Welcome Baby Sophia!

This is going to be a bit of a scattered post.  I have so many thoughts to jot down  before I have to leave for work!  Please bear with me!

Introducing Sophia Madelynn

Arrived at 1:41am
Thursday, April 15, 2010
7lbs 7ozs  - 21 inches
100% NATURAL & DRUG FREE

Christina did an amazing job not only in delivery but also thru the 9 months leading up to the beautiful birth of their daughter.  Christina chose to do a natural water birth.  We are SO proud of her!!  Last Sunday we went out to Paul & Christina's house to cook them a meal while they adjusted to having Sophia in their lives.  We grilled up some of my secret recipe burgers and had strawberry-apple spinach salad.  Gorgeous weather!  So peaceful to sit out on the deck with Soph and soak it all in.  :)

Dave had his last day of T8 internship yesterday.  Dr. Bruce treated Dave and the entire office staff to lunch.  Dr. Beck took us out for drinks after work to say goodbye.  It was a fun time and thanks for the treats guys!  Dave will miss the office and wonderful patients.  He's got 2 weeks off then starts his T9 internship the first week of May.  He'll be working at Bandana Chiropractic, which is a Maximized Living office in Roseville (about a 30 minute commute from home).  He's really excited to get into this office and have some new patients to take thru the Maximized Living Essentials.  What's great about this next phase of work is that these doctors are going to give Dave a lot more control over his own patients.  I won't get too much into the details, we realize while we find these things exciting, maybe you guys don't...but all you need to know is Dave's going to be having even more fun at work, learning new things every day, and getting closer and closer to graduation in November!

Dave and I attended a Biomarkers of Health seminar two weekends ago in Bloomington hosted by Nutrition Dynamics.  Students were able to attend for free this time, so I dragged my boy along.  :)  It was fabulous!  It was a seminar dedicated to identifying disease in the body and treating it naturally.  I get so excited to learn more and more about supplementation and natural disease reversal. 

In honor of Earth Day, I did a post on Healing Cuisine.  I can't recommend the book Gorgeously Green by Sophie Uliano enough.  If we weren't on a student budget, I'd buy this book for all of you, seriously!  It's great, jam packed full of tips on green living!  Happy Earth Day!

My hunky husband just finished making me a large mug of homemade organic chai tea, so I must leave this post.  It smells wonderful!  Look for a post on HealingCuisineByElise.com with the recipe soon!  We've been working on it for a couple weeks now and think we finally have the perfect ratio of spices!  Yummmy breakfast treat!

Spring Time Changes and Growth!

Philippians 3:10-12 (NIV)
I want to know Christ and the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of sharing in his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, and so, somehow, to attain to the resurrection from the dead.  Not that I have already obtained all this, or have already been made perfect, but I press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me.

I absolutely love spring time, the changing seasons, the flowers and grass, the return of birds to the sky and trees.  I also love to read thru the Easter scripture and reflect on it, what it means to me, to us.  Philippians 3:10-12 is the part that really jumped out at me today.  It is everything Dave and I have been trying to say and to do for so long, and will continue to do.  I think it applies to a lot of you who read our blog and you will find hope and encouragement thru rereading that verse.  Happy April 1st!  Celebrate Spring!  Celebrate all that He has done for us!

Dave said his Part 3 Boards tests went, to quote him, "Alright."  Sooo, we'll have to wait and see when that little white envelope comes to our door with his scores..  I know he did fine, but he and his buddies were a little nervous about at least one of the sections as it was a bit harder than they anticipated.  Thanks everyone for your prayers and encouragement again!  Every little bit of support helps!

Last weekend, actually it was longer than just the weekend, he was gone for 6 days -- Wednesday thru Monday -- to a Maximized Living Training Camp in Florida.  He and 5 of his guy friends from ML drove down for Florida in an old van which I think they borrowed from another friend.  Why did they drive down you might ask?  Because it happened to be Spring Break weekend and ticket prices TRIPLED the norm, reaching over $800 a person, normally around $150-$250.  Cost to ride down with 5 other people in a van?  $65 each round trip.  Yup, that's why.

This was Dave's second time going to a Camp since he came to chiro school and both experiences have been so amazing for both of us.  He comes back a changed man (for the better) each time.  At the camp, the coaches help you to break down, leaving your weaknesses and inseurities behind.  And their slogan is "What happens at camp, stays at camp" (much different than the similar Vegas tagline..), meaning not even I am allowed to know what went on a camp or what the issues were.  All I need to know is Dave comes home a stronger, more powerful husband and doctor each time and that helps me to likewise be stronger and more powerful to save MORE lives in my community.

Now Dave transitions into Finals WeekS (big "s" because finals are this week AND next week, hence we have to stay around here yet again for Easter so the guys can study together).  On top of more studying, yesterday he co-hosted an event for their Maximized Living club called "Dinner With the Docs".  He and Vernon organized the event for students.  They brought in three super successful doctors from the Cities to speak, to tell their chiropractic stories (mistakes they made, where their passion comes from, why we do what we do thru Maximized Living) to encourage students who are not already ML members to join, come to the next seminar, that sort of thing.  Unfortunately I couldn't be there (I'll explain why next), but I think Dave said they had a huge turnout of 30+ non-member students (give or take a few because I can't remember the exact number).  So that was really great!  Dave was very happy when he got home with how everything went.  The students were impressed by the doctors' stories and many had signed up by the end of the night.  A great night for the ML club!

Here's what's been happening in my life lately...It’s been kinda nuts.  Dr. Suzy was in a car accident last week (she’s okay, but was injured pretty badly and still cannot adjust patients for 2 more weeks minimum), so I’ve had to kind of carry on more responsibilities of the practice.  Christina is almost ready to have her baby (due on April 10th) so she will be leaving shortly as office manager -- have to learn so much yet before she is gone!  We have also recently undergone a complete software switchover to a much better, more efficient system, and while it’s better for us on the office managment side, it’s very new and confusing for patients.  We are also in the midst of hosting our bi-yearly health & lifestyle makeover series called Rev It Up!, so I have been doing a ton of marketing and prep work for that.  Basically my life has been Revolution Wellness Center 24/7 for the past few weeks...many extra hours put in to make sure everything is going great and the patients hardly notice all the drama.  :)  Oh the life of a Chiropractic Assistant!  haha  So that is why I ended up missing Dave's dinner event.  Haven't been getting home until 9/9:30pm most nights lately.

I'm taking some ME time this morning before heading out to babysit for some adorable kids at 12noon.  It's already 60 degrees out, so I'm confident it will be shorts weather by the time I need to hit the road.  I think we'll be doing some walking, biking and other out door fun this afternoon!  :)

Catch you all later!  Going to post some more recipes from this past week to Healing Cuisine.  I rolled out a facebook page for my recipes blog this past weekend and it's been a great hit!  I'm excited to see where Healing Cuisine goes in the coming months!

Hope you all have a blessed Easter weekend!