Baby Packer Weekend

I had been waiting for this past weekend for a very long time. I was so anxious and excited for my older sister Anne to have her first baby girl. My parents, and sisters Josie and Martha all came up to support Anne and Mike, along with Mike's parents. We had a great weekend and were so blessed to have the c-section and surgery go well. Anne and Mike are going to be wonderful parents and have shown that already this weekend. It was a struggle for them to decide on the perfect name, but signing papers before they left the hospital forced them to choose one today and they decided on Lucy Jean Packer! She is so cute and such a trooper. We are going to love living close to see all of her little changes.

sleepover at Anne's apartment

Anne and Mike right before the delivery

Anne and Mike right after the delivery waiting for an update on the baby

Beautiful new mom...Anne

Lucy Jean Packer, 5 lbs. 11 oz., 18 inches

Singer time.

For Christmas I asked for a simple sewing machine that I would understand how to use. I tried a week ago to fix a pair of leggings, and I got frustrated and stopped. But on Tuesday, I emptied out a purse I kept some stuff in from going to NYC last September and found an airplane blanket. I immediately thought sweet! free fabric. JetBlue's free tv wasn't working in my seat on the way to JFK, so me- having no shame told them I thought they owed me a free sleep kit (pillow, eye cover & blanket) which they usually charge $7 for. So I decided to try my luck again at the sewing machine, and ended up with this new bag.




Another craft I did on a whim was ironing crayon shreds into wax paper and cutting out hearts. I am going to hang them so when it is sunny you can see through them.

Time to Get Serious!!

So Christmas break was great, but when Monday rolled around on the 5th of the month Molly and I were both back to business as usual. Molly was back off to work with San Francisco Magazine because they needed her expertise and great taste and I was shipped back off to school all day every day for my 4th quarter. Things are getting a little tougher this quarter. Here's my schedule: Regional Anatomy of the Trunk, Neuromuscular Physiopathology II, Gastrointestinal Physiopathology, Gonstead (a chiropractic adjusting technique), Biomechanics of the Spine, Infectious Diseases, Metabolic Diseases, and Chiropractic Philosophy II. I wish it were as easy as just learning how to crack backs....which brings me to my next point. Chiropractic isn't a form of health care that was created to alleviate pain through cracking backs. There's a lot more to it than that. We specialize in minimizing nervous system interference and a simple part of that is moving a bone or two that may be causing tonal changes in the nervous system. Since the nervous system controls every function in the body that you can imagine it's pretty important that it works to it's full potential. So I've made a decision...

If I'm going to claim to be a doctor of the nervous system than I better do my best to get to know anything and everything about it. I've decided at this point in my studies to begin a post-doctorate program at the Carrick Institute of Neurology where I'll be required to endure 300 required hours of seminar/lectures over the next two years and then sit for a board exam after I've received my chiropractic degree. If I'm lucky enough to pass the first time I will join a small team of 500+ (at this point for now) who become a Diplomate of the American Chiropractic Neurology Board. I've been very impressed, to say the least, of 2 of my instructors so far that have gone through this program. I've witnessed some of the most incredible things I've ever seen in my life from case studies that they've presented in class. Chiropractors, in general, do great work but I want to be able to fully understand the neurological implications of powerful adjustments that change peoples lives. If you want to read some cool stuff about the program just check this out: http://www.carrickinstitute.org/CIAbout.asp. Wish me luck I guess, I'm gonna need it for the next little while!!

I found something I thought was extinct

Today I was freelancing at San Francisco Magazine, and I was planning on going to lunch with Anne. But poor Anne was unable to make it, and somewhere around 2pm I found myself starving. So I walked around the block and went into a place called YoYo's and found...lunch for a total of $2.25. I walked out with a bowl of Japanese Udon noodles with everything and a huge smile. I also saved $3.50 from getting picked up at the bus station and riding with a perfect stranger to San Fran, also known as "Casual Carpooling". Both concepts cheap lunch and a free ride made my Friday!

I heart NY

Fifty People, One Question: New York from Crush & Lovely on Vimeo.

I love this video because all the people seem to have been going through the day not thinking, and then a stranger asks them a question and they continue on now smiling. Me gusta.

Christmas Vacation Cont..

So here's the rest of our Christmas vacation....which was amazing. Molly and I flew in to Seattle on Saturday the 20th in the morning just in time to miss the next storm coming in later that afternoon. Earlier that week they had a storm come in and it left a few inches pretty much everywhere and it wasn't going to melt off like it usually does because it was pretty cold the whole time we were there. As soon as we got to my parents place it started to snow and really didn't stop until we left on the 28th. One of the nights we were there we managed to get over to the Richard Dance home for some family fun. Molly was a big fan of the hand bell/audience participation part of the family concert. I think we'll be getting a set of our own for next Christmas.This was during a break in the storm when we were able to get out to build ourselves a friend. You can't really tell because of the extra snow that fell on top, which set him at about 5'11", but our snowguy is wearing a crown, his eyes and mouth are made out of almonds, his nose is a carrott, his pipe was made out of a pine cone stuck on the end of a pencil, sticks for arms, and licorice for buttons (which ended up bleeding a little bit). Since most of what we used to build his features was food the animals got to it eventually....and so did we with an angry shovel right before we left.

Molly wasn't done building snow people and this was her snowbear waving his little arm. The storm that moved in that night completely buried this little guy.

Then she felt the need to jump on top of my mom's car.

When we weren't playing outside in the snow we were spending time with the family. This is pretty much how my vacation was when I was indoors with the kids. Don't get me wrong, I love it otherwise I wouldn't be on the ground laughing as hard as I was. In this picture Tyler, MacKenzie, Spencer, and Carson were keeping me down. Maybe next time I can fit everybody else.

This last pic was from Friday night...Rock Band night. After all the little munchkins got tired of playing the adults got on and we were pretty good. This was the all brother band. Nick on the guitar, Mark on the bass, I was rockin the vocals, and Tim was on the drums. 98%!!...almost a flawless track. I think we were doing "Today" by the Smashing Pumpkins and I tried my best to sound just like Billy.

Rewind to December 19th

This was our second annual ice skating trip to the Embarcadero skating rink in San Francisco but this time we had more company. Thanks to Mike, Melissa, Katie, and Anne we were able to play a rousing game of tag until our ankles were too sore to skate anymore. Right as we were leaving some guy proposed to his girlfriend and she said NO!!....just kidding. Last year we went because Mike was having his Christmas work party there but this year we had some tickets courtesy of San Fransisco Magazine where Molly has been doing some freelance work. They were one of the sponsors of the rink so here is Molly giving thanks by their sign.

What can I say? We were having fun!