Big Dreams

This morning Kaiya told me a little about her future. She said that when she is big like Cinderella she is going to have a blue dress to twirl in and sharp shoes (aka high heels). Love it.

Kaiya's First Haircut

Pre-Haircut

Ahhhh!

Every now and then when Kaiya heard my scissors make a cutting sound, she would jerk her head around. We'd all say -- Look straight - keep watching Ariel, and she would say, "I just trying watch Mama cutting my hair!"

She was such a good girl and played right along with us pretending that she was at the beauty parlor. We promised that if she sat still and was good, she could have her toenails painted.
No after shots, I've been too busy! But it's cute, and still a little curly. Although not quite what it used to be. I had to save a few ringlets for her baby book.

MSG Free Taco Seasoning

A few years ago, when we decided to eliminate foods that contained MSG from our diets, one of the most difficult things to find a reasonable substitute for was taco seasoning. You can find packets without MSG in them, but they can cost nearly $2-3 per packet. Now with a little tweaking of a Rachael Ray recipe, I have a wonderful taco seasoning, free of toxins. Our kids handle spicy foods fairly well, so I may not be a good judge of how kids will do with it, but I believe it is close to the heat level of a store bought taco seasoning mix.

Enough to season 2 lbs of meat:

3 T Chili Powder
1 T Cumin
1 T Coriander
1 t. sea salt (this is also a personal thing - add more or less as you like)

Add to browned meat with a little bit of water and simmer. I've also been able to sneak extra veggies into my taco meat by grating a zuchinni, carrot, onion (actually grate this and you get all the juice and flavor and very small bits of onion so no one freaks out), and a clove of garlic and then adding that to the meat and seasoning. Add 1/2 cup of broth (either chicken or beef) or water and simmer until veggies are cooked down and liquid is minimal.

Anyway... if you can get anywhere that sells spices in bulk you can make this a very cost effective seasoning mix.

They Got Me Good

On Friday I went to the airport to pick up Ruthie. This visit was planned a couple weeks ago and I was so excited to have her! She called me and told me that her flight was a little delayed and to come 20 minutes later than what I had been planning. So before leaving the office I got online to check her flight status and make sure that it wasn't more delayed. Weird. It said she was getting in a few minutes earlier than the flight time was originally scheduled for. Oh well! As I'm leaving, Tony says to put Kaiya's car seat in his car so that he can take her to the park later in the day. Okay! I switch out the car seat and off I go! I'm expecting that I will hear from Ruthie while I'm driving. Surely she has landed by now. I get to the airport and pull into the cell lot. No text message, no phone call. I called Tony to have him check the flight status. He begins logging on and tells me that the computer froze. Our brand new Mac computer froze... and he'll have to call me back. So I wait some more. Then I finally wait for Ruthie. She has landed and is making her way to the exit. I pull up and glance up at the doors and I see BOTH of my sisters coming out the exit. I think at this point I squealed, jumped out of my car and yelled, "What are you doing here?" I vaguely remember other travellers looking at me to see what the ruckus was about. Those sneaky girls... We had a fun all weekend - climbed a mountain with both children, cut Kaiya's hair, and cheered like champions for the Cardinals last night. One of us - who will remain nameless nearly peed her pants when Arizona came back with that touchdown. It was fun. Pictures to come...

Office Pictures

I'm really excited to be able to post these pictures of the office. It feels like it has been a long time coming - study, sweat, tears, exhaustion - and now this. Totally worth every bit of it.

When you walk in the front door, to the right is our waiting area and the kids' play area. Charlotte is getting an IKEA in less than a month, so I'm holding out and not getting the table/chairs for the kids' area until then.

This is shot from the kids' area. The front door is near the coat rack and then we have this gorgeous quote on the wall. Quote reads: "The doctor of the future will give no medicine, but will interest his patients in the care fo the human frame, in diet and the cause and prevention of disease." Thomas Edison

This is the view looking straight in from the front entrance. I work mainly at the front desk for now, but there is a little room behind the front desk that has a file cabinet and desk in it for when we have more staff and I need a place to work more privately. I am in love with the countertop.

This is our rehab room. We focus mainly on corrective care - and that involves getting the proper curve back in the neck. Patients will do a set of exercises here, after their adjustment to aid in that process.

This is another view of the rehab room. This room doubles as the report room. When patients come into our office we want to make sure they know exactly what their care involves. Tony will teach them how to understand their x-rays and what to expect for care in our office. We will bring chairs into this room for special classes and for that doctor's report.

Just past the report room and front desk is the second waiting area. Here the patients will do another set of exercises on wobble chair while they wait to be adjusted. They'll be able to view videos from some of the top chiropractors in the world and continue their education about the cutting edge health care that we provide.

From this shot you can see the door to Tony's office on the far left. Then you can see the three adjusting rooms as well. We will only be using two of them to begin with and the third room, on the right will be used for vibe traction -- another therapy we use for some patients. Behind where I am taking this picture from is the bathroom... but that's not too exciting so I didn't get a picture of that.

Further right on the above picture is the x-ray and exam room. This is a private exam room that will be used with new patients and re-exams. As well as any x-rays that need to be taken. Tony has developing room off of this room to develop his x-rays in. But again, not exciting, so no picture.

A closer look at the adjusting rooms.

And that's it! We are thrilled with how it came out and are excited to begin filling it with patients! Thanks for all your prayers along the way in this process. We couldn't have done it without you!

On Church Shopping...

Eeeech. It's on my list of dreaded things to do. It can be partly exciting... but discouraging too, depending on how long the process takes. And I'm not an expert, by any means... but I have done it each time we've moved and so I've seen my share of churches over the past few years. We thought finding a church here in Charlotte would be easy -- and honestly, up until earlier this month, we thought we had landed at a church to stay. Then we discovered a slight difference in philosophy on the purpose of church. We're of the opinion that church should be culturally relevant WITHOUT compromising the truth of God's Word. I have to look at things from the viewpoint of someone who does not normally attend church. Imagine getting up early on a Sunday morning -- typically a family day -- and getting the family ready, driving up to church, putting your kids in a nursery where you know no one, sitting in the sanctuary, etc. There has to be something that connects. We want to be at a church that is attractive to non-believers, yet absolutely preaches the truth without exceptions. Not sure the church we were attending is - or cares to be - culturally relevant -- at least the main service.

So we decided to check out other options for church. We loved the Sunday School class we attend for young families at Church #1. It is a great source of teaching and fellowship. We're still attending this class and probably will continue to for a while. It meets at 11:15 a.m. so we have time to catch an early service at another church (Church #2).

I tried Church #2 out for the first time when Tony was out of town. They have a 8:30 a.m. service and since the kids woke up at the crack of dawn I had time to get us all out the door. The church is called Elevation Church and one of their campuses meets at a high school near our house. So I'm pulling up and being directed in by the parking volunteers. As I go past the first guy I see him walkie-talkie someone in my rearview mirror. Then my car is sent a different direction than all the other cars in front of me. I'm sent straight to the front row and then I realize -- I bet they saw the kids in my car. Wow! I'm alone w/ out a husband and I don't have to worry about getting the kids out and walking 12 miles to the entrance. :) Then, before I even have a chance to get out of my car, a volunteer is greeting me and asking if she can carry my bags for me so I can get the kids out. As we walk up to the doors, she asks me if it is my first time. Meanwhile, we're being greeted by 5-6 other people along the walkway. She helps me register the kids for their classes and gets us all where we need to go.

I turn in my first time attender card and get a free t-shirt - and it was actually a cool free t-shirt - so that was fun. Later that week I get a letter from both the kids ministry and the sr. pastor. Then... last night... I get a phone call from a volunteer at the church just to thank me for attending. She asked how I heard about the church and if I had any questions.

We enjoy the service at Elevation -- the worship music is more like a loud concert, than what you would typically experience for worship at church. Not knocking it -- just not exactly my thing. But the teaching is so good that it doesn't matter. If you have time, check out the website - and listen to the preacher. **Update - I think I just need to learn some of the songs - this past Sunday, worship was great (and... at least no one can hear me flubbing my words up) :)

What do you think of the culturally relevant thing when it comes to church?

It was quite a week! We opened our office doors on Friday and the preparation process was interesting... During the week, we had non-functioning phones and other craziness and I was stressed out to the max. At one point my body was in such over-drive that I wanted to cry my eyes out but my body wouldn't even allow it. :) The girl just needed a good cry, but we were in survival mode - no time for that. God did a good job at keeping my perspective grounded as I've been keeping up-to-date with friends in India - Jeff & Adrienne and Amanda. Nevermind non-functioning phones -- how about non-functioning electricity? or dredlocks? :)

Opening day, our patients with appointments showed up! We've built this from the ground up and it is so neat to see things rolling. Before our patients arrived, two familiar faces walked in:

A surprise visit from my parents! There's nothing like it. It was so timely and an instant stress relief. I've spent the weekend doing a fair amount of relaxing and having some downtime and not worrying about ANYTHING. And much to the relief of everyone who has to look at me -- I'm getting a wardrobe update later today. My mom and I are going shopping -- Ahhh...

I'm gonna snap some pictures of the finished office early this week. And so I'll post those later. We're excited -- Providence Family Chiropractic is open and saving lives!!

FOCA

As we've all watched the news since Tuesday we see the reversals and changes the new administration is making.  A friend posted about one specific issue - Freedom of Choice Act.  I can't say it much better than she did.  I'm linking to her blog here and I'd urge you to visit the FOCA site and sign the petition.  She's got the info on her blog.

Craft Central

It's been craft central around here lately. Tony's mom got me some craft supplies to use with Kaiya and it's been fun. Lucky for Kaiya, Kat loves to help her with crafts while I'm at work. I come home to beautiful masterpieces on the fridge nearly every day. Here is the fun they had today fingerpainting:

How clever are these little popsicle people! Kaiya made our family.

A nice craft blog that I keep up-to-date with is: Ramblings of a Crazy Woman. A couple weeks ago she posted this recipe for snow playdough:

2 c. flour
1 c. salt
2 Tbsp. oil
2 c. water
4 tsp. cream of tartar
Glitter (I used iridescent white)

Mix all ingredients except glitter in a pan. Heat over low heat, stir constantly until dough
thickens and pulls away from pan (It will look like thick mashed potatoes). Remove from pan. Knead until smooth, add glitter, till dough sparkles like snow. I added glitter 1 teaspoon at a time.

I divided the dough in half and colored one half blue w/ food coloring. The other half I did the glitter with. It came out really pretty and sparkly. The dough will keep forever in a air tight container.

Wordless Wednesday

It's a Snow Day!

We had to laugh last night when we saw all the area schools closing in the anticipation of the 2 inches of snowfall we were predicted to receive overnight. And as we ventured out early this morning, I think we were all of 5 people in Charlotte out on the roads.

Kaiya was excited to see the snow, but it was kind of a let down when she actually got outside. Not quite as glamorous as Frosty the Snowman made it look on tv. Her face was priceless when she realized how cold and wet it was. Unfortunately I wasn't able to capture that on camera, but here are a few other shots we took.

Okay... Kaleb was less than thrilled as well. I'm flinching in fear that I am going to get decked.

On this one you will notice how his right hand is all blurry. That's because he was violently waving it back and forth -- his equivalent of a temper tantrum lately. He did not want to be put down in that snow.

We hear it has been 3-4 years since the last snow here in Charlotte. We're enjoying the beautiful trees today... and looking forward to tomorrow when it will be back in the 40s-50s. This is the way to do winter.

For those of you with wrinkles...

I was browsing on the Food Network website when I saw this ad in the sidebar. It just made me smile. Really looks like it works some miracles. It did catch my attention though, so I guess it was effective marketing.

Karma?

This word karma gets tossed around here and there and nearly every time I hear it I try to decide if there really is such a thing. At times I think it is said to make you feel better when evil wins. As if you can carry on now that you have reasoned that karma will make everything alright. I wonder what makes me think about whether I should believe in karma or not. Does it have to do with my faith? Karma doesn't seem like a very "Christian" thing to believe in. For grace -- the core of what I believe in -- is so opposite of karma.

Despite whether or not I believe in this thing called karma, I sure get a kick out of it when it happens. Like today... waiting in a looooong line at the post office, a woman a few places in line ahead of me was getting impatient. She hollers out at the employee wanting to help anyone who is there just to pick up a package, "Can I just give you the money for this envelope?" She waves a dollar and some change his direction. Very kindly, he apologizes and says that he can't take any money. She huffs and puffs. She waits in line 5 more minutes and then as she is exiting the post office she trips and nearly bites the dust in the middle of the post office lobby with everyone watching.

Karma?

And I'd like to think it was karma when Kaiya just sassed me and then fell off the couch. But that just might make me a bad mom... :)

Wordless Wednesday - Uncles

All Aboard!!!

**Updated** - Those looking for the sources on the article - I republished it so you should find what you are looking for. Let me know if there is anything not addressed that you would like to see more info on.

This is the hot topic when you have little ones these days! One of the blogs I enjoy reading posted on vaccinations and I saw the term "no vaccine bandwagon" come up a few times in the comments. I had to smile - Personally... I'd like to think of it as the "no vaccine freight train!"

Tony wrote this article while working for two of the top chiropractors in the United States. I post it now because I left a comment on the other blog and I know people will be clicking over to find out who this crazy lady is. :) There's not much to say about it... it speaks for itself. If you are on the fence or pro-vaccine, I encourage you to read it. I hope you learn something you didn't know before! I know I did the first time I read it.

I also wanted to add that this article does a great job at dispelling two of the very common myths that circulate about those of us who choose not to vaccinate:

1) I depend on everyone else to vaccinate their children in order to keep my children free of disease. FALSE!!

2) If it weren't for the vaccines, these dangerous diseases wouldn't be eradicated. FALSE!

Check out the article -- you will see why these two myths are simply not true.

Here it is: Stop!

I say -- All Aboard!!!!

Baby Genius & Toddler Tales

Tonight after changing Kaleb's diaper in the living room he immediately got up. I was distracted by something else for a second and then did a double take when I turned around and saw this:

He got up, picked up the diaper and took it to the trash can. Thankfully my camera was right next to me and I could get a quick shot in.

*****

Funny Kaiya story that she will hate when she gets older. Last week during bath time she realized that she and Kaleb are different. I've been waiting for it to happen, and honestly thought it would happen before now. Kaleb was standing up reaching into the net of toys when I see Kaiya reach out for "it". AHHH!! "Kaiya! Don't touch that!" She said, "Okay Mama. I just look at it?" At which point I stifle a giggle - I mean -- how do you answer that?? I think I said yes. Then she says, "Dat his bottom?" I think I said, "Sort of." I quickly encouraged Kaleb to sit down and diverted the subject. Breathing a sigh of relief that I managed to somehow avoid any further conversation on the male anatomy.

*****

I'm also reigning in my potty mouth. In the past 3 days I have heard Kaiya say all of the following things: crap, stupid cat, and a very pathetic attempt at butt crack. It came out more like: bumwrap. She was referring to the wedgie that she gave herself when she pulled her panties up after a trip to the bathroom. She started laughing and said, "Doze panties up my bumwrap!" I said, "Bumwrap? Were you trying to say, 'Butt crack?'" More laughing... "Yes! Only it called my bottom, mama." That's right, Kaiya.

She's really repeating everything she hears me say. Old habits die hard, but I really do not want my toddler saying crap. So I am pledging to make a conscious effort at watching my mouth.

Ski Bum

I just couldn't resist sharing this link. I would have posted the picture directly... but well... this is a family blog. :) Apparently this guy was headed up the ski lift, fell and snagged his pants. If you need to laugh out loud today I suggest you visit this link. Poor guy...



http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,477385,00.html

What IS a Chiropractor?

Our office is opening in a week! We are extremely busy getting everything ready for our opening date! Everything looks great and I can't wait to post some pictures for everyone to see. In the mean time, here's another newsletter from Tony. Great information about the type of chiropractor he is and the type of practice we are going to have.


What is a Chiropractor?

Just like a lady

We have entered the phase where Kaiya wants to wear a dress EVERYday. With that has come some unladylike behavior.... such as lifting the dress up showing off her panties to anyone and everyone, both at home and in public. So she has gotten some talks about dress-etiquette both from us and Kat, our nanny (just to clarify -- that's nanny with a "y" -- not nannie with an "ie") Because the kids have only one Nannie (Tony's mom). But except for when talking to Kaiya or Kaleb, I just can't bring myself to call Kat our sitter -- cause that just sounds like she is 14 and babysitting to get some extra cash to buy clothes or something.

Anyway... usually our explanation for why we don't flash people is telling Kaiya that if she wants to wear a dress like a lady then she must act like a lady. And ladies do not lift their dresses up. So this seemed to register with Kaiya and dress-lifting has nearly ceased to exist. However... this is now her reasoning for everything she does:

Me: Kaiya, why did you ____?
Kaiya: "Um... Cause I just like a lady."

This gets added to the list of excuses to use. It's no longer "the dog ate my homework" at our house. It's "cause I just like a lady."

Love this picture that Ruthie took of Kaiya when she lived with us.

Gardasil Vaccine??

A couple of weeks ago I posted some random facts about myself. One of those facts was that my children never have and never will be vaccinated. I believe that vaccination is one of the most dangerous things our medical system does to our children. Tony has been writing newsletters about specific vaccines that are currently on the vaccine schedule and others that have been taken off. He's posted them on his facebook, but I'll also be posting them here as well. Obviously, I respect the right I have to refuse vaccination for my children... just as I respect other parents' rights to vaccinate. I do firmly believe, however, that parents should take the initiative to educate themselves on the safety and efficacy of vaccines.

Here's the link: Gardasil Vaccine?