Videos of the Little Man

Happy Thanksgiving!!  Hope you are all enjoying the break from work to take time with family and (hopefully) good food!  We are doing our first Thanksgiving for just us, no friends or fam this year.  It's kind of fun so far, but we would love to be near family today.  We are doing an Advanced Plan dinner this year, and we decided to skip lunch and eat a later meal today, around 5pm.  I also decided to wait and make everything fresh today.  So far hasn't been a bad decision, even though I could have made just about everything the night before and baked today.  I was in the kitchen for three hours so far making breakfast, side dishes and dessert.  Taking a break now, then just two more hours to go and our meal is complete and ready to eat!  I'm only using two recipes from my Season's Eatings holiday cookbook, the rest are new and will be posted on Healing Cuisine in the next week or two.  The menu at Chez Schwartz:  Individual Cornish Hens with Dijon Mustard Herb Glaze, Homemade Gravy, Garlic Mashed Fotatoes, Caramelized Sweet Potatos, Green Bean Casserole, Sunshine Broccoli Salad, and Blueberry Crumble.  And we had Baked Apples with Praline Whipped Cream and Pumpkin Muffins for breakfast.

Can you tell I'm excited about today's meal??  :)  Go figure.  Always excited to try a new recipe and make it "Advanced"!  Dave is playing Mr. Mom today and doing a fabulooous job!  We can tell Austin is loving his extra Daddy time.

As requested by Grandma, we wanted to share some videos of Austin.  He is growing up so quickly!  He turned 2 months old this past weekend.  The weeks have certainly flown by.  He is getting chubby and starting to giggle and coo now.  His temper is also starting to show when we move or stop bouncing him, anything he doesn't want to do.  Dave reminds me, while it might not be fun at times, we are blessed with an independent child from the start.  Here is the first video, more to come as i have the time to upload them...maybe later tonight or tomorrow.

We are so grateful for Austin, and all of God's blessings onto us this last year!!  Lamentation 3:22-24:  The faithful love of the Lord never ends!  His mercies never cease.  Great is his faithfulness; his mercies begin afresh each morning.  I say to myself, “The Lord is my inheritance; therefore, I will hope in him!”  Happy Thanksgiving everyone!!

First summary from Orlando... :)

Why hello friends!

Yes, we are still alive and kickin'!  Actually, quite enjoying our time here in Florida.  A couple of reasons we've been MIA here on our blog for the past few months...#1) our jobs at the Maximized Living clinic are going wonderfully!  While our training is keeping us extremely busy physically, we wouldn't change this life for any other!  Every day we are given the opportunity to help so many people and save their lives.  It is so much more than we could have ever imagined -- can't wait to do this in our own clinic soon!!  Ready to transform lives in Greensboro!! :)

We spend about 20-30 hours each week in the clinic taking care of patients and helping in the office.  Dave and I also go out into the community to volunteer our time for about 20 hours each week, more or less depending on what events we have arranged.  We host a lot of health makeover/nutrition/toxicity/exercise workshops all around Orlando.  Various organizations invite us out (YMCAs, churches, grocery stores, schools, etc) and Dave leads the workshops of their choice.  It's a lot of fun meeting so many great people, and it's a fabulous experience helping each one of them transform their health!  I'll admit my favorite part about doing community events are the ones that have us outside for a few hours on the weekends -- like community festivals or fairs.  Temperatures here in Florida are basically perfect right now, 70's/80's and low humidity!  It's like the U.P. in July, haha!  There are some times that we walk outside and forget it's February/March..

Any time we have left outside the office and community events is spent training on protocols (mostly Dr. Dave's work) and Healing Cuisine (mostly my work).  And for fun, we've still got $1 RedBox DVD rentals and board games (cheap fun, right? haha).

So, on to reason #2 of our preoccupied-ness... The first morning here in Orlando, January 3rd, also our first day of work, we found out we are pregnant!! :)  A great start to our day, an early morning pregnancy test, hehe!  So this reason #2 is probably the more prominent reason why I haven't been so diligent about updating our family blog.  On top of our daily requirements with the clinic, I've also been battling nausea and the extreme need for naps.  I am very happy to say that I am officially into trimester 2, PTL (that's Praise The Lord), so food is going down more easily and my appetite is finally picking up.  Also, baby bump is starting to show!  Pictures to come...  Dave and I are SO EXCITED!!!  We have been waiting 2+ years for baby Schwartz, and finally the time has come.  I'm planning to write a more detailed testimonial of my health on Healing Cuisine about my fertility and health issues over the past few years.  I've not talked to many about this, just close family and a few friends, but I am finally ready to share my story and hope other women will find it as inspiration to seek help outside of drugs and surgery to conceive naturally.  More to come on that, I'll link back the post here when I get it up!

We are planning, as we're calling it, a 100% organic and natural birth!  We had our first appointment with our midwife last week and covered all the basics with her.  Baby is healthy and growing right on schedule.  I have all the normal "symptoms" of pregnancy.. we're healthy and happy.  Still quite a few things to plan out in the coming months to be ready for the birth, but we'll get there!  The biggest question at the moment is where will we live.  We will be doing a home birth, and right now we are living in a small house with 5 other people...the landlady and her daughter who live here speak only Spanish.  Nothing really works in our favor here.  So, trying to figure out if we want to birth baby in Orlando or somewhere else (like North Carolina or in Michigan).  Most likely we'll find a happy home here in Orlando, but who knows what the next few months will bring.  No matter what, we are just putting our complete trust in God!  He's given us our first baby as a complete surprise much sooner than we could have hoped, and we are trusting He knows the best path for us! :)!!

Also, if anyone has questions about natural birthing, why we are doing a home birth, or any questions relating to baby at all, please don't hesitate to email or call.  We look forward to it!  We are, as always, an open door!

At this time, I must give props to Dave who has been taking outstanding care of me for the past two months!!  I've got to admit, food prep and cooking makes me sick to my stomach.  I've had to literally run from the kitchen every time I attempt to make us a meal.  So, Dave has been THE BEST HUSBAND doing all the cooking and meal packing since January!!  Recipes you've seen on my blog, yup, Dave prepared those!!  I don't know what I would do without him!  He's so willing to try, such a blessing! :)  If he doesn't know how to do something, he'll run back into our bedroom and ask how much of this to put in, or what temperature to put the pan on..so sweet.  And let me say, he makes an omelet a thousand times better than me!!  If you ever stay at Hotel Schwartz, you will have to stay for breakfast and enjoy one of Dave's delicious omelets.  Cheese is my personal favorite, but his best is spinach and zucchini with feta!  Mmm, mmm, good!

I'm hoping to get some pictures of our Florida life up on here soon!  We have two palm trees in our front yard, which I think is incredibly cool!  There are also all these weird looking plants everywhere -- they remind us of Jurassic Park.  So, pictures to come next.  You have that to look forward to. ;)

If we haven't thanked you by phone or email yet, THANK YOU for all the cards and love since we moved here!!  Every card and drawing is hanging on our wall.  We have just a tiny room to ourselves, cluttered with our clothes, cooking utensils and pantry items.  The love on the wall really brightens our day, every day!  We appreciate it so so much!  Reminds us of all of you who have touched our lives and who we can never forget! :)  Many blessings to each one of you!

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

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!

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!

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!

Good luck to Dave!

Dave is in the midst of Part 3 Boards right now.  Yesterday he had two tests and Sunday he will have two more.  He said yesterday's tests were okay, with the second one being harder.  He's out studying today with Vern and whoever else joined them.  Good luck boys!!  I know you'll all do great!  Please pass along your support for these guys.  They're almost officially doctors!  May will be their final round of testing and *finger crossed* after that it will be official!  :)

Today I think I'm going to go get my hair chopped off at my friend Carri's house.  I tend to do this every spring after getting sick of my poker straight locks...  Once the snow's melted and it's sunny out, I always feel like it's time for a new look!  So that's my plan for today.  Then I'll be focusing on getting some recipes posted on Healing Cuisine from our dinners this past week.  I am always taking pictures of our food now!!  haha  Except this morning, I forgot to take a picture of the zucchini and spinach omelet I made for Dave... It was so good.  Would have been a good breakfast post..oh well.  I'm excited to post a yummmmy salmon dish I concocted with fresh ginger and pepper.  One of the best salmon dishes I've ever had!

I'm looking out our deck doors right now and it is SO GORGEOUS outside!  I can't wait til Dave gets home so we can go play outside!  Either a walk or a bike ride tonight I think.  Can't pass up this bright sunshine and warmer temps!  Beach season is on the way! :)

Healing Cuisine

Hi All!

I wanted to introduce you all to my new blog dedicated to food and fun!  I launched what I've titled Healing Cuisine after Dave and I started eating a more healing diet this past fall.  I needed something to keep me focused while we transitioned into this lifestyle.  While we're still learning and experimenting with new foods, I am also constantly getting questions on foods and ingredients, meal planning, and all the whys that go along with eating foods by God.  So this is my effort to help educate my patients, friends, family (and anyone else who takes a peek) of the importance and power of eating.  I have about a dozen of my recipes posted so far and look forward to sharing more!  Healing Cuisine is about all natural cooking with foods that were put on this earth for you to thrive on.  My goal is to bring a whole new meaning to healthy eating for a better YOU, a better life and better planet.  Check it out:  http://healingcuisine-elise.blogspot.com/.  I just finished my Valentine's Day three course menu!  If you try the recipes, let me know what you think!  And I'm always looking for tips and advice, too, so please please share if you have some insight to a recipe or topic!

Read it and eat!  :)