (for short). Especially Dave, who had Nick and Mike's favorite -- the baked apple pancake. It's huge. It's delicious. Enough said. Try it your next time there!

I'm just about to head out to babysit for a Burnsville family for the rest of the night. And Dave's going out to study with Vernon somewhere for the rest of the night..

On that note, we have a few pictures to share with you. Finally we took pictures of the city!! These are of Minneapolis. We took them on our drive home from the Freeze Your Bunz Run a couple weekends ago.

The city with the Metrodome!

This is the newly finished I-35W bridge! You see the wave going up to the sky -- this is a memorial for the lives lost on the bridge collapse. They light up in blue florescent at night.

Just a general Minneapolis city picture.

We love living here!!!


- Elise