Saturday in San Francisco

This last weekend we headed to the city in the afternoon to meet up with some friends.

Bath Basins- my sister Anne's favorite place

Kc and I being weird

The Ormes, Bellisarios, Fujikawas, and Packers

Laughing at the duck who ate Kc's luggie

I love living so close to the city, especially because friends are more inclined to visit! Hint Hint

Fool Me Once...

Every month on either the 3rd of 4th Thursday we are invited to inservice meetings at the institute building in Hayward where we meet with the local teachers in the stake along with the CES leadership to talk about how seminary is going and all that good stuff. We get one of these invitations in the mail about a week before each one. So this one comes in the mail and I got really excited with good reason...don't you think?

...So Molly and I get all spruced up on a nice Friday night to go have an "Evening WITH Elder Quentin L. Cook." We walk in the building only to find out that we had to huddle around a 15" TV and watch a broadcast from SLC. Call me naive...I know he's from the Bay Area and I thought to myself, especially after reading the invite, when we got this in the mail, "Cool, he's probably in town visiting with some family and wanted to have a fireside with the local CES people." I'm confident that I wasn't the only one fooled because there was a big showing. All I have to say is Kudos to you Brother Remington for great advertising and for making me think that one of the 12 would be in town to share a special night with us. But in all seriousness it was a great talk. Even though he wasn't there in person it was good to get out on a Friday night for a very uplifting experience with my wife.

Week with Daddio

I just got back from hanging out with my Dad for a whole week. It was a lot of fun- and a lot of work. My Mom had come to San Francisco to help my sister Anne with new baby, Lucy. So I went down to help at the office and hangout with my Dad. We managed to do other things besides just Zerorez, I went inside the LA temple for the first time, and to a Laker game- it was fun just the two of us all week.
I found a really old journal of my mom's while I was there and read a few entries from 1983, right before Martha and I were born and a little while after. Some of the funny parts were how my Mom and Dad didn't know they were having twins until two months before we were born and they didn't find out the sex before we were born. Then my Mom wrote how if she took her eyes off of Anne when she was just 2 years old, she would "step on us, slap, and pinch us." Haha, no wonder I have a high tolerance for pain. My mom also wrote about how Anne's hair got wrapped around Martha's toe so badly that is almost had to be taken off. How I drank toxic material and my favorite, how Martha got her head stuck in a Barbie Toy Bus. Awesome. I am so glad she wrote a few entries in her journal so I can uncover them while she is away.

Sweetest Swing in Baseball

I have been one happy camper the past few days for this reason:

Ken Griffey Jr. has decided to come back to Seattle for possibly his last season and there's no place better for him to finish a great career that started in the Emerald City. The Mariner's play in one of the most beautiful parks in baseball thanks to Ken. Safeco field is truly the house that Griffey built. I remember the day when Griffey came back to Seattle for the first time since he had been traded to the Reds. They had a presentation prepared for "The Kid" in the pregame and it was seriously one of the coolest things I've ever seen. The city is absolutely in love with him and I think it's safe to say that A LOT of people, including myself, fell in love with baseball because of what Griffey was able to do in a Mariner's uniform. I know he's 39 years old and there's only so much left in the tank but there's no place better for Griffey to be than in Seattle. So this is a tribute to the guy who puts his bat on the ball the way that no one else can...."Swung on and belted, deep to right field...bring out your rye bread and musturd grandma....My Oh My" I tip my hat to you Griffey and the excellent decision you've made to return to the team that I love because of your sweet swing.

http://mlb.mlb.com/media/video.jsp?mid=200902183847400

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!!