Merry Christmas

Hello everyone!

It has been much too long since my last post.  I've been putting all my of free time into Healing Cuisine, and thus have neglected you all.  We are home for Christmas, finally, and it feels great!  At the Schwartz house presently, hanging out while we bake cookies, sip tea, the girls are playing their instruments (flute, piano, singing), and the boys are outside skiing and tinkering with the car.  Very relaxing, so glad to be here. :)

Dave and I have been all over the place for the last 6 months, including living in Canada for 3 months.  Dave has graduated with his Chiropractic degree (CONGRATS DAVE!!!!) and we are now working on opening our chiropractic clinic.  We've been living nomadically since August, going from basement to basement living with various friends all over the place.  On January 1st we will be driving down to Orlando, Florida to relocate for about 6 months.  We'll be training and working with Maximized Living while plans commence on our office in Greensboro, North Carolina.  Greensboro will be our eventual permanent home.  Well, permanent for a little while at least. ;)  2011 is going to be a busy year for us!  Hope to  have our clinic doors open by July if all goes well.

Want to wish you all a very blessed Christmas!  Our next update will be from sunny Florida!!  Visitors welcome!

"Look!  The virgin will conceive a child!  She will give birth to a son, and they will call him Immanuel, which means 'God is with us.'"  Matthew 1:23

Dave Made It

So I meant to get this story posted like 2 weeks ago when it actually happened, but I've had to focus on a few other things until now.  I think Facebook informed the majority of you of the happenings when Dave tried to cross the border to get in to Canada...  I'm going to give the short story because it's late, but I promise it will still be enjoyable!

Dave left Minneapolis on a Saturday afternoon and planned to cross the border Sunday afternoon, a 14 hour trip.  He actually made it there a lot sooner and arrived on Sunday morning.  He Skyped me (remember, we're without cellphones!) from his table at a restaurant somewhere just off the border to tell me the exciting news that he was going to arrive ahead of schedule and get to relax a bit and get settled in before starting work on Monday.  He told me to get back on Skype in 2 hours and by then he'd be in his new home and getting things settled.  Two hours came...and I waited and waited...nothing for a while.  Finally he came on and was in another restaurant.  So I said, "wow, that was quick.  You all moved in?" thinking it was extremely amazing he got across the border, got all of his stuff moved in, then had the energy after that long trip to head out for food.

"Bad news," he said.  My stomach dropped.  I call him Mr. Optimistic you know..he's my rock, my foundation.  Whenever Dave says "bad news," that means it's realllly bad.  And after 2 years of marriage, I know to just ask for the details, "Don't sugar coat it" I said.."Just tell me the details cut and dry."  I immediately started thinking of all the worst possible scenarios.  He wrecked the car, lost his passport, what could possibly have gone wrong when he was so close?!

"The border patrol won't let me thru to Canada."  WHAT!?!  We both started freaking out.  I will spare the details of the string of papers Dave had to fill out and other things they required him to do, but basically the border didn't let him through because he was heading over as a student intern and they didn't want American Dave to take away any potential internship opportunities from Canadians.  Hence all the paperwork and hoopla to prove he was qualified to intern at the office he chose.

So over Skype we set up a game plan.  Contact Dr. B.J. and let him know Dave wouldn't be at work until who knows when.  Call the chiropractic boards and get the paperwork started.  And then we realized Dave was stranded in a small town in Michigan...great.  Thankfully he thought of the Bittners, a Maximized Living doctor and family who live outside of Detroit.  Dr. B.J. tracked down their info and Dave was able to get in touch with them.  They were such a blessing!  The Bittners took Dave in for 3 days, fed him and helped him get all that paperwork stuff finished.  They were so sweet and we are so grateful to be involved in such a gracious network of chiropractors in Maximized Living.

Come Tuesday, Dave had all of his forms and letters in order.  He made his second attempt to cross the border.  Of course his account was flagged from his last attempt, so they pulled him and searched him.  Dave said they even did thorough questioning for hours trying to see if his story checked out.  (As if someone could make up a story about being a chiropractic intern and going to London, Ontario for their last trimester and super excited to learn from one of the leading chiropractors in North America, plus all the other details of his life that he had to go thru.)  Finally, after hours of sitting in a room with the guards, Dave told me he finally started pleading for them to let him through.  The lady that was with him said, "Okay, I believe your story.  But this doesnt check out" (Referring to something he needed but didn't have or something like that.)  "I'll write it off for you." PRAISE THE LORD was all I could think when Dave FINALLY Skyped me late that night.  We were anticipating it to take just a couple hours to drive thru, have everything go smoothly, and be on his way to London.  Well we didn't expect the hours of questions, that's for sure.  Dave was exhausted, but happy to be at his new house in his new room ready to start what he came to Canada for.  Ahhhh.

As of this weekend, Dave has been gone three weeks and everything since crossing the border has been smooth sailing.  He's having an absolute BLAST up there, learning something new and great every day.  And everyone is taking care of him, Dr. B.J. and the office staff are phenomenal.

I'm going to throw up some pictures in random fashion from the last few weeks before Dave left.  These were the events we attended prior to him leaving.

We made ice cream for the Maximized Living Club potluck that we held at our apartment complex just the next week after Dave's surprise graduation party.

Here we are at Mike & Lori's wedding in Sault Ste Marie, Canada 2 weeks prior to Dave leaving for Canada.  We're on the bus here with the rest of the wedding party.

Lori and Mike, on the bus to escape the rain that stopped their outdoor picture session...we were on to the photography studio next.

Us with the beautiful bride!  This is toward the end of the night.

I love my husband.  I love dancing with my husband!  :)

Next was Dave's farewell night out with his coworkers at Bandana Chiropractic.  It was also on our 2 year anniversary.  We celebrated with some organic goat cheese cheesecake with pistachios and fresh berries.  It was delicious.

Here is the gang, we had a blast!  Thank you all for treating us to a fun night out!

The next big event was Suzy and Rob's wedding.  It was also the last day Dave was here, so it was an extra special day for us.  Unfortunately this is the only picture that semi turned out from their wedding...it's THE KISS! :)

Posing by the water awaiting the bride and groom's arrival.

Our besties, Mark and Nicole <3

And that's it from our lovely last month together in the Twin Cities!  And just a reminder to those who are still trying to call us:  we do not have cell phones anymore.  :)  I giggle every time I get an email from someone that says they've tried to call and it doens't go thru.  Try us on Skype!  drdaveschwartz or elisejschwartz

Thanks to everyone for making Dave's last few weeks in Minnesota a blast!  We both had a great time! :)

Moving on

Just a quick message from the couch at my mom's house.  :)  Taking some me time to de-stress and refocus my goals.  I am hanging out here for two days before Mike and Lori's wedding in the Soo on Saturday.  Dave just left with Joel for Mike's bachelor festivities for the next two days.  They are ready for a weekend of fun!  Especially Dave, he's excited to see his buddies again and get some time off before moving himself to Canada and starting full time work again.  He needs this break!  His MIND needs this break!

The past couple days here have been absolutely nutz.  All good things, just the stress that goes along with moving.  We are successfully moved out of Hampshire Hill in Bloomington!  Half of our belongings are now here in Michigan, half still in Minnesota.  We sold all of our furniture on CraigsList.com!  Wahoo!  We only kept our amazing bar stools (a wedding gift from Mike and Lori) and our small kitchen table.  Our bed and frame were the last to sell and we were sad to see them go, but made the last minute decision to sell them after thinking about all the hassle moving them would bring.  We'll be sleeping on an air mattress once we arrive in Florida in 2011.  For now, I'll be living with my FABulous friend Jan in Maple Grove in her spare room (with a bed).  Dave's family in London also has a bed for him.  I am excited to be moved very close to work, saving me 30-40 minutes of drive time twice a day!!  It's going to be a marvelous Monday morning! :)

All in all, we only had to make two trips with our stuff up here.  Not too bad!  We downsized a lot and it felt great to shed all the "junk" we never use.  I highly recommend doing it as you transition or if you're stuck in a rut.  It opens your eyes to what's truly important and gives you the opportunity to refocus your life on what you want to achieve.

Also have been meaning to throw this picture on here:

The day after Dave's surprise party, after all the family had headed back home and friends said their goodbyes, we headed out with Mark & Nicole and their friend Elyse (!!) to the horse races!  We've had this list of "Things I Want To Do Before I Leave This Summer" with all the major Twin Cities events we hadn't done yet.  The Canterbury Park horse races was definitely one of them!  This is their 25th Anniversary I believe, so all year is free admission.   We brought $7 with us and won on our first two or three races...then we got maybe a little to cocky and blew all our winnings.  Oh well.  We went for the experience.  :)  And it was a blast!

That's it for now.  Excuse me while I stretch out and flip thru some channels on the tube.  :)

-Elise

A Suprise Party: Congrats and Farewell Dave!

I can finally talk about it!  For the last four months or so I had been planning a top secret surprise graduation and farewell party for Dave.  We held it on Saturday afternoon, July 31st.  Family and friends came from ALL over to attend and aide in the surprise! :)

Dave's official graduation date will be November 19th, 2010.  But with the chance that we won't even be attending the graduation due to his final externship dates and the risk of poor driving conditions come the fall, I figured it'd be best to throw him a party now rather than wait til who knows when.

And so the planning began.  I'll spare you all the behind the scenes details of decorations and site selection.  The biggest challenge was getting Dave out of the area for the night of the 30th so I could take over the apartment and cook up a storm.  I developed a few plans with various friends...all day golf outing, holding a garage sale, back to back movies at the theater..but none got him out of the apartment overnight.  Then I talked to Chris (Dave's brother Chris) and he thought of taking Dave camping for the Fri-Sat.  Perfect!  And to solidify his story even more, there was a triathlon in Bemidji on Saturday morning.  How perfect was that??  Well, Chris is a trainer and regularly does triathlons!  So he called Dave to make the "plans", signed up, and off they went to Bemidji.  What a trooper Chris was!  Not only did he run the triathlon and got first in his age division (!!!), but they also got rained and poured on Friday night AND had a gallon of water leak all over the floor of the car.  The video below is all of Chris's hard work to keep the secret paying off....it is Dave and Chris arriving straight from their 4 hour drive home.  And thank you to all who helped behind the scenes, most of it I still haven't had a chance to tell Dave about!  I had a ton of help from family and friends all around!  Thank you to everyone who pitched in before and after!  It was definitely a group effort!  And we did it!!  Dave was successfully SURPRISED beyond belief.  Check the video.  Joel's behind the camera.  My favorite part is the high five between Chris and him.

For this party (and any future party of ours) I vowed to make a complete spread of Healing Cuisine foods, meaning ALL of our family and friends could eat (organic, sugar free, grain free, gluten free, dairy free, etc).  Well, with the exception of the cake.  I wasn't about to open my kitchen to making a completely gluten free/sugar free cake for over 100 people AND deal with the stress of keeping the surprise from my hunny..!!  As the party got rolling, all of my creations were a hit!  I love to make people happy and help them realize healthy eating can be absolutely delicious!  If you were looking for a recipe from the party, I've begun posting them every other day for the next two weeks!

Here are a few pictures that our friend Kenny took.  If anyone has any others, please send them or tag us!  I forgot my camera in all the rush!

Walking in to the room full of loved ones.  Shocked..Eyes welling up!

A thank you hug!

Some of the kitchen ladies!  My mom and aunts headed up the food set up and refilling!  FABulous job ladies!!

Hugs for his fans.. :-P

His cakes:  vanilla and carrot!

 

Suzy, Dave, Elise, Paul, baby Sophia and Christina!

 

Us with Kenny  <3  Our party photographer!

To those that weren't able to attend, we missed you!  There were so many faces Dave asked about, and I shared all of your emails, letters and voice messages with him!!  We are SO BLESSED to have a strong support system!!

And aside from the party and pictures, an update on our phone situation.  We've decided to go without phones for at least the next 4 months (thru Jan 2011).  This is mostly because Dave is leaving for Canada the end of the month and, gosh, Canadian service is thru the roof!  We've also been super cutting back on spending for the past two years...this is another way to save each month and put money into savings for opening up in NORTH CAROLINA!  Did I mention that part yet?  In our last post...but in case you didn't hear, it's NC for sure baby! :)  Book your winter vacations in advance.  Our spare room will fill up fast! haha

Love you all!  XO!

Our past 2 months in a long winded summary...

Okay, so I know it's been 2 months since our last post.  SORRY!  Life has been a little crazy.  I'm going to give you the highlights, as much as I can type out in this next hour.  I'm home alone this weekend while Dave is out screening for Dr. Drew and Lyra in Wisconsin.  I've been focusing on cleaning up our apartment further, throwing out/donating anything we don't absolutely need and packing up what we're going to keep.  We move next month!  More details on that a little lower in this post.  First, I want to talk about some of the exciting stuff we've been up to since the end of May!

My last post was on the day of Dave's Part 4 National Boards exam, his last national test!  We found out two weeks ago that he PASSED!!  Yay!!  He can officially become a doctor on November 12th I believe, just before graduation on Nov 19th.  This is very exciting for us as it means we can get started right away with training after Nov 19th thru Maximized Living.  Congrats to Dr. Dave!!  :)

On May 28th, Melissa and Paul (on of my FAVORITE families that I nanny for) gave us two Twins tickets since they'd be out of town.  We were so excited to go to a game!  We hadn't had the opportunity, so thank you Edlunds!  It was at the new Twins stadium -- it's beautiful!  So glad we got to see the stadium before we leave the Twin Cities.  The Twins won that game, forget the exact score, but it was an exciting game!  Here are a few shots:

The next day, we hit the road with Mark and Nicole for some wine trailing.  We'd been wanting to go wine tasting in Minnesota for a couple years, and we finally made it happen.  And what a great couple to go with!  Had such a fun time!  We followed the Great River Road Wine Trail.  We went to four different wineries and vineyards, tasted a lot of great local wine, and picked up a few Christmas presents along the way.  ;)  The best part was our final stop at Valley Vineyard in Prescott, WI.  Rudy and his wife Cathy were SO sweet!  We arrived at a very quiet time in the mid-afternoon.  Not only did we get healthy sample portions, but Rudy actually took us down to the wine cellar that he built and showed us all of his equipment, how he makes the wine and how he bottles it.  It was all so interesting, something Dave and I are hoping to have the time to do in the future.  It sounds like a lot of fun!  And like Rudy said, you have all the power and can control how your wine tastes.  If you think it needs to be sweeter, change it.  Want to add another flavor, adjust the grapes used.  SO COOL!

Then, on June 11 & 12 was Create Your Destiny.  I think I wrote about the seminar last year..?  Dave is organized it again this year.  Create Your Destiny (CYD) is a group of student leaders from all the clubs on campus.  They pull together to put on this huge event once a year for the students where they bring in chiropractic leaders to speak on an array of topics to motivate and instill holistic principles in the students.  Their mission statement is:  "To empower, inspire, and to motivate students to realize a more profound meaning and purpose to their personal and professional lives. Our vision for the students at Northwestern is to increase certainty in chiropractic philosophy, awareness of business management, and leadership within a principled chiropractic model."  This year they brought in 10 leaders in chiropractic and business.  What a powerful weekend it was!!  Even though the event is over, check out the brochure from CYD and see all the hard work Dave and the committee put into it.

The next weekend we were off to Drew and Lyra's in Wisconsin to spend the weekend with them and their family.  It's been on the To Do list for like..a year.  :)  Saturday was their Patient Appreciation Potluck day, so we helped out a little with that on Saturday.  Got to sample many delicious Maximized Living recipes, so you know I was in Heaven!  I definitely dropped the ball and didn't make anything to share.. I had a late night before babysitting.  But it was fun to taste others creations!  After the potluck we headed out for a hike and were treated to an amazinggggg Parmesan Artichoke Chicken dinner by Lyra!  So so so good!!  This is a picture of Lyra's Healing Deep Dish Pizza.  It was the best healthy pizza I've had in a long time!  Somehow I didn't save any pictures of their 3 adorable children..

On Sunday we headed to church with the fam then made it back to the Cities to meet Diane and Kevin for lunch at Ecopolitan, a raw vegan restaurant in Uptown.  It was Diane & Kevin's first time to try Ecopolitan and they loved it!  Diane and I had been planning that date for at least a month...probably more like 2 months.  It was a beautiful day, so we sat outside on the front porch.  And the food was FABulous!  We were all stuffed by the time we left, and I couldn't even finish my portion.  I highly recommend trying Ecopolitan if you visit TC!  I thought I had a picture of us by the Ecopolitan statue thing, but I can't find it...something weird is going on with my camera..hmmmmm.

And then we come up to the end of June.  We've been trying to figure out where we want to move..to live and raise a family, to open our chiropractic health center.  We weren't very satisfied with any of the midwest cities we visited (besides Omaha, but it sounds like that city is closed off thru Maximized Living right now), so we started looking to the East Coast.  From the beginning, Dave has felt called to the East, so I trusted the process when all the midwest cities kept falling thru.  Right now we're putting all our trust in God to guide us to the city he wants us in.  We decided to pick the best city, we needed to drive out and see the coast in person.  So we planned out another road trip, half as long as the one we took April last year.

We started our trip visiting my aunt Ruth in Maryland/Washington DC area.  We spent two days with her.  She was so sweet to tour us around DC.  It was Dave's first time seeing the monuments and memorials, so we made sure to hit up all the main ones.  However, it was during a heat wave, so we decided to go out at night the first day to see the White House and Capitol building.  It also helped because there were fewer tourists out at night!

The next day (Saturday) we hit up a few of the Smithsonian Museums.  If you've ever vacationed with us, you know that Dave LOVES museums.  If we're with someone, I usually try to avoid museums at all costs..  I'm talking HOURS spent reading every single little placard.  Not saying it's a bad thing, but I wish I was that interested in, say, mummies or WWI.  :)  hehe  So Ruth and I had a relaxing time in the AC while Dave learned a little about a ton of stuff.  It was also fun walking around down town DC.  They had a seafood fest and BBQ block party going on.  They were also setting up for the 4th of July festivities the following weekend. 

After visiting Ruth and Maryland, we headed south down to North Carolina.  That same day we found out Dave passed his Part 4 Boards AND that he scored high enough to be licensed in North Carolina.  Praise the Lord, because otherwise we were going to drive straight thru the state.  We did a zig zag pattern thru the entire state, because Dave felt in his heart that was the state we were meant to be in.  I can't say enough good things about the entire state!  We mostly camped along the way, but also stayed with some doctors that we visited.  We LOVED Greensboro, Winsten-Salem, High Point, Asheville, Wilmington, and a few other cities.  Down in Shallot, we took some time to hit up the beach since it's right on the coast.  GORGEOUS!!!  I could definitely live by the ocean and have that to look forward to every morning.  :)!  Funny thing, when I got up to jump in the water, I returned to find the ONLY towel I brought on the trip was pooped on by a stinking seagull.  And it was only half way thru the trip, still had 5 days to go!  haha, thankfully my husband is the most thoughtful man alive and volunteered to use my towel for the rest of the trip.

Out of all the cities, our absolute favorite was Asheville as the city is a "crunchy" city, meaning it's organic, green and natural!  We figure why not move to a city that is years ahead of the rest, right?  So Asheville is ranking high for us right now.  We still have to do some more demographic/entrepreneurial research on the cities to see which will be the best fit for us, but we can definitely see ourselves being happy in Asheville from a personal and family standpoint.  Also, some of you saw on Facebook that we helped out a lady who was involved in a hit and run accident in Asheville.  We were just casually driving thru some side streets, checking out the residential area of the south side of town.  This lady was crossing the road in her vehicle right in front of us (with plenty of time, we were a few hundred feet away driving slow) and out of no where this other woman guns it from the other side of the street and hits this lady on the driver's side door.  It's like she didn't even look, just peeled out!  Then she proceeded to drive off with her front wheel bent in at like 60 degrees.  Let's just say she didn't make it far, another witness to the scene followed her and took down her info as we found it out later.  But luckily Dave and I were there to block off traffic.  Dave had recently completed his first aid certification, so he checked the lady out and made sure she was okay, the scene was safe, all that.  Dave got the street clear and moved the car out of the way.  I must admit, it was pretty scary to see an accident happen right in front of us, let alone to have the crazy woman drive off.  But we were able to help the woman who was hit, and of all things it was her birthday!  We helped her talk to the police and waited with her til her family came.  It made our day when she said thank you and gave us hugs! :)

And that was enough excitement for us in Asheville.  After North Carolina, we headed down to South Carolina and really fell in love with Columbia, SC.  Then on the last couple days of our trip we headed to Knoxville, TN and also fell in love.  Knoxville's green movement has been growing over the last 10 years, it's more prevalent there than it is in Minneapolis!  So we feel we could be very happy there.  We had fun walking up and down their main streets spending time in all the little shops talking to locals.  On Saturday they held their weekly farmer's market, and although we didn't have cash to enjoy all the fresh goodies, we made some connections with local farmers and got a good perspective of live in Knoxville.  It was a blast!

After Knoxville, we headed home, 16 hour drive ahead of us.  That was on the 4th of July, so the drive home we got to see a few fire works shows.  It was pretty cool!

So we've been getting the questions already, based on the trip, where are we going?  What did we decide?  Well at this point, we only know the state for sure.  North Carolina.  We are starting the application process for licensure for Dave now.  He'll have to take a basic test for that this fall as North Carolina has it as an extra requirement.  Shouldn't be a big deal, just a basic entrance exam so they can make an extra couple hundred bucks off of doctors.  We're going to continue to research cities on our list, we've ranked our top choices and are working with Chamber offices to narrow down on THE city.  Asheville is #1 as of now.  We will keep you posted as our decisions are made and the time line ticks down.  We plan to be open in whatever the city around this time next year!

Well, that's it, I think I got thru it all.  The past 2 months in the lives of Dave and Elise!  Hope it wasn't too long for you, thanks for sticking thru it all and making it to the end!  If we haven't heard from you in a while, or more so you haven't heard from us (like I haven't called you back yet Alanna or Ashley or Janeeeelle), please write us!  Email is the best right now!  Hope everyone is enjoying summer, now that it's finally here!  Happy belated 4th!  Will write more soon!

 -E

You know it's springtime when...

Cannot believe it is half way thru May already!  We're finally getting some nice, sunny warm weather here in the Cities after about a week straight of 40's/50's and rain..non-stop rain.  Looking off our deck now, everything is really greening up!  You know it's spring when you have a robin's nest full of babies in the tree just off your deck...they're chirping happily now! :)  Spring is fiiiinally here!  I'm taking some ME time today while Dave is off taking his Part 4 National Boards.  Yup, that's right folks, Dave's taking his LAST PART today!!  So exciting!  He's been studying like crazy the past few weeks and if all goes as planned, this will be the last exam he has to take for the rest of his life!  Wahoo!  Four years of hard work is coming to a close and we cannot wait.  [We also got Dave's Part 3 scores back a couple weeks ago and he passed all of those tests with flying colors.]

While Dave's been off studying at Perkins, Caribou and the beach, I've had some extra time on my  hands.  So I've finally [finally] starting working on my scrapbooking again, primarily starting our wedding scrapbook that I've been putting off for going on 2 years.  Dave insisted on taking this somewhat unflattering photo...showing off one of my page creations among the crafting mess.

Also just a couple days ago I decided to go ahead and start an herb garden this year.  I was going back and forth on the idea just because we'll be moving around so much come July/August..but I have been in need of more hobbies lately so I decided to go for it and have my seeds sprouting outside right now!

You know it's spring when your friends are popping out babies -- it seems there's a huge surge of births in the spring.  Anyone else agree??  There is another baby arrival to announce:  Eleanna Joy Hokenson, second daughter to Alanna and Tony!  So this is Teija's sister!! :)  We can't wait to meet this little angel later on this summer!!  Alanna made this headband in the picture, so talented!

Eleanna Joy
Arrived Sunday, April 25, 2010
8 lbs - 20 inches

At work, we dedicated the month of April to our health and lifestyle makeover series called Rev It Up.  Dave presented on the last night on a highly efficient form of exercise called Burst Training.  I took some video, but have to find the Flip to get it on our computer..will post those later.  Everyone LOVED Dave (as always) and we had a huge burst training club session the following weekend which spilled over from Rev It Up.  We get so excited to help people get healthy!  Here are a couple pictures of Revolution's "office cutie," as we've labeled her.  Her name is Sophia and she is a sweetheart!  If you can see her chocolate mustache, it's from the Raw Chocolate Pudding I made to share for the Recipe Night at Rev It Up.  She loved it!  [This is Sophia's excited face.]

You also know it's springtime when the wedding and graduation invitations begin to arrive.  Phew, this spring/summer is going to be a packed one for weddings!!  We recently attended Nick and Megan's wedding in St. Cloud.  Upcoming ones include Katie & Tom, Suzy & Rob, Cassie & John and Mike & Lori.  More might be coming, you never know!  As of now, none of their dates overlap, so we should be able to make it to all!  :)!!  Here are a couple pictures from Nick & Megan's Day!  [I didn't get any of the ceremony, we were sitting in an awkward spot for shots with our simple camera.]

 

 The Maximized Living boys:  Nick is in the middle, Dave in the pink next to Nick.

 

 The Maximized Living Crew

I think that's all our major news for now.  Will keep you posted on how Dave's last round of exams goes when we get the grades.  The good news is Spring Is Here!!  Get outside and take advantage of this gorgeous weather -- each day is a gift from God!