You HAVE to look at this.

So many of you know that my husband is attending Palmer Chiropractic College. I know that some think that Chiropractic is only good for neck problems... like after a car accident. Yes, Chiropractic is an alternative to what many see as traditional health care, but if you really understand what Chiropractic care is you would be able to understand how much better it is for your body than the regular medicine.

Before I start I do want to say that I do believe that modern medicine is a good thing and has it's place. {I would NEVER get a root canal with out anesthetics, and Chiropractors can't do stitches or set broken bones, and genetic problems are not a field covered with Chiropractic care.} But I do think that most traditional doctors put a bandaid on symptoms for what is a bigger problem. How easy is it to write a prescription for an ache or pain??? But why do you have that pain?

Chiropractic care is more about helping the body heal itself. I believe that our bodies are amazing things and if given the proper care can stay healthy and pain free without prescription medication.

The husband is studying a technique call Upper Cervical  and the only thing that is adjusted is your C1 and C2 vertebrates, or also called your Atlas and Axis. These two vertebrates are where EVERY nerve is associated with... from your brain to the rest of your body. If any of those nerves are blocked or pinched the right signal is not getting to where it needs to go. You may have a pain in your knee.... You feel it, and it hurts. Your knee is sending signals to your brain that you are hurt, and your brain sends signals to your body to heal your knee but your C1 and C2 are not sitting right, so the signals to heal your body are being interfeared with.

There have been remarkable results from this type of Chiropractic care. Including.... but not limited to.... Minor Autistic children not even testing on the spectrum any more!!!! You can read about those HERE, HERE, {both are different studies}

The husband now has a blog to help everyone understand what Upper Cervical care is and how it can benefit your life. He has the studies that you can read and then he breaks then down so you... and I... can understand the technical terms.

It's called Atlas Un-Shrugged. Go and take a peek and read what is there. There is an article on Ear Infections that you'll want to read.

{All I ask is that before you comment here that you go and read what he has written. it is definitely worth the little extra time it will take!}

Swappin' Love!!

I am totally addicted to swapping! I think it has become a small obsessions. I mean really who doesn't like to get a box of goodies in the mail??? Mamarazzi hosts some pretty great swaps, and this one was the "Red, White and Blue" swap.  I L-O-V-E the Fourth of July and anything with it.

Being on a really tight budget I tried really hard to be really thoughtful, it was a lot of fun buying for my partner Sara. {go peek at her blog...her and hubby have been married for 7 years and have such a cute family}

Here is what I got in my box!!! See... random goodness coming in the mail just for ME!!! I need to tell you that all this came all wrapped up and cute little notes with each one. But excitement got the best of me.... {and the fact that my hooligans were outside for a moment} I tore into each gift by myself.  {can you blame a girl}

Let me tell you all the goodness that was on my door step. A really cute apron. {I have a love affair with aprons... and I like to put on a pair of pearls when I have an apron on. It's quirky I know... but hey...}

I got some red, white and blue candles and a white smelly candle. And some festive straws and some star necklaces... all of which I am using for the 4th this year. We are just going to stay in because the 4th is on Sunday, but nothing says we can't have a colorful meal.

She sent some flip flops. I am always loosing mine so it's nice having an extra pair around.

A really cute picture frame... the kind that has the ribbon around it and you just slip the pictures into. So cute!!!

And my favorite gift by far is a nursing cover {green with squares} Sara made it!!! I am such an bad nurser... I have such a hard time with it and I'm excited not to have to fuss with a blanket. I'm so impressed with people who sew. {I'm just still trying to sew a straight line}

Thank you!!! Thank you Sara so much for all the Red, White and Blue goodness!!! {You really have no idea how much I needed a life that day!}

Now I have to patiently wait for Mamarazzi to host another swap......

Splashin' Away on a HOT day!

It was a hot day in June when we decided to go to the zoo. Holy Moley it was HOT!! After we saw the animals that were on the must see list we went to the little splash area that they had.

There area TON of pictures and lucky for you... I figured out how to make them BIG. So enjoy our splash time.

Here is Tommy showing off his talent. The husband, myself and James can all curl our tongues and Tommy wanted to do it too. He practiced and practiced and finally can do it. {he is very proud}

Another cute picture of Tommy, if you can't tell he is quite photogenic, and L.O.V.E.S. the camera!

A great picture of James. It's pictures like this that I catch a glimps of the young man he will become. This isn't a picture of a little boy, but of a young man that is growing into himself.

Tommy and Tim.

One of these things is not like the other.... poor loan white boy.

I never know with this one... after this picture was taken he was off sticking his face in the spaying water and then wondering why he had water in his nose.

I'll leave you with this picture of Tommy... doesn't this just make you want to smile and wink back at him?!!

The start of my week...

Monday morning I wake up and it was a pretty good day. And then I opened the freezer to pull out some more bread and that's when my good day went waaaaay down hill.

The bread was completely defrosted... so I took a closer look and all the ice in the ice maker was now water, the ice cream {which was the husbands favorite} was all drippy. And even the meat was defrosted.

My first thought was 'great one of the kids left it open' but after an hour and the temp in the fridge kept going up. {lovely!!!}

I jump in the car with the ice chest and fill it up with ice and head back to the house to save what ever I could. But in the end my efforts were futile.

About all that was saved was some lunch meat and some fish and a few steaks.

And for three days we lived out of a cooler. There was a lesson learned though...

I have a friend who grew up in Florida and mentioned that I should use this as a dry run for a hurricane. So I looked at it like that and realized that I needed more non-perishable easy things to pull out. So along with poptarts and raman noodles, I need to make and bottle more soups. {we have a grill and dutch ovens so we can cook things if the power ie: stove goes out} Canned fruit and veggies are good to have on had as well.

I tried to stay as positive as possible because really.... what else was I going to do. It was just not something that I needed to deal with that day.

Gun Safety

For those that don't know.... we have guns. And we talk about gun safety all the time but we have a set time every year to do a Family Home Evening with that as the lesson.

Looking at the difference in a play gun and a real one. We looked at different kinds of bullets {the balls and nerf ones, and real ones} We talked about what needs to be done if a gun is found whether in our house, someone elses, or anywhere outside of the house.... park, beach, ect.

The boys got to hold the guns and feel how heavy they are.

The boys were shown the parts of the gun and shown how it works.... with out the bullets. We talked about how dangerous guns are and what needs to be done to keep each other safe.

Along with gun safety we talked about what else can hurt people {like baseball bats, knives, rocks.... }

I believe that guns are a good thing. I know there are many debates out there whether you are pro gun or not. That's a thing for every person to decide. And whether the boys choose to have guns in their home is up to them but I want them to be knowledgeable about guns especially since we do have them. As the boys get older we will take them out shooting, but for now we focus on knowledge and safety.

...Guns don't kill people.... people with guns kill people....

Whats for dinner?

James have been asking about artichokes. Every time we go to the store he asks how they taste and how we eat them. So for dinner I grabbed some at the store and got to cookin'.  It was my first time cooking artichokes and it was harder than I thought. {and I think I cooked them a bit long}

Tommy didn't really care for the artichokes, but he wanted to see the "hair" in the middle of it. So he took it all apart to get to the hair.

Tim really liked them and got the hang of it... for the most part. It took him a bit and I had to help but by the end he was doing great. {I think the melted butter help :) }

James was really excited to try it, but soon realized that you need teeth to scrape the artichokes. That is what he was lacking. I think he got enough of a taste and the verdict is still out as to weather he likes them or not. I think we'll wait a bit before we try again. Everyone needs to have teeth.

It's not real.

I was thinking about the Lavatory on the airplane and here are some things that I was wondering about.... {Hey, I can't sleep at night I need to fill my head with something.... sometimes it's solving perceived problems, other times it's random thoughts....}

Ok so here we go.

In the bathroom there is a button to call the flight attendant for help. My question is... is it really appropriate that the little guy is holding a beverage? I mean are you going to go into the bathroom and then order a drink? I would hope it would be more serious than that if you are going to call the flight attendant for help.


So you have heard of the "Mile High" club right??? {If you haven't just skip this part} My question is how is it done. Those bathrooms are really SMALL!! I would have to go in with Tim and help him because he couldn't reach, having both of us in there meant I couldn't close the door all the way. Can you imagine two adults?? Oh... Oh... and airplane bathrooms are GROSS!!! I seriously had to come home and disinfect all of us after we were on the plane. I don't think I will ever understand the thrill of the Mile High club, I would be to worried about getting a disease from how dirty it is.


And then we have the little issue of the movies. "What does this have to do with airplane bathrooms," you ask.... Well in the airplane movies people always escape through the bathroom. Well I'm going to tell you that it's pretty much impossible.... I tried. {hey... the boys were occupied and I had always wondered...} For a person of my height I needed something more than just standing on the sink to get up to ceiling. And then no amount of pushing was going to open anything up there. I would have needed some sort of tool... maybe a hacksaw or something... {but I'm pretty sure that's on the list banned items to carry on} to make a hole. And then if it was me.... I have no upper body strength so I would need someones help, and beside the fact that that would totally defeat the purpose of trying to escape, but again we have the little issue of fitting two people in there. So my conclusion.... I think the airplane movies have it all wrong, they need to come up with a more realistic way of escaping.


Ok, so those are my thoughts on the airplane lavatory.... Do you have any thoughts that I can ponder upon? Any problems that I can solve for you? I'll do it... I'm up anyway.

Red, White and Blue Swap!!!

Holy Moly, she is at it again!!! You should join the fun!!! Go quick and sign up for Mamrazzi Red, White and Blue Swap.

Hey.... why are you still here??? GO... it fills up quick!!

{I'll start posting again this weekend.... we had a really crazy week with nothing to blog about....}

My Happy List

I decided to follow suit and create a "Happy List". For those that don't know Mamarazzi.... you are totally missing out! The way she write is like she is talking to you and you are her best friend. Oh..... and she hosts some really FABULOUS swaps!!! Anyway, her blog is Dandelion Wishes and you should go visit her!

So here is my Happy List.... in no particular order

Folding the husbands laundry makes me happy. I know this may seem funny to some, but I really enjoy it. There were times when I wasn't folding his laundry. The first when he was in Boot Camp, the second when he was in Iraq, and the third, when he was in Afghanistan. Folding his laundry is just a gentle reminder that he is still here with me.

Listening the to the boys read to me. I love sitting and hearing their little voices read from books. And for Tim who can't read yet, he tells me the story that is going on in the book. I love seeing them love books so much and love having all the books around. Going to the library is so fun and usually we have to many books and have to put some back.

Peaches.... oh, peaches make me happy. We just bought a box and canned them all and they are so good ans so sweet. {My dinner tonight consisted of saltines with butter and a half jar of homemade canned peaches.... hey, my pregnant body decide what I eat not me.. :) }

Loud music on a Saturday of cleaning makes me happy. I love rocking out with the family as we vacuum, pick up, and wipe things down.

Secret treats... You know, the one that you hide and eat all by yourself. I don't usually keep secrets from the husband, but this is one that I think is ok. I usually buy extra anyway, I just hide extra for me.... shhhh don't tell :)

Popcorn!!! Not the microwave stuff, real popcorn, popped in a oil popper {there is a difference between oil and air poppers} with melted butter and salt.... holy moly!!! sign me up!!! {it's even better when the husband makes it :) }

Also on my happy list is my pregnancy.... I am still pregnant, and that is a good thing. Tim was born at 30 weeks... apparently he thought he was done. So when we got pregnant again I was really nervous. I am 31 weeks right now and I couldn't be happier for the fact that I have a hard time bending over, and that try as I might to not to.... I have a waddle.

So that is my Happy List.... for now. Mamarazzi is going to do this every week, and I think I will too. You should too... :) Have a happy weekend!

Law of the Harvest

I heard there was a You-Pick farm for blueberries... well I jumped all over that. I love going to those kind of farms especially since we can't have a big garden at the moment. Four of the five people in this family are blueberry lovers {James doesn't like them because they are to little... whatever} but he is coming around.

We gave each of the boys a bucket and helped them know which berries were good and ones that should be left behind to keep growing.

This was a perfect time to talk about "reaping" what you sow. I know that we did not put the work in to planting the berries but we have the opportunity to pick it. Our lesson... if you want to take some home to eat them, we need to pick them now.

One thing that is really different here in the East is that when it is hot.... it is really hot!! With the humidity, the weather is oppressing. The boys did really well and picked for a good 45 minutes. I was really proud that they made it that long. Next time we'll start early in the morning... that was our biggest mistake, it's never good to try to pick anything in the afternoon in Florida.

I really think that the boys put in a good days work, and looking at their red faces you know they did.

And what was the reward??? A homemade blueberry pie. {baked in a square pan} It was really good and that made all the oppressing hotness worth it.

A math problem

We are going to do a little basic arithmetic... nothing to hard. Ready...

What do you get when you start with one box of peaches...{bought on the side of the rode}
ADD some clean jars {and lids}

PLUS a couple pots of boiling water... {one for blanching one for processing}

THROW IN a handsome man skinning the peaches....

ADD him filling the jars....

ADD that to him putting the lids on and getting ready to have them processed

MINUS one broken jar {not sure how that happen but at least it was only one!}

What does all of that EQUAL???

BOTTLED PEACHES of course!!!

Can we all say YUMMY!!!

Exception to the rule.

Normally I'm not big on electronic toys. I like toys that they boys actually have to play with and use their imagination. So when the idea of Geo-Tracks came up I wasn't really excited about it. Then I saw Tim play with them at Grandma's house. We got a couple more and Tim loved it!!! For Christmas we got many more tracks {thank you ebay!} and Tim is in heaven just about every day.

What I like about this is that Tim is working so hard to make his track work. And the tracks are just incredible! Up, down, under the bed and all over the room. And then he is very careful to have 4 trains going without them hitting each other. And it's fun to listen to him having his trains talk to each other.

I'm counting this as pre-engineering.

We are the Champions

Here is a Saturday morning/afternoon at our house. While we are doing any chores and household clean up that needs to be done we like to turn up the music... and at our house, we like to have it loud.

On the agenda today.... Queen's: We are the Champions. We have many on vocals but Tim decided that he wanted to be the tambourine man. So while the rest of us are singing at the top of our lungs, Tim is banging away.

We make an awesome group and man... we sound good!!

Who knows what the flavor will be next time but as we ponder about those "Fat Bottom Girls", and the fact that "We Will Rock You"..... we are the champions {now 1, 2, 3, see if you can get the floor clean before the song stops}

A new member of the family

I would like to introduce you all to a new member of our family. No new babies {thank heavens!! Benjamin still needs to cook for a while longer} Not a new dog... no thank you... not right now anyway, I already have too much dog hair to deal with.

Oh, no, we have some bones... real bones! The husband went to a conference and while he was there he decided that he needed some bones, and plastic ones would not do. What else is there... yup, real people bones. These ones have come from India, and are about 20 years old and have been bought and sold a couple times. These are the C1 and C2 vertebrates...

Personally, I think it's kinda gross. I mean really... they are real!!! And I haven't decided if it's worse knowing that they are 20 years old or if he would have waited {and waited} he could have gotten bones from a newly deceased person. Really???? How/why do you sign up for this?

My next question... what happens at the Resurrection? The bones are sold all over the world, in pieces...

Oh... look at how proud he is! The bones are names Raji and they have taken residence on the shelf. {pushed back far enough so I don't feel like they are looking at me}